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The cattle fair at Sonepur can fuel the agro-economy of the region if the state government takes necessary measures, reports
Ambarish Dutta
For
decades the biggest cattle fair in
Asia has been held at Sonepur, 25 km from Patna. There was an
estimated sale of cattle, ranging from cows to horses, to the tune of
Rs 5 crore. It could have crossed the Rs 10-crore mark had there not
been a decrease in the number of cattle sold at the fair over the past
few years. There is no direct bus service between Patna and
Sonepur. The overall transactions, taking into account other factors
like sale of domestic utility products, this year amounted to Rs 10
crore. This, too, had the potential to cross the Rs 20-crore mark.
With a little more thought and planning by the Bihar Government and
the Centre, the Sonepur fair can emerge as the "brand
ambassador" of rural India. Mythical aspect The fair begins
every year on Kartik Purnima with a holy dip at the confluence of
rivers Gandak and Ganga by the side of Harihar temple. Once, a gaj
(elephant) was taking bath at the confluence when a graha (crocodile)
had pulled his leg leading to a battle. It also symbolised the clash
between the Shaivite and Vaishnavite traditions of Hinduism. Vishnu
had then blessed the elephant with divine powers to save him. It
happened on the day of Kartik Purnima. The myth has it that since then
the fair begins on the day of Kartik Purnima with the worship of
Vishnu and Shiva. Unfair practice The experience of Desha Singh
from Patiala in Punjab explains why the cattle fair is losing its
charm. A few years back, traders from Punjab and Haryana came to the
fair with cows, buffaloes and oxen. Since 2002, goons in UP, allegedly
being backed by the Samajwadi Party, made it a point to obstruct the
movement of cattle from Punjab and Haryana to Sonepur, either through
road or rail. A number of such incidents discouraged these states from
attending the fair. Desha Singh, whose consignment was looted near
Norai Thana on the UP-Bihar border, has recently won a case against
the UP Government in the court of Balia demanding compensation for the
loss incurred by him. Dinesh Singh, on whose ground the cattle fair
takes place every year, blames Maneka Gandhi for her campaign against
cruelty to animals. "It has now become difficult for traders to
bring cattle in trains because of the stringent laws to provide water
and other facilities for the animals in the train which were being
brought from far-flung states like Punjab and Haryana." The
non-participation of traders from Punjab and Haryana who used to bring
high-quality buffaloes and cows has affected the sales at the fair.
Apart from cows, buffaloes and oxen, horses, dogs, elephants and
birds are also being sold at the fair. A trader said, on condition of
anonymity, that ever since the sale of elephants was banned three
years back under the Wildlife Prevention Act, the trade was being
carried on in a clandestine manner. The owner ‘gifts’ the elephant
to the purchaser and no sale proceeds are shown on government records.
The entire transaction takes place in black money. This time 22
elephants were "gifted" at a cost of Rs 1 crore. The
purchasers are mostly landlords and a section of politicians. Buyers
come from Madhya Pradesh and Kerala too. A sadhu from Madhya Pradesh
who begged for alms purchased an elephant at a cost of Rs 5 lakh to
get help him in begging, according to the trader. People from Kerala
buy elephants to dedicate them to places of worship. Horses are bought
mainly by people from UP and villages of Bihar. Dogs and birds are,
however, purchased by both middle and upper-middle class people for
domestic purposes. Trading declines
According to Dinesh Singh, the
number of cattle sold in the fair has decreased quantitatively over
the years. "If, in the recent past, over 15,000 heads of cattle
used to be sold, the same has come down to around 10,000 now."
There are no official arrangements for cattle traders to stay with
proper water, sanitation and other facilities in the fair ground. The
Sonepur fair has also lost its appeal because local "animal
fairs" (animal haats) were being organised in villages.
There is laxity on the part of the banks to extend credits and loans
to make purchases at the fair. There was only a token presence of
banks. The highest price of a cow sold at the fair was Rs 40,000 this
year. Farm benefits
The linkage of north Bihar, through road and
rail, stretches up to Punjab and Haryana, the agrarian corridor of
rural India. According to Satyendra Prasad, a local resident who has
been a witness to the fair for the past 30 years, apart from being a
cattle fair, its purpose is also to deal with agriculture-related
products, from machines to seeds and pesticides. The state
government has indeed erected a permanent structure to put up stalls
by the Agriculture Department to promote agriculture-linked automation
products. While visiting the stalls one could hardly find any
responsible official to describe the agriculture landscape of Bihar or
elaborate on the utility of a particular machine. A junior employee of
the state Agriculture Department, who was more interested in reading a
newspaper than explaining the highlights of seeds and pesticides on
display, said that for a simple soil testing one had to secure the
permission from the Managing Director. Ramsukhdas Sharma of Pusha
Beej Bhavan, who comes from Muzzafarpur every year to display the
seeds and plants produced by him in the mela, said, "The thekedar
(contractor) charges Rs 1,200 per square feet. Added to this, we
had to pay Rs 30 per light connection. There are no water,
accommodation or sanitation and other related facilities here."
The fertility of the land in north Bihar and adjacent areas was
god-gifted. But there is no planning to promote agriculture through
irrigation by preventing floods. Apart from a few select government
stalls, including a rail gram (village) made by the Railways,
the entire power supply in the fair was through generators. Token
presence
The absence of branded products in the fair grounds, except
for a few like Reliance, Dabur and Tata Steel, was notable. Almost all
the Central and state departments had put up stalls which, like the
lackadaisical government stall, were more interested in registering a
token presence than doing real business. This speaks volumes for the
lethargy that has set in Bihar over the years.
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Rebelling against a forced marriage, this British girl escaped confinement in a remote village in Pakistan. Aditi Tandon meets Narina Anwar, who was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for this act of bravery Such was the tenacity of Narina Anwar’s resolve that the
Queen of England handpicked her for a prestigious civil honour. In 2003,
at the age of 23, Narina became the youngest Asian woman to be honoured
with the MBE – Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – an order
of chivalry established way back in 1917 by King George V. Her feat:
Although locked up and brutalised by her parents who forcibly took her
to Pakistan for being married off to an illiterate cousin, she escaped
from the remote village and informed the British High Commission about
her situation. "My sisters, who were also to meet the same fate,
and I hired a rickshaw and then took a taxi to Lahore. I still remember
how we used someone’s funeral as an excuse to escape. My mother had
left us under my aunt’s care. We could not have missed the
opportunity. If we had, we would have been doomed," Narina
recalls. Accompanied by her sisters, Narina lodged a formal complaint
against her parents. She stood for her rights as an individual and won
back her freedom. Within days, the British High Commission arranged to
send the three sisters back to the UK where government housing awaited
them. Even today, Narina, a psychology student, lives a life
independent of her parents though she has patched up with them. She has
an office in London from where she works for the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (FCO) on issues of forced marriages that often lead
to honour killings. Two years after she won the MBE, Narina remains a
strong resource of the British government in its fight against forced
marriages. "This is not a South Asian or Muslim phenomena. It is
global," says Narina as she reviews the contents of missdorothy.com,
a website which she has constructed to spread awareness about forced
marriages among vulnerable adults. Funded by the FCO through world
children’s charity Miss Dorothy, the website is a vital information
resource for children and their rights. In appeal, it is global. But a
review of the website is just a fraction of Narina’s exhaustive
professional responsibility. She is on regular visits to the United
Nations, which has documented several cases of honour killings. The
United Nations Population Fund estimates that 5000 women are annually
killed in the name of honour and often the victims had tried to escape a
forced marriage. Narina agrees, "There are many people who still
confuse arranged with forced marriage. Arranged marriages are fair as
they involve consent of both partners. A forced marriage, in contrast,
involves none and, hence, is a breach of human rights. It is dangerous
as it destroys lives and sometimes the victim is raped, even murdered.
Many people still don’t realise the seriousness of the issue. Culture
is no excuse, this is culture gone wrong." Through her own
experience, Narina can tell a lot about the dynamics of forced
marriages. "They are not caused by religion in any way. Religious
fundamentalism is no religion in my eyes. People of faith do not condone
these actions. I believe forced marriages and honour murders happen in
patriarchal societies where men are complimented for heinous
crimes." In the UK, the government has just concluded a
consultation to determine whether forced marriage should be a criminal
offence. The government has also released guidelines for social workers,
education professionals and the police, and these have proven effective.
"However, there should be more investment for helping victims
practically and educating communities about forced marriage,"
Narina says. For her part, Narina continues to be a frontline worker
besides being an advisor to many organisations and raising awareness
about forced marriages through conferences.
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Corporates connect with disabled At
23, she is like any other working woman, enthusiastic and hardworking, and doesn’t let her blindness affect her efficiency. She is part of a growing number of physically challenged people being employed by private companies. A senior voice accent trainer with a call centre in Gurgaon, Madhubala Sharma’s disability has come to her advantage — it has sharpened her hearing sense, making her able to catch even the slightest pronunciation mistakes. Madhubala has to travel far to reach her workplace IBM Daksh. “I travel more than 30 km from my home in Harinagar by cab every day to reach Gurgaon. Challenges are part of life,” says the English graduate from Lady Shri Ram College. Madhubala says: “Disabled people should be welcomed with open arms in the job market, for they are immensely talented.” Echoing the sentiment is Sanjay Kapoor, who has employed around 15 challenged people in his firm. “They (the handicapped) are more committed than normal people. I feel moved by their sincerity and focus,” said Kapoor, adding that all physically challenged in his firm were recruited after a test to see if they met the requirements. “So it is not as if it was some charitable venture,” Kapoor said. Kapoor’s AOK Inhouse GPO Services Ltd employs mostly people with hearing and speech impairment as data entry operators. “They are all educated and their English is very good.” Recalling his hesitation 10 years ago when a friend proposed that he try employing some disabled people, Kapoor said now he is open to employing more such people. Kapoor said even his office staff was apprehensive initially. “But now they are all good friends. They are able to communicate through sign language or even write down what they want to say.” It is towards this very situation that some corporate houses are working — where the disabled are trained to fit into a certain kind of job requirement and it makes good “business sense” for their corporate employers. “We don’t want the corporate houses to feel burdened with the notion that they have to do it out of charity. It should make economic sense both ways — for the employer and the employee,” said Harry Sethi of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). FICCI, the country’s apex business chamber, through its Socio Economic Development Foundation (SEDF), is trying to promote corporate social responsibility. With help from voluntary and government-run institutions, which are already working among the differently abled, SEDF is aiming to realise the “employability” of the people, said Sethi, director of the
SEDF. “It is a challenge to find out what job can fit a particular kind of disability. We have to find out their capabilities, prepare them to get into the corporate world and also fill up any gap in the training. After this we have to see which are the industries willing to employ such people. We have to work on their (industries’) mental block over employing differently abled people,” he said. According to Sethi, certain industries like the IT and IT-enabled services are where disabled people are being employed and are even being welcomed for their sincerity and hard work. “The attrition rate in call centres is very high and it is here that differently abled people can fit in. These people always tend to stick to their jobs longer and the company is saved from having to re-introduce new staff.” Citing the 2001 census figures, Sethi said there are around seven million disabled people in the country in the working age group of 18-50 years. According to the census, there are 22 million people with some form of disability. This seven million is a large pool of the scattered workforce, which can contribute to society.
George Abraham, CEO, Score Foundation, feels there is a “mismatch” between the educated disabled unemployed and the demands of the corporate world. “In terms of employability, they fall short of requirement. I suggest that the corporate world evolve training mechanism to hire and accommodate people with disability.” Abraham, himself visually handicapped, feels: “While employing a disabled person, the corporates should not think they are writing off a salary, but giving it to someone who has contributed to the company’s growth.” “Disability is more in the mind,” says Abraham, who has not allowed his visual impairment to come in the way. “A lot of people tend to fit people into slots when they see their physical limitations. It is very unfair. What a (disabled) person knows and thinks he can do empowers him.”
— IANS |
Tricked