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Death on roads Stop! Red light ahead THE ability of modern societies to tolerate death on roads is as staggering as the figures of the actual number who perish every year all over the world — in the region of 12 lakh. It has taken the Supreme Court to call attention to the problem in India, where half a lakh to one lakh people die every year.
The Nowhere People
Bhindis from Dublin
Courting Africa,
Chinese style India must move beyond superficial IT prowess Delhi Durbar
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It is shocking THE judicial inquiry Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has ordered into the alleged killing of four innocent people in fake encounters to claim rewards will hopefully bring out the truth. That it is headed by a High Court judge, who will have to submit his report within one month, will help douse the passions inflamed by the allegations. In the case, which rocked the state, an innocent boy — Abdul Rehman Padroo — was killed by a special unit of the Jammu and Kashmir police in a fake encounter. It was claimed that he was a Pakistani militant. This was done to claim a reward of Rs 1.20 lakh the police officer was entitled to, besides certificates of distinction. The people say that the police had killed three others claiming them to be dreaded terrorists. For an ordinary person, it is beyond belief that an agency entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining law and order will go to such low depths to win a monetary reward. Unfortunately, such incidents are not unheard of in Jammu and Kashmir. For instance, it was just a few months ago that the Central Bureau of Investigation had found out the truth about a similar incident. It was claimed that some officers of 7 Rashtriya Rifles had shot dead five militants, three of them Pakistanis, who were responsible for the killing of 36 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora three years ago. The CBI found that the militants were all local people, who had nothing to do with the massacre of the Sikhs. Needless to say, such incidents do not redound to the credit of the security forces who are, otherwise, doing a tough job in J&K. There is no doubt that they are under constant threat and pressure. Often, they do not know what will happen to them the next moment. But that is no justification for resorting to extra-constitutional methods to deal with the situation. The Prime Minister has repeatedly mentioned that the government will adopt a zero-tolerance approach towards custodial killings, wherever it happens. The inquiry ordered by Mr Azad is a step in this direction and a warning to the security forces that they cannot take the law into their own hands while dealing with the extraordinary situation in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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Singuritis THE Singur spark seems to be igniting fires at far-off places. The latest conflagration has taken place near Barnala in which 40 persons were injured. It will be foolhardy to think — as some government functionaries have done — that the trouble arose merely because of the mischief played by politicians. There seems to be genuine anger among the farmers who have been deprived of their land and vocation unceremoniously. The Centre has promised to bring about a comprehensive policy about land acquisition which will safeguard the interests of the farmers. Unfortunately, this assurance has not seeped down to the grassroots. Instead, shortsighted leaders and bureaucrats have allowed the situation to deteriorate to the stage where they-vs-us battle-lines are being drawn. If remedial measures are not put in place earnestly, this friction can cause more tensions. It is nobody’s case that the idea of special economic zones should be abandoned. On the contrary, they are essential for the country’s progress. But they should be set up in a way that instead of appearing to be an adversary, they come to be looked as a boon. Unfortunately, the government has not looked at the plight of the farmers sympathetically. Being asked to abandon the village and land which have been their abode for generations is a heart-rending bolt from the blue. Heavy-handed methods adopted by the government make it worse. To cap it all, the farmers have to cope with babudom which is heartless and corrupt. Obviously, the sense of being robbed is strong among those whose land is taken over. The way land prices are shooting up all over Punjab, the compensation given to the farmers is generally peanuts. They cannot buy a chunk of land of the same size elsewhere and at the same time set up a new household. Their feelings can be assuaged only if they are made partners in the new-found prosperity which can come to their area. Right now, they are only given a lump-sum and told to get out. Leaving your hearth and home for even a development project like a highway or a dam can be traumatic. Doing so, so that a few moneybags can earn their millions appears downright exploitative to petty land-owning families. Ways have got to be found to be ensure that industrial units in Punjab are set up without causing grievous hurt to the farmers and their livelihood. |
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Death on roads THE ability of modern societies to tolerate death on roads is as staggering as the figures of the actual number who perish every year all over the world — in the region of 12 lakh. It has taken the Supreme Court to call attention to the problem in India, where half a lakh to one lakh people die every year. Compare this to the toll in the recent tsunami and earthquakes, and one has an idea of the magnitude of the problem. China and India have the highest number of road fatalities. The Centre and the state governments would do well to take this as a wake-up call. It is also, of course, the responsibility of every road user to promote safe driving and respect for others rights. From the government side, lamentable laxity and corruption are the bane of the licensing and registration system. As for the design and maintenance of roads, the less said the better; many a pot-hole or badly placed meridian has claimed a wage-earner, a child, a mother. Disregard for the rules of the road and the rights of other users is part of the culture, where drivers believe that what one can get away with is what is right. Better roads and law enforcement will not automatically take care of the problem. Some 45,000 people die in the United States every year. The US National Safety Council has estimated that an American citizen’s chance of dying in a car accident is one in 84 over his or her lifetime. This has led to calls for stricter penal action against drunken or aggressive driving, and for slower, safer cars. As India grows, there are going to be more vehicles on more roads —and more deaths and disabling injuries. If we have to do something about it, the enormity of the problem has to be first recognised. And every road user has to change for the better, and demand that other users, vehicle manufacturers and the government also work towards greater road safety. |
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I am going to pray for you at St Paul’s, but with no very lively hope of success.
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The Nowhere People
Most
people look for a good address for that makes one somebody. An address implies belonging and at least a right to entitlements even if these be denied in practice. Slums and irregular shanty settlements are often neglected; but since their residents render some local service and are potential voters, they get provided for in howsoever limited a measure. This is not true of vagrants and street children, even pavement dwellers, who lack an address. They miss out on schooling and BPL ration cards and do not find their names on the voters list. Nomads suffer the same handicap, as do itinerant workers and herdsmen who practice transhumance. They are marginalised for lack of a fixed address and are vaguely some others’ responsibility. Worst of all are those that migrate seasonally as a coping mechanism in times of drought or crop failure when they must travel long distances in search of work, either on their own or in work gangs marshalled by contractors who feed the labour market from distress areas. There are both push and pull factors. Some leave on their own to seek greener pastures. True distress migrants have few or no assets other than their labour and move for very survival. Occasionally only the men may go, but in a many instances whole families migrate, including children who cannot be left behind without care. Labour contractors cunningly count children as part of the family work unit, helping along. They are given small and then increasingly burdensome tasks on family piecework, without payment or recognition. This cruelly robs them of their childhood. Their work is harsh, often hazardous, and at the cost of their education, health and basic nutritional needs. Women and the girl child suffer extreme deprivation and are subject to sexual abuse. Distress seasonal migration is widely prevalent but the migrants remain “invisible” as there is none to assume responsibility. The sending villages and local functionaries write off the migrants ignoring their entitlements, as they are not physically present for much of the time. On the other hand, recipient villages see these seasonal migrants as visitors who do not belong and will sooner or later return to their permanent abode. They live dreadful lives in temporary work camps put up by the contractor or “employer”. They live beyond the law, neglected by the State and society. The American India Foundation (AIF) has been working to mitigate this human disaster through partner NGOs and has put together a moving and compelling volume, brilliantly illustrated, entitled “Locked Homes, Empty Schools: The Impact of Distress Seasonal Migration on the Rural Poor”. (Text by Smita, Photographs by Prashant Panijar), with a Foreword by Amartya Sen. The starting point is the commitment to universal elementary education, a shamefully delayed goal and national imperative, which comes up against yet another formidable hurdle when families move to become Nowhere People. The Constitution now makes UEE a fundamental right, with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan a prime instrumentality in its attainment by 2010. There are an estimated 30-40 million distress seasonal migrants of which some nine million are in the under-14 UEE target category. Most of these are expectedly SCs, STs and OBCs “who produce wealth but are excluded from its benefits”. The migration cycle starts post-monsoon and continues until the next summer, spanning six-eight months. It is spurred by dire need and made mandatory by debt bondage through cash advances, piece rates in defiance of labour laws and contractual obligations. These “missing citizens” have no rights, no entitlements, no security, only pain, suffering and endless indignity. In the process, they lose all sense of identity. They are not enrolled in electoral lists, have no representative and are most often excluded from the Census count, disempowered. Nowhere People are Non-People. The AIF has surveyed four migrant streams: Those that move from Marathwada to sugar mills in Western Maharastra, from Central Gujarat and Saurashtra to salt pans in Kutch, and from Kalahandi and Bolangir in Western Orissa to parts of Andhra Pradesh around Vizag and Hyderabad. Distances traversed extend over several hundred kilometres across linguistic and cultural divides. The contractors determine the destination and specific work site. The AIF and its NGO partners have sought to ameliorate educational deprivation by providing schooling and seasonal hostels at work sites. But then continuity is lost in the next season as families do not necessarily return to the same site and there is no tracking mechanism. The next step has, therefore, been to provide hostels and schooling at the sending villages so that children can safely be left behind to study and grow in more normal surroundings. The task has just begun and a huge national effort is needed basically to prevent distress migration by providing gainful employment in situ through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (100 days work in, now, 200 backward districts) and other means. All this constitutes just a beginning. But “Locked Schools, Empty Homes” must stir the nation’s conscience and direct attention to the plight of those millions for whom a 10 per cent rate of growth is meaningless if they are
excluded.
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Bhindis from Dublin
IT happened during 1957. Aircraft carrier Vikrant had already arrived in sprawling shipyard of Harland and Wolf (Belfast) for modernisation when I called on Dr. E Rebeck, Chairman of the yard. It was a spacious room with a model of ‘Titanic’ which was built in the yard in 1912, conspicuously placed on the front table. He recalled that he had served as apprentice engineer during its construction and had welded steel chest in captain’s cabin of Titanic before she sailed. While leaving, he invited me to join the anniversary day of the launch of Titanic scheduled to be celebrated after two weeks. During the evening the chief hull manager’s wife rang up my wife and requested her to join the hostess group. All other 10 ladies in the group were wives of yard managers and were to supervise food and wine catering arrangements of about 2,000 invitees. During the first meeting of the catering committee it was decided that all food and wine items would be prepared in the latest equipment available with the shipyard, including baking of sponge and chocolate cakes, preparation of wines, select continental, Chinese, Thai, seafood and Indian dishes. Experienced chefs of these items were to assist the ladies. Among wines apple cider, plum wine, white grape wine, red grape wine and sparkling wine only were to be prepared by the host officers’ wives. These ladies were experienced in cooking various foods in the menu. My wife was allocated preparation of South Indian dishes in which sambhar and plain dosas were the main. While ingredients of each type of cuisine were being listed my wife handed over her requirements. These included Heeng (Asafoetida compounded) and Bhindi. Bhindi was not available in the Belfast market. Even most local vegetables dealers had never tasted it. The chief hostess asked my wife how necessary it was to have Bhindis for Sambhar. My wife promptly and emphatically said that Bhindis were absolutely essential for sambhar dish. So the chief hostess rang up the Indian consulate in Dublin (Ireland) seeking assistance in its procurement. Indian Counsel in Dublin who was himself an invitee for the occasion acted fast through a ship chandler based in Dublin. The consulate informed us that fresh tender Bhindis would be made available at the Irish port of Cork from a specified supplier, to be collected. Importing of 20 pounds of Bhindis from Ireland to prepare sambhar, including cost of car carriage from Cork to Belfast to and fro, amounted to a total of Rs 20,000 approximately. This was a popular topic of conversation during the Titanic party. All commended the pains taken by the shipyard to meticulously care for the taste of dozens of Indian guests who had graced the historic occasion on special invitation. Sambhar lovers in northern Europe do not hesitate to pay Rs 300 per kg of
Bhindis. |
Courting Africa, Chinese style There are many ways to tell the story of China’s booming relationship with Africa: the spiraling trade figures, the growing oil imports, the Chinese-built stadiums, railways, power lines, dams and roads that are mushrooming across the continent. But perhaps nothing conveys China’s enthusiasm for African resources to help supply its seemingly insatiable economy as much as the travel itineraries of its leaders. Last year, the Chinese president, premier and foreign minister all made trips to Africa, covering 16 countries. On Tuesday, President Hu Jintao left Beijing for a tour that will take him to eight African nations, including return visits by the Chinese leader to South Africa and Liberia. “This is unprecedented. I can’t think of any other head of state including (South African President) Thabo Mbeki who has visited as many African countries as that,” said Martyn Davies, head of the Center for China Studies at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Last November, China also hosted 33 African leaders at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, promised to sharply increase assistance and offered $5 billion in loans. In exchange, Beijing wants African nations to recognize the People’s Republic of China rather than Taiwan, which it views as a rogue province. “For not recognising Taiwan, African countries can get government-supported foreign direct investment, aid and military assistance ‘with no political strings attached.’ Goodbye US and Europe; Hello China!” analyst Mark Sorbara wrote last April in Kenya’s newspaper The Nation . Hu is expected to sign deals and assistance packages, mostly flowing out of the November conference, during a tour that will end February 10. China’s trade with Africa is still well behind that of the United States, which had $91 billion in bilateral trade exchange last year. However, Chinese-African trade has grown from about $3 billion in 1995 to $40 billion in 2005, and Beijing is aiming for $100 billion by 2010. Africa now supplies one-third of China’s crude oil, according to Chinese officials quoted by the People’s Daily. Beijing’s intense courting of Africa has disturbed some Western powers – particularly the US, which is fearful of competition for energy resources. Western human rights organisations also have criticized China’s no-strings-attached investments in countries with poor records on rights and democracy, such as Sudan and Zimbabwe. “I think there’s a perception that up until now the US and the EU (European Union) have been the major investors in Africa, and now a new player has entered the field so you have to change the rules. So in terms of tying loans to human rights, they (Western lenders) have to adjust their approach,” said Adam Wolfe, a China analyst with the independent Power and Interest News Report, based in Chicago and Rome. China also is facing increased skepticism from African interest groups concerned about the impact of cheap Chinese imports on local industries, following the closures of textile mills in Lesotho and South Africa. The Africans complain that the trade is one-sided, and that the Chinese import labor from home for major infrastructure projects and hold onto technology, creating few jobs or lasting benefits. Analysts believe that China’s basic approach of importing raw materials and exporting manufactured goods is unlikely to change. But the focus of Hu’s visit indicates Chinese responsiveness to the criticism. He will spend two nights each in countries where the most serious concerns have been raised: South Africa and Zambia. Last year, workers in Zambia rioted at a Chinese copper mine over pay and conditions. The issue surfaced during the country’s presidential campaign with a leading opposition candidate, Michael Sata, accusing China of exploitation. A provincial official wept on television when she saw the conditions of workers at one Chinese-owned coal mine. The Chinese ambassador to South Africa, Liu Guijin, told reporters in Pretoria this week that Hu will tour the copper belt in Zambia and drive home the message that his government expects Chinese companies to act responsibly. “I have personally read something about some unbecoming behavior of the Chinese companies. That’s definitely not the Chinese government’s policy,” Liu said. “The president will encourage the Chinese corporations to integrate more appropriately with the local conditions and to work better to make more contributions to the local social and economic development.” So far most African leaders have been happy to enjoy Chinese investment and loans on easy terms, often finding it more advantageous to deal with China than the West. But Mbeki, whose country is China’s second largest trading partner on the continent after oil-rich Angola, has expressed concerns. In a speech last year, the South African president warned of the danger of an unequal “colonial” relationship. Mbeki urged China to invest more in African manufacturing. Davies, of the Center for China Studies, said the reality was that Africa was not a competitive location for manufacturing investment from anywhere, including China. “Of course, Chinese investment will be significantly skewed to resources and energy extraction,” he said. For human rights advocates, China’s biggest test in Africa is its approach to Sudan, which this week lost a bid for the chairmanship of the African Union because of its intransigence over Darfur. China, with oil interests in southern Sudan, has been criticised for blocking sanctions against Sudanese officials in the UN Security Council.
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India must move beyond superficial IT prowess A nation can be accurately judged by what it considers to be worthy of celebration. Upper India has been rather hasty in trumpeting its success on the IT front. Given our felicity with the English language, our propensity to appropriate clever phrases from the lexicons of others, and our willingness to suspend our own judgment so as to savour motivated praise showered by the outsiders, we have persuaded ourselves that India is an IT superpower, that Bangalore is our silicon valley, India is now a world hotspot for innovation, and the like. Facts and figures do not support this picture. Countries become rich not from wages but from royalties. India is still in the wage stage. It has an opportunity to graduate to the royalty stage. But this opportunity is in immediate danger of being frittered away. India still has miles to go. If it starts celebrating prematurely, it will never arrive. India’s share in the world software market is a paltry two per cent. In the fiscal year 2006, India’s software-related exports stood at $ 24.2 billion. This is a gross figure. To obtain the net figure we must subtract from it the amount expended on importing the required computer hardware and branded software. Unfortunately this latter figure is not publicly known. It could be as high as half the gross figure. My own impression is that the total Indian computer – related imports (for all sectors) exceed the corresponding exports. A major source of foreign exchange for India is the money sent back home by Indians living or working abroad. For the fiscal year 2006 these inward remittances stood at $24.6 billion. Two thirds of this came from two sources: USA (44%) and the Gulf (24%). The fact that a fraction of the savings of Indians employed abroad equals India’s gross software export earning brings home a point that is often ignored. Much of India’s software manpower is under-employed. In the calendar year 2005, China exported to USA toys, games and sports equipment worth $19 billion; furniture worth $17 billion; and footwear and parts worth $12 billion. Thus China earned about $48 billion from the labours of its relatively low-skilled work force, while India employed its top brains to bring in no more than $24 billion. Much of the foreign praise for the so-called Indian IT prowess stems not because of the cost advantage India offers but because India makes available highly skilled people for doing stupid repetitive work at a couple of hundreds of dollars a month. Many analysts have used the term cyber-coolie to describe the phenomenon. My own preference is for the term techno-baboo or cyber-baboo (colonial-era spellings being advisedly used). Coolie is a degrading term; the coolie can retaliate. The British in South Africa called Mahatma Gandhi a coolie, and see what happened to the empire! But baboo is a soothing term. A baboo can remain a baboo for ever and feel proud of the fact. About 200 global companies have opened their research and development centres in India. Not withstanding the composite nomenclature, these centres are for further development of original research done in the West rather than for original research itself. In any case even if the authors of the patents being filed from these centres are Indians, the patents are not owned by them but by the parent company. If the parent companies were to set these centres up in their own countries and hire these very Indians, their salary bill will go up about eight times. The money Indians will be sending back home will far exceed the salaries they are now getting. We should now wean our upper-end IT experts away from employment and convert them into entrepreneurs. This would require a strategy and more importantly a change in the national mindset. As a society, we are afraid of failure. We do not want to try lest we fail. We content ourselves with letting others take the initiative and feel happy when a peripheral role assigned to us. As Kiran Majumdar is fond of pointing out, nothing succeeds like failure. People should be encouraged to try and fail so that they themselves or others can build on their failure and succeed. India should set up an IT Entrepreneur Fund. We should encourage, or rather tempt, professionals currently employed in India or abroad to set up eventually royalty-yielding companies. For this not only capital but also small pieces of land at concessional rates should be provided. |
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Delhi Durbar The CPM has been attacked by critics that it preaches one thing in the national capital and practices quite the opposite in West Bengal. The Special Economic Zone affair, especially in Singur and Nandigram, evoked such sharp criticism that even some of the Marxist intellectuals attacked the party for its art of double-speak. Stung by the acid remarks, party General Secretary Prakash Karat responded: “At the heart of the matter is the critics’ inability to comprehend the role of a state government under India’s constitutional set up and the CPM’s understanding of what the governments headed by the party can do. The policies implemented by the Left-led governments would always be circumscribed by the fact that State power vests with the Centre while state governments have very limited powers and resources.” Perturbed by Karat’s stand, a senior Left leader said that this was only the theory behind the double-speak. Shahnawaz sidelined Former Union Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government Syed Shahnawaz Hussain was confident that he would be given a suitable position in BJP President Rajnath Singh’s team. To his dismay, he was made the Chairman of the Minority Morcha. Hussain, who was once very close to former Madhya Pradesh CM Uma Bharti, has been given a position which he could have got a few years back. Having been very vocal against the other Muslim face of the party – Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi – has probably not gone down well with Rajnath. Medha rebuked Environment activist Medha Patkar seems to have fallen out of the CPM’s favour if the remarks by the party General Secretary Prakash Karat are any indication. Patkar had rallied support for farmers whose lands were being taken away for the Tatas’ car project in Singur and the Salim group in Nandigram. Karat said: “It is sad to see the line up of the Trinamul Congress, the BJP and the Congress – a traditional and unsurprising anti-Marxist gang up of ruling class parties being fortified by the likes of Medha Patkar, who did not hesitate in making an outrageous comparison between land acquisition in Singur and George Bush’s policy in Iraq. This is a typical illustration of the poverty of understanding of US imperialism that prevails among the NGOs and the ‘single issue’ crowd.” The rural landscape of the Surajkund mela was given a more concrete look by paving the walkways after Congress president Sonia Gandhi agreed to inaugurate it. Concluding that Soniaji might find it difficult to walk on plain kutcha grounds of the venue, the mela organisers decided to making things smooth for her. Interestingly, it is the backdrop of the rural landscape that has been the USP of this two-decade old mela.
Contributed by R Suryamurthy, Satish Misra and Vibha Sharma |
The One is the Lord of all that moves and that is fixed, of what walks, what swims, what files. In the universe all this unites, from that all this emerges. Our world stands on the foundation of our thoughts. God is realised through God’s own grace.
You cannot love two people perfectly but you can love all people perfectly if you love the one Jesus in them all. This means that one should center mind and heart, life, and activity on Jesus, seeing Him in every human sufferer.
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