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Drive for Indo-Pak peace
RBI has done enough |
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Jobs in lieu of land
Migrants in Europe
Glorious Golden!
Oral habits that spell trouble
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Drive for Indo-Pak peace
Despite
Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani meeting Kashmiri separatists on Tuesday, India and Pakistan held ministerial-level talks on Wednesday in a “cordial” and “constructive” manner. This shows the resolve that nothing should be allowed to come in the way of the dialogue process that has been revived after it got snapped in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Ms Rabbani should have avoided any contact with controversial elements like Syed Ali Shah Geelani when India had specifically stated that this would not be welcome. That she went ahead with her objectionable programme makes one believe that the separatist elements fit into the scheme of things of Pakistan. But this cannot be described as good diplomacy as her action threatened to spoil the cordial atmosphere that was there for the talks between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Ms Rabbani. Their meetings preceded discussions between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan. Interestingly, the two sides held deliberations on all the issues which formed part of the agenda, including Kashmir and the need for cooperation to fight terrorism. Going by what is there in the customary joint statement issued at the end of the ministerial-level talks, trade and people-to-people contacts between India and Pakistan can go up considerably in the days to come. Not only that cross-LoC trading days have been increased to four from the earlier two with more facilities to ensure a substantial rise in the trade volume, arrangements have been made to remove the operational difficulties being encountered by businessmen. It is good that people will now feel encouraged to travel to both sides of the LoC as tourists. Religious tourism involving the two neighbours may now get a fillip. There is need to provide all the facilities required to enhance people-to-people contacts so that there is pressure from the public on the rulers not to do anything that may affect the drive for the normalisation of relations between the two countries. In this context, efforts must continue to make the issuance of visa easier. There will be greater urge to improve relations once India and Pakistan develop high stakes in economic activity involving the two sides.
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RBI has done enough
IT is a double whammy for the middle class. On the one hand, home and auto loans have become dearer due to the RBI’s rate hike (the 11th in 15 months), on the other, high prices, including those of food, are stretching household budgets. The plight of the poor is worse. Since they usually do not have access to bank loans, they borrow from private lenders at hefty interest rates. Unlike the salaried class, their incomes are not inflation-linked. The brunt of costlier corporate loans is also borne by ordinary people. While big companies can weather a financial storm, it is the small and medium firms employing large numbers of people that often buckle under pressure. As their projects are abandoned or delayed for want of affordable capital, growth takes a hit and employment opportunities shrink. Though what the RBI did on Tuesday came as a shock to the financial markets, which expected a moderate hike of 25 basis points, it is what Governor D. Subbarao said which attracted analysts’ attention more. He asked the government to do what it had been avoiding all these months: contain fiscal deficit (the gap between government income and expenditure) and ensure adequate supplies of items whose prices are rising. What economists call “supply-side bottlenecks” have remained unaddressed for years. Due to low agricultural productivity, heavy dependence on the monsoon, the absence of cold storages and other infrastructural handicaps, the supply of food items remains erratic and often falls short of demand. The farm sector, which supports a large majority, needs better attention. Bringing in domestic and foreign investment in the supply chain can cut massive food waste. There are factors beyond government control like global oil prices and trouble in the Arab world and the US/European debt problems, which affect the global economic recovery as well as Indian exports. But there are things the government can do like thinking beyond scandals and political survival and focussing on governance and in-house hurdles to faster economic growth. |
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Jobs in lieu of land
AT a time when farmers are up in arms all over the country against forcible acquisition of their land, Haryana has taken the lead in providing a healing touch. The state government on Tuesday gave appointment letters to 129 eligible family members of those affected farmers whose land was acquired for Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Plant at Khedar in Hisar district. This is perhaps a first in the country. Even age and education qualifications were relaxed in some cases to appoint them as clerks, technicians and foremen in the power utilities. There is more to come. A commitment has been given to 10 candidates who are below the age of 18 that they will be given jobs when they come of age. Power companies have been directed to set up a training camp for the students of Khedar, Barwala and adjoining areas so that they could get job-oriented training. The companies will have to ensure 24-hour power supply within a 10-km radius of the power plant. As the Supreme Court has said, land is like mother to a farmer. He is devastated when it is forcibly acquired. He requires liberal assistance, sympathy and understanding to tide over the crisis. Even otherwise, an alien project should not be thrust on the people who have been living there for ages. They must be made a partner in the progress that a project promises to usher in for the larger good of the state and the country. Since a government job is highly coveted, giving them such employment is the least the administration can do for those deprived of their land. These liberal terms should be a lesson to other governments like that of Uttar Pradesh where farmers are up in arms because of the feeling that they have been short-changed. Their sense of injustice is all the more acute because of the fact that the land was acquired ostensibly for industrial purposes but was fraudulently passed on to realtors who made a killing. Industrialisation is the need of the hour but it must not be at the cost of agriculture. The policy that fertile land should not be acquired needs to be followed strictly. |
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There is a strange reluctance on the part of most people to admit that they enjoy life. — William Lyon Phelps
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Migrants in Europe
THE alleged native-born Norwegian alleged mass murderer, Anders Behring Breivik, highlights a growing problem in a Europe troubled by weak economies, rising unemployment and the demonstrable failure of the policy of multiculturalism, with 9/11 and the Al-Qaeda movement demonising Muslims. Breivik might have been an extreme case, but the climate in Europe for people of dark pigmentation is distinctly chilly as they become a handy scapegoat for the continent's ailments. The irony is that the traditionally tolerant countries and regions such as the Netherlands and Scandinavia have sprouted right wing parties even as the nations with heavy intakes of people of their former colonies such as Britain and France have been swayed by the anti-immigrant wave. And the far right parties are doing well in elections, in contrast to earlier times when they were mere fringe phenomena in the political spectrum. Even as the world is growing closer, thanks to the technological age among other factors, the European continent is experiencing curious jitters composed in large part of fear — fear of dark strangers taking over, fear of losing their jobs and, above all, fear of being deprived of new post-war prosperity in a rejuvenated Europe coming together in a European Union for the first time in history. Indeed, the Coal and Steel Community leading to the European Economic Community and ultimately the European Union were historic developments, as was the decision by several of the members to have a common currency. There were differences and doubts over how close the Union should be and the difficulty of using a common currency when there is no single economic overlord. It is no coincidence that doubts on the future of the Union and the euro currency have never been as widespread as they are today. Three member-countries have had to be given bail-outs, with Greece tottering under its debt burden. On the political plane, perhaps the greatest problem is that while one country after another has declared the failure of multiculturalism, they have still to find an answer. To begin with, there are fewer or greater numbers of immigrant population in Europe that came in the wake of the empire builders. In Germany's case, migrants, especially from Turkey, were invited in to help build the country's economic miracle. Which brings us to another crucial question that will not go away: European society is ageing fast and must bring in young people from elsewhere to keep their economies running. These young people are most plentiful in the developing world. Breivik's long and meandering thesis on the state of Europe and the world might be the confused thoughts of a xenophobe, but they express the kernel of an argument that has been clothed in various hues, ranging from the American treatment of blacks in the deep south to the Dutch settlers' evolution of apartheid in South Africa. It is that Europeans — or generally the white race — are different from, and superior to, people of dark pigmentation. Once the 9/11 tragedy in New York and Washington DC was factored in, the explicit or muted proponents of white supremacy had tangible targets to hate. The problem is: how should Europe and the world deal with these very unhealthy developments that could prove disastrous for the continent and peoples elsewhere? The answers are not so simple because the solution cannot be to ship millions of people where they came from — in a large number of cases, the young were born in their adopted countries and would be strangers in their parental homes. Although many migrant communities tend to live as segregated communities by choice, any system of apartheid would make nonsense of the Renaissance and liberal thought Europe stands for. France has a point in banning face veils in public, in that it totally separates women from society although the order has been lightly policed. Here again the problem is that in the French scheme of things, hard secularism implies integration and that can only lead to multiculturalism, which has become a dirty word. Over the decades, I have discovered the change in French attitudes to blacks from being equal citizens if they possessed good knowledge of French language and literature to becoming the butt of jokes in private conversations. In the Netherlands, the levels of tolerance the people displayed towards migrants and the advantages they received in social welfare benefits were generous by any standard. Today even liberals decry migrants as being lazy and sponging on the state. Britain has always had a tinge of racism expressed bluntly or euphemistically, but in fairness it is one of the few countries in Europe that debates the problem more honestly than other societies. The tragedy in Oslo brings perhaps the greatest surprise of all. Societies that were believed to be havens for the unfortunate or tortured, welcoming them with open arms, have become carping of the dark-skinned, sprouting extreme right parties that are becoming inseparable from the haters of non-whites. These attributes are dangerous for Europeans as they are for the rest of the world. The world cannot adopt a form of apartheid after it has been legally abolished in South Africa. Nor can we reverse technologies that inevitably bring peoples and countries closer. Nor can the label of extremism be applied to all Muslims because of the deeds of those who speared the twin towers with hijacked passenger planes and Al-Qaeda. Obviously, Europe must look for solutions elsewhere. To begin with, European politicians and leaders must have the courage to go against the tide in explaining to their peoples the consequences of their prejudice. In other words, liberal politicians must take on the extreme right in each country to prevent them from expanding their political base in electoral politics. Second, if multiculturalism is a dirty word, political parties must get their brains to train on what kind of development would be self-fulfilling for the migrant communities and non-threatening to the natives. In the end, it boils down to enlightened and bold
leadership.
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Glorious Golden!
Glorious Golden! That is what the souvenir says, signifying the number of years they have been married. The world converged on Chandigarh — friends, brothers, sisters, and cousins…all in their 50s, 60s and 70s. Everybody was blinded by the ‘Golden’ and I, who has travelled 45 of those Golden 50 with them, concentrated on the ‘Glorious’. Why glorious? Searching for an answer, I look back… and find myself in the year 1961. Chinese aggression and Goan annexation notwithstanding, the Awasthi and Shukla families got together to wed my parents. The war and the Emergency Commission in the army set the backdrop of their newly married life. I came into their lives bringing with me new complications! A heart attack at the age of three and an open heart surgery at 9, the doctors declared me a blue baby! Trials littered their path and they never noticed because they always looked upwards and onwards! Heavens, eventually, showered their blessings! A few years later they opened a large atlas and searched for Bellary, their new posting, visible as a small dot in Karnataka, later to come into the limelight due to the Sonia-Sushma contest and also its famous brothers! Fearlessly, as they had taken all the other challenges, they made their way through different accents of Kannada, from Bellary, Dharwad, Udupi, to Shimoga. The south loved them and they loved the south, and my sister and I loved the dosas and vadas and, of course, being called, amma! All the while, what stays as a permanent feature in our memory are the summer vacations spent in the scorching heat of Rajasthan. June, the holiday month, was spent year after year playing on Dholpur’s famous red stones unmindful of the temperatures, while the parents together with uncles and aunts made aam panna and sprinkled water in the yard to keep the heat at bay! Every night, rows of white sheets were spread on the terrace and a lone table fan was horizontally aligned to reach everybody and summers simmered away! My parents made sure we got a taste of the joint family even while we travelled all over the country. Half a century later, they relived their days with their brothers and sisters and watched, with satisfied smiles, the coming together of a new generation which is now less Rajasthani and more Hindustani. It is a family, where the taste of aam panna mingles with mithi lassi, bajra roti can be served with sarson ka saag and dal bati with pinni! We are a family, where the hearts beat for each other and distances do not matter! My children soak in each detail. Glorious, is it
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Oral habits that spell trouble IF your child comes home crying that his friends don’t talk to him and have isolated him, then don’t ignore his lament. Many studies have shown that bad oral health care in kids can lead to poor social relationships and impaired school performance. During the development stage of children, they could acquire certain oral habits like thumb sucking, mouth breathing, tongue thrusting, lip biting, grinding of teeth and nail biting that may either temporarily or permanently harm their teeth as well as tooth supporting structures. It is very important to control these habits to prevent the dental problems but if the problem is right there in front of you, you can take help from a pediatric dentist who will help your child to avoid bad habits and motivate him to feel good about visiting the dentist and teach how to care for their teeth. Thumb sucking is the most commonly seen habit in a child as sucking is an instinctive response of a child which helps him breastfeed when he is a baby. Thumb sucking begins when the foetus is about 15 weeks old. Usually this habit is kicked off when the child is about 5 to 6 years of age, but some people retain this habit even in adulthood. Parents try to make their child quit this habit by resorting to all sorts of old and new school methods, but are often in vain. The most effective technique by far is to get ‘hay-rakes’ cemented on the teeth which are sharp prongs that can cause discomfort to the child. There are plenty of other ways to discourage a child to stop thumb sucking. A child usually sucks his thumb to indicate he is hungry, while some others find comfort in the act of thumb sucking. Some resort to thumb sucking as a relief from something they are afraid of. Then there are those who lack something, like attention and love of the parent, or are bored and have nothing to do. Parents should give the child all the attention that he or she needs and always engage him in some activity. Thumb sucking is not a problem until the permanent teeth appear. It is okay if your child sucks his thumb till the age of 5 or 6, but after that it can cause serious problems to the teeth and formation of teeth. Apart from irregular teeth, the child can also have pronunciation problems, and sometimes can also have problems swallowing. The front teeth are mostly affected with thumb sucking, which can change the physical appearance causing emotional problems. Most kids quit thumb sucking on their own. If you feel that your child’s teeth are being affected with thumb sucking then you should follow a mild approach by trying to explain how wrong it is to suck the thumb, and how it will affect his appearance. Also set out examples of the kids that have quit thumb sucking. Involving them in some kind of play each time you notice that they are thumb sucking is a good way to help. You can also replace the thumb gently with a pacifier, as it is easy to get your child rid of a pacifier than his or her own thumb. If you force him into quitting, a child can rebel against it, which will never help him overcome this habit. A visit to the dentist can help your child in successfully stopping the habit, as he would advise the use of thumb guard, a plastic device attached to the thumb that interrupts the process of thumb sucking by breaking the vacuum formed by sucking. If your child does not quit thumb sucking it can cause permanent problems like irregular teeth, where the front two teeth are pushed forward and the lower teeth are pushed backward. So if your child does not quit the habit by the age of 6 you need to take measures to help him. Tongue thrusting is the pushing of the tongue against the teeth in order to swallow or simply doing it as a play. There are many children who show signs of this behaviour. A person swallows about 3000 times in a day on an average, and some children usually tongue thrust without really being aware of this. Tongue thrusting does not last long; usually by the age of six they stop the habit and return to the normal pattern of swallowing. But there are children who continue tongue thrusting causing great damage to the teeth, making them non-aligned, which can sometimes also get in the way of their speech. There are several factors that have been associated with the problem of tongue thrust. Thumb sucking, hereditary factors, large tongue, neurological problems, physiological defects and most commonly the use of artificial nipples instead of breast feeding are the most common factors that end in tongue thrusting. Nasal congestion and allergies also account for this problem because it causes breathing difficulties. Tongue thrusting can cause a lot of problems especially disrupting the arrangement of teeth and causing irregular bites. Speech also can be affected depending on how serious the tongue thrust is. The children can also have a lateral lisp. Tongue thrust is a little difficult to diagnose. An orthodontist or a paediatrician can diagnose this problem. It is important that you and your child are aware of the complications that can happen due to tongue thrusting, which can sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently damage your child’s teeth.
Breathing through mouth The third most common paediatric dental problem is mouth breathing. The normal way to healthy breathing is through the nose, where the air gets filtered before making its way into the lungs. There are some children who have the problem of mouth breathing. It is inhaling and exhaling of air through the mouth. Usually people do so when they have nasal congestion, asthma, sleep apnea or cold, but some kids make it a habit. Some have abnormal facial growth which results in irregular jaw shape, thereby making a child breathe through his mouth. Although it is a natural process for some, the complexities of mouth breathing are quite plenty. It is firstly not a safe way to breathe. It not only allows easy access to the many allergens present in the air, but also can cause other complications to the dental and bone structure of the face. There can be several factors that can cause a child to prefer breathing through the mouth. The jaws don’t grow together and causes complications. The most common reason is dry mouth. If mouth breathing is not treated in time, it can result in abnormality of the face, hindering growth of bones and teeth. The kids can have gummy smiles and crooked teeth. Sleep also gets affected because of mouth breathing, which hampers the overall development of the child, as there is not enough oxygen to circulate throughout the body leaving the child fatigued and restless all the time. A dentist who advises his patients to visit him every six months can easily diagnose this problem, and children can be effectively treated if these symptoms are detected early. Since mouth breathing can narrow the face and mouth, a dentist can make use of opening-out equipment to help expand the sinuses and release nasal passages. Many children show signs of improvement after this kind of medical intervention which can not only help a child have a sound sleep but also help them in their overall daily performance. If you are aware of your child having this problem, it is best that you consult your paediatrician on how best to deal with this problem as mouth breathing can serious effect the dental development, sometimes causing temporary as well as permanent problems. Children are generally afraid to visit a pediatric dentist. Hence emphasis needs to be on the relationship between the dentist and the child patient. Child psychology is an integral part of pediatric dentistry. Pediatric dentists obtain extra courses on child psychology, to eliminate the fear of the dentist in children and making dental visits enjoyable for the child It’s important to visit a dentist in early childhood as cavities begin to develop in the child’s primary teeth. Primary teeth should be protected so that they are lost only when it is time rather than to decay, dental removal, or other injury. Primary teeth are crucial to several oral factors in a child’s life. Aiding in chewing, they are key to ensuring the development of healthy bodies. They play an important role in accurate speech development. Healthy smiles are significant aids in social interaction. Protection against cavities may help present other infections as well. At all stages of life, dental care is always important but it is mainly significant for young ages where it requires special concerns of the parents and specialists pediatric dentists to execute preventive dental health habits that keep a child free from dental disease for the rest of their life.
PAY ATTENTION
If your child does not quit the habit by the age of 6 you need to take measures to help him. The most effective technique by far is to get ‘hay-rakes’ cemented on the teeth which are sharp prongs that can cause discomfort to the child. Parents should give the child all the attention that he or she needs and always engage him in some activity. A dentist may advise the use of thumb guard, a plastic device attached to the thumb that interrupts the process of thumb sucking by breaking the vacuum formed by sucking. Tongue thrusting can also cause a lot of problems, especially disrupting the arrangement of teeth and causing irregular bites. Speech also can be affected depending on how serious the tongue thrust is. The children can have a lateral lisp too. The children who routinely breathe through the mouth instead of the nose can have gummy smiles and crooked teeth. Sleep also gets affected because of mouth breathing, which hampers the overall development of the child, as there is not enough oxygen to circulate throughout the body leaving the child fatigued and restless all the time. It’s important to visit a dentist in early childhood as cavities begin to develop in the child’s primary teeth.
Dr Ajay Sharma is Senior Consultant Dental Surgeon, Prosthodontist and Oral Implantologist at Max Healthcare, Delhi
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It is important to focus on oral hygiene and health of infant, children, and adolescents. Pediatric dentistry provides guidance on how to make teeth strong, develop healthy eating habits and prevent diseases from occurring. 
It is okay if your child sucks his thumb till the age of 5 or 6, but after that it can cause serious problems to the teeth and formation of teeth. Apart from irregular teeth, the child can also have pronunciation problems, and sometimes can also have problems swallowing.