The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Phasing out Haj subsidy
SC stress on social uplift is sound

The Supreme Court’s direction to the Union government to “progressively reduce the amount of Haj subsidy so as to completely eliminate it within a period of 10 years” has a sound basis and deserves to be welcomed. The order is particularly significant because the apex court had earlier upheld the constitutional validity of this subsidy.

The two-judge bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai made the noteworthy observation that the money spent in governmental subsidy to Haj pilgrims —averaging a whopping Rs 650 crore a year for the last five years--- should be used in education and other measures for the social development of the minority community. This would effectively address the issue of economic deprivation that this minority that accounts for about 11 per cent of the country’s population suffers from. Much lip service has been paid for decades to lifting the impoverished Muslims above the poverty line but precious little has been done to ameliorate their lot. This could be a small step in that direction.

It is a sign of the winds of liberalism within the Muslim community that the Supreme Court order has not evoked widespread angry responses. Shrewdly, the court quoted the Quran to let the community know that even the holy book counsels that the pilgrims must go only if they can meet their own expenses. Another pertinent observation made by the court was its objection to the jumbo size Prime Minister's goodwill delegation that visits Saudi Arabia every year at the government's expense. The court noted that the government's affidavit did not disclose any criteria or guidelines on the basis of which people were selected for being included in the goodwill delegation. The bench said this practice must be stopped. While this is in order, it is not right for the court to dictate to the executive on how many delegates it should send and what should their credentials be.

All in all, the Supreme Court judgment is good insofar as it would enhance the self-respect of a community that has been blamed for enjoying governmental patronage to serve as a captive vote bank. It is now for the government to ensure that any patronage or subsidy that any other community enjoys is also withdrawn so that the principle of equity is duly followed.

Rural and disconnected
Need to overcome the digital divide

The truism that India lives in its villages makes the latest data collected by the National Sample Survey Organisation look scary. It has always been known that rural India suffers from poor infrastructure, but the fact that only about 0.4 per cent of rural households have access to Internet at home comes as a shock.

Most Indians live in villages, and thus the numbers that this percentage will translate into have a huge bearing on the total penetration. As compared to this, urban people have fared better, and thus for this segment, we have a figure of about 6 per cent. Expectedly, some states fare better than others in Internet connectivity. Maharashtra at 10.4 per cent comes out at the top, with Kerala and Himachal Pradesh at 9.5 per cent each and Haryana at 8.15 per cent Internet penetration in urban homes.

It has been repeatedly shown that the Internet has tremendous potential as an educational and social resource. By using the Internet, people living in rural areas extend their reach and overcome the limitations that being in an isolated place poses for them. Naturally, the Internet can be of great use to students in rural schools. Through it, they would have access to information available to other students, worldwide. Schools tend to supervise the use of the Internet, and thus minimise misuse of the resource.

The digital divide between urban and rural Indians is a matter of great concern. Some reports suggest that the gap has been widening instead of decreasing, and this has adversely affected the economy too. Rural telephony in general and Internet use in particular is a great enabler. For rural India, Internet cafes are the main access points, followed by educational institutions and computer-training facilities. The cost of computers is a big deterrent, bad telephony networks another one. However, there is a ray of hope, increasing awareness about the Internet, and various government schemes aimed at rural India have shown results. That may help bridge the digital divide.

Thought for the Day

The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself. — Wallace Stevens

ARTICLE

China's containment strategies
India needs to enhance military deployment
by G. Parthasarathy

There are multiple layers in China's approach to relations with India. At one level, there is a Chinese recognition of India emerging as a power that cannot be ignored and that Chinese interests are served by being seen to have a cooperative relations with India, in forums like BRICS and the G-20.

These links are chosen by China to sometimes describe India as having an "independent" foreign policy, even as concern is periodically voiced over growing US-Indian strategic ties. This ostensibly positive approach is balanced by heaping ridicule on India, or making threatening noises, whenever India enhances its space and missile capabilities, or seeks to bolster its defences along its borders with the Middle Kingdom.

But, above all, there is a dominant theme of "containment," in China's policies towards India. This is undertaken by strengthening Pakistan's conventional, nuclear and missile capabilities and by adopting measures to show that while China recognises the legitimacy of Pakistan's control over PoK and the Northern Areas, it refuses to take any action that provides legitimacy to Indian control of the state. Similar policies are adopted while dealing with India's other South Asian neighbours like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and, most importantly, Nepal.

China's "containment" policies have also included attempts to undermine our "Look East" policies, deny us legitimacy on global nuclear issues in forums like the Nuclear Suppliers Group and obstruct measures in the UN to declare Pakistan-based terrorist groups like the Jamat-ud-Dawa as international terrorist organisations. China actively works to further Pakistan's ambitions of "parity" with India globally. For over two decades now, India has often been caught off the wrong foot in dealing with these Chinese policies. But, as China's economic and military power expands, it is becoming increasingly assertive in dealing with its neighbours, particularly on differences over its land and maritime borders. The most serious manifestation of this growing Chinese arrogance and intolerance has been its propensity to threaten virtually all its coastal neighbours on issues of sovereignty over islands in the East and South China Seas.

China now claims that the entire South China Sea is an area of "core interest", periodically sparking direct naval confrontation with Vietnam and the Philippines. This, in turn, has led to its neighbours virtually pleading for a greater American naval and military presence in the western Asia-Pacific region. Washington has not hesitated to oblige, and naval exercises are being stepped up by the Pacific Fleet with countries like the Philippines, Japan and even Vietnam. This enhanced Chinese "assertiveness" appears to have arisen from recent estimates that the South China Sea has oil and gas reserves equivalent to 17.7 billion tonnes of crude oil.

After India was warned by China not to undertake off-shore oil exploration projects with Vietnam and an Indian naval vessel warned not to enter the South China Sea, India and Vietnam jointly stated: "Disputes like the East and South China Sea should be resolved by peaceful means in accordance with universally recognised principles, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the conduct of parties in the South China Sea".

India's new-found candour on the South China Sea could not have been better timed. China found itself cornered at the November 2011 East Asia Summit at Bali. While China's Foreign Minister expressed the hope that the maritime disputes over the South and East China Seas would not figure at the summit, all but two of 18 participating nations — Myanmar and Cambodia — did raise the issue, with Singapore, which is otherwise circumspect in references to China, playing a prominent role from among ASEAN members. This approach by the ASEAN countries was adopted despite a warning from China's Global Times that "Any country that chooses to be a part of the US chess game will lose the opportunity to benefit from China's economy".

The Chinese were clearly out of touch with regional sentiments, virtually on their backyard. Responding to queries from Premier Wen Jiabao on Indian oil exploration off the Vietnam coast, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that Indian interests in the South China Sea were "purely commercial", adding for good measure that "issues of sovereignty should be resolved according to international law and practice".

India's growing partnership with Japan has also not gone unnoticed in the Middle Kingdom. Japan is now clearly among India's most important economic partners, with its commitment to the development of rail and industrial corridors across India. The sad reality, however, is the snail's pace at which Indian decision makers and project planners have proceeded in implementing these key projects. Japan, which has faced aggressive and indeed hostile behaviour from the Chinese, on their dispute over the Senakaku Islands in the East China Sea, particularly over the past two years, now sees India as an important partner in building a stable balance of power in Asia.

Bilateral military exercises with Japan have been reinforced by a trilateral India-Japan-US dialogue and trilateral military exercises off Okinawa. But India still appears to hold back when it comes to military cooperation with ASEAN members like Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, whose naval forces and coastal security would certainly be strengthened by the supply of Indian Brahmos cruise missiles. Given China's own nuclear and missile cooperation with Pakistan, it is astonishing that New Delhi is still hesitant in moving ahead in strengthening the coastal security of friendly ASEAN countries.

While expanding economic and security cooperation is essential for the success of its Look East policies, it is important that New Delhi enhances its military deployments and strengthens confidence-building measures along its borders with China. The Chinese are supreme realists and understand the logic of the politics of power. It is unlikely that the border issue will be settled anytime soon, or that China will give up its irredentist claims to the whole of Arunachal Pradesh. China will, however, not find it either wise or beneficial if seeks it to launch a military adventure on its borders with India, especially if India is well prepared militarily, conducts its diplomacy imaginatively and sustains a high rate of economic growth.

China's policies of "containment" of India will continue, but can be managed by imaginative engagement and cooperation on the one hand, combined with a pro-active approach to strengthening our defences and to our Look East policies, on the other. The disastrous 1962 conflict with China was largely a result of a gross miscalculation of Chinese capabilities and intentions and our own diplomatic and military naiveté and follies. Hopefully, we are now wiser and more realistic than we were then.

MIDDLE

Photo finish(ed)
by Raji P. Shrivastava

The woes of those who are not photogenic will never end, it seems. Today’s high-tech, mega-feature cameras highlight uneven skin tones, unsightly scars or unwelcome wrinkles with astonishing clarity.

As if this were not enough, pictures from your less wonderful moments are then beamed onto albums at the click of a button for the benefit of entire virtual communities — where you are part of somebody else’s album. Keep in mind that Somebody Else is obviously going to upload snaps in which she is looking her best, never mind if you look like something the cat dragged in.

Wedding pictures are always a terrifying ordeal. I remember my aunts saying, “On their wedding day, the bride and groom are like Lakshmi and Vishnu — they always look their best!” The aunts were being kind, to put it mildly. In the albums lovingly maintained and enthusiastically displayed by various branches of my extended family, I spotted awkward bridegrooms in dhoties and angavastrams and comatose brides in 9-yard saris or asphyxiating lehngas — both clearly wishing that the earth would crack open and swallow them up. A concession to tradition or a passion for fashion — both attack you with a vengeance on what is supposed to be the most blissful day of your life.

Rare is the bride who hasn’t dissolved into a puddle of tears at the ‘trial’ of her wedding pictures — yes, studios give you trials just as tailors do. The greater the disappointment with the initial look, the more the raptures over the edited version, even if the uncomfortable couple have been airbrushed to within an inch of their lives! Wedding photography can be said to be a ‘trial by fire’ — in seven steps, to be precise!

Wedding photographers are the ultimate bosses in the mandap, ordering the dramatis personae to look this way and that while capturing them on film. They also call for retakes — “Exchange the garland one more time” or “Put the laddoo inside her mouth again”. Everyone obliges, resignedly thinking of the fortune they have paid by way of an advance to the studio for perfect images of a once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) event.

Birthday pictures are often no better. Childhood birthday parties are full of cake-splattered faces in dunce caps, ‘birthday bumps’ to the accompaniment of hooting and loud renditions of “You were born in a zoo, Happy birthday to you!” — all of which find their way into videos that will lie in a corner of the cupboard until someone digs them out to make a public display of your embarrassing moments.

Holi pictures are by far the most cringeworthy. I vote for a complete ban on cameras on Holi. “Wear a white kurta-pajama-dupatta and all the colours will look beautiful on you!”, say celebrity fashion columnists. Alas, those ‘uh-oh’ splotches of magenta, green, saffron and blue only spell chaos, not class.

I have realised with experience that the best way to stay out of everybody’s pictures is to wield the camera yourself. Most folks are so narcissistic that you can continually regale them with great shots of themselves — they will soon forget that you even exist. You need never fear the ‘foe-tograph’ again.

OPED society

Growing aggression in children
Aggression comes in different forms. It has now become a menace that almost every child has to deal with on a daily basis. Anger and aggression can be controlled and children need to be taught the skills to help them do so
Dr Samir Parikh

In February 2012, a 15-year-old student stabbed his teacher in classroom in a private school in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. In December 2007, two teenagers brought a gun to school and shot a fellow 14-year-old student in Gurgaon.

In April 2007, a student killed 32 persons and wounded 25 others before committing suicide, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia, USA.

We may have been caught off guard the first time round. But we cannot afford ourselves the luxury to be surprised a second time.

These events, both in India and abroad, have caused an uproar worldwide, and have led society to revisit some of its norms, cultures and policies.

When we speak of aggression, however, we can’t restrict ourselves to these ghastly, widely publicised acts of violence.

A regular menace

Aggression comes in many different forms and it has now become a menace that every child has to deal with on a daily basis. Small arguments in school have now grown to resemble gang wars, replete with hockey sticks and knives, with 50 members per ‘gang’.

Reports of sexual harassment and violence are increasing. Children, these days, seem to have lost the ability to complete a single sentence without the use of abusive or swear words. The acts and consequences of ragging and bullying have been obvious for all of us to see and read about in the newspapers. Social exclusion and other forms of passive aggression can do a great deal of psychological damage as well. Cyber bullying is the latest in the evolving and ever-changing forms of aggression.

Concerns over aggression among children have been increasing. Social media has, perhaps, been one of the greatest factors responsible for the increasing aggression among children and teenagers. The cultural stereotypes that surround children these days enforce expectations of ‘macho’ behaviour among boys.

Children who bully are looked upon as being ‘cool’ and others follow for the same kind of social approval — simply to fit in with peers. Children with academic as well as emotional difficulties have been found to be more prone to aggressive behaviour. Even clinical conditions such as depression often manifest as aggressive behaviour among teenagers. Children’s lives are becoming increasingly stressful. Our cities are becoming more congested and the safe outlets for children to discharge of their energies are gradually decreasing. In fact, studies have suggested that environmental factors such as increased heat, crowding, and even the accessibility to weapons can increase the likelihood of aggressive behaviour.

The consequences of aggression are devastating for all but more so when the victim is a child, still at a nascent stage where personalities are only just forming and where coping mechanisms are not yet entirely in place.

Acts of physical violence, bullying and social exclusion have the propensity to lead to many psychological disturbances such as loss of confidence and lowered self-esteem and difficulties in sleeping. Children, who themselves are at the receiving end of aggressive acts, whether in homes or among their peers, are more likely to engage in aggressive behaviour.

In that case, the victim then becomes the victimiser, broadening the net of violence and aggression. Psychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders may also develop. The facts are clear to see — childhood and teenage depression is on the rise. Adolescent suicide is also on the rise.

Adults often tend to ignore childhood aggression; they treat it as a part of normal development, hope the child grows out of it, and basically just push it under the carpet. The bad news is that aggression among children is on the rise. The good news is that there are things we can do to curtail it.

Problem management

Aggression management needs to come to the forefront — enter the domain of the classroom as well as that of the dinner table. Anger and aggression are both things that can be controlled and children need to be taught the skills to be able to do so.

* Educate children about different kinds of aggression —that it is not restricted merely to acts of physical violence.

* Discuss the potential long-term consequences of aggression, both on the victim as well as the perpetrator. Focus on teaching children effective life skills and move beyond the academic curriculum.

* Teachers must take time out of regular classes and teach children effective conflict resolution skills as well as effective communication styles. Parents need to do the same at home.

* Explain to children the difference between aggressive and assertive behaviour and encourage the latter. Screen for vulnerable students and address social and emotional needs and concerns of children.

* Schools must adhere to a zero-tolerance policy towards bullying, ragging, and other forms of aggression. The corrective measures taken, however, should be reformative rather than punitive.

Hitting the child is a terrible idea — in fact, corporal punishment has been found to only increase the incidence of aggressive behaviour. Instead, aim to understand the child, and later educate and sensitise the child. Psychological counselling for both the victim and the perpetrator of aggression is also advisable.

What is most important to remember is that aggression is a learnt response. Children do what is being done around them. What the kids need are positive, pro-social role models. And this social responsibility of being effective role models falls on each and every one of us.

Childhood aggression has become a great hazard to the society. What it now needs to become is the priority of parents, teachers and policy-makers alike.

The writer is Chief Psychiatrist, Max Healthcare, New Delhi

The role of social media

The Super Columbine Massacre RPG is a role-playing videogame, which was released in 2005. The game recreated the infamous 1999 Columbine High School Shootings. Five decades ago, Albert Bandura, a pioneering social psychologist, proved that aggression is, to a large extent, a learnt response.

Children learn aggression by watching and imitating the behaviour of others. With the rising incidence of aggressive behaviour among children, it is high time the social media is brought under scrutiny. The media doesn’t just represent our reality; it creates it along the way as well. It begins with children imitating the choke slams they see on WWF, followed by reproducing swear words that have become ‘cool’, thanks to our new-age reality shows.

Reality TV is not just getting dumber by the day, it is also getting meaner. The cartoons children watch aren’t free of aggression anymore, and neither is the news. Whether television or the internet, violence is everywhere. The problem is that role models are changing. Children don’t have many pro-social role models to look up to anymore. It is, instead, aggressive, intimidating, rowdy, anti-social behaviour that catches the eye and evokes acclaim.

Videogames are another major cause for concern. Be it Hitman, Call of Duty or the countless others, the constant exposure to the violent imagery that characterises such games has led children to become desensitised to violence, leading to a culture that normalises aggression. It is as if violence doesn’t bother the kids as much anymore.

In a social environment such as this, children are at the receiving end of thousands of media messages everyday. So, educating children about the social media is essential. Concepts of media literacy need to be introduced in schools. Children need to be empowered with the knowledge and skill to filter and make sense of the information they are bombarded with. We need to discuss the media messages that children receive and help them analyse them. Children need to be told what is real and what is make-believe. Consequences of aggressive acts need to be looked into.

We need to introduce workshops and interactive discussions on the subject in schools, and in the community, at large. Students themselves need to be transformed into effective role-models for their peers and juniors. At the same time, change can only come about if parents and teachers come together to lobby in, trying to bring about changes in current social media practices. What we need is stronger censorship and a lot more engagement with children and adolescents to take away the impact that the social media can have.