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Running
hospitals as business houses
Review by Uma Vasudeva
Managing a
Modern Hospital
edited by A. V. Srinivasan. Response Books, New Delhi. Pages
404. Rs 495.
HOSPITAL
administration is one of the most important aspects of
management because patient care is mostly neglected in medical
services. The private sector has entered the health care sector
in a big way, because it has tremendous earning potential.
People are ready to pay according to the health care services
provided by hospitals. The increasing demand for quality health
care, a variety of means to support this and the entrepreneurial
spirit have meant a boom to the health care industry.
Like in any industry,
hospital executives also talk of marketing, promotion, retention of
staff, payback period, quality improvement, total quality management (TQM)
and so on. Hospitals, therefore, need qualified management experts who
need not be doctors. Doctors should be allowed to carry out their
professional work and the administration should be left to a
professional.
There are very few
hospital management schools in the country.
The trend is now
changing and hospital administration as a specialisation is gaining
ground. Because hospitals are dealing with complex human problems and
any deficiency in service on the part of doctors or para medical staff
is taken seriously by consumer agencies. The author has selected a
wide range of themes which are of great interest to human beings. The
topics covered by the author range from environmental issues to
conventional management applied to a hospital. Every topic focuses on
ensuring efficiency and order. The various contributors have stressed
the relevance of the use of computers, and where possible have taken a
futuristic outlook. All chapters are practice-oriented and many are
supported by case studies.
The opening chapter,
"Health Care in India; Profile and the Future" contains five
parts, and the first is an analysis of official statistics on health
care and an estimate of the number of hospital administrators that
will be required in the country to support the growing number of
hospitals. The second and third parts present different vistas of the
health care sector in India. It closes with normative and prescriptive
long-term projections and an estimate of the size of the market.
The author, Dr A V
Srinivasan, traces what has been taking place in the Indian health
care sector to prove its economic potential, the possibility of
becoming an engine for growth, and offers some suggestions for
proactive decisions.
Dr (Col) K B Subba
Rao has given detailed information to aspirant entrepreneurs about the
intricacies of creating a hospital in "Planning a Modern
Hospital". He has used published standards to help aim at the
ideal. Since many states do not impose stringent conditions to start
and run a hospital, the condition of many of them is abysmally low.
His paper shows the right way of doing it.
In a chapter on
"Hospital Organisation Structure", Dr S F Chandra Shekhar
has blended theoretical rationality with pragmatism. He traces various
aspects of the structure which is applicable for any organisation and
applies them to four types of hospitals, classified by the ownership:
a large government-run hospital, a university teaching hospital, a
trust hospital, and a corporate hospital. He discuses their
rationality and indicates the design for the future. He concludes that
there is no one right structure that is appropriate for all hospitals,
but the circumstance in which an organisation finds itself leads to
its structure.
In "Financial
Management for Hospitals", Prof P. Jangaiah says that though many
corporate and private hospitals technologically superior are
inefficient in managing finance. A proper management of finance will
not only give a larger surplus, but will also help in cost control,
the gains of which can be passed on to the patients. He suggests how
sources can be found for funding a hospital project, be it total
creation or expansion; he also provides rationality for measuring the
return and works out various ratios to keep business operations in
check. Many of the principles are supported with data.
Explaining selective
management principle, V. Venkat Reddy has collected almost all
classificatory systems in one place in the chapter, "Hospital
Materials Management". He has illustrated his paper, discussed
when and how to use them, and where needed combined two two systems in
a matrix form for decision-making. For the sake of clarity, he has
provided a compare–and-contrast study between the materials managed
in a hospital and the ones in the engineering place. Once the
classificatory system is in operation and the policies are stated, a
computer programme will help automation by working out inventory
levels.
This is followed by
two case studies relating to the same subject by Srinivasan,
"Hospital Stores Organisation and Pharmacy" and
"Selective systems of Material Management in a Hospital".
Making use of data, he illustrates how pharmacy and hospital material
stores are organised by structure and policy. Item names and
calculation in the second case study illustrate all systems discussed
by Venkat Reddy.
K.P. Kumar offers an
interesting and novel approach to derive inventory policies for drugs
in a hospital. He extends the classificatory systems presented
earlier, uses combinational analysis to reduce the classes and puts
them into decision boxes, where the policy and the person in the
hierarchy are clearly illustrated. The "Basic System for
Effective Drug Management" by Kumar is an example of support
system for drug inventory management.
In the chapter on
"Hospital Information System and Technology", S. Subba Rao
speaks out of his personal experience as a professional who built
systems for hospitals. He substantiates the need for HIS, with a list
of reasons why it should be automated in a modern hospital. He
indicates the uses which the aggregated data can be put to and goes on
to assess the current state of affairs in the country. A suggested
approach and strategy for implementation follow all relevant modules
of HIS.
A medical record is a
compilation of pertinent facts about a patient’s life and health
history, including past and present illnesses and treatment given by
doctors. It is the personal property of the patient and ensures
continuity of treatment. The chapter, "Medical Records", by
Ms Mamta Edwards, covers the purpose, uses and value of medical
records. The author has indicated the responsibility for the
construction,maintenance and administration of medical records and
related legal issues. The formats in which the records are to be
maintained, the types of data and the retention principle are also
covered.
Operations research
(OR) is a multi-disciplinary approach for problem solving and
improving efficiency. It uses some of the proven mathematical models
to a situation whether it is simple or complex. This has been used
very widely used in industries and in Johns Hopkins Hospital as early
as the fifties. Its application has become easier now with the
availability of powerful computers and relevant software. Its utility
is so high that it has the core subject in every management
curriculum. Dr K. N. Gaur in the chapter "Operations Research in
Hospitals" traces the history of this approach to provide
rationality, makes a listing of the major techniques included under
this head, and describes how to build a model "Hospital Waste
Management", which is another important subject tackled by the
author comprehensively.
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The
man who said it all, and impeccably
Review by Rumina Sethi
Isaiah
Berlin: A Life. Illustrated
by Michael Ignatieff. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt &
Company, New York. Pages 356. $30.
WHILE
he was still working on Sir Isaiah Berlin’s biography,
Michael Ignatieff wrote in the Times Higher Education
Supplement: "The curious feature of Isaiah Berlin’s
reputation is that it appears to be posthumous. Something
about his essays - their moral elevation and antique style —
gives the impression of having been written by a sage long
gathered to his rest. The fact that he is alive, vital and
alert at the age of 88, makes him seem like one of those
strange elderly gentlemen in a Borges fable, whose mortality
has been mysteriously suspended to allow him to taste the
rewards of the afterlife while still enjoying this one."
When Sir Isaiah died in November, 1997, Ignatieff’s ominous
obitural note, though a trifle hurried, turned out to be
highly prophetic.
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Isaiah Berlin
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Another
incident which also curiously foretold his death took place in
the summer of 1996 when Christopher Ricks, while delivering
the Annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture, referred to it as the Isaiah
Berlin Memorial Lecture. The one to laugh the loudest was Sir
Isaiah himself. As I read of his death the following year, I
mourned the passing away of one who became known among the
foremost historians of ideas of last century.
Michael
Ignatieff has done much to rescue the riches of Sir Isaiah’s
life and works. The task of collating this well-researched
biography from long conversations with Sir Isaiah which lasted
for a decade, sifting his voice on the tape recorder from the
click of almonds in their tins and the "ziggurat of
chocolate bars" which he compulsively nibbled, and
separating "biographical" material from idle
ramblings is the work of great craftsmanship.
As Ignatieff
writes of Sir Isaiah: "One question from me would set him
talking for an hour as he roved back and forward, telling and
re-telling the old stories, sweeping across decades, past
famous faces, pausing over obscure people for the simple
pleasure of proving to himself that they had not been
forgotten. The ambition was to enfold all his experience —
literally every last letter and bus ticket, every remembered
joke and remark — into a crisp, economical story which, once
elaborated, polished and given its punch-line, could then be
filed away in the labyrinthine archive of his mind, safe from
the ruin of time."
Berlin’s
writings range from Lenin’s war communism through which he
lived as a child to his association with Anna Akhmatova and
Boris Pasternak which resulted in his attacks on totalitarian
regimes, from writings on the resurgence of ethnic
nationalisms after the cold war to the three key areas of his
political thought: freedom, pluralism and liberalism.
Later,
eclipsed by the French philosophers — Derrida, Foucault and
Barthes — Berlin only resurfaced in the 1980s, and more
predominantly, in the 1990s, painstakingly reinstated by Henry
Hardy, who studied philosophy at Wolfson College under Berlin’s
tutelage. In fact, the voluminous writings of Berlin which
Hardy brought to the surface came as something of a surprise.
To say that Berlin’s academic contributions gradually become
unfashionable in the
1960s is true
in the light of the fading significance of his brand of
liberal principles that bred toleration and freedom of
conscience. Nonetheless, it was impossible for his ideas on
nationalism, especially Zionism, to remain buried for too long
as seen in the recent surge of interest that has been
generated in that area.
Isaiah Berlin
was among the few liberal thinkers who could speak positively
of nationalism as one of the most powerful movements in the
world. Like Herder, he believed that people should be allowed
to develop their own culture in their own way without,
however, taking recourse to aggression. Universalism, he felt,
was a great leveler which robbed nations of their specific
content and diversity which alone could glorify individual
cultures.
Although
Berlin did not altogether deny a universal and standardised
theory of historicism, he was at the same time protective of
specific group identities and alternative models. Like the
present day multiculturalists, he believed in maintaining a
universal concept of identity, while promoting liberal
pluralism through the recognition of the unique identity and
authenticity of cultural groups and individuals.
Paradoxically
he always believed that "all genuine questions must have
one true answer" and that "the true answers, when
found, must necessarily be compatible with one another and
form a single whole." As Berlin reports to Ignatieff:
"The answers must be known to someone: perhaps Adam in
Paradise knew; perhaps we shall only reach them at the end of
days; if men cannot know them, perhaps the angels know; and if
not the angels, then God knows. These timeless truths must in
principle be knowable." Though he questioned the grand
narrative of culture and history, he upheld the view that it
would proceed to the best of all possible worlds.
While Berlin
had faith in the existence of ultimate values which he
believed were knowable, they were not available in uncontested
forms. He claimed that no good could be found in a perfect
state; a system or norm could exist only imperfectly, in
varied and conflictual tones, never for the picking in one
individual or even in one society. Here, I am reminded of his
favourite line from Kant: "Out of the crooked timber of
humanity no straight thing was ever made." In other
words, no single, centripetal, or organising principle can be
founded.
On the other
hand, the possibilities of scattered, diffused,
self-contradictory, incomplete and centrifugal experiences are
endless. In a famous essay, "The Hedgehog and the
Fox", Berlin called the intellectuals who aspire for the
former vision "hedgehogs" and those who oppose rigid
classification "foxes". In his own inimitable
manner, he put Dante, Plato, Hegel, Dostoevsky,
Nietzsche,
Ibsen and Proust in the first category. Among his foxes were
Shakespeare, Herodutus, Aristotle, Moliere, Goethe and Joyce.
Ignatieff writes: "To use the distinction he made famous,
the range of his work may make him seem like a fox, who knows
many things; in reality, he was a hedgehog, who knew one big
thing. One purpose of this book is to elaborate what this one
big thing was".
The biography
is interspersed with Berlin’s memorabilia and gossip.
Although he lived in Oxford like a monk, he was thrilled to
discover once in Washington that women found him extremely
striking. Candid about sex and even more than candid about his
friends, he says on reading the obituary of a former lover:
"Wildly untruthful she was. Wildly. But desirable to the
last degree." And then, shaking his head, "All I
seem to do at my age is attend funerals."
Ignatieff’s
finely crafted study, at once substantial and stylish, makes
effective use of both ceremony and private space. Of his loud
growl of a voice, which everyone talk about and mimics
unsuccessfully, Ignatieff recounts several comments: Joseph
Brodsky said it was like "courting the speed of
light". "He seems to bubble and rattle like a
samovar on the boil"; Virginia Woolf felt that he talked
with the vivacity and assurance of a young Maynard
Keynes, his
"strangulated Oxford upper-class diction, all tight lips
and clipped vowel sounds, unconsciously borrowed from . . .
his lifelong friend and rival, Maurice Bowra."
Hoping to
discuss the possibility of Roosevelt’s chances of
re-election, Churchill once invited Berlin over to Downing
Street. His aides accidently sent for the other I. Berlin, the
songwriter Irving Berlin. After a very hollow interchange on
American politics, a visibly drooping Churchill remarked that
Berlin certainly wrote better than he spoke! That could hardly
ever be the situation with Sir Isaiah.
Ignatieff
gives us an insider’s view of the extraordinary raconteur
who was honoured in his lifetime as few intellectuals had
been, receiving countless awards and prizes, including 23
honorary doctorates: "What people remember about his
conversation is not what he said — he is no wit and no
epigrams have attached themselves to his name — but the
experience of having been drawn into the salon of his mind.
This is why his conversation is never a performance. It is not
his way of putting on a show; it is his way of being in
company."
Sir Isaiah’s ambition was
to enfold all his experience up to every last letter and
bus-ticket, every remembered joke and remark, into a crisp,
economical story which, once elaborated, polished and given
its punch-line, could then be filed away in the labyrinthine
archive of his mind, safe from the ruin of time.
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Feminism
is frail and fighting fit
Review by Nicci
Gerrard
Inventing
Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage
by Elaine Showalter. Picador, London.
"AND
they lived unhappily ever after," Rebecca West said,
writing of the lives of feminists who preceded her.
Unhappiness — family abandonment, internal conflicts, public
opprobrium, painful relationships, anger, loneliness, despair
— marks so many of the stories of the feminist women that
Elaine Showalter collects together here that the resolute
optimism of the author’s voice is sometimes surprising.
From Mary
Wollstonecraft, who died in the summer of 1797, to Princess
Diana, who also, in an over-felicitous juxtaposition, died in
the summer of 1997, her characters refuse to go quietly into
Showalter’s calming set of essays, which are intended to
celebrate our feminist heritage, find a pattern and a way of
understanding where we are today. They quarrel among
themselves, often virulently. They insult the ones who have
gone before them (as the much-missed literary critic Lorna
Sage said, feminists frequently find themselves in opposition
to their literal mothers and their symbolic ones; there are
lots of ungrateful daughters in this book and lots of
daughters who feel they’ve been abandoned).
Mary McCarthy
calls Germaine Greer an "absurd Australian
giantess"; Camille Paglia has perfected the dubious art
of hurling deliriously malicious epithets at other women.
Showalter’s
first book was "A Literature of Their Own".
Published in 1977, it was a cornerstone of future women’s
studies, impassioned and authoritative. She followed this with
other energetic and timely studies, most recently the
controversial "Hystories"(about mass hysteria).
"Inventing Herself" is less academic, more overtly
accessible. It has a simple magazine style and deals in
stories rather than analysis. The geography is self-admittedly
narrow (America, Britain and France); the canon necessarily
arbitrary (Paglia in and Angela Carter out), white (Zora Neale
Hurston has a walk-on part), thoroughly gripping and a bit
bland, like a tour through feminism’s "hall of
fame".
The heroines
of her stories are "icons" (though she derides the
way the word "icon" has become a tawdry sound-bite),
from Wollstonecraft, through the likes of Margaret Fuller,
Emily Perkins Gilman, Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Mead,
Germaine Greer, ending with Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton and
Princess Diana. As Showalter moves forward into the sixties
and beyond, she inserts herself into the story, becomes a bit
player in the drama. It is hard to write about history while
it is happening, and the more contemporary accounts are the
least gripping, the most cautious and anxious not to offend.
For a book about resonances, the way some lives ripple
outwards, it is oddly unresonant.
Showalter is
an impressive, level-headed and always enjoyable writer, but
in "Inventing Herself" she seems to have been
trapped by a thesis that does not entirely work. She looks for
a pattern, but the pattern is forever splintering and breaking
up. The maverick, often turbulent characters of her women
break brilliantly through, disrupting easy meaning. What is
more, the self-invention of the title implies a kind of
freedom, whereas many leading feminists are trapped by their
versions of women’s liberation, or are invented by others,
forced into roles that they did not want or having meanings
thrust on to them. This is especially true of her more recent
icons, who use or are used by a salacious, infatuated media
— the cartoonish, swashbuckling Paglia, riding high on
insults and feuds, the haunted Diana, sanctified by death.
And if the
self-invention is uncertain, the "celebration" of
the subtitle is forever undercut by the lives of the women she
has chosen. Many of them came from terrifyingly unhappy
families; many of them had unsatisfactory love lives, or
worse. A lot of them (Margaret Fuller, say, or Simone de
Beauvoir,) could be self-abasing in their relationships. Most
were lonely and embattled, often they were humiliated. As she
is very good at showing, for a lot of them, joy and pleasure
do not come into it. The women preach liberation while the men
practise it.
Showalter is
attractive as a writer because she leans towards inclusiveness
and searches for the "we" of the women’s movement.
Courtesy: The
Guardian, London
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More
about Sai Trinity
Review by M.L.
Sharma
The Sai
Trinity
by Satya Pal Ruhela Tarang
Paperbacks (Vikas Publishing House),
New Delhi. Pages 195+. Rs 110
THE
Sai cult has been gaining momentum everyday despite many
disparaging remarks about the sant in the media. This work is
the revised and enlarged edition with a wealth of new
information, by an authority who has several books to his
credit.
The first Sai
Baba, known as Shirdi Sai Baba revered as the holiest of the
holies, to some even an avatar is responsible for uniting
Hindus and Muslims and cementing their ties of mutual love and
affection with his universal outlook, like that of Tajuddin
Baba of Nagpur. He stayed for song (about 60 years) in a
mosque known as Dwarkamai, where "aartis" and
rituals were performed according to Hindu customs. This book
brings to light many new facts and facets of the life of
Shirdi Sai Baba and it has established the fact that Sai Baba
was a Brahmin by birth. The Baba has also mentioned that he
had served in the Army of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi.
The book
gives a profile of both Shirdi Sai Baba and Satya Sai Baba and
gives information about the would -de Sai Baba, known as Prema
Sai, besides their miracles, their gems of thought, their
impact on the minds of people, details about the ashrams,
temples, medical institutions, seats of learning, curricula,
free education, etc. Embellished with attractive photographs,
the book written in a racy style, provides food for the souls
of spiritually inclined people.
Written in a
balanced manner, neither flattering nor critical, the book
makes an unbiased and sober attempt on the Sai cult and avoid
a controversial approach without being defensive. As many as
165 books and other publications have appeared on Shirdi Baba,
and about 400 books on Sri Satya Sai Baba. Some of the
"words of wisdom" of both Sai Babas are:
Everything
belongs to us for use. Nothing is for us to possess.
No one comes
to without Rinanubandh (some previous bond of give and take).
So when any dog, cat, pig, fly or person approaches you, do
not drive it or him away with the words "hat, hat",
"jit jit".
Humility is
not towards all. Severity is necessary in dealing with the
wicked.
Nobody should
take the labour of others gratis. The worker should be paid
his dues promptly and liberally.
You must
always adhere to the truth and fulfil all the promises you
make. Have Shraddhah (faith) and sabouri (patience). Then I
will be with you wherever you are.
Greed and
Brahman are poles apart (Shirdi Baba).
Love is God,
live in love, truth is God, live in truth, bliss is God. Be
fearless. God is with you.
Man is the
embodiment of bliss. In spite of this he seeks bliss outside
world... The divine has feet everywhere. (Satya Sai).
About
educational facilities, the book informs that education from
the first standard to post-graduate level is free of cost in
Sai institutions. The last chapter relating to Prema Sai, the
future incarnation of Sai Baba is of great interest as it
records Satya Sai Baba’s devotees having seen him in dreams
in the figure resembling Jesus Christ. He will be born in the
21st century in a Brahmin family in Bhardwaj gotra in Mysore
state.
The unique
chapter in the book is "Bibliographical Guide on Satya
Sai Baba", compiled by Brian Steel, Giving a bird’s
eyeview of the whole Satya Sai Baba literature and devotees
experiences. Chapters like "Divine life of Satya Sai
Baba", and "Recent developments in the Sai
kingdom" give a biographical account of the Baba, his
work in the educational field and in the spiritual uplift of
youth, besides free medical help and information about the
future plans and new additions at Prasanthi Nilayam. The book
will inspire readers provide ample food for their spiritual
quest and guide those who are eager to train youth on the
lines of Satya Sai institutions.
The ABC’s
of Chakra Therapy
by Deedre
Diemer. Motilal Banarsi Dass, Delhi. Pages 178+VII, Rs 125.
Deeder Diemer,
an American intuitive counsellor, speaker and seminar leader,
has dealt with the system of Chakras in a systematic
manner. Her work is a trend-setter as she uses all therapies,
visualisation, sound, colour, aromatherapy, reflexology, gems
and yoga and explains their working in a lucid style. Caroline
Shola Arewa another expert on chakra, in her book,
"Way of the Chakras" defines Chakras as the
wheel of vibrating light that bring inner wisdom and
knowledge. The seven Chakras viz. root chakra, spleen
chakra, solar plexus chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra,
third eye and crown chakra are the major centres in a human
body that awaken us to the "wealth of spiritual,
psychological and physical power."
Spread over
three sections, the book includes chapters on how to use
different therapies, seven main energy centres, where energy
blocked, exercising chakras. These seven major chakras relate
to the physical organs of human body and need to be balanced
and aligned with each other. In the chapter, "Getting to
know your chakras", she has provided information, about
all the seven chakras. About the fourth, heart chakra, she
writes in a poetic way, "The heart chakra! what a
beautiful, beautiful chakra! The heart chakra is the centre of
the entire chakra system. It is the bridge between the lower
three physical and emotional centres. This is where the best
of the both "worlds" integrate facilitating the
healing and transformation of yourself and others".
In the
chapter Basic skills for clearing your energy field, she has
given several meditations and techniques for clearing energy
fields and for self-protection. In the chapter, "Chakra
therapies", she provides valuable information and
procedures to practise various therapies. The effects of
gemstones and the way in which they influence the physical,
mental and emotional lives of people for the well-being are
explained. The chapter "excercising your chakras"
has described all exercises with illustrations. The author has
given 110 items in the form of a questionnaire designed to
locate which chakra needed particular attention.
The book is more in the
nature of a practical workbook which guides through several
therapies like visualisation, reflexology, yoga and gemstones
to lead readers on a journey of self-healing and
transformation through the exploration of the energy field.
The details about the efficacy of gemstones in the treatment
of physical problems is the most useful part in the book,
which distinguished it from other works.
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These
women still live in medieval times
Review by Padam Ahlawat
Local
Environment and Lived Experience: The Mountain Women of
Himachal Pradesh
by Brenda Cranney. Sage Publications. New Delhi. Pages 287. Rs.
495.
BRENDA
CRANNEY, a Canadian research scholar, spent a year living with
the hill women of Himachal Pradesh to find, how modern
development had contributed to make the poor women’s life
worse. She lived with the Kalavati’s family of Ichasser, a
village 20 km from Shimla. From here she based her research on
two adjoining villages, Ichasser and Dev Nagar.
Initially she
felt disappointed and was on the verge of giving up research
and going back to Canada. But then she began to live with this
family and people began to accept her and open up to her and
confide to her with personal problems. She soon became a
member of the family and shared in the work of women, doing
domestic chores, washing, cooking and even cutting grass and
fodder, to carry it on her head and walk several kilometres.
This living
experience gives her an insight into the long and arduous work
that the hill women put in, work which a male-dominated
society does not value in monetary terms. The women of the
house are the first to get up, making tea, milking the cow or
buffalow, bringing water for drinking, bathing and washing,
preparing food, and sending the children to school. They then
go out to graze the animals, cut fodder and grass and carry it
for four or five km. They then prepare lunch and serve the
family.
In the
afternoon they again go out to bring grass and fodder for the
animals and bring water, walking a long distance with the
weight on their heads. At night meal has to be prepared and
served and they clean the utensils after the meal. If there
are guests, the male members treat them to alcohol and the
women have to put up with more work carrying more water for
washing.
The male
member may be employed on a low-paid job in the town or even
may be jobless. Though tilling the land is considered to be a
male job, it is common to see women ploughing the field in the
absence of male members or the male sleeping off the effects
of alcohol. The women also carry out the jobs of sowing,
weeding and reaping.
The
capitalist form of development has made her lot even more
difficult. Large scale cutting down of forests, for railway
sleepers and wood for building or furniture in large towns has
reduced the forest cover, forcing the women to walk further
for collecting fuel wood, grass and fodder (leaves). The
forests have been taken over by the government which is busy
planting chil and eucalyptus trees under its social forestry
programme.
The oak
forests have given way to chil (pine) and eucalyptus, species
that have commercial value but have been responsbile for
degradation of soil and loss of water. These trees do not
yield any fuel wood nor are their leaves can be used as
fodder. Besides grass does not grow under these trees nor do
their roots conserve water. The result is that the soil is dry
and the water level as gone down, their leaves do not
fertilise the soil. There has been total degradation of forest
cover and its direct impact has been on the subsistence
economy of the poor women. They have been deprived of water,
in summer water is in acute shortage and they have to walk
several kilometres to get supply. The forest no longer
provides fodder, fuel wood or grass.
Oak leaves
provided good fodder and fertilised the soil. The trees
conserved water in the roots and allowed grass to grow
beneath. The village women want the government to grow oak
trees instead of chil and eucalyptus.
The result
has been that the soil has become poor and the women are hard
put to grow food for their subsistence. Hard work and poor
diet has in turn impacted on the health and education of
women.
The women,
however, have learnt to resist patriarchal expectations and
have gained control over their own lives and agency. Kalawati,
after giving birth to a girl, opted for an tubectomy without
even informing her husband. The women have realised the
importance of a small family and education. Despite their best
efforts their life is a struggle.
The writer gives voice to the
poor women and her research is a result of participant
observation.
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Where
Ambedkar scored heavily
Review by Rajiv Lochan
Understanding
Ambedkar
edited by GS Bal, Ajanta Books, New Delhi, Pages 143, Rs 195.
ALL
societies need heroes. An entity to whom they can look up to.
Who can, — or at least that is what is presumed, — guide
effectively in difficult situations. Who has been able to tackle
difficult and supposedly unsolvable problems. Baba Saheb
Ambedkar was one such hero. We all know very well, even though
not all of us might have read anything about his life, how he
tried to find a space for the dalits in our polity and society.
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Baba Saheb
Ambedkar
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Babasaheb’s heroism
lay in a variety of factors. He defied existing social norms and rose
far above what normal society would have allowed even a normal person
let alone one who was a dalit. He was able to use just that small
niche among the liberal-minded public figures of his day to rise so
far above the common man, not only the common man from his own
community but also far above the average of society. He also was one
of the few to stand up to the dictates of a powerful and charismatic
contemporary personality like Mahatma Gandhi. In the process Babasaheb
Ambedkar had to get into various face-offs, not all of which he won,
but in the end he was able to carve out a very special place for
himself and the dalits of India.
His greatest victory,
however, lay in not getting coopted into the hoopla of Indian
nationalism and Indian nation, maintaining a constructive distance
from both and at the same time participating in mainstream politics in
that right amount which would enable him to ensure a continued dalit
voice in Indian polity. Little wonder that the wise men and women of
the Constituent Assembly took Babasaheb as the farmer of India’s
constitution. Did they do it voluntarily or in order to suppress his
shrill notes of protest that could be expected in the future continues
to remain one of the delicious mysteries of our times.
From the present
point of view, however, the important thing to notice is that despite
that signal honour and the offer of a cabinet berth soon after,
Babasaheb still refused to be coopted and dilute his stance on the
dalit cause. If anything, he extended his ideology to include the rest
of society as well and was able to convert quite a large number of
non-dalits to the Ambedkarite ideology as it came to be called in
later days.
One of the most
important successes of Babasaheb was that his very well articulated
views on the discrimination being faced by the dalits and the
essential social and political solution for the same forced the
Government of India to start a variety of pro-active schemes for the
betterment of the dalits, some of which were provided constitutional
backing and legislative support. In the days immediately after
independence the official support for dalits was more in form and less
in substance, but at least the seeds of institutional change had been
sown which could sprout and grow at some later date when conditions
were more propitious. How such conditions came about, what they meant
for our social thought has attracted a large number of scholars. One
of the latest in this line are those who contributed essays to the
book under review.
This book of essays
has been compiled by Gian Singh Bal, a well-known thinker and social
commentator. It contains essays on a difficult subject by a variety of
scholars like Dharmendra Goyal, Dharmanand, Harish Puri, Surendra
Ajnat, Jaya Gopal, Kunal Ghosh and SK Biswas. At best of times
studying Babasaheb Ambedkar and commenting on his views, especially by
non-dalits not committed to the Ambedkarite ideology, is a difficult
proposition. At one extreme are commentators like Arun Shourie who
revel in poking fun at established icons and on the other hand are
contemporary political ideologues as represented in the various
Bahujan parties, pursuing a strongly political agenda in the opposite
direction, who are equally close minded in learning from the life and
ideas of Babasaheb. It is quite commendable that the contributors to
this volume have been able to steer clear of both the extremes and
investigate newer aspects of Babasaheb’s ideas and personalities.
Dharmendra Goyal
examines Babasaheb’s critique of the panchayats. Why he chooses to
call it "the subaltern perspective", though, remains a
mystery. Puri writes one of the most sapient commentaries on Ambedkar’s
political ideas as they related to the Indian nation trying to create
a new identity for itself. Dharmanand presents a unique vision of
Ambedkar from a textual and, for want of a better phrase, brahmanic
point of view. His perspective is all the more important since it once
again highlights the important fact that many of the manuvadi texts
can be as easily read to justify an anti-manuvadi position as their
contrary!
Dharmanand’s text
makes it clear that deep in Indian history while caste distinctions
did exist, caste was not a reified entity. The reification of caste,
we need to remember, was essentially a creation of colonial
administration which sought to freeze Indian society away from its
dynamism. But that is a fact of life known to most of us today: that
the Brahmin-bania combine of today does not hesitate to kowtow,
socially, politically and economically, to those dalits who have been
able to make use of contemporary opportunities to rise to positions of
economic, social and political power.
So much for the
so-called stability of the caste system and the distance being
maintained by the upper caste!!
The point of the
dalit movement today therefore is to seek benefits for not just
a handful but to ensure that all dalits do benefit. It is in
this regard that Babasaheb with his emancipatory and
revolutionary project stands tall in Indian history as a
contemporary Indian hero and studying him in his various
aspects, as has been done by our present essayists, becomes
meaningful.
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Tinkering
with the school system
Review by S.P. Dhawan
Educational
Reforms in India for the 21st Century
by J.C. Aggarwal. Shipra Publications Delhi. Pages 388 pages
Rs 450
TEACHERS
are justifiably eulogised as nation-builders for, education is
rightly perceived as the most potent means of development
human resources which alone can ensure the progress of a
nation in material, intellectual and even moral and ethical
spheres. It is also true that the educational system can help
accomplish these objectives only if it is purged of its
glaring deficiencies, contradictions and shortcomings. Thus
the question of bringing about the much-needed educational
reforms has to be viewed as a national priority.
No doubt,
various governments in the post-independence era have
established, in quick succession through 150, committees and
commissions at the national level and scores more at the level
to diagnose the ills affecting our system of education. Many
of these have given valuable suggestions for revamping it. But
results are still elusive as the action required has seldom
been initiated or completed in earnest.
The book
under review is a sincere effort to vigorously reiterate the
need for giving up the half-hearted approach at
implementation. Let us have an ounce of action of the right
kind, instead of tonnes of reports and discussion papers, this
is the message of J.C. Aggarwal in a spirit of righteous
indignation.
Aggarwal,
with his rich experience as a teacher in a post-graduate
teachers training college and as an educational administrator
in the Delhi Administration, is of the firm conviction that
the issue of planning and implementing educational remedies
should not be left in the hands of political authorities and
bureaucrats the teachers not just Vice-Chancellors, etc. who
actually teach at various levels, including the lowest one,
must be actively involved in this vital exercise. To utilise
the advice of proven educationists and teachers with
grassroots experience and commitment to the profession must
become the school of educational reforms. It is unfortunate
that the recommendations of the Kothari Commission of three
decades ago with regard to educational administration and
planning continue to be disregarded by those who are in
authority.
Even at the
international level, there has been much talk concerning
reforms. The UNESCO-appointed International Commission on
Education (1993-96), chaired by Jacques Delors, strongly
recommended encouragement for education of girls and women,
allocating 25 per cent of development aid to education,
introducing new information technologies, seeking he support
of non-government organisations and local committees,
declaring education as a basic human right and universal human
value, and popularising the concept of learning throughout one’s
life.
In much the
same way, various commissions and committees have been
highlighting the malaise in the system of education and
pleading for correctives. The University Education Commission,
set up under S. Radha Krishanan’s chairmanship in 1948,
stressed the importance of strengthening the moral fibre so
that we don’t produce "scientists without conscience,
technicians without taste who find a void within themselves, a
moral vacuum.......". Education has to be reoriented by
developing "thought for the poor and the suffering,
chivalrous regard and respect for women, faith in human
brotherhood regardless of race or colour, nation or religion,
love of peace and freedom, abhorrence of cruelty and ceaseless
devotion to the claims of justice."
How noble, if
all this could be translated into reality, the same emphasis
on the training of character along with the improvement in the
practical and vocational efficiency of students was laid by
the Secondary Education Commission in 1952-53.
The report of
the Kothari Commission released in 1966 spoke of "the
educational revolutions" which could be achieved by
relating education to the life, needs and aspirations of the
people, improving the quality of instruction, vocationalising
education at the secondary level improving professional
education and introducing a common school system, making
social and national service compulsory, developing modern
Indian languages, making science education an integral part of
school education and inculcating high values — social, moral
and spiritual — at all stages of education.
Customer once
again the diagnosis is in the right direction but the
corrective action has been far from satisfactory. In 1968, the
Government of India’s National Policy on Education sought
the adoption of 10+2+3 pattern of education for the entire
country. Thus followed the National Policy on Education (NPE)
in 1986, which aimed at operation blackboard at the primary
stage, rapid setting up of Navodaya Vidyalayas
vocationalisation of education at the secondary level, the
establishment of DIETs and the eligibility tests for the
recruitment of college and university lecturers.
Theoretically
speaking, all such suggestions are worth implementation from
the pre-primary to the highest stages of formal and informal
education. But in practice, much remains to be accomplished.
Even the place of English as a language to be learnt as a
medium of instruction continues to confuse our authorities. No
consensus has been reached on the type of moral education
because secularism is often wrongly interpreted. Another
problem concerns the lack of interest in classroom studies on
the part of the students who prefer for competitive and
entrance examination by joining the coaching classes.
Aggarwal’s
work, as a serious inquiry and analysis, is enlivened by his
comparative study of the curriculum scenario in countries like
America, England, Russia, Germany, China and Japan. Equally
interesting are the various charts, diagrams and statistical
tables highlighting the physical targets like the enrolement
of boys and girls at various levels, the number of additional
teaching posts required, the adult literacy, etc.
In short, Aggarwal’s work
is really thought-provoking and calls for a deeper exploration
of the issues raised by him.
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How
to save the aborigines
Review by Harbans
Singh
Tribals,
Development and Environment
by Gautam Vohra, Har-Anand, New Delhi. Pages 226. Rs 295.
THE
book sponsored by the Development Research and Action Group
(DRAG), a non-government organisation, documents the role of
the NGOs in restoring the natural habitat of tribal people.
Vast tracts of land continue to be inhabited by the indigenous
people, who have faced the challenge of not only withstanding
the onslaught of the forces of modern civilisation in the past
without successfully providing credible answers to their own
people in the changing scene. But never before has the threat
of their being absorbed and overwhelmed been so real and
alarming as today.
It is not as
if the tribal people have never been threatened before, but
earlier the civilised world did not feel the need to exploit
their resources with the same intensity as today. This means
in the past even after giving enough to the outside world, the
tribal people had enough of nature with them to continue to
live in peace and harmony. It is the modern way of life that
refuses to be satisfied, and therefore the plunder of the
nature and natural resources is both ruthless and relentless.
It is this that threatens to damage the tribal way of life at
some places, and which pushes them onto the path of violent
confrontation at others.
The battle,
obviously, is unequal, with little doubt about the identity of
the loser. Therefore the necessity of NGOs working to augment
the strength of the tribals so that not only they survive, but
with their survival nature too, survives. The book is an
account of experience from as different areas as Ladakh to
Orissa, and Nagaland to Maharashtra.
Through a
series of observations of the various NGOs and people working
there the problem of those regions and possible solutions have
been suggested. Soon one realises that the threat to the
identity and habitat of the tribals in Chhattisgarh is
different from what is faced by the tribals in Nagaland. Even
though non-Nagas cannot own land and property in that state,
outsiders interested in exploiting the regional wealth skirt
the law through conniving locals, resulting in large scale
logging and denuding of the forest. The ire of the underground
movement in the region is also directed against these forces
but is more intense against the central government which is
perceived as the original sinner. It is here that an NGO can
play a meaningful role, since it can encourage the local
people and exert pressure on the officials to resist the
subterfuge for exploiting the wealth.
Many
connected with the North-East feel, the book tells us, that
the conversion to Christianity is the root cause of the
destruction of peace in the region. For centuries the tribals
had evolved a faith and a religion based on their experience
with nature. Once convinced of the efficacy of their faith,
they had never felt the need to question it, therefore the
transition from the religion of their ancestors to
Christianity is more revolutionary than evolutionary, abrupt
and total, causing a scar and a charm in their consciousness.
This causes
ceaseless restlessness and despair. Now that the exclusive
nature of the region is a thing of the past, the conversion is
seen as a source of social tension and most of the social ills
afflicting the youth.
Not a little
blame has to be shared by the collapse of the traditional
institutions in the wake of the development brought about by
the governments. For example, panchayat raj strikes at the
very concept of tribal life where the head is perceived to be
just and the final authority for arbitration. The existence of
parallel centres of powers only encourages members of society
to defy both and strike their own path.
The
exclusivity of Ladakh is by and large well protected by the
difficult terrain and harsh climate. Therefore the region by
and large retains its identity except for those places which
are continually exposed to tourism. Interestingly, we are
told, Ladakhis are one people who might study and work abroad,
but who always like to come back to their place.
The biggest
challenge before the NGOs, the book feels rightly, is in those
areas which are close to the civilised world; where the
development efforts in the form of dams, mining and
industrialisation and exploitation of the forest wealth has
made deep inroads into the tribal belts. Since these processes
cannot be reversed, they should be able to give back more to
the tribals without expecting them to change their lifestyle
or habitat. This is the challenge. In these areas the NGOs
have to ensure that the forest produce fetches the adivasis a
remunerative price, that the forest wealth is replenished and
exploitation stopped, and of course that the tribals are not
asked to make sacrifices so that the civilised world profits
more as a result of the high dams.
Such books are welcome, and
more effort is needed since the number of tribals is not
insignificant in this country, not the land under their care.
Society cannot be at peace with itself if they are ignored for
ever and pushed to the brink.
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