 |
Wednesday,
April 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
In hot water again Politics of intolerance Domestic Violence Bill |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
India beyond Gujarat-I
Disturbing attitude of political players
Social service: baba shows the way Taking science to rural India
Late motherhood lessens ovarian cancer risk
|
In hot water again The National Water Policy, 2002, was adopted after some acrimonious exchanges in the presence of the Prime Minister in Delhi on Monday. When water is a subject for debate, it is but natural that some heat will be generated. This was for the first time that the newly elected Chief Minister of Punjab shared a platform with his Haryana counterpart after the Supreme Court’s verdict in January revived the intensely emotive river waters issue. The vital issue of making optimal and judicious use of limited water resources and checking over-exploitation of ground water, stressed by the Prime Minister, is too serious to be allowed to get buried in the din over inter-state disputes. The watertable in the northern region has reached an alarming level because of over-exploitation of ground water resources, encouraged by the subsidised diesel, free power and widespread cultivation of paddy. Instead of discussing water management from a national perspective, representatives at the fifth National Water Resources Council meeting put forward mostly concerns of their home states. The Prime Minister (read the Centre) has adopted a neutral stance where the interests of different states clash. The new water policy, adopted unanimously after Capt Amarinder Singh’s reservations over the formation of river basin organisations were satisfied, has excluded inter-state disputes. These will be referred to the National Water Board for reaching a consensus or go to tribunals. The meeting was proceeding smoothly until the Haryana Chief Minister thought it fit to use the occasion for reminding the Punjab Chief Minister about the Supreme Court judgement directing the Punjab Government to complete the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal within a year. While this is not an occasion to go into the merits of the judgement, Mr Om Prakash Chautala is taking full political benefit of the Supreme Court’s untimely pronouncement. The river waters issue would not have dragged so long had it not been politicised and incompetently handled at various levels. The seemingly intractable dispute has lingered because of lack of administrative acumen and a statesman-like approach on the part of the political leadership of both states. The Centre too over the years had been seen as favouring one or the other party until it decided to keep off the murky issue. However, the Supreme Court has ruled that if the Punjab Government fails to complete the SYL canal in time, the Centre will have to do the job. Since Punjab has apparently no plan to carry out the construction work as the state leadership feels there is no surplus water to spare, a confrontation is building up. Some solution will have to be worked out through dialogue by the parties concerned before the situation gets explosive. The Centre cannot afford to keep its head in sand like an ostrich. |
|
Politics of intolerance One cardinal principle of democratic functioning is that even if you disagree with someone's point of view vehemently, you still respect - rather defend -- his right of expression to the hilt. Leave alone being honoured, this commandment has been trampled upon ruthlessly. The latest instance was provided by the President of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Shiv Sena on Monday when he barged into the Press conference of senior Hurriyat Conference leader Abdul Ghani Lone and manhandled him in full sight of video cameras. This was perhaps the ugliest manifestation of the Bal Thackeray brand of politics which has vitiated Indian polity of late. That this was a deliberate act goes without saying because Mr Kalkiji Maharaj was well aware that TV crew would be present at the Press conference. To be caught on the tape was thus not perceived as a risk but a "privilege". The way police guards failed to prevent the ugly incident is another undesirable dimension. This is not the first time that Shiv Sena men have indulged in terror tactics. Whether it is the digging of cricket pitches or the issuing of Valentine's Day fatwas, the self-appointed protectors of Hindutva have done it all before. Every incident emboldens them further. What the lumpen elements started in Maharashtra has now spread to the entire country. If they are not stopped in their tracks right away, things would go totally out of control because there are other equally irresponsible groups which can join the fray without much ado. By reacting to the incident in a sober manner and calling the Shiv Sena men the real enemies of the nation, Mr Lone turned the tables on them and also managed to give the impression of being a reasonable man. To that extent, his attacker unwittingly helped his cause. The damage being done to India's image through such muscle-flexing is incalculable. Suddenly, the homeland of the apostle of peace looks like a banana republic torn asunder by bloodthirsty warlords divided on religious lines and hellbent on honour killings. Enemies of the country do not have to go out and highlight its faults, because the so-called friends are themselves doing enough. Not only has the secular image of India taken a beating, but even the few foreign investors that it had managed to attract have started shying away from the land of uncertainty. The sum total is that the men who want to help the nation move forward are pulling it back. Since polite appeals of restoring sanity are not being heard, it is imperative for the government to wield the imprimatur of firmness. Inaction will only strengthen the impression that a crime is considered a crime only when it is committed by its opponents. |
|
Domestic Violence Bill Even political clouds have a silver lining. At least the one that recently passed over the country's highest law-making body had a very sharp and clear silver lining attached to it. Had Ayodhya, Gujarat and POTO not dominated the proceedings of the two Houses of Parliament, Indian women may have found themselves legal victims of domestic violence through the passage of a piece of legislation that seeks to provide them protection from it! The law-makers, who closed ranks against providing 33 per cent reservation of seats in legislatures to women, may not even have read the provisions of the Bill that seeks to provide protection to women against domestic violence. Because of the storm over unscheduled issues the passage of the legislation during the current session was mercifully stalled. A close reading of the provisions should leave no scope for doubt that the Bill, instead of protecting women from domestic violence, would have added insult to the countless injuries inflicted on them by an insensitive social dispensation. The Bill was apparently drafted by minds that believe in the old-fashioned values that see no role for women beyond the four-walls of domestic drudgery. Rajju Bhaiya, the former pramukh of the RSS, had opposed the women's reservation Bill on the ground that it would disturb domestic harmony. The same concern for the maintenance of "domestic harmony" is reflected in several provisions of the Domestic Violence Bill. Every paragraph of the Bill is gender insensitive and it is just as well that it could not be taken up for consideration during the current session of Parliament. Public opinion should be mobilised against the passage of the Bill that seeks to shackle women to the bedpost of domesticity and totally at the mercy of men who
occasionally, not as a matter of habit, abuse, insult and humiliate them. The Bill, instead of protecting women from domestic violence, seeks to give legitimacy to some forms of violence for maintaining "domestic harmony". For instance, if a woman is bashed up just once, it would not constitute an offence under the provisions of the Bill. She must be subjected to regular and inhuman forms of violence for the law to wake up against either her parents, domineering brothers, husband or in-laws. A similar Bill was introduced in 1994. That Bill too suffered from several flaws. But the present exercise is clearly aimed at legalising domestic violence instead of providing even a modicum of protection to Indian women who suffer unspeakable insults and abuse at their parental home and thereafter in the home of their husbands and in-laws. The Bill directs an aggrieved woman to "adjust" to the domestic requirements rather than seek a place of dignity and equality in her father's home or that of her husband. There is absolutely no mention of the duties and responsibilities of men for ensuring "domestic harmony". If this obnoxious piece of political-bureaucratic drivel is allowed to become law, the fanatics may demand fresh and stricter laws for making women follow the path destroyed by social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy. It is a frightening scenario, but not an impossible one going by the social and political predilections of those in positions of power at the Centre. |
India beyond Gujarat-I To talk about Gujarat is to risk being misunderstood. No matter what you say, you may be taken to be a “communalist”, either of the Hindu or the Muslim variety. But that risk must be taken if thoughts are to be shared about the most important issue before us today : What kind of India lies beyond the tragedy of Gujarat.? Perhaps the risk might be moderated if one started by putting one’s cards on the table. That is why I am starting with my conclusions before explaining my reasons for reaching them. First. Despite what happened in Godhra and the rest of Gujarat, India has a better chance than it had before to get rid of communalism. I say this for two reasons. One, the nature of communalism is changing , not for the first time but in a context in which the issues are clearer. Two, there is more support now for remedies against divisive politics. Second. Significant changes are taking place both in the Hindu and Muslim communities through a play between the politics of religion and the dynamics of democracy. These can reinforce the remedies I mentioned above. Third. No single event in this deplorable chain of action and reaction can justify what followed or preceded it. Nor, however, should anyone shut his eyes to the facts of life. One among them is that reactions occur. What happened in the rest of Gujarat did not happen independently of what happened in Godhra, nor did the latter happen in a purely local context. Fourth. All Indians, and most so the most “nationalist” among them, must recognise that the tragedy of Gujarat has put India in the dock in the eyes of the world and freed Pakistan from the pressure put upon it by countries which had at last begun to understand the mischief Pakistan was playing against India. It has done great harm to India, a service to Pakistan, and it has invited President Musharraf’s boast on March 27 that India’s pressure has been “neutralised.” Fifth. It may be admirably liberal to heap blame upon one’s own self and hold all others to be innocent. But it can also gift an opportunity to the illiberal, the biased, and the subversive. Sixth. Democracy and respect for pluralism continue to be strong. But they can be undermined as much by minorityism as by majoritarianism. Seventh. Laws made for all must be applied to all. For about the first decade of India’s Independence, communalism was an active virus in Hindu-Muslim relations. It could flare up because of the slightest spat between a Hindu and a Muslim, even without any provocation from Pakistan. But it subsided with years, and did not erupt even during the wars between India and Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. However, a change followed when Pakistan changed its strategy for getting hold of Kashmir. When it could not get Kashmir by military means it turned to “jehad”. Emboldened by the success of this weapon in Afghanistan during the 1980s and 1990s, and in cynical disregard of what its use in India would do to the interests of the Muslims of India, Pakistan took three steps in quick succession. First, it began to build up subversive cells in India, using susceptible Muslims in Kashmir who were opposing the state’s accession to India, Muslims elsewhere in India who were caught in the coils of communalism, and Muslim gang leaders in the underworld of Bombay. Next it reinforced them with terrorists trained and armed by Pakistan, including off-shoots hardened in Afghanistan. Next, it gave them the cover of a fake jehad which got them hiding places in respected Islamic seminaries in India and a share of the money flowing to them from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in West Asia. This has rolled three disputes into one : the inter-country territorial dispute between India and Pakistan, the political dispute between New Delhi and sections of Kashmir opinion, and the long drawn out communal dispute between Hindus and Muslims. This overlap between the three disputes has exacerbated each, as will be shown later in an analysis of the events in Gujarat, in which the security of India’s border with Pakistan also became involved. But it has also clarified the issues for everyone concerned. It has shown Pakistan that just as it could not get away with military means it will not with subversive means either. It has also shown anyone who needed the proof that challenging India’s security with subversive communalism can be a costly game. And it has taught the “nationalist communalist” that he has done serious harm to India’s cause. India has been put in the dock just as the world had begun to understand what jehadi terrorism was doing to this country. On the other hand, it has given General Musharraf cause to boast, as he did on March 27, that India’s pressure has been “neutralised.” An increasing number of Muslim scholars have been publicly saying to Indian Muslims of late that what the so-called jehadis are doing is a blot on the fair face of Islam and gross distortion of the Quranic meaning of jehad. Some of them have also gone to the extent of publicly blaming some Muslim law givers and other authorities for preaching, prescribing and practising similar distortions. But when they are asked why they do not repeat their corrective messages often enough, they reply they should not be asked to prove their loyalty to India again and again. Their objection is justified up to a point, but what is needed is not proof of their loyalty but effective spread of their enlightened point of view among fellow Muslims. Not only is such a point of view obviously better for them as Muslims. It also harmonises better with their duty as citizens and as compatriots of the followers of other religions. An interesting shift has also been taking place in what is popularly but significantly referred to as the “Sangh Parivar”, the political face of the Hindu community. The Parivar or family has always had three main members. In descending order of power and authority within the family they are the RSS, a puritanical and disciplinarian phalanx dedicated to unifying Hindu society and removing all alien matter from it; the BJP, which is the parliamentary wing of Hindu politics, has a contemporary mind, many very able politicians and a regular structure; and the VHP, the hairy and much caricatured face of unrelieved Hindu orthodoxy, the least formulated member of the family but supported by many orders of priests and clerics and, through them, by the rural hinterland of Hindu society. . Till recent years the family was well united under the leadership of the RSS. But things have been changing of late. Under the formative impact of modern democratic politics, which call for a party with a wide base in the electorate, the BJP has brought many interests and constituencies under its umbrella, has reached outside the limits of caste and (to an extent) religion, and in coalition with other parties has formed governments at the centre and some states. In addition to proving that electoral politics can wear down some of the most rigid divides in the Indian polity ( a point made even more by the rapid rise of the BSP, a party of the lowest Hindu castes, which has gained footholds in the highest Hindu castes as well as lower caste Muslims, and that too in UP, the very heartland of Hindu orthodoxy and seed bed of communalism) this process has also made the BJP the most visible and potentially the most powerful face of the Parivar. For the same reason, however, the BJP has also invited counteraction by the RSS and the VHP to contain it. Both have reacted by stepping up the obscurantist agenda of Hindu orthodoxy. Thereby they have succeeded, on the one hand, in giving tongue to the orthodox opponents of the BJP and depriving it of some of their votes in the recent elections in UP, and on the other hand, and to the direct benefit of the Congress, cramping the growing acceptability of the BJP outside the confines of Hindu castes and religion. A more general effect has been to harm such social cohesion in the country as can follow erosion of the barriers of caste and religion. How long electoral politics will take to resume this cohesion making role depends, in the short term, on perceptions of the Gujarat tragedy, and in the long run on how long we take to adopt some major reforms in the electoral process. (To be concluded) |
Disturbing attitude of political players Somebody telephones the local SHO at 12 at night that a cow is tied in mosque for being killed. The police immediately investigate and find it a case of rumour-mongering. The next morning at 10 a.m. people start gathering near the railway station and tension grips the town. Sensing trouble, members of the minority community flee with just their clothes on, leaving everything behind. The mob swells. The rioters are in a foul mood. They are armed with sticks, iron rods, pick-axes and cans of petrol. A nearby mosque is damaged. Fifty-odd houses and shops of Muslims, thinly scattered in the town, are targeted, ransacked, looted and then set on fire. The police and the administration fail to control the situation and mayhem continues till 4 p.m. The mob disperses after doing its job. This is not a scene from a town in Gujarat. This is what happened on March 17 at Loharu, a sleepy town in the semi-arid and backward zone of Haryana, bordering Rajasthan. Those who became victims of communal frenzy were all poor people selling bangles and trinkets or were small artisans. They were inconsequential in a town dominated by Hindus and posed threat to none. Is it a communally sensitive spot? No. Some local residents told this writer, who visited the town as a member of a team of concerned citizens to study the situation, that there was no history of communal tension in Loharu. Even at the time of Partition it remained peaceful, and the bulk of the Muslim populace left for Pakistan without being harmed. Haryana has a long history of communal amity and harmony. The healthy tradition of sants, sufis and pirs in the state has acted as a solidifying force. The best example of communal solidarity was seen in the upsurge of 1857 when Hindus and Muslims fought together against the colonial power. The Raja of Ballabgarh and the Nawab of Jhajjar were hanged together in Chandni Chowk of Delhi by the victorious foreign rulers. A Bania (Hindu) and a Muslim zamindar were mowed together under a road-roller in Hansi on a road that is known as Lal Sarhak. Examples can be multiplied. What happened at Loharu is a major communal conflagration after Kaithal and Kalayat. If Haryana can catch communal fire so easily, what about those states in India which are more sensitive? This shows that our land has become a tinder-box and any place can go into flames any time. Even a small group of determined and communally charged elements can succeed in this unholy task. What has happened in a state that gave birth to Mahatma Gandhi can prove to be a precursor of a much more serious calamity in times to come. What is really disturbing is the attitude of the mainstream political parties in Haryana to the communal scenario in the state. Their reaction, if any, has been muted, circumspect, hesitant and halting. Most of the political stalwarts have remained mum. Barring the small belt of Mewat, the Muslim presence in the state is negligible and does not count for much in electoral terms. The fear of alienating the majority if a forthright stand is taken has pushed irons into the souls of the political elite and struck them dumb. The fear
is largely misplaced. The electorate does not have a narrow vision as practising politicians think. However, who can help those who are haunted by the ghost of insecurity? The ghost of insecurity and the demon of political opportunism and cynicism have spread their tentacles around the Indian polity as such. Take the BSP. It has made tremendous strides in UP and is a force to reckon with at the national level. However, its leaders have maintained studied silence on the communal carnage in Gujarat and the Ayodhya issue. They have an eye on the “gaddi” in UP with the help of the BJP and would not do anything that can ruffle tempers at the expected quarters. To be fair to them, they do not hide this cynicism. Mr Kashi Ram, the BSP supremo, takes pride in styling himself as an opportunist on the ground that he makes use of every opportunity to advance his cause! The case of the so-called secular allies of the BJP in the NDA is much worse. The Central government stands thoroughly exposed on the issue of Ayodhya. The really alarming aspect of the Ayodhya episode is the blatant intrusion of sectarian religiosity into the secular domain of the Indian State. India has made rapid strides in the field of information technology, space science and such other fields and was being counted as a serious contender to join the comity of modernist nations. However, all that has happened during the past few weeks has revived the traditional image of India as a land of magicians, sadhus and snake-charmers. Every NDA partner has been a party to the depressing process. Another seriously disquieting factor is the resolution passed by the RSS Pratinidhi Sabha at Bangalore recently stating that the minorities could be secure in India only if they won the goodwill of the majority community. There is nothing new in this. Guru Golwalkar characterised the minorities as second class citizens who could be deprived of the rights available to the majority community. His “shishyas” are now trying to put into practice what was preached by the great master many years ago. It raises some pertinent questions. What has emboldened the RSS to take a stance that goes counter to the fundamental postulates of the Constitution? Who has given the right to the RSS camp to act as the sole spokesman of the traditionally liberal Hindus? It is the dubious role of the BJP’s so-called secular allies in the NDA that has lent legitimacy to the Sangh Parivar to assume a larger than life role. It is the lust for power as an end in itself, power devoid of all ideological moorings and humanistic ideals, that has rendered a large chunk of our political tribe prone to retaining power even on daily wages. It is this section that is responsible for the prevalent opportunism and cynicism in Indian polity. The role of the forces ranged against the Sangh Parivar is also disappointing. It is the communal elements that set the agenda now, and others only react. The communal forces act as the proverbial cat, cunning and crafty in its designs and agile in its movements while their opponents resemble the hapless mouse, bewildered, confused and nonplussed. There is need to reverse the role. Unless the liberal, democratic and secular forces in the country shed their complacency and start setting the national agenda, acting as a watchdog in defence of the secular ideals of the Indian republic, this great nation is in for serious trouble. The writer recently retired as Reader, Department of English, Dyal Singh College, New Delhi. A keen observer of social and cultural issues, he contributes to The Tribune occasionally. |
|
Social service: baba shows the way
This story dates back to 1979 when one Punjabi NRI returned to his village, Dhahan, with a hidden desire to open a hospital. He met the panchayats of both Dhahan and Kaleran villages in district Nawanshehr. They, in turn, agreed to give him 30 acres for the purpose. This NRI was Budh Singh, whom villagers address as Babaji. Born in 1925, Budh Singh went to jail in 1942 during the struggle for freedom. After Independence, he migrated to Canada, where he started his career as a labourer. But he soon rose to the position of a building contractor and opened two companies. During war with China, he collected $ 6 lakh and sent to the then Prime Minister of India. He again collected $ 4 lakh during the 1976-77 floods and sent the money to the then Union Agriculture Minister, Mr S S Barnala. When his children were well settled, he returned to his village. The hospital project was delayed by red-tapeism. Two years were wasted in chasing the file. Finally, approval came with a rider that the hospital be completed in three years. On September 27, 1981, Bhagat Puran Singh of Pingalwara laid the foundation of Guru Nanak Mission Hospital. And on April 17, 1984, the then Governor, Mr B D Pande, inaugurated it, recalls Baba Budh Singh. Then followed a public school, a nursing diploma school, a nursing college, a de-addiction centre, PMT and CET coaching centres, a vocational courses centre, besides the expansion of the hospital itself. All this has cost Rs 21 crore. Baba Budh Singh had realised pretty early that his own funds would not be sufficient to fulfil his dream. “I wanted all Punjabis to get involved in these projects. I began by visiting Gauhati truck companies in Assam. The Punjabis there promptly gave me Rs 2 lakh. Then I visited England, Canada, Norway, Fiji and the USA. One lakh pounds got collected in one day in England alone. Three charitable societies in the USA, Canada and England started by Punjabis also pooled in”. The credit goes to the perseverance and untiring efforts of this one-man army. Within no time Rs 25 crore got collected. Baba Budh Singh returned to India and formed a trust of 14 members and the entire amount was deposited in its account. Guru Nanak Mission Hospital was equipped with CAT scan, X-rays, modern laboratories for various tests, 250 beds, OPDs and 10 specialisations like gynae, ENT, paediatrics, dentistry, orthopaedics, eyes etc. In a year 12 free camps are organised of which two are held in the hospital and 10 in different villages. Specialists are sent to these villages to give free services and conduct operations. Incidentally, all the specialists reside on the hospital campus where modern houses have been made available to them. The entire campus is provided with 24- hour uninterrupted electricity and water supply. Patients and their attendants are served food free of cost. Food is prepared as per the needs of each patient under directions from doctors. The hospital has its own stock of medicines purchased from authentic factories to avoid spurious drugs and medicines. Incidentally, this stock, on any given day, amounts to anything between Rs 20 and Rs 25 lakh. The cost of an OPD slip is Rs 10, which is valid for three weeks. Charges for every special test are 50 per cent less than the market rate. The poor, however, are entitled to free treatment, free tests and free beddings in the hospital. Panchayats identify the poor patients of their respective villages. Baba Budh Singh was agonised at the kind of school education available in and around his village Dhahan. So, he decided to open a senior secondary school by the side of the hospital. The trust gave a prompt nod. Today, the school is housed in a modern building with computers from Class IV onwards. Both Punjabi and English are compulsory from Class I. Plus one and two students have all streams like arts, non-medical, medical, and commerce available to them for choice. All teachers are fully qualified and the students are charged a very nominal fee of Rs 65. Those students, who secure more than 80 per cent marks in Class X, get entitled to free education in Plus one and two. Students of this school often figure on the merit list, besides topping in the state results. No student has ever secured a third division. There is an interesting episode behind the idea of opening the nursing diploma school. Baba Budh Singh was regularly donating money to CMC, Ludhiana, while he was living in Canada. In 1991, CMC invited him to the convocation of its college. “It was here that some students brought it to my notice that CMC admits mostly Christian students for nursing courses. I was repulsed with the idea. It was at that juncture our trust decided to open a nursing diploma course, where there would be no bar on any community in admissions. We started the course in 1993 and it is in full swing today”. By 1998 the trust had already opened Punjab’s first Nursing College in
Nawanshahr in yet another modern building. The four-year degree course takes students from Punjab with no bar on any community. With the efforts of Baba Budh Singh, this nursing college has also signed an exchange programme with the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Students from both countries visit each other’s campus and exchange notes. Interestingly, UBC also gave them money to build an extremely modern guest house of 10 rooms, where visiting faculty and students and other guests can stay. Obviously, people are swept off their feet when they visit the dreamland of Baba Budh Singh in
Nawanshahr. The revolutionary realisations of the hospital and other educational institutions, all on one campus, are a treat to witness and pay tributes to this old man. No wonder, a series of people have paid tributes in an unusual manner. For instance, the late Bhai Gurbachan Singh Gosal, who was settled in Fiji, when visited this campus promptly donated 26 shops that he owned in Banga. Similarly, the late Piara Singh of England donated two of his shops in Hoshiarpur, while visiting this campus. Bibi Santosh Kaur Mann of England has donated eight acres of her land in Hoshiarpur. Baba Budh Singh was approached by the state Red Cross to open a de-addiction centre on his campus. He has responded by constructing a very modern-day 20-bed centre with qualifying doctors to attend to the addicts. Similarly, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through Canada-India Education Society, Vancouver, approached him with a one-year research project to study the health and education status of women of 62 villages. The project has been completed and now another project of 3-5 years of community health centre and primary education is in the pipeline for his Trust. “Both the Akali as well as Congress ministries have treated our selfless services with contempt. During President’s rule, our trust was given sales tax exemption on all equipment and constructions. The Beant Singh ministry, however, cancelled these, without giving us any reasons. The Badal ministry also refused to revive the exemptions. What is agonising is that the Badal ministry gave similar exemptions selectively to many religion-based institutions", Babaji reflects pensively.
For thousands of villagers across Maharashtra, Dr Vibha Gupta is an angel of hope, literally so. She has given them cheap sturdy homes and round the year jobs. For nearly quarter of a century now, Vibha has been relentlessly involved in rural development by evolving simple technologies to make life easy for the marginalised people, besides ensuring employment for them. Some 2000 homes in 30 villages of the region around Wardha, boast of being “pucca” constructions, which are not only eco-friendly but also affordable for the poorest of the poor. What is more, they all have the luxury of a built-in toilet. “Kacchi mitti ka pucca makan” is how Gupta describes the technology and design of the houses, that are made only of mud and are capable of providing employment to potters for at least 300 days in a year. The walls are made of baked mud briquettes, while the roof comprises big earthen tiles. No place for even bamboo and wood, says Gupta, claiming that the cost of construction comes to half of what a similar structure would cost in cement. The stress is particularly on utilising local resources as also providing employment to the locals. Each of these “Wardha” houses, as they are called, is also “provided” with a “Wardha” toilet, which Vibha sees as means of ensuring dignity for the women. These are well-ventilated dry pit toilets, requiring very little water, and “don’t pollute the atmosphere,” she says. Gupta sees in this simple technology a personal victory, as it “assures body right to thousands of women, who were forced to compromise their dignity by defecating in the open.” Over the years, Vibha’s Wardha-based Centre of Science for Villages, which was founded by her father, Devendra Kumar, a Gandhian scientist, in 1976, has been relentlessly involved in rural development by evolving simple technologies to make life easy for the marginalised people. “We are striving to make the villages self-sufficient, through the application of science and technology,” says Vibha, who was honoured with the national award for women’s development through application for science and technology, recently. “Our aim is to develop 1000 technologies that would come to the aid of the really needy and make a difference in their lives,” she says noting that the centre has developed 75 such technologies in the last 15 years. The Centre of Science for Villages, of which Vibha is the Director, has also helped establish nearly 5000 bio-gas plants even in far flung areas. “We also train villagers to make their own ‘herbal’ or organic pesticides,” she says explaining that the simplest logic of choosing the plant whose extract is used is one “which the goats don’t eat.”
PTI |
Late motherhood lessens ovarian cancer risk The earlier presumption that women who bear children earlier in life cut their risk of breast cancer does not stand true in the case of ovarian cancer. A new study reveals that delayed motherhood may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. The findings, published in The Lancet, have further complicated the links between cancer and child-bearing. Hans-Olov Adami's team at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, has found the reverse to be true for ovarian cancer. Adami said, "After correcting for the number of pregnancies, the risk of ovarian cancer decreased by about 10 per cent for each five-year increment in age at first childbirth". The study involved 20,000 subjects and found that the more children a woman had, the lower her risk from ovarian cancer. This finding agrees with previous work. But the study also found that if a woman had only one child, the risk of ovarian cancer decreased by 50 per cent if she delayed pregnancy from age 20 to 45. However, other cancer researchers are not convinced.
ANI Browsing web through a radio People on the wrong side of the digital divide can now, through an interactive radio programme called ‘radio browsing’, ask experts to surf the Internet on their behalf and transmit information in response to their requests. “Presenters select relevant, reliable websites and broadcast the programme with local resource persons as studio guests, like doctors for a health programme, who discuss the contents of the mostly English-language sites directly in local languages,” says UNESCO Regional Communication Adviser W. Jayaweera. Listeners, thus, not only get information they requested, but understand how it is made available on the web. They can react to it and know that key data will remain available in the community database enabling an entire community access to online information in their own language. “It is a unique strategy for bringing poor or marginalised communities mass, indirect access to online information. It is now a model for developing community multimedia centres throughout the developing world,” says the official, adding the project initiated five years ago is already proving to be a success in several Third World countries.
PTI Eggs with a little extra Sheep that produce human proteins in their milk, goats that can be milked for spider web proteins, and
other genetically engineered animals just got some competition — chickens that can produce useful drugs in their eggs, researchers have reported. Because chickens grow up to lay eggs faster than sheep, goats or cattle begin producing milk, the researchers said, the birds could be a quicker source of biologically produced drugs to treat a range of problems, from blood loss to cancer. Genetically engineered chickens produced consistent levels of an enzyme in their eggs, suggesting they could be used as living “bioreactors” to make proteins used in human medicine, the team at the University of Georgia and AviGenics, Inc., has reported.
Reuters Low-salt diet lowers blood pressure A low-salt diet may be just as effective in lowering elevated blood pressure as commonly-prescribed medications, according to a new study. IDW (Informationsdienst Wissenschaft), a scientific information service of the universities of Bochum, Bayreuth and Clausthal in Germany, reports that the US-conducted study found that blood pressure levels could be lowered if less than 5.8 gm of salt was consumed per day. Additionally, patients should eat large quantities of vegetables and fruits, while enjoying meat, sugar and fat in moderation only. According to IDW, high blood pressure was the most significant risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. The study was presented at a scientific conference in Heidelberg, reports the information service.
DPA |
My heart has become capable of every form. It is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian kinks and a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Kaba and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran. I follow the religion of love, whichever way its camel takes me. Love is the essence of all creeds. — Shaykh Muhyid Din Ibn-ul-Arabi, Fusus-al-Hikam *** I went to the Church of the Christian and of the Jew, And saw that both are facing you. The desire to meet you took me to the temple of idols, And I heard the idols singing your love songs. — Abu Said Abul Khayr, Rabaiyat-e-Abu Said *** Love guides the idol-worshippers. It is the Qibla of the pious and the devoted adorers. — Khwaja Banda Nawaz, Asmar-al-Asrar *** Every people has got a way, a religion and a sacred place to worship. — Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya to Amir Khusrau; from Shibli Numani: Bayan-e-Khusrau *** Men of insight know that man is blind and undoubtedly blind. Who calling himself a lover does not regard a negro worth his love and devotion. Love of the Beloved takes us to Kaba and to the temple of idols; Lovers of the friend (God) do not consider what infidelity and faith is. — Amir Khusrau, Kulliyat-e-Anasir-e-Dawawin *** Love towards all beings, shunning of evil, beneficence, clemency and truth are the five pillars that support the abode of perfect virtue. — Tirukkural, chapter |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
