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Need to scrap transfer
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How to tackle
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Profile Reflections Kashmir Diary Diversities — Delhi Letter
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Need to scrap transfer of teachers TILL the early Fifties, District Boards were looking after most schools. Transfers were within the district. Once schools were ‘provincialised’, those working in government schools became liable to transfer within the state. In some states, transfers take place in a regulated manner. In any case, the whole system of transfers needs to be done away with. In the UK, teachers are not transferred at all. In London, for instance, everyone’s salary comes from the London Country Council (LCC) and there are thousands of schools in the city. But there are no transfers within those schools. If one wants to understand about the psychology and sociology of teachers in any state, one has to look at the system of transfers prevalent in them. Transfers should be banned altogether. What lends personality to a school are the teachers. When an old student goes to revisit his school, even after five years, it is the teachers who are the reference point for him. If teachers are transferred, the personality of schools gets deeply hurt. To see the point, one has only to look at the standing and personality of private schools. Unit for unit, they are decidedly superior to government schools. A way would have to be found to change the system in a manner that all the new recruits are selected only by a particular school and not for the entire state. But what about those already in position? A short-term solution can be found. Let there be other suggestions too. The teachers themselves will come up with even better ideas. After discussion, a via media can be found out. Once it is decided to create management for every single institution, schools and colleges, all the jobs in that institution should be frozen for a year or two. During this interval, there should be a circular issued by the Department inviting applications from them as to where they would like to be posted till such time as they retire. The real problem will arise when say, 50 or 100 applicants apply for the same posting. Therefore, a mechanism of selection would have to be set up, free from political influences and basically academic in character. The school managing committee should also be consulted. Some towns and some institutions could be more attractive than others. Therefore, they would attract a larger number of applicants. Before teacher selection, the members of the selection committee should be selected. For primary and upper primary schools, perhaps the unit of selection would have to be local. A uniformly acceptable formula may be difficult. Several committees would have to be set up and the job done carefully. If the first round of selection wins a certain measure of acceptance, the selection of teachers in the next few rounds would become relatively easier. Unless a system is evolved whereby teachers get selected objectively, the new system will not succeed. The system of having a teacher posted to a particular school till he or she retires is a system which is a prerequisite for changing the psychology of the teachers. A good deal of their thinking is influenced by this compulsion to ensure a good posting for themselves. This leads to manipulation, corruption and many other ills. If the psychology of the teachers has to change, the system of their postings should change. Today, the government controls the mode of selection. Once the local schools and colleges come into the swing, a via media where the Department of Education has a role to play would have to be found. The local managements too should play their role. The model is that, in about half a decade, schools and colleges become independent in day-to-day functioning. Two things need to be mentioned. First, 25 per cent of the additional money available for education should be utilised on designing and instituting a system whereby teacher training and re-training are improved radically and qualitatively as a priority. Unless the quality of teacher competence improves markedly, little can be done. And second, it can be best illustrated through this real-life incident. For years, their writer used to meet a Punjab cadre IAS officer posted in Delhi. As his wife had taken up a job in Delhi, he somehow managed to stay there in one posting or the other. Once he was transferred to Punjab as Secretary of Education, but within six months, he was back in Delhi again! When I asked him about this, he said, “It was a rotten job and I just could not get on with it”. “Why was it rotten”?, I asked. He explained, “Almost everyday, more than 200 court cases were coming up. How does one cope with such a situation?” Nothing can be more crippling and unproductive than excessive centralisation developed over the years. How to deal with the situation? First, when the unit of functioning becomes an institution, the problem will be taken care of. And second, each state should have a legally constituted tribunal for redressing the grievances of teachers. In every creative school system, an attempt is made to ensure that the teachers grow all the time. Today, no one bothers to check litigation and improve performance and the quality of performance. Without a change in the psychology of the teachers and the system of excessive centralisation, things will never change in education. The two inputs including appointments and other related issues should be changed. A teacher deserves to be respected and treated with dignity. This is not happening today. Those who run the system have themselves become victims of bureaucratic intrigue, reservations and so on. Additional funding will solve only some of the marginal problems, not the basic problem. The basic problem is that while the bulk of the funding would come from the government, it will not help tackle the job of management. This has to be delegated, fixing certain norms. The difference in the quality of management in various institutions is a part of the system of delegation. This calls for a new form of intervention. Both performance and the quality of performance will have to be defined. This is not being done
today. The writer is a former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala |
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On Record
TODAY, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s technological marvel of the 6.3-km underground Delhi metro corridor between Kashmere Gate and Central Secretariat will be unveiled to the public. In a country where developmental projects hardly ever get completed on time, the DMRC has managed to complete most of its assignments on schedule. The man behind the show, DMRC Managing Director Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, remains as modest as ever. He gives full credit to his team. As his term will be over in November, he has asked the government to relieve him from the project. “I am 73 years old and have come to a stage when I need some peace. It has been a very challenging post,” he says in an exclusive interview to The Sunday Tribune. Exerpts: Q: What would you suggest for any city in future planning — a metro rail, underground tracks or elevated stretches? A:
The service you get will be the same. It is the question of cost. An elevated metro costs one-third of underground metro. Even its operational cost is two-thirds of an underground metro. When funds are a constraint, you should go in for as much elevated stretches as underground stretches involve additional costs like air-conditioning and ventilation which are not necessary for elevated rail line. Moreover, in underground rail, contingency planning should be done much more extensively and seriously for situations like a bomb explosion. Q: But isn’t it true that elevated tracks and stations occupy large spaces and are a visual intrusion? A: Yes, but they have their own advantages. If the structures are treated aesthetically, where is the harm? One cannot say the same about most of our buildings and flyovers which are an eyesore. Moreover, a metro rail does not occupy any extra space besides the 2-metre central median. Q: What about the DMRC’s plan for its own consultancy wing? Many state governments have approached you for a metro rail for their cities. A:
Today, the DMRC has the expertise and knowledge to provide any kind of help to any state or country abroad. We have been approached for metro rails in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. The Bangalore metro project is now at an advanced stage. After Gurgaon, plans are afoot to connect Faridabad with New Delhi through a metro link. For this, the DMRC recently sent a quotation of Rs 75 lakh to the Haryana Government for preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a metro link from Delhi to Faridabad. Q: Metro links up old Delhi and New Delhi railway stations. Plans are also afoot to connect the airport. But why is no baggage allowed in the metro? A: Metro is meant for daily commuters and no metro in the world allows a passenger to carry more than a handbag. It is an act of convenience. The train stops at each station for just 20 seconds and valuable time is lost if one is trying to get in with baggage, which also occupies precious space causing inconvenience to the commuters. Q: What is the future of Phase-II? Has it not been pending approval before the Group of Ministers (GoM) for quite some time now? A: Yes, we are waiting for GoM’s approval. But this has not affected us as we are continuing with our parallel work like planning etc. The delay means that we are not being able to award contracts. But I expect the approval in 2-3 weeks. Q: Japan is reportedly not too keen on funding Phase-II. Why? A:
The DMRC has no such indication. Only last week, a JBIC appraisal team had visited us. They are very happy with Phase-I and will definitely support us in Phase-II as well. This year we do not require any more funds. By January or February next year, I expect a firm commitment from Japan. Q: Any further communication from the Haryana Government on the Gurgaon project? A:
The Haryana Chief Minister has approved the Gurgaon DPR and the state government will fund the 7-km stretch in the state. It is moving in the right direction and everyone is aware of the deadline of the Commonwealth Games in 2010. Q: Delhi Metro is a success story. Whom would you attribute the credit to? A: The entire DMRC team. A project of this type cannot succeed with one individual. Q: Any regrets? Anything you wish had not happened the way it did? A:
I feel very guilty that a wrong gauge has been adopted for the Delhi Metro. Though we wanted a 4 feet and 8.5 inch gauge, the government approved a 5 feet gauge. We justified it technically and financially. This will be a permanent handicap that will increase running and replacement cost and prove to be a drag on the DMRC’s resources. Moreover, in the beginning, we did not have experience on how we could have made the pace of construction work faster and cheaper. All this will be amended in Phase-II. While the 66-km of Phase-I will take seven years to complete, for Phase-II, our target is 80 km in five years. Q: Is the metro financially viable and breaking even? A:
As far as operational costs are concerned, it was breaking even from day one. It has now also started making profits. No metro in the world started with profit making operations on day
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How to tackle
joblessness in Punjab NO macro policy based on market-led growth will be successful in dealing with either poverty or employment. The market-led growth benefits that are well placed in society would take advantage of the opportunities of capital-intensive and labour displacing global technologies. Therefore, the government should ensure that all sections achieve skills to enter the mainstream job market. Appropriate social, demographic and economic policies will have to be developed for the underprivileged sections to acquire adequate skills so that they could enter the mainstream market activities. The key message is that jobless growth in India is not tenable. The Punjab economy has witnessed two divergent trends. While the initial driving force was employment-oriented, which was led by the high-yielding varieties of food crops and the small-scale industries, mechanisation of agriculture and medium-scale industry decelerated the growth in job opportunities. It has attracted migratory labour from poor states like UP and Bihar but failed to involve the local youth. The agricultural development process has led to a significant decline of the labour-absorption capacity of this sector and creation of underemployment among the cultivators. The growing secondary and tertiary sectors have also failed to compensate for the shrinkage of employment in Punjab. The Planning Commission has taken serious note of this. Compared to other states, unemployment in Punjab is the lowest on Current Daily Status at 4.15 per cent in 1999-2000. Among other states, only Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan have relatively lower unemployment rates than Punjab. In Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, the unemployment rates (CDS) were 4.63 per cent and 2.93 per cent respectively. The proportion of Scheduled Castes in the total population of Punjab has increased from 28 per cent in 1991 to 35 per cent in 1999-2000 as per the Census and the 55th National Sample Survey (NSS) Round data, respectively. This increase has further accentuated unemployment in Punjab. The Planning Commission’s Special Group has recommended the need to promote certain identified labour-intensive activities. These sectors are agriculture and allied activities, small and medium industries, information technology, construction, tourism, financial sector, education and health etc. There is need to reformulate an employment generation and anti-poverty strategy that is fiscally sustainable and more finely targeted to those who cannot benefit from the opportunities offered by growth. Safety nets should focus on those deprived sections of society who either cannot participate in the growth process or face continuing exposure to
risk. The writer, Professor of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala, wrote this article a few days before he passed away |
Profile by Harihar Swarup Relations between the two were, however, turned somewhat estranged in Advani’s current term as the BJP President. Sinha was reportedly slighted in his home state and not given a role. Insiders in the BJP say that one reason for Sinha’s criticism of Advani on the Jinnah issue could be his eagerness to get close to the RSS. The RSS, on its part, is not happy at Sinha’s unceremonious removal as the BJP spokesman. There is remote chance of his quitting the BJP unless Advani chooses to throw him out of the party. Sinha had been the BJP’s spokesman before the party’s leadership drafted him to contest the Lok Sabha election from his home state — undivided Bihar. Unlike his counterparts, Venkaiah Naidu and Sushma Swaraj, Sinha was a resounding success. He had attributed his success then to a “golden rule” — “you should tell the truth or hang on by the very verge of truth”. In contrast, his counterparts invariably tried to camouflage the truth and tried to defend the indefensible. In his second term as spokesman, Sinha has grown in stature, having spearheaded Finance and External Affairs ministries. The position of spokesman looked too small for him. His briefings had more ministerial touch than the spokesman of a political party. The time has so much changed since Yashwant Sinha occupied the Finance Minister’s sprawling office in the North Block. He was inducted in the Chandra Shekhar Cabinet but the government, supported by the Congress from outside, lasted barely for seven months. During his second term in the Finance Ministry in the BJP-led government, the Ministry became far more important and became the focus of international attention. Unlike other BJP ministers, Sinha came altogether from a different background. He neither belonged to the RSS nor had association with the BJP. He had joined the party towards the fag end of 1993. A latecomer in politics, having given up his 24-year-long career in the IAS, Sinha joined the Janata Party as late as 1988 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha. When the Janata Party merged with the Janata Dal, he became Janata Dal’s general secretary. Come 1989 elections, V.P. Singh became the Prime Minister. He offered Sinha a Minister of State berth. Sinha declined, but when the JD split after two years and Chandra Shekhar became the Prime Minister, Sinha became the Finance Minister. Jayaprakash Narayan has left an abiding impact on Sinha. In fact, he wanted to bid goodbye to the IAS much earlier, but the Sarvodaya leader dissuaded him from taking such a course of action. Sinha first came in contact with JP when he was working as the District Magistrate of Santhal Pargana in Bihar. He was transferred following a tiff with the then Chief Minister, Mahamaya Prasad. Sinha decided to meet JP and the Sarvodaya leader issued a stern statement asking ministers to stop misbehaving with officers. Sinha’s transfer orders were cancelled. When JP went around the world after the Bangladesh war explaining India’s case as Indira Gandhi’s emissary, Sinha was posted at Bonn. He looked after the Sarvodaya leader’s itinerary and accompanied him during his visit to Germany. JP was impressed by the young officer’s drive and the relationship continued with the Lok Nayak. His political career seems to be taking a turn again. Watch out his next
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A useful tool of good governance by Kiran Bedi
I
was aboard a flight a few days ago. Two issues stayed with me of interest while aboard the plane, which had a deeper meaning. Hence the sharing... After the breakfast was served, the airline staffer came up and asked if she could discuss something with me. I said of course please. She said it was regarding security concerns. Our conversation went something like this: “Mrs Bedi it is concerning where I stay”. “What about it”? I asked. She said. “I stay in Gopal Vihar (name changed). And in our neighbourhood we have very many youth who are poor, or unemployed or not going to school. This way our colony will remain poor and economically backward. I also feel insecure, for with this kind of neglected youth. Security may be at risk too. And I stay alone. So what should I do?” I said: “Well it depends on how far you can go? Also how attached are you to the place where you are staying? If this is your permanent place of stay and you wish to continue there, then, I guess the answer is accordingly”. She said: “this is my own house and wish to stay put”. I asked her: “Do you have a Residents’ Welfare Association”? She said: “Yes there was one but as good as non-existent”. I asked: “What about the police? Do you see it around”? She said: “No never. Only when there are brawls. Never in normalcy”. “Any NGO’s”? I asked “Not that I am aware of”. “Well friend in that case you may have to do a lot of self-help? Are you willing”? I asked searchingly. She said: “in what respect”? I said…“in energising your Residents’ Welfare Association. Initiate even in a small way, as an Association, programmes and strategies which spread goodwill through empowering the youth by education programmes, be it vocational training, counselling, sports, creative activities etc. may be you could join hands with some NGOs who may already be working in there….find out! By doing so you will help steer the youth and start earning their goodwill and respect and reduce the security threat. In the process you and your well-off friends will be giving back to society what society gave you, through a spirit of community service. And the bonus is to get the police presence in a preventive mode rather than only in a reactive way. See that they are invited to join in at times. By this, the situation will not worsen but will become better inch by inch provided you stay on course, with the commitment to help…” She thought I had some quick fixes! There were/are none. To get something you have to do something! The second area of sharing which set me thinking was the news item I read while on the plane. It was about an announcement by a Minister about starting a box called ‘You may speak with your Minister’. In other words, it is a feedback box encouraging a communication between the users and him of that particular service which the Minister is heading. Excellent indeed! Something which ought to be inbuilt in the system I wondered! Better late than never, I thought. For having used this kind of feedback to help reform Tihar prisons and then provide better police training, I knew what probably needed equal attention and may not get ignored. It was: daily field visits plus improved internal communication within the department, “systems of accessing the feedback to ensure it does not run dry while keeping the confidentiality”, expeditious decision making, “visible implementation of valuable suggestions”, willingness to learn always, to correct and improve… The key is not starting a good idea on paper. But sustaining it and institutionalising it as a workable and useful tool of good governance for larger public good. All this to make above board...thought through while on
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This year’s crop is nice, but water table cause for concern by David Devadas THE past fortnight has been traumatic for the majority of Kashmiris. No, their troubles had nothing to do with the Hurriyat Conference leaders’ return from Pakistan, or the Muzaffarabad bus, or the threat of more terror. For the common man and woman across the valley’s vast rural stretches, the sowing of the annual paddy crop has been a bit of a nightmare. Paddy seedlings need to be nurtured in small patches until the little stalks can be planted across the fields. In Kashmir, that is normally done in May. Since it remained cold through spring this year, planting waited till the middle of June. Suddenly about a fortnight ago, the weather turned so cold and damp that most of the plants died in the frosty soil. Now the failure of a paddy crop in Kashmir can be a dangerous thing. There was a drought, leading to high prices and public distress, in 1931, the year Kashmir first rose violently against the Dogra regime. That was the agitation that catapulted Sheikh Abdullah to iconic leadership of the Kashmiri people. In 1999 too, there was a drought and the crop largely failed. After years of relative calm through the mid-90s, Kashmir was extremely restive that winter. Not only were suicide attacks launched that winter, the people were out on the streets for three days in late April 2000, bringing open violence to street corners on a scale rarely seen over the previous decade. Rice is the staple diet of Kashmir and importing rice from other parts of India is just not good enough. People complained bitterly when this was done in the Fifties, for their taste buds can abide nothing but the fat short grains of Kashmiri rice. In fact, so attached is the Kashmiri to local rice that some militant commanders had on occasion taken stocks across the Line of Control to eat in Muzaffarabad. And migrants over the past 15 years have sent for stocks to consume in places like Delhi. So large is the demand that Kashmiris are unable to grow enough even for the local requirement, although the scenic terraces right across this lush valley — except for the saffron fields around Khuru — are filled with the green and then gold of the paddy crop through each summer. Luckily, the freak cold in mid-June did not last. Indeed, it turned hotter than the plains by the end of the month, when the monsoons broke over north India. So this year’s crop is now growing quite nicely, covering the terraces in a deep carpet of bright green. There is no dearth of water either, for the excessive snowfall last winter has now melted and filled the rivers and streams. In the long term, however, there is need for caution. Although burbling brooks are to be found in every corner of this fecund valley, experts say that the water table is falling rapidly. Most of Kashmir’s water comes from the melting snow that flows through the place into the Jhelum. The monsoons augment this but precipitation here is much less than in the plains, since the monsoon clouds are largely spent by the time they reach the mountains this far north. The problem is that the water that flows down the rivulets and streams gets absorbed into the soil only if the forest cover is enough to hold the flow to a speed that allows absorption. One of the unfortunate side-effects of the militancy of the early Nineties was unchecked tree felling by bands of militants as well as security forces. Conifers that take 200 years to grow to their full majesty were chopped across entire hillsides. No wonder, water retention has fallen. The results are eyesores in some of the interior areas: large stretches of boulders will loose dry sand between. Residents of local villages say in some of these areas that the forest was just a couple of decades ago so thick that sunlight would not filter through the branches. Happily, the forestry department is back in action and reforestation has been undertaken in at least some places. There is hope, therefore, that the situation will be reversed and the water table will rise again. The alternative is too awful to contemplate. For, without its enchanting forests, Kashmir would not only cease to merit the description of paradise, parts of it could start to resemble
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Imrana’s plight triggers a major debate by Humra Quraishi THERE has been considerable focus here on that hapless raped woman Imrana. Raped by her father-in-law in UP’s Muzaffarnagar, her case has shot into significance all over the country because of the issuance of the subsequent fatwa that she could no longer stay with her husband. So overnight this woman is stripped of her home and hearth, husband and five little children. This fatwa alone has created a major debate within the Muslim community, for it stands contradictory to the very essence of the teachings and spirit of Islam, which stands for holding human emotions and sound reasoning on a high pedestal. Sadly, with today’s strained socio-political fabric, we know so very little of the different faiths and religions. Doing the rounds are myths and misconceptions, set afloat by vested political interests. Fortunately, in the midst of this, there is this news. The India International Centre is starting a lecture series titled, “The Growing Consciousness of the Other”, with focus on the Indian Muslims. There is sound and sensible reasoning for such a series. The IIC says, it is an attempt to discuss and debate the issues that confront Indian Muslims. The series also seeks to bring into the open popular prejudices and myths among various sections of the Hindu community in relation to the ‘other’. Against the tradition of pluralism that has thrived in India for centuries, there is a growing sense of the ‘other’ in sections of Indian society in the past two decades. Over the next three months from July to September, the series will cover a wide range of issues that are popularly the bone of contention between the two communities. On July 2, M.S. Sathyu’s directed film “Garam Hawa” was screened. The first of the talks will begin on July 5, with the two key speakers, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and Dr Karan Singh, talking on “Rediscovering Islam and Hinduism”. The next three months will see a host of speakers. Discussions and audience participation will follow each talk.
Book on Bhagat
Puran Singh
This latest book on Bhagat Puran Singh is titled, “The Living Saint” (Unistar). It is written by Harish Dhillon, who teaches at the Yadavendra Public School and has been the author of several books. The significance of Bhagat Puran Singh and the immense work he has done for humanity can be judged by these words in this book: “Whenever an NRI Punjabi comes home on a visit, there are two pilgrimages that are mandatory for him to make, one to the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the other to the Pingalwara, also at Amritsar. After each visit, he goes back with an increased reverence for Bhagat Puran Singh, the founder of the Pingalwara.”
The average Indian knows little about Muhammad Ali Jinnah except that he was the founder of Pakistan. But there is sudden focus on him. Two programmes stand lined up. Next week, there would be the screening of the film, “Mr Jinnah: The Making of Pakistan”. It is a 93-minute documentary film by Chris Mitchell and will be screened at the IIC. Next week, there is a discussion on two books on Jinnah. One is titled, “Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity: Jinnah’s Early Politics” by Ian Bryant Wells (Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2005). The other is “Jinnah: A Corrective Reading of Indian History” (Asiananda, The Netherlands Intercultural Open University, 2004). |
The desire to know more than mundane matters is rare indeed. — The Upanishads He is supreme and above all. — Guru Nanak If a man cheats innocent men thinking that he will not be caught, he is mistaken. His evil will fall back upon him like a light dust thrown against a mighty wind. — The Buddha Sometimes we can see that an effort is doomed. Yet we keep exerting after it hoping against hope. We see that it is bound to fail, yet we do not want to see. It is like pouring butter into ashes in the hope of kindling the fire. — Book of quotations on Hinduism  |
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