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Police is for the people AIDS not just a disease |
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Phasing out CST A step towards Goods and Services Act THE empowered committee of the state finance ministers, which was formed to ensure a smooth introduction of VAT, must be congratulated on reaching a “broad consensus” to phase out the central sales tax and the process will begin from April this year. The states will be compensated by the Centre for the revenue loss suffered on the proposed abolition of the CST.
Killing the daughter
Sudden renunciation
Punjab’s downward slide TV watching by kids: the myths and truths Inside Pakistan
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Police is for the people IT
is unfortunate that as many as 12 Chief Ministers have expressed reservations on implementing the Supreme Court’s directive on police reforms. They say that the fiat encroaches on the states’ powers since law and order and police are state subjects under the VII Schedule of the Constitution. They have also questioned the Centre’s role on the issue during a meeting with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. In September last year, the court had asked the Centre and the states to implement a set of directives which included, among other things, setting up a state security commission to ensure that the state government does not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police; a two-year minimum tenure for DGP, IGP, SPs and SHOs; state police establishment board to decide on transfers, postings and promotion of officers; and police complaint authorities at the district and state level to look into complaints against police officers. Undoubtedly, these reforms were long overdue. There is no justification for the states to raise the bogey of the federal structure and Centre-State relations. Given the political will, they can implement them. It is only because of their lackadaisical attitude towards this issue that the National Police Commission Report or the Dharma Vira Report has been gathering dust in the cupboards of the Union Home Ministry for over 25 years. Neither the Centre nor the states have taken this report seriously even though it is one of the best and well-researched efforts in the world police history. Significantly, the Supreme Court’s slew of directives is only a reiteration of what the Dharma Vira Report had said earlier. But the states are reluctant to introduce the much-needed reforms as otherwise they fear that they would lose their hold on the police. The police administration is in a mess everywhere because of political interference and people are losing their faith in it. With no fixed tenure, for instance, police officers — from the DGP to the SHOs — are shuffled like chess pawns by the political bosses. All this is reflecting on their poor image and low credibility before the people. The states may have sought three months time, but would do well to implement the seven-point directive in the interest of the nation and themselves. Police is meant to serve the people, not the politicians. |
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AIDS not just a disease THOSE
unfortunate enough to be afflicted by the deadly HIV virus will have to bear a little less financial burden with the immunity test now being made free. It used to cost Rs 500 earlier. The price was cut down to Rs 250 last year. Under sustained pressure from NGOs, it has now been made entirely free. That is a welcome step but much more needs to be done. AIDS is not just the personal problem of a patient, but is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the human race today. The burden of this community crisis has to be shared by us all if the scourge has to be removed from the face of earth. What a pity that state governments still continue to be lukewarm at best despite the fact that the problem has acquired epidemic proportions. There are more than 5.2 million persons afflicted with HIV in India. International organisations put the figure much higher. But because of the stigma attached to the disease, there is still an attempt to keep it under wraps. It can be understandable if an individual hides it. But even the governments are wary of acknowledging the full sweep. Most patients come from poor families. For them treatment is an unbearable burden, particularly because many of them happen to be breadwinners. Just as polio and malaria medicines are given free of cost, it is imperative for the state to bear the cost of hospitalisation of the victims. There is no foolproof cure in sight but at least society has to come to the aid of those who have contracted the disease. Because of lack of awareness, the patients are infecting many more. Truck drivers are especially prone to transporting the virus far and wide. This ticking bomb can be defused only if the official machinery fires on all cylinders. But since this subject does not offer handsome electoral returns, it has somehow been getting low priority. That is nothing less than suicidal. |
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Phasing out CST THE
empowered committee of the state finance ministers, which was formed to ensure a smooth introduction of VAT, must be congratulated on reaching a “broad consensus” to phase out the central sales tax and the process will begin from April this year. The states will be compensated by the Centre for the revenue loss suffered on the proposed abolition of the CST. The Central Sales tax is levied on goods moving across states and the proceeds are distributed among the states concerned. The CST will become redundant once the states manage to bring all goods and services under VAT regardless of the place of their origin. This, however, requires the states to have a uniform VAT and share data among themselves on goods and services thus taxed. Once VAT achieves its purpose, it too will be phased out to make way for the goods and services tax (GST), which is to be put in place by 2010. To begin with, the CST will be reduced to 3 per cent from April 1. Some experts want the CST to be scrapped right away, but that could create problems as states have different versions of VAT. Having a uniform VAT will take time. The BJP-ruled states and Tamil Nadu are yet to sort out the initial hiccups on moving over to VAT. The states have little to lose in the post-CST era as the Centre has undertaken to make good any loss suffered on this account. The 88th Constitution amendment has enabled the Centre to vest in the states the power to tax some or all of the 77 services mentioned in the amendment. That, hopefully, would relieve the Centre from the burden of providing for the revenue loss of the states. The phaseout of the CST and the introduction of the GST will usher in a single market countrywide and remove the present inter-state tax irritants that hamper the free flow of goods countrywide. |
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Wisdom is knowing what to do next; skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.
— David Starr Jordan |
Killing the daughter
FEMALE foeticide, as rightly observed by the Chief Justice of India, is not as much a legal problem as a social disease. Yet, this social disease does have, if not all its roots, at least its tap root in our laws of inheritance. We have refused to go deep into why this social disease has developed and why it is spreading its tentacles unabated. Earlier, by tradition, girls were not given any formal education and after marriage they were almost totally dependent on the earnings of their husbands and in-laws. This led to the system of dowry, which in the first place was given by the parents to create an economic space for their daughters in the families of their in-laws. Secondly, it was virtual indirect part payment and informal recognition of their share in the property of their parents. Occasional gifts, given by the parents and brothers’ families on festival days (Teohars) were virtually the rent of their deemed share in the properties of their parents. The system did recognise through social customs, the share of girls in the properties of their parents. This system did not adversely affect family bonds, rather strengthened the bonds between the married girls and their parental families. The system worked very well, till the dowry demand by the greedy in-laws of the brides became excessive, burdensome and beyond the legitimate means of the girls’ parents. At times the system became demonic in its character. The Hindu Succession Act was purported to be in favour of the girl child through ensuring her share in the parental property. Yet, in its very character the law went against her interest. Social movements like pledges by young boys and girls not to take or give dowry and slogans like “dulhan hi dahej hai” go pale in the presence of this Act. However, the damaging provisions of this Act could still be countered through wills executed by the parents in favour of their sons and sisters foregoing their right in favour of their brothers by their statements before the court of law. But the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, has sealed that avenue also. Under this enactment, parents cannot make any such will and even the offsprings of married girl can claim her share in the parental property. With this Act and amendment, dowry has been made a statutory provision in the form of their share in the parental property. And, the social disease of dowry still stands as such and is showing its uglier face day by day. The questions that face society and social reformers as well as policy makers today are: (i) When the girls today are equally educated and are capable of earning incomes as good as their husbands and in many cases are even better placed, why it should be socially obligatory for the parents to give dowries to their daughters? (ii) Why should the parents of the groom carry an overbearing attitude and consider themselves superior and demanding? (iii) What is that they give to the parents of the bride that they act so proud, while the parents of the girl educate her, bring her up, give dowry, give expensive gifts to the grooms’ family, incur huge expenditure on marriage, often beyond their means, and send their daughter to the groom’s family? (iv) Why still society makes girl’s parents feel several shades lower and why the bride’s in-laws come calling. The society has to correct its values, if female foeticide is to be checked and the girl child is to be given its due place in society. This amendment to the Hindu Succession Act has further added fuel to the fire and has weakened the position of the daughter in parental preferences. In case of farming families, this Act and recent amendment are bound to play havoc on the farm economy of the country. In rural societies the girls are not married in the same village. If this law operates in letter and spirit, with the passing of one generation, every land holding will get located in two villages and with second generation in four villages. This subdivision and widespread fragmentation is going to play havoc with the agricultural economy of the country. Brides will be forced to demand and sell their parental land and they can be tortured to do so. In most cases, the parental families may not have required resources to buy these lands and persons from outside the families would buy these lands that would create social tensions in the rural sector of the economy. Consequently, parental bonds will get snapped and girls after marriage will be left to fend for themselves. In the matrimonial affairs the boys’ families will look more for the property of the girl, rather than the bride itself. Education, particularly the high-cost professional education of the girl child, will be affected adversely and land/property disputes will increase. All these elements and considerations would certainly prompt female foeticides and preference for sons over daughters. More propertied the parents are, lesser will be the preference for a girl child. This is one of the main reasons why the agriculturally richer states like Punjab and Haryana have unfavourable sex ratio. The extant inheritance law does not put any onus on the in-laws after the girl is married. Under this law parents of the girls are in fact triple-taxed instead, by way of expenses on bringing up, education and marriage and above that division of property and the child goes to another family. The recipient groom’s family is left with no obligations on this account. Recently, the Supreme Court of India has ruled that daughter-in-law has no right even to share the house of the parents-in-law. All these provisions go against the interest of the girl child and are bound to prompt female foeticides. Logically, the law should be such that as the girl is married, she becomes equal partner in the property of her in-laws so that if ever they think of divorce, they have to part with the share of the bride. In this respect Muslim law with its system of meher, is much better placed, because with divorce, husband is bound to pay the amount of money agreed upon as meher at the time of marriage. It is not, therefore, the social system alone, but the complementarity of provisions of our laws, which exacerbate this social disease. People who attend seminars on this issue are not the people who indulge in female foeticide and those who do so, do not attend these seminars. They do not indulge in female foeticide in the knowledge of the people around. Society has to correct its values and amend its laws to create enabling and conducive environment that gives respect and place to the girl child, which is her due. Social values and laws of the land operate in an interactive manner and are complementary to one another. We have to review our laws in this perspective. Social values will follow in
footsteps.
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Sudden renunciation IT happened in 1961 when I was officiating as general manager engineer in Naval dockyard, Mumbai. My department employed more than 6000 persons in disciplines like drawing offices, foundry, heavy machine shop and refrigeration shop, etc. spread from Gateway of India to Kurla. Sadashiv was an assistant draughtsman carrying out his routine duties. I hardly knew him personally except that he used to come to me for signatures on final drawings sometimes. He lived near Malad, a sprawling suburb of greater Mumbai. One fine morning as I entered my office my chief draughtsman accompanied by two of his associates started narrating to me the news of Sadashiv suddenly leaving his home and family and becoming a sanyasi. He had done this the previous evening. At first his sudden disappearance was not noticed by his family members or his friends. After waiting till 10 p.m. they moved out and by midnight found Sadashiv occupying a new hut on the outskirts of Malad close to the road leading to Marve beach. Bungalows of some of film actresses on beach side were not far. The news of Sadashiv renouncing worldly comforts and becoming an ascetic spread like wild fire in the Malad area. He had a reputation of being an upright, simple living, honest dealing and god-fearing person of few words. Those who flocked to see him outside his new hut included poor families as well as well-to-do persons in thousands. After two days I and the chief draughtsman decided to visit the place. It was late evening when we arrived there. New huts were coming up through volunteers in a total area of about 800 sq yards. Sadashiv was seated on an elevated dais. The offering of thousands of rupees could be seen in a makeshift enclosure in front of him. He was keeping his eyes almost closed. The mats around the dais could seat about a thousand persons. We bowed with hands in namaskar pose and took our seats on the floor. Slowly he opened his eyes and looked at us in recognition. After a pause of a few minutes he beckoned us to come closer to him and gave us a pinch of holy bhasm in our palms. He seemed to command respect from all those present. The sweet smell of strong dhoop and agarbatti incense filled the air. Sadashiv then raised his hands to bless us and said: “You must visit Shirdi and Pandarpur for sublime peace. Then he closed his eyes as if in trance. After a month or so resignation of Sadashiv was received giving domestic reasons as the cause of his resignation from government service. I started getting telephone calls from homes of well-to-do elite families in Mumbai enquiring about address of Sadashiv’s abode as if I was to be credited for this new Godly revealation. In due course, his wife too joined him as
Sanyasin! |
Punjab’s downward slide The bugle for the Assembly elections has been sounded in Punjab. Over a period of time politicians have mastered the art of bombarding voters with flashy statements and promises, to win them over to their side. The party that succeeds the most in this carries the day. The people of Punjab have by and large been electing self-serving politicians, who are busy in making their own and their progeny’s future bright. These leaders have had nothing worthwhile on their agenda to make the peoples’ future better. Consequently, Punjab, a leader state a few decades ago, is facing a deep crisis on various fronts. Its rural economy is in shambles because of heavy indebtedness among farmers, education is in a mess, health services are in deep rot, youth are facing an uncertain future and are falling prey to drugs, and the urban economy has no foundation because it is dependent on the rural economy. The social system and values are crumbling and the crime rate is going up, notwithstanding the highest number of police men per thousand population. Unfortunately, there is no independent mechanism at the peoples’ level to examine the authenticity of public policy statements and promises made by political parties during election time. There are no organised groups or lobbies of intellectuals to challenge the statements of political leaders. Even after practising democracy for about six decades, we have failed to develop public fora where politicians could be questioned thoroughly for hours on what they claim, and what they promise, with regard to the development of the state. What would a genuine agenda be like? Punjab’s wobbling economy is the foremost issue. As far as its economy is concerned Punjab remains locked in the medieval age. Punjab’s economy is overwhelmingly agricultural. It has yet to witness a transition from a medieval agricultural to an industrial economy. Punjab requires such a major shift if it is to provide employment to its lakhs of unemployed youth. For a large chunk of the rural population, agriculture has become unsustainable because of the shrinking size of land holdings. Such a shift is also needed to avoid ecological disaster caused by over use of soil and subsoil water for agriculture purposes and to reduce the dependency of the urban economy on the rural economy. Our urban economy is most fragile. Except in three or four cities, a sound industrial and manufacturing base is lacking. When direct marketing is introduced on a big scale by industrial houses such as Reliance and Bharti, Punjab’s urban centres, having commission agents-cum-shopkeepers in big numbers, will be hit hard. There is a need to make advance planning to save the urban economy from such an onslaught. Cities also need to be modernised. Education is in shambles. Punjab is without a single high rated IIT, IIM, AIIMS type of institution. In fact, Punjab does not have a single school, college, university,medical or engineering institution that can be counted among the top 10 in the country. Our educational institutions are churning out people that are unfit for employment in the modern market looking for smart, brilliant and performing youth. The involvement of politicians in promoting the drugs trade in the state is a known fact. They do this lucrative business in connivance with police. People in rural areas are aware of such drug mafias. In the Malwa belt poppy husk and smack has ruined the lives of thousands of youth. Punjab is a state with the highest population of dalits. No sustained effort has been made to improve the standard of living and job opportunities for such a vast chunk of the population. Doors of professional colleges such as engineering institutions and medical colleges have been virtually shut for dalits because of the prohibitive fee structure. Corruption at political and administrative levels continues to be a big problem in the state. No political party is committed to stop it. Minting money has become a religion of the political class and the administrative machinery right from the bottom to the top. Punjab needs politically driven social reforms. A big effort is required to do away with the dowry system. One of the main reasons behind the high percentage of female foeticide in Punjab is its highly reprehensible dowry system. For a farmer father of two daughters, it becomes an impossible task to return the loan that he has to take to marry his daughters off. Issues such as frauds related to marriage of girls to NRIs, legal frame works to check the frauds committed by travelling agents with gullible youth keen to settle abroad, are other issues that political parties should put on their agenda. A mechanism is needed to review, on a regular basis, the functioning of the almost non-performing bureaucracy and other administrative machinery. What will political parties do to make functioning of the state government entirely transparent, what will be the system in place to discuss all policy matters in public well before their implementation? How will they improve health and other public utilities? Punjab has virtually become a police state. It appears that police do whatever they want. The executive has lost control over it. These are the issues which political parties should have on their agenda, and it is for the voters to demand that politicians have clear and definite policies to tackle them. People should elect only those leaders who have the necessary vision. If political parties are not ready to put up the best minds in various sectors, then people should get together to find such minds among themselves, to elect as MLAs. |
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TV watching by kids: the myths and truths THE digital divide used to separate rich from poor; now it separates parents from their children. Television, in particular, is an enormous presence in the lives of kids today. Yet, for all the television kids are watching, much of what parents think they know about television’s impact on their children is wrong. For instance, in the early 1970s, it was common knowledge that television was bad for your eyes: My own parents were convinced that my bad eyesight was the result of sitting too close to the screen, and they therefore made me stay at least six feet from it. Today, most people know that television viewing does not cause vision problems, but a host of new myths have emerged, still ripe for debunking: 1. TV makes kids dumb. Actually, high-quality TV shows improve children’s cognitive abilities. Study after study has shown that children 3 to 5 years old who watch an American programme called “Sesame Street” for an hour a day, are better able to recognize numbers, letters and shapes than those who don’t. When 500 kids who had participated in some of those studies were followed up as teen-agers, those who had watched educational programs as preschoolers had higher grades, were reading more books, placed more value on achievement and were more creative than those who had not. 2. TV makes kids violent. The real story is more complicated. In 1994, researchers reviewed hundreds of studies involving thousands of children and concluded that there was clear evidence that watching violence on TV makes children more aggressive. Similarly, preteens and teen-agers exposed to sexual content on television are more much more likely to engage in the kinds of activities they see on the screen. But a study of more than 5,000 children also found that “pro-social” programs make children kinder and more tolerant. In fact, the linkage between good behavior and watching good programming is as strong as the link between bad behavior and bad programming. The problem is that kids are increasingly watching shows with violence and sex instead of programming that is appropriate for their age. 3. Educational videos make infants smarter. The names - such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby - suggest one thing, but the data suggest otherwise. According to a 2005 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, no program targeting children younger than 2 has demonstrated any educational benefit. Evidence from studies my colleagues and I have done suggests that early viewing (under age 3) may be harmful to children’s cognitive development. We found that children who watch TV before age 3 score worse on tests of letter and number recognition upon entering school than those who do not. And for each hour of television a child watches on average per day before age 3, the chance that the child will have attention problems at age 7 increases by 10 per cent. A 2005 University of Pennsylvania study found that even watching “Sesame Street” before age 3 delayed a child’s ability to develop language skills. 4. Sitting around watching television – instead of playing outside – makes kids overweight. In fact, being a couch potato is not what causes obesity. Kids sit around to read, too, but no one suggests that reading causes obesity. A 1999 Stanford University experiment found that when elementary school children watched less television, they did lose excess weight; however, reducing their television time did not make them more active. What that suggests is that television-watching itself – unlike other sedentary activities such as reading, block-building or working on art projects – encourages overeating. Snacking in front of the tube is a widespread habit (for kids as well as adults) and the barrage of junk food advertisements only heightens that temptation. About 70 percent of the ads children see on television are for food products, and virtually none of them are for healthy choices. A 2005 Harvard University study found that, on average, children eat about 170 more calories per day for each hour of television they watch, and all of those calories are derived from foods commonly advertised in television commercials. 5. Television helps kids get to sleep. The opposite is true. In a 2005 study of more than 2,000 children, my colleagues and I found that the more television children watch, the more likely they are to have irregular sleep and nap patterns. As common as it is – about three-fourths of children had television as part of their bedtime ritual, according to a national survey – allowing kids to watch television because they can’t sleep is part of the problem, not the solution. 6. Kids watch too much television. Actually, the bigger problem is what they watch and how they watch it. In what some consider the halcyon days of television, families used to gather around a single centrally located set and watched high-quality, family-centered programming together. When parents watch with their children, the value of the best television programs is enhanced – and the harm of negative programming can be
curtailed. The writer is a paediatrician and researcher, coauthor of “The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your
Kids”. By arrangement with |
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Inside Pakistan THE year that has begun has its own significance for Pakistan because of the coming general election. Perhaps, though, very few people believe that a regime change is possible through the battle of the ballot. General Pervez Musharraf will continue to remain both President and Chief of Army Staff, at least till the end of 2007. He made this clear during the course of a television interview on January 3. This, he interestingly said, was needed “for the sake of democracy” in his country. If this is the situation, how can he tolerate any party other than his Pakistan Muslim League emerging victorious after the elections? What Kamila Hyat says in her article carried in The News on January 4 is enough to make one believe that the process for ensuring pre-determined results has already begun. “The principal power brokers in Islamabad already seem to have decided that it is essential to ensure a result in their own favour, and with this in mind, early manipulations in the form of fund allocations, appointments at key positions and forging of alliances are already well under way. When required, this process can be speeded up and used to produce pre-determined results.” She wants India's experiment with electronic voting machines to be adopted in Pakistan in the interest of fairness of the polls. In the words of Kamila: “The use of such simple technology, tailor-made for use by often illiterate voters, is quite obviously a step that can help make polling more transparent. The similar conditions that prevail in Pakistan and India suggest that since the experiment has proved largely successful across the border, despite some inevitable glitches, it can be repeated here (in Pakistan) in an effort to bring back meaning into a balloting process that stands in the danger of becoming nothing more than a farce.” It happens, perhaps, only in Pakistan and it has happened for the second time. Who will complete his or her six-year term as a Senate member has been decided through a draw of lots. And luck has obviously “favoured the ruling coalition, which has been able to retain its majority in the Upper House”, according to Dawn. A Dawn editorial says: “It (the ruling coalition) lost 24 of its 56 members, while 22 out of the Opposition's 44 Senators will retire on March 11. The PML and its allies have thus retained 27 seats as against the Opposition's 19. Among the Opposition components, the PPP has suffered the most, losing seven out of its 11 seats, while the MMA strength has gone down from 22 to 13.” The draw, as explained by the paper, was held because of the situation created by the revival of the Senate after the 2002 general election. The Senate's total strength is 100. The Lower House has, however, not been able to deliver the goods on the expected lines. It can play “a meaningful role in legislation and policy matters only if the political process remains uninterrupted. Repeated military interventions have contributed to a lack of maturity and sophistication in such political institutions” in Pakistan, as Dawn points out.
Kalabagh controversy The Kalabagh dam project continues to cause resentment among large sections of the people, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan, despite President Pervez Musharraf time and again underlining its importance for the progress of Pakistan. The opponents, however, have their own reasons to feel uncomfortable. The latest protest over the project was held on January 3 when activists of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz blocked the Indus Highway for over two hours. According to media reports, the protesters carrying banners and play cards, covering a 2 km stretch of the road, linking Punjab with Gwadar in Balochistan, raised slogans, saying that they would do all they could to prevent the dam from becoming a reality. Dawn quoted some of them as saying: “We are ready for all kinds of sacrifices.” In the opinion of Qaumi Mahaz leaders, “Sindh has the sole right over the Indus river.” The Sindhis believe the proposed Kalabagh dam and the water reservoirs that will come up will “definitely turn Sindh's fertile land into a barren land.
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Pray with sole concentration to Ishwara morning and evening preferably in standing position chanting Lord’s praise with your community. Fare to paradise is prayer. As rust is removed by much polishing, sin is reduced by regular prayer. — The Vedas The sacred books of the East are nothing but words. I’ve looked beyond their covers. If you have not lived through something, it is not true. — Kabir No action which is not voluntary can be called moral. So long as we act like machines there can be no question of —Mother Teresa The passage of life is not always smooth. Sometime everything works out well. At others, everything appears to go wrong. he who can face both with indifference is the self-realised one. He does not allow the one to fill him with joy and the other with misery. —The Bhagvad Gita
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