The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

The Satluj stinks
Political leadership must act

THE Punjab Pollution Control Board has rightly taken up the issue of pollution of the Satluj by industries in Himachal Pradesh with its counterpart in the hill state. As experience shows, this is not enough. The contamination of the Satluj is too serious a matter to be left to the pollution control boards, especially when their track record for action has been so uninspiring. Perhaps, they are hamstrung by a thriving industrialist-politician nexus.

The flow of municipal and industrial waste into the Satluj as well as other rivulets and wetlands in the two neighbouring states will remain unchecked unless the political leadership takes steps to end the menace. In the absence of political initiatives at the state level, the Central authorities should intervene and get the licences of all such industries that throw their toxic waste into water bodies cancelled. The Centre announced Rs 220 crore for Punjab in January to save the Satluj. It must now ensure that the money is used for the purpose it is meant for.

Money is not a problem in any project of public interest in Punjab. If Baba Seechewal could clear the holy rivulet, Kali Bein, with community effort, why can’t state machinery clean up the rivers and other water resources with public cooperation? It is because of the lack of an enlightened and far-sighted political leadership in both states. How the efforts of such selfless and devoted conservationists as Seechewal are defeated by profit-driven industrialists in connivance with ruling politicians is clear from the failure on the Buddha Nullah front. Things will not move unless the owners of the polluting units are arrested and proceeded against as has been suggested by a committee of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. The toxic Satluj waters pose a serious threat to human and animal health as well as the ecological balance.

Biometric passports
Need for vigilance against forgeries

Forged documents, especially those used in international travel, are a major security breach since monitoring people after they have disembarked is very difficult in any democratic nation. As such, it is a matter of concern that according to the Home Ministry, 865 such cases were detected at international airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Amritsar in 2008. While the number appears to be falling — it was 1,251 in 2007 and 1,492 in 2006— it is still alarming, given the heightened security threats that the nation faces.

The government’s comfort bid regarding issuing of machine-readable passports, installation of passport-reading machines and immigration control system software to verify the details of passengers and to prevent impersonation notwithstanding, there is an urgent need to be more alert at our airports, which are effectively our borders for international travellers. Foreign nationals overstaying or entering the country illegally have to be tackled in a different manner. They need to be identified by strengthening the intelligence network, and ensuring more coordination between various security agencies and greater vigilance by local police forces in different states and cities.

A significant number of Indians go abroad on forged documents. Many of them are poor people who sell off their lands and more to try to find work abroad. Often they are duped by unscrupulous agents. Such fraud could be combated by using passports with biometric identifiers, fingerprints, iris scans, facial recognition data stored on a chip. The International Civil Aviation Organisation promotes the use of biometric passports and travel documents. Many nations, notably the US, the UK and other European countries follow the advice of this UN-level body for the standardisation of travel documents.

In India, till now, only diplomatic passports are biometric. We need to ensure that all passports are biometric and thus tamper free. The struggle to secure the nation should include both harnessing of the latest technologies and keen vigilance.

Thought for the Day

Success is relative: It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.

— T. S. Eliot

ARTICLE

Fragile recovery
Global economic upturn may help India
by Jayshree Sengupta

INDIA has a few serious economic problems that are surfacing clearly as we are coming out of the global financial crisis. Number one is inflation, which is almost double digit at 9.9. First only food articles were getting expensive, but now all other items in the basket for the wholesale price index are becoming dearer. The only way out for the government was to let the RBI raise the interest rates and the cash reserve ratio of banks to act as a brake on inflation. The RBI recently hiked the repo and reverse repo rates (overnight lending and borrowing rates) to 5.25 per cent and 3.25 per cent. These can be translated later to a hike in bank lending and deposit rates.

The cash reserve ratio or the portion of deposits that banks park with the RBI has been raised to 6 per cent. This may have the effect of sucking out liquidity from the market as less cash would be available for lending. People will be putting money in the banks instead of consuming more goods, and thus the demand push inflation will be controlled.

Second, many manufacturers are facing a cut-throat competition from China. The Indian rupee has been rising against the dollar, but no amount of pressure is working on China’s determination not to revalue the yuan against the dollar. China has a $16 billion trade surplus against India.

Recently when External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna went to China he complained about the burgeoning trade surplus China has with India. Chinese exports have been growing at 17 per cent. China has to import more from India, the US and other countries. Recently it has declared that after six years it is experiencing a trade deficit of $7.2 billion. This probably goes to show that China is importing a lot of raw materials and other inputs needed for its manufacturing industries from the rest of the world. Its GDP growth has been impressive at 11 per cent in March.

Many economists are sounding alarm bells regarding the deteriorating current account situation (the summary of trade flows of goods and services, including remittances from Indian migrant workers abroad), and what it would mean in terms of depreciation of the rupee. But contrary to what such a situation demands, the rupee is strengthening. India, however, does not have much to fear because it has nearly $300 billion in reserves. Thus, there is little reason to expect a sovereign bankruptcy but individual pain is possible as companies go bust, especially when they cannot compete with a formidable foreign rival (China).

The third problem is that of capital inflows into Indian markets. The problem of high value of the rupee against the dollar originates from the huge inflow of foreign institutional investments (FIIs) into the Indian financial market. This has been happening over the last few months and the government has resisted taking a drastic policy measure to abate the flow. The recent inflow of FIIs has been due to the high interest rates in emerging markets like India.

All over the world, the interest rates have been kept low to encourage and sustain recovery. But in India the interest rates have been slowly hiked to contain inflation, which has also made this country an attractive destination for parking funds by foreign investors. Also the stock market has been on an upswing and crossed 17K and, therefore, the returns are relatively higher than in other markets. It is this uncontrolled inflow which is increasing the supply of dollars in the financial system and leading to the hardening of the rupee. If the RBI had intervened, it would have bought dollars from the financial markets. But this has not happened.

The hike in the interest rates may further exacerbate the dollar inflows and lead to the hardening of the rupee to less than Rs 44 which will hurt exporters more. If exports slow down from their recent recovery phase - it did so for 13 months --- industrial growth will also decline because 12 per cent of industrial production is exported.

India’s industrial growth has been impressive at 16.5 per cent in February and manufacturing growth, which is the main component of the index of industrial production, has been growing at 15 per cent in March. The interest rate hike will hurt industry where many units have just started undertaking fresh investments. There is a fear that this initiative will be thwarted. Even the demand for goods can be impacted if food inflation continues.

To control food inflation, the supply of essential commodities like pulses, sugar and cereals have to be enhanced. Otherwise the continued thrust and buoyancy of the consumer demand that even Tim Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, noticed about the Indian economy would peter out.

The fact remains that the recovery is still fragile, especially when exports are also dependent on the economic recovery of its global partners. Unless the global economy recovers, India cannot experience robust recovery and, as the Prime minister also hinted at, there is a growing fear of protectionism. The glitches common to all the emerging economies - inflation, exchange rate and capital account problems — will make it harder for the government to attain sustainable development, especially in backward areas. Already there is plenty of disturbing news about the rise of insurgency in these backward regions which is going to be a security threat to investment.

Lastly, a rise in the interest rates will increase the debt service payments of the government because of its huge borrowings from the market. Interest payments already comprise 19 per cent of the government’s total expenditure. During the last two years since the global financial crisis began, the government has been generously doling out money to boost the consumer demand as a result of which this cost has escalated. With the interest rate hike, the government may find it difficult to increase social spending to counter the ill-effects of inflation on the poor, who have not only suffered from job losses due to the recession of the last two years, but have also fought malnutrition. As is well known, India has the highest number of malnourished children in the world.

How to govern the country better with fewer resources and also have inclusive development programmes may be one of the key challenges before India. Like India, the problem of rising internal debt and its servicing is also plaguing some of the countries of Europe and they are facing a double-dip recession. According to the IMF, India’s governmental debt is at 82 per cent of the GDP, up by 3 per cent from what it was two years ago. But India’s growth prospects are higher and the country may be saved from the double-dip recession scenario.

MIDDLE

“Mom” and “dad” to each other
by Rashmi Talwar

Nothing transcends geographical borders like the mom, dad, beta, baby syndrome that catches on with a long innings of a couple. I wondered who an elderly woman was addressing as “Abba” a man her own age, in Lahore till he answered “Ammi jaan…waqt par hun”.

It felt just like home merely 60 km away in Amritsar, where dad used to address mom as “Mummy” and mom vice-versa to dad as “Papa”. Now we too were doing that even before our silver wedding anniversary. It is not Lahore and Amritsar’s shared culture to be blamed for turning couples into each other’s mom-dad but a worldwide trend in marriages nearing a sterling silver.

I remember my most beautiful paternal aunt got married to a Merchant Navy guy. Exposed to countries other than “Mera Bharat Mahan” she addressed her husband “darling” and “sweetheart” as grandmother glared and we teenagers giggled. Tickled endlessly by the endearment, from Mills and Boons reading spree, we could not see the “darling” as the TDH (Tall-Dark-Handsome) but the not so familiar “sweet nothing” in Indian domestic circles surely stirred youthful longings.

A number of gifts from foreign lands kept granny mum but when a new daughter-in-law started the “darling” routine, granny mumbled her choicest expletives: “Hindustan vich reh ke, pati nu ‘darling darling’ kardi hai”. Our giggles were never ending . That was in 70s when we heard mothers call their husbands “Oh ji, Ay ji or Suno ji” and approving nods by grandmothers, till it became a hearty joke in films. Actually, schooling had changed all.

Often peer or parental nicknames either spread warmth of familiarity or turn one glacial in later life. My sister when addressed as Nane Shah felt prickly. ‘Petha’, ‘kaddu’, ‘nali cho-cho’, ‘tiddi’, ‘chiku’ ,’drum’, ‘elachi’ and ‘ghori’ were names of our tennis buddies. I felt that more often childhood names re-bonded the shared pranks but most don’t share my enthusiasm. Some even take offence over shortened names as familiarity no more fits them. So when I called my classmate, now a principal, by her short name, she boomed: “Call me Mrs Sandhu”.

However, my ‘darling’ aunt had a unique penchant for name-calling and so musical that none felt berated. A stay at her place was indeed enlightening. Early in the morning she exclaimed “Dhoop aa gayi” for the morning maid and “Raat aa gaya” for the evening servant. A vegetable and fruit vendor outside her house in the morning smiled widely when she asked him “Chor, itne din kio nahi aya?” while her grandchildren danced a merry-go-round with “chor aa gaya..chor aa gaya”. Why she called him “chor” is a long story.

However, some instances can hardly be forgiven. My husband called me by my pet Pomerian’s name: “My Guccu”. “Am I your dog now”, I retorted. “Oh my ‘Beta’, he said teasingly. Another time when I called my friend on mobile and called out “Dain” and somebody asked Seema who is “dain’, she replied: “Rashmi Honi hai…

OPED

Poverty of mind and media
IPL does not represent emerging India
by Aruti Nayar

How the other half lives

NOW that it is curtains down on IPL for the time being, we can get on with the business of focussing on real issues. Not only the media space but also precious Parliament time went on to debate the games our politicians play in the garb of sport. Just when we were devouring every sound bite and taking salacious delight in the masala that the IPL controversy had become, there was a tiny news report on how India now has 100 million more people living below the poverty line than in 2004, according to official estimates released last week. The estimates will remain “official”, this reality never becomes “personal”, thanks to the increasingly insular lives we lead.

There is no media space for such news because with the increasing focus on either celebrities or sports icons or politicians and their shenanigans, hard news has been edged out in this race to grab eyeballs. Newspapers compete not only with each other but also with the electronic media. The latter has an edge with its rapid-splice images suited for strapped-for-time individuals.

The stark reality

India now has 410 million people living below the UN-estimated poverty line

A third of the world’s poor are in India, living on less than $2 per day

The government spends only 1 per cent of the GDP on healthcare

Dismal social indicators should be a cause for concern but they do not make a dent into our consciousness because our preoccupations remain limited to our cocooned interests. Small wonder that this bystander apathy translates into social apathy and the youngsters, who are our resource for the future, too imbibe attitudes that make them self-centred. Such statistics rarely shock them into an awareness of how a vast majority of the populace lives, rather subsists.

There were surprised looks when at a get-together, a woman settled in the US for more than 40 years had said that she had specially sent her daughter to India to be aware of how there are people who barely get to eat, “to sensitise her to the plight of the people who do not have privileges which she takes so much for granted. It will help her grow up in the real sense.”

In the party that post-liberalised India has become, the poor have not only been edged out of the agenda but also out of news space and our mind space as well. The content and form of infotainment is fit for “the pastries” we have got used to (as an acerbic ex-boss would point to the lifestyle-related focus of the newspapers). He would compare this focus on trivia to junk and say the media needs to dish out real food. The dumbing down of content, focus on irrelevant, though seemingly “happening” (oh that buzz word that gives you an illusion of action even though you may be running to stay in the same place) ensure that the marginalised remain on the margins of our consciousness.

So comfortable is the middle class in its cocoon that it does not even feel the need to sensitise its children to the world down there, so diametrically opposed to the sheltered and cosy existence that we pull out all stops to provide to our kids. So it is a celebration of life with disposable incomes without ever feeling the presence of a vast economic divide.

Not that one can regiment the growth of children but an awareness of the yawning gap would not only generate an awareness of the schism but also ensure that the working professionals who emerge out of this pool are socially aware and at least know about the living conditions of a vast multitude, that a few may choose to act will be a bonus. In the absence of a social conscience and confusion of values, one has to consciously bring up a generation that is not narcissistic and connects to the society it lives in.

There are no absolutes but it is certainly not too much to expect that an effort should be made to inculcate some of this consciousness-raising in the formative years. How does one do it? Obviously through the two primary agents: the family and educational institutions, that is through child-rearing practices and moulding the educational syllabi. The latter are caught in a time warp and the process of sensitisation would go a long way if the policy-makers focus on “emerging India”.

Showing often works better than telling to the very young. There is no harm in aquainting our children with the filth, squalor and abysmal living conditions. Just as it would do no harm and perhaps a lot of good if we give a break to unbridled consumerism (which has contributed to this disconnect between society and individual) and tell our future citizens that there are so many like them who get no food, medicines or shelter.

Unlike the assumption that IPL represents “emerging India”, one would like to think and believe that emerging India has much more to offer us than shady deals and wheeling-dealing. It is up to us to channel the vast reservoirs of untapped energy and enthusiasm if we are to ensure they do “social networking” with a difference.

Haryana: Economically up, socially down
by Mahabir Jaglan

Despite taking a great leap forward in the economic sphere, Haryana continues to be socially underdeveloped. It lags behind a large number of states in the country in terms of access to education, healthcare, nutrition and sanitation. Social backwardness is also reflected in the discrimination against women in the social, economic and political spheres. In terms of the ratio of female/male child mortality (often taken as an index of gender equity), Haryana is bracketed with the worst-performing areas in the world.

Access to education, without doubt, is the most crucial indicator of social development. Women’s education in particular plays a vital role in the development process and overall social development. There are a number of studies revealing that it has a direct bearing on the quality of life of a family. It also ensures exceptionally high social returns in terms of lowering the rates of fertility and infant and child mortality. Moreover, the rise in the level of women education is also found to have a positive impact on child nutrition and education.

Haryana is among the five states – the other being Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — which exhibit extreme gender discrimination in the attainment of education. Rural women in the state are in the most disadvantageous position with regard to access to education. It is not a surprise as studies in the demographic and social history divulge that Haryana happens to be the part of the north-western territory of the country that has treated women insensitively. The position of rural women in the region has not improved substantially in the wake of growing prosperity in the rural economy in the last four decades or so. Rather the traditional cultural bias against females has persisted and remained entrenched.

The level of literacy may be taken as a broad indicator of social and cultural development in the rural society. The figures of literacy obtained from the 2001 Census reveal that in terms of female literacy 17 states are doing better than Haryana. The literacy level in Haryana is lower than that of Kerala, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Goa. Incidentally, all these states are far behind Haryana in economic development. The large gap in the literacy level of males and females (23 percentage points) and the urban and rural females (22 percentage points) in the state indicates the extent of social deprivation of rural women.

The north-eastern region of the state comprising the districts of Ambala, Yamunanagar and Panchkula lies beyond the influence zone of khap panchayats. It is not incidental that this region has the highest total literacy rate (73.56 per cent) and rural literacy rate (67.37 per cent) in the state. This region also records the highest female literacy rate (57.45 per cent) and the least gender disparity in rural area. On the other hand, the rural female literacy in the western and southern regions of the state is as low as 45 per cent.

When the level of educational attainment is seen in relation to different social groups, it presents interesting revelations. As expected the Scheduled Castes are placed at the bottom as their overall educational attainment rate is 37.89 per cent. But the socially and economically backward castes (artisan communities) are performing better than the socially and economically dominant intermediary (peasant) castes (Jats, Ahirs, Gujjar etc.) in the educational sphere.

It goes without saying that in Haryana khap panchayats wield considerable influence on the land-owning communities, particularly the Jats. Claiming to be the representative of the socially and economically dominant communities, these medieval institutions at the collective level carry the bandwagon of patriarchal value system which perpetuates discrimination against women in all spheres of life, including education.

Hence, it is no surprise that these communities have failed to maintain the desired pace in the educational sphere. It does not require further elaboration to conclude that the socio-spatial domain of the khap panchayats in Haryana is discernible by social backwardness and utmost gender bias. It does not require satellite imagery to interpret as what lies underneath the canopy of khap panchayats.

The writer is an Associate Professor of Geography in Kurukshetra University

Chennai Diary
Dhoni’s Tamil New Year
N. Ravikumar

WHEN Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni wished a happy Tamil New year last week, there was wild applause from the audience, accompanied by laughter. Dhoni too was pleased. But he was unaware of the reasons for the noisy cheers. Two years have passed since the Tamil Nadu government officially changed the Tamil calendar and fixed January 14 as the Tamil New Year Day instead of April 14.

The crowd knew that somebody had played a joke on Dhoni and the captain greeted the people with good intentions. Even though, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his cabinet colleagues were present in the stadium, none pointed out Dhoni’s mistake as the CSK captain is the blue-eyed boy of Chennai fans.

“While I went through the busy streets in my motor cycle last year, many people talked to me in Tamil. Though, I did not understand their language, I felt their love and affection for me”, he said, while greeting the people.

After Haryana’s hurricane, Kapil Dev, the present Indian captain is the most loved cricketer in Tamil Nadu. So the fans did not want to embarrass their hero by pointing out his mistake. “When Dhoni wishes, it is really the Tamil New Year for us”, quipped one of the fans.

Pyramid for the living

When Tamil Nadu Finance Minister K Anbazhagan compared the newly constructed state assembly to an Egyptian pyramid, there was an embarrassing silence in the treasury benches. The fact that pyramids are tombs for the dead could have weighed heavily on their minds.

Actually, the veteran leader was countering criticism by AIADMK members, who had compared the assembly building to a “circus tent”, a remark which annoyed the ruling party members.

He went on to compare it with Egyptian pyramids. Immediately realising that his remarks could be misconstrued, he added that the Egyptian pyramids were constructed for the dead, but this assembly building was for the welfare of the living people.

However, the opposition members were really amused. One of the AIADMK MLAs, who spoke to reporters outside, said: “Tamil Nadu is the only state which has built a pyramid for the living”.

Bride airlifted

After a long wait of several months, a male crocodile, belonging to the Tomistoma breed at the Madras Crocodile Bank has hopes of finding a mate. Since it is a rare breed, the reptile bank’s authorities were finding it tough to get a mate for the Tomistoma male.

Finally, it was decided to bring a female from the Ahmedabad zoo.. It was a tough journey for the female croc, which was packed in a wooden crate and airlifted.

After a tiresome four-hour journey, the eight-feet long female, landed at Chennai. The bride was not in a good mood as it was not accustomed to the new circumstances. So it has been kept in a separate enclosure, near the male Tomistoma. Now the groom can only watch and wait. Officials say the female will be ready in a few weeks.