Nainital, January 9
In rural Uttarakhand, women are contributing up to 90 per cent of the total work in agriculture and animal care. The participation rate of women in the economy of the state is much higher than several states and also the national average.

These facts have been highlighted in a research paper written by Neeta Bora Sharma and Neha Kirti Prasad of Kumaon University that was presented at a recent meet on the “Gender and Development in the World of Work and Health” held here.

The paper said: ”The work participation rate of women has been constantly increasing at a large extent than men in the state over the past few years. State women play a crucial role in agricultural development and allied fields, including crop production, livestock, horticulture, post-harvest operations, fisheries etc.

“Women participate in almost all the agriculture operations while the participation of male family members is confined to a limited number of operations,” it said.

The paper quotes another study that says that the women in the state devote as much as 62.17 per cent of time for outdoor activities, 21.11 per cent for indoor activities and 8.72 per cent for recreational activities.

It says that a woman usually works for 16.49 hours on a daily basis, and work related to agriculture and livestock consumes 29.35 per cent of her time.

The study further said collection of fuel, fodder and water collection were the tasks of drudgery as women need to travel long distances to fetch these. The paper also asserts that the level of education attainment of women and the number of adult family members on the households considerably influence the working pattern.

The paper further says: “It has been generally recognised that the work burden among women in the state was very high and that they have to participate in almost every household activity, including social and religious functions, in the absence of male family members. But the financial and other matters related to decision making, on an aspect, were more or less handled by male family members”.

“They are marginalised both inside and outside their houses, due to lack of independent economic status and control over income generating resources,” it said.

The paper points out that working on land and undertaking para-agricultural activities has clearly not led to women empowerment in the state. 

Dehradun, January 9
The critically injured Rajaji National Park pachyderm Tipu died last night after having a fall from a Railway bridge in the Motichoor area of the park.

The park authorities today buried the elephant in the close vicinity to the area of the mishap during afternoon hours even as Tipu’s tusks were kept in a safe custody.

Director, Rajaji National Park, SS Raisaily who himself supervised the burial confirmed presence of two veterinary doctors at the time of the conduct of the burial proceedings. He described Tipu’s death as a clear-cut case of a mishap.

Sixtyfive-year-old Tipu had injured himself critically after having a fight with a tusker on January 6. The Rajaji Park authorities had been since then administering treatment to the elephant, but then previous day’s fall brought Tipus end early.

Rajaji National Park officials will definitely be missing Tipu, whose association with the park spans over the past many decades. Tipu has been a subject of research for many biologists. Being a solo elephant, Tipu used to criss-cross the length and breadth of the park. His behaviour was a matter of interest to many wildlife film makers.

The Discovery Channel had come up with a film of Tipu some time back.

Large-mammal biologist Christy Williams, who had radio collared Tipu in 1996, left Kathmandu for the Rajaji National Park on hearing the news of his tragic death.

Tribune News Service
Uttarakhand is perhaps the only state in the country that has seen the decline of a regional political party since it came into being on November 9, 2000. Since the country attained Independence, and particularly in the past two decades, there has been a steady rise of the regional political forces with the rise of the regional and local aspirations and the failure of the national parties to meet these aspirations across the country.

Interestingly, it was a regional force that spearheaded the agitation for the separate state of Uttarakhand. This political force, known as the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), was in the forefront of the statehood agitation and finally succeeded when the state was formed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the Centre headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee. Many of the political analysts had predicted a good show by the UKD in the first-ever Assembly elections held in February 2002. The party bagged only four seats out of a total of 70, as most of the party senior leaders, including Diwakar Bhatt, the self-proclaimed “Field Marshal” of the statehood agitation, lost elections. It was tragic that the wife of Diwakar Bhatt could not reconcile with the political reality and committed suicide after hearing the election results. Her suicide in another way showed the frustration and resentment of the common people of the hills, who had made sacrifices to get their own state, against the marginalisation of the hills in Uttar Pradesh but felt cheated as the results of the first Assembly polls went in favour of the Congress. Since then, the UKD has been on a decline.

And there are reasons for it. The party failed to connect with the general masses, particularly in the plain areas of the state having maximum population. The party failed to come up with any coherent, feasible and practical manifesto or plan to be put before the populace of the state. The personal ambitions of the party leaders who thought themselves bigger than the organisation ultimately led to the downfall of the party.

In the second Assembly elections held in February, 2007, the party could get only three seats in the 70-member Assembly, but Diwakar Bhatt, riding on a sympathy wave, won the elections. The Assembly poll results gave another opportunity to the UKD to play an important role in the state politics as the main political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), fell short of majority and sought help from the UKD to form the government. The UKD obliged the BJP and became part of the government. It got a Cabinet berth and some other official positions for their senior leaders. Diwakar Bhatt, the senior-most leader of the party, became the Food and Supplies and Revenue Minister in the BJP Government on the promise that the agenda of the UKD, including making Garsain in Chamoli district the permanent capital of the state would be vigorously followed. The senior party leaders made the common party workers believe that they would pressurise the BJP-led Government to submit to their demands. But, on the contrary, the BJP won over the independent legislators and won two byelections to get a majority in the House.

In the bargain, the agenda of the UKD was never on the cards for the BJP Government but the UKD leaders stuck to their ministerial positions as there was resentment among the rank and file of the party. There were demands to come out of the government but the party leadership on some pretext or the other kept deferring the important decision as the state government entered its fourth year.

With a change in the party leadership, Trivendra Singh Panwar, protégé of Diwakar Bhatt, become the president of the UKD, but announced much to the chagrin of Diwakar Bhatt that the party would withdraw the support from the state government by year-end. To the surprise of the senior party leaders, Panwar did what he had said and decided to take back the support from the state government and asked Diwakar Bhatt to resign from the state government or face action. Bhatt, who had been running the party as a “Field Marshal” earlier refused to resign and was expelled by Panwar. Diwakar Bhatt has also managed to win over some of the senior leaders who have government positions. He has sought explanation from party president Panwar, practically splitting the party.

Diwakar Bhatt had earlier also split the party and headed a faction led by him. This time he has also managed to win over Om Gopal Rawat, another party legislator from Tehri, to his side and met Governor Margaret Alva to reaffirm their support to the state government.

Panwar on the other hand has made Pushpesh Tripathi, party legislator from Kumaon, as the leader of the legislature party, completing the split.

The common workers and leaders of the party are aghast at the attitude of their party leaders who preferred to enjoy the spoils of the offices than caring for the sentiments of the common people, who felt cheated. “We are politically doomed and we will have to suffer the anti-incumbency factor in the forthcoming Assembly elections in February 2012,” said a worker of the UKD.

Dehradun, January 9
The launch of ‘Muskan’, a pilot project under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), has brought cheer to children of labourers working in brick kilns in the Landoura area near Roorkee.

These underprivileged children now have an easy access to free education at their doorstep.

The region is home to migrant labourers from eastern UP, Bihar and other parts of the country. Considered viable working hands, the children miss out on formal school education.

The pilot project ‘Muskan’ developed to provide education to such deprived children was launched in the district last year.

“Of the 130 centres run under the Muskan project in the district, 115 centres are dedicated to the welfare of children of labourers working in the brick-kiln industry in Narsan block alone,” said BPS Rawat, district project in-charge of Muskan.

Landoura has 104 units and each unit has at least 20 children of a dozen families working at the brick kilns from October to July every year.

So far, 4,757 children have been enrolled in the district units and a budget of Rs 1.5 crore has been allocated to run them.

Under the project, free books, pencils, bags and stationery are provided to every child, and an instructor teaches more than 20 to 40 children in the premises of the kilns. If the number of children is less than 20, they are taught along with children of another centre. The children are taught up to the level of Class III.

The SSA plans to increase the number of these centres.

“We are conducting a block-wise survey and the situation about increasing the number of centres to 150 is likely to be clear by March,” said Rawat.

He said the department would make arrangements to issue result and transfer certificates to the children when they go back to their hometowns.

“While issuing transfer certificates, we recommend to the district education authorities to provide admission to the children in their government-run schools on priority,” he said.

Dehradun, January 9
Akranta today fought hard to beat Doon Valley 5-4 via sudden death to enter the final of the Great Vivekanand Memorial Football Tournament. The match was played on the Pavilion Grounds here.

The keenly contested semifinal ended in a goalless draw in the stipulated time. The two sides made some good attempts. However, both sides missed all the chances to move into the penalty-shootout round. Both sides struck four goals each in the tiebreaker and further moved into the sudden death round. Manoj, Basant, Pravin Rawat and Arpit scored for Akranta while Brijesh Thakur, Tarun Aswal, Ankur Dobhal and Prashant Gairola scored for Doon Valley. In the sudden death round, Anjul of Akranta struck a goal and turn the match in his side’s favour. Meanwhile, 2/3 Gorkha Rifle and Doon Star will play in the second semifinal tomorrow.

Dehradun, January 9
The Tanush Cricket Academy (TCA) registered a whopping 160-run victory over NICS, Doiwala, in the ongoing Uttarakhand Twenty20 League Championship held at the Survey Stadium, Hathibarkala, here today.

The winning team set a target of 195 runs for six in 20 overs. Manish (53), Suhant (38) and Kapil (35) were the principal scorers for the batting side, while bowlers Devrath and Bhavesh got three wickets each for NICS.

On the other hand, while batting, NICS was packed off for just 35 runs in 12.3 overs by TCA bowlers. In bowling, Preetum got maximum of four wickets while Pawan and Sushant got one wicket each for the winning team.