The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Leaking exam system
Whole mafia needs to be exposed, weeded out

The All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) is one of the most prestigious and keenly contested – with over 12 lakh taking it. If the question paper of even such an examination gets leaked, one’s faith in the education system tends to get shaken. That is what happened on Sunday, with reports from Uttar Pradesh saying that the paper was being sold for Rs 6 lakh. While that is an alarming matter, it is some solace for the CBSE and the police that they not only managed to arrest the culprits but also succeeded in conducting the examination on the same day, with just a few hours’ delay. This could be possible only because of advance planning, under which the board kept extra sets of questions ready at secret locations and managed to send a new question paper to examination centres as soon as the leak was discovered. However, the postponement of examinations did cause a lot of trouble to students, since many of them came to the venues from far-off places. What compounded their difficulties was the fact that the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) examination was also scheduled for the same day.

An AIEEE question paper was leaked in 2003 also. It means that a determined mafia is in operation and it needs to be exposed and weeded out thoroughly. This time, the culprits are learnt to belong to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Bihar. What needs to be investigated is whether they had links with some board officials also.

And this is not the only examination which has been thus compromised. The papers of IIT, CAT and Common Law Admission Test have also been leaked out in the past. Apparently, there are enough unscrupulous persons who want to clear the tests by hook or crook and an equal number of those who want to help them out for pecuniary considerations. Perhaps some leakages in the past went unnoticed. Anybody who managed to get admission on the basis of leaked question papers can be depended on to have decidedly inferior morals later in life. Educationists and administrators need to put their heads together to nip this evil forcefully.

The missing copter
Get to the root of mishaps

The failure of search operations to trace the Pawan Hans helicopter that went missing on Saturday morning with Arunachal Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others on board following the snapping of links with ground control 20 minutes after it took off from the Tawang helipad in Arunachal Pradesh is both sad and puzzling. That this was the third aircraft to have ostensibly crashed in the Northeast in the last fortnight should set the aviation authorities thinking why this area is so accident-prone and whether the necessary safeguards are taken in flying there. Also, the airworthiness of our helicopters needs to be examined threadbare. The aviation authorities say that if Mr Khandu’s helicopter had crashed, the emergency locator transmitter should have been beeping continuously which it has not being doing. But if it did not crash, where has it gone? Besides, it is strange that the pilots had not called for the mandatory weather briefing if the statement made by the Guwahati airport-based Regional Meteorological Centre is any indication.

The spate of incidents in that region bordering Tibet in China is itself a major puzzle. On April 19, a Pawan Hans crashed at Tawang heliport killing 17 people. On April 21 an IAF chopper crashed near Gangtok killing four personnel on board. Even earlier, there have been many such mishaps. On November 19 last year, 11 Air Force personnel and an Army Lieutenant-Colonel were killed when an Air Force MI-17 helicopter crashed near the China frontier. In 2009, an IAF AN-32 aircraft crashed at Mechunka killing all 13 defence personnel. In May 2001, Arunachal education minister Dera Natung and five others were killed when their Pawan Hans craft crashed near Tawang and in November 1997, minister of state for defence NVN Somu, Major-General Ramesh Nagpal and two others died when their Cheetah helicopter hit a 1,300 feet peak near Tawang.

One can only hope that the search operations which have been hampered by inclement weather would bear fruit soon. It would then be incumbent on all concerned to get to the root of this and take corrective action.

Thought for the Day

Everything you do can be done better from a place of relaxation. — Stephen C. Paul

ARTICLE

India versus China
The importance of inclusive growth
by Jayshree Sengupta

In many ways India and China are running parallel growth stories. India’s exports were $246 billion in March and China’s were close to $1.5 trillion. India clocked average GDP growth of 8.5 per cent this fiscal year and China experienced 9.7 per cent growth. China is the second most important economy in the world and is so powerful that even the US is constantly worried about its next move. In particular, the Americans are worried about the huge trade surplus China has with the US, and the fact that the yuan remains undervalued giving the Chinese a distinct cost advantage. China’s dollar reserves grew to $3.05 trillion in April 2011 and it is the largest holder of US government bonds. The Chinese on their part do not think it is their responsibility alone to correct world imbalances and do not want to talk about the revaluation of the yuan and disallowed any discussion about its exchange rate in the recent BRICS meeting in China.

Yet, surprisingly, whenever you meet Chinese officials and academics they always call China a developing nation. One wonders why high economic growth has not gone to their heads. According to the official view, China is still not a rich country because there are social disparities and there still are a large number of poor there. China may have economic clout that the world fears, but it is still not happy with its own development pattern, especially in terms of the well-being of each citizen and the growing inequalities. In terms of per capita income, it lags behind many developed countries. But in terms of infrastructure, it is ahead of many OECD countries. In its 12th Plan (2011-2015), China wants its growth to be “well-being-oriented” and home market-oriented and also wishes to have a low carbon model.

China’s exponential export growth has benefited industrialized big cities, and the jobs are also there in these cities. Restrictions on migration and land sales have not allowed the prosperity to spread to the countryside. One does indeed come across primitive living conditions in villages in the interior of China where in terms of housing, sanitation, school facilities and health care, these are comparable to the situation in India in the poorer states. The decentralized political structure is also not helping in alleviating poverty in some of the poorer provinces which are not able to spend as much as the richer provinces do on social welfare, and there is a shortage of service sector providers in terms of medicines, education and finance and banking in poorer provinces. China, however, was able to bring about a rapid decline in poverty during the last 30 years and now only 6 per cent of its population remains poor.

Recently, the Government of India in the latest blueprint for the 12th Plan ( 2012 to 2017) talked of 9 to 9.5 per cent growth and poverty reduction. The official data, however, reveals that health and education received only 60 per cent of the projected allocation in the 11th Plan. But we get an optimistic poverty estimate and the Planning Commission has declared that there was a decrease in poverty in the 11th Five Year Plan by 5 per cent.

This means that only 32 per cent of the population in India is poor— down from the officially accepted Tendulkar Committee estimate of poverty of 37 per cent of the population. There are, however, sharp differences in poverty estimates by other committees appointed by the government in the past. It depends on the benchmark income that is adopted for calculating poverty. If it is taken to be Rs 20 and Rs 11 a day per person for urban and rural income, respectively, naturally there will be fewer poor than the actual numbers. The Supreme Court rightly pointed this out recently.

Interestingly, the Supreme Court has also raised an important question as to why there are starvation deaths in certain pockets of the country. Justice Dalveer Bhandari has asked, “When you have godowns full and people are starving, what is the benefit? You cannot have two Indias.”

This talk of “two Indias” has raised some urgent issues that need to be focused upon. In the 12th Plan, the states in which there is rampant malnourishment, high maternal mortality, disease and chronic poverty should be given special attention. While it has been announced by the government that the planned spending on health is supposed to be doubled from around 1.3 per cent of the GDP (one of the lowest in the South Asian region) to 2.25 per cent by the end of the next Plan, more spending should be allowed in the backward states.

Unfortunately, we seem to be talking mainly of the achievable high GDP growth, fiscal consolidation, double digit (11 per cent) industrial growth and not on the reasons for the slow progress in achieving inclusive growth. It has now been admitted by the government that India will not be able to meet the Millennium Goals as far as the eradication of malnourishment is concerned. India has the largest number of malnourished children in the world. Just like China is concerned with growth that is “well-being-oriented”, India should also be concerned with inclusiveness in a more meaningful way.

Much more than China, India needs cheap housing, eradication of malnourishment and 100 per cent adult literacy. But as everyone knows, whatever money is allocated is not always spent in the right direction, and implementation is faulty.

The Indian government should at least admit that faster poverty reduction, eradication of malnourishment and high maternal mortality are the main problems in this country, and poverty and lack of jobs are the root cause for the social unrest that India is facing. People without jobs will always become restless and violent. There would have to be more jobs in the villages and in the manufacturing sector, otherwise there cannot be a reduction in poverty. Encouraging local talent through training and access to credit can lead to more jobs in handicrafts and handloom production, especially for women. Skill training of youth has to be emphasised and agricultural productivity has to be increased. And like China, for India, the home market-oriented production will be important in the future for sustainable growth and in lowering India’s carbon footprint.

There are many good things about India, specially the freedom of speech, movement and protest that we enjoy as compared to the Chinese. But they seem to be taking stock of what has not been achieved by their high GDP growth and we should also be more concerned with the well-being, health and education of all Indians for a more harmonious society.

MIDDLE

The Neem Tree and I
by Kaycee Verma

Everyone who enters into service of the Government of India retires one day. This truth is absolute. And yet, there are unprepared fools who approach retirement with growing panic and term it as the ‘Male Menopause’.

For the past several years, I had been assuring my wife that I would find many ways of staying busy after my retirement. There would be many parties to attend, books to read and books to write. As a last resort, I could always sit under the Neem tree that we can see from our flat and read a newspaper there from morning till evening.

Immediately after my retirement, I attended a series of parties. It was after a particularly boisterous celebration, when I returned very late, that the wife exercised her veto power. “No more parties from tomorrow,” she said. “Learn to stay at home like a respectable elderly person!”

In silent protest, I stationed myself in the balcony from early next morning and kept reading and rereading the newspaper. There was little to see from the balcony. Kids playing in the streets, a dog watering the Neem tree, housewives hanging out the wash, one listless cow. Monotonous.

At around noon, I called out, “Darling, could you make a cup of tea for me, please?”

“Do you think you are sitting in your office?” my darling yelled back.

After lunch, I again stationed myself in the balcony. In stony silence.

The next five or six days passed in the same sullen manner.

On the seventh day, the wife was clearly agitated when she returned after purchasing vegetables. “You lecherous good-for-nothing! Now I know why you sit in the balcony! Mrs Khanna complained that you keep peeping at her from behind your newspaper!”

“Who is Mrs Khanna?” I asked with righteous indignation.

“Aha! You pretend you do not even know the woman you have been ogling! Now onwards, you will not go out to the balcony!”

For the next 10 days of detente, I did not budge out of our living room.

But trouble was brewing.

And one day, the maid said to the wife, “Madam, I will not come to work from tomorrow. I can’t work in a house where a retired man sits around the whole day long.”

“What is the problem with a retired man in the house?” asked the wife, genuinely perplexed.

“Retired men have nothing to do. They keep staring at the maids.”

The wife looked at me. My look of injured innocence counted for nothing against the spectre of stacks of dirty dishes in a maid-less home.

“You dirty old man!” she hissed, “Get out of the house and stay out!” And quite summarily, I was pushed out of my home. The door slammed shut behind me.

Outside, I met Mrs. Singh, our next door neighbour, who was returning after fetching her young son from school.

“Uncle”, she said in a treacly voice, “Why don’t you help us by bringing Munna back from school every day? The school is just a kilometre away and the walk will be so good for your health.”

I resisted a strong temptation to tell Mr. Singh what she could do with her suggestions regarding my health and carried on downstairs. To the Neem tree. Under which I now sit, reading a newspaper.

I have had no difficulty in getting used to my retirement. If only the rest of the world could also get used to it soon!

OPED — SOCIETY

Along the 151 kms long India- Bangladesh border in Murshidabad district, children are used extensively for smuggling and sex work. Their rehabilitation remains a challenge, as they find sex work and smuggling more lucrative than beedi- rolling or gamchha weaving.
Children on the Border
Usha Rai

Monika Deb (name changed) is a sex worker in the red light area of Kalabagen, Shamsherganj block of Murshidabad, close to the Bangladesh border. Her clients include cross border smugglers, medical representatives, senior school students and those guarding India’s frontiers. Over the years she has learnt to live and cope with the sleaze and filth of commercial sex work. However, a month ago even she was rattled when sexual overtures were made to her 10-year-old daughter.

At two well kept rooms in a hut on the Jalangi roadside leading to Farrakka, Amona Bibi, just 35, runs a thriving flesh trade business. Her clients include the lower ranks of those guarding the borders as well as the truck drivers ferrying goods to Bangladesh. She makes anything from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 a day. A mother of three, she supplies young girls to her clients. Girls, on their way to school or, on their way back, come with a set of clothes which they change into and provide service, for which she pays them Rs 1000. If a school going girl gets pregnant, abortion services are provided by Amona Bibi and its back to business as usual.

No condom, no sex please!

There is a glimmer of hope at Bangladesh border. There is high awareness about HIV and AIDS and most of sex workers refuse to entertain clients who do not use a condom. “Condom promotion has been highly successful,” says Ameena Mariam, peer educator at NACO’s ( National Aids Control Organisation) drop in centre on the road leading to Farrakka. This is an extremely busy stretch of the highway for sex work. Some 50 to 60 trucks are parked on the roadside day and night and on either of the road are shacks where clients are entertained. Some 200 sex workers operate on this stretch of the road. The women have received the female condom and use it, though they are not comfortable with it. Regular supply of condoms is ensured by NACO and other agencies. Despite various precautions, 12 of the 200 have tested positive for HIV. Four women have died of AIDS.
Women are taken for regular blood tests and ensured medication when needed. When a HIV positive case surfaces, even the Babus (pimps) who live with the women are tested.

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence
n The Central Law Commission report on the Foreigners Amendment Bill- 2000 estimated the clandestine cross border trade between India and Bangladesh is at $ 5 billion.
n A bottle of phensedyl that costs Rs 75 in India, sells for Rs 700 in Bangladesh.
n A profit of Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 is made on each cattle smuggled.
n 500 girls are rescued every year from Mumbai and Delhi brothels.
n The number of girls trafficked from Nepal has reduced now.
n A sex worker makes anything from Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 a day at the border, and involves less risk.

All the 300 odd women working in red- light area of Shamshergunj depend on babus ( pimps) for sheer survival and emotional needs. They too are a threat for girls reaching puberty.

These were just two of the many horrendous stories on the insecurity of adolescents living on the border villages, shared with a group of NGOs, researchers and journalists who travelled the 151 kms Indian border to Bangladesh in Murshidabad District.

There is extensive use of children for smuggling and sex work on the India/Bangladesh border. Young Bangladeshi girls are also trafficked into India with promise of jobs. Men posing as businessmen, entrepreneurs from India live in the villages of Bangladesh and after winning the confidence of the villagers ‘marry’ girls and bring them to India --then sell them in Mumbai, Delhi and other places.

Bangladeshi girls replace their Nepali counterparts

NGOs like the Kolkata-based Sanjog working on cross border as well as intra country sex trafficking have seen a decline in the number of girls from Nepal in the brothels of Mumbai. However, there is an increase in Bangladeshi women in sex work. Roop Sen, secretary of Sanjog, says, there are no accurate estimates of the number of adolescents/ women being trafficked into India or from different parts of India to the brothels of Mumbai. However, he says 500 girls are rescued every year from Mumbai and Delhi and sent to shelter homes or reunited with their families. But rehabilitating these youngsters remains a challenge. They may be engaged in rolling bidis, making gamchhas (hand woven light towels) or in agricultural work, but the returns are not good enough for young people who have seen more money in the destinations to which they were trafficked. An estimated 20 percent are re-trafficked or migrate again for work.

India’s border with Bangladesh is well populated and largely porous despite the large tracks of thickly fenced areas guarded by the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on either side. It’s an active border with smuggling by children and trafficking of women and children in disturbing proportions. The Central Law Commission report on the Foreigners Amendment Bill 2000 estimated the clandestine cross border trade between the two countries at $ 5 billion. Sanjog’s research looks at issues of the rural adolescent in poverty, affected by the rapid political and economic changes in South Asia.

Rehabilitation blues

Adolescents and older children of sex workers in Murshidabad have approached the CWC (child welfare committee) as well as SPMUS (Suprava Panchashila Mahila Uddyog Samity), an NGO which has been working for protection, prevention and empowerment of women and children in red light areas in Murshidabad district since 1993, to run a separate home for them so that they don’t have to struggle with the stigma of being children of prostitutes.

A high, seasonal drop out of children attending the school is observed so that they can be engaged in smuggling. In fact SPMUS did a study in 2007 showing 300 children of 8 to 14 years smuggling from six spots of the border—Jalangi, Sheikhpara, Sagarpara, Bhagwan Gola, Lal Gola and Shamsherganj.

Children, who have traditionally herded cattle, used to take the animals through one of the illegal ghats or border crossings in the hope that the security forces would be kinder to them. But as the fences came up and the vigilance on the border increased, the number of cattle being smuggle dropped substantially.

At Farrakka, Sheikh (26) from Bangladesh said till two years ago he was smuggling cattle. Purchasing four to 10 cows from the haat in India he would take them through Dhuliyan into Bangladesh. After bribing various people for his illegal operation he made a profit of Rs 2000 to Rs 5000 on each cow. Now he is in the sex trade which is more lucrative and rouses less suspicion.

Juveniles used as smugglers

What is more disturbing is the use of children to smuggle phensedyl, a cough syrup used as a narcotic drug and banned in Bangladesh. Quite clearly it is with the tacit support of parents for some of it is put in their school bags. Women smuggle it across in pockets stitched into their petticoats and undergarments. A bottle of phensedyl that costs Rs 75 in India, sells for Rs 700 in Bangladesh. At Fulbari, where there is a 12.5 kms barbed wire fencing and the BSF jawans work in six hour shifts- patrolling on cycles, village women are asked to search suspected female carriers. A woman had 10 bottles of phensedyl on her. At night families living on the Indian side of the fence use mobiles to alert relatives on the other side of the fence and literally chuck bottles of the banned drug to them when the jawan on patrol is some distance from them. Some 200 metres further is the actual border with a BDR outpost. Till women constables are inducted into the BSF, search of adolescent girls and women carriers is a problem.

The smuggling of rice, which costs Rs 17 a kg in India and is sold across the border at Rs 40, is rampant. Old women and children can be seen lugging huge bundles of rice across the sandy river beds, past ferry ghat to Bangladesh. Before walking or swimming (depending on the season) with their bags, the rice is weighed in shacks that have come up close to the ghats. SPMUS study shows that smuggling is at its peak in the four months of the monsoon. This is also the time when school dropout rate is maximum.

Children caught smuggling are produced by the BSF before the Juvenile Justice Board in Murshidabad.

Day-care centres for children

While many of the sex workers have been able to segregate their children—leave them with parents or send them to residential schools, there are umpteen others living with their mothers, exposed to sexual innuendos. Since 2007 SPMUS has been running two day- care cum night shelters for children of sex workers at Shamsherganj and Behrampore. These efforts have paid dividends. SPMUS tries to wean the children from the trauma of living in a red light area and counsels them but many mothers want to be with their children when not with clients.

At Shamsherganj red light area, where there is a strong committee of sex workers, no girl below 19 is allowed to practice.

The inevitable pimp

Babus- glorified pimps who live with the sex workers and get clients for them could also be potential threats to children of sex workers. The women depend on them for their emotional and economic needs and trust them completely. Some of them cook, look after their children and get medical aid when the women fall sick.

All the 300 odd women working in the red light area of Shamsherganj have babus who live on their earnings, though they may do sundry other jobs. The sex worker has to pay the babu as well as the owner of the hut on the roadside that she brings her clients to, so she has to earn enough for her upkeep, food, education of children and the babu.

(The writer is an eminent development journalist)