The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Punjabi power
Eight make it to Canadian Parliament

Parliamentary elections in Canada are as keenly contested as in India. Many of the electoral districts called ridings are dominated by Punjabis, so much so that in some, the candidates of all the mainstream parties are Punjabis. Even the candidates of other communities use Punjabi language for campaigning. For the people back in Punjab, the party label matters less than the number of Punjabis who make it to Parliament. In the May 2 elections this time, the number of Punjabis declared victorious has fallen to eight from nine last time, but what is being hailed is that the strength of Indo-Canadians on the Treasury benches will be six, against four in the last House. The 1.5-million strong community has been traditionally backing Liberals but winds of change are now blowing in favour of the Conservative Party.

The election saw four stalwarts – Ruby Dhalla, Sukh Dhaliwal, Ujjal Dosanjh and Gurbax Malhi – biting dust. That goes on the show that the support of the community cannot be taken for granted, especially when there are compatriots who are more active in public service. On the other hand, there was the case of Nina Grewal, who made her fourth entry into the House of Commons defeating among others a fellow Indo-Canadian woman Pam Dhanoa of Liberals.

This time, there were 24 Punjabi candidates in the fray – eight of the ruling Conservative Party, 10 of the main Opposition Liberal Party, five of the New Democratic Party (NDP), and one fielded by the Green Party. Six Conservatives emerged victorious, while two seats went to the NDP. The campaigning in Punjabi-dominated ridings was marred by malicious late-night prank calls, illegal lawn-sign tampering and tossing of eggs at houses bearing the election signs of opponents. One hopes that the bitterness will be forgotten soon enough. While the celebrations in the native villages of the winners focus on their Punjabi origin, what will promote their careers in Canada is their capacity to take along voters of all communities.

A whiff of fresh air
Women not always at receiving end

Talking of beti bachao abhiyan (save girl-child campaign) in itself is ironical in 21st century India. Now, a 22-year-old high school dropout maiden, Monica, is going to adopt the ritual of ghudchadi ( alight a horse and trot as a symbol of victorious return) in Kuparwas village of Bhiwani district of Haryana before her marriage. Something the grooms-to- be have been doing for centuries. In a society where symbolism carries more relevance, the gesture could bear some consequence.

Stallion owners, who train victorious horses for a derby, also prepare horses who continue to lose to the winner horse. They have a well formulated system to keep this balance. The loser and the winner are conditioned psychologically in following their well charted-out path. In all the patriarchal societies, women are conditioned through a complex network of traditions and customs to be that loser, so that their male counterpart could remain a winner. The traditions begin even before the birth of a child, and continue till death, leaving deep impression on the mind. From the blessings showered on a woman like- putravati bhav, saubhagyavati bhav ( may you be blessed with sons and husband), the nature of marriage vows which demand a woman to be obedient to his husband and his family to dozens of fast and rituals meant to celebrate a man in a woman’s life have not changed over centuries, though so much has changed around us, from technological interventions in our life to economic emancipation of women. The tightly knit patriarchal chain that controls religion, rituals and tradition has never spared a thought for a woman’s desirability in her own eyes. If she has a desirable space in society, it is a secondary issue. This is a result of such well- programmed brain-washing carried out by rituals and traditions that millions of so- called educated women do not wish to bear daughters. The depth of erosion of their self esteem remains immeasurable.

In such a scenario, if a semi- literate belle from a region notoriously known for killing its daughters dares to indulge in what is typically a male chauvinistic gimmick (performed by Rekha on celluloid a few years back), even the gimmick is a welcome change.

Thought for the Day

Every man has his follies — and often they are the most interesting things he has got.

— Josh Billings

ARTICLE

Implications of Osama’s death
US needs Pakistan for success in Afghanistan
by Harsh V. Pant

THE ordinary Americans are jubilant and it’s a shot in the arm for a besieged US President Barack Obama. After deploying enormous resources and manpower to tracking down the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, the US can finally claim success in an enterprise that took almost ten years to come to fruition. And psychologically, this is an important moment for the US too. A power that has been talked about in terms of its decline, economic and military, has shown that Washington still commands the most formidable fighting machinery in the world.

Bin Laden, the son of a billionaire Saudi Arabian contractor, was wanted by the United States not only for the Sept. 11 attacks but also for Al-Qaida’s bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, which killed 224 civilians and wounded more than 5,000 people. The U.S. government had offered a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture or death. Bin Laden was killed in a raid by the US special forces on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. He was buried at sea after a Muslim funeral on board an aircraft carrier in the north Arabian Sea. Hailing the death of Osama bin Laden as a “good day for America,” Obama said “”Today we are reminded that as a nation there is nothing we can’t do.” But in a sign of the dangers that lie ahead, the US has put its embassies around the world on alert, warning Americans of the possibility of Al-Qaida reprisal attacks for bin Laden’s killing. CIA director Leon Panetta said Al-Qaida would “almost certainly” try to avenge the death of bin Laden.

Washington is using this rare opportunity to send a message to the extremist Taliban movement fighting to make a comeback in Afghanistan, where it had harboured bin Laden and Al-Qaida before being driven from power by the U.S.-backed Afghan forces in November 2001. The message: give up hope of defeating the U.S. and NATO forces, renounce Al-Qaida and join the political process. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has vowed that the United States “will continue to take the fight to Al-Qaida and its Taliban allies.” Appearing at the State Department, she said, “Even as we mark this milestone, we should not forget that the battle to stop al-Qaeda and its syndicate of terror will not end with the death of Bin Laden.” She added: “Our message to the Taliban remains the same, but today it may have even greater resonance. You cannot wait us out. You cannot defeat us. But you can make the choice to abandon Al-Qaida and participate in a peaceful political process.”

This is significant as the narrative of American decline that was fostered by bin Laden is now being used by the Taliban who believe that the US has no stomach for a fight and will soon withdraw. From Taliban to Hamas, organisations are also expressing their sympathies for the “martyrdom” of bin Laden. A spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the Pakistan-based strand of the movement, made it clear that the group would seek revenge. “Pakistani rulers, President Zardari and the army will be our first targets. America will be our second target”. The Afghan Taliban meanwhile is planning to launch a special offensive, called Bader, to avenge the Al-Qaida leader. “Losing him will be very painful for the mujahideen, but the ‘shahadat’ [martyrdom] of Osama will never stop the jihad,” the commander of this group has suggested. There is also the Palestinian Hamas, whose top leader in the Gaza Strip has mourned bin Laden as an “Arab holy warrior.” Ismail Haniyeh, who is Hamas’s prime minister, said that “we regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.”

But the most important challenge of this development will be faced by the Pakistani security establishment. The United States did not share any intelligence with foreign governments, including Pakistan’s. Pakistan for years had insisted that bin Laden was not on Pakistani soil. And now bin Laden is found in a compound in Abbottabad, just a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Military Academy — the country’s equivalent of West Point or Sandhurst. Bin Laden had been in a large building with high walls so close to an army base without the knowledge of the Pakistani security forces. It will undoubtedly be a huge embarrassment to Pakistan that Bin Laden was found not only in the country, but also at the doorstep of the military academy. Ironically, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s military chief, had visited the military academy in Abbottabad just over a week ago and, in a speech, said his troops had “broken the backs” of militants.

The Pakistani government’s failure to discover bin Laden’s whereabouts will only reinforce suspicions in Washington and elsewhere that Islamabad is either not committed to the U.S.-backed fight against Islamist militancy or is playing a dangerous game by sheltering terrorists even as it pledges to fight militant groups. New Delhi has long warned Washington of this double game and Washington in recent years has been well aware of this. But the US still needs Pakistan if it is to succeed in Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has suggested that co-operation from Pakistan helped lead the Americans to bin Laden.

Nevertheless, the death of Osama bin Laden puts the US in the driving seat once again and will give a new momentum to the US military’s operations in Afghanistan. It remains to be seen if this will allow the US to force Pakistan to mend its ways in its policies vis-à-vis India and Afghanistan. The past does not offer a particularly optimistic prognosis.

MIDDLE

Colour of money
by Mahesh Grover

A late night knock on a winter night elicited a question from my Man Friday: “Who is it?”

“Balbir Daku”, was the reply, which resulted in a scampered disappearance of my servant to the safe confines of his room, leaving me to answer the door with my terrified wife by my side.

I rose to open the door, but found myself rooted to the floor, not on account of fear, but of the steadfast clasp of the lady by my side, desperately pleading with me not to open the door.

I told her that the gentleman, sorry the person outside, was a regular client who came from my own village and most probably he had come with good intentions of engaging my services as a lawyer and not to deplete our scant resources.

She, however, would not relent, and as the knock on the door grew louder I intensified my efforts to gently disengage my ankle from her entreating clasp,with reassuring words that neither her “Suhag” nor her celebrations for the impending “Karva Chauth” were threatened in any way.

Having succeeded in disengaging myself, I opened the door to the greetings of an impatient person having been made to wait longer than required. On seeing my wife, who clung to my elbow, he respectfully folded his hands and said, “Namaste Maaji”.

I saw the colour of her face change to an angry red, as she stomped out of the room, eyes flashing, feeling insulted at conferment of the exalted status of a matronly mother upon as young a lady as her.

I attended to the visitor, who handed me sheaves of papers to file an appeal and then after the niceties of talk he departed giving me my demanded fee.

I returned to my wife who still seethed with anger and handed over the money to her for safekeeping.

“I will not touch this money. It is coming from a dacoit”.

I gently told her that in a lawyer’s profession, very often his duty requires him to cater to clients who have dubious credentials and money is money.

“Keep it yourself,” was the terse reply, and “How dare he refer to me as Maaji?”

I understood where the shoe pinched and kept quiet.

After a few days I noticed a glistening necklace on her neck and observing my gaze she said, “For Karva Chauth”.

“Good”, I said, even as the suspicion gripped me that Daku Balbir’s money had been put to good use, which gradually turned into a belief and then certainty.

I was, however, bemused, recalling her earlier revulsion to the man and his money and recalled what James Hadley Chase once wrote and truly so, “The Colour of Money is green”.

Today scams are popping up faster than corns in a popcorn machine and scamsters don the hats of respectability which wealth provides them, no matter what the colour of their deed is, unlike the unpretentious brigand — because the colour of money is green.

OPED — HEALTH

The perils of ignoring primary health care
Rather than improving their response capacity and anticipating new challenges, health systems seem to be drifting from one short-term priority to another
Rajeshwari

IN Independent India, rural health care services have been broadly developed on the lines of recommendations of the Bhore Committee. These were (i) provision of free medical care to all without distinctions, (ii) integration of preventive and curative services at all administrative levels and (iii) diversion of major health care resources in terms of medical relief and preventive health care to its vast rural population. Rural population and rural health care services, however, remained neglected till late 70s and this was reflected in wide variations in various parameters of health status in terms of rural-urban gap in child survival, infant and child mortality, maternal mortality and in health-seeking behaviour during ailments.

Thirty years ago there was a paradigm shift in thinking about how to provide better health to all its population. The Alma Ata Conference in 1982 mobilised a "Primary Health Care movement" of professionals and institutions, governments and civil society organisations, researchers and grassroots organisations that undertook to tackle the "politically, socially and economically unacceptable" health inequalities in all countries. The Declaration of Alma Ata was clear about the values pursued: social justice and the right to better health for all, participation and solidarity. Today the human resource development success story of various countries in terms of health suggests that the PHC has remained the benchmark for those countries' discourse on health. In these countries the PHC movement tried to provide rational, anticipatory response to health needs of these societies and social expectations.

SHORTCOMINGS

There is an overall shortage of medical personnel in Haryana. District level health survey of 2007-8 shows that there is a shortage of general surgeons to the tune of 75 per cent against required at CHC level. Similarly, 68 per cent of Lady Medical Officers' posts were lying vacant in PHCs in rural Haryana, besides the deficiency of other paramedical staff at PHC and sub centre levels.

What is more shocking is the recent announcement of the Haryana government to withdraw 285 posts of medical officers from the PHCs and the CHCs on the pretext that PHC services remain underutilised in rural areas. The underutilisation of rural health services may be true, but it is largely due to the poor quality of these services.

There is tremendous increase in the health cost and given the nature of diseases and in absence of health manpower in public sector, rural population is left to fend for itself at the mercy of either private practitioners or quacks.

There is lack of proper diagnostic facilities, lack of doctors, poor hygiene conditions, lack of essential drugs and also the absence of strong referral facilities

Being signatory to Alma Ata Declaration, India too had formulated National Health Policy in 1982 and reorganised its health service delivery as a three-tier structure with Sub Centres, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres. Each had a role in provision of preventive, curative and supervisory outreach services. The result of this was witnessed in terms of eradication of various deadly diseases, increase in immunisation levels, care of expectant mothers and safe deliveries, acceptance of family welfare programmes and health awareness.

In the state of Haryana too, health service infrastructure has recorded a praiseworthy growth since inception of the state and impact of development of infrastructure is seen in terms of decline in crude death rate from 45 to 7.5 per thousand population, infant mortality rate from 108 to 56 per thousand live births and significant decline in incidence of number of epidemics during 1970 to 2004-5. Similarly, population served per primary health centre (PHC) is about 42,000 at present in comparison to more than 1 lakh population in 1980s, indicating the establishment of PHCs during later decades.

National norms

It may also be noted that the national norms of provision of PHC is 30,000 as envisaged in the National Health Policy of 1982. The state still lacks requisite number of hospitals, PHCs, and CHCs as suggested in policy papers and being revised as per the National Rural Health Mission programme. The state official document (DGHS) agrees to the fact that there is an overall shortage of medical personnel. District level health survey of 2007-8 shows that there is a shortage of general surgeons to the tune of 75 per cent against required at CHC level. Similarly, 68 per cent of Lady Medical Officers' posts were lying vacant in PHCs in rural Haryana, besides, the deficiency of other paramedical staff at PHC and sub centre levels.

What is more shocking is the recent announcement of the Haryana government to withdraw 285 posts of medical officers from the PHCs and the CHCs on the pretext that PHC services remain underutilised in rural areas. The underutilisation of rural health services may be true, but it is largely due to the poor quality of these services. Among those are lack of proper diagnostic facilities, lack of doctors, poor hygiene conditions, lack of essential drugs and also the absence of strong referral facilities.

Ill-advised move

One cannot throw away the baby with bath water. The present health system has evolved over a long period of time. One would agree that at the time of the formation of the state, there was a general shortage of doctors and medical staff in all districts as only 40 per cent of the medical staff were in position. Today's health system is a long-drawn process achieved with greater efforts and larger thinking on the lines of equity and well being. One cannot penalise the rural population for our own inefficiency of maintaining the standards. Withdrawing of medical officers would lead to further deterioration in the quality of rural health services, leaving a vast rural population at the mercy of private practitioners and quacks.

It is true that the purchasing power of rural population has also increased over a period of time in Haryana. But at the same time, this is also fact that quackery is rampant in the region. Further, there is tremendous increase in the health cost and given the nature of diseases and in absence of health manpower in public sector, the rural population is left to fend for itself at the mercy of either private practitioners or quacks.

Better response

The need is to address the inefficiency and poor quality of rural health services by making them to respond better and faster to the challenges of a changing world. In many regards, the response of the health sector to the changing world has been inadequate. With development, the age structure of population got modified. The disease pattern has been changing. Rather than improving their response capacity and anticipating new challenges, health systems seem to be drifting from one short-term priority to another, increasingly fragmented and without a clear sense of direction. The need for making health systems more effective and equitable is often missed.

In this era of globalisation, when heath needs are changing fast, we can certainly achieve Health For All through this vastly developed health care infrastructure based on primary care. Only through Primary Health Centres which were envisaged as coordinator of more comprehensive response, can we provide better value for money than its alternatives.

The writer is from Kurukshetra University