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On record
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Good news Standing tall: Ramesh Gauns, who achieved the impossible by keeping away the mining mafia from his village.
Photo: Anil Patil
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‘Most Indian girls justify wife-beating’
Aditi Tandon talks
to Frederika Meijer UNFPA India Representative We can’t continue to deprive young boys and girls of the knowledge of their bodies.
They will get that information anyway and when they do, they are at the risk of misleading
information.
Since assuming charge in May 2011, Meijer has been monitoring India’s progress on the crucial UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reduction in maternal and infant mortality, helping the Ministry of Health identify gaps and bridge them. Excerpts: What are the challenges for India, which will house 315 million 60-plus people by 2050? Just as all things fade, so would India’s youth dividend. Between 2000 and 2050, the overall population of the country is anticipated to grow by 60 per cent, but the population of the elderly will grow by 360 per cent and the number of older women will exceed the number of older men by 18.4 million, which adds up to the population of Mumbai and Ahmadabad put together for 2011. Given this, the government must prepare ahead by putting in place a minimum income security net, universalising social and widow pensions and raising awareness about the national old age pension, widow pension and health insurance schemes. What is the global experience with productive engagement of ageing populations? More and more countries now realise the potential that the older workforce represents. In the more developed regions, particularly Europe, the response to ageing has been to raise retirement age and encourage the elderly to continue working. Contrary to popular belief, an increasing number of the old are helping their families financially. For instance, 52 per cent older parents in India help their children monetarily, as do 55 per cent in Thailand and 67 per cent in the Philippines. Do we have India specific evidence for policy-making on ageing? We have evidence that if young women become economically independent, they are in a far better position to support their parents than men. Worldwide, traditional values of sons taking care of parents are declining. But we see a heartening trend, where boys are migrating, leaving their parents alone, and girls are stepping in to support. In India, too, our survey in seven major states has thrown up anecdotal evidence to this effect. This is one more reason why India should invest more in girls’ education. Can India meet the MDG on maternal mortality? Over the past decade, India has moved well on maternal mortality MDG, which is to reach 109 maternal deaths per 1 lakh live births by 2015. Today we are at 212. Some states have achieved the goal but there are pockets where desired levels have not been achieved. Even today, 209 pregnant women die every day in India. That is eight every hour, which is too much. The government must invest in ANMs to help them acquire midwifery skills, considering India doesn’t have a separate cadre of midwives. Emergency obstetric care is another area for attention. Focus on family planning as a tool to reduce maternal mortality remains low. That’s right. India’s family planning programme is heavily dependent on sterilisations. The focus must shift to spacing. About 24 per cent girls between 15 and 19 years have already begun childbearing as per national data. Evidence, however, shows that chances of maternal mortality are much lower if a woman delays her first child until after 20 years of age. By then she is mature and better fed. We need to inform younger women of the modern methods of family planning like oral pills, condoms. Our focus has to be adolescents. Child marriage is also fuelling high MMR. Laws don’t seem to be helping. A law is only a reflection of what the community wants. To prevent child marriages, we must first ensure mandatory birth registration. Besides, we need to sensitise girls. As many as 54 per cent girls in India justify wife-beating. That’s why we want to focus firmly on adolescents in our upcoming India Programme. We plan to take life skills education to schools and work with Industrial Training Institutes to help young girls and boys with negotiation skills and behaviour at workplace to address attitudes towards women. Life skills education is a contentious issue. Most states oppose it in school settings. We can’t continue to deprive young boys and girls of the knowledge of their bodies. They will get that information anyway and when they do, they are at the risk of misleading information. There are many myths the young harbour, for instance the first intercourse can’t lead to a pregnancy or that youngsters can’t contract HIV. Adolescence education only prepares the young for risks of life. Gender disparity is another concern and sex ratios are constantly declining. Decline in fertility rates, coupled with traditional mindsets and availability of modern technologies is fuelling the preference for sons in India. Sex selection is no more an urban phenomenon. It is shifting to rural areas. We have the anti-sex selection law but that will help only when mindsets change. We need to work with the panchayats on this issue, especially in Punjab and Haryana, where we are seeing a marriage squeeze now, with older men marrying women much younger than them or brothers sharing one wife.
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Profile
Nambi Narayanan and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, a former President, began their scientific career as the two bright stars of India’s space research programme. Later, their lives took separate trajectories and their stories read differently. Dr Kalam, who was working on the solid propulsion system in the ISRO, went on to become a much-loved President of India while Narayanan, who was working on the same system (the technology was successfully used in many satellite missions) during the same period, was branded a spy and traitor. His brilliant career was dented forever, even as he fought against an unjust system to prove his innocence. Narayanan, along with six others, including his ISRO colleague, D Sasikumar, was arrested on November 30, 1994, on charges of espionage and for selling defence secrets to two intelligence officers from the Maldives. Twelve top officials of the CBI independently probed the ISRO spy case. After the CBI found it to be a fabricated case, it was hesitant to submit a report to the higher-ups, he says. The CBI officials, including the agency’s director, Vijayarama Rao, had investigated the case. “They probed the case independently. All of them stated that the case was false,” Narayanan says. He spent 50 days in jail. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials who interrogated him wanted to make false accusations against the top brass of ISRO, including Narayanan’s boss AE Muthunayagam and the then director of the Liquid Propulsion System Centre. When he refused to comply, he was tortured until he collapsed and was hospitalised. He says his main complaint against ISRO is that it did not support him. Krishnaswamy Kasturi Rangan, who was the ISRO Chairman at the time, stated that ISRO could not interfere in the legal matter. Implicating Narayanan was a deliberate attempt by some police officers. The scientist wants to know who is protecting them. Quoting Dr Buddhi Kota Subbarao, a former Captain of the Indian Navy who had been framed under similar charges, Narayanan says: “The fundamental rights to life and liberty guaranteed to the citizens by the Constitution will lose their meaning if the people in authority can get away after ruining the lives of innocent citizens with false prosecution. Therefore, there is a constitutional obligation upon the Supreme Court to act under Section 340, CrPC, in the ISRO case.” Narayanan hails from a middle class Brahmin family with roots in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. The arrest and subsequent developments left Narayanan, his wife and two children shattered. “My wife started showing signs of mental instability. She would shout at any stranger who visited our home, saying they had come to harass me. We found it difficult to secure an alliance for our son,” he says. The Kerala Government has ordered a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to Narayanan as damages. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has reportedly said the government was ordering immediate release of the interim compensation awarded by the National Human Rights Commission following criticism that the government was delaying payment. |
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Good news The mine owners in Goa were invincible. But Ramesh Gauns changed that by single-handedly fighting and subsequently, winning a legal battle against the powerful lobby. Behind Goa’s sun-kissed beaches that charm thousands of tourists every year, lies an ugly reality: sprawling open-cast mines that spew out hundreds of tonnes of iron ore, polluting the air and poisoning the water supply systems. With the demand for iron ore from China growing rapidly, Goa’s powerful mine owners have dug up fields, pastures and even private homes without even seeking permission from their occupants. Political backing
With the mine owners enjoying the backing of politicians, the easygoing Goans usually acquiesce. Consequently, the mine owners acquired an aura of invincibility, with few daring to take them on either publicly or privately, till a diminutive village schoolmaster, Ramesh Gauns, got worked up at the prospect of a mine near his school at Sarvan village in North Goa's Bicholim Taluka six years ago. "I was worried that an open-cast mine coming up near the school would endanger the health of the children," says Gauns. Iron ore prices have shot through the roof, making it profitable to mine even very low-grade ore in Goa. Data from the state government reveals that of the 54.45 million metric tonnes (MMT) of iron ore shipped out of Goa last year, 90 per cent was sent to China. Enquiries from local officials revealed that the erstwhile Portuguese colonial rulers had granted a mining concession to a local business house in 1953. Following Goa's liberation in December 1961, all mining concessions in operation were transformed into mining
lease.
Legal tangle
"I found out that the area where the mining was supposed to be carried out had thick vegetation and an environment impact assessment needed to be carried out before any excavation could start," Gauns says. Then began his long-drawn battle with officialdom, the courts and even his neighbours to halt the project. Digging into geological data, Gauns found out that mines operating some distance away from his village blocked the flow of the Bicholim river, causing floods during the monsoon. "Mining rejects flow into fields and houses and render wells unusable," he says. He then mobilised village residents against the proposed mine. "The objections made by us during a public hearing were disregarded and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) gave the go-ahead for mining," says Gauns. Steadfast
He then appealed before the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) and challenged the environmental clearance. "I told the NEAA that the EIA did not mention the cash crop plantation near the boundary of the mine and the 17 hectares of agricultural and jungle land in the vicinity. But the NEAA dismissed the appeal in 2009, ruling there was nothing wrong with the clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Not the one to give up, Gauns moved the Delhi High Court, challenging the order. In March, the court ruled: "The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the MoEF failed to take into account the objections raised by the public against the grant of the clearance." It also questioned the appointment of ML Majumdar, chairman of the EAC. Majumdar was on the board of four mining companies in Goa at the time. The court quashed the clearances given for the project. Power of one
The court order has come as a major victory for Gauns and village residents who are faced with the powerful mining lobby in Goa. "Those who called me a fool for taking on the mining mafia are now listening to me. Earlier people had given up," he says. "They had seen how mine owners divided people by luring them with contracts to buy trucks to transport ore. Elsewhere, they simply gave money so that people did not protest," he adds. Another challenge Gauns faced was marshalling legal opinion. "Many lawyers are not conversant with environment laws and I had to read and research on these laws to 'teach' my counsel," he smiles. Solo fight
Without the backing of any NGO, Gauns had to fight the battle alone. "It is commendable how he emerged victorious and took on the powerful mafia in a village in the interiors of Goa," says Raju Nayak, editor of the Goa edition of "Lokmat". A winner of the President's Medal in the field of education, Gauns used to promote mass weddings for the poor with minimum ceremony. “People know what I am, so no one has tried to stop me so far,” he says. Gauns has learnt to divide his time to fight for the cause. "From 7 am to 1 pm, I am a teacher. From 1 pm onwards, I am my own man," he says.
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Off the cuff
Sushil Kumar
Shinde, Home Minister
Om Prakash Chautala, INLD president Robert Vadra,
Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law ‘Lt Col’ Kapil Dev, former cricketer Rajendra
Chaudhary, SP spokesman
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It is up to them (those constructing the memorial) to know if they are reviving terrorism. I will only say that we’ve suffered a lot due to the scourge of terrorism. 
Bhupinder Hooda is in power because of Sonia Gandhi’s sweet will. The moment he displeases the UPA chairperson or her son-in-law, he will be out of power.
I have people on my Facebook account who do not have a sense of humour. Everything I write becomes news and is debated on television. I’ve decided to delete my account.
If they have time, they will attend all Territorial Army functions. Currently, they are serving the nation through cricket. Once their career ends, they will be a part of all the events.
She has lost her mental balance. Her unrestrained language against the SP chief speaks volumes about her upbringing that didn’t change despite her four terms as UP Chief Minister.