|
|
|
|
|
India’s
interests in Lanka A modern
tragic hero |
|
|
Milk
adulteration
Suicides
in the military
An old
man’s hut or a radio taxi!
Disabled
by an unjust order
|
|
A modern tragic hero
In
a Greek tragedy the protagonist often has a tragic flaw in character which leads to his ultimate downfall. In the case of Rajat Gupta (63), the former director of Goldman Sachs convicted of insider trading and sentenced to two-year prison term by a US court on Wednesday, it was perhaps greed which drove him to do illegal things which brought about his much-lamented fall from grace. Hailing from Kolkata, a talented Rajat studied engineering at the IIT, Delhi, and later joined Harvard Business School in 1971, delivering newspapers to support himself. Two years later, he joined McKinsey, and in 1994 became the first Indian to head a reputed multinational company. Rajat Gupta was a role model for Indian professionals aspiring for success in the global corporate world. His philanthropic activities and campaigns to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis brought him closer to former President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates of Microsoft. He was in the select group invited to President Barack Obama’s first state dinner. The Government of India sought his advice on policy matters. Why would such a successful man do a petty thing like passing on secret tips to a trader? While launching the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad, Rajat met Raj Rajaratnam, a Sri Lankan national heading a hedge fund, Galleon Group. They developed a business relationship. Rajat leaked boardroom secrets to Rajaratnam, who earned $5 million through trading. Unlike India, insider trading is a serious crime in the US. Seventy corporate executives and bankers have been convicted in the past three years there. Rajaratnam is already serving an 11-year jail term. Rajat, in fact, has got away lightly. That is because he did not personally trade on inside information. For him the loss of reputation is a far worse punishment than two years in jail. Some of the jurors who convicted him were in tears. “He is a good man”, observed one of them. “But … the history of the world is full of examples of good men who did bad things”.
|
|
|
Milk adulteration
If
it is milk, it’s bound be adulterated, at least with water. That is the largely accepted fact about this traditional protein-rich source of nutrition in India. The recent revelation by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) that nearly 70 per cent of the milk samples taken by it across the country failed is merely a confirmation of what everyone knows. While defining ‘pure’ and ‘adulterated’ milk is difficult, the FSSAI has compared the samples to certain standards of hygiene and nutrition laid down by it. Even the clean milk supplied in packets by recognised organisations is not as it came from the udders of the cow. Most of it is ‘reconstituted’ — it has water, fat or milk solids added or removed to make it adhere to standards corresponding to the label on it. What is dangerous is the kind of adulterants that go into milk in the unorganised sector to make it look like the genuine thing even when it is not. It could be anything from detergent, urea, and sugar to baking soda. The temptation to adulterate milk is strong — as it is so easy — and the only way to check it is stringent and frequent testing. And that is something most state governments are neither equipped nor inclined to do. According to the Food Safety and Standards Act, implemented in Punjab in 2011, all units handling food in any manner have to be licensed by the Heath Department. But the department does not even have the infrastructure to do the registration, what to talk of testing. At the macro level, steps have to be taken to increase milk production, as shortage is a major incentive for cheating. At the same time, initiatives are required to expand the cooperative system of milk collection and handling, which by the virtue of institutionalising the trade prevents malpractices to a great extent. Setting up a foolproof chain can be a test of a government in running a farmer-welfare cooperative system, as milk is one of the most perishable food products, and the system can be replicated for any fresh farm produce.
|
|
|
Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them on your way down. — Wilson Mizner
|
Suicides in the military
Of
late, suicides in the military have been highlighted by the national Press, and the issue also came up for discussion in Parliament. The yearly average of suicides in the Indian Army is around 100. Some may argue that in an army of 1.2 million, that figure is not alarming. For the military, the life of every soldier is valuable and needs to be protected. There are some very complex reasons for these suicides and it is not possible to compartmentalise these into any set pattern or causes. The officer whom I relieved on the divisional staff had a bright career and had been cleared for promotion to the rank of a brigadier. A day after handing over charge to me, he shot himself. He had realised that the medical board would block his promotion. The Deputy Commander of a brigade shot himself because some female had intruded into his married life. A soldier’s wife in my unit, for no apparent reason, suffered from fits of depression and the psychologist could not help her. She took her own life. In each of these cases, their depression had taken them to a point of no return, and the cause in each case was vastly different. The Indian soldier’s woes have increased manifold. A number of wars and low-intensity operations in Sri Lanka and Kargil, and combating unending insurgencies have been his bane. The death of a close friend in these operations led to depression in some cases. Added to these are the repeated postings to high altitude and uncongenial areas, where one experiences persistent feeling of isolation and loneliness, and is haunted by possible sickness and the impossibility of air evacuation due to persistent bad weather in such areas. Postings in peace stations are burdened with overwork with little rest. A soldier throughout his service, at best, gets no more than two years to live with his family. The break-up of the joint family system has left separated families to fend for themselves. Problems of living alone, raising children, their education and all the connected problems which get transmitted to the husband via the mobile phone, on an almost daily basis, add to the soldier’s anxieties and stresses. The Indian Army soldier is haunted by the prospect of retirement at an early age of 35/37 years, and the consequent financial problems thereafter. So, by and large, a soldier’s life in the Indian Army is stressful and often depressing. Units with high standards of discipline, good morale and esprit de corps, with good and caring officers, are less likely to face suicide cases. Good leadership coupled with feelings by each soldier that he forms a useful member of the unit and his efforts are recognised and appreciated reduce the chances of depression among soldiers, who could otherwise be more susceptible to this malady. Efficient administration in the unit such as timely grant of leave, ensuring that soldiers get their rightful emoluments and periodic enhancement of their professional skills add to their well-being and contentment. All this reduces stress and anxiety which could be precursors to depression. Some units adopt a system of early detection of cases of stress and anxiety through the “buddy system” and arrange counselling. As an immediate help at the unit level, a certain number of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) are given basic training in counselling. The incidence of suicides in the American army is one a day and the percentage of officers in these cases has been higher than in India. The Pentagon sets aside $2 billion for mental health of troops, and the authorities have been trying hard to combat the problem of suicides. General Peter Chiarelli, who recently retired as Deputy Chief of American army, feels that these funds are inadequate. Suicide prevention programmes in the US army do not appear to make much headway. In the American army, there are cases of officers, including some doctors, ending their life though they never served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had a bright career, happy married life with bright children and no visible scars. Such is the complexity and, perhaps, paradox of the working of the human mind and its susceptibility to depression and consequent suicides. The state of helplessness in combating this problem is best expressed by Leon Panetta, US Secretary of Defence, in these words, “This issue of suicides is perhaps the most frustrating challenge that I have come across.” On the other hand, India’s Defence Minister seems to have found a simplistic remedy in liberal leave and good living conditions for soldiers. He has asked the Defence Secretary and the three Vice-Chiefs of the services to go into the issue of suicides. Predictably, this could be followed by constituting a “Group of Secretaries”, (the government’s ultimate solution for any complicated issue) to go into the issue and put up recommendations. This could possibly point to creating a “Department of Prevention of Suicides in the Military”, with an IAS officer as its full-time secretary! But these are perfunctory steps which have become a norm with the government. Years ago the recruitment pattern was changed. The vacancies filled from the traditional classes who had been providing manpower for the army were shifted to the overall population spread in the country, and the recruitment came to be based on recruitable male population of a province. It may be valuable to determine if this recruitment pattern had added to the suicide cases. It is only a detailed analysis of personal data that a workable solution can be evolved. It is a problem that the army cannot just shoot it down or run a tank over it! It would be pertinent to look into the enrolment standards. Military service has been rendered so unattractive that, for the present, it is the last choice for those who seek government employment. Military service is not just another avenue for employment for the unemployed. It is a well-acknowledged fact that soldiering is not everyone’s cup of tea. It may be worthwhile to introduce some elementary psychological tests for those seeking to join the military service as soldiers. Comprehensive tests on these lines are already conducted by the Services Selection Boards for those seeking entry into the officer
cadre. The writer is a former Deputy Chief of Army Staff.
|
||||||
An old man’s hut or a radio taxi! WHEN you have planned everything, the unplanned must chase. You book tickets in advance and also call up a radio taxi to avoid the swarm of New Delhi railway station taxiwallas and autowallas who flock to passengers like houseflies to jaggery. You believe in merits of planning. But Murphy’s law, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”, too works to prove a point. So, when the train stopped at platform number 1 on the dot, I prayed that it did not rain till I reached my taxi. And the rain gods obliged. Everything was just as planned! Then, the rain gods decided to execute a show of “shock and awe”, borrowing G W Bush Junior’s phrase. Sheltered inside a taxi, why would one experience shock and awe in rain? Well, like everything else in our country, appearances are often deceptive. The radio taxi, fitted with the GPS navigation system, and not-to-miss a crooning voice, welcomed me chanting the services Meru offered. A uniformed chauffeur drove me towards my destination. Soon, washed under rain, appearances began to reveal the real face. The fury of the rain gods increased and I felt a drop of water fall on my shoulder. I didn’t care. Then the drop changed into a stream of water coming from the rear. The streams of water multiplied. Many years back my dance teacher had taught me the art of exploring the entire stage, and, therefore, I explored the whole back seat during this strange rain dance. But this knowledge proved futile. Water jets came from all directions. Not only was the fitting of the rear glass loose, the rubber on the doors had also weathered, turning the cab into the poor man’s hut. I was drenched and angry. I asked the driver for the complaint book. The cab had none. He said I could dial the taxi service, and they would provide me the option for complaints. No, there wasn’t any. The same crooning voice was incessantly selling the great idea of Meru. By this time I was drenched and the driver took pity on me. He was an insider; he knew how to manoeuvre the Meru system. He told me to dial to book a taxi, and then they would pick up the phone. Then I could ask to be connected to the customer service. I did as told. And, lo and behold, the customer service was there to oblige me. They arranged another taxi. I was to move into a “new” taxi which would pick me from outside the Jor Bagh Metro station. In the process of changing the cab under incessant rain, I was now drenched head to toe. The airconditioning of this “new” taxi was fixed, it couldn’t be manoeuvred. So, despite shivering cold, I had to be ferried in a “cool” taxi. I was anxious for this ordeal to be over when, to my dismay, I found myself in a traffic jam. It seemed the road was tilted, all traffic was moving in a single file. For some strange reason, everyone was avoiding the other side of the road. When my “cool” taxi reached the spot, I saw in the middle of the road that someone had left a pail of steel with a marigold garland around it. It was a “Shani Dev” someone seemed to have left on the road and, in reverence, motorists were avoiding using the portion occupied. Unmindful of the rain, the driver rolled down the window letting a gush of water enter the taxi and threw a coin at it, uttering “Jay Shani Maharaj”. My Saturday had just
begun.
|
||||||
Disabled by an unjust order Rights violation Many women are not so lucky as they have been incarcerated in mental asylums/psychiatric wards for life or even within their homes because any anger they express earns them the title of 'mad'. In the Indian society women are expected to be patient, quiet, not get angry or raise their voice. If they do so, this behavior is found inappropriate and deserves initially battering and then 'locking up'. They are then subjected to drugs and inhuman medical procedures like electric shock therapy. This has been found to be much more in the case of females rather than males. These women, unlike most men inmates are not only abandoned but left in the institutions with no visitors for life. Globally, in general, most women with disabilities experience violations of their civil, social and economic rights. In the so- called democratic spaces of which the Indian nation is so proud of, group of women with disabilities are confronted by insecurity in many forms. They live in a world where there is violence and insecurity of food, little livelihood, and an inaccessible health provision. This discrimination results in widespread denial of rights to women with disabilities who experience exploitation of their sexuality, even within families. Though the rights of a woman to make her own reproductive choices are incorporated in a number of national laws and international human rights treaties signed by India, a large number of women and girls with disabilities, at the other end of exploitation, are denied fundamental human rights through the practice of forced sterilization. Motherhood is a right all women are born with and a woman's choice to exercise. In the case of women with disabilities this is not real. People question her ability to give birth to a 'normal' child. Sometimes women themselves do so as the society they have grown up continues to inform them that they are not 'normal' so their productive capabilities are abnormal. Even the State under the PCPNDT and MTP Acts which forbids sex selection agrees that if the fetus has a disability, it can be aborted. Thus a law which fights the removal of the girl child from this planet allows the elimination of female disabled girl child. A few studies done on issues related to women with disabilities point to the fact that violence is perpetrated on them by various actors - family, personal assistants, teachers, doctors and a range of other service providers. In one of the incidences, a deaf woman was raped by a doctor in Delhi in the name of treatment thus makes us question the integrity of service providers. The other incident is of a deaf girl being recently gang raped and then her hands cut off to restrict her from using sign language. There are thousands of such cases of violence/ torture but the system remains silent about their prevention. The system that sanctions violence against women, diminishing the rule of human rights, raises issues of how do we replace the present system with a gender equal, disability centered system of non-violent institutions? While some remedial steps may and are being taken in the present system to reform a few of its most egregious effects the formidable violent structure still stands strong. Why women fail to react? Women with disabilities have never found a level playing field. In a study carried out on the status of Women with Disabilities in 2007 (by the author) it was observed that the discriminatory chain starting from lower representation in education is followed into vocational training and employment. In the case of employment it has been observed that more women with disabilities are unemployed than women without disabilities in comparison to men with disabilities and men without disabilities. Literacy and educational level do present the rather disturbing picture of entitlement failure. Yet, schooling does provide employment hope to the girl child with disability and must be an important component of any strategy to improve their future. The story of entitlement failure continues as we move up the 'value chain'; the disability certificates, aids and appliances, health check up, the security aspects and the decision making. Lack of awareness owing to lack of information appears to be the first and the most important bottleneck. Beyond this too it is an uphill task for the women with disabilities to get their entitlements. Gender differentiations in health seeking behavior were stark with thirteen times fewer women than men having been known to seek treatment. In most studies and the data available, analysis of the marital status brings out various nuances. First is the harsh reality of the low likelihood of marriage. This is particularly strong among the women with intellectual disabilities. Second is the hold of the norms of hypergamy. Third is the emergence of widows as the more vulnerable among the married women with disabilities. NSSO(2002) disability data indicated that women with disabilities have about four times higher rate of widowhood as they are married to much older men who are unable to find brides. Likewise their rates of divorce and abandonment have been found to be high. No rights, only welfare The major problematic issue in India is the mind set of Indian State which is constitutionally democratic in nature and has the responsibility of providing gender equality but does not manifest this into reality. Women with disabilities find themselves outside the political system as they rarely hold political decision making roles in various national and state forums. Due to their exclusion their needs are seldom mainstreamed into national policy making or programmes related to women. Disability legislation in India has left women out. In the twenty-eight chapters of The Equal Opportunities Law of 1995 no mention of women was made. In the new Draft Law (2011) based on the United Nations Convention on Persons with Disabilities, the rights framework is still missing. Due to lack of a legal framework, mainstream women's 'empowerment' programmes have rarely included women with disabilities. Whatever is available is provided through a welfare framework rather than rights provision. Activities are often 'made' for women with disabilities without their participation in decision-making processes. In this environment of exclusion women with disabilities find themselves in the extreme periphery of the system. Breaking barriers Despite all these barriers women with disabilities are emerging as powerful spokespersons of their cause. Anuradha Mohit, Anita Ghai, Meenu Bhambani, Malini Chib, Jeeja Ghosh, Kanchan Pamnani and Vaishnavi Jayakumar are the very few who have emerged at the national level to break barriers set up by the system. In each state, district and block level wherever possible women with disabilities are moving out to occupy their rightful spaces. Despite their efforts support must come from all quarters. India will have the right to say it is a democracy when it can provide equality and justice to the entirety of its people. The justice-equality framework is not straight forward and providing for equality as stated here in a generic manner is not sufficient. For instance when a state is confronted by group inequity, as in the case of women with disabilities, then special measures have to be taken into account. The only way we will be able to say that constitutional rights are guaranteed in India, when we can provide an equal and just order for women with disabilities to live in. The writer is a Professor at Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Centre, Bhubaneswar, and is former Founder Director of School of Women's Studies, Utkal University.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
N
Across the globe including India, forced sterilization is performed on young girls and women with disabilities by both families and the State. The purposes vary from eugenics, menstrual management and pregnancy prevention resulting from sexual abuse. In 1994 this issue became public when at Sassoon General Hospital in Pune it was found that mass hysterectomies were done on girls/ women with mental disabilities between the ages of 13-35. The reasons for this surgery without consent were given to the court as the women's inability to maintain personal hygiene and danger of pregnancies arising from sexual assault. To acquire the consent of the women was not found important by the hospital, or punishment for such violators of rights discussed by the court. Consequently human rights abuse continues without impunity across the country.