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Mending ties The missing sparrow |
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LAHORE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4,
1913.
Which way will
volatile Bangladesh go?
Literature by the
lakeside
Longevity —
highest in a poor state
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The missing sparrow From
urban landscapes to rural, and India to England, the house sparrow was a ubiquitous presence. In fact, in India it stood for the quintessential bird, with the generic Hindi word ‘chiriya’ used synonymously for it in common parlance. Looked upon as almost a pest once, it is today nowhere to be seen, especially in the cities. One may ask: how does it matter? A brief scientific answer would be every species has its place in the ecosystem, which includes the food chain from the seed of grass, insects, birds, and tiny mammals to the tiger. Remove any one element, and the entire structure is liable to collapse. But what all would agree with, especially regarding the sparrow, is that each one of us has a childhood tale to tell of this irksome presence in our homes. And all those tales bring a smile to our face. A zoology professor in Yamunanagar has worked three years to study the disappearance, focusing on a part of Haryana. His research finds insects being killed by pesticides is one of the major reasons for the dying population of the sparrow. His is a brave effort in a sea of ignorance. The findings, nonetheless, may be of limited value, for the disappearance is a global phenomenon, and needs to be studied at a far wider scale even in India. There are indeed many studies on, but the need is to connect the dots by sharing all the data. The UK has historical statistical data on sparrows, and knows the decline rate, which has helped change its status to a ‘red listed’ species of ‘high conservation concern’. India only has estimates. The first step towards conserving a species is to have zoological knowledge on it and its habitat. This is time consuming and needs money. While India is fighting a brave battle in conservation amidst great odds, the budgetary allocation is far from required. Even a top establishment like the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, has a meagre annual budget of around Rs 20 crore. Whether we are able to count our sparrows or not, their days may be numbered.
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Things may come to those who wait but only the things left by those who hustle. — Abraham Lincoln
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LAHORE, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1913.
WE are glad that the leaders of Rawalpindi have not lagged behind. At a public meeting that was held last week under the presidency of Dewan Bahadur Daulat Rai resolutions were adopted placing on record the citizen's deep sense of gratitude for the personal interest taken by His Excellency the Viceroy in the cause of Indians in South Africa and recording their indignant protest against the oppressive treatment of Indians by the Union Government and insisting upon the adoption of immediate steps to relieve the situation pending the inquiry already recommended by His Excellency the Viceroy. A strong committee has also been appointed to collect subscriptions for the passive resistance campaign. "UNIVERSITY SERVICE."
THE Rev. C. F. Andrews gave his evidence before the Public Service Commission on the 27th ultimo and spoke about the appointment of educational officers in a noteworthy manner. "I object very strongly," he said, "to the system of cold weather professorship." As a temporary measure such a scheme, he said, might have its value, but it would close the posts to men already in the country. He proposed that Government colleges should become more and more nationalised and come under other influences than of Government. His suggestion was to abolish the two services, Indian and Provincial, and to recruit the best men, irrespective of caste or colour, to a quite distinct service called the "University Service." He regards the present method of recruitment as reactionary and not calculated to get the best men. Mr. Andrews did not think any difficulty would arise by European professors having sometimes to work under Indians.
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Which way will volatile Bangladesh go? I
am not surprised over violence in Bangladesh. I could smell it when I was at Dhaka two weeks ago. Begum Khaleda heading the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had declared that they would boycott the polls and put up resistance if Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the election under her. Since Sheikh Hasina has done so without a non-party government or something similar, the resistance is all over. The real problem is that Sheikh Hasina does not want to step down from office and it looks like she will go to any extent to retain power. Soon after assuming power, she amended the state's constitution which provided for a caretaker government, headed by the outgoing retired Supreme Court Chief Justice, to supervise the polls. No doubt, Sheikh Hasina has constituted an all-party interim government and had even offered any portfolio to Begum Khaleda Zia, who is her main opponent. But Sheikh Hasina does not enjoy the credibility which can convince people that the election will be fair. What amazes me is the alacrity with which Sheikh Hasina has frittered away her four-fifths of majority in Parliament. Her misgovernance has increased corruption, contaminating even the government functionaries in villages. Begum Khaleda has aggravated the situation by organising ‘hartal’ every third day, hitting the common man. Sheikh Hasina too had organised 'hartals' when she was in the wilderness. The two Begums, becoming Prime Minister alternatively, have talked to each other on the phone probably for the first time. There is no breakthrough, not even via the conciliators, because of personal hostility. There is enough evidence to support the suspicion that Begum Khaleda’s close associates were behind the attack on Sheikh Hasina's meeting when she was out of power. The Jamaat-e-Islami is the biggest gainer. Methodically and relentlessly, it has created cells in all segments of society, including the intelligentsia. The Jamaat has the advantage of BNP's dependence on it. The two were together in the government which Begum Khaleda headed. They would be the coalition partners if and when the BNP comes to power. The worst fallout has been the birth of fundamentalism. It has been increasing because of the poisonous speeches the maulvis and the mullahs make after the Friday prayers. It goes to the credit of Sheikh Hasina that she has kept the fight against fundamentalists on top of her agenda and has harked back to the days of secularism which the rule by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had ushered in. Such sentiments have brought Sheikh Hasina popularity in India, which too has adopted pluralism as the basic structure of its polity. But just as Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, has cast shadows on its secular credentials, Khaleda Zia has done so in Bangladesh. A country which evoked hope when it liberated itself on the principle that religion would not be mixed with politics is today exhibiting an entirely different scenario. Poverty is the opium of the masses as Karl Marx has said. The need for the Left is felt immensely. Bangladesh had a strong community party. Now it is reduced to a rump and tends to tilt towards the establishment. Tragically, it is the same old story in the entire subcontinent, including India. Had there been hope of the Left’s revival, 70 per cent of the subcontinent's people, extremely poor, might not have listened to the religious appeal as a force to propel progress. The Left could have retrieved the situation. Alas, the god has failed the people. The anti-India feeling that Sheikh Hasina is confronting is because of her unilateral steps like the transit facilities to New Delhi to connect its northeastern states through the shortest route. Had Prime Minister Manmohan Singh given the Teesta waters to Sheikh Hasina, she would have been on a strong wicket. The late West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, was a visionary and accommodated Bangladesh on the Farakka waters. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee does not see beyond her vote bank. As for Pakistan, I found little interest than before. The people relate to it mostly as a reference point to their liberation struggle against what was once East Pakistan. Nine months before liberation, the Pakistani government, led by President Gen Yahya Khan, had refused to step down after the Awami League, based in East Pakistan, won a majority in the national elections. For years, the Bengalis in East Pakistan had chaffed under governments that favoured the cultural and economic development of West Pakistan. The then moderate Awami League, with a clear majority gained in the freest and fairest election in years, could implement its Six-Point Plan, giving East Pakistan autonomy in all areas except foreign affairs and defence. Instead, Yahya Khan used military to suppress the movement. However, I have found lately in Pakistan the regret over having lost part of the country because of the late Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's follies. A leading lawyer of Pakistan once said they could now appreciate how the Indians felt about the division in 1947 when the British quit. The post-liberation generation, nearly 65 per cent of Bangladesh's population does not know what its forefathers went through to win freedom. Nor does it care to inquire. Surprisingly, no good book is available to describe the privations of those days. Over the years, I have found that self-confidence and optimism increasing among the people. Despite the internal turmoil, Bangladesh has sustained 6 per cent growth for the last decade. Human development statistics are far between than those of India. Agriculture growth has made the country self-sufficient while the garment industry, although not following labour laws, is thriving. No doubt, there is widespread poverty and the gulf between the rich and the poor is yawning. Yet the rural areas have done so much better that the people from there do not flock to cities as they used to do during the flood or scarcity. They may rough it out but they are self-developed. This is indeed commendable. The future is no doubt unpredictable, but may see a large scale of violence, particularly at the time of elections because Begum Khaleda is opposed to the polls under Sheikh Hasina. Many people think that the army can come back as it did some years ago. But it withdrew when it found that the people were committed to democracy even if it had been disfigured by the two Begums. A leading editor has gone to the extent of suggesting intervention by the judiciary. He says, “We have nowhere to turn to but to the custodians of our constitution of law and citizens' rights.”
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Literature by the lakeside The
Shivalik view, captured so artfully by the powerful strokes of Le Corbusier’s pen, came alive on the recently held Lit Fest in Chandigarh. The backdrop designed for the festival podium, caught the nuances of the jagged skyline of the hills — including the Monkey Point at Kasauli — so sharply that art and nature blurred into a unified vision. Sitting on the lush green lawns of the city’s Lake Club (the festival venue), sipping coffee, browsing through books picked up from the stall or to languidly listen to a session on ‘Brewing Thoughts Beautifully’ or some other equally fascinating theme, was a choice hard to make. As Sufi poetry recitals wafted through the venue with the fluidity of water, only the golden silences of the tranquil lake waters broke your reverie. The distant sailboats floating on the shimmering waters with gossamer wings, swayed with the vicissitudes of life that come with the winds of change. Occasionally, the lapping sounds of waves crashing against the boats anchored at the marina, lent punctuation to the soulful spells. But when poignant introspections, on the plight of the diaspora, the persecuted and those dispossessed from their homes, wailed through the air, the lake waters held a clear mirror to our numbed consciences. It was only when the heat and anger of a recent media ‘Tehelka’ created ripples that the tranquil waters turned turbulent. So many enraged voices from the audience — otherwise all gentle book-lovers — reverberated in the ‘pandal’ that most men would have preferred to vanish into the deep waters, than face the wrath of the fulminating sisters. But passions calmed down soon to a passive serenity. In fact, in a humour session, the waddling ducks in the lake got so tickled by the wit and wisdom of the speakers that they applauded with a chorus of chirpy ‘quack, quack!’ The colours of the festoons, backdrops and banners were outdone only by the glamour of star speakers like Gul Panag, Meghna Pandit, Kishwar Desai and the young Tishaa Khosla. The audience too was no less flamboyant. The balmy November nip was just right for colourful shawls and stoles for the women matched equally by the dashing blazers, jackets and Panama hats of the men. The more literary ones with one-day stubbles and French beards of course stuck faithfully to their hallmark ‘kurta-pyjamas’ with Nehru jackets to symbolise the gravitas of their secret communion with the written word. But one element outdid all other accessories — goggles. Oversized, expensive brands rested on petite noses as well as the ramrod visages of retired generals with equal élan. Besides being suitably goggle-eyed, you also carried at least one autographed copy of the most enigmatic author of the day. Some authors like the portly, brilliant and sharp-witted Ashwin Sanghi recreated the ancient world of Chanakya’s Chant so evocatively that even the distant Himalayas rumbled with the marches of the Taxila armies. As the curtain fell over the Lit Fest, no one wanted it to end.
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Longevity — highest in a poor state
The mystery baffles experts. A backward state like UP, which does not boast of any noticeable geriatric care, produces almost a third of centenarians in the country. Most of them live on meagre resources in rural areas
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life for which the first was made” is the refrain of one of Robert Browning’s famous poems. In the fifties and sixties, the same sentiments were shared in a popular song that goes, “Keep my love in your heart, my darling. You will never grow old.” People are living longer today and with modern medical facilities and fitness consciousness, they are into their eighties and ageing actively. However, to be centenarian is an achievement. Without the warm glow of caring, extending lives to the vintage living of 90 and 100 years is near impossible.
But in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which never seems to have anything going right, that happy feeling of being wanted seems to have kept 1,99,598 hearts ticking to 100 plus years. The 2011 census has revealed the rather unusual phenomenon of UP having almost a third of the 6,05,449 centenarians in the country. Neither the HelpAge India’s Lucknow branch nor Jashodhara Dasgupta, who heads one of the biggest health NGOs in the State, Sahayog, is able to explain the longevity of the UP’s centenarians.
Child mortality and longevity In fact the state is abysmally low on the human development index. It has among the poorest health indicators in the country. Encephalitis epidemics are annual features, taking a huge toll. A plethora of ailments, many of them the result of poor sanitation and drinking water facilities ravage the lives of children. An estimated 92 children out of every 1000 born in UP will not live to see their fifth birthday, says Jashodhara. The health system is so weak that it is unable to prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of women each year due to pregnancy and childbirth. UP’s centenarians account for 0.09 per cent of the 19.98 crore, the state population, nearly double the national average of 0.05 per cent. Fifty two per cent of these golden oldies are women and the majority of these centenarians live in the rural areas. In UP, 70 per cent of the centenarians live in the villages, where it is presumed there is clean air, fresh vegetables, home-made butter and clarified butter and family and community support. The mystery A K Singh of HelpAge, UP, tracked down two of these centenarians in an effort to understand what makes them live so long. Chhedilal, 102 (age verified from his election card), belongs to Maikupurwa village in the cantonment area of Kanpur and is a farmer. Chhedilal, father of three sons and a daughter, does not look his years and is active and healthy. His wife died several years ago and he lives with his second son. When asked about the secret of his healthy and long life, he mentioned his habit of “early to bed and early to rise.” Besides, Chhedilal is a frugal eater and a vegetarian and exercises regularly. Earlier, he was into heavy exercise, even wrestling. Now he walks to keep fit. A firm believer in God, he reads the Ramcharit Manas every day and draws inspiration from it. He believes his simple living has helped him maintain a long and active life. Somari Devi of Chandauli, 50 kms from Varanasi, is senior to Chhedilal. She is 103 years but not as strong and independent. However, her life mantra is similar, “Eat healthy, think positive and live happily." Wife of late Saraju who died 15 years ago at 92, Somari Devi belongs to the lower income group of a schedule tribe. The family has agricultural lands, does cattle rearing and do not have any qualms about doing labour work in a lean year. Keeping it simple Though Somari is a non-vegetarian, she prefers vegetarian meals— fresh, green vegetables, pulses, chappatis and rice. She also drinks milk regularly. However, because of poor vision in both eyes, she needs help in her day-to-day activities while eating, washing clothes, bathing and going to the temple. She is a strong believer of Maa Kali, Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna. According to her son and grandson an important reason for her longevity is the pure, organic and pesticide-free food she has eaten all her life. Mahua, edible oil of Mahua, the flower and soft leaf of the teak and organically grown food grains have kept her healthy. Somari Devi is a protégé of HelpAge India. She draws the benefits of “Sponsor a Grand Parent” programme and receives primary health care and recreational facilities. She has joined other senior citizens on exposure visits. Geriatric care For the UP government, however, the challenges of looking after these centenarians are more than the advantages of having the largest number of centenarians in the country, says HelpAge. To maintain the numero uno position or to leverage this fact the government and society need a broader vision. Since UP also tops the charts in illiteracy, unemployment and population below poverty line, tackling the age and poverty conflict is a challenge. Apart from being tenth from below on the national literacy index, UP has more than 20 per cent of the total BPL population of the country and almost 40 per cent of those below poverty line live in rural areas. Most of the state’s centenarian population comes from rural areas and belongs to the category of illiterate and poor. Managing and providing all the medical and other requirements of the golden oldies is a challenge. Ensuring family support for the elderly is a problem not just with centenarians but with the whole ageing generation across the country. Many are abandoned by the family due to financial reasons and personal conflicts. They get lonely, depressed without family and friends to talk to. Making old age comfortable should also be on the government
agenda.
The writer is a well-established environment journalist.
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I am
not surprised over violence in Bangladesh. I could smell it when I was
at Dhaka two weeks ago. Begum Khaleda heading the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) had declared that they would boycott the polls
and put up resistance if Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared the
election under her. Since Sheikh Hasina has done so without a
non-party government or something similar, the resistance is all over.
T
