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Zero tolerance BJP’s ‘Modifesto’ |
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Demystifying the aam aadmi
Surviving on faith and placebos
Gender sensitive men of Indian villages
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Zero tolerance Should
rape be equated with murder? Had the verdict of death sentence in the Shakti Mill gang-rape case not come at the time the Kerala High Court gave its verdict in the Suryanelli rape case, clamour against the gallows would have grown louder. Champions of human rights are harping on the fact that all the three convicts Vijay Jadhav (19), Kasim Bengali (21) and Mohammed Salim Ansari (28) are young and should be given time to reform. But the blatant violation of the basic rights of the 16-year-old victim from Suryanelli, who survived 46 rapes committed in 40 days across Kerala and Tamil Nadu in connivance with the high and mighty in the law-enforcing agencies, proves that punishment in such cases has to be fast and harsh. Forty persons were accused of rape in the Suryanelli case, of which 35 were given rigorous imprisonment by a special court in Kerala in 2000. But, in 2005, the High Court acquitted all of them except one, claiming the girl had consensual sex with all 35 of them. The appeal by her family remained pending in the Supreme Court for eight years. After the Nirbhaya case, it was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court. After the rehearing of the case the Kerala High Court found 24 accused guilty of gang-rape on Friday. In the 18-year-long wait for justice, a few of the accused, including a retired professor, had died. In the Shakti Mill case, in which a photojournalist and a telephone operator were raped by the same group of men within a month, for the first time the amended Section 376(e) of the IPC has been invoked by a sessions court in Mumbai. The Section provides for death penalty for a repeated offence. The verdict sets a benchmark for dealing with crimes of sexual violence in future — treating the repeated offence as seriously as a murder, even when the victim has survived. A Kerala MP, K Sudhakaran's comment “prostitution is covered under rape” insults the rape survivor of Suryanelli and further justifies the harshest punishment for rape.
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BJP’s ‘Modifesto’ The
BJP was the first to announce its prime ministerial candidate and may, perhaps, be the last to release its manifesto. That in a way shows its priorities. The thinking could be: Nobody reads manifestos any more. The dim-witted who still has no sense of what the BJP stands for despite such elaborate marketing/media machinery at work and the rigorous labour Amit Shah is putting in to “educate” Uttar Pradesh voters should at least listen to what that pragmatic “sanyasan”, Uma
Bharti, has to say: “Whatever Modi says is the manifesto”. The BJP never does anything half-heartedly or without planning — as Cobrapost revelations have just pointed out in the case of demolition of Babri
Masjid. The delay in preparing the manifesto could be because the job was handed over to Murli Manohar Joshi, who might be fearful that he would be on his way to becoming irrelevant on the Advani pattern. Already, he must be feeling handicapped after the graceless exit of Jaswant Singh, a member of the manifesto committee. It must be tough for the veteran parliamentarian to seek approvals from Narendra Modi for each and every thing that he must have thought brilliant and fit for inclusion in the manifesto without realising that the thinking of his generation is no more relevant. Despite the hard-to-explain delay in the issuance of the manifesto, the damaging Cobrapost sting operation and the unkindest cut of all, The Economist article “Can anyone stop Narendra
Modi?” , a BJP leader has tried his bit to divert attention by pulling out an old charge sheet against UPA misrule. Though there is nothing new to add to the known list of UPA scams for which the BJP had crippled Parliament's functioning for long periods, the courage of party spokespersons is really admirable. Taking every blow in their stride, they believe offence is the best
defence. Propping up their confidence are the media opinion polls. No one seems to share The Economist belief that “India deserves better”.
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Thought for the Day
I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.
—Winston Churchill
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NOTWITHSTANDING the frequency with which the question of pure milk supply in large Indian towns is being raised, no satisfactory attempt is made to remedy the evil complained of. Slipshod enquiries either by municipalities or by others have been made and a report is drawn up and shelved. In the mean time the scarcity of pure milk continues and the milk vender finds additional means of adulterating milk. For instance, it has never been patiently enquired with what the milk man feeds his cows in towns and whether very objectionable materials are not used. There is no wonder that the importation of tinned milk from foreign countries is increasing under these circumstances. In 1908 only 7 million lbs. were imported. Next year it increased to 9 million lbs.; in 1911, it was 9 ¾ millions; in 1912, 11 ¼ millions and in 1913, 12 ¾ million lbs. worth Rs. 70 lakhs. Nevertheless our local authorities have not yet attempted to create facilities for the starting of municipal dairies. Senate meeting
AN important meeting of the Senate of the Punjab University was held on Tuesday, the 31st March with the Vice-Chancellor Rev. Dr. Ewing in the chair. The annual budget was the chief item for consideration and furnished the occasion for several important motions which evoked lively discussion, the meeting lasting for an hour and a quarter. The first motion brought before the Senate related to the grant of bonus to the office establishment. Mr. Shiv Dyal, M.A., urged that there was no reason for placing the employees of the University on a different footing from those of Government offices, but the motion fell through. Mr. Gopal Chand moved that the item of Rs. 2,000 for hill expenses of the University office be disallowed on the ground that the move to Simla was unnecessary and uncalled for. This elicited considerable discussion, Messrs Gopal Chand, R.S. Ruchi Ram, Dhanpat Rai Durga Das and Fazl Hussain being the speakers against the move to Simla and Mr. Wathen and the Registrar in its support.
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Demystifying the aam aadmi Who
is this aam adami? A de-mystification of this character is possible by tracking its successive incarnations during the transitional phases of politics and economy. Initially it was a product of dialogic encounter with colonial rule. It encoded a regime of power which valued Western (English) education and government job as the key site for differentiating the elite from the masses. The Nehruvian state-led development affirmed it. When Indira Gandhi was at the helm of affairs, the objective dimensions of aam adami's identification moved to education in a former socialist country, avowed commitment to Marxism and a job in the expanding public sector. A red feather in one’s cap was the blinking beacon light of the then khas adami. This situation is highly dynamic as all the ranks within and between the combinations are in a state of flux. Choosing appropriate opportunities for advancement from satellite-based information gives a winning streak to an aspiring individual. For this reason, we are witness to intensified communication among people at the same level of achievement. Horizontal interaction draws them into competition and cooperation to outdo one another. Such connectivity leads to expansion and swelling of the middle class. The flavour of such success is relational. Success is achieved through networking and ability to win friends. Value-added professional training takes precedence over cultivation of excellence in science, culture or behaviour. These restless and mobile people constitute the post-reform 'new' middle class which looks ‘outwards’ for comparison and inspiration. This class positions itself in opposition to the ‘old’ middle class whose members look ‘inwards’, to inborn talent, for setting goals in life. The 'new' middle class reveals personality traits of dependence and is eager for inclusion through democratic participation. The 'old' middle class, on the contrary, craves for autonomy. It generally distances itself from active politics and wants to be left alone. The privatisation of education caters to the ambitions of the ‘new’ middle class. Private schools, colleges and universities have sprung up to supply entry-level qualifications as prescribed by domestic and international employers. Urban apartment blocks, shopping malls, and marketing outlets for beauty, fitness and lifestyle products cater to their rising expectations. At the same time there is demand from the members of the 'old' middle class for exclusive townships equipped with high-end facilities for self-driven pursuits. The ‘new’ middle class is the home of the aam adami. The aam adami is one who has risen above the poverty line and is tirelessly engaged in improving his occupation and status. But his aspirations are trapped within a hierarchically ordered middle class fragments. His upward mobility confronts social and cultural barriers which are enforced by the top layers through strict gate-keeping activity. In the face of strategically located inducements, this brings out the essential materiality of his motivation. This is how a 'worker' is uprooted from the working-class which is his true placement and gets locked within artificial cultural forms of the middle class. His revolutionary masculinity gets stunted and he is transformed into an effeminate Pavlov’s dog. When, therefore, the daily challenges and status anxieties ignite violent passions in private thoughts and informal conversations, he gets increasingly disposed to throw away the middle class pretensions. He evaluates the official claims of the hegemonic bloc in promoting economic progress and political development. He takes charge of his circumstances and decides the course of his future action in shaping the conditions of his life. He ceases to be a passive object of forces emanating from state functionaries or market processes. He is impatient for change and to jump out of his present conditions. He has lost faith in an autonomous dialectic working out its logic objectively, or doing so in response to a necessity that does not depend on human will. The aam adami is a conservative radical who is socially challenged by post-reform economic and political modernisation. He blames public authorities for disrupting the way he gives meaning to his life. This has changed his relationship with the regime of power and, by and large, shifted the 'new' middle class to the margins of the hegemonic control. In the language of Antonio Grimace's concept of hegemony, the parliamentary route to remedy the excesses of inter-capitalist competition and market processes are of limited use in ‘manufacturing consent’ of the 'new' middle class. The failure in eliciting consent from below has generated a strong popular mood for reforming the political system. The aam adami's presence in public rallies on issues such as corruption, democracy, urban infrastructure and healthcare clearly flag the need for systemic reform. The political agency of the 'new' middle class is at issue. This class is trying to fill the spaces vacated by the failure of the Nehruvian transformative project to realise a society which is both egalitarian and modern. The faith put in merit and rationality as embodied in the bureaucratic, managerial and intellectual elite for realising this goal foundered on the rock of social inequalities when the subordinate salaried classes took to rent-seeking activities. As the squeeze of 'rent' drains away resources meant for upward mobility on the ladder of consumption, the members of the ‘new’ middle class target them as political opponents. This means that the aam adami is attempting to move out of his otherness within a system of hegemony. He is attempting to transit to the centre stage for reconciling political nationhood with economic and cultural globalisation. The moot question which haunts the present run-up to the election is the likely response of the post-election government to the aam adami's Charter of Demands for political reforms backed by massive public demonstrations? The reforms are no doubt needed but probably the aam adami will opt for academic discourse on the relative advantages of the old and the new hegemony, rather than impatiently going in for direct action which is likely to spin the
country into difficulties. The writer is a former Professor of International Politics,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
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Surviving on faith and placebos My
daughter asked me if I was going to collect my monthly dose of placebos. I replied that the Army gives the best of medicines. She retorted that the medicines supplied on the basis of lowest tender rates were likely to be 75 % chalk and whatever else. My generation has been brought up on the unshakeable faith that everything “Army” can be relied upon, including the medicines. Most of us fondly remember that we were treated for virtually every ailment except for broken bones or bullet wounds by a wonder drug called the APC. There were never any complaints about its healing power except that the miracle medicine appeared to taste and look like chalk. A story went around after the Sino-Indian war that a young Bengali regimental doctor had been able to save a jawan suffering from the dreaded high altitude disease — the pulmonary oedema. He reportedly administered the APC and some coloured vitamins to the sick jawan and assured every one that he had managed to get a new drug from Calcutta when no known medicine existed at that time for the dreadful disease. A life was saved in a desolate inaccessible post. Call it faith, providence or just psychological victory but a soldier survived. Most importantly, the jawans genuinely believed in their doctors and the healing power of the medicine. My daughter countered that at that young age combined with the tough army regime, even chalk and cheese may have been adequate to cure minor ailments but not during older years — “you need the best of medicine”. For once — the rarest of rare occasion — my wife came to my rescue. She virtually concluded the argument by stating that if your father had to spend that much on expensive medicines, his health may be affected due to other complications. In any case if the free issue has some chalk, he may not have drastic long-term side effects. I deliberately ignored the sarcasm and concentrated on the positive. I proceeded to collect my bagful of so-called placebos for two months. The cost was a mere wait in the queue for an hour or so with the other staunch believers.
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Gender sensitive men of Indian villages Can
the violence perpetrated on women and children in the country end by just empowering women? By making them stronger to confront the abuser or, by making our laws more stringent? While all that is necessary, it is equally important to work with men, change their mindset as well as the dominant patriarchal traditions in the country. Only then would women be on the highway to gender equality. Gender and development discourses, since the 1990s have sought to establish an alternative perspective on women’s empowerment, shifting the emphasis from an approach that is women-centric to one which is more relational and includes men and their role and response to various issues. In UP, an initiative called MASVAW (Men’s Action for Stopping Violence Against Women) was started in 2002 by ‘Sahayog’a voluntary organisation, to understand men, their vulnerabilities and anxieties that made them subjugate women in society as well as discriminate against them. It forced men to reflect upon their use and abuse of patriarchal power against women. Through workshops, trainings, community action and then reflection in groups, change was ensured and a cadre of model activists called MASVAW men was created in various parts of UP. These are men who are interested in stopping violence, creating awareness on the sexual and reproductive health of women, promoting education for girls, addressing equal opportunity and property rights for women. Losing male friends Men who adapted to the changes have counted several gains, the most significant being they are closer to their wives and children though they lost some male friends. The changing dynamics of men’s behaviour to prevent violence and promote gender equality have achieved two goals — improved women’s status without significantly compromising the ‘masculinity’ of men involved. Even while working in UP, Dr Abhijit Das, a medical doctor and currently Director of Centre for Health and Social Justice (CHSJ), Delhi, and Satish Singh, a school teacher and currently deputy director at CHSJ, came across similar initiatives in Brazil, several African countries and Nepal called Promundo, Engender Health and Save the Children respectively. With the support of the International Centre for Research on Women, US, a collaborative project was initiated with Promundo to replicate MASVAW’s experience in three different locations, including new areas in UP. Ten men and 10 youth were trained in 20 villages to form MASVAW-like groups working with the community on violence against women.
Allies of women
Honour and masculinity In the process they learnt about ‘hegemonic masculinity,’ an idea of domination that pervades male thinking. In South Asia’s culturally conservative gender regimes, they found that notions of izzat or honour sanctify honour killing, son preference had led to sex selective practises and men whose advances have been spurned by women consider it their right to attack them with acid. Currently the programme to change male thinking is on in 1500 villages in 50 districts in four states — UP, MP, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Some excellent research based papers have been published in international journals by Das, Singh and Ahona Roy as the international community re-looks at engaging and changing men. With support of the Institute for Development Studies, UK, MASVAW also experimented with building individuals to challenge gender-stereotypical arrangements in institutions. Some 10 champions for gender equality were groomed in a five-star hotel, a trade union, a state level political party, a university, a students’ union, a few panchayats, a Dalit organisation and a group of transgenders. With UNFPA support the programme to improve gender relations has been taken to 100 villages in three districts of Maharashtra and is currently in its fifth year. In Madhya Pradesh gender sensitisation work is on in 30 villages. Empathising partner In 20 villages of Solapur Distirct, near Sangola town an intervention called Samajhdar Jodidar (Marathi phrase meaning ‘understanding partner’) was initiated by the NGO ‘Astitva’ to reduce domestic violence and gender discrimination and increase women’s decision-making and autonomy. The project was coordinated by CHSJ. At the end of three years, a study showed substantive improvement in women’s status without compromising men’s ‘masculinities’. However, in two villages of wrestlers, the epitome of masculinity, the project did not get a positive response. The tradition of wrestling had led to hegemonic masculinity with the male identity related to body-building, creating a sense of dominance and gender superiority. Change makers are people like Mahadev, one of the leaders of the Samajhdar Jodidar project of Solapur district. He comes from the OBC community and lives in a semi-constructed mud house with his wife Lata, his mother, four children of two to nine years and members of his extended family. He cultivates pomegranates on his farm and his wife assists him watering and caring for the plants, picking and selling the fruit at the city market. Though in the drought-like summers, Mahadev has to buy water from tankers, profit is good and is now equally divided between Mahadev and Lata. He values her hard work and is happy to share the profits of farming. Changing perceptions He admits that the changes in his perception about gender relations are due to his training and campaigning as a Samajhdar Jodidar. Discussing stories and case studies from the adjoining villages helps men understand the discrimination that women face and they want to create new relationships with those in their lives. Defining gender in a different way forms the basis of the gender equality programmes. Before the gender workshops, Mahadev admits his behaviour was similar to that of other men in the village. He was aggressive, violent and abused his wife and children and had little interest in domestic affairs. He would return home drunk and physically abuse his wife often coercing her to have sex. Consent was never sought. He also had no interest in the welfare or education of his children. Equality is infectious As the ‘animator’ of his village for the project he was expected to lead the ‘gender equality’ programme by creating solidarity among other men in the village. Initially Mahadev had to face huge criticism from men, who argued that gender equality and women’s empowerment would lead to shame for the village. These men also said if women were empowered, they would not listen to their fathers and husbands and lead independent lives. Despite these challenges, Mahadev went ahead. In the beginning it was Rs 1000 honorarium given to the animator that attracted him. Genuine interest developed slowly because of the kind of issues being discussed. He developed a bond with other ‘animators’ from nearby villages and they formed an informal group that debated issues related to gender and the prospects and challenges of engaging men in the project. Today a transformed Mahadev takes his children to school every morning, and plays games with them. He takes his family to visit relatives or to the mela(fair). His relationship with his wife has become cordial and household decisions are taken jointly. The house too is registered in both their names and he has succeeded in encouraging other men and families in his village to do the same. Community check A mid-tern review of the project by Manisha Gupta and David Kadam showed that more than half the respondents registered their houses in the joint name of themselves and their spouse. The birth of daughters was celebrated and villagers did not spare those who bullied and harassed girls on their way to school reversing the concept of honour. In the study done by Das and Roy, Mahadev says that previously he
had little information about the reproductive health of women, but the trainings gave him a greater awareness of women’s sexual and reproductive health. He feels he now has a better understanding of women’s health issues. Samajdar Jodidar’s stories of change called “yes we can” can be seen on Utube. Vilas Dalvi, father of five girls and a son, recounts how he would shout at his daughters and not send them to school. He was tense about getting five girls married. Now a member of the empowered group of men, he does not differentiate between his daughters and his son and the girls have started going to school. “I have changed,” he admits. Dadasa Nathuram ensured that his wife had iron tablets, calcium and milk and ate on time through her pregnancy. He would get her fresh coconuts from the market and spent Rs 170 a week on flavoured milk. He even shared with his wife all the information the doctor gave him on pregnancy. When they had a girl he loved her and would come rushing to pick her up when she cried. Farmer Atul K Desmukh from Malegaon too is a changed man and a caring father. An atmosphere of friendship prevails in the house because he chats and plays with his daughters of five and eight years. He helps his wife in the housework and now she no longer objects to his help in the kitchen and in filling water. She in turn helps him with farm work. All these testimonies illustrate ways in which they subvert the conventional system of hegemonic masculinity and turn towards a gender relationship based on equality. It demonstrates the change among men and their perception and use of power in relationships— from violent, abusive and aggressive husbands, to non-violent and collaborative partners, sensitive to the needs of their wives and to the importance of equality within the relationship. It highlights the importance of developing a ‘social movement’ as mobilised men and young boys participate and take action to address violence against women. By sharing income with their wives, they acknowledge their labour in the field. Recognising and respecting their contribution creates awareness among other village men, leading to a shared sense of gender(ed) empowerment. The writer is a well-known environment journalist.
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The aam adami at the centre of the present middle-class revolt is a product of a globalised neoliberal economy. As a post-communist phenomenon, he is situated globally and not nationally. He is a non-owning, white-collar worker and enjoys a non-working class social status. He symbolises the present global shift from manual to non-manual work. His identity is not subject to a single criterion such as the one derived from the relations of production. It is subject to multiple criteria derived from varying combinations of cultural, economic and social ‘capital’ (attainments) which in turn reflect changing combinations of occupation, income, status and lifestyle. An individual may be high in cultural attainment but low in economic achievement and social esteem. And the aggregate rank of this individual may not be congruent with the rank in the other combination. 
This banter had gone on for the last few years whenever she was around. I had explained to her that at times even the placebos could save lives and that a recent survey in Chicago had found that a large number of doctors occasionally prescribed their patients placebos with good results. She remains unconvinced despite my telling her my own true-to-life experience.
