Thursday 13 May 2010

of this and that: On Reservations

of this and that: On Reservations

Happy Mother's Day--- in anticipation!

Through the Looking Glass: Mothers and Children

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. - Lewis Carroll.


That’s what I am going to do.

 
The second Sunday of May is celebrated as Mother’s Day, thus paying tribute to the “co-creators of humanity”. While sending joyful tidings to our respective mothers on this day, let us also attempt a tribute to the prospective mothers, who are having to sacrifice their divine Right to Motherhood (not incorporated in the Constitutional Rights) at the altar of their choice to successful careers. Almost half of the five and a half billion people in the world are women, who are the primary breadwinners in subsistence economies like ours, and contribute to the economy of the nation as much as their male counterparts. They have to fight the barriers put up every step of their way by family, society, legal restrictions, dictates of religion as interpreted by the “holy” heads, and the prevailing patriarchal system. The Gender Bias keeps population growth rates high, in spite of all efforts by governments to attempt stemming of the population explosion, because gender bias denies women routes to economic security other than a “good” marriage and childbearing. Those who defeat the stereotyping are stymied by the family pressures to live up to the expectations of saintly dutiful womanhood, and forego their chosen careers for falling into the age-old pattern drawn out for them. Nobody remembers that investing in women is the most direct method of boosting economies of the family and thus the country.




Gender bias has its roots in the “pink for a girl” and “blue for a boy” as an infant enters the world. It is cemented by the rules laid in families of “how to behave like a girl” and further enforced by the skewed education system in our country. Mrs. Alpana Baijal, ex-Principal of MPGS, MPS and KL International, now owner of her own school “Sunningdales”, says –“Many young girls with starry visions in their eyes have passed through my hands. And have seen them bow down to their “fate” over the years, sacrificing their dreams at the altar of ‘duty’. Our archaic labour laws concerning maternity benefits need to be reviewed and revised, so that they make the process of child-bearing more friendly, at the same time guaranteeing job securities to the young mother-to-be.”




The textbooks substantiate the teachings of society in their short-sighted vision. Teachers are mostly depicted as women wearing sarees with buns atop their heads, while police personnel, soldiers, pilots and astronauts are always men. Games played in school, clothes worn, careers selected, subjects chosen; all are rooted within the confines of gender bias. The first learner books in the mother tongue have lines like “Ram kaam par ja. Radha khaana paka. Roti la.”




Even the eunuchs have had a better deal than women in the professional field as depicted in history. Since they were not able to have children, they worked with emperors, costume designers, cooks accountants, treasurers, bookkeepers, real estate advisors, drivers, guards, speculators and interpreters.




Ever considered the plight of the contemporary woman? The travails she has to face?




The mega companies in the public and private corporate sectors employ the skillful, articulate ladies with delight. And put them through a rigorous working schedule, no doubt providing adequate compensations and remunerations. But time constraints, fast-paced corporate dictates and growth opportunities strip them of their right to motherhood.




Dr. Poonam Devdutt, an eminent psychologist of Meerut says, “Girls do much better than boys in academics but the fallout rate from high-profile professional fields is very high. More girls opt for higher education, and fewer continue remaining in the job-market. The increased pressures on them make them succumb and fall back into the choice between rearing a family or retaining their occupations. The flexi-time offered by call centres for example, lures more women into the field. This could be incorporated into other companies as well.”




Women should be given the opportunities to be able to fend for themselves, learn the requisite skills to do so, make the choice of Work Vs Family themselves, be provided with a strong support system from both family and employers to stand by their choices, as they contribute and boost the economy of the country. It is imperative for every member of society, both sides of the fence, to recognize the contribution of women in the corporate sector or otherwise, and provide them the wherewithal and the recognition of being “assets” to community. The positive lessons imbibed from family, society, or governments will truly emancipate the 21st century woman, and allow her to fulfill both her rights- to have a career and a child. Aanchal, a 27-year old media professional working with a leading TV Channel, and a graduate of Sophia Girl’s School, married for 3 years, says- “I have dreamt of having two children since I grew up. I want to translate the love and companionship my parents, brother, sister and I share and grew up with, in my own family. I love my work too and have worked really hard at to reach where I am. I don’t know how or when I will be able to realize both my dreams. The systems in force do not provide adequate support to women like me and many of my friends and colleagues, to be able to plan a family.




Neha, 28, also a product of Sophia Girl’s School realized her dream of becoming a software engineer, and is currently employed at Chicago with Infosys. According to her, “I would love to settle down, have a family, maybe one child, but where is the time? The choice is clear. Either I give up the work I love and am good at, and get married and raise a family (which my parents insist on once in a while), or work hard and climb the ladder to the citadel of my ambitions, always realizing the risk I face of having to forfeit the former”.




Women are not incapable. They are just giving up the choice to participate. The world has moved forward. Awareness of the problems in the path of working women needs to translate into social change, egged on by concentrated efforts by the governments. Children of emancipated women would also be an asset to the society of tomorrow. It is time to recognize that. It is time for gender bias to cross the aisle and face the challenges of the 21st century. And, it is time to remove the stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination from our homes and work-places. Time to prepare a perfect model plan to liberate the Woman of Today, to encompass all of her needs, desires and rights. Especially, the Right to Creation.





“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”


Wouldn’t you like to believe just this one?





Happy Mother’s Day! In anticipation.


Where have they gone?

Pandora’s box-2:
Endangered Earth: Where have they gone?

Life in the city – bustling with activity. Faceless people running to and fro, preparing for better tomorrows for themselves and their families. In all this mad rush, how many of us look around our familiar habitats and see the pitfalls threatening our collective futures? The pitfalls of potholes on roads, traffic snarls, flooded dirty drains, festering diseases , rising costs and dwindling power resources are obvious to all of us. More and more time spent in earning our rozi-roti and less and less time for our friends and family has become part and parcel of this era. But hardly any of us take the time to notice the “friends” and “family” that we grew up with have gone missing!
Advanced modernization, the rat-race of climbing up to the summits of our dreams and ambitions, the rapidly developing industrialization – all these have taken their toll. We survive within our comfort-zones and familiar habitats, but seem to have snatched these from the denizens of our homes and surroundings. The familiar chirp-chirp of the unpretentious house sparrow, the cooing of the dove, the early morning wake-up call of the crow, the sight of the silent descent of the preying vulture, the soundless  flutter of the dragonfly, the fluorescent glow of the fireflies in bushes on warm nights, the deep drone of the black bhanwara, the flutter of countless colourful wings of exotic butterflies.. all these are stilled and vanishing every day. The ongoing march of man and his machines have caused these friendly neighbours to abandon our hearth and homes. To understand why we are all part of this mass extinction of essential fauna , we need to sit up and take stock of our involvement and become answerable to the generations to come.
We, as humans, are the evolved race and hence highly adaptable to changing, sometimes adverse, conditions. But animal, plant, insect, bird and specially amphibian species have remained dependent on us for their survival. Some of these are dependent on multiple habitats to survive. Direct exploitation of many animal species, like hunting, fishing, ‘collecting” butterflies and beetles, destroying nesting places, changing weather patterns, pollution of air, water and soil, indiscriminate use of insecticides and the new BT crops – all have served to annihilate many of our familiar “house-guests”. Better transport facilities, advanced  communication means, the industrial revolution that is India Shining, has taken the gloss off the environment in all its erstwhile majesty!
Nobody knows or can exactly pinpoint the reason for the endangerment of the species that we grew up with. The emissions from the mobile network towers atop buildings, the felling of trees for six-laned highways, the rotting garbage dumps, the lackadaisical attitudes of the health authorities who allow injudicious use of insecticides in soils and spraying of fruit trees and crops, the contaminated water sources that are used for irrigation – all of these have contributed towards the extinction of these precious, delicate and harmless co-residents of our land. According to Ms. Swati Sharma, an environmentalist  and Secretary of an Uttarakhand- based NGO “Saviours”, the reasons for the rapidly diminishing species are varied. This NGO was started in1999 and  works for conservation of the environment, the planting of trees, rural empowerment , conserving the endangered Ganges dolphin and associated issues. They have recently launched the “Trees of Faith” campaign, in which the religious heads of communities are enrolled into teaching students and through them the parents about the inculcation of awareness in methods of protection of the flora and fauna around them. Ms. Swati Sharma says,  “The changing patterns of human habitation, the closed doors and air-conditioned homes, the bigger and bigger concrete houses and cities with smaller and smaller garden spaces and the lack of awareness are all contributing to the dwindling of so many species of animals that used to live on the fringes of our world.”
Ms. Swati Sharma says that lack of nesting places in the modern buildings is a major factor for the impending extinction of the familiar sparrows, robins, etc. as also the use of unleaded petrol which uses benzene and  causes the hatching of birds eggs to be adversely affected.  According to her,” Earlier, ladies had the time to wash grains, dry them on rooftops before storing, and this provided food for the household birds. Now the Mall Culture has taken over our lives with the assorted dals and cereals being purchased in packets ready for use. As are the pre-cooked, ready-to-use food available off the shelves of the malls . A recent news item in the Times of India revealed the shocking fact of more than 400 foreign tourists and many labourers having made their home inside the forest reserve of the Rajaji National Park, inspite of the efforts of the authorities to evict them. These encroachments into the territory of wildlife is as dangerous a phenomenon to human life in the long run, as the growth of terrorist organizations and activities are in the immediate sense.
One well-documented fact  that emerged recently when the sudden extinction of vultures was looked into was the use of “Voveran” (diclofenac sodium) the common medicine given for the mitigation of fever and pain in domestic and farm animals by veterinary doctors. The carcasses of the cattle that didn’t survive, had a high quantity of this chemical, which was toxic to the kidneys of these carrion birds. Just a small error caused an entire species to die out! The extinction process began with the dinosaurs that roamed the planet and now survive only in our imagination (courtesy Jurassic Park), the dodos of Madagascar, the moas of New Zealand ,the Reunion solitaire or “white dodo” and other now extinct species, which now survive in and adorn paintings on walls and text-books for the Generation Next.
Whatever the reason, it is a wake-up call for each of us, to sit up and take notice of the friendly inhabitants of our homes and hearts. Wouldn’t you like to have your children wake up with the caw-caw of the crow, hop around with the little brown sparrow, feed breakfast crumbs to the robins, share their tiffin box with the prancing squirrels and chirping hoopoes, jump in the rain puddles with croaking frogs, and sleep to the comforting hoot of the barn owls? Look around you! How often do you see the familiar mynah bird? Or the bats flitting noiselessly on dark nights and hanging upside-down  asleep in your verandah? When did you last show your children the green glow of the firefly or  jugnu, as they lit up the trees and bushes on hot summer evenings? How many colours of butterflies do you recollect from your childhood? And the “helicopter” or dragonfly that hovered over your heads in scented gardens heralding the onset of summer? When last did you hear the buzzing  of the big, black drone or “bhanwara”- the harbinger of the Season of Flowers?
As Ms. Swati Sharma sums it very aptly, “It is not the animals, birds, insects and other species that are venturing into our territory, it is us that are venturing into theirs.”
The extinction of a species could mean the loss of the cure of cancer, or a new medicine for AIDS, a new antibiotic, a disease-resistant strain of rice or wheat. It is vital for us to remember that our lives are entwined with those of the plants and animals. Their protection will ultimately be ours, as will their destruction.The time has come for each of us to take the responsibility. We cannot depend on legislation alone.  Its time to make our little attempts at re-creating the world around us. Time to do our bit towards the preservation of our “friends and family.” Let us attempt their rehabilitation. Let us be the architects of their world. And thence, of ours.

Dr. Seema Tyagi
Meerut

Child labour.. bane or boon????

Children of a Lesser God -

Child –defined by the constitution as any citizen under 14 years of age. The age for imbibing education and aiming for a starry future.  Assisted by the laws of the land. India, a country still in the “developing” category, promises to guarantee every citizen the wherewithal to earn three square meals a day, but in face of the myriad obstacles in front of the government to fulfill the promise made by their forefathers, it yet remains a pipe-dream. Children have to, at an early age, give up this basic Right, and go out to earn their living, and that of their families. The so-called “Child labour”!

High-handed arbitrary interpretation of the Laws of the Land, and the short-sighted “Feel-good” factor of having done a job well, gives the men in khakhi the power to wield the double-edged sword over the heads of these young workers and their parents. Something is definitely skewed here and needs to be set right. This week, Meerut awoke to the news reported by local papers of the “rescue” of about 85 children below 14 years, picked up by the police and lodged in a “Bal Niketan” at Surajkund. They were allegedly lifted from the venues of their occupations – shops and hotels, where they worked voluntarily and learned the tricks of the trade.

 The multipronged strategies adopted by the government to remove this badnuma daag from the face of our nation, resulted in the amendment of the Child Labour Act of 1917 time and again, to attempt a guarantee of every child being given the Right to Education. But legislation alone cannot tackle this problem, as it is steeped in the twin taints of poverty and illiteracy, which actually require to be eradicated first ! In 1979, a committee set up for this purpose studied the magnitude of the problem and suggested rectifying measures. The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was thus enacted in 1986. This Act prohibits employment of children in “hazardous “ occupations, and allowing them to work for six hours a day in non-hazardous occupations, so that education time of at least two hours a day is assured. It was further suggested that for every child withdrawn from the workforce, the State government would compensate some amount of money into a welfare fund for the child and also guarantee a job for one of the parents, both of which remain a distant dream!

The sight of the young boys picked up by the police with well-meaning intention, showed up the huge holes in the existing laws in our country. Education, by definition, is a learning of skills to equip the subject to handle a future with their own two hands. The heart-rending wails of the “rescued” children, as they pleaded to be released, the panic writ large in their eyes, the bewilderment of wondering what was so wrong with what they were doing in their tender minds- an ignorance of the short-sighted laws of the land in all the concerned people- the law-enforcers and “victims”, led to the most pathetic violation of the Right to Freedom in this world’s largest democracy! Who is ultimately responsible for the tears and sobs of the little ones as they cried through a sleepless dark night, confined within the dilapidated walls of the Children’s “Home”? The little 9-year old who begged to be sent back to his real home? The lengthy legal processes required to now re-unite them with their parents? And what of the ones who don’t have parents? Are they now condemned to live in confinement for the crime of earning their livelihood?

Is learning of non-hazardous skills not an “education”? Would ancient skills like weaving, pottery, zardosi, etc .so much part of India, have survived the centuries without each generation learning them from their parents? It is time to wake up and take stock of the real India. Where governments cannot guarantee the basic means of survival to so many, maybe the word “Education” ought to encompass a wider field of activities, thus empowering the young ones to build their own futures. Any Law in civic society, that strips the subject of his dignity and Right to life, needs a re-dekho for sure! Soch badlo, desh badlega.

Dr. Seema Tyagi
Meerut

Happy Women's Day

The Girl Child and her Day in the Sun.

“The child is the father of the man”- so wrote William Wordsworth in his famous poem “The Rainbow”.. Little did this dreamer of the 18th century dream, that centuries later there would arise a situation that would require what his wildest imagination did not foresee.. a separate set of rules and rights for the child born of different genders..  of life and death.

Generations came, generations perished. And what emerged from the spawn of humanity and its so-called “progress”, was the most belittling, disgraceful and degrading state of affairs- the Gender Bias.
Various theories attempted to explain and justify what led to people wanting a male child, and fearing the birth of a female one. Whether it was poverty, illiteracy, the great “Joint Family System”, the short-sighted land and property laws of the land or the various social evils, namely sati, dowry, pathetic education and other avenues available for the young girls in the family, the net result was the same. A steady and rapid downfall of the status of women in general in society. What probably further sealed their fate were the doctrines of religion as quoted by the caretakers of all religions.. the pandits, maulvis and priests, who had a vested interest in “keeping women in their place”.

24th January 1966. The daughter of our first Prime Minister, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi, broke the mould of her sisters and was elected the first woman Prime Minister of India. One thought that what the great social activists had failed to do in all the years, would be done now, with a member of the XX Chromosome at the helm of the nation. But one was so very wrong!

Decades came and kept coming. And the plight of women fell deeper and deeper into the mire. The tip of the iceberg was there for all to see. The head covered, neck bent, shoulders stooped lady, with vermilion an her forehead, hair and palms, who bore the brunt of every misfortune that befell the family, and plodded on bravely, swallowing the blame and suppressing all her anguish and pain under the mantle of the much glamorized “Indian Woman” aka  “Bharatiya Naari”. Then came what was the inevitable fallout of the quagmire.. the total hatred in men and women, elders and the youth alike, of the female child. At first, it was a shameful secret, kept under covers of the four walls of the home. Slowly, it reached a shameful stage, where the shame vanished. Doctors and Scan Centres began to openly (for a fixed fee) conduct ultrasonographic tests to find out the sex of the unborn child and inform the parents-to-be. Then, with scant respect for the laws of the country, or the tenets of humanity or even the will of the mother-to-be, decisions were taken and the baby girls aborted. This went on, and now, at the turn of the decade, we have touched the low of the skewed sex ratio of 925 girls to 1000 men. In some States of India who are predominantly agricultural, it is even lower.

Finally the warning bells ringing through the years came to the ears of the United Progressive Alliance (The UPA Government), and steps began to be taken in the right direction. The Minister for Women and Child Development, Ms. Renuka Chaudhary announced a new venture for the citizens of the country to be able to hear the very same bells clanging, in the “Bel Bajaao” campaign. This was begun on 24th January 2009 , marking the day in 1966 that Indira Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister.  A series of programmes were launched, including the many advertisements aired on television,starring Boman Irani of “Bell Bajaao” when you see a crime against woman. The erstwhile slogan of the ministry “Save the Girl Child” was changed to “My daughter-Nation's pride”. An awareness campaign was flagged off, which was to last until 8th March, the International Women's Day. The media assisted all they could with new serials, documentaries and road shows depicting the ills being inflicted on the “weaker sex”- right from stripping them of their right to be born to their right to live.
The intentions and plans of the UPA Government were no doubt noble and well-meaning. But the rot has seeped too far down into our moral and social fibre today. Even today, the girl child is aborted and thrown wrapped in black polythene bags in gutters, little girls are abandoned or murdered after birth, left at the hospitals they were delivered in, on railway platforms and orphanages. Those that are held on to by the families, are subjected to harsh and often cruel treatment by the members of their own family, depriving them of their dignity and different rights than given to the boys in the family. That a nation that is in majority hindu, and worships various Goddesses, keeps fasts and celebrates womanhood, should reach this stage, says a lot for the the magnitude of the problem our country faces today.

Other countries too have similar gender-equality issues no doubt, and have taken their own steps to combat them. Bangladesh celebrates the Day of the Girl Child on 15th October. UNICEF celebrates the day on 24th September. The church celebrates the birth of the girl child, Mary, Mother of Jesus, on 8th September. But the real tribute to the girl child is to celebrate every day of her life as the “Day of the Girl Child”, celebrate her identity as an equal member of her family, her community and her country. The world's largest democracy can surely awaken today, and extend her largesse to encompass the life-giving section of humanity – the girl child.  Today, on the 24th of January 2010, it is for each of us to find the awareness in our hearts, and share it with those who are still in the dark. It is for us to make that extra effort, take that extra step forward from our busy lives, and reach out to the yet un-enlightened and un-informed, biased members of our neighborhoods, families, cities and county, and make that change. That will be the true tribute to the National Day of the Girl Child.

Dr. Seema Tyagi.
Meerut.

Capital punishment

Capital punishment' vis a vis the right propounded by the laws of the
land, is totally condemnable in any so-called "civilized" society. Is
a slur on humanity of the magnitude of 9.9 on the Richter Scale . The
catch word here being "humanity". Vemin like Kasab, Koli and Pander
(of the grizzly cannibalism fame-the Nithari Case) and the ones that
brutally extinguished the lives of Arushi and other innocents, the sadistic monsters in
society..do not qualify as humans. As one wouldnt think twice of
stepping on a cockroach or swatting a fly, one shouldnt get moralistic
qualms about executing Kasab. The souls of all those he murdered will
shower blessings on the public hanging of their murderer.
As for society becoming more brutal..  its
brutal enough with bride burnings and female infanticides. Sometimes its a need in society to bring the guilty to task ... however gory the means. The lessons have to be enforced in the learning curricula of the criminally inclined. Granting them presidential pardons will only show up us, as a nation, to be composed of soft-headed fools. Who cannot safeguard their own dignity, lives and honour!

You Only Live Twice: Atithi Devo Bhava

You Only Live Twice: Atithi Devo Bhava