Chennai, Dec 3 (IANS) Today's movie stars are tomorrow's political leaders and Chief Ministerial aspirants -- that is the trend in Tamil Nadu. The latest to join that club is actor Rajinikanth, who on Thursday announced his decision to float a political party in January 2021.
With this Rajinikanth puts an end to various speculations about his plunge into Tamil Nadu politics. Announcing this in a tweet he added: "In the upcoming assembly polls, with people's massive support, in Tamil Nadu, an honest, transparent corruption less, secular and spiritual politics is sure to happen." "Miracle, Wonder will happen," he added.
Speaking to reporters here Rajinikanth said: "The time has come to change the fate of Tamil Nadu. Political and government change in the state important. It will surely change. The political change is important and is compulsion of time. If not now, it is not possible ever. Everything has to be changed. We will change everything." He appealed to all to support him to bring in the change. "I am just a small instrument in the change. If I win then it is people's victory," he added.
With five chief ministers in the last five decades from the Tamil movie world, the way to the political power in Tamil Nadu is through tinsel town. Five of the state's chief ministers - C.N. Annadurai, M. Karunanidhi, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), Janaki Ramachandran and J. Jayalalitha - had their roots in filmdom, while several other actors showed an interest in politics.
However, the trend of movie hero turning into a mass political leader was started by MGR who broke away from DMK and to float All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and went on to become the state Chief Minister. In the upcoming 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly polls, the movie heroes who will be contesting would be: Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and A. Vijaykant. While Annadurai and Karunanidhi were involved in writing the story, screenplay and dialogues of movies, it was MGR who became the first actor-turned-Chief Minister.
The state has seen and is seeing several actor-turned-politicians like the late Sivaji Ganesan, T. Rajendar, M. Karthik, Vijayakanth with the DMDK, Sarathkumar with his All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, Director and actor Seeman with his Naam Tamilar Katchi and recently Kamal Haasan floating the MNM.
There are several other actors like R. Ramarajan, Vagai Chandrasekhar, Napoleon, Khushbu, C.R. Saraswathi, Anantharaaj, Radha Ravi and others who have joined the AIADMK, the DMK and the BJP. Barring MGR and Jayalalithaa, no other actor has captured power in the state fighting elections.
In 1972 MGR broke away from DMK and floated AIADMK and in 1977 captured power in the state in 1977. He continued to be the state Chief Minister till his death in 1987. He was succeeded by his wife Janaki Ramachandran and latter by J. Jayalalithaa, a popular heroine in Tamil movies. In 2005, Vijaykant, an action hero known to perform stunts in movies without a double, floated his DMDK party as an alternative to the two dominant Dravidian parties -- the AIADMK and the DMK.
"Vijaykant had his fan club in nook and corner of the state. The set up was great and it was converted into a political party. He had developed the fan club like a political party set up," political analyst Kolahala Srenivaas told IANS. When he fought the 2006 assembly polls alone without aligning with any party, the DMDK notched up an impressive vote share, better than even the established MDMK and PMK.
In the 2006 assembly polls the party contested in all the 234 assembly elections and got about 10 per cent vote share. Barring Vijayakant who won from Virudhachalam seat, all other party candidates lost the polls. Then DMDK became a most sought after party for alliance, more so for DMK.
Alinging with AIADMK in 2011, the DMDK became the second largest party in the assembly and Vijaykant became the Leader of the Opposition. Later the party witnessed dissensions and some long time office bearers broke away. The party now has lost its steam with Vijayakant's health not up to the mark. Over the years the DMDK's vote share has come down.
In 2018, Kamal Haasan floated his Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party in Madurai. The party contested independently in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and got about four per cent vote share while all the party candidates lost. In 2021 assembly polls the party plans to contest lead by Kamal Haasan.
The other action hero Sarath Kumar floated The All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi in 2007. The party mostly contested in alliance with AIADMK and its own vote share is not known. The other notable politician import from Tamil movie world is Seeman who has floated Naam Tamilar Katchi. The party has been contesting in the polls without aligning with any other party.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls Naam Tamilar Katchi had polled four per cent, logging three per cent vote growth over the earlier assembly polls. "In terms of growth, it is only Kamal Haasan's MNM and Seeman's Naam Tamilar Katchi has the growth opportunity. While MNM can cut into urban votes of other parties-mainly DMK-Seeman's party can gain in the rural areas," a political analyst not wanting to be quoted told IANS.
But such a scenario is bound to change with the entry of Rajinikanth the latest movie hero to enter the state politics. "He is super caste neutral. He can attract all voter segments - urban, rural, apolitical, small, micro communities. It is going to impact all the parties," the analyst added.
The next probable actor in the political line could be Vijay. However last month he distanced himself from the political party floated by his father and movie director S.A. Chandrasekhar. Vijay urged his fans not to join or serve the party just because his father started. The actor said there is no connection between his father's party and his fan's movement. "I also hope that appropriate action will be taken against them if they engage in any activities involving my name or photo or the name of Vijay Makkal Iyakkam," Vijay had said.
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New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS) The irony couldn't be more apt. The Sino-American rapprochement saw the once bitter enemies establishing diplomatic relations in 1979. A decade later came the Sino-Soviet rapprochement - again between two seemingly intractable ideologies - and the settlement of the Russia-China territorial dispute in 2004, to the extent that Russian turbofan engines now power the Chinese JF-17 jet that could soon become the mainstay of the Pakistani Air Force. Today, even the Arabs and the Israelis are talking about peace in a multipolar world that is taking shape with the re-emergence of Russia post the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"In the India-China case, both neighbours were attempting to move ahead without actually solving their problems, a formula that was exposed in 2020" with the PLA incursions in Eastern Ladakh, historian and strategist Zorawar Daulet Singh writes in "Powershift - India-China Relations In a Multipolar World" (Macmillan), suggesting that the two countries "explore new avenues that they could not delve into during the Cold War phase, where the frontier question dominated everything else".
"What has led to the tailspin in India-China relations in recent years? We will not find the clues in some valley or a narrow stretch of road in the upper Himalayas. Rather, the main reason has been a systematic buildup of negative images of how each side viewed the other's foreign policies along with a collapse in geopolitical trust," writes Daulet Singh, who holds a doctorate in international relations from King's College, London, and an MA from the School of Advanced Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
His previous books include "Power and Diplomacy: India's Foreign Policies During the Cold War", "India-China Relations: The Border Issue and Beyond" and "Chasing The Dragon: Will India Catch up with China?"
For India, the book says, China's attempts to raise its economic and political profile in the subcontinent was seen as an encroachment on, and an affront to, Indian authority in the neighbourhood. For China, India's pursuit of deeper military engagement with the former's main strategic rivals - the US and Japan - was viewed as a serious challenge to its future security.
"Convinced that only an assertive policy would work, since 2015 both New Delhi and Beijing began exploiting leverages and pressure points to keep the other side off balance. India tilted closer to the US, China towards Pakistan and on a scale not witnessed even during the Cold War years," Daulet Singh writes.
And, with India's boycott of the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), China found itself confronting not only the major holdout against its flagship international initiative "but also its most suspicious and non-cooperative neighbour in Asia", the book says.
"Beijing also noticed that New Delhi was beginning to openly involve external powers to collaborate with it in an anti-China strategy in South Asia and the Indian Ocean. Worse still must have been the spectacle of India brandishing its Tibet card. Such unbridled competition has raised the costs for both India and China," the author maintains.
The "short, if feeble episodes" to reach a new equilibrium through the informal summits in Wuhan (2018) and Chennai (2019) have obviously not been enough to reach a new modus vivendi, the book says, adding: "The crisis in eastern Ladakh for most of 2020 has shown just how intense threat perceptions and suspicions are on both sides of the Himalayas," even as it argues for a "new equilibrium to mitigate the recurring cycles of intense competition in recent years".
Thus, India's China policy is a profoundly consequential process that entails opportunities as well as risks with implications across a gamut of issues: to India's global status and effectiveness in international institutions, geopolitical security, and economic transformation, the book says.
India's China policy should aim to "responsibly compete" with its largest neighbour "albeit asymmetrically but effectively. This should not preclude creatively leveraging China's economic power to transform the region, a pragmatic strategy that smaller South Asian states have been pursuing to their advantage".
"Policymakers should also recognise the wider ramifications of China's rise in world politics and remain acutely sensitive to when and to what extent India's other strategic partners respond to and support India's interests and concerns.
"The creativity lies in leveraging geopolitical opportunities where they exist without succumbing to a 'ganging up' game that leaves India vulnerable to pressure from China, while India's friends, who have their own stakes with China, look on. It is a fine balancing act, and historically Indian strategists have got it more right than wrong," Daulet Singh maintains.
India's China policy, he writes, should be guided by three grand strategic goals: an inclusive security architecture in Asia that facilitates a non-violent transition to multipolarity without radically disrupting economic interdependence; an open and reformed international order to better reflect the developmental interests of India and the Global South; and, geopolitical stability and sustainable economic development in the subcontinent.
"China policy, therefore, must be part of a bigger foreign policy and world order vision for India, not the other way around," the author states.
Noting that the Asia of 2030, will look very different from the Asia of today, the book says that for the first time in several centuries, "we are facing the prospect of an Asia that can actually flourish on its own economically and not simply by playing a role as an assembly hub and export powerhouse to the West".
Greater Eurasia has the energy resources and strategic commodities of Russia including its strong scientific base of human capital, as well as the commercial technologies of Japan, China and Korea and it is this "big picture trend" that India needs to pay attention to, the book says.
"While the West will remain important, there is no viable way for India to avoid being part of this dynamic Asia and Greater Eurasia. Eventually, that boils down to having some sort of a stable India-China relationship. It has, thus, fallen upon the present generation of policymakers to steer India towards this complex multipolar world order. Major strategic choices have to be made and one hopes that India's leaders have the long term view," Daulet Singh writes.
Recalling a recent remark of Norwegian historian Odd Arne Westad that "the more the US and China beat each other up, the more room for manoeuvre other powers will have", the author states that this mantra could equally be applied to India and China.
"Unrestrained competition only benefits other powers. As the 2020 Ladakh crisis bookends a tumultuous decade of India-China relations, both Delhi and Beijing would do well to heed the call of our time. History is obliging both countries to step up and play constructive roles to shape the emerging world order even as it is impelling both sides to learn to co-exist in a common neighbourhood," Daulet Singh concludes.
"Powershift" is truly a seminal work that all stakeholders need to sit up and take a serious note of for the clarity of vision it provides.
Half of all GenZ women (55 per cent) want to be their own bosses, up from 43 per cent in 2019, according to a new report. When asked what would drive their confidence, women surpassed men in saying launching a business would most improve their confidence. The findings are from the Girls With Impact's 4th annual report, What's Inside the Minds of GenZ... during COVID?'.
While it's generally known that GenZ (ages 14-22) is the most purpose-driven generation, this heightened awareness came through this year as they have been reactive to the most pressing issues of 2020 -- from #BlackLivesMatter to climate change to COVID-19. In a shift from 2019, when asked how they want to make an impact, 63 per cent of GenZers said they want to "personally create something innovative" -- now ranking as their number-one priority while 53 per cent want to become entrepreneurs.
Nearly one-half (47 per cent) want to work for a company that is doing something innovative. "People don't go to work for the money -- they want to make an impact," said 16-year-old Neha Shukla, CEO of SixFeetApart. "GenZ is taking action on the issues facing our world. This isn't only demonstrated in their personal beliefs, but what they expect in the workplace," said Jennifer Openshaw, CEO of the nonprofit, Girls With Impact.
Aside from success, getting a job, and mental health placing among their top three worries, concerns over racism took a leap. Racial worries jumped 6x with 6.8 per cent of all GenZers saying it was their single greatest worry vs just 1 per cent in 2019. Diversity and inclusiveness translated into their workplace priorities; GenZ said they most valued "respect" and a "great manager" (vs an "older, experienced team" and "fun", which ranked on numbers 1 and 2 in 2019).
More women than men ranked diversity as a priority. Turning to the toll of COVID-19, mental health worries have spiked 14 per cent since 2019, ranking third as a top concern - perhaps the result of seeing family members lose jobs. Worries about grades also rose, up 20 per cent over the previous year.
According to the report, GenZ women could see their confidence rise by becoming an entrepreneur in a 12-point jump - up to 55 per cent vs 43 per cent last year. GenZ also shifted priorities from a short travel time and mentoring in 2019 to remote working and flexible hours - with greater attention to volunteer opportunities. GenZ women continue to have a lower compensation expectation - and the gender gap in earnings expectations has widened - with 39 per cent of men expecting to earn over $100K by 40 vs 27 per cent of women, said the report.
(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)
It’s just straws in the wind right now, but his loss is creating a sense in other populist-ruled nations that the juggernaut has stalled
There is nothing wrong in participating in a sex party of any kind. However, such meetings with many people are illegal under the Coronavirus laws,” said a source in the European Parliament.
To be specific, 25 men attending a loud party above a gay bar in central Brussels is clearly against Belgium’s Coronavirus laws, which allow no more than four people to meet indoors, so somebody called the police. At least three of those arrested were Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
It was particularly unfortunate for József Szájer. He’s a senior founding member of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, an ultra-nationalist, populist, authoritarian grouping that defends family values and condemns homosexuality. But Szájer was arrested while fleeing that party (with Ecstasy pills in his backpack). According to the Brussels region’s deputy public prosecutor, he was arrested with bloodied hands after a passerby spotted him “fleeing along the gutter” to escape the raid. Szájer admitted he had been at a “house party” but said the drugs the police found on him were planted. He apologised to his family but made no reference to the nature of the party. It’s hard to feel much sympathy for him. Szájer was a leading anti-gay agitator in Fidesz and boasts that he personally drafted the changes to the Hungarian Constitution that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. He has now resigned as the leader of the Hungarian delegation to the European Parliament, and will doubtless have to quit the Fidesz, too.
But there’s a bigger story here. There was another scandal in Hungary last week, in which Szilárd Demeter, a senior cultural official linked to Fidesz, wrote an opinion piece for a pro-Government outlet comparing Budapest-born American billionaire George Soros, a Jew who fled the Holocaust, to Adolf Hitler. Demeter also called the European Union (EU) “George Soros’ gas chamber”, and claimed that Hungary and Poland, the two Eastern European EU members with extreme-Right populist governments, are “the new Jews” of Europe.
It’s utterly unhinged, and yet it sounds vaguely familiar. The unbridled arrogance, the self-pity, the shameless, hysterical exaggeration are all hallmarks of the new breed of “illiberal” populists. And when they think they are losing, they always up the ante. I’m thinking, of course, of US President Donald Trump’s recent electoral defeat and his subsequent behaviour, especially towards President-elect Joe Biden.
Could that extraordinary recklessness be a communicable disease? Could it somehow be spreading to Trump’s acolytes overseas as well? Well, consider Poland. The Catholic, ultra-conservative Law and Justice Party has been in power in Poland since 2015. Elected by the same, older, less well-educated, non-urban, deeply religious coalition that backs populist takeovers elsewhere. And as in other populist-ruled countries, there has been a steady erosion both, in human rights and in respect for democratic norms.
The Law and Justice Party was re-elected just last year, and its leader, 71-year-old J Kaczynski, was widely supposed to have his finger on Poland’s pulse. But it all fell apart when a Law and Justice Party-appointed court declared in late October that abortions would not be permitted even in cases of severe foetal abnormality where the child would die immediately after birth. Poland already had tight restrictions on abortion rights, but this turned out to be the last straw for the citizens. Millions of young people, and especially young women, filled the streets of Poland’s cities in the biggest anti-Government demonstration since the fall of Communism in 1989. They spoke out in favour of the reproductive rights of women. “I wish I could abort my Government”, said one popular banner. The demonstrations continued every day until a new lockdown was declared, and the Law and Justice Party has now backed down, postponing the publication of the court’s decision indefinitely. But something has definitely changed in Poland: Support for Kaczynski has now plunged to only 30 per cent.
Then there’s President Jair Bolsonaro, or “Tropical Trump”, whose favoured candidates were thrashed in all Brazil’s big cities in local elections last month, and the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, dubbed “Britain Trump” by “The Donald”, who is now trailing the Opposition leader in the polls for the first time ever.
It’s just straws in the wind at this stage, but the defeat of Donald Trump, the populist standard-bearer, is creating a sense in other populist-ruled countries that the juggernaut has stalled. It seems that the effect hasn’t reached Asia yet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India and President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines are still riding very high in the polls. But the main thing that the populists had going for them was momentum, and in Western countries it seems to be dropping off.
Was there really a “coat-tail effect”? Hard to say. After all, both the Law and Justice Party in Poland and Fidesz in Hungary came to power before Trump was elected in late 2016. But populist leaders across the West seem to believe that somehow or other their fates are tied to Trump’s. It shows in the growing recklessness of their behaviour and in the frequency of their failures. Does this mean that they are all destined to vanish in his wake? Probably not, but that would be nice if it were to happen. The sooner the better.
(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy and Work)
Giving women direct access to financial services might improve their chances to become entrepreneurs, more independent and increase their participation in family decision-making
Women make up nearly half the population. A nation cannot have sustained economic prosperity and well-being until the central role of women is recognised and their economic health is used as a measure to shape policy. The human race is like a bird that needs both wings to fly. A great opportunity is wasted when women are isolated from the economy. It is now widely surmised that until they are financially literate and empowered around money, we’ll never truly have equality. Women’s participation in the financial system can have significant benefits in terms of economic growth, greater equality and societal well-being. When accessible finance reaches women, the benefits are particularly sustainable. Women channel money into solving more fundamental issues.
Access and usage of financial services are levers for increasing women’s participation in the economy. They enhance their self-confidence and place financial decision-making power in their hands, resulting in large development pay-offs. We need to study the myriad social and behavioural impediments impacting women and use this knowledge to design customised financial product offerings. In failing to develop client experiences rooted in men and women’s fundamentally-different perspectives on finance, banks are missing a very significant business opportunity.
Women often face several barriers which limit their financial inclusion, other than the universal constraints that low-income communities face: Limited access to mobile phones, lower literacy levels, less confidence in using technology and restrictions on travel or social interaction. We need to address them through behavioural and reformist approaches, instead of the usual hardware-based approach. It’s not that the barriers are necessarily different for rural and urban women. But the same barriers are greater for rural ones. We need last-mile banking agents to help mitigate barriers such as dependency on male family members for travel.
Women make for a low-revenue segment but prove to be loyal and profitable clients when served with appropriately-designed products. Financial service providers need to ensure that their charges are not prohibitive and the tools are so designed that they make women’s engagement with financial service providers friendly, safe, affordable and convenient. The real issue is that many women, despite strides in education, simply aren’t as confident and knowledgeable about financial matters as men. This problem persists even when women handle many of their families’ routine money management duties.
Giving women direct access to financial services might improve their chances to become entrepreneurs, more independent and increase their participation in family and community decision-making. There is also an important insurance effect: Better access to credit, savings or insurance services reduces the need to use child labour as a buffer in case of seasonal income fluctuations and transitory income shocks and allows consumption. In the case of transitory income reductions resulting from health shocks, it also allows faster attention to health problems.
It is now recognised that “the women’s market” represents varied segments of clients, from low-income salaried workers (factory workers, domestic help and so on) and low-income self-employed women in the informal sector, to women who work in agricultural value chains, to small-and medium-enterprises. Serving this market not only makes business sense, it also has a positive impact on society as a whole by expanding economic growth and job creation. When accessible finance reaches women, the benefits are highly productive and sustainable. The positive economic knock-on effects are obvious. Savings rates are higher, repayment rates of family loans are remarkable, families are healthier, social cohesion is stronger and business growth is stable. This shows that increasing women bank account holders will reduce systemic risks in the economy.
Women should be considered as a distinct segment with specific financial services requirements. Instead of disguising male-focussed products as gender-neutral, we need specific products tailored to their unique needs. Low-income women usually need timely and hassle-free credit to increase their financial prospects.
Women have restricted mobility due to gendered social norms, are sometimes unschooled and are not the sole decision-makers of their households. There is a need to actively employ oral informational management tools so that these women can transact independently. Women prefer to learn and work with peers. Bankers must build trust in this segment by using women agents in frontline financial operations. Behaviourally, women customers take more time to develop trust in a new product or service. The same holds good for finance and building confidence and trust in them requires more interaction.
In all societies, howsoever oppressed women may be or low the level of their literacy, they remain the stewards of household savings. Women investors have greater patience for long-term returns and show greater self-control, which results in less impulsive and risky decisions.
A lot more awareness has to be created in women about financial services. This underlines the need for inclusion of women policy makers in designing financial services so that the female perspective is kept in mind. If women are not involved in financial product design and service delivery, then the needs and preferences of women customers may be less likely to be reflected in the marketplace.
Most financial systems have been designed by and for men. Therefore, when an application is made for business or personal loan, the lender asks for collateral, such as land or a house. In most cultures, it is men who traditionally own the land or the house, which immediately excludes women. Plus, women are more price-sensitive and expect affordable fees.
Women are usually tasked with stretching the family budget in times of financial hardship. Providing micro-credit or a small affordable and account-linked overdraft could help them cover their day-to-day contingencies in management of household finances. A woman’s financial needs and responsibilities require bundled solutions of savings, credit and insurance because they are more relevant to her circumstances. There are several barriers that constrain the full inclusion of women in formal finance. Product-driven financial literacy is necessary to ensure that poor women are not short-changed. While financial products have their benefits, there is a clear danger of mis-selling, which could damage marginalised segments who have an uncertain cash flow. The philosophy which the financial inclusion community must foster is that engagement creates knowledge and knowledge creates confidence.
Professionals and practitioners have distilled some salient features of financial products and services that foster women’s active participation in formal finance. They find that women don’t have a straight financial journey and have more interruptions and life-stages in their financial lives (withdrawal from employment during pregnancy and in medical contingencies for nursing sick family members). They may remain active users of bank accounts during these periods. Women should be able to reactivate their accounts without much hassle or penalties. Micro-finance services are focussed on women but they are too loan-obsessed. The sector is awash in credit. In several cases, women are availing loans when their need is insurance, which is not affordable and easily available. The Government should consider recognising semi-formal titles of land as workable collateral.
One of the most promising ways to close the stubbornly persisting gender divide is technology. The large gaps in mobile subscriptions and ownership mean that if digital financial services are going to deliver on their promise to women, these gaps need to be taken into consideration. Mobile phones are an inspirational and utilitarian item that most of them long for. The key to harnessing mobile technology will be to make sure women have equal access to phones in the first place.
The overall gender gap in mobile phone ownership in the developing world is wider than the bank account ownership gaps. The onus is now on mobile providers to start making products more suitable and affordable for women. One reason for the technological divide is that smartphones are not marketed as an empowerment tool. Making gadgets available will surely help but we have to bring about a change in the overall outlook.
There are five criteria that need to be at the core of a successful women-inclusive strategy: Positioning products as solutions to problems; positioning information, education and networking as core products; building the financial capability of women customers; establishing an intelligent, no “pink marketing” zone; and training staff to listen to women rather than sell to them, creating a relationship-based business model that sustains their loyalty. In short, what is needed for a broader, deeper and more relevant and meaningful financial inclusion is a nuanced approach that tackles the underlying, interconnected barriers that women face in accessing and using financial services. We cannot overcome poverty until both men and women have equal rights and opportunities. This approach makes financial sense for everyone.
(The writer is a development professional)
With its vote at a UN panel, India’s stance on marijuana is changing slowly but surely
India’s vote at the United Nations Commission for Narcotic Drugs (UNCND) to reclassify marijuana from illegal to legal has raised a few eyebrows. Now, this vote is not legally binding on member states and as we are seeing with Bollywood stars right now, marijuana in all its forms, leaf, flower or resin, remains quite illegal under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), 1985. However, several think-tanks, including some with substantial links to the present Government, have come out with white papers that have made a strong case for legalisation.
We believe that marijuana consumption should be legalised and like alcohol, its use should be regulated by the State. There are several compelling arguments for this, starting with the fact that marijuana has been legalised in many parts of the Western world thanks to studies proving that levels of intoxication are manageable and that the active compounds in it can help in pain and stress relief. In addition, in places where the plant has been legalised, the State has received a significant amount of tax revenue from sales and simultaneously reduced costs of policing with lower levels of criminal incarceration for drug crime. This has allowed authorities to go after “hard” drugs like cocaine and heroin and their smuggling networks. In fact, until the strict NDPS was introduced by the Rajiv Gandhi government in deference to the Reagan administration and its so-called “war on drugs,” marijuana usage and possession here, while frowned upon, was fairly legal. As the West understands the abilities of a plant that is native to India and is an integral part of our medication and social norms, we should unburden ourselves of the laws that make marijuana consumption and possession illegal. In fact, much like several major research institutions and universities across the world, which have begun research into the abilities of the plant, we could do well to sponsor similar studies and R&D. This does not mean that Indian society will continue its laissez faire attitude to drug consumption but the positives outweigh the negatives and would also allow Indian farmers new and innovative sources of income.
The Govt, which could have avoided the stir with a consensual approach, is ready to amend laws but farmers are adamant
The farmers’ protests are no longer confined to a sectoral concern. As the agitators have descended on Delhi, hoping to be heard justly in the corridors of power, they have gathered traction from transport, taxi unions and civil society. And they have held their own admirably, shunning all politicians and even Government hospitality, choosing to drink their own tea, having their own food, sleeping in their own shelters and even making their own presentation on gaps in the contentious new farm laws. In fact, such is the spontaneous combustion that the stir is turning into a people’s movement that, though leaderless, has a beehive unity about it and tugs at most who have chased big city dreams, coming as they do from farming families themselves. Besides, it epitomises the subterranean resentment of the citizenry at top-down impositions of an autocratic and arrogant dispensation that interprets all dissent as anti-national than rational. If the stalemate drags on, there is a real chance of food supplies getting affected. With sustained pressure, the Government is now not only willing to give the farmers a listen, it is keen to walk the whole distance to the extent of giving a written assurance on Minimum Support Price (MSP) and procurement, just stopping short of legalising it. And given the corporatisation that farm liberalisation entails, the Government is also willing to consider the farmers’ demand to approach the courts in case of a dispute over contract farming to shield them from being exploited. The big question is why did the Government act in haste and repent at leisure? Much of the issues raised by farmers, including convening a special Parliament session to debate the farm laws, had already been a part of the Opposition’s demand for a consensual approach akin to that followed in rolling out the Goods and Services Tax (GST). If only the Government had been reasonable, consulted all stakeholders and worked a common ground with States than road-rolling the legislation through a voice vote for political point-scoring, things would not have come to such a pass. The prickliest issue has been that of the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which has ensured Government pick-ups of crops, mainly wheat and paddy, at an assured rate and volume. It takes no rocket science to understand that any competitive market policy would ultimately have an impact on a parallel, protected market and shrink it, especially one that has for years led to the prosperity of farmers and has led to an over reliance on and excess production of rice and wheat to the detriment of other crops. Besides, even the corporate majors wouldn’t want to deal with trade markets that are under hostile State Governments. Most importantly, the cost of inputs has gone up exponentially, sometimes higher than the MSP. Given the unremunerative nature of the MSP itself, farmers are but naturally wary of any contracted price that could drive them down further and, therefore, seeking an equivalence.
Finally, the Government may claim that reforms embedded in the farm Acts would help the small and marginal farmers access markets anywhere, sell directly and get best prices. This argument doesn’t fly simply because 86.2 per cent of land holdings are small and marginal, or less than two acres in size. Hence, a majority of our farmers really don’t produce enough or are aware enough to get their way around any model, the existing or the proposed, without an interventionist on their behalf, agents or arhatiyas. Besides, small farmers can hardly afford the infrastructure to transfer their goods to the local mandi, leave aside ferrying them outside their geographical limits. Liberalisation of the farm economy also means putting other farmer-friendly enablers in place, from cold storage to warehousing to connectivity between markets. Only then can the rest make sense. In fact, Bihar did away with Government mandis in 2006 but farmers there are still struggling, as dependent on their agents to get the prices, because of the absence of supporting infrastructure. And as farmers in Gujarat, who were sued by Pepsico, and sugarcane growers chasing their dues will tell you, corporatisation hasn’t worked. The Government needs to be more transitional and graded when it comes to farm reforms. Some concerns are worth a listen. For example, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act 2020, allows buys and sales outside the notified Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis, thereby limiting their cartelisation tendencies. A licence won’t be required to trade in farm produce and anyone with a PAN card can now buy directly from the farmers. So they want clarity on what “outside” means and contrary to perception that they want the middlemen out, they actually have a trusted bond with their existing commission agents, as their licence is proof enough of their credibility and delivery abilities, and would not want to experiment with an untested model. With most farmers not literate enough about exercising their rights, dispute resolution could also end up being loaded against them. Besides, they would want direct payment rather than have the money routed through banks which could deduct amounts as loan recovery. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, does allow the farmer to enter into a contract with a corporate entity at a mutually agreed price. But the mechanism for price fixation is not codified, it’s not mandatory for a company to make a written contract and companies may not be penalised for not registering their contracts. So farmers fear that corporations could use their institutional heft to manipulate or browbeat them into accepting their terms. History proves that farmers’ movements have been revolutionary and this being the biggest in recent times, cannot be shrugged off easily.
With the Coronavirus resulting in widespread job losses and economic hardships, particularly in rural areas, there is an epidemic of child marriages
It was a frantic phone call to her school teacher by a desperate 13-year-old Radha (name changed) that saved her from being married off by her impoverished parents at Anoopshahr town of UP’s Bulandshahr district in June. In October, the Karnataka Police saved a 14-year-old from a similar fate in Ballari district. Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the marriage hall, where the wedding was taking place, and arrested eight people under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006. These are not isolated cases or an aberration, though the legal age for the marriage of women in India is 18 years. According to the UNICEF, India accounts for a third of the child brides globally. And now, with the Coronavirus resulting in widespread job losses and economic hardships, particularly in rural areas, there is an epidemic of child marriages in the country. As usual desperate parents, suffering from the socio-economic impact of the outbreak, are trying to get rid of “the extra mouth to feed, clothe and educate.” Predictably, the girl child is tradeable.
Incidentally, India is not alone. Around the world, Save the Children warns that a whopping 2.5 million more underage girls could be pushed into marriage in the next five years because of the difficult socio-economic conditions created by the pandemic. In its Global Girlhood Report 2020, the charity has predicted that 5,00,000 more girls are at risk of becoming child brides. This will take up the total number of child marriages to around 12.5 million this year.
Closer home, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development reported 5,584 cases of child marriage between March and June this year. The children’s helpline, Childline, saw a 17 per cent rise in distress calls during the same period. These are worrying statistics because there are already a whopping 17.26 million married children and adolescents within the age group of 10-19 years (seven per cent of the population in the same age group) in India. This is according to child rights group CRY’s new study, that was released ahead of the International Day of the Girl Child’ on October 11. “The data also reveals that girls between 10 and 19 years of age account for 75 per cent of all the married children in India,” says the distressing study. Trends show that while child marriage affects both girls and boys, its impact on the health, education and human rights of girls, especially from marginalised communities, is higher. Experts say there is also an urgent need to strengthen implementation of the Prohibition of the Child Marriage Act, 2006, particularly at the grassroots, where the ease of social custom overwhelms the need to register complaints.
In fact, so prevalent is the practice that a task-force to re-examine and raise the minimum age of marriage for girls was set up on June 2 by the Union Ministry for Women and Child Development. In mid-October, a worried Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Government would soon take a decision on this vexed issue after it received the committee’s report. However, eradication of child marriage in India is a complex issue because it is not just about poverty, it is also about changing rigid and regressive mindsets of a largely patriarchal society, repressing the sexuality of girls and carrying the burden of their safety in a society where victim-shaming is a norm rather than an anomaly. We, as a society, have to ask ourselves the uncomfortable question as to why do parents in the hinterland, despite the flood of girl child schemes and incentives, too, still prize boys over girls? That’s because beyond a point, it is cold economics. Parents in the countryside believe that sons will continue to keep contributing to the family income and hold ancestral land even after they are married. Or such is the expectation. That’s why, underprivileged parents prefer to send boys to school and college and not girls. Even when they do send a girl child to school, her education is the first casualty if things get difficult financially. So, till we consider the education of a girl child a dispensable privilege and not a guaranteed right and deprive them of the opportunity to pursue higher education and hence the hope of a paying career, this malaise will not stop.
Another major and more sinister reason for girls in economically weaker societies being married off at a tender age, whether it is in urban India or the countryside, is the regressive mindset over the sexuality and purity of women. In a country obsessed with chastity, the loss of virginity/innocence is considered a great shame and a calamity. So burdened with the task of having to protect the girl child, who is neither safe in public places nor within the home, the parents prefer to marry her off as soon as they can, so that they can be absolved of all responsibility and are done with the onerous task of having to protect her “izzat (honour).” Many reports have also drawn a link between increasing cases of female foeticide in villages to increasing rape cases in recent years.
Unless we change our archaic mindsets and start treating boys and girls as equals, give them both equal nutrition and educational opportunities so that girls too can pursue flourishing careers and provide for their parents in their old age, more Radhas will keep on getting married off like cattle. Sold to the highest bidder by parents mired in poverty. More importantly, till we teach our men and boys to respect women/girls and stop all forms of gender-based and sexual violence, poor and unlettered parents, who are unaware of the detrimental effects on the mental and physical health of girls married off in their childhood, will continue to subject them to this tortuous tradition. Till we, as a society, step out of our comfort zone and report each and every case of child marriage that comes to our notice, we will never see the end of this malaise. If we look the other way when the crime of child marriage involves our domestic help, driver, gardener, washerman or security guard, then we too, are a party to this heinous tradition. We, too, are equally responsible for pushing a hapless child into a world of untold misery and suffering. And we need to stop expecting the Government and the NGOs to solve all societal problems and give us a perfect world. As a society it is incumbent upon us to ensure good health and nutrition of girls. We must ensure that they complete 12 years of schooling and get life skill education and opportunities for higher studies. It is a tragedy and a travesty when someone who can afford to spend on an expensive phone, car, handbag or shoes cannot spend 2000 rupees a month to sponsor a child’s education. Till we learn to work together as a society, and in the spirit of “each one, teach one,” we cannot break this vicious cycle of inter-generational deprivation, malnutrition, poverty and lack of basic human rights. There has to be an integrated and coordinated approach to tackle the root causes proportionately, namely fighting societal malaise with awareness programmes, strengthening laws and enforcing them diligently, building a safety and rehabilitative network for the abused and most importantly skilling and empowering girls from a young age so that they know when to exercise their rights. Otherwise, girls in the countryside will not be seen as anything more than future brides, a liability rather than an asset.
(The writer is Senior Editor, The Pioneer)
The Covid-19 global pandemic has exposed the fault lines in how we communicate about public health. The pandemic has made it evident that public health communication is not only an important but indispensable part of our response to mitigate the ongoing global challenge
For the past few months, Governments, scientists, policymakers, foundations, businesses, and civil society members have been grappling with mitigating the Covid-19 pandemic.
The whole world is now looking towards a potential vaccine, with a couple of candidates displaying outstanding results in various phases of clinical trials. But it is critical to understand that a vaccine alone cannot be a magic bullet that can “end” the pandemic — we need social and behavioural changes that can help tackle the disease till an efficacious vaccine or a drug is discovered, and even after that. How do we ensure that people continue to follow simple measures like wearing masks, hand washing and physical distancing? The answer lies in effective public health communication.
The Covid-19 global pandemic has exposed the fault lines in how we communicate about public health. The pandemic has made it evident that public health communication is not only an important but indispensable part of our response to mitigate the ongoing global challenge.
According to the World Health Organization, in times of public health emergencies like the one we are currently in, people need to know what health risks they face and what actions they can take to protect their health and lives. Accurate information provided early, often, and in languages that people understand, trust, and use, enables individuals to stay informed and make choices to protect themselves, their families and communities from foreseeable health hazards.
Another factor that effective public health communications can help address is misinformation. The WHO has identified an “infodemic” surrounding the coronavirus — that is, “an overabundance of information and the rapid spread of misleading or fabricated news”. Coupled with the nature of the pandemic itself, where new evidence around the disease is constantly coming to light — this has led to a deluge of information which has made it difficult for the general public to sift fact from fiction, especially on the Internet. Over the past months, we have seen the circulation of several harmful “fake news” about the pandemic that has the potential to hamper response efforts and affect public behaviour.
This is where a clear and robust public health communication strategy can go a long way in dispelling myths and “fact-checking” misinformation. This is why, throughout the pandemic, the Indian Council of Medical Research has taken proactive steps to communicate regularly and effectively through press releases, website updates and via social media to help ensure that accurate information reaches the public.
Specific portals for information around Covid-19 and on vaccine development have been created, as well as a clinical registry for Covid-19. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also facilitated regular media interactions.
In this context, it is also necessary to ensure that any kind of public health messaging echoes through every rung of society and comes from sources that are trusted by the target audiences of those messages. We all remember the Do Boond Zindagi Ki campaign, carried out as part of the polio elimination campaign in India.
This iconic slogan became the cornerstone of this massive campaign and, delivered by Amitabh Bachchan, created much-needed awareness, even among hard-to-reach populations. The media also played a key role in the campaign, in fact, no public health communication strategy can hope to be successful without the support of the media. During the current pandemic, slogans such as Do Gaj Doori Hai Zaroori and Jab Tak Dawai Nahi Tab Tak Dhilai Nahi have helped communicate the importance of taking precautionary measures.
This is not the first pandemic we have seen, nor will this be the last. But today, we have a real opportunity to invest in building a conducive environment for public health communications in the country. And for that to happen, we need to encourage collaboration between technical experts — doctors, scientists, public health researchers — and communication experts —social and behavioural scientists, communicators and the media.
For technical experts, now is the time to arm ourselves with an arsenal of communication tools, so that we can effectively communicate nuances of a complex disease and its effects to the larger public in a way that is understandable and engaging. For communicators, this is a time to leverage increasing public interest in health and engage more and more technical experts to champion public health issues in the community. Only if we come together can we create an environment where everyone has access to timely, accurate and trusted information that can directly impact their health and save thousands of lives in the long run.
(Rajnikant Srivastava is Director of Regional Medical Research Institute (ICMR-RMRC) in Gorakhpur, and Scientist G & Head, Research Management, Policy, Planning and Communication, ICMR Headquarters and currently heads the communications unit at ICMR. Kaushik Bose is vice president, Global Health Strategies, New Delhi)
The recent news about separate toilets, one ‘only for Brahmins’, by Kuttumukku Mahadeva temple in Thrissur surfaced in social media. Thankfully, the temple authorities withdrew the decision after pressure mounted on them. It is high time the temple authorities annihilated such discriminatory practices that vilify the religion of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’
Discrimination at places of worship is not new to India. Irrespective of any belief systems, social prejudices, inequity and favouritism exist, though the forms and degree vary from religion to religion. However, it surprises us that such practices still exist and often gets patronised in the State of Kerala, which tops in almost all kinds of social parameters, including the Human Development Index (HDI). The issue becomes more serious, especially when practices of discrimination are observed in temples owned by the Devaswom Board, rather than by any individual or family or community.
The recent news about separate toilets being made available only for Brahmins by Kuttumukku Mahadeva temple managed by Devaswom Board at Thrissur in Kerala, surfaced in social media and was criticised by all. The temple authority had to withdraw its decision under pressure. True, we see the practice of separate toilets in most educational institutions for staff and non-staff (students or other visitors). But they are two forms of arrangements not based on any superiority of one type of people over others. The basis has never been caste, religion and race for such common facilities. Had the temple authority earmarked separate toilet for the priest or temple staff, the move could have been justifiable.
It is worth mentioning here that Devaswom Boards in Kerala were established with a noble purpose to undertake the management of the temples of Princely States of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar, to regulate their finances, maintenance and removal of pre-existing discriminatory practices (if any).
They were created by the Travancore-Cochin Religious Institutions Act (1950), regulated, empowered and expanded by subsequent laws passed in the State Legislative Assembly of Kerala. Though the establishment of Devaswom Board was considered to be an important reformative step, in reality, the temples owned by the Board have become one of the most discriminatory places for worship, persisting even in the 21st century. Several forms of social and economic differentiation such as separate queues based on payment, ban on the entry of non-Hindu devotees or visitors, priority to Brahmin for the post of priests, ban on entry on the basis of gender, removal of shirt, etc, continue to be practised in these religious institutions.
The price discrimination for Darshan (auspicious sight of a deity/idol) is found in Kerala only among the temples managed by Devaswom Board. The most visited Devaswom temples have provisioned separate queues based on payment, which simply means higher fee for entry into shorter and easier queues to save time, while ordinary people, who cannot afford to pay or do not want to pay at all, face longer queues to take the Darshan of the deities. Moreover, all the devotees do not get similar kind of Darshan in the temple, some form of product differentiation is also applied to justify differential price, where devotees can get Darshan of deities at a close range if they pay higher.
This practice is found in the Sree Krishna Swamy temple in Guruvayoor, one of the most popular religious centres in Kerala, where a VIP queue system exists with a payment of Rs 1,000 for “Special Darshan”.
In another surreal practice, most of Devaswom Board temples do not allow non-Hindus to enter temple. A controversy had erupted in the State in 2007 when purification rituals were performed by the temple authority after some religious ceremony of former Union Minister Vayalar Ravi’s grandson took place at the previously mentioned Guruvayur temple, since the Minister’s wife was a Christian. Similarly, legendary singer KJ Yesudas, a recipient of prestigious national awards such as Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, who had sung some of the most popular devotional songs in praise of various Hindu deities, was not allowed to enter the Guruvayur and Kadampuzha Devi temple in Malappuram for being a non-Hindu. Later, he was allowed to enter the famous Sri Padmanabhaswami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, which is not under any board, after years of waiting (Outlook Web Bureau 2017).
Similarly, Sabarimala Temple, another Devaswom Board owned institution, do not allow the entry of women aged between 10 and 50. One may call it diversity, but it could have been better if the restrictions were made wholly on a voluntary basis, by making people aware of the old beliefs and practices of this ancient temple, and allowing the devotees themselves to decide whether to visit the temple or not.
It can also be found that Devaswom temples have not been considering people belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes for the post of temple priest. Their first Scheduled Caste (SC) priest was appointed only in 2017, by the Travancore Devaswom Board (Balan 2017). It is noteworthy that Kerala had unique culture prior to the formation of Devaswom Board, where most of the temples were owned by a caste or community itself, who uses to appoint their own caste people as temple priest. This practice can still be noticed in many parts of the State where rituals related to marriage and birth are performed by own caste people, expert in mantra vidya (chanting hymns) rather than by Brahmins.
Hovever, there exists scores of private/trust run temples in Kerala which have been appointing persons from Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribal communities as their priests for many decades. Popular temples in Thiruvananthapuram such as Kollampuzha Devi temple in Attingal, Elambrakode Devi temple in Pallikkal, Mullanalloor Devi temple in Navayikulam have priests belonging to Paravar and Kuravar caste of SCs while priests of Venkamala Devi temple belong to Kaani community of Tribals.
Similarly, the medieval practice of verifying “janau” (sacred thread) of people by removing the upper wear (shirt) is still practised in the temples owned by Devaswom Board, especially in Travancore region. For example, Sharkkara Devi temple, Sreekandeswaram temple, Pallippuram Devi temple, all in Thiruvananthapuram follow this custom. Interestingly, this practice is abandoned or discontinued by non-Devaswom Board temples.
The pertinent question is whether Hindu temples are getting more rigid or more liberal over the time. The answer is both yes and no. We can notice wave of liberalism in temples all over the country, and the temples in Kerala are no exception of it. But we can still notice such discriminatory practices in most of the temples owned by Devaswom Board i.e. Pattambi Guruvayur temple and Mulayankavu Bagavathy temple (both in Palakkad), Vadakumnatha temple and Kadampuzha temple (both in Thrissur), Kalari Bagavathi temple (Maruthur, Pattambi, also in Palakkad), Angadippuram temple, Thirumittakodu temple, Thirunavaya temple, Thiruvilwamala temple, and Sabarimala temple. Such discriminatory practices are not only bringing bad name to the religion but to the State as well.
It is very surprising that despite the fact that Communist Party of India (Marxist) and their allies, which claim to be religion-neutral and frequently proclaim themselves as a perennial supporter of social progress, did not initiate any reforms in the temples owned by State. It raises doubt on the intention of political dispensation if they want to continue these practices to vilify Hindu religion especially when these practices have been opposed by most of Hindus.
(Anish Gupta is an Assistant Professor of economics, Delhi University. The co-writer is a student of politics)
Workshop on upcycling Fabric waste
Eco Club of Lady Irwin College, in collaboration with Ms. Rupal Jain, Ms. Vridhi Grover and Ms. Darshana Tikmani organised a workshop “Trash to Treasure” on 5th of December 2020. As we all know that textile waste is one of the root causes of pollution today as it takes many years to decompose. It is either burnt or thrown away which creates a lot of destruction in the society. Keeping this in mind, the workshop conducted, was about Upcycling of Fabric Waste and its different techniques. The event was graced by Dr. Sushma Goel, Dr. Deepali Rastogi and Mr. Rajneesh Dwevedi, the Staff Advisors of Eco Club.
Natasha Bhasin, Secretary of Eco Club moderated the session which started with Ms. Rupal Jain explaining about upcycling and different ways to upcycle waste materials then Ms. Darshana, Ms. Rupal and Ms. Vridhi showed various tips and techniques to make coasters, key chains and some amazing decorations that can be used during Christmas. Further, they also showed and taught how to make floral hangings, buntings and beautiful puffed earnings of different shapes and sizes. Everything was very attractive, upcycled and helpful at the same time. The session was fun – learning which ended with Q/A round and with the Vote of Thanks by Ms. Pavitra Khandelwal, President of Eco Club.
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