ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends Yet another independence day has come and gone into the pages of history. India has seen, since 15th Aug. 1947, sixty four Independence Day celebrations, but the euphoria of the freedom at midnight that reverberated through the length and breadth of India, ceased to be felt over the years. For most Indians, it was just another day, this time without a paid holiday. It was Sunday, atleast a day was saved to add to the national GDP, after many of those illegal bundhs by political outfits. Looking back over the years, how this political freedom failed to bring about freedom of another, more important kind-freedom from hunger, poverty, malnutrition, injustice, ill health, corruption and umpteen other socio-economic ills that persisted for all these 63 years, is a story of Indian State’s monumental failure. It was both the political class and the bureaucracy that let down the country. While it is true that there have been many areas where every Indian can feel justifiably proud at t...

INDIA @ 63 – OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Directive Principles of State Policy had enshrined in the Constitution that, “The state shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years”. That was 60 years ago, in Jan. 1950, and we are in 2010. It was only in April 2010, that parliament enacted the Right to Education (RTE) as a fundamental right, after over 60 years of declaring its avowed objective of empowering ordinary Indians. But A. Subramanian, of Save the Children, writes “Terminal 3 in New Delhi (international airport) took just 37 months to go from conception to reality. It took 63 years to enact right to education bill and it is stalled because of lack of funds”. He asks a very relevant question “Have we got our priorities wrong?” Absolutely. It is indeed deeply disturbing that our priorities have always been wonky. We have always barked up ...

Heart Failure (Global Hearts’ Day) Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Old proverb. The world seems to be suffering from heart failure in our medical jargon. Heart failure is not stopping of the heart but only a defective functioning of the heart. When one contemplates on the world affairs today one quickly realises that all players in this world have become heartless. Heartless politicians, heartless businessmen, heartless media, heartless doctors, heartless judiciary, heartless lawyers, scientists, technologists, bureaucrats, administrators, educators and, even, heartless ritualistic religions and NGOs abound all around us. While we have people who love trees and animals we hardly have people who selflessly love humanity. No one wants to look at any problem in its entirety. While we talk of terrorism and war we never think as to who created terrorism in the first place and also that wars are born in the minds of heartless men. Our biggest pro...

GANG LEADER FOR A DAY “Look!” Ms. Bailey snapped at me. She strode over and held the bag up to my face. I saw a few condoms, some lipsticks, pictures of her daughters, and a few bags of either heroin or cocaine. “Have to have that fix, don’t you, baby?” Ms. Bailey asked Clarisse, sneering. We all stood there for what felt like an hour but was probably only a few seconds. Catrina tried to interrupt, but Ms. Bailey waved her off. “Go ahead, Sudhir, take her home,” Ms. Bailey said. She bent over to stare down at Clarisse. “If I see your babies coming over and telling me that they ain’t eaten no food in three days, I’m taking them away. You hear?” Ms. Bailey turned and left. Catrina, with a disinterested look, handed me some paper towels. I bent down to wipe the vomit and tears from Clarisse’s face. She didn’t resist this time when I helped her up. I walked Clarisse upstairs to her apartment and led her to the couch. The apartment was dark, and I figured it would be best to let her sleep. ...

CRYING WITH THE POOR BUT SIDING THE RICH - AN INDIAN DIMENSION Writing in the ‘India at 50’ George Mathew concedes “The present stage of economic administration in India represents an ambiguous social philosophy, which weeps for the poor but sides with the rich. Interest of the working classes are sidelined in the name of economic competitiveness, which in turn is sacrificed on the alter of corrupt and criminal practices”. A New Delhi date lined report by a national daily reported “Rotting Grains to Benefit Liquor Mafia”. It was quoting BJP President Nitin Gadkari, who was taking part in a symposium in the capital. He told the gathering that liquor manufacturers could benefit from food grains worth some `60,000 crores, rotting in government godowns. He acknowledged the fact that the alcohol is being produced from rotten and poor quality food grains in Maharashtra under a state sponsored racket of giving the subsidy of `10 a litre. He surely knows what is he talking about, since he runs...

Prevent Cancer Check lifestyle The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that prevention offers the most cost-effective, long-term strategy for the control of cancer and that at least one-third of cases are preventable. Most cancer risk factors are environmental or lifestyle-related and, so, the disease can be prevented by pursuing a healthy lifestyle and diet. Vital factors According to the American Cancer Society, dietary practices and physical activity – along with avoidance of smoking an occupational carcinogens, and early detection – are important factors for the prevention of cancer and cancer death. Occupational carcinogens are substances which people get exposed to at their workplace, e.g. chemicals, pesticides, asbestos, etc., leading to cancer. The Report – “Food, Nutrition, physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective” – prepared by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, also recommends this. Body Fat Maintain ...

Woman flogged for producing a girl child Thane: Discrimination against girl child still continues even in the modern age. The in-laws of a 27-year-old woman tortured and beat her up so brutally that she had to leave the house. Her only fault was that she had given birth to a girl child seven months ago. Varsha Vikas Vinchurkar got married to Thane resident Vikas Tarachand two years ago. “Seven months ago, Varsha gave birth to a girl. Ever since her delivery, her in-laws started abusing her for giving birth to a girl child. Varsha who belongs to Nashik said her torture began in the hospital itself with her in-laws cursing her in front of the doctors and her parents at her native place. Varsha’s husband did not come to take her back to his Thane residence for four months. Major tragedy averted, poisonous mix found in mid-day meal dal Indore: A major tragedy was averted when the dal to be served under the mid-day meal programme to about 250 children at Government Middle School situated a...

police turn banker to safe keep ` 92 crore on road Jaipur: A Rajasthan Roadways bus hired to transport a whopping ` 92 crore from outstation bank branches found no takers at the Reserve Bank of India branch in Jaipur as the bus arrived late after the bank hours. The cash was brought from three bank branches of Alwar and one each from Shahpura and Kotputli to be deposited in the Reserve Bank. The bus reportedly got delayed due to traffic jam and reached the Reserve Bank at 6:15 pm. However, the Reserve Bank officials refused to deposit the amount since the bank was already closed. Courtesy RBI, the bus was left stranded on the road for almost four hours before it was moved to a safer destination in police lines after intervention by the Jaipur police. Deputy Manager of State Bank of India R L Meena, who accompanied the bus from Alwar, said their vehicle got delayed due to unavailability of labour at Kotputli and traffic jam following heavy rain in the region. The police in-charge of tre...

Old age pensions for informal sector workers New Delhi: The Government decided to launch an ambitious old age Social Security Scheme involving an annual pension assistance of `1,000 each to four million workers in the unorganised sector for next four years, beginning this fiscal. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Rechristened Swavalamban Scheme, the New Pension System (NPS) is the first major national scheme, aimed at providing old-age security to all sections of the society, especially the vulnerable sections, said an official statement. To finance the scheme, the Government has approved an allocation of `1,000 crore over a period of four years as co-contribution to subscribers of the New Pension System, said the statement. Maharashtra to have green vehicle tax Mumbai: The Maharashtra cabinet approved levying a ‘green tax’ on commercial vehicles that are more than seven years old and on noncommercial or private vehicles that are 15...