“Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You, Ask What Can You Do For Your Country”
John Kennedy
What are we celebrating about this Independence Day? Do we really understand and appreciate the sacrifices made by our ancestors for our country’s freedom?
For most of the Indians, 15th August every year means lots of rhetoric, the prime minister’s speech and ofcourse a holiday. We live in one of the most corrupt countries. Ours is one of the most oppressive police regimes. We suffer every day due to a few archaic and obsolete laws. Our judicial systems is one of the most disorganized in the world and we have enormous backlog of judicial cases.42% Indians live under povertyline which means one third global poor reside in India. The population size, declining sex ratio, high illiteracy rates etc are few of the issues we discuss a lot but fail to do anything about them.
Yes, India is shining. Yes India is the only growing economy in the world in the current downturn. Yes, India has a mass technological base, with some of the best scientists, entrepreneurs, doctors, technologists in the world. But these skills serve and live amongst no more than 5% to 10% of India's population.
Does democracy means only the chance to vote once in five years? What should the debt ridden farmers of Maharashtra celebrate about? What should the beggars you see every day at the traffic signal celebrate about? And what should the rape survivors justice denied women celebrate about? The mockery of the sacrifices made by the freedom fighters?
Since Independence Day symbolizes the great leadership which was powerful enough to overthrow a foreign empire, if I was the PM of India I would make it compulsory for anyone contesting in elections to have a certain educational eligibility so that the leaders of the country maintain a certain standard. I would ask the citizens to take pledge to not to bribe any official.
Like joy and happiness cannot be forced onto people so can’t be a sense of celebration. Even if I was the PM of the nation I would not make any kind of celebration compulsory.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Women and Empowerment
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/08/13/afghanistan-law-curbing-women-s-rights-takes-effect
The recent law passed in Afghanistan that justifies that a husband can starve his wife if his sexual desires are not fulfilled is a farce on the democracy.
According to Human Rights Watch, the new law also “grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers” and “effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped her.”
Nauseating
The new law was signed by President Hamid Karzai, who is depending on support from Sheik Muhammad Asif Mohseni, the country’s most powerful Shiite cleric, in the presidential election. Shiites, who were oppressed by the Sunni-led Taliban government, are believed to make up between 10 and 20 percent of Afghanistan’s population. Sheik Mohseni and scholars close to him were allowed to write the first draft of the new law, and he was reportedly unhappy that Parliament had introduced a provision that banned men from marrying girls under the age of 16.
Although the law is made for only a particular sect of Islamic women residing in Afghanistan, its implications are global. The multi-billion dollar multi-national pornography industry celebrates and promotes the violent degradation of women and children as de-facto global culture. Western males are major consumers of this “product”. The only difference with Afghanistan is that they have written that practice into law.
In India, plight of women is not less disturbing. Manusmṛti the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism, [preaches “Na Stree Swathantryam Arhati” meaning woman is undeserving for independence. A shocking study reveals that half of the world’s malnourished children live in India owing primarily to the lack of nutritious food available to the mother. In all the critical stages, be it infancy, childhood, adolescence or the reproductive phase many women suffer malnutrition purely due to the discrimination and the narrow mindsets of the society.
But despite all the measures there should be a strong determination among every man that every woman in this country should be honored. Only then empowerment in its true meaning will be realized.
The recent law passed in Afghanistan that justifies that a husband can starve his wife if his sexual desires are not fulfilled is a farce on the democracy.
According to Human Rights Watch, the new law also “grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers” and “effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped her.”
Nauseating
The new law was signed by President Hamid Karzai, who is depending on support from Sheik Muhammad Asif Mohseni, the country’s most powerful Shiite cleric, in the presidential election. Shiites, who were oppressed by the Sunni-led Taliban government, are believed to make up between 10 and 20 percent of Afghanistan’s population. Sheik Mohseni and scholars close to him were allowed to write the first draft of the new law, and he was reportedly unhappy that Parliament had introduced a provision that banned men from marrying girls under the age of 16.
Although the law is made for only a particular sect of Islamic women residing in Afghanistan, its implications are global. The multi-billion dollar multi-national pornography industry celebrates and promotes the violent degradation of women and children as de-facto global culture. Western males are major consumers of this “product”. The only difference with Afghanistan is that they have written that practice into law.
In India, plight of women is not less disturbing. Manusmṛti the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism, [preaches “Na Stree Swathantryam Arhati” meaning woman is undeserving for independence. A shocking study reveals that half of the world’s malnourished children live in India owing primarily to the lack of nutritious food available to the mother. In all the critical stages, be it infancy, childhood, adolescence or the reproductive phase many women suffer malnutrition purely due to the discrimination and the narrow mindsets of the society.
But despite all the measures there should be a strong determination among every man that every woman in this country should be honored. Only then empowerment in its true meaning will be realized.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Electricity will solve India's population problem: Azad
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_electricity-will-solve-india-s-population-problem-azad_1273240
DNA 12th July 2009
On the occasion of the World Population Day on the 11th July, India’s health and family welfare minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, suggested that every rural home in India should have a television. As he sees the TV as a panacea to fix the country’s ‘population crisis’ - that is, people could watch TV till late night and will thus have less time for procreation. This means less poor, starving, malnourished rural babies. Crisis solved!
His comments caught me thinking how serious our govt about family planning is when our population increases by 18 million every year and is expected to surpass that of China by 2028. That is the kind of comment to be expected when a country’s Health and Family Welfare minister is not a medical expert but a zoology proficient.
While the health minister has warned that India is "sitting on a volatile volcano", some demographic experts question the whole premise of the population doomsday scenario.
They point to growing evidence that population growth decreases as the economic and social status of people, and especially women, improves.
Nine relatively affluent Indian states, including Maharashtra and Punjab, boast fertility rates — the number of children an average woman produces — as low as 1.8, compared with a national average of 3.4 in 1993.
In the 1980s, the government launched a popular slogan "Hum Do Hamare Do" (We Two and Our Two) suggesting a small family — with two children — is a happy family.
This made sense to the middle and upper-income groups but had little impact among India’s poorer masses, for whom number of children was number of earning hands. The importance attached to male child also meant that many couples with two daughters would keep trying for a son.
Indian Catholic Bishops disagree, however, and are, in fact, encouraging couples to have children. The Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council announced at the beginning of July that they were initiating a campaign to offer medical interventions against infertility, including reversing tubal ligations.
"Don't think I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. When light will reach (villages), 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV," Azad said, adding that the government is working to ensure greater rural electrification. God be with us!
DNA 12th July 2009
On the occasion of the World Population Day on the 11th July, India’s health and family welfare minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, suggested that every rural home in India should have a television. As he sees the TV as a panacea to fix the country’s ‘population crisis’ - that is, people could watch TV till late night and will thus have less time for procreation. This means less poor, starving, malnourished rural babies. Crisis solved!
His comments caught me thinking how serious our govt about family planning is when our population increases by 18 million every year and is expected to surpass that of China by 2028. That is the kind of comment to be expected when a country’s Health and Family Welfare minister is not a medical expert but a zoology proficient.
While the health minister has warned that India is "sitting on a volatile volcano", some demographic experts question the whole premise of the population doomsday scenario.
They point to growing evidence that population growth decreases as the economic and social status of people, and especially women, improves.
Nine relatively affluent Indian states, including Maharashtra and Punjab, boast fertility rates — the number of children an average woman produces — as low as 1.8, compared with a national average of 3.4 in 1993.
In the 1980s, the government launched a popular slogan "Hum Do Hamare Do" (We Two and Our Two) suggesting a small family — with two children — is a happy family.
This made sense to the middle and upper-income groups but had little impact among India’s poorer masses, for whom number of children was number of earning hands. The importance attached to male child also meant that many couples with two daughters would keep trying for a son.
Indian Catholic Bishops disagree, however, and are, in fact, encouraging couples to have children. The Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council announced at the beginning of July that they were initiating a campaign to offer medical interventions against infertility, including reversing tubal ligations.
"Don't think I am saying this in a lighter vein. I am serious. When light will reach (villages), 80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV," Azad said, adding that the government is working to ensure greater rural electrification. God be with us!
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