APARTHEID funded by the Indian tax-payer

Hindustan Times - 5/5/09

Case I - GUJARI VILLAGE (Katni district) Babul, a Class VI student at the local government school, was thrashed for inadvertently touching his teacher’s chair. His crime? He is a Dalit (a Charmkar, a sub-caste). A series of punishments followed over the next few days. Unable to bear it any longer, he quit school. “I couldn’t go back after being beaten up just because of my caste,” he said.

Case II - KADACHHA VILLAGE (Ujjain district) At the local government school, there are two rows of students waiting for food served under the government’s Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Dalit children are forced to sit in a row far away from the non-Dalits. And they aren’t allowed to eat from metal plates; they get plates made of leaves. The upper caste students are served first. Then, the service boys throw food from a height into the plates of the Dalit children.

Case III - SARARI KHURD VILLAGE (Sheopur district) Fourteen-year-old Milkis recounted her experience at school where she was subjected to casteist remarks and beaten up by non-Dalit students. Her teachers declined to intervene and come to her rescue. “I wanted to be a teacher. But the torture was unbearable and I dropped out of school in Class IV,” she said.

IN AN era when one set of Indians is manning the world’s knowledge back-office with distinction, another set of children — in Madhya Pradesh, which the ruling BJP often showcases as a “model state” – has to face such discrimination and humiliation. Everyday, this Indian version of apartheid is taking place in schools and childcare centres run by the government, and in schemes funded by the taxpayer’s — in other words, your – money .

According to a survey on social discrimination conducted by Jansahas, an NGO, and Unicef, in 24 villages across four districts – Ujjain, Sheopur, Katni and Jhabua – in Madhya Pradesh, more than 63 per cent of Dalit children are subjected to caste discrimination while being served mid-day meals in government schools.

They are forced to sit in separate rows, bring utensils from home or given food in plates marked boldly with permanent ink to distinguish them from the rest.

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme, funded by the government, is the world’s largest school lunch programme and covers, 120 million children. Ironically one of the key objectives of the scheme is to increase socialisation among children of different caste groups.

“As many as 40 per cent of Dalit students facing discrimination were given mid-day meals in plates specially set aside for them,” Jansahas activist Ashif Sheikh told Hindustan Times.

While some were asked to bring utensils from home, most were served their mid-day meals on leaf plates. Non Dalits, however, were served on metal plates. The survey found that most teachers were insensitive to the discrimination against Dalits because of caste-based traditions being followed in rural areas, he said.

In a majority of the schools surveyed, Dalit students were not allowed to sit in the front row. As many as 78 per cent of schoolgoing Dalit students were backbenchers or forced away from the front row and subjected to casteist abuses. And 79 per cent of such students were compelled to clean the schools. In some schools, this chore was given only to Dalit girls.

The survey found that the Anganwadi scheme, a government-sponsored mother and childcare scheme catering to children in the 0-6 age group, also discriminates against Dalits. About 59 per cent of Dalits said they desisted from sending their children to the local anganwadi facilities.The victims claimed that Dalit children were not allowed to enter the anganwadis and were forced to accept nutritional supplements outside the building. The survey concluded that caste discrimination is one of the prominent reasons for the absence of Dalit children from school.

Did you know that most of the superstars who have campaigned for political parties did so because they were paid???

MSN.com and Business Standard - 3/5/09

The offer stumped Dale Bhagwagar, public relations manager to many a film star. An agency, hired by a well-known clothing brand, wanted a top actor to canvass support for a political party. Money these days is hard to come by and the Election Commission keeps a hawk eye on the expenses of parties. So, it offered the actor no fewer than 20 sherwanis! “I am yet to get over that call,” said Bhagwagar.

Bhagwagar has fielded 10 or 12 calls, at the very least, everyday in the run up to the general elections. “It’s been busy for me and the maximum offer that has been given by a leading political party has been Rs 35-40 lakh,” said he. This offer, it is learnt, was for Hrithik Roshan who turned it down.

Perhaps he didn’t find the return on time-spent good enough. But films stars like Salman Khan and Koena Mitra and even some small-screen stars like Varun Badola have been seen regularly at rallies of political parties this time round.

Khan was the biggest glamour industry campaigner in this year’s elections. He campaigned for both the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party at different times and is said to have made Rs 20 lakh for every appearance.

Do parties have that much money? Maybe, they don’t. But they are backed by businessmen who end up paying the stars in cash. Or in sherwanis. It doesn’t matter if the film star doesn’t know the party’s manifesto (Koena Mitra, for instance, had no clue about the details of the party she was representing), for all that matters is really the money they make at the end of the canvassing.

Mitra is paid around Rs 10-12 lakh each time she appears on the campaign trail. Like her, Mahima Choudhary and Zeenat Aman (no matter how much it is out of goodwill) get paid too but comparatively lesser: Rs 5-7 lakh. In addition, their airfare (business class) and hotel accommodation is taken care of.

“They don’t make speeches and don’t go on campaign trails as a friendly gesture. They do it for money,” said a source busy fielding calls from interested parties who wanted to get on board some television stars for this year’s campaigning. “They promise trips to exotic destinations, are willing to load TV stars in jewellery, even get gadgets like LCD sets installed in homes. There’s a lot that parties offer but these are add-ons. Cash is always on the cards,” said this source.

According to him, Saakshi Tanwar (of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki fame) was offered a chance to not just canvass but also contest a seat in Rajasthan on a BJP ticket. “The party made an offer of Rs 10 lakh but she refused,” he added. While Tanwar may be an exception, TV stars are usually paid in the region of Rs 3-5 lakh with add-ons that include paid vacations, gadgets, designer clothes (yes, that’s right) and what have you.

“An election campaign requires stars to sweat it out and bake in the heat. It’s more than just attending events and that’s why they command fat sums of money,” said Bhagwagar.

We've heard about adult education, sex education, sports training etc. Now say hello to - BEGGING EDUCATION

Hindustan Times - 3/5/09

It seems that beggars are made, not born.

An informal academy for wannabe beggars in Rohini in west Delhi is training initiates in this profession. The training, imparted with an eye to the coming Common-wealth Games, is in foreign languages, since foreigners are considered good catches.

“More than one lakh foreigners will be in the city during the period. Even if one beggar earns Rs 150-200 per day, you can understand the turnover for us,” said Vijay Babli, who claims to be leader of over 1,200 beggar families living in Rohini’s Lal Quarter.

In preparation for this expected windfall, the beggars have set up a night school in a clearing in their colony.

Bright children are taught how to say phrases like, “I am an orphan, I have not eaten for days, I am ill, have no money for medicine, please help me in the name of God”, says Raju Sansi, who claims to be head tutor at the school.

Patni, an eight year-old girl who has never been to school, can speak English, French and Spanish, thanks to the makeshift school.

She is one of the 45 students at the school. Practical lessons are also imparted in sessions in places like Connaught Place.

Real foreign currency notes are shown to the children so they can recognise them, says Patlu, who trains children in Katputli Colony in west Delhi’s Patel Nagar.

The beggar children usually get a free pick up and drop from their work locations.

So whether Delhi is ready for the Games or not, its beggars will be.

Are celebrities just supposed to say: 'VOTE' or should they say: 'THINK AND THEN VOTE'

Anoushka Shankar - Hindustan Times - 2/5/09

Social responsibility: Does it mean lending your voice or vote for the sake of it? Or does it mean taking the time and effort to be socially aware, and to know what you’re talking about before you risk supporting the wrong cause? Politics is complicated, and I admit to being often baffled or thoroughly frustrated.

Maybe one political party speaks loudly about an issue dear to my heart, but upon research I find out they also support things I don’t agree with. Or maybe it’s hard to dredge up enough idealism about a political figure when I know things are never as perfect as they seem.

Either way, it’s important to be involved. As everyone is telling you, vote, vote, vote! Take a stand! Make your voice heard! But for a moment, will you just question what happens after you do that?

We’ve seen more celebrities campaigning this year than ever before. That can be a great thing, but it’s also dangerous. Some public figures have happily jumped on to the political bandwagon this year, running for office at the drop of a hat, and causing me to question their motives.

A few days ago, there was an article in this newspaper about an actress who said that she didn’t know what she was campaigning for, but that she just went because she was a friend of a party member. I was completely outraged. Is this a fashion show where you go just because it’s fun to show up? Did you just want to be written about as active, because it’s the new in-thing in Bollywood?

When voting privately, a public figure has the same amount of responsibility as any other citizen, no more, no less, to be well-informed about what he or she is voting for. But the second one uses their celebrity to campaign for votes, that responsibility increases exponentially. I mean, isn’t that obvious?

People look up to you, people are influenced by you, and when you’re using that to tell them how to shape the country rather than what movie to watch, you have no right to abuse that! You can really impact people, and to do that without due research, knowledge or care is a disgrace......

Questions for legislators

By V. Raghunathan - MINT - The Wall Street Journal - 22/4/09

Minimum attendance is compulsory, whether one is a student or an employee. Falling short can debar a child from a school or an examination. It can cost you your job. Minimum attendance is regarded as a necessary condition for learning or delivering on one’s work commitments. Right?

Similarly, universally, educational and other institutions expect their children or employees to stick to certain expected norms of behaviour. A rowdy child or a rogue employee is seldom tolerated. For instance, if a student or employee damages school or office property, a serious disciplinary view is taken of such conduct. One may even be expelled from the organization. Right?

Also, all professional positions require minimum qualifications or specific expertise. For example, a finance executive must be a chartered accountant, a senior educator must have a PhD (doctor of philosophy) and a surgeon must have a master’s degree in surgery. One cannot even enter class VII unless one has passed class VI. Right?

Again, most institutions have a retirement age for employees. The age for retirement takes many aspects into account, viz., physical health and mental abilities, providing for upward mobility and employment to younger sections of the population, demand and supply of expertise, and so on.....

Finally, most courses of study are so rigorous that, by and large, one is not allowed to pursue two degrees simultaneously. Likewise, most organizations, the government included, do not allow their employees to engage in more than one job at a time. Imagine the pilot of your commercial flight as a part-time stock broker on the National Stock Exchange! You will surely be a worried commuter. Right?

Under the circumstances, isn’t it ironic that while the above are true for children and adults alike in all institutional walks of life, Indian legislature should be the only exception in the country that does not abide by any of the above requirements? Perhaps election time is the best time to ask some questions.

The abysmal attendance record of some of our celebrity parliamentarians—as measured by mere signing of the register and not by participation in the parliamentary proceedings—has been much in the news recently. Clearly, no attendance requirement applies to our representatives. Why?

Criminal background and behaviour, which may be unacceptable in students or employees in any decent school or organization, are perfectly acceptable for our parliamentarians. Why?
Our education minister does not have to be an educationist or the minister for urban planning an architect. Nor is it essential for a parliamentarian to be a degree holder in political science or have a record of public service. Why?

One would imagine that neither running of industries nor running of the state is a part-time job. How, then, do we expect industrialists such as Rahul Bajaj and Vijay Mallya to juggle their industrial empires with statecraft? Or a senior leader such as Sharad Pawar to juggle statecraft with cricket? Or a Govinda (incidentally, he did not attend a single parliamentary session in 2007) or a Jaya Prada to juggle their Bollywood careers with parliamentary sessions? But we have put them there as members of Parliament. Why?

While a 56-year-old colonel is too old to run his regiment, an octogenarian parliamentarian is not too old to run the country. Why?

Corporate governance is important, but not so country governance. Why?

The author is CEO, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation.

Contrary to popular belief, OBC Quotas have not diluted standards: TISS Study

Hindustan Times - 30/4/09

A FACT-FINDING study into reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) in higher education in three states by the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has concluded that there is no evidence to show that such a reservation policy is “diluting merit or lowering the quality of professional education”.

The National Academy of Sciences, a research body of scientists, commissioned the study in March 2008, when debates over expanding reservation were roiling medical, management and engineering campuses across India.

Professor P. Tandon of the academy said, “We had commissioned the study because so much uninformed debate was creating bitterness and dividing the country. We decided to study the actual performance of OBC reservations in states which had already implemented it in their institutions, and put the findings to the public and policymakers.” The year-long study titled ‘Impact of OBC reservation in higher education in India’ visited nine engineering and medical campuses in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, spoke to over 600 students and faculty members, and analysed institutional data at entry and exit levels.

“But to me, the most important finding”, said Tandon, “are the factors responsible for persistent backwardness, ranging from poor education in India’s government schools to a student’s place of residence.

Those are the things we must address, without which reser vations cannot be effective.” The report concludes that the poor school education, and increased privatisation in higher education are the biggest barriers to higher education today among India’s disadvantaged groups.

He's one reason why you should vote

Hindustan Times - 30/4/09

Abdul Zabar, a 12-year-old, lugs bags of stamps and ink to Dr. Antonia Da Silva High School in Dadar, Mumbai. The school falls in the South-Central Mumbai constituency, which goes to the polls on Thursday.

Zabar was found working with labourers in the hall where polling-related material was kept to be distributed across centres. When photographers present there clicked Zabar’s picture, the labour contractor asked the boy to stop working and made him sit on the floor. He was later sent out of the hall.

HT photographer Kunal Patil followed Zabar and asked him his name and age. The contractor noticed this and tried to justify the boy’s presence, saying he was not being made to work but was merely accompanying his uncle who was a labourer.

'STAR' Power: Salman Khan campaigns first for Congress, then for BJP next month and then again for Congress the next day

Times of India - 3/09 - Salman Khan campaigns for Congress candidate Anu Tandon

Times of India - 11/4/09 - Salman Khan campaigns for BJP candidate Vinod Khanna

Times of India - 13/4/09 - Salman Khan campaigns for Congress candidate Milind Deora

The Great Indian Election Circus further entertains

Samajwadi Party Manifesto: We'll ban English, computers

Times of India - 13/4/09

The Samajwadi Party has vowed to work against the use of English in education and computers in new projects. While these are pitched as populist measures — abolition of ‘‘expensive education in English’’ would allegedly create a level playing field for all and less use of computers would generate jobs — the steps are being viewed with alarm as they have the potential to drag back the country by years.

Releasing the party manifesto here on Saturday, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav dwelt on his pet anti-English theme. The manifesto says that if a new government were to be formed with SP’s support, it would work to abolish schools providing expensive education in English — in other words, virtually every public school regarded among the country’s top schools. Interestingly, Mulayam Singh’s two sons have gone to such schools.

While speaking to reporters, Mulayam Singh said he was against ‘‘the compulsory use of English language in education, administration and judiciary’’. He said SP favoured the national language, Hindi, and regional languages. To give his anti-top grade education a populist spin, he said his party was in favour of free education for girls until graduation.

On computers, Mulayam said their use was leading to unemployment. He added that wherever work can be done by hand, computers would be abolished. As everything was done by hand until the advent of computers, the step, if taken to its logical conclusion, could lead to the scrapping of almost all computers.

BJP's BL Sharma Prem says his win is certain because he filed his nomination at an auspicious moment

Times of India - 13/4/09

Two days after the Congress withdrew the candidature of Jagdish Tytler from North-East seat, his BJP counterpart BL Sharma ‘Prem’ waited for another ‘auspicious’ moment to file his nomination paper on Saturday.

Prem, who candidly admitted that he had come after ‘‘due consultation’’ with the Hindu almanac, may not have been able to boast of star power — only OP Kohli, BJP state chief and local MLAs were present — but he claimed that the constellations were certainly in his favour. Flashing victory signs as supporters chanted his name, Prem declared, ‘‘I have defeated anyone who has stood against me. It’ll be the same this time around.’’

Interestingly, the firebrand RSS ideologue — who came in a black Santro which he claimed belonged to a supporter — seems to have accumulated little savings in his 30-odd years as a politician and academic. In his asset declaration, Prem has said that he has only Rs 37,187 in his bank account, with only Rs 500 in hand at the time of nomination. He apparently has no other savings, barring an apartment in middle-class BK Dutt colony in Karwala, built in 1991 and worth Rs 7.5 lakh, and a point 32 calibre German revolver.

Age is catching up with Indian Politics

Times of India - 13/4/09

Age is catching up with Indian politics. Whether it was BJP leader L K Advani lifting weights at a gym, or Gujarat CM Narendra Modi’s remark describing Congress as a ‘‘125-year-old budhiya’’ followed by Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘‘Do I look old to you’’ retort, age seems to have become a talking point in this election season.

This is happening despite the fact that leading lights from both Congress and BJP are not getting younger any more. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is 76, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee is 73, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is 62 while Advani at 81 leads the pack. But Congress’s aggressive projection of Rahul Gandhi seems to have given some ballast to the age debate.

While Congress took on Modi on ‘‘cultural’’ terms, pointing out that his remark smacked of sexism and also went against Indian ‘‘traditions’’ of respecting the elderly, Priyanka’s response was more in-your-face assertion of youthfulness. Without getting into the political incorrectness of Modi’s remarks, she simply posited herself as a young symbol of an old party. Given her striking looks, it certainly appears to be a poser for Modi and BJP.

After the World witnessed Jade Goody's death on TV, now Rakhi Sawant will choose & marry a man on a reality show

The Indian Express - 8/4/09

She is known for her shock value and Rakhi Sawant is now planning her 'swayamvara' - picking a groom and tying the nuptial knot with the chosen one - on a reality TV show. Rakhi will choose from among 15 grooms on NDTV Imagine's new show "Rakhi Ka Swayamvara" and and will take the help of viewers to decide on her perfect man. The timing of the show hasn't been announced yet.

The first of its kind show will trace Rakhi's journey from selecting a groom to the marriage ceremony. Commenting on her decision to marry this way, Rakhi said: "I want to solemnize my marriage in the presence of all my fans who have been supportive of me throughout and what better way than getting married on national television?""I am looking for a companion who is warm, affectionate, someone who can dance a little bit, who respects women for who they are, and above all who is punctual. Even Sita had her Swayamvara so why not me?"

Rakhi says this is the right time for her to settle down."Every young woman dreams of a perfect marriage. There is a right time in your life to get married to become a wife and a mother. I'm a cultured Indian woman with good values and I have reached a stage where I need a companion with whom I can share my love, joys, sorrows and success. For me that time is now," she said.

Over the duration of the show, the prospective grooms will be brought together under one roof and put through a series of challenges that will test their personality, character, physical fitness, talent and also their compatibility with Rakhi. All through the series, viewers can help Rakhi decide, by voting for or against the prospective grooms and the final week will present the wedding celebrations.The show is being produced by SOL Productions Private Limited. "We are very proud of Rakhi for taking such a bold decision and we hope that she will find happiness at the end of the show," said Fazila Allana of SOL Productions Pvt. Ltd. MUMBAI: She is known for her shock value and Rakhi Sawant is now planning her 'swayamvara' - picking a groom and tying the nuptial knot with the chosen one - on a reality TV show.