'People-work'

  Ever Noticed That Modi Just Can’t Bring Himself To Say, ‘Mitron, Muslims Are Equal Citizens?’ It is now palpable – the Modi government’s moral paralysis is shaping the destiny of the people of India. It is a time therefore, for contemplative pause; and in equal measure for constructive outrage against how diversity as an organising principle of contemporary Indian society is being challenged, thereby influencing our capacities and intentions to co-exist as one people. (And remember, there is not a shred of evidence from any part of the world, that tax reforms unite people, relentless advertising notwithstanding.) Even before nightfall on the very day that Modi condemned the killing of 15 year old Junaid, Alimuddin Ansari was lynched to death in another part of India, every gruesome detail of which was recorded by the perpetrators, and widely circulated, short of being live telecast. The return of the primitive pleasure in violence and cruelty, all in the name of the greater...

The ‘A’ Certificate For ‘Phullu’ Is Yet Another ‘F’ For The Government’s Judgment I n its wisdom, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Government of India, has deemed the Hindi film Phullu , fit only for ‘adult’ viewing because its story revolves around menstruation. The CBFC Chief, Pahlaj Nihalani, has defended this decision saying that young people in India aren’t ready yet to talk openly about ‘that time of the month’ leave alone watch a film about it.    Funny, tragic, outrageous, anachronistic. Add worse descriptors if you like, and they will fit. Even a couple of years ago, these responses would have sufficed, because underlying the outrage would be the hope that those in charge will learn the ropes and stop fooling around.   However, after three years in government, high officials should not expect any longer to be spoon-fed the basics of well-established feminist and freedom of expression arguments.   We must recognise a pattern when it is starin...

  Has UNAIDS Been Caught Napping? Look who is Paying the Price for the UN’s Political Fence Sitting   I was hoping I would never have to write this. That no one would have to write this, ever. UNAIDS and civil society campaigners have had a special relationship of trust and collaboration. But now that relationship seems to have chipped. Irreparably, even.   Two shockingly opposite statements have emerged after the adoption of the 2016 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS  by Member States of the UN at the recently concluded UN General Assembly Special Session last week.   Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, was quoted in the New York Times  saying that he felt ‘the declaration was something to be proud of’.   In sharp contrast, campaigners from across the world have called the Political Declaration a ‘high level failure’. In  a scathing statement  issued by the global coalitions of civil society organisations,...

  SDGs are our dreams gone official I t is because we dream of a perfect future is why the present becomes worth the fight. Exactly one year ago in September 2015, all nations of the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN general Assembly. At this gathering of world leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed the #globalgoals , committing himself and all of us to their achievement by 2030. And this is what is dazzling about these 17 new goals and their 169 targets. Three generations, including ours, have lived through the struggles and victories of the last hundred years, but it is only now for the first time that we have collectively started dreaming about the world through the eyes of a future generation, our children. What kind of world will your little daughter find herself in when she is a young adult? Will she be surrounded by prosperity, beauty, peace, dignity and equality for them, or will she find herself struggling in a broken planet ...

  One year since the SDGs – how committed is the Indian Parliament? Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are proof that the conversation on the intersectionality between economic, social and environmental change has finally come of age and is now hard to ignore. These new set of 17 global goals, along with their 169 targets are not just transformative in their ambition for the last person in the queue. They are in fact inviting us to participate in the tectonic shift in development thinking, to step out of our comfort zones to examine new solutions and new ways of doing business. And lets remember, these goals were generated through four years of participation of millions of people around the world and not by a bunch of experts huddled in a basement.   However, in India, the discussion on pathways to achieve the goals have, over the past year, become the domain of central and state level bureaucrats who haven’t amassed any significant glory for their ability and inclinat...

  India's Warped Idea Of The 'Demographic Dividend': Extracting From The Youth, But Not Investing In Them India is all set to test the assumption that the youth bulge is a source of demographic dividend and an economic advantage. The assumption is that greater the number of people in an economy who work, save and pay taxes, higher will be the economic growth. With 356 million 10-24 year-olds, India has the world’s largest youth population in the world.   Three young girls seem to have tested the assumption with their bodies. Their verdict is that all things remaining the same, demographic dividend may be on life support.     A fifteen year old government school student in Ganjam gave birth in her classroom. She bled in the bathroom, confused, she ran back to her class, but before her class teacher could get help, she delivered a child right there. The infant later died. The young girl went home with her parents. She will now recuperate at the mercy of a qu...

Childhood fevers have a place of reverence in my memory ledger. They have created my template of good values and bad. They have taught me how to be cared for, and how to care – in that order. They have given my delirium a script and a meaning, place and purpose. These were not long bouts of debilitating illness. Just a few days of high pitched flaming fevers, sometimes from the burning sun, sometimes from prancing about in untimely rain; at other times, for unexplained reasons. In April 1979, a Hindu-Muslim riot broke out in the small town of Jamshedpur in eastern India, built around India’s first iron and steel industry. I was born and raised here. As all communal riots do, the reason was small and simple based on a sinister plan. It was a popular Hindu festival on that day; devotees were to gather in a procession which would go across the city carrying religious flags to celebrate. 

The whole lame and twisted logic to now defend the fundamentally undemocratic process of snatching farmers' land without their consent and without a social impact assessment is to say that a majority of respondents in a CSDS survey would rather not farm under the current conditions.

The anti NGO stand of the Govt of India, egged on by a rabid TV media has revealed more about the Govt than about the motives of the NGO in question, or those like them. 1- It has revealed that the Govt will do anything, including pulverising citizens rights, if the interests of corporates seem in danger. The Greenpeace activism had the potential to harm the Adani like entities. 2- It has revealed that the Govt has such shoddy relations with its counterparts in the developed world th at an NGO activists foriegn visit seems like a threat. Wasted foreign trips by Modi. 3- It has revealed that the Govt will hide behind the argument of energy security of India to support the energy giants and mining giants. All this, while the poor who are purportedly the beneficiaries of this future 'energy security' may be annihilated in the process. 4- It has revealed that while the Govt finds it laudable to beg the developed countries for FDI , foreign funding for NGOs is 'slave...

Dr Binayak Sen in police custody  Suddenly the word 'draconian' has come alive for me. Dictionary meaning 'of or relating to Draco, 7th-century Athenian statesman and lawmaker, or his code of laws, which prescribed  death  for almost every offence'.  Dr Binayak Sen meets Draco, in 21st century India. Are they discussing judicial reform? Does a bad judgement have no other reprimand than a better judgement on appeal in a higher court? In every job there are rewards and punishments, but seems like judges are beyond this framework!  A bad pilot can kill people and gets punished for it. A bad engineer can kill people and can be punished for it.  An incompetent judge (the competence of a judge includes his/her capaicty to maintain integrity) can kill people, can kill hope, can kill sanity, can kill justice, can kill dignity, can kill faith in human compassion, can kill the fundamental premise of democracy, can in fact waste everyone's time wit...