Februray_2014.pdf - Civil Society Magazine

Protest dents AAP image

`50VOL. 11 NO. 4 FEBRUARY 2014 www.civilsocietyonline.com .com/civilsocietyonline

CITIES AND WATER

WALK INTO PLURAL PAST

KOLKATA’S LIT ADDA

Pages 25-26

Pages 29-30

Page 32

AAP GOES TO SCHOOLS

MANI ON MOHALLAS

DOCTORS ON CALL

Pages 8-10

Pages 10-12

Pages 22-23

‘MY JOB IS TOFACILITATEDECISIONS’

Pages 6-7

Anil Swarup on speeding up ofclearances to mega projects

ALL STREETNO GOVT?

ALL STREETNO GOVT?

ALL STREETNO GOVT?

ALL STREETNO GOVT?

RRALL STREETNO GOVT?

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal declared himself an anarchist andtook to the streets on the question of control over the DelhiPolice. The result was chaos in the capital and no work done.

ALL STREET, NO GOVT?

THE Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has disappointed many Indians whoput their faith in it. It has received wide support and people voted forit in Delhi in the hope that it would initiate change in politics and

reform governance – raise the bar for behaviour in public life, so to speak.But the opposite has been happening.

The dharna led by Arvind Kejriwal and the antics of his Law Minister,Somnath Bharti, in particular, need to be roundly condemned. Kejriwal hassaid on record that he himself is an anarchist and that he wants to disruptthe parade on Republic Day. He has also given a call to policemen to comeout on the streets and protest along with him. These are violations of hisconstitutional obligations as Chief Minister and he should be held account-able. There is a fit case for legal action against Kejriwal and his entireCabinet because they occupy office on the basis of their allegiance to theConstitution. They are free to quit office and do as they please. But as longas they remain ministers, they have responsibilities and are bound by a cer-tain code of conduct.

Kejriwal knows all too well that an amendment to the Constitution isrequired to bring the Delhi Police under the state government. Clearly thiscan’t happen in the short term. AAP is therefore wrongly whipping up pop-ular sentiments in the hope of making gains during the coming Lok Sabhaelections.

It is amoral of AAP to denigrate the police like it has been doing for itsown political ends. Police reforms are needed. But the first step in that direc-tion is to energise the force and give it direction, not demoralise it. The sta-tion house officer the AAP government wanted suspended was right whenhe refused to enter a home at the dead of night without a warrant. He is alsoknown by women’s groups to be a good officer.

People elect politicians to lead. For AAP, or any other party, the opportu-nity is in attracting the best talent and turning Delhi into a model moderncity with an administration that is accountable and provides its citizens withtransparent processes that make their lives happier.

Activism is welcome because without passion little can be achieved. But suc-cessful activists know when to get down to the business of implementing theirideas and negotiating the much more complex terrain of consensus-building.

Many AAP members are seriously concerned about the recent events.They don’t like the way Kejriwal and his ministers conduct themselves. Itshould also be noted that very few people heeded Kejriwal’s call to join hisdharna. It is sad but AAP’s image has been seriously dented.

18

R E A D U S. W E R E A D Y O U.

Villagers in J&K use RTI

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 winning social enterprises

Breaching Kargil’s male bastion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

‘In Brazil we need a new farm model’ . . . . . . . . 16-17

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-27The plight of child ragpickers

Arriving at a decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Getting caste exposed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30-31

‘Muslim OBCs are powerless’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Andretta blues / Kettle & cup

Kejriwal must beheld accountable

PublisherUmesh Anand

EditorRita Anand

News NetworkShree PadreJehangir RashidRakesh AgarwalSusheela NairShayak Majumder

PhotographyLakshman Anand

Layout & DesignVirender Chauhan

CartoonistSamita Rathor

Write to Civil Society at:D-26 Basement, SouthExtension Part 2, New Delhi -110049. Ph: 011-46033825,9811787772

Printed and published byUmesh Anand from A 53 D,

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Contact Civil Society at:[email protected]

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COVER PHOTOGRAPH: SANDEEPA VEERAMACHANENI

5CIVIL SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 2014

VOICES

Aam Aadmi Your cover story, ‘AAP and Beyond’was well-balanced. It captured theenthusiasm of AAP supporters andsounded a note of warning about whatmany consider to be the party’s pop-ulist policies. But there is no doubt thatthe youth have wholly backed AAPand for the first time after independ-ence, the young are once again inter-ested in politics.

Ashish Mehra

We do need to change the politicalculture in India. A person should joinpolitics to serve the nation and not justto fill his pockets. By underlining sim-plicity and honesty, AAP is trying toredefine the way politics is practised inIndia and attract only those who shareits values. The party has already bust-ed the biggest myth of all – that ordi-nary people can’t stand for electionsbecause you need big money.

Shehla Ansari

Today we all feel so empowered. Thisman has had the courage to go out andbe there in the field, while most of usspoke only in our drawing rooms. Inour own spaces we must do all we canto make sure that this revolutionspreads without turning into anarchy.The manner in which the crowd man-aged itself at the Ramlila Ground was agrand statement of how disciplined wecan be when we want. May God givethese new leaders strength and health.

Navina Jafa

Farmers’ plight I would like to draw your attention tothe fact that small farmers who visitDelhi on work have no place to stay.In the past, farmers could stay at theDr Rajendra Prasad Farmers Hostel atthe Pusa Institute campus. They used

to be charged only `2 per day per bedin a dormitory.

But now this facility is only for offi-cers and staff members of the PusaInstitute. They can stay at the hostelby paying `50 per day per bed. But wevillage farmers are not permitted tostay there although we can furnish allkinds of proof that we are farmers. If,by some luck, we get permission tostay, we are charged `200 per bed.

The Rajendra Prasad FarmersHostel was set up for farmers but,ironically, we are not allowed in.

The government should allot oneor two flats in a central location inDelhi where farmers coming fromover 400 km can stay. Or they shouldbe permitted to stay in state govern-ment buildings. After all, we are com-ing here on work.

Mangal Singh

Gram Vaani ‘Rural India knows its mind’ byChetna Verma was an excellentexample of how information can bepassed on to rural folk in an engagingand interactive manner.Undoubtedly, mobile phones are thenew tools of empowerment for themasses. We need many more suchenterprises to reach out to people,educate and inform them.

Anil Dewan

Gram Vaani is a major boost to devel-opment in rural India. This is oneexample that will go around theworld. The Gram Vaani team mustexpand its horizons.

Babajide Bankolemanuel

A great example of how technologycan make a social impact!

Vikas Guru

Mewat radio Shayak Majumder’s report, ‘Radiospeaks up for Mewat’ was very inter-esting. Alfaz E Mewat is an excellentmedium to reach out to the masses.Interestingly, none of their radiojockeys have any background in radioor any other media. Yet they havesuccessfully connected with the audi-ence since they themselves belong tothe community.

Sharmili Dey

Goa film Laxmikant Shetgaonkar’s latest film,‘Baga Beach–A Season in Paradise,’sounds interesting and I am lookingforward to seeing it. Your writer,Saibal Chatterjee, picks very unusualand contemporary films.

George Almeida

LETTERS

Letters should be sent [email protected]

by SAMITA RATHORIN THE LIGHT

CIVIL SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 2014

NEWS

6

Industry often complains about the slow journeyof files in government, but now it is singing thepraises of a special cell set up under the Cabinet

Committee on Investment. The cell’s interventionshave resulted in large projects collectively worthsome `4,00,000 crore being cleared.

Many of these projects were caught up in minorprocedural problems. Some of the delays were theresult of decisions just not being taken. There werealso projects that could not be passed and thosedecisions, too, were quickly taken and conveyed tothe promoters.

Anil Swarup, Additional Secretary in the CabinetSecretariat, heads the cell. Swarup is widelyapplauded for setting up the Rashtriya SwasthyaBima Yojana (RSBY). As he did with RSBY, Swaruphas used information technology to speed upprocesses and provide transparency. He also travelsextensively to meet state governments.

Any company with a project of more than `1,000crore can approach Swarup through a portal set upfor this purpose. Minutes of meetings are posted onthe portal without delay. Swarup’s own desk is cleanand reflects his working style.

Civil Society spoke at length with Swarup on whatholds up projects, the systems he has put in place toremove hurdles and the prospects of replicatingsuch a mechanism to redress grievances at the statelevel. Edited excerpts from a longer interview:

You have been given the responsibility of ensur-ing that decisions are taken on large projects inthe country. What is the process being followed?The government was very concerned about thedelay in clearances being sought for various high-level projects. It set up a Cabinet Committee onInvestment (CCI) in January 2013 to fast-trackthese projects. In six months they realised thatalthough the CCI was doing its job, it needed asmall cell to assist it.

Second, the objective was also to have a detailedunderstanding of delays and if something could bedone about them. Given the sensitivities involved inclearing these projects, we felt we should have avery transparent mechanism of understanding andresolving these issues.

What I would like to clarify here is that this officedoes not clear anything. We are playing the role offacilitator. We set up a web portal where any indus-try that has a problem can log in, create its own username and password, go to the site, briefly explainthe details of the stalled project and indicate theissues they have with the sanctions and clearancespending in the ministries.

We did this to ensure that at the backend all suchinformation would automatically flow to the jointsecretaries of those ministries. We had asked theministries to nominate a nodal officer, not belowthe rank of joint secretary in each ministry, to han-

dle issues that come to that ministry. On the portalitself, the joint secretary puts in his comments onthe issues raised by industry. So his comments areopenly visible.

Institutionally, we set up sub-groups for min-istries where these problems exist, ministries thatare responsible for giving these clearances, like theministries for environment and forests, coal, roads,financial services…

In all these ministries separate groups were con-stituted. For the Ministry of Environment andForests (MoEF), the Ministry of Coal and theRailway Ministry, we fixed a day and time eachweek for consideration of issues. So we meet everyTuesday at 11 am with the Railway Ministry, at 3 pmwith the Environment Ministry and on Wednesday3 pm with the Coal Ministry.

Who attends these meetings?The joint secretary attends after having done all theground work. There are around four sets of people.There is the recipient ministry where the problemis, the industry representative and the representa-tive of the sponsoring ministry.

Each project has to be sponsored by a ministry.So, if it is a power project, irrespective of whether itis public or private, the joint secretary of the powerministry sponsoring that project pilots it.

How many pending projects have you managed tosort out?We became effective in July. We initially had around60 projects. Today, we have around 406 projectsentailing an investment of `19,00,000 crore which isalmost 23-24 per cent of GDP. This is the faithindustry has shown by referring these projects to us.

So the number of stalled projects being clearedhas really grown? The mechanism we have put in place is interesting.Almost 50 per cent of issues being faced by industryrelated to state governments: land acquisition, wateravailability, law and order, forest clearance. Earlier,chief secretaries and senior officers were invited toDelhi to discuss these issues.

But we changed this completely. Learning fromRSBY I thought it better to go to the states thoughit is tougher. So every Monday and Friday the cen-tral team travels to one of the states. We have trav-elled to 16 states.

The advantage is the chief secretary chairs themeeting and all deputies attend. In some places thecommissioner is there or on video-conference. Soissues are discussed across the table and timelinesfixed by the state government. Seven states havetaken a decision to set up their own group to mon-itor projects below `1,000 crore. They have con-cluded that this is a good system for them.

Which are these states?Bihar and Rajasthan have issued orders. Gujarat,Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh andJharkhand have decided to send their teams toDelhi to understand our software and use it forprojects less than `1,000 crore. What this signals is

that state governments have accepted this mecha-nism as a process for resolution of issues. For me,ownership among stakeholders was very important.

As a consequence, we have facilitated resolutionof issues of 133 projects entailing an investment of`4,00,000 crore. This is quite an amount in the con-text of the way we are evolving. We have around`10,00,000 crore worth of projects still with us.Some of them are long-term projects like railwaysprojects. We have timelines for them and probablyby 2016 three rail projects will fructify and makeIndia self-sufficient in coal.

Where are these three railway projects?In Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. India isnot short of coal. Evacuation is a problem and thishappens through railway lines. Fortunately, actionhas begun for all three. In the Jharsuguda railwayline case, all clearances have been given and workhas started.

How was the design of the portal created?My experience in RSBY and as executive director ofUdyog Bandhu in Uttar Pradesh, 20 years ago,helped. This is on a larger scale. We have managedto create a file-less office here. Everything is on the

INTERVIEWAnil Swarup

‘In 6 months projects worth ̀ 4,00,000 crore cleared’

Anil Swarup: ‘We have created a file-less office where everything is online and transparent’


NEWS

Internet and it is transparent. In fact, the minutes ofeach sub-group meeting are dictated during themeeting itself and posted on the portal, in real time.That is why the present President of CII has writtento the Prime Minister, requesting him to bringdown the threshold limit from `1,000 crore to `500crore since this mechanism is working beautifully.

What are the kinds of projects? The Aerocity project (near Delhi airport) was stuckfor two years. The investment was around `12,000crore. The reasons cited were security concernsabout windows facing the airstrip. People in securi-ty felt the windows should be blocked because theywere a threat to the airstrip. The matter came to us.

In the second meeting I jokingly said that this yearon 15 August the Prime Minister would address thenation from a wall behind the ramparts of the RedFort. They asked why. I said you feel no one is secure

behind a glass pane so how do you expect the PM tobe safe? I asked them, why not instal the same glasson those windows? It will cost a bit more. The firsthotel was inaugurated on November 26 and anotherone is getting ready to function.

What is holding up projects?What we are trying to do is to give a different per-spective to a discussion. So if there are two min-istries and they have taken a stand and it’s very dif-ficult to break the ice, you sit with them and givethem a perspective through a discussion mode.

Most of these problems can be solved with theright environment and a climate of trust. If they feelyou have an axe to grind then expecting things tocome through will be difficult. My only job was toget things moving, that’s it. Saying no to a project isalso a decision.

We had one complaint on our portal: an entrepre-

neur said he didn’t have domestic gas allocation andhence his project was not moving. We discussed ithere and found out that there is no surplus domes-tic gas available for any industry. When he came tothe meeting I told him here is the joint secretaryand there is no gas available. He went back happy,saying he wished he had known this earlier.

So this is clearly a process?I am a great believer in process. Even in RSBY I wasobsessed with processes. I have no control overresults. If you get processes going in the correctmanner you will get results.

But where do projects get stuck?We have done a full analysis. Almost 40 per cent ofissues are related to environment and forests. Nextwas coal but most of those have been resolved.

What is the reason? Let me say one thing clearly. Environment is a veryserious issue and we cannot ignore it. People say itis obstructing industry. I don’t think so.Environment should be top priority. We have to beaware of environmental concerns but the processyou have to go through to get environmental clear-ances should be streamlined so that the processitself does not delay things. But is there concern forthe environment or for processes?

We are so obsessed with laws we hang on to them,but there is an objective behind those laws. Is thatobjective being fulfilled? Sometimes we become soobsessed with processes that we forget that theymay adversely affect the environment, in a way.

A public sector oil company wanted to set up apipeline. Now this is much less harmful to the envi-ronment than transporting oil through trucks andcausing pollution. So, yes, please give environmentclearance to the pipeline.

Also, in consultation with CII and FICCI we haveset up a small group that is now looking into theprocesses of clearances. During these five or sixmonths, while attempting to facilitate clearances,we have come to understand certain aspects wethink really require a relook. Can a less circuitouspath be taken for protection of the environment?

Did your office clear the Posco project?They had just one issue with us. It is there on our por-tal. We don’t decide clearances. We only asked themto give or not give a clearance. For us, Posco was likeany other project. We don’t have any priority list.

Activists and communities have complaints overEnvironment Impact Assessments (EIAs), publichearings and so on. Can they also approach youroffice for redress of grievances?No, I have a different role to play. We tell industry tofollow the process. We simply expedite the process.We do facilitate public hearings. We are in touch withdistrict collectors. So industry can’t say we want tohold the public hearing but we are not getting coop-eration from the district authorities. We help to makethe process work. If you listen to people genuinely, thequality of your public hearing will be better.

‘In 6 months projects worth ̀ 4,00,000 crore cleared’

Anil Swarup: ‘We have created a file-less office where everything is online and transparent’

‘Almost 50 per cent of the issues being faced byindustry related to state governments. Officers usedto come to Delhi. I thought it better to go to the states.Every Monday and Friday the central team travels.’

SANDEEPA VEERAMACHANENI


NEWS

8

Shayak MajumderNew Delhi

ONE of the signal achievements of the AamAadmi Party (AAP) in the short time thatit has been in power has been its campaign

to improve the government school system that hasbeen lying in a shambles for years. Poor childrenstudy in these schools and successive state govern-ments never found the time to address their needs.

AAP has used its volunteer network to get a base-line document together on what the schools needbeginning with infrastructure. Manish Sisodia, asthe minister for education, showed that he was aman of action.

He had 140 AAP volunteers conduct, over threedays from 7 January, a survey of about 700 govern-ment schools to assess them for availability of drink-ing water, clean toilets and basic infrastructure.

Officials were instructed to ensure that basicrepairs were done before 16 January when theschools would reopen. Government schools haven’treceived such close scrutiny in years.

When he was approached by a visitor with theproblem of unavailability of water in a local school,he instructed a Delhi Jal Board official to file areport by the next day on the availability of water inall the local schools. He said, “The school term willbegin within a few days. I don’t want children tostay without water in my schools.”

The survey results showed that hygiene posed amajor problem in government schools. RanjuMinhas, AAP’s women’s wing coordinator and achief coordinator of the survey, says “During the vis-its, our volunteers came across school toilets whichwere in deplorable state. Most of them were chokedwith sewage and there was unavailability of water.”

She says, “In some schools, we found out thatthere were no doors on girls’ toilets. It was absolute-ly shocking. Who would want to study in theseschools?”

Basic amenities like drinking water, clean watertanks, blackboards, bulbs and even windows weremissing in many schools. According to Minhas, theprincipals are to blame for this neglect. They shyaway from taking responsibility.

“When we asked about the reason behind theschools’ conditions, the principals responded bysaying that repair work was in progress, but we did-

n’t notice any,” says Minhas.The survey yielded results. Under instructions

from the ministry, schools are already undergoingbasic repair. Anoop Tagore, an AAP volunteer whosurveyed the schools in Chittaranjan Park, says,“When I visited the schools at first, there were nowater taps and the windows were broken. After thesurvey, I personally revisited the schools a few daysback and noted that there were new water taps.Even the windows have been fixed now.”

The volunteers had to undergo training sessionsat the Delhi Secretariat before they were authorisedto go for the surveys. The volunteers were from allwalks of life. There were chartered accountants,businessmen, shopkeepers and housewives.

Anita Lakhra, a housewife from Malviya Nagar,was a part of the survey team. “I have been an AAPvolunteer for a long time. I received a message fromthe education department saying that they neededpeople to help in the survey. I readily joined,” she says.

During the training the volunteers were specifi-cally asked not to be intrusive but to be helpfultowards the teachers and school staff in any waypossible. “We didn’t want the school to think thatwe were barging in. We wanted to convey the mes-sage that we were here to help,” says Minhas.

The school authorities were told in advance bythe ministry and given a list of the volunteers’names.!

Each volunteer carried a letter issued by Sisodia,authorising the volunteers to ‘observe and reportthe state of affairs to the ministry.’ The letter alsostated that the volunteers were not allowed to issueany direction to any school official or authority.

Kailash Jain, a volunteer from Kasturba Nagar,

AAP’s volunteersfigure out what’swrong at govtschools in Delhi

Manish Sisodia interacting with citizens

A twisted fan in a government school’s classroom

Manish Sisodia got 140AAP volunteers toconduct a survey forthree days of about 700government schools toassess availability ofdrinking water, cleantoilets and infrastructure.


NEWS

Manish Sisodia interacting with citizens Ranju Minhas, AAP school volunteer The dilapidated state of a government school in south Delhi

PICTURES BY SANDEEPA VEERAMACHANENI


NEWS

10

Civil Society NewsNew Delhi

THE mohalla sabha, or neighbourhoodassembly, is a vital component of theAam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s

promise of greater participatory democracy.AAP wants the people of Delhi to be consulted atthe lowest level on development schemes andhow money should be spent. It has therefore pro-posed to divide each of Delhi’s 272 municipalwards into smaller units called mohallas.

The mohalla sabha, however, doesn’t formal-ly exist as an entity in decentralised governance.The smallest unit currently in Delhi is the wardand it is represented by an elected councillor.Currently, none of the councillors belong toAAP. So, it remains unclear what role mohallascan play.

Civil Society spoke to Mani Shankar Aiyar, ofthe Congress on AAP’s mohalla sabha plans andwhether they would be workable. As one of RajivGandhi’s key advisers, Aiyar was involved withthe crafting of the 73rd and 74th ConstitutionalAmendments which ushered in decentralisationat the village and municipal levels.

He has also served as Union Minister ofPanchayati Raj and is a staunch proponent ofgrassroots democracy. Irrepressible and brutal-ly frank, Aiyar is known for his sharply eruditeviews on a range of issues.

Excerpts from an interview with theCongress MP at his Safdarjung Lane home inNew Delhi.

What is your opinion of AAP’s decision todivide Delhi’s 272 wards into mohallas?In principle I agree the lower you go, and thesmaller the unit that holds the administrationresponsible, the better. But all this has to be struc-tured properly. After all if you have 2,000 mohal-la sabhas, no one knows who is responsible tothem. I can’t see what they can do seriously.

To begin with you have to recognise that thestate exists and below it is the municipal corpo-ration and below that are the wards. So I canunderstand ward sabhas because then the wardsabha can hold its councillor responsible onlyfor those matters for which the ward councillorand the municipality have jurisdiction.

You have to first decide what is going to bedevolved from the Centre to the states, from thestates to the local government and then what isthe role of the minders of the local government.Is it an executive role for only an executive canbe held responsible for the action he takes? Thelegislature, yes, is held responsible when theelections come every five years. But on a dailybasis it is the executive that the gram or the wardor the mohalla sabha can hold responsible.

Before that there has to be some role for themohalla in electing the person concerned. If you

says, “We didn’t face any problems from most of theschools. In some cases the principals were happy tosee that the ministry is sending help.” Jain is a char-tered accountant.

The volunteers are just happy to serve. Says Jain,“It was good to see that the government itself is sit-ting up and taking notice of what needs to be donefor children. We are happy to do our part in themission.”

Now, monitoring teams will revisit the schoolsand see how much progress has been made. “Rightnow we are looking at rehabilitating the schoolinfrastructure. We want to ensure a child gets prop-er care in school,” says Minhas. Six volunteers willbe assigned to each constituency for monitoring.

Such is the reputation of government schools thatmiddle-class people don’t send their children tothem. Commenting on this, Sisodia says, “The sadtruth is that my own child studies in a privateschool. But, when I became the minister for educa-tion, I told my wife that I would improve govern-ment schools to the extent that we would want tosend our son to one.”

Ashok Agarwal, advocate and member of theAAP National Executive, has been working for along time on improving government and MCDschools. He worked closely with Sisodia for the sur-vey and has also recommended volunteers from hisown team for the AAP initiative.

Agarwal has proposed his own set of strategies tobring government schools on a par with the bestprivate schools in the city. He says, “All governmentschools, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)schools and other schools run by local bodiesshould be brought under the same banner of theDelhi government. This would ensure accountabili-ty and better infrastructure.”

According to him, MCD schools only provide edu-cation till Class 5. After that students should betransferred to government schools for higher studies.

Agarwal says that most of the children in MCDschools can’t even write their names in English,even after they pass out from fifth standard.Teachers are callous and the dropout rate is high.

“Eventually, the authorities of government and

MCD schools start blaming each other for non-deliverance. Bringing them all under one bannerwould resolve this issue.”

According to Agarwal, almost 2.5 million chil-dren are studying in government schools in Delhi.Around 1.5 million children are out of school. “Inorder to accommodate all the children, we need tohave more schools. That can be easily resolved byputting up multistoried buildings on the groundswhich are already provided to government andMCD schools.”

There is a total of 925 schools under the Delhigovernment. “Other than that, there are 1,700 MCDschools, 150 schools under New Delhi MunicipalCouncil and 15 under the Cantonment board,” saysAgarwal.

“It is also necessary to have skilled teachers in theschools. Delhi’s sanctioned strength of teachers ingovernment schools is 40,000. There are 10,000vacancies that have not been filled and absenteeismis rampant,” says Agarwal. “We need teachers whocan also look at the needs of disabled students in theschool. In Delhi, there are 200,000 disabled childrenwho don’t go to school. Imagine the waste of somuch human resource just because we don’t havegood teachers.”

Agarwal believes that the minimum standard forany government school must be equal to or betterthan that of Kendriya Vidyalaya. “The day that hap-pens, I can guarantee that within 48 hours, 50 percent of the city’s parents will pull out their kids fromprivate institutions and admit them to governmentschools.”

Sisodia agrees better teachers will make all thedifference. “In February, we are planning to inviteinterested people from Delhi, who have good edu-cational background and a flair for teaching. Theywill provide free tuition to students of governmentschools.” This will initially be for a month and thenextended.

Sisodia believes that good schools will come outof a wider social effort. “Society has disconnectedfrom education. Somehow, it has now become onlythe responsibility of the government. We need tobring the government and society together toimprove the standard of education,” he says.

‘Define a mohalla sabha’s role first’

Classrooms are dirty and dismal

Continued from page 9


NEWS

do not have a mohalla representative in a struc-tured unit of local self-government and you do notknow what is the jurisdiction of that unit of localself-governance, the mohalla sabha becomes amob. This is what needs to be clearly understood.

You don’t agree with AAP’s idea? As far as I am able to make out at the moment,AAP does not appear to have clear ideas on this.What they know is that they wish to have partici-patory democracy. But this is not a new idea.

Participatory democracy has been with us as aconcept at least since Mahatma Gandhi and youmight stretch it a bit and say we have had it sinceVedic times for the very word ‘panchayat’ derivesfrom an old Indian tradition.

There is the 73rd Amendment which sets outthe constitutional framework within which devo-lution can take place to urban local bodies. Whatis the relationship AAP proposes between its ideasand the prescribed constitutional framework? For,however independent they might be in theirthoughts and actions, they cannot make them-selves independent of the Constitution.

So the structure for devolution exists, but thereseems to be a problem with delivery, with meet-ing people’s expectations. What can be done?What is necessary to do and it is easy to do it, is tolegally empower the ward sabhas. The municipalcorporation has come into existence as a result oflegislation in the Delhi State Assembly. So theyshould be bringing forth legislation to empowerthe already extant ward sabhas.

Then they have a precedent, which is that the

gram sabhas prescribed in the Constitution apply toa panchayat irrespective of its population size. So instates like West Bengal and Kerala where the popu-lation of a gram sabha could go up to several thou-sands, they themselves took a step, not prescribedin the constitution but not proscribed either. InBengal there is what is called the gram sadhans. Ithink in Kerala it’s called the ward sabha or neigh-bourhood sabha. So within a panchayat area theytake the hamlets or in a ward area they take thehabitations and provide a unit there that legally

exists and is legally empowered. The local adminis-tration, including the elected representatives, aresupposed to be present at each of these ward sabhameetings which make up a gram sabha meeting.

So in that sense they just have to go to the draw-ing board, look at what the Constitution says, whatthe present law of the Delhi Assembly says, look atprecedents that exist, put in their fresh ideas andstructure it in such a way that the mohalla sabhabecomes in some sense the equivalent of the wardsabha in states that have very large gram sabhas.

It is very simple to do. But to put the mohallasabha in place as a unit of governance withoutstructuring it upwards is to bring about chaos andanarchy and not an organised system of participa-tory democracy.

I have two rays of hope. In Yogendra Yadav theyhave a mentor in local governance. I know he isnot innocent of constitutional and legal technicalquestions as many of his AAP colleagues are.

The second, is that they have inducted SharadChandra Behar, former secretary, Panchayati Raj,who helped Digvijaya Singh establish the first sys-tem of Constitutional Panchayati Raj in the coun-

try in 1993, as their expert to structure all this. Soa combination of both should be able to prepare arational system of devolution, which would effec-tively empower the mohalla sabha.

What are the challenges of having a mohallasabha of that nature?Two major challenges: One, issues that cut acrossall mohalla sabhas. What do you do if one set ofmohalla sabhas has a different opinion to anotherset of mohalla sabhas?

Somewhere a decision has to be taken as towhether the mohalla sabhas are going to be unitsof decision-making or will they mobilise griev-ances, with redress being the responsibility of theelected authority assisted by the local civil service.

If you put it this way, mohalla sabhas begin tolook like a less romantic body. Apart from conflictresolution in the present set-up in Delhi, there isneed to necessarily look at the ward councillorbecause he is the lowest elected level of representa-tion. None of the ward councillors belong to AAP.

Second, the municipal officers are required bylaw and practice to be responsible to the municipalcommissioner and to the authorities that he hasappointed between himself and the lowest levels.

This is all laid down in the law and you have tothink in terms of changing that otherwise theward councillor won’t turn up and neither will themunicipal commissioner. So who is going to turnup? Apparently, one of the six AAP ministers.How many mohalla meetings can a handful ofAAP ministers attend?

So, to prioritise the mohalla sabhas, when therehas not been a carefully worked out structurewhich is constitutionally compatible and whichhas the force of law behind it, is to put the cartbefore the horse.

Now they don’t have a majority in the DelhiAssembly. That doesn’t mean that they can’t manu-facture issue-based majority. But they will have towork on at least the eight Congress MLAs to agreeto what they are saying before that legislation canbe passed. But the ethos in which they emerged ishardly calculated to produce a legislative majority.

So the old law will remain in the statute bookand it doesn’t provide for mohalla sabhas. They

Mani Shankar Aiyar: ‘Participatory democracy is not a new idea’

‘To put the mohallasabha in place withoutstructuring it upwards is to bring about chaos and anarchy and not an organised system of participatorydemocracy.’

‘Define a mohalla sabha’s role first’

Continued on page 12

SANDEEPA VEERAMACHANENI

NEWS



WHAT do you do if you have spent 16years living on a patch of railway landin Delhi and suddenly find yourself

evicted in the midst of a harsh winter? More than200 families were asking themselves that questionwhen bulldozers tore apart their homes onDecember 26.

As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) assumedoffice in the state of Delhi, the first big aam aadmiissue that confronted the spunky party was whatto do about the homeless and those living inshanties.

Women and children were thrown out into thecold because they had been squatters on the rail-way land at Mansarovar Park, near the Metro line,in northeast Delhi. Almost a generation hadgrown up in those hutments, but now they hadbeen evicted and had nowhere to go.

Manish Sisodia, AAP’s minister for PWD andUrban Development, visited the site with a teamof AAP volunteers. He promised to put in place ahumane relocation and rehabilitation policy. “Weare trying to formulate a permanent solution. Weare talking with various organisations and tryingto figure out the best possible solution for reset-tlement.”

People who pour into cities from rural areasearn a living by providing services, but they havenowhere to live and no civic amenities to speakof. In Delhi, finding shelter for around 1.5 lakhhomeless people and permanent homes for 2 lakhfamilies who have been evicted in the last eightyears and sent off to resettlement colonies is oneof the biggest challenges of urban governance.

Mangal Das was at the wholesale market of

Sadar Bazaar when he got a call on his mobilephone from his family. He was told that men withbulldozers were uprooting their home atMansarovar Park. He rushed back home to findofficials from the railways destroying shanties.

“We protested, saying that we had not receivedany notice. They didn’t listen. We asked them towait until we cleared our belongings. They didn’tlisten to that either. We were forced to place ourlittle children in front of their bulldozers just toget some time to remove our belongings fromour homes before they destroyed them,” says

have to tread carefully, warily, and be ready to movefrom their very dictatorial attitude that they inher-ited from Anna Hazare to a consensual democraticprocess.

Isn’t there a crisis of governance? Rajiv Gandhi said we need a responsive administra-tion before he moved to saying that the administra-tion has to be responsible to those who are beingadministered. He was confronted with a structurein which there are MPs and MLAs but elected fromconstituencies that range from a minimum of100,000 persons for an MLA to a maximum of twoand a half million for an MP. It is simply not feasi-ble to expect these MLAs and MPs to be responsi-ble on a daily basis to their respective constituents.

If they are to reach the bottom of the ladder, it isthrough the bureaucracy. By definition the bureau-cracy is responsible upwards to those who haveappointed them, given them orders and who deter-mine their transfers. So a bureaucrat by definition isnot and cannot be responsive to the people’sdemands. That has to be intermediated by an elect-ed representative – thus the change that has alreadytaken place in India from having only about 5,000elected representatives to having some 3.2 millionelected representatives who have to be empoweredbefore we can become responsive.

In today’s gram sabhas, whatever you say to thesarpanch, what else can he say beyond the assur-ance that he will convey your grievance to theauthorities concerned? Unless he is empowered tothe extent that he can be held responsible for acts ofcommission or omission, only then can you moveto holding him accountable.

Notwithstanding 20 years of panchayati raj we donot have effective inclusive governance. But the infra-structure for all this in constitutional and legal termsexists. What the Delhi government should be advisedto do is to look into the legal changes required toeffectively empower the municipal councillors.

But this works with only small numbers?Certainly it works more effectively with very smallnumbers which is why in principle I am a great sup-porter of mohalla sabhas. But you can’t just havemohalla sabhas because you want a mohalla sabha.

You have to understand that there is a constitu-tional legal technical devolution of powers thattakes place to units of governance. You have to sep-arately decide what are the powers of advice andconsent that a mohalla sabha has.

The PESA (Panchayat Extension to ScheduledAreas Act) of 1996 defines the panchayat area in atribal location as being coterminus with the habita-tion and because tribes tend to be very homogenousthe gram sabha of a panchayat located in the habita-tion tends to also be very homogenous. PESA saysthat no proposal made by a panchayat can be imple-mented without the consent of the panchayat and noutilisation certificate which is the fundamental docu-ment for financial responsibility can be issued with-out the authorisation of the gram sabha. Now thismay be a bit difficult to implement in a gram sabhathat has 50,000 members as some panchayats inKerala have. It is entirely feasible to do in a mohallasabha, as apparently being conceived by AAP, on thesame lines as can be done in a PESA area. But I havenot heard any voices of the AAP showing even arecognition of these factors.

Eviction drive on Delhi’s coldest day

Mangal Das at Mansarovar Park


THE Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) andsome people’s movements have decided toextend support to the Aam Aadmi Party

(AAP), saying that it stands for many of the ideo-logical issues that they have been raising.

At a press conference in New Delhi, PrashantBhushan, one of AAP’s leaders, welcomed the newentrants into the party’s fold. He said AAP wouldbecome stronger with people’s movements joiningit, and it would also learn from the rich experienceof activists at the grassroots.

Alok Agarwal, a leader with the NBA, said boththe Congress and the BJP have behaved in the mostcruel and callous way with millions of people whohave been displaced by dams in the Narmada

Valley. Thousands of houses, lands and villages havebeen repeatedly submerged without providing com-pensation, rehabilitation and resettlement to theoustees, he said.

“AAP is successfully putting political power in thehands of the people and bringing new light intotheir lives. In the short time it has been in power ithas shown that it fulfils its promises and that it doeswhat it says. That is why the NBA is fully support-ing the AAP,” said Agarwal.

People displaced by the Indira Sagar, Maheshwar,Omkareshwar, Sardar Sarovar, Upper Beda, Man,Jobat and Bargi dams in the Khandwa, Khargone,Dewar, Dhar, Harda, Badwani, Alirajpur, Jabalpurand Seoni districts of Madhya Pradesh will now joinAAP.

The people’s movements joining AAP are a part ofthe National Alliance of People’s Movements

AAP gets support from people’s movements



NEWS

Das. He got injured as he tried to salvage his mea-gre assets.

“We have been given blankets and plasticsheets,” says Das. “But that is not enough.! It is bit-terly cold and we have our children to take care ofin this community.” Das’ own children are sevenand 12 years old.

Mainati, a 46-year-old housewife, showed herbandaged foot, which was injured during thedemolition drive. “No medical help was providedto us. We were left to fend for ourselves.”

Most of the inhabitants have borrowed money

from their friends and relatives to rebuild theirshops and hutments on the same piece of land.But bulldozers have been used to dig long trench-es so that no new dwellings can be built. “We hadto cover up sections of the trenches to prevent ourchildren from falling into them. We have alsotried to rebuild our huts,” says Thakur Das, whowas one of the first settlers at this location.

“They razed places of worship. And they burntand buried our belongings in the pond behind thesettlement. We can’t even recover most of them,”he says.

Das shows a bagful of damaged silver utensils.“I sell these utensils for a living. These are the onlyones I could recover from where they were buried.Look at them now. How am I supposed to earn alivelihood for my family?” he asks in despair.

Most of the residents of the Mansarovar Parksquatter settlement hail from villages in UttarPradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. They work asdaily wage labourers, rickshaw-pullers, ragpickersand domestic helps.! They have Voter ID cardsand Aadhar cards. Their children study in thelocal municipal schools. Relocating and startinglife from scratch won’t be easy for them.!

This is not the first instance of a demolitiondrive by the railway authorities, says Dunu Roy,Director of Hazards Center, an NGO that worksfor rehabilitation of uprooted slum-dwellers.“There have been many similar cases in the past.However, as far as we know, in the last 20-oddyears, no noticeable rehabilitation or relocation ofpeople has been done,” he says. “Since this groundbelongs to the railway authority, it has to approachthe Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board(DUSIB) to facilitate the relocation.”

DUSIB will carry out a survey to ascertain howmany residents lived here prior to 2006, the cut-off year. “Once the survey is complete, DUSIB willcollect funds from the Delhi government, theland-owning body, which in this case is the rail-ways, and from the beneficiary which will be usedfor the relocation,” says Roy.

But Amarnath, CEO of DUSIB, says he has not asyet been approached by the railways ministry. “Wehaven’t yet received any notification or requestfrom any ministry or government body for reloca-tion,” he says. DUSIB has, of its own accord, sup-plied blankets and plastic covers to the residents. Itis some relief, but a long way from a solution.

Eviction drive on Delhi’s coldest day

Thakur Das with several ID cards

(NAPM) led by Medha Patkar. Not all constituents ofthe NAPM are, however, ready to support AAP.

“People’s movements have found their issues andvisions reflected in the position of the AAP,” said apress release issued by the NAPM. These common issues are: Decentralisation of power to gram sabhas andbastis. Rooting out corruption by legal means andthrough social and political processes. Giving due space to alternative economic policiesand indigenous technological solutions. Rising above caste, religion and gender-based pol-itics and discrimination while retaining reservation. Finding solutions to inequality, injustice, waterand energy crisis. Working for an alternative political culture forthe political class.

Peaceful resolution of conflict between the stateand people.

The people’s movements joining AAP said theyregard the new political party also as a movement, afellow traveller who is bringing ‘simplicity and self-less service’ into politics.

“Arvind Kejriwal, his team of youngsters,Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and their col-leagues have made a dent in politics. Through inno-vative strategies, principles of transparency andaccountability in governance they have raised hopefor everyone,” stated the people’s movements.

Their parent body, the NAPM, will not mergewith AAP. It will retain its identity and continue tofunction as before. But a mechanism is to be set upthat will coordinate its links with the party.

The movements that have announced their sup-

port to AAP include Ghar Bachao, Ghar BanaoAndolan (Maharashtra), Jan Sangharsh Vahini(Delhi), Lok Shakti Abhiyan (Odisha), UnorganisedSector Workers Federation in South India, SmallScale Industries and Traders Association (Punjab),the Adivasi Jameen Raksha Samiti in West Bengaland some others.

The people’s movements that are part of the NAPMrange from those fighting for forest rights, land rightsand sustainable agriculture to NGOs working for theurban poor and federations of street hawkers.

But not all have joined. There are groups withinthe NAPM with very old ties with the Left and withregional parties. There are also a few people’s move-ments that feel that staying apolitical will give themmore credibility and enable them to negotiate withwhichever political party comes to power. “We arewaiting and watching the situation,” confessed oneleader of a large movement. “We are not in anyhurry.”

Although Medha Patkar, chairperson of theNAPM, has endorsed the AAP, she has not formal-ly joined the party so far.

AAP gets support from people’s movements



NEWS

Jehangir RashidSrinagar

THE Right to Information (RTI) Act has donewonders for the country. More and moresuccess stories of RTI activists from the

grassroots are emerging and new heroes are beingdiscovered. In Kashmir, too, ordinary people are fil-ing RTI applications seeking information from thegovernment. They are following in the footsteps ofDr Sheikh Ghulam Rasool and Dr Raja MuzaffarBhat, noted RTI activists in Kashmir who made fulluse of information provided by the government toimprove the lives of people.

Take Mohammad Akbar Bhat, a resident ofGund-I-Ibrahim village in Pattan area of NorthKashmir’s Baramulla district. He is now regarded asa pioneer of the RTI movement not only in his vil-lage but in neighbouring villages as well. This wasnot the case some years ago. At that time Akbar wasnot even aware of the RTI Act.

“I did not know such a law, that would empowerpeople at the grassroots, existed. It was only afterthe intervention of the Indo-Global Social ServiceSociety (IGSSS) that I came to know about RTI andits associated benefits. I joined an RTI programmein 2009 and began to understand the intricacies ofthe Act,” said Akbar.

The first RTI application that Akbar filedenquired why the post office in his village was beingshifted. He addressed the application to the ChiefPostmaster-General, Jammu & Kashmir Circle, andalso mentioned it was the branch manager who wasfacilitating the shutting down of the post office andits transfer to another location.

“It was a great experience,” recalls Akbar. “Therewas swift action and the post office was shifted backto Gund-I-Ibrahim. This gave me confidence toproceed further. Over the past four years I havefiled 70 applications, seeking information on vari-ous issues confronting our village and the adjacentones. I want to be a socially responsible citizen andwhat better strategy than use of the RTI.”

As president of the Village Welfare Committee,Akbar, who works as a farmer and as an embroideryworker, took the lead in ensuring that clean drinkingwater was made available to the people of his villageand those in the vicinity. Along with the RTI law, hemade wonderful use of the Public Services GuaranteeAct (PSGA) to ensure that a dedicated water supplysystem was put in place for the people of Gund-I-Ibrahim, Zadi Mohalla and Trikolbal villages by get-ting a generator installed at the filtration plant.

“In November 2011, I filed an RTI application inthe Power Development Department (PDD) to findout about the agreements they had made with peo-ple living below the poverty line (BPL) and abovethe poverty line (APL) in our village and the adja-cent ones. I also put in an RTI application to theConsumer Affairs & Public Distribution (CAPD)Department enquiring about the quantity of ricebeing supplied to people categorised as BPL,” saidAkbar.

In 2013, Akbar filed an RTI application with theAnimal Husbandry Department, asking them to

provide details about schemes being run for thebenefit of people who owned livestock. The applica-tion turned out to be a boon for his village – even-tually 156 families benefitted from the schemesonce their details came to light.

“Panchayati Raj institutions are not functioningaccording to the aspirations of the people. It wasdue to their failure that Village Welfare Committeeswere formed. I have no personal interest in filing

RTI applications. I am doing this for the people ofmy village and those living nearby,” said Akbar.

Like Akbar, Shahnawaz Sultan, a resident ofCentral Kashmir’s Budgam district, has used RTI asa tool to extract information that was unthinkablebefore the enactment of this Act. Shahnawaz went astep further and made use of the Right to Inspectionlaw to scan documents that were relevant to his RTIapplication.

“On 23 June 2011 I moved an RTI applicationwith the tehsildar of Chadoora, asking him to pro-vide details about the money disbursed to peoplewho prepared electoral photo identity cards beforethe 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections. I wasshocked when I received the reply. The informationprovided said that lakhs of rupees at the rate of `15per person had been disbursed for this purpose,”

said Shahnawaz.Shahnawaz came to know from a friend that the

Election Commission had directed district authori-ties to pay `20 to each voter who got his voter IDcard prepared for the Assembly or Parliamentaryelections. But, instead of getting money, his friendhad paid `100 for his family’s five voter cards.

“I asked the tehsildar to show me the documentsas he had said that lakhs of rupees were paid to the

electorate for making their ID cards. I was shockedto see my father’s thumb impression on one of thedocuments. My father worked as a head clerk in thePublic Health Engineering Department. He is liter-ate and he would never put his thumb impression,”said Shahnawaz.

Shahnawaz said that fake names and fake signa-tures had been compiled in those documents. Eightto 10 names were bracketed in a single place withthe same thumb impression or signature. He saidthat there was no provision for a single beneficiaryto take the money on others behalf and then puttheir signatures or thumb impression.

“Some of the booth-level officers at that time haveretired from service. So the status of the money isnot known. I am also not sure if an audit of thismoney was carried out by the Chief ElectoralOfficer of Jammu & Kashmir. But, at the end of theday, I am satisfied since I could scan documentsthat one would never have dreamed of with the helpof the RTI,” said Shahnawaz.

Villagers begin to use RTI

As president of theVillage WelfareCommittee, Akbar, whoworks as a farmer and asan embroidery worker,took the lead in ensuringthat clean drinkingwater was madeavailable to the people.

Shahnawaz Sultan

An RTI workshop in progress

Mohammad Akbar Bhat

PICTURES BY BILAL BAHADUR

Arjun SenNew Delhi

FIVE social entrepreneurs weredeclared winners of the SiliconValley Challenge programme at

the Action for India’s (AFI) ThirdAnnual Forum held on 11 January inNew Delhi. The social enterprises areAakar Innovations, AquaSafi, Artoo,Axio Biosolutions and Grow-Trees.

AFI’s mission is to help social inno-vators in India scale up and achievegreater impact at the bottom of thepyramid. The AFI Forum bringstogether 100 leading Indian socialinnovators with 100 donors, investors,IAS officers, technology leaders andpolicy analysts.

This year’s winners were chosen by ajury comprising Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the PrimeMinister and an Honorary Chairman of the AFI,Desh Deshpande, Adviser to US President BarackObama and Founder of Deshpande Foundation, andRonnie Screwvala, founder and CEO of the UTVGroup.

The social entrepreneurs were judged mainly onthe impact that their enterprises were making onunderserved people by improving their quality oflife, boosting incomes and creating jobs.

Aakar Innovations was selected for developing alow-cost technology that produced inexpensivesanitary napkins from farm waste. Self-help groupsof women were trained to become entrepreneursand set up factories that manufacture, sell and dis-tribute sanitary napkins among women in villages.

AquaSafi provides clean water systems, trainingand services to underserved communities in develop-ing countries. The social enterprise uses reverseosmosis technology to remove bacteria and chemicalsand works with NGOs to reach out to communities.

Artoo has developed technology that empowerssocial enterprises to capture, analyse and process

information remotely through smartphones andtablets for financial inclusion, healthcare, energyaccess and training to clients and employees of suchsocial enterprises.

Axio Biosolutions has developed India’s firstemergency homeostatic dressing that helps to stopbleeding and save lives in remote areas where emer-gency medical services are not available in theimmediate vicinity.

The fifth winner was Grow-Trees that has devel-oped an innovative business model to enable corpo-rates, organisations and individuals to plant trees oncommunity or government-owned land and there-by create jobs and improve incomes for under-served communities. Tree planting also fights cli-mate change and global warming. Grow-Trees hasplanted more than 640,000 trees. It is a web-enabled, cost-effective platform.

The winners will travel to California during thesummer or autumn of 2014 for an intensive two-weekimmersion programme right into the heart of theSilicon Valley Innovation Ecosystem. They will meetinvestors, entrepreneurs, executives at leading tech-

nology firms and industry thought lead-ers, including members of the AFISilicon Valley Leadership Circle. Theywill be matched with Silicon Valley men-tors to build lasting relationships to helpin business development and strategylong after their return to India. They willalso be engaging in learning exchanges atSilicon Valley’s leading innovation accel-erators, including StartX Stanford,SkyDeck Berkley and TiE Launchpad.

At the panel discussion moderated byPallavi Ghosh, deputy bureau chief atCNN-IBN, Sam Pitroda, DeshDeshpande and Ronnie Screwvala dis-cussed various aspects of social entre-preneurship in India.

“India is leading in providing low-cost solutions to problems affectingpeople at the bottom of the pyramid,”

Deshpande said. He felt that while corporates weregood at implementation, many lacked compassion.NGOs had compassion but often lacked executionskills. Social enterprises could bridge this gap andbring together both implementation and compas-sion. Such a fusion was necessary to bring about thekind of change that would really have an impact onpoverty and the absence of basic amenities in manyparts of the world, he said.

“Poverty affects us all. Social innovators and theinvestment community must be brought togetherso that the problem of poverty can be tackled. In thepast the best brains only solved the problems of therich who actually don’t have problems. But nowtechnology has democratised information and thisis spurring social innovators to solve problems thatreally need a solution,” said Sam Pitroda.

“Social enterprises face two challenges – self-motivation and overcoming the fear of failure. Ifyoung entrepreneurs take the risk, they can end upmaking more money than if they join an investmentbank and, at the same time, they can make a majorsocial contribution,” said Ronnie Screwvala.


NEWS

5 winning social enterprises

by SAMITA RATHORSAMITA’S WORLD

Bikrant Tiwari of Grow-Trees receiving his certificate from Ronnie Screwvala


NEWS

16

Gizala ShabnamKargil

IN 2007, Zahra Bano became the first woman can-didate to contest the Kargil council elections. Butshe knew she would not win. “I was a woman con-

testing against a male religious leader (ulema),” she saysbluntly.

Governed by the Ladakh Autonomous HillDevelopment Council (LAHDC), Kargil district ofLadakh has come a long way since the Kargil war of1999. With the formation of LAHDC and renewal ofthe panchayat system, Kargil took its first step towardsdevelopment. The priorities, at that time, wereimprovement of the socio-economic condition of thepeople, political empowerment and education.

From a handful of government schools, Kargil nowhas 385 primary, middle and higher secondary schools.Society here has evolved from an orthodox “no educa-tion for girls” attitude to an immensely desirable “edu-cation for all” society. Women have emerged from thefour walls of their homes and now do all kinds of jobs.

But Kargil isn’t a feminist utopia. Women have yet tomake a dent in politics. Decision-making bodies inKargil have a skewed male-female ratio and womenstruggle to find their way up the hierarchical ladder.

India adopted bold affirmative action by seekingone-third reservation for women in all institutions ofrural local governance through the 73rd Amendment.The primary objective was to encourage and enhanceparticipation of women in decision-making bodies.

Yet, despite 33 per cent reservation for women inpanchayats, block panchayats in Kargil continue toremain all-male preserves. LAHDC has so far offeredonly nominated positions to women. Out of a total of30 seats, the council offers four nominated seats withtwo for minorities and two for women.

Kargil, being a Muslim dominated district, is thestronghold of two major religious institutions – theIKMT (Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust Kargil) andthe ISK (Islamia School Kargil). These religious institu-tions influence local society. They also patronise theLAHDC. So most decisions in the LAHDC are takenunder their supervision and cater to their demands.

The members of the LAHDC decide who will benominated to the two seats meant for women.Nepotism makes a mockery of the entire process.These male leaders fear any dilution of their autonomy.So they prefer women who are happy to follow the rulesprescribed by the men and their respective religiouspatrons. Thus, the status quo is maintained.

The rapport shared by LAHDC members and theAghas and Sheikhs (Shia religious leaders), blocks outthe voice of the subaltern. Intervention by conservativereligious leaders leads to imposition and perpetuation

of age-old conservative religious and cultural beliefsand obligations. Even more disturbing, this ideologicalabduction infuences young minds too.

One example of this kind of conservatism is the stu-dent union founded by ‘well-educated’ students toassist youth studying in cities like Delhi, Jammu andSrinagar. The union has just a few female members.They have no voice. The decisions of the union areguided by their schools or religious institutions. An ini-tiative to include a girl representative in the union wasturned down by male members.

In this conservative atmosphere it is unlikely thatmale members of the LAHDC will address the social oreconomic status of women. The two nominatedwomen are given soft portfolios. They don’t have muchsay in fund distribution or in framing policies anddrawing up schemes. The women are not seen as effi-cient candidates, unlike the ‘khyogha butsas’ (efficientmales) of Kargil.

Fida Hussain, Deputy Commissioner of Kargil dis-trict, blames the lack of a sense of collective identityamongst the women for their low level of participation.Zahra Bano cites social disapproval and unawareness asmajor impediments.

Fiza Bano, a resident of Akchamal village, refused tojoin her village panchayat since she feared her localcommunity would harass her with their ‘moral’harangues. Recalling her own experience, Zahra says:“Young boys used to pass lewd comments when theysaw me around. And the grown ups denounced me forhaving stood for election against an Agha.”

Yet she contested. And lost. But it doesn’t matter toZahra. She explains the reason she stood for electionswas to pave the way for other women, to motivate themto participate and to help them cultivate a sense of col-lective identity.

The LAHDC draws up development programmesand implements centrally-sponsored schemes for thedistrict. It also reviews the progress of plans andschemes. The LAHDC is responsible for employmentgeneration, constitution of notified area committees,education, funding of small-scale cottage industries,vocational training, public health, sanitation and so on.Each councillor is granted a fund of `18 lakh. But,women say they do not receive their share of money.

“We are made to run from one office to the nextwith no positive response for funds sanctioned forour centres,” says Zahra, who runs a Women’s WelfareCommittee.

Tired of their male leaders, women in Kargil haveinvented a ‘women for women’ jingle. In Kargil’s patri-archal society, gender inclusion through reservationand its effective implementation emerge as the sole sav-iour. Political participation of women at all levels needsto be ensured. Charkha Features

Kargil’smalebastion

CHARKHA

CONFLICT ZONE

A Women’s Welfare Committee

Shobhan SaxenaSão Paulo (Brazil)

IT’s hard to believe that a country threetimes the size of India and with just one-sixth its population has millions of land-

less, poor peasants. Brazil, with less than 16per cent of its people living in rural areas,has a huge problem of land ownership anddistribution. The Landless Rural WorkersMovement (MST), a grassroots movement,has been fighting against the problem oflandlessness and historic land inequities.

João Pedro Stedile, an economist by train-ing, has been the national coordinator of theMST for three decades. According to Stedile,the agriculture sector in Brazil is in a state ofcrisis as large and medium landowners con-trol 85 per cent of the land. They have turnedBrazilian agriculture into an export-orientedbusiness. On the other hand, there are 3.8million families of poor farmers who pro-duce mainly for subsistence. Most of themsurvive on government aid.

In an interview at the MST headquartersin Sao Paulo, Stedile spoke about the prob-lem of land ownership in Brazil, the crisis inagriculture and global capitalism and thegrowing social movements and protests inemerging economies like Brazil and India.Excerpts:

MST has been active in Brazil for 30 years.What have you achieved through yourstruggle?MST was born in the 1980s as a result of pop-ular demonstrations against the army dicta-torship in Brazil and the crisis created byindustrial capitalism. We were born to fightfor land and agrarian reforms – to distributeland to the landless. In the past 20 years or so,we have occupied a lot of land and made 800settlements for 800,000 families. But morethan that, we have built a peasant movementthat has autonomy from the government andpolitical parties.

What are the current challenges yourmovement faces?In the 1990s, financial and globalised capital-ism came to Brazil. Now, it has entered agri-culture. This model is different from howagriculture was done in industrial capitalism.The new model is called agro-business. It isbased on large tracts of land. There is exten-sive mechanisation and misuse of pesticidesand all production is done for exports.

This has created a new ruling class. It is nolonger the landowner who dominates agricul-ture. Now the class that dominates agriculturecomprises transnational corporations likeMonsanto and Cargill, which provide fertilis-

‘In Brazil we need a new farm model’


NEWS

ers, seeds and machines to thelandowners. And banks too arepart of this business. Now, finan-cial capital controls agriculture.No farmer can grow anythingwithout money from the bank.Most farm income goes to thebanks and the transnationalcompanies.

The fourth component of thisdominant class is the corporatemedia: television, major maga-zines and big newspapers. Theyremind the people every daythat agri-business is the onlyway for agriculture to survive.Today, the working poor believethat agri-business is the solutionbecause that’s what they hearand see on television every day.

How will MST take on this newruling class? Our struggle is no longer forland only. Today we need a newagricultural model that defeatsagri-business. The landlesspeasants in Brazil alone can’t doit. The rural population in Brazilis only 16 per cent. We mustnecessarily unite with the work-ing class of the city.

Brazilian politics is dominatedby big farmers, ranchers andbusinessmen. In such a sce-nario, how will you change theway agriculture is done in thiscountry?We’ve had 12 years of rule by theWorkers’ Party. The two governments of PresidentLula and President Dilma have implemented pro-grammes for all classes. Our Dalits, who receivethe Bolsa Família (direct cash transfer), identifywith the government because they depend on thisgrant.

It has been a stable and successful governmentwhich has won three consecutive elections. Butnow social problems are worsening in Brazil. It isnot possible to break this system through elec-tions. Even the re-election of Dilma (in 2014) willmean the continuation of this policy. TheCongress is held hostage to the companies thatfund the deputies. A Congressman needs $5 - $10million to be elected. That’s a shame.

What is your strategy?We must work in two directions to break thisdeadlock. First, there should be a return of themasses on the streets, which happened this year. Itwas a warning. We believe that in March 2014, thestreet protests would return. The young seek

structural changes. We’ll join them. The secondpath we are taking is a fight for political reform inthe country. Without political reform, our govern-ments and parliamentarians will remain hostageto big capital. The next 3-4 years will see a mass

movement by young people. There will be anawareness to change the Brazilian political system.

The protests last June were triggered by theFIFA Confederations Cup. Do you think theWorld Cup in 2014 will get a similar response? The protests will start in March, when our youthcome back to the universities after the Carnivalbreak. If the protests happen very close to theWorld Cup, it would be a move only against FIFAand against the money spent on football stadiums.But what is at stake is not the money spent on theFIFA event. From the point of view of the economy,it’s a very small amount. We must strive for the

protests to discuss bigger prob-lems and not just the World Cup.

In countries like India, thereare many social groups andpeople’s movements. They arenot united. Is it difficult tounite social movements?It is very difficult to compareBrazil with India. But we arguethat the working class must beorganised in many differentways: trade unions, political par-ties and social movements. InBrazil, we have more than 1,000social movements. The effort ofthe MST is to unite the socialmovements so that we can comeup with national programmes tobring changes in society. If socialmovements are limited only tolocal claims and the interests ofyour industry and your business,they can’t politicise their base forthe political struggles thatrequire national changes.

But the issues you are engagedwith are international…The MST was born as an interna-tionalist organisation. We areguided by the example of CheGuevara. Since the beginning ofMST, we have focussed on build-ing links with peasant move-ments across Latin America. Wehave also partnered with theInternational Peasant Movement,through which we have linkswith peasant movements in more

than 80 countries, including India.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, people all overthe world have become suspicious of capitalism.Even in cities like London and New York, therehave been Occupy movements. Do you see a newkind of global politics emerging from this crisis? We are still not ready. Because of the crisis offinancial capitalism, many capitalists decided torun to the emerging and developing countries toprotect their capital by investing in naturalresources. The returns from natural resources aremuch more robust than investments in the finan-cial market. They bought land, hydroelectricplants, motorways and even water. The crisis ofunemployment and GDP has not yet arrived in theSouth. It will take a while for the masses of theSouth to suffer the consequences that the peopleof the Northern Hemisphere are suffering.

But as a reaction to this, in all parts of the worldthere are social movements resisting such capitalistoffensive: in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America.

João Pedro Stedile: ‘Agriculture is now controlled by transnational corporations.’

‘In Brazil we need a new farm model’

WORLD & INDIA

SHOBHAN SAXENA



Just three weeks into the job of governing the state of Delhi, the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) took to the streets and clashed with the police, promptingmany of its supporters to question the party’s style of functioning and theability of its leaders to serve in high office.

Declaring himself an anarchist and threatening to disrupt Republic Day, ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal camped with his cabinet outside Rail Bhavan in thehigh security zone of Delhi to demand the suspension from service of five offi-cers of the Delhi Police.

But even as Kejriwal protested with TV cameras rolling, many AAP supportersbegan having second thoughts about the party. If this was the approach to solv-ing a relatively simple issue relating to police accountability, how could AAP’sleaders be expected to cope with the bigger challenges of being in government?

“I didn’t join the party for this. I wanted AAP to reform politics not be like anyother party,” said an important functionary from a southern state. “I agree thereis a need to deal with corruption in the police. But surely there are better waysof doing it.”

This functionary worried about the impactKejriwal’s protest would have on middle-classsupport that had been built up in the south.“People don’t want anarchy. They want thesystem to be reformed,” he said.

“He won’t get my vote again,” said a well-known academician in south Delhi whovoted for AAP in the Assembly elections.“For a party with national ambitions, AAP ismaking crude choices. It is sad, but I don’tsee the middle class opting for it again. AAPneeds to be much more nuanced in its poli-tics. It was given a chance to run Delhi andit should have focussed on improving watersupply, electricity, transportation, housingand so on.”

The Kejriwal protest was preceded by theLaw Minister, Somnath Bharti, insistingthat the police arrest, late at night, Africans living in a south Delhi neighbour-hood, saying they were involved in prostitution and drug-running. Bharti alsoprompted beat constables to shut a 24x7 convenience store. Walking into thestore at night, the minister wanted the store’s attendant to produce its licence.

The Women and Child Minister, Rakhi Birla, ordered the police to arrestmembers of a family where a woman had allegedly been burnt alive for dowry.As with Bharti, the police said they needed legal sanction to act.

Using drugs, prostitution and the safety of women as issues, AAP then took tothe streets in what many see as a calculated gambit to keep the party in the newsbefore the parliamentary elections that are due in a few months.

AAP has some successes to show for the short time it has been office. It hasconducted a detailed survey of 700 government schools (see Pages 8,9, 10) forwhich it deployed its volunteers. It has also ordered the removal of a transportdepot from the banks of the Yamuna. Environmental activists for long have beendemanding that the riverbed be freed of encroachments. It has been examiningwhat it can do for improving state-run hospitals as well. Teams of volunteers aregoing to government hospitals to assess their functioning. There was promptaction to provide shelters for the homeless freezing in Delhi’s bitter winter chill.

Delhi CM’s protestturns off many

AAP ALL STREET, NO GOVT?

Using drugs,prostitutionand women’ssafety asissues, AAPtook to thestreets in whatmany see as agambit to keepthe party in the news.


COVER

AAP ALL STREET, NO GOVT?PICTURES BY SANDEEPA VEERAMACHANENI

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These are good initiatives capable of providing dividends in the long run. But AAP is clearly in a hurry. After its success in the Delhi Assembly elections,

it believes it is capable of striking it big at the national level. There is talk ofKejriwal being a candidate for Prime Minister.

The protest in Delhi was intended to keep the party in the news on the sensa-tional issue of police corruption, which is a huge problem in the north whereAAP hopes to win seats.

AAP also needs to deflect public attention from serious promises the partymade during the Assembly elections. The promises of free water and reductionof electricity charges by 50 per cent are going to be very difficult to fulfil.

Kejriwal issued orders on water and electricity soon after assuming office. Hehas also got the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit the privatepower distribution companies to see if they have been inflating their costs. Butelectricity can only be cheaper with a subsidy and that needs the approval of theDelhi Assembly. It is yet to happen.

With water the challenges are of distribution and availability. AAP does notseem to have done the groundwork for its promise of free water and it could bea long time before it is implemented.

Kejriwal had also said he had evidence of corruption against Sheila Dikshitand her government. But it is not yet known what the wrongdoing is andwhether there is indeed solid proof.

AAP has made mohalla sabhas or neighbourhood councils in Delhi the cor-nerstone of its strategy for better governance. It has said it will go to the peoplefor all its decisions. How public money is to be spent will be decided at the low-est local level. But the mohalla sabha is yet to be defined in legal terms. It is notknown how it will fit in with the current constitutional structure of local self-governance. (See ‘Define mohalla sabhas first’ on Pages 10-12).

The government’s first effort at implementing its ideas on direct democracywas a Janata Durbar or public hearing outside the secretariat on 11 January. Itended in a fiasco because Kejriwal and his ministers were inundated with com-plaints. Kejriwal himself had to beat a hasty retreat. Using police protection hesequestered himself in the secretariat while large crowds thronged the gatesdemanding to be heard. The Janata Durbar idea was then dropped.

Many of AAP’s good ideas regarding clean politics, accountability, transparen-cy and local governance come from social movements and NGOs. The party’ssuccess is, in fact, seen as the culmination of multiple efforts over the yearsacross the country, mostly at the grassroots. Kejriwal ran an NGO and took helpfrom the MKSS. He was part of the NCPRI.

There is concern among activists that AAP’s populist measures to bring invotes will result in hopes that it cannot meet and result in a backlash that willtarnish all good efforts in the social sector.

“If AAP raises expectations and lets down people it will be a blow to the move-ment for a new politics. We don’t want to wreck the system. We want to improveit. We all realise that democracy is not perfect, but it is better than totalitarianism.Everyone wants AAP to succeed because if it fails as a result of reckless behaviour,people in their search for stability will turn to the older parties, which may reformthemselves somewhat but will essentially represent the old order,” says a leadingactivist who made the crossover to formal politics much before.

Subir RoyKolkata

FIVE professionals of Indianorigin with roots in easternIndia have come together to

start an uncommon venture,TriBeCa Care, in Kolkata to deliv-er professional healthcare at home.The service is available round theclock to address geriatric andpost-operative needs. The plight ofNRI children who have no one tolook after their aging parents backhome or people who are simplytoo ill to take care of themselvespresented the opportunity thatgave rise to the business.

Should you need a doctor to visityou at home or the services of anurse, physiotherapist or maid, ormedical equipment at home,TriBeCa Care will arrange it foryou. Collecting diagnostic samplesand delivering reports, fetchingmedicines, calling an ambulance tobe taken to hospital, fixing up witha hospital – all will be tied up. Evennon-medical care like runningerrands for you when you are laid up or recoveringafter a hospital stay will be organised.

TriBeCa Care began in May last year and now hasaround 20 staff. It has, so far, helped over 500patients.“This is our command centre,” says PrateepSen, one of the company’s two managing directors,as we talk in a meeting room after getting there byclimbing ancient narrow stairs in an old buildingwhich is being renovated to meet the needs of amodern startup. A family property has been ropedin to make do.

The firm’s name comes from a neighbourhood inNew York where some of the founders worked. Itsplus is it has substantially gentrified and so is a sym-bol of getting better. Besides, having an unusualname helps you stand out. The firm’s core function isto manage a network of partners and caregivers. Itdelivers by developing a rapport with its customersand being in constant touch with them through caremanagers. Customer needs vary greatly and help canextend to even giving advice on redesigning livingspaces to make it safer for the elderly.

What is distinctive is that just one of TriBeCa’sfive founders, all in their early forties, is a doctor.Sen has skills in sales, marketing, banking and

finance. Fellow managing director Tamojit Duttacomes from the world of investment banking, retailfinance and the pharmaceutical industry. The onlymedical professional, Shibaji Saha, clinical director,is a consultant physician and has been with theNational Health Service of Britain. Ritendra Roy,finance director, has been in investment bankingand venture capital. Elina Dutta, chief strategy offi-cer, is a communications specialist who has workedon leading pharma brands. Their CVs bear some ofthe leading global names in investment finance,banking and pharmaceuticals.

“We want to make a successful business deliveringhealth at home. We wish to stabilise in one metro,make the model work, and then expand to otherslike Delhi and Mumbai. Three of us have left ourjobs and two of us are here full-time. We are person-ally invested,” elaborates Sen. The clock is tickingand they have given themselves around three yearsto see their money coming back and more.

TriBeCa Care offers packages priced between`250 and `4,000 a month. These are currently,Chobbish Ghanta, a 24-hour emergency service,Nischinto, which offers medical care servicesincluding home visits by doctors, and Jotno, or med-ical and non-medical home care for the elderly.

These are designed to provide ongoing medicalservices, security and emergency response and alsosocial companionship.

TriBeCa Care has on its panel of doctors generalpractitioners and specialists, some of the latter arein geriatrics and passionate about providing holistictreatment to their patients. Importantly, thisincludes both medical and non-medical well-being.TriBeCa Care also partners with dementia careexperts for non-medical care.

The HAH or ‘health at home’ industry is fledgling

ENTERPRISE CSR ICT GREEN TECH

BUSINESS


TriBeCa offers care to the elderly and ailingHomely health service

Should you need adoctor to visit you athome or the services of anurse, physiotherapistor maid, or medicalequipment at home,TriBeCa Care willarrange it for you.

Prateep Sen and Shibaji Saha at their office in Kolkata

PICTURES BY PRASANTA BISWAS

and fragmented in India, having sprouted in metroslike Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. But it is well estab-lished in developed countries. Golden Living in theUS has a revenue of $2.5 billion and Health AtHome in the UK a revenue of 800 million pounds.So it is a mature and developed business modelwhich has to be reengineered for Indian conditions.

The market is enormous because the number ofthe elderly in India is increasing, the quality of careis very poor and can only be had through stiff out-of- pocket expenses. There is little by way of med-ical insurance products for the aged at a time whenthe old practice of the extended family taking careof the elderly is declining.

TriBeCa Care being in the services business, the

biggest issue before it is people quality – the level ofskills it can access. It accesses caregivers boththrough agencies and on its own. Its aim is to getgood people, treat them well, try to ensure that theyhave proper working conditions, including thephysical space they get at patient homes. Social atti-tudes to caregivers (sometimes they are treatedalmost like untouchables) as also the quality of care-givers are important.

Sen says that it has been a learning process for thegroup. It began on a high. After three to fourmonths the company hit a low, then figured outwhat it wasn’t doing right, changed processes andhas seen them work in the last four months. “We areramping up and are very optimistic. We don’t make

undue promises to our customers. Our aim is towork through oversight and transparent processes.There are no black boxes for us.”

Sen narrated some anecdotal highs and lows. Hespoke of an 86-year-old man who is nationallyknown, living by himself in his apartment. He ishugely ‘grumpy’ and has his quota of depression andanxiety. Initially, they were apprehensive and decid-ed to consult psychological and geriatric experts todevise a strategy for engaging him. Then they got towork on building his trust. Today, he sometimesoffers the visiting care manager a drink or even ameal. “The key is to build trust,” emphasises Sen.

And the low? It comes when a caregiver is askedto take a bath by an elderly person who remainsfixed on earlier notions of personal purity and looksat caregiving as intrinsically dirty.

It is still early days for TriBeCa Care in terms ofusing technology. Now that top hospitals want toget patients out of hospital as soon as possible (abed should be occupied only during a pre and postprocedure high-paying period), the days of remotemonitoring of patients’ vital signs should comesometime soon. For example, a hospital should beable to monitor a cardiac arrest in a patient at homeremotely and respond to it. This obviates the needto post a nurse round the clock. What TriBeCaprobably needs is an IT person in the top team whocan devise solutions to offer intensive care at homewith proper remote monitoring (via a portal at thecommand centre) at low nursing and real estate(hospital versus home) costs. !

Right now it is led by managers who understandfinance and the healthcare industry. For them the firstchallenge will be to standardise a range of serviceofferings according to well-defined processes. Thesecond challenge will be to remain ahead in the racebetween quality and cost. The third will be to keepusing more and more technology to tackle cost andquality. The founders see themselves committed tothe ‘health at home’ business, one segment or theother, because it has such enormous potential.


BUSINESS

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R E A D U S. W E R E A D Y O U.

A nurse from TriBeCa checks a patient’s blood pressure at his home


THERE is nothing fancy about the little class-rooms of Padho Aur Badho centres locatedin the narrow streets of slums. But once you

look at the bright smiles on the faces of their stu-dents, you know there’s something special going onhere.

Launched in 2009, the Padho Aur Badho (PAB)campaign is an initiative by AROH Foundation inpartnership with GAIL (Gas Authority of IndiaLtd.). It aims at providing free preparatory educa-tion to children between six to 14 years of age livingin the slums of Delhi-NCR and helping them enrollin regular schools. Operating from 250 centres,PAB has so far helped around 30,000 children getinto mainstream education.

Neelam Gupta, Founder-President and CEO ofAROH, says, “We started in 2009 when we spottedchildren not going to school because they had towork in tea stalls or as ragpickers. We launched apilot project with 30 such children in Noida.”

The pilot achieved 100 per cent success. “All 30children were mainstreamed into municipal corpo-ration schools and government schools,” saysGupta. She approached GAIL for assistance. Afterseeing the results of their pilot project, GAIL agreedto fund 50 centres in Noida and East Delhi. At pres-ent, GAIL provides operational funding and sup-port to all the PAB centres.

“We at GAIL wanted to work in the field of edu-cation. We decided to target children for whom gen-eral education is out of reach,” says VandanaChanana, General Manager and Head of CSRCC,GAIL. “We are now focusing on the current 250 cen-tres, ensuring proper educational content and quali-ty. We would rather be intensive than extensive.”

GAIL also encourages its employees and theirfamily members to volunteer in PAB centres. “Manyof the children of our employees and their wives reg-ularly volunteer for PAB activities,” says Chanana.

In Kumhar Basti of Garoli village, the PAB centrehas been operating for almost two and a half years.Like any typical PAB centre, it comprises one smallclassroom with walls covered with charts, drawingsby children, and a blackboard.

Rachana, the instructor, asks the students a ques-tion. All of them answer in unison. The PAB instruc-tors use practical projects to teach children English,Hindi, arithmetic and environment science. “A prac-tical approach helps them get a better understanding

of the subject. It is more effective than bookishknowledge,” says Rachana. The study modules aredesigned by consultants and experts at AROH andfollow the National Council of Educational Researchand Training (NCERT) curriculum.

For each centre instructors are selected from thesurrounding locality. AROH discovered that chil-dren and parents trusted an instructor from thecommunity more easily than a teacher from anoth-er locality.

The instructors are chosen after they clear an oralinterview where their skills and willingness to teachare tested. Most of the instructors are women. Onlyone centre has a male instructor.

In the initial years it was not easy to persuadeparents to send their children to PAB centres. Guptasays, “We had to overcome three barriers. First,these families think of their children as workinghands. Second, since slum families have migratedinto Delhi, they didn’t have any knowledge aboutschools and admission procedures. And third, theparents argued that their kids were already earning,so what’s the use of going to school and learningwhen they are already earning?”

In order to sensitise parents, AROH looked foralternative solutions. They started the Garima pro-gramme that offers vocational training to the moth-ers of out-of-school children. The courses includetailoring, beauty parlour training and maid trainingso that they could look for jobs with better salaries.

The Garima project helped the mothers tobecome self-employed or start small enterprises.“Mothers generally don’t want their children towork. That is why we selected them as soft targets.Once the family income increases, they happilysend their kids for learning,” she says. The Garimaprogramme is currently dovetailed with PAB.

As PAB centres grow every year, strategies andmodules are redesigned to increase effectiveness.

Besides mainstreaming children, PAB now looks atretention and learning outcomes among its students.

Says Gupta, “We found out that most childrenwho joined government schools didn’t find theirclasses interesting. They said they had more fun andlearnt more in PAB centres than in municipal orgovernment schools where teachers don’t even turnup at times.” In order to address this issue, PABstarted remedial education classes which providetuition to students facing problems in their schools,help them understand subjects better and therebyprevent them from dropping out.

“The Right To Education Act mandates all chil-dren to be admitted into schools. Unfortunately, itdoesn’t give a thorough look at how much childrenare learning,” says Gupta. “All the children are sup-posed to be promoted until they reach Class 8. Mostgovernment schools wouldn’t release the students’marksheets until they appear for their board exams.The parents are also unaware that their children arenot really learning much. As long as the children arepromoted, they are satisfied. Our remedial classeshelp tackle this problem.”

Twelve-year-old Prachi used to study at a PAB cen-tre. She is now enrolled in a local government schoolin Garoli. “I love learning,” she says. “It’s fun and willhelp me become a big person when I grow up.”

Gupta says, “Surveys reveal that at present thereare 1,25,000 children who are out of school. PABhas so far been able to reach out to 30,000 childrenand mainstream 16,000. We would like to helpmany more.”

BUSINESS


Bridge to school

Neelam Gupta: ‘We have mainstreamed 16,000 children.’

Children at a Padho Aur Badho centre in Kumhar Basti



MORE than 50 people, including tribalgroups, social activists, water experts,ecologists, wildlife experts and academ-

ics, came together for a brainstorming workshopon ‘Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.’ Themeeting was organised by the South Asia Networkon Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik MuktiSangathana, and Jalbiradari.

About 12 dams are planned or are under con-struction to satisfy the increasing thirst of theMumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All thesedams fall in the eco-sensitive region of the WesternGhats. Together they will submerge more than22,000 hectares, including nearly 7,000 hectares offorests, millions of trees and more than 750hectares of the Tansa Sanctuary. The dams willaffect a minimum of 100,000 tribals who depend onthe forests and their ancestral lands for their liveli-hoods. These dams include the Kalu, Shai,Balganga, Susari, Khargihill, Bhugad, Pinjal, Gargai,Middle Vaitarna, Barvi and Poshir, among others.These are in addition to the dams already con-structed for water supply to the MMR.

Tribals and other affected groups of the Thane andRaigad region have been strongly opposing theseprojects. Most people in Mumbai seem unaware oftheir struggles or the impacts of these projects.

Most of these dams are escaping social and envi-ronmental impact assessments and managementplans, environment clearance requirements, envi-ronmental monitoring or public consultations dueto blunders in the Environmental ImpactAssessment (EIA) Notification of September 2006,which excludes domestic and industrial water sup-ply projects from the environmental clearanceprocess. The notification signifies the environmen-tal illiteracy of officials and ministers at the UnionMinistry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Inspite of repeated letters and acknowledging that thismakes no sense, they have refused to change it.

MMR has not undertaken an assessment ofoptions before pushing these projects. A cursoryreview shows that many options exist. Currently atthe city or region level, there is no shortfall in watersupply. The existing problems are due toinequitable, non-transparent, non-participatoryand wasteful water governance in MMR.

Municipal corporations under the MMR whichare pushing for new dams do not treat even 15 percent of their sewage. The Bhiwandi Nizampur andVasai Virar Corporations do not treat any of theirsewage. The Mumbai Region has no estimate of itsrainwater harvesting potential, and there is littleeffective action in this direction despite high rain-

fall. Water supply and distribution losses are over 30per cent. Local water sources like rivers, lakes andwells are being destroyed by pollution andencroachments. There is no interest in democratis-ing governance of the MMR water sector.

The workshop’s resolution urged the MMRregion to address these issues first. This would leadto sustainable water supply to the city and its sub-urbs. The Konkan Irrigation Department, which isconstructing most of these projects, has violatedseveral laws related to tribal and forest rights, envi-ronment, forests and resettlement. It has been most-ly favouring a single contractor, illegally.

The meeting also strongly urged the MMRDA,MCGM, Municipal Corporations of MMR,Maharashtra government, MoEF, the MaharashtraForest Department, the National Board of Wildlife

and all others concerned to ensure that the followingsteps are taken up urgently and in a credible way: Undertake thorough options assessment forMumbai’s (and other cities of the MMR) waterneeds which includes groundwater recharge andsustainable use, protection and use of local watersources, rainwater harvesting, sewage treatmentand reuse, plugging leakages, improving water sup-ply efficiency, taking up systematic demand sidemanagement measures etc. Undertake Environmental and Social ImpactAssessments for all the dams coming up for theMumbai Region. Take immediate action against the KonkanIrrigation Development Corporation for violatingmultiple laws while bulldozing ahead with projectsand the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.Development Authority (MMRDA) for fundingprojects in the absence of clearances. Respect people’s protests and gram sabha resolu-tions against displacement, deforestation and theirrefusal to give permission for these projects.Take strong penal action against the officers andcontractors who have displaced Adivasis illegally. Not resume any work or plan for any projectbefore the above is done. Stop work on projects inthe meantime. Change the EIA notification to ensure that alllarge dams are included for environment clearance,

A dam being dug in Maharashtra

When cities guzzle waterOPINION ANALYSIS RESEARCH IDEAS

INSIGHTS

HIMANSHU THAKKAR &PARINEETA DANDEKAR


About 12 dams areplanned or are underconstruction to satisfythe thirst of the MumbaiMetropolitan Region. Allthese dams fall in theeco-sensitive region ofthe Western Ghats.

SANDRP


INSIGHTS

26

public hearings and EIA requirements. Immediately institute a credible CumulativeImpact Assessment of the projects already con-structed and advanced in implementation. Institutionalise decentralised, democratic governance of the water sector in MMR from bottom to top.

Forests in the Western Ghats are Mumbai andMMR’s lungs. They are the watersheds of rivers andwater sources for the Tansa and Bhatsa lakes.Forests naturally purify Mumbai and MMR’s drink-ing water. The rich tribal culture of Thane andRaigad is a shared heritage of Mumbai. We have noright to displace the tribals or destroy their liveli-hoods. This destruction in Mumbai’s backyard mustbe stopped.

However, Mumbai and MMR are not the onlyurban areas guilty of destroying the environment,forests, biodiversity and livelihoods of millions ofpoor people. Delhi, which already has more percapita water than European cities like Paris,Amsterdam or Bonn, is asking for the Renuka,Lakhwar and Kishau dams in the upstream Yamunabasin, while destroying the Yamuna river for alldownstream areas. Ahmedabad is using water fromthe Sardar Sarovar dam that was meant for the peo-ple of Kutch and Saurashtra and which has led tothe displacement of over 200,000 people. Jaipur istaking water from the Bisalpur dam. Farmers, forwhom it was made, are not getting the water andsome lost their lives in police firing while demand-ing that water. A massive diversion of Nethrawathiwater is proposed for Bangalore and other areas,destroying the pristine forests of the Western Ghats.Three farmers died in police firing near Pune whena huge farmers rally was protesting against diver-sion of water from the Pawna Dam to theCorporation of Pimpri-Chinchwad.

As Planning Commission member Mihir Shahrecently wrote, the 12th Five Year Plan proposes aparadigm shift in the urban sector. “Each city mustconsider, as the first source of supply, its local water-bodies. Therefore, cities must only get funds forwater projects when they have accounted for watersupply from local waterbodies and have protectedthese waterbodies and their catchments. This pre-condition will force protection and build the infra-structure which will supply locally and then takeback sewage also locally.”

The trouble with this urban water sector reformagenda is that, close to two years into the 12th Plan,we still do not see it being implemented anywhere.We do not see any roadmap for its implementation.And yet the UPA government continues to fundsolutions catering to only long- distance supply-sidemeasures like big dam projects for urban areasunder the Jawaharlal Nehru National UrbanRenewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, of the first`60,000 crore sanctioned for JNNURM, about 70per cent was for the urban water sector, but do wesee any progress in democratisation or evenimprovement of urban water governance?

In that respect, there is hope that the Aam AadmiParty now governing Delhi will take effective stepsin this direction as its manifesto includes a detailedagenda in this regard. Let us hope it will show theway to the nation.

Himanshu Thakkar ([email protected]), Parineeta Dandekar([email protected]), SANDRP

WHEN I followed the election campaignon TV I was appalled to see images ofmany resettled colonies near urban

landfills on the fringes of New Delhi – the abjectpoverty, the dehumanised surroundings, thesqualor and most of all the plight of young childrenrummaging through trash in a haze. As one youngboy remarked to a TV reporter: “You need the aidof inhalants.”

In juxtaposition we have the move of the govern-ment to amend the current Juvenile Justice law andcreate a waiver whereby juveniles between 16-18!years of age who commit serious crimes be triedas adults, a move that will affect millions of children.It begs the question tellingly put by a colleague: “Whyare we so quick to take away childhood before ensur-ing a protective environment for our children?”

It is in this context that I draw attention to one ofthe most marginalised of children even amongstchild workers – the waste-picker child. One of thebest-kept secrets of India’s urban growth story is itsfoundation on the backs of one of the most disem-powered communities. Waste-picking is rarelyrecognised or integrated in the official waste man-agement system despite its large contribution to it.According to Chintan, a Delhi-based NGO, “rag-pickers are unrecognised and have almost no rightsat work, despite the fact that they save almost 14 percent of the municipal budget annually. In Delhi, thearmy of almost 80,000 estimated waste-pickers savethe city at least `6 lakh daily through their work.”

Despite the large numbers employed, waste-picking ranks lowest in the hierarchy of urban

informal occupations and many of those drawn tothis occupation are those with the least negotiatingpowers – women and children, illiterate, unskilledmigrants, the lowest in the caste hierarchy and thepoorest of the poor. Children form a large percent-age of this population. A study conducted by PRIA(Participatory Research Institute Asia) in Patnaand Raipur observed that almost a quarter of allwaste-pickers in the city are children between fiveand 14 years of age while 40 per cent of waste-pick-ers at dumpsites are children. This data can beextrapolated to most cities in India.

There are two categories of child waste-pickers:the street pickers who collect garbage in street binsor residential areas, and dump-pickers who work atdumping grounds. While the former share manycharacteristics with mobile street children and aretherefore difficult to reach, the latter live in specif-ic dumpsites along with their families and arehence easier to target for supportive intervention.

Child waste-pickers live on the margins of socie-ty. Denied all their basic entitlements, most do nothave access to education. If there is a local school,they are rarely enrolled. Instead, they help theirfamilies earn a meagre existence. When they doenroll, it has been found they are often discriminat-ed against by teachers for their migrant status, lackof identity, lower caste and of course the nature oftheir work, leading them to drop out of school.

Their insecure existence is further aggravated bytheir impermanent tenements that are vulnerable tothe natural elements and to the whims of municipalauthorities. They work 10-12 hours a day acrossshifts in unhygienic surroundings and are subjectedto intense health risks such as musculo-skeletalproblems, respiratory and gastro-intestinal ailments

The plight of child ragpickers in the cityContinued from page 25

KAJOL MENON


INSIGHTS

apart from nicks and cuts and animal bites asthey jostle to collect, sort and sell trash. Theyalso face regular harassment and extortion fromthe police and the municipal authorities. Peopleabuse them. They are even sexually assaulted asthey are commonly perceived to be thieves,drug addicts, hoodlums and not disadvantagedand poor children.

Sadly, the environment they operate in makesthem vulnerable to violence, abuse and ill treat-ment, which may drive them to indulge in delin-quent behaviour. Exposure to alcohol, drugs andcommercial sex remains a constant threat.

While waste-picking was banned in 2001under the Child Labour (Prohibition andRegulation) Act, it merits only a brief mentionand is otherwise ignored in other legislationregarding child labour. Contrary to most childlabourers, waste-pickers are self-employed orworking with their parents and therefore notanswerable to any employer! The issue of childwaste-pickers is embedded in the lack of a clearpolicy for the sector as a whole. Activists havebeen advocating a holistic solid waste manage-ment policy with the right to access waste thatgives due recognition and protection to thewaste-picker. But such legislation is yet toemerge.

All is not dark in this dismal scenario. Severalinitiatives across urban India, fromAhmedabad, Lucknow and Pune to Mumbaiand Delhi, are addressing this issue with innova-tive programming and garnering some positiveresults in mainstreaming the child waste-picker.

Some NGOs support waste-pickers to gain accessto basic services such as healthcare, health insurance,education, vocational training, legal support, coun-selling sessions and help them form unions to speakup for their rights. In Pune, for example, thanks tothe scrap-collectors union, Kagad Kach PatraKashtakari Panchayat’s sustained effort of over 20years, the municipal corporation now issues identitycards to ragpickers and offers a limited health insur-ance plan, recognising their contribution to recyclingwaste in the city. This acknowledgement has had apositive impact in reducing the number of child

waste-pickers by increasing the income of theirparents thereby reducing their dependence onthe money their children earn.

Pratham’s intervention in Govandi andDeonar, the largest dumping ground inMumbai, through educational opportunities tochild ragpickers has been well received.Pratham also conducts joint initiatives with thegovernment such as Transitional EducationalCentres (TEC) under its INDUS programme.Eleven TECs around the Deonar dumpingground cater to around 450 child waste-pick-ers. Pratham’s relentless efforts to convince theparents to send their children to school despiteloss of revenue have begun to yield someresults. Pratham hails its ‘Drop in Centre’model as a non-controversial entry point and agamechanger. It observes, “this safe point ofcontact for children is key to their reintegra-tion into education and vocational training,and a first step towards a better future.”

Chintan’s No Child in Trash project inDelhi’s Ghazipur landfill seeks to ensure thatthere is no Gen Next of waste-pickers and thatevery waste-picker child and every child froma waste-picker family is provided an opportu-nity to reject a life in trash. As Chintanprovocatively asks, ‘What is green about recy-cling run on child labour?’

Various best practices suggest that the key totackling the issue of child waste-pickers is tohave a 360-degree approach – at the level of thechild, his/her employer, the community, the gov-ernment and the public. The issue of the child

waste-picker is ultimately a problem rooted in urbanpoverty, an area that continues to suffer persistentneglect in public policy. It cannot be solved with amagic scheme or legislation. It requires working witha number of agencies on a range of interventions.Fundamentally, it is about building inclusive cities.

So the next time we are quick to fix blame on ajuvenile offender, we may wish to pause and reflecton our own culpability. As part of the privilegedmiddle-class, the choice is ours – do we stand asbystanders or overcome our apathy to give our chil-dren a fighting chance?

The plight of child ragpickers in the city

Child waste-pickers liveon the margins ofsociety. Denied all theirbasic entitlements,most do not have accessto education. If there is alocal school they arerarely enrolled.

Civil Society is going places...Delhi, Trivandrum, Tennerife, Nadia, Nagpur, Kolkata, Ghaziabad, Washington, Geneva, Tezu,

Georgia, Bhubaneshwar, Belgium, Ladakh, Paris, Bangalore, Mumbai, Meerut, London, France,

New York, Versailles, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Ireland,

Belgaum, Belgium, Dibang Valley, Shillong, Pakistan,

Patna, Shimla, Sweden, Scotland, Ahmedabad, Panjim,

Hyderabad, Singapore, Porto Alegre, Gurgaon, Jaipur,

Jodhpur, Lucknow, Thailand, Switzerland, Surrey, Srinagar, Manali, Pune, Peechi, Pondicherry...

R E A D U S . W E R E A D Y O U .

WHEREARE WEBEINGREAD?


INSIGHTS

28

IT is tumultuous times in the Union Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests (MoEF). With specu-lation rife about why Jayanthi Natarajan

resigned as minister, every step of Veerappa Moily,the new minister, is being watched closely.

The ministry has also been at the receiving end offederal ire with many state governments opposingits move to declare parts of the Western Ghats asEcologically Sensitive Areas (ESAs). The sugges-tions of the Kasturirangan Committee, whichreplaced the recommendations of the MadhavGadgil Committee, now have been rejected point-blank by states such as Kerala. In response, one ofthe first tasks of the new environment minister hasbeen to withdraw MoEF’s directions under theKasturirangan Committee.

At the same time, pressure to approve highinvestment industrial and infrastructure projectscarries on. Alongside, affected communities contin-ue to organise themselves to challenge clearances onthe streets or through the courts.

And now the Supreme Court has begun the newyear by directing the MoEF to set up a new independ-ent regulator. The court has observed that the currentmanner in which projects are being appraised andmonitored under the Environment ImpactAssessment (EIA) notification, is not satisfactory.

It is debatable whether a new regulator will beable to resolve the legacy of problems that thedesign and implementation of the EIA notificationhas assembled around itself. Even as the MoEFbuilds its response to the court – to be submittedbefore its Green Bench on 31 March – there contin-ues to be news about its everyday regulatory func-tioning in environmental decision-making thatmerits scrutiny.

The 13 December 2013 judgment of the SouthernZone of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) madesome important observations and indicated someways forward for the appraisal and decision-makingprocesses for environment clearances. The judg-ment, by the two-member bench of Justice M.Chockalingam (Judicial Member) and Dr R.Nagendran (Expert Member), suspended the envi-ronment clearance of a project and affirmed thatthe appraisal of this project under the EIA notifica-tion required independent evaluation and betterapplication of mind before environmental clearancecould be given.

Some of these crucial issues, reiterated by the tri-bunal, have a bearing on the implementation of theEIA notification, no matter which system operatesin future.

The case being heard at the NGT’s Chennaibench related to the environment clearance of 15March 2010 of a coal-based thermal power plant byAlfa Infraprop Pvt. Ltd near Komarada village inVizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. It wasfiled by Samata, an NGO working on social justiceand environment issues, and argued by RitwickDutta. The land required for the thermal powerproject is recorded to be 1,675 acres (678 ha).

Imported coal from Indonesia would be used as fuelfor the plant. The Environment Impact Assessment(EIA) of the project, which was part of the challengebefore the NGT, was carried out by Vimta LabsLimited. The consultant is known for its faulty EIAreport in the famous Niyamgiri mining project inOdisha.

While the above judgment deals with three criti-cal issues related to this particular project, it is rele-vant to many others which come within the samecategory.

First, who can be the aggrieved person to bringsuch cases to the NGT, a much used tool by projectauthorities often used to discredit the applicantseven before the case is argued on merit.

Second, whether the public hearing of the projectwas conducted as per due legal procedure.

Third, the application of mind and detailedscrutiny carried out by the ministry’s ExpertAppraisal Committee (EAC) while recommendingthe project for approval.

The judgment further stated that scrutiny by anexpert body needs to include critical observationsor an examination of all the available materialincluding those related to the mandatory publichearing. Only then should a recommendation of the

project be arrived at. In the present case, the concerned EAC had not

carried out its duty, especially in recording the rea-sons why all objections raised at the public hearingwere negative. Objections and suggestions raised atpublic hearings are critical to decision-makingunder the EIA notification since this is the oneinstance where the project authorities, EIA consult-ants and affected people come face to face on anofficial and legally mandated platform. It is perhapsfor this reason that the NGT bench stated that notresponding to the objections raised at the publichearing in the EAC meeting was a “…thorough fail-ure on the part of the EAC…”

The judgment makes two other points that wouldalso be important for regulatory decision-making,regardless of what system is put in place in future.First, the fact that EACs cannot carry out their jobin a “cursory and arbitrary manner” as in the abovecase, and second, that the word of the project pro-ponent cannot be taken as “gospel truth,” whileresponding to concerns raised at a public hearing.

Detailed recording of reasons cannot take placewithout an equally detailed consideration of thosereasons. This would mean giving each appraisal farmore time than it is being given today. This is some-thing project authorities wanting quick decisions orexpert bodies playing along with quick-fixapprovals, are unlikely to appreciate.

If the observations of the NGT are taken on boardby those involved in EIA-related decision-making,it would lead to an infusion of good practices,which should have been part of administrativefunctioning in any case.

The judgment signals the need for a clear andexplicit description of how a decision has beenarrived at, especially when a point has not beendecided unanimously. This is a process that all deci-sion-making bodies should imbibe.

Kanchi Kohli is an independent researcher and writer based in New Delhi

Arriving at a decisionKANCHI KOHLI

The judgment signals the need for a clear andexplicit description ofhow a decision has beenarrived at, especiallywhen a point has not been decidedunanimously.


Susheela NairAhmedabad

OUR Heritage Walk, organised by theAhmedabad Municipal Corporationand the CRUDA Foundation, began

with a slideshow at the SwaminarayanMandir in Kalupur. Built in 1822, this colour-ful shrine is India’s first Swaminarayan tem-ple. After a round of the temple, we saw devo-tees strolling in with garlands and poojathalis. They bought vegetables and fruits fromthe stalls lining the temple’s grand entrance.

Walking through Lambeshwarni Pol, wefelt we had been caught in a time warp. Thewalk led us to the bronze statue of theGujarati poet, Dalpatram Kavi, and his hum-ble abode. Dalpatram’s statue is placed onthe porch of a replica of his original homewhich once stood at the same spot. A magis-trate in Ahmedabad, Dalpatram developedGujarati literature and founded the GujaratVernacular Society.

We then walked into the last remnants ofthe city’s textile era. The Calico Dome tookus back to Ahmedabad’s glorious textile erawhen the city was known as the Manchesterof India. The walk covered several pols,havelis, secret passages, chabutaras, orna-mental facades and workplaces of artisans.We saw Gujarati, Mughal, Marathi, Englishand Persian influences outside the houses ofpols. Their beauty truly leaves one spell-bound.

It is said that the real Ahmedabad stilllives in its pols. The word pol is derivedfrom the Sanskrit word pratoli whichmeans gate or entrance. Pols were India’soriginal gated communities. A typical polwould have only one or two entrances and a few secret entrances known onlyto people residing in the pol. Some pols contain old, beautiful houses. Theyhave courtyards with intricate wooden carved facades with columns and fres-co work patterned around court walls or ceilings. Maharut Pol was the firstpol in Ahmedabad.

Pols are housing clusters that comprise many families of a particular groupprimarily connected by religion and caste. These pols were protected by gates,cul-de-sacs, and secret passages. Such neighbourhoods are both the backboneand the heartbeat of the old city of Ahmedabad. They are self-contained microneighbourhoods connecting a street with houses flanked on either side. Each polhas its own temples, community wells, and chabutaras.

As we walked along we passed many types of chabutaras constructed in thepols. The chabutara is a tower-like structure with octagonal or pentagonalshaped enclosures at the top. These raised covered platforms are large enoughfor someone to step in and put bird feed into the bowls that hang around them.In the upper enclosure are several holes for birds to make their nests. The need

for these arose because of deforestation. There was no place for birds to nest.Some of the houses even provided dugouts for the birds to rest. We saw someresidents of the pol climb up and replenish grain and water for the birds in thechabutara.

Proceeding further down narrow streets, we stopped by the Kala Ram Mandirin the Haja Patel Ni Pol which houses a unique idol of Lord Rama in a darkcolour in a sitting posture. It is said that the idol resurfaced on its own post inde-pendence – hundreds of years after the temple’s priest had hidden it to protect itduring the Mughal period. Another interesting temple is the ShanthinathjiMandir in !Haja Patel Ni Pol. It flaunts an octagonal dome, brackets and pillarscarved with musical instruments.

The walk then took us through Doshiwadani Pol, Zaveri Vad toChaumukhjini Pol. These areas have ornate temples with fascinating woodencarvings camouflaged under plain exteriors. At Kuala Khanda, there are housesthat depict British, Mughal, Gujarati and Maratha architecture.

BOOKS ECO-TOURISM FILM THEATRE AYURVEDA

LIVING


Walk into a plural pastAhmedabad’s heritage offers many surprises

The Jumma MasjidArt students at work

Take a stroll in Jumma Masjid

SUSHEELA NAIRSUSHEELA NAIR

SUSHEELA NAIR

Saibal ChatterjeeNew Delhi

FEW debut films in the history of Indian cine-ma have elicited the kind of unstinted criticalpraise that has come the way of the uncom-

promising and disquieting Fandry. Written and made by poet and first-time director

Nagraj Manjule, the Marathi-language film is ascathing indictment of the caste system whose ten-tacles are still embedded deep in Indian society.

The 105-minute film does not wield the sledge-hammer until it rolls into its concluding stretch.When it does, the blow is precise and telling.

Fandry builds itself up to a shocking climaxthrough narrative means that are unambiguous butsubtle.

It narrates the story of an adolescent ‘untouchable’boy who wages a losing battle in a bid to close theunbridgeable gap between his lowly social status andhis urge to break free from the imposed shackles ofhis identity.

Manjule tells the story with such disarming charmand remarkable restraint that it is difficult to antici-pate its angry finale.

“It is really my own story,” says Manjule, who wasborn in a family of stone-cutters and grew up in asmall village of Solapur district amid poverty anddeprivation.

During his growing-up years, he faced constantdiscrimination and humiliation on account of thefact that he belonged to the Kaikadi community thatmade a living by making wicker baskets and diggingpits for the construction industry.

“There is very little fiction in Fandry,” saysManjule. “It is only a rearrangement of events thathave actually occurred in my life and in the lives ofmy siblings, cousins and uncles.”

The honesty that lies at the heart of the film hashelped Fandry make an instant connect with audi-ences wherever it has been screened.

Since its hugely successful world premiere at the2013 London Film Festival, it has won a string ofawards and accolades.

Fandry bagged the Jury Grand Prize at the 15thMumbai Film Festival last October. It was also cho-sen for the inaugural Film of the Year award institut-ed by the India chapter of the InternationalFederation of Film Critics.

Although Manjule does not see Fandry as an out-right revolt against the kind of feel-good, escapistfilms that dominate Indian cinema, he does agreethat it is an attempt to correct an imbalance.

“The films that get into distribution in India haveno space for characters that exist outside the


LIVING

30

The Sambhavnath Ni Khadki is an intriguingancient Jain temple with an unassuming entrance,an open courtyard dominated by domes, and a hid-den place of worship in the basement. Threatenedby Muslim invasions, the temple had to be camou-flaged. For those who cannot descend the steepsteps, a mirror in the backyard offers a reflectedimage of the deity.

We then walked through the historic FernandezBridge passing through Rani-no-Haziro,Badhshah-no-Hazero and Chandla Ol that nowsells ethnic Indian wear and junk jewellery. Around11 am every day, a second-hand book marketsprings up under the bridge with thousands of oldcollege books sold in carts. Just beyond the book-stalls are rows of shops that sell temple accessories.

We continued walking south to cross ReliefRoad, one of the main roads that cuts across thecity. It was built after the first road of the city,Gandhi Road (originally Richie Road), got toocrowded. This parallel straight road was construct-ed to provide relief from the heavy traffic – and wasnamed accordingly.

Moving through the historic Fernandez Bridgebrought us to Manek Chowk, a narrow lanebustling with shops selling brass lamps. It is one ofthe country’s biggest jewellery markets. We passedby scores of gold and diamond shops lining theselanes. It is named after Manek Baba and his temple.

At night, after the jewellers pull down their shut-ters, this street gets transformed into a food streetwhich is open till 1 am. Food carts, peddling anamazing variety of food ranging from chocolatepizzas, pineapple sandwiches to soda pop and kulfi,swarm the road.

Our walk culminated in the serene JummaMasjid, one of the enduring landmarks of the citylocated in the midst of the chaos of Gandhi Road.Claimed to be the city’s oldest mosque, it flaunts256 pillars, intricate filigree work and a fountain atthe centre of the compound. !

A unique feature of this mosque is that it is anamalgamation of Hindu, Jain and Islamic architec-ture. It is considered to be the first mosque in Indiathat allowed women to enter and pray. Anotherinteresting thing about the mosque is that it has aseparate chamber for women to pray. A carvedstone curtain let women see without being seen.Constructed in AD 1423 the mosque was estab-lished by Sultan Ahmedabad Shah. The mosquehouses the graveyard of three great rulers–Ahmedabad Shah, his son and his grandson. Wereturned spellbound by the old world charm ofAhmedabad and reassured that heritage is definite-ly the essence of this city.

FOR HERITAGE WALKS Contact 093270 21686Timings: 8 am to 10.30 am

Film directortaps his own lifefor inspiration


A chabutara for the birdsThe courtyard of the Sambhavnath Ni Khadki dominated by domes

The Swaminarayan temple in Kalupur

GETTING CASTE EXPOSEDSUSHEELA NAIR

SUSHEELA NAIRSUSHEELA NAIR


LIVING

charmed circle of the rich, powerful and sociallyprivileged,” he says.

“Characters who look and live like me and my peo-ple are never portrayed,” adds Manjule. “Our cinemawould have us believe that all is well with our socie-ty. It is in constant denial of the continuing existenceof the scourge of the caste system in our midst.”

Manjule made his way out of his village thanks toeducation. “My real-life father was very differentfrom the fictional father in Fandry. He was deter-mined to educate us,” he says.

He, however, laments that 90 per cent of theKaikadi community, including his own extendedfamily, still languishes at the bottom of the socialheap despite the availability of avenues of education.

After an MA in Marathi Literature from PuneUniversity, Manjule went to the New Arts and ScienceCollege in Ahmednagar although at that point in hislife he had no idea what he was cut out for.

His first shot at filmmaking, the National Award-winning short title, Pistulya, focused on the obsta-cles that a young boy faces in his quest for formal

education. Manjule admits that he never thought hewould become a film director one day. “Until I wasin high school I did not even know what a filmdirector was,” he says.

When it is pointed out to him that the ‘explosive’final shot of his film is reminiscent of the climax ofthe Shyam Benegal classic, Ankur, he asserts that hehasn’t seen the latter yet.

It took Manjule 40 days to write Fandry (meaning‘pig’ in the Kaikadi dialect) and he cast mostly non-actors in the film. With the exception of theatre andscreen actor Kishor Kadam and Chhaya Kadam, thecast is composed of actors who had never faced the

movie camera before. The protagonist of Fandry, Jambuwant Mane, Jabya

to his friends and family, goes to a village schoolwhere a teacher ironically tells his students that it isn’ta good idea to judge people by their appearances. Butthe boy is never allowed to forget who he is.

Jabya has a massive complex about his looks andthe clothes he wears. So while his poverty-strickenfather struggles to raise money for the wedding of adaughter, the boy looks for means to buy a new pairof trousers.

His family lives on the edge of the village and issummoned by members of the higher castes onlywhen runaway pigs, considered unholy and inaus-picious, have to be trapped and chased away.

Jabya’s personal problems are aggravated by thefact that he is infatuated with Shalu, a fair-skinnedBrahmin classmate, but cannot gather enoughcourage to express his feelings for her.

The young boy has only two friends in the village,classmate Pirya and bicycle repairman Chanakya.The latter, himself a victim of caste violence, advis-es Jabya that he should look for a black sparrowwhose ashes would serve to fulfil his heart’s desire.

Manjule presents the non-existent black sparrowthat Jabya and Pirya search for as a stingingmetaphor for the obvious impossibility of the pro-tagonist finding love across the caste divide.

Jabya’s alcoholic father, Kachru (Kishor Kadam),is reconciled to his identity, but the boy nurturesaspirations to rise above his fate.

But the black sparrow that he hopes will help himescape his lot in life is as much of a myth as all theothers that state and society have constructed inorder to sustain the status quo.

The final 15 minutes of Fandry, which signify therelease of long-suppressed frustration within Jabya,add up to a sequence of such unsettling power thatit feels like a knockout punch in the face.

The defining sequence of Fandry is one in whichJabya is brought face to face with reality when, inthe town fair, his festivities are cut short by his ownfather. The boy, attired in a new shirt, is broughtdown from his perch on Chanakya’s shoulder andforced to carry a gaslight on his head.

“The act symbolises the darkness that surroundsthe very boy who must carry the burden of a sourceof light,” explains Manjule, who plays the role ofChanakya.

On 11 January, Fandry was screened at the PuneInternational Film Festival. It was a homecomingfor Manjule. “The response was overwhelming,”says the director.

“The standing ovation continued for six minutesall the way till the end of the credits scroll,” he says.“Nobody left the auditorium.”

Fandry is scheduled for commercial release inMaharashtra and Belgaum, Goa, Indore andJabalpur on 14 February, Valentine’s Day.

“The date has been consciously chosen,” saysManjule. “Fandry is a love story but not of the kindthat movie audiences in India are accustomed to con-suming. Why should the celebration of love be thepreserve of a few chosen segments of the country?”

Given the power that Fandry packs and the uni-versal relevance of its core message, there is reasonto believe that it would find takers in every city andtown of this country.

Nagraj Manjule is an original new voice in Indiancinema and his debut feature deserves to travelbeyond the borders of Maharashtra.

‘There is very little fictionin Fandry. It is only arearrangement of eventsthat have actuallyoccurred in my life.’

GETTING CASTE EXPOSED

A still from the film

Nagraj Manjule shooting his film

A poster of Fandry

Anjana BasuKolkata

THE inauguration of the fifth ApeejayKolkata Literary Festival at the VictoriaMemorial caused quite a stir since its chief

guest was well-known actor Aamir Khan. The litfestcoincided with the 125th birth anniversary ofMaulana Abul Kalam Azad and Aamir Khan is oneof his best-known descendants.

All at once, the inauguration became the event ofthe day not just for the literati, but for the city’sstargazers. The phones at the Oxford Bookstorewere jammed with requests for passes and, if theVictoria Memorial organisers were to be believed,Apeejay staff became hoarse, politely refusing.

Aamir said the Maulana’s philosophy of followingone’s heart inspired him when he acted in RajkumarHirani’s famed film, Three Idiots. He said he hadbeen planning a biopic of his illustrious uncle forquite some time. The audience at the VictoriaMemorial cheered and demanded a date for theyet-to-be made movie’s premiere, led by SyedaHameed, whose book, Maulana Azad, Islam & theNational Movement, was released.

Aamir commented that Kolkata has an inex-haustible wealth of culture and West Bengal GovernorM.K. Narayanan declared the festival open.

The inauguration was followed by the festivaldinner. Last year, Shobhaa De was a lively partici-pant. This year there was Anita Nair who had beenpart of the Kolkata Literary Fest at the Book Fairand was new to the Apeejay Litfest. She commend-ed the thought that had been put into program-ming the festival and spoke briefly about the launchof her latest book, Idris the Light Bearer. However,the buzz of the evening continued to be Aamir andhis retinue of bodyguards and attendants, includinga hairdresser.

But, glitterati aside, part of the Apeejay Litfest’sfocus this year was on education and women’srights. The social condition of the Indian womanwas discussed, beginning with her right to sexualityand equity. Bina Ramani then launched her inspira-tional memoirs. Since the subject hinged on unfairarrests, Rita Bhimani, the moderator, interjected aTarun Tejpal note by wanting to know how Ramanifelt about the fall of a man to whom she owed agreat debt.

There was a mélange of book launches and authordiscussions peppered with Urdu literature, giventhe focus on Maulana Azad. Shamsur RahmanFaruqi’s tome, Mirror of Beauty, translated fromUrdu, was released along with Mani ShankarMukherjee’s Thackeray Mansions. Authors hung outin the Writers Lounge and talked, fuelled by cups ofhot sweet tea and rather nice cookies.

Compared to the Jaipur Litfest, the ApeejayLitfest is rather tiny and has an almost homelydrawing-room feel. Most events took place at theiconic Oxford Bookstore on Park Street. But then,Kolkata is well-known for the intimacy of its addas.

Writer Nighat M. Gandhi, who first came a cou-ple of years ago, was happy that the Litfest did nothave the brashness of the Jaipur one but she addedthat it had probably grown by now. It certainly has.Discussions now continue over six days and arescheduled back-to-back. Writers reflect diverse cul-tures like Egypt, China, Ghana as well as neigh-bouring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.

The venue shifts from the Victoria Memorial tothe Park Hotel to the Town Hall and St John’sChurch. This year, the venerable Tollygunge Clublent its overstuffed armchairs and wooden floors fora discussion on the Raj between Mark Tully andFarrukh Dhondy.

Usha Ramaswamy, author, says the Kolkata Litfestis small and manageable, not like the Jaipur one, ‘soat least it has the quality of intimacy – people canhope to meet writers and interact and we shouldkeep it that way’. But she added that it preaches to

the converted. Her theory is that beyond the usualsuspects, awareness does not spread unless anAamir Khan arrives to electrify the city. Invitationsare reserved for the select few.

Kolkata does have Jhumpa Lahiri who comes tovisit her relatives and attends both the city’s literaryfestivals. There are several other well-known writerslike Romesh Gunesekara, Rana Dasgupta andGloria Steinem on its growing list.

Of course, Jaipur has a four-year head-start overKolkata and the advantage of palaces with sprawlinglawns, and proximity to New Delhi, the heart ofpublishing in India. Buttonholed outside theRosewood Hall, journalist Bachi Karkaria pointedout that literary festivals were obviously filling ahunger for reading and offered an option to the malland multiplex life because they were spreadingacross the country. She mentioned the one at Patnaand said that her own experience was of audiencesdoubling with every successive year.

It is a truth universally acknowledged thatKolkata is a city of readers, of poets, writers and, ofcourse, inveterate gossip. Kolkata loves nothing bet-ter than asking questions that go on and on, spi-ralling into an endless debate.

At a gathering of young writers, a man listeningin burst into a tirade about the arrogance of youthand their lack of life’s experiences. There wasNaipaul bashing but then the crabby old man seemsto have become grist for everyone’s mill these days.

Gunesekera said that he liked the way the festivalwas arranged with panel discussions that did notcompete with each other. For Kolkata it all startedwith the Book Fair with its hustle and bustle and thepresence of authors from various countries. TheApeejay Litfest borrowed the same atmospherics,moving it to other venues and retaining the book-seller link in its own inimitable way.

This year, too, the logo of the Apeejay Litfest hada Kolkata connect, a curving fish in conjunctionwith the white lotus, which stands for knowledgeand enlightenment. Five is a landmark year for anevent that began in 2010. As Maina Bhagat, directorof the fest, said, the second week of January has nowbecome synonymous with the Apeejay LiteraryFestival.

32

LIVING


LitfestcapturesKolkata’saddaspirit

Rita Bhimani, Syeda Hameed, Bina Ramani and Bhaichand Patel

Aamir Khan and M.K. Narayanan

LIVING

CIVIL SOCIETY, FEBRUARY 2014 33


PIHANI is a mundane historic town inHardoi district of Uttar Pradesh. It is of littleinterest to anyone except perhaps Azra

Khanam, Research Associate at the Dr K.R.Narayanan Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studiesin Jamia Millia Islamia.

Azra went back to her roots in Pihani to do exten-sive fieldwork in Pihani block and survey 11 samplelocations. She wanted to understand the economicand social inequalities thatMuslim OBCs (Other BackwardClasses) living in Pihani faced.What sort of life did they lead?

Her book, Muslim BackwardClasses: A Sociological Perspectiveis important because it is a thor-ough study of Muslim OBCs atthe grassroots and confirms whatactivist groups have been sayingall along about their neglect.Azra also provides a nationalperspective.

According to some estimates,nearly 40 per cent of the Muslimcommunity consists of OBCs.They are people who work as tailors, weavers, bar-bers, milkmen, dhobis, butchers and are at the low-est rung of Muslim society. Mostly, they convertedover a period of time from Hinduism to Islam.

Historically, such communities occupied a lowstatus in Hindu society and some were treated asuntouchables. But while the benefits of reservationwere extended to Dalit Hindus, Muslims who prac-tised these same professions were left out since itwas believed that by converting to Islam they wouldbe freed of discrimination.

That, however, did not happen. Social activistAli Anwar and the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz havefor long been pointing out the discrimination theysuffer. The Sachar Committee Report, too, con-firmed that Muslim OBCs lag behind socially andeconomically.

Khanam’s research of Pihani is in depth. She hasmapped the local Muslim community’s literacy lev-els, family, marriage, work participation, religiouspractices, landholdings and basic amenities. Nearly77 per cent of Muslims in Pihani did not have elec-tricity and 60 per cent relied on a hand pump fordrinking water. They are surprisingly politically

active. But they don’t access government schemes. There is a hierarchy among Muslim OBCs among

the various professions they follow. So they tend tomarry among their own community. Khanam’sbook also brings out the syncretist nature of Islam atthe grassroots. Most Muslim OBCs retain some oftheir indigenous social practices.

Azra Khanam spoke to Civil Society about herbook and her perspective on what should be donefor Muslim OBCs. Excerpts:

Does your study confirm the findings of theSachar Committee Report? Or has the status ofMuslim OBCs improved, perhaps marginally?Yes, my study confirms the findings of the SacharCommittee Report. The status of Muslim OBCs isvery poor. The level of literacy among MuslimOBCs is very low and, among females, very dis-heartening. The book has clearly described the liter-acy level of the respondents, their educational pro-file as well as the school orientation of the childrenin the sample population.

You conducted extensive fieldwork in Hardoi dis-trict of UP. Was there any specific reason for

choosing this area?I conducted a survey in Pihaniblock of Hardoi district. Ten vil-lages, with a large concentrationof the Muslim population, wereselected for the study. This is myhometown. I have been watchingthis society very closely since mychildhood. Their backwardnesscompelled me to think about it. Ithought that I should raise theissue of people who are socio-economically and educationallybackward. I have always thoughtabout issues related to womenwho are subjugated, depressed

and marginalised among the Muslim communitywhich is extremely tradition-bound. The marginal-isation of the people in Hardoi was the real reasonfor my choosing the area.

Your research reveals that the plight of Muslimwomen among OBCs is especially bleak. How didyou manage to speak to them? Was it difficult?Yes the condition of Muslim OBC women is verybleak. They are not literate and they are nowherein decision-making, especially in the economicaffairs of the family. They do not know about theeconomic assets of their own family. They aredeprived from religious and secular education.They are unaware of their rights as Muslims or ascitizens of the country. Authority is vested in themale members of the family. This is very common.It is the basic characteristic feature of a patriarchalsocial structure. It was difficult but not impossibleto interact with Muslim OBC women. Womenfrom the villages were introverts and very shybecause of lack of exposure and education. Theydo not know about the world outside the four wallsof their homes.

What action would help Muslim OBC women?Each and every course of action related to welfare,that is, education, health, basic amenities and skilldevelopment programmes will help Muslim OBCwomen. It is the responsibility of every educatedmale and female to work on this issue. There is needto conduct research on issues related to women.Emphasis should be given to education and gendersensitisation programmes as well as group discus-sions with the community. To bring about anychange in the status of women, the mindset of thesociety they live in has to change.

What sort of reservation policy would you favourfor Muslim OBCs?Reservation is meant to provide opportunities tothe weaker and vulnerable sections of society. InIndia’s pluralistic society, a reasonable representa-tion of various communities in public and privatesector employment is essential to enhance partici-patory governance. But Muslims in general, andMuslim OBCs in particular, are under representedin government jobs and decision-making positions.This results in the powerlessness of the community.

In a democratic nation like India we need to focuson equality, which can be achieved through distrib-utive justice and the distribution of resources on thebasis of equity. Equality can be ensured onlythrough providing equality of opportunity by pro-viding reservation so that weaker and marginalisedsections of society can participate in the develop-ment process and contribute to nation-building.Had reservation not been there for SC/STs, theirsocio-economic and educational condition wouldnot have improved as it did.

In the Sachar Committee Report, states likeKerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Bihar are men-tioned as model states in terms of reservation forMuslim OBCs. The Ranganath Mishra CommitteeReport presented in Parliament in December 2009has recommended 15 per cent reservation forminorities: 10 per cent for Muslims and five percent for the rest of the minorities.

What can be done to boost school education forMuslim children in Hardoi? During my fieldwork in Pihani block I found thatthe main cause of the low level of education ispoverty. In a few villages, the lack of schools is themain reason for educational backwardness. Due topoverty, parents engage children in their traditionaloccupation at an early age.

The state is making efforts. It has committed itselfto providing elementary education under Article 45of the Directive Principles of State Policy. In 2002,education as a fundamental right was endorsedthrough the 86th Amendment to the Constitution.Despite this commitment, the number of out-of-school children is alarmingly high. We need tounderstand the importance of education. There is agreat need for community efforts to improve educa-tion. The number of educated people amongMuslim OBCs is very low. But sensitisation of thecommunity is required to motivate them to sendtheir children to school.

‘Muslim OBCs are powerless’MUSLIM BACKWARDCLASSES: A sociologicalperspective

Azra KhanamSage ` 795

Azra Khanam

ANDRETTA is a historic villagein Himachal Pradesh’s

Kangra Valley. In the1930s, Norah Richards,an Irish theatre activist

and playwright, started an intense revival of Punjabi theatre and culture here.Richards wanted to convert Andretta into India’s first artists village.

She invited famous potter Gurcharan Singh, and portrait painter lateSobha Singh, to Andretta. The village soon became a hub of the arts.Amrita Pritam spent time here. It was also a stepping stone for PrithvirajKapoor’s acting career.

Norah Richards’ dream was not realised but pottery lives on inAndretta. Gurcharan’s son, Mansimran Singh, and his wife, Mary, run

the Andretta Pottery and Craft Society that still makes delicate bluepottery. The society has a studio and a terracotta museum.

Residential courses in art pottery are offered for three months andstudents acquire skills to set up their own pottery unit.

Contact: Sardar Mansimran Singh, The Andretta Pottery & CraftSociety, VPO Andretta, District Kangra -176103, Himachal Pradesh

Email: [email protected]: 01894-253090, 254243

Or contact: Jugal Kishore: 09816314481

Andrettablues


LIVING

34

Kettle & cup

PICTURES BY RITA ANAND

SIX years ago Tenzin Dolkar decided to start a small business in teathings – cups, mugs and kettles. She named her business Snow Lion. ATibetan settled in Dharamsala, a town in Himachal Pradesh, Tenzininvested her own modest funds and began a pottery unit. “It is run by mymom, my sister and me. Actually, only me,” she says with a smile.

Tenzin has a shop in Dharamsala’s main market. She says Indiantourists love to buy her products. This is her first trip to Delhi, thanks tothe Dastkari Haat Samiti, and she is happy that the response at DilliHaat, a crafts bazaar, has been good. The kettlesand mugs are neat with pretty Tibetan designsetched on them. There are dragons and flowers in ariot of colours, from bright yellow to sombre blue.

But it isn’t only tea products that Tenzin propa-gates. Her stall spouts Buddhist philosophy.There are posters with quotes from the DalaiLama that gently urge people to curb negativeemotions like greed and enhance positive oneslike compassion. Tea is, after all, associated withserenity and peace.

Contact: TenzinDolkar, Snow LionHandicraft Shop,Surya Complex, Shop No 6, Temple Road,McLeod Ganj,Dharamsala, District Kangra – 176219Himachal PradeshPhone: 08679693222

Februray_2014.pdf - Civil Society Magazine

Documents

Transcript of Februray_2014.pdf - Civil Society Magazine