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Managing editorMrs. Sucharita R. Hegde

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MarketingMahesh Kanojia

OIOP ClubsVaibhav Palkar

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Sucharita HegdeJustice S Radhakrishnan

Venkat R Chary

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ContentsJUNE 2013 VOL.16/11

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

visit us at:www.oneindiaonepeople.com

Morparia’s page 2

How much can a Government do? 5V Gangadhar

What ails Government schemes? 6Leena Mehendale

Fair prices, unfair practices 9Dr. Sunil B. Bhosale and Pralhad N. Kamble

100 days of assured wages 11Dr. Nilay Ranjan and Dr. Deepender Kumar

How dependable is Aadhar? 14Prof. Rajanish Dass and Neha Khatri

Good intent, lackadaisical implementation 16Dr. Nidhi Mishra

A house for the homeless 18Avani Kapur

The fight against malnutrition 21Dipa Sinha

Know India BetterKnow India BetterKnow India BetterKnow India BetterKnow India BetterTerracotta Art of Bishnupur 23Rangan Dutta

Face to face: Devinder Sharma 36

FeatureFeatureFeatureFeatureFeature… and, above all, Pran 40Sanjit Narwekar

Mother tongue, an endangered language 43Shoma A. Chatterji

Youth Voice: Anuja Gopalan 45

Cultural Kaleidoscope 46

Drug abuse: A ticking time bomb 48Johnson J. Edayaranmula

ColumnsColumnsColumnsColumnsColumns 51

Nature watch : Bittu SahgalIn focus : C.V. AravindCool Champ 53Young India 54

Great IndiansGreat IndiansGreat IndiansGreat IndiansGreat Indians 56

Major General EustaceD’Souza PVSM

Asghar Ali EngineerAnutai Wagh

oneindiaonepeople2020.blogspot.com

Devinder Sharma

6

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36

THEME:GOI Schemes

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LETTERS TO THE EDITORLETTERS TO THE EDITORLETTERS TO THE EDITORLETTERS TO THE EDITORLETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Not quite the title

I am a regular reader of OIOP. I have enjoyed reading the

the satire column by V Gangadhar. The write-up on

‘vanaprastha’ in the March 2013 issue was indeed rib

tickling. Especially, the narrative on the interaction with

the lady of the house is quite humorous.

By way of digression, I wish to make a few observations

on the subject. The title given to the piece is a little out

of sync with the contents thereof. The four Ashramas

(stages of life) are Brahmacharya (celibacy), Grahastha

(Marital), Vanprastha (in family fold, yet detached from

pleasures) and Sanyasa (renunciation). I feel that the

article relates to a desire to seek sanyasa, a life of reclusion

in the forest.

– S. Nageshwar Rao, Thane

Youth are making a difference

The May 2013 issue of OIOP focused on a very relevant

topic. Youth empowerment is an important issue in

today’s times when we are noticing a new found

awareness towards issues in our youth. The protest march

against the Delhi gang rape saw a huge participation of

youth, which signals a positive attitude of youth towards

social issues. It was nice to read about youth making a

difference to society through their work (Youth Voice).

Overall, the issue had a nice mix of articles and views.

Keep up the good work!

– Mrinalini Kelkar, Mumbai

5

ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLEONE INDIA ONE PEOPLEONE INDIA ONE PEOPLEONE INDIA ONE PEOPLEONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE June 2013 5

AMERICA calls itself a democracy but it is a bogusclaim. Why? Most Americans want the governmentto be kept out of anything and everything. Ronald

Reagan won a presidential election promising the peoplehe would keep the government ‘off the backs of the people’.As an Indian I ask you, what kind of a democracy is that?Why do we then elect a government?We have set a better example. We want the government todo everything for us. Roads? Government.Repairing pot holes? Government. Healthcare? Government. Food supplies?Government. Without government being a partyto anything and everything that we desire,our system would collapse. It is a gigantictask for the government, but sinceindependence we have been doing this. Nopolitical party would agree to ‘less ofgovernment’ in running the country.How do we go about it, I mean, governmentdoing everything for us? This is a vast systemmade up of plans, schemes and programmesto cover each and every issue from birth todeath. Why did the government organise the family planningprogramme with an impactful slogan like ‘Hum do, Hamaredo’? The department had a vast network of human power tokeep the population under control. Don’t ask if the planshave succeeded. That is not the job of the government.It is not easy to implement such schemes, plans orprogrammes in a vast nation like India. Take the mid-daymeals scheme for school children first introduced by the lateTamil Nadu Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran (MGR), forexample. This proved to be enormously popular all over thecountry. Then it developed major problems. The Tamil Nadukids were supplied with staple diet like rice and sambar.Then another committee discovered this was not nutritiousenough and recommended the addition of an egg. But thevegetarians objected and asked for a ‘vegetarian egg’ whichwas not available. When the scheme was implemented in

V Gangadhar cautions that too much planning and scheming can prove tobe disastrous and lead to bad governance.

the rest of the country, the menu had to be changed. TheNorth demanded rotis, parathas, samosas and so on. Bengaland the eastern states recommended dishes from their region.Shiv Sena threatened a bandh if ‘varan bhat ’, poha andvada pav were ignored. So now you understand the nature ofproblems the government has to face to implement its plans.Yes, that has been the history of government plans andschemes. When the South rebelled against the imposition

of Hindi as the sole national language in anagitation which brought the Dravidian partiesto power, the Centre thought of a brilliant‘Three language formula’ where studentswould study English, Hindi and one regionallanguage. The Hindiwalas were delightedbecause they could choose Hindi as theirone regional language and benefit over otherstates. The three language formula, I think,still exists but is hardly spoken about.Our government was so considerate that itplanned and schemed to provide land for thelandless, home for the homeless, food for thefoodless, water for the waterless and so on.

Some private individuals chipped in and became public heroes.Acharya Vinoba Bhave went around the country collectingland for his ‘Bhoodan’ programme though it was discoveredthat the land ‘donated’ to him was useless for any purposeincluding irrigation. Of course, we still remember the Bhoodanheroes because their intentions were good.Job distribution naturally came under this concept. I wasimpressed when US President Obama announced hisgovernment had created five million jobs. But how couldone create jobs, and for whom? What about qualifications,

experience and so on? Our government alsomade such announcements and introducedsimilar schemes, but I can only shake myhead in puzzlement.

The writer is a well-known satirist.

How much can a Government do?How much can a Government do?How much can a Government do?How much can a Government do?How much can a Government do?

SASASASASATIRETIRETIRETIRETIRE

Withoutgovernment

being a party toanything and

everything thatwe desire, oursystem would

collapse.


THE late Prime Minister RajivGandhi is credited with onefamous statement. He declared,

from a thumb-rule assessment, thatout of every rupee spent on agovernment scheme, only fifteen paisereaches the actual beneficiary. A candidrevelation indeed coming from acountry’s premier!However, Mr. Gandhi did not elaborate nordid he order an investigation as to why,as much as, 85% goes as unproductiveexpenditure. Perhaps he thought itwas a futile exercise and therewas no cure to the problem. Hadhe acted on the matter, hewould have stumbled upon themany factors responsible forfaulty implementation of thesewelfare schemes of thegovernment and timelycorrective action would havesaved the governmentexchequer crores of rupees.

Planning and budgeting of schemesBut before I point out why these schemes don’tyield the desired results, let me spell out a littleabout planning and budgeting. As in any financialactivity, there is income to government and there isexpenditure by government. It is common sense, that

GOI WELFGOI WELFGOI WELFGOI WELFGOI WELFARE SCHEMESARE SCHEMESARE SCHEMESARE SCHEMESARE SCHEMES

What ails GovernmentWhat ails GovernmentWhat ails GovernmentWhat ails GovernmentWhat ails Governmentschemes?schemes?schemes?schemes?schemes?

expenditure has to be less than income. The sources ofincome for government are through various taxes – taxeson land, property, income, import–export, excise, local entrytax, sales, entertainment, etc. The profits earned by publicsector undertakings and lease agreements for mines,minerals and forest products are also sources of income.On the other hand, the government has variousestablishments to run, notably the institutions of

Parliament, Military and Police for external andinternal security, a bureaucracy to run the

administration and judiciary system. Similarlygovernment has to run some institutes

as a public welfare measure –especially schools, hospitals,

railways, postal service,telecommunication and soon. These are permanent

establishments and theexpenditure on them is acommitted expenditure,which government cannotshy away from.However, in any financialyear, if there is surplusrevenue available withgovernment or ifgovernment is able toborrow against futureearnings, then suchavailable funds areutilised through a

Almost all government welfare schemes that are meant to benefit the poor andunderprivileged in the society are plagued by many problems such as lack ofawareness among beneficiaries, faulty implementation, improper monitoring,financial laxity and above all corruption. Leena Mehendale does an incisiveanalysis on why government schemes go awry and tells us how loopholes can beplugged in the initial stages itself to achieve the desired goals.

Farzana


process of planning – by designing new schemes which arelikely to generate accelerated development, thereby alsobringing more revenue to the government.Every year in February budget session, the budget of thecountry is presented and which has to be approved by theParliament. This presents the estimates of revenue to beearned in the next financial year, estimated expenditureneeded for the already running institutions and programmes,estimated surplus or possible borrowings – and finally howgovernment proposes to use this available money for newschemes. Needless to add that this whole exercise is not amatter of few days, but has to be carried out at least forthree to four months before the February budget session. Inorder to make this exercise more effective, we have usedthe methodology of Five Year Plans – so that schemes canbe taken up continuously for five years – thus culminating insustainable benefits.

Factors responsible for failureTheoretically, the above plans look good onpaper. But the moot question that comesnext is why do these plans don’t yield desiredresults? Implementation has been a weakarea and matter of concern. Periodically,there are reports in media about the benefitsof schemes not reaching the targetedpopulation due to faulty implementation andalleged corruption. What are the reasonsfor these benefits not reaching the desiredsection of the society? In my opinion, thereare several factors, but let me list out thetop five.i) No unity of purpose: First of all ourschemes do not have a unity of purpose,they are many times designed in isolation.For example, the scheme for uplifting thestatus of rural women will not take intoconsideration the ill-effects of rampantalcoholism prevailing amongst the rural men.Such a scheme designed in isolation cannotyield the desired result. This can be saidabout all the schemes of the government. Ioften compare this situation with a vast fieldhaving several pyramid structures on it. Various departmentsare like various pyramid towers whose only agenda is verticalexpansion. This leads to a segmentation of the governmentamong various Ministries and Departments. Even if we takea simple example like distribution of milch cattle to the

farmers with the target of stopping farmer suicides, theprogramme is not matched with another scheme under theDairy Development through which they can ensure propermilk collection, thereby giving relief to the farmer who isnow a new owner of the milch cattle.ii) Faulty design: Second, is a defect in the scheme designitself. It has three aspects. Firstly, the scheme does nottake into account the ground reality. Secondly, there isalways an attempt to have a universal scheme, applicableeverywhere in the country in the same fashion, thus ignoringthe local needs and local culture and local aspirations. Noflexibility is given to district level administration, though itis this level which can give the cutting edge. Thirdly, whena scheme is designed there is very little budget provision forany training aspect. It is presumed that an elaborately draftedscheme issued from Delhi, is instantly understood equally

well up to the lowest staff, who willimplement the scheme. I have often foundthis presumption to be totally wrong.There is also no scope for any feedbackfrom the field level machinery and quickresponse to them.Here, I would like to cite one example.Once while working as SettlementCommissioner of Maharashtra, somesenior officers and I, decided toimplement a particular scheme for quickdisposal of pending settlement cases. Weissued instructions drafted as bestpossible by us. A few days later, I washolding a meeting of senior officers. Aswas my practice, I had also invited juniorofficers from the lowest rank in arepresentative manner of one or two fromeach cadre, who would not participatein the meeting, but would remainpresent. While we, senior officers, werediscussing how quickly our schemeshould be implemented and how quicklywe should achieve the targets, two juniormembers intervened to tell us that wewill not succeed. This came as a majorsurprise to us. We prompted them to

elaborate and it turned out that for the Vidarbha area wherethe practices were different, we needed to make somechanges in the scheme for successful implementation. Thisshowed us that for successful implementation of any newscheme, it is necessary to brainstorm with the staff at all

“Apart fromcorruption in the

political circles, thecorruption within

the bureaucracy isan equally greatmenace that can

lead to a collapse ofthe total

infrastructure.”

– Leena Mehendale


levels. Such a feedback mechanism for the purpose of quickcorrections and changes in scheme design and pluggingloopholes in the beginning itself, is typically absent. Wespend much time and money on evaluation which comes asa post mortem but very little on monitoring, feedback andtimely corrective actions. Various reports which aregenerated with fixed frequencies also fail to give muchinsight to the HQ officers for corrective action. A connectedissue is that there is complete absence of mechanism forquick, short term surveys over a small localised area thatcan be used as another form of feedback while a scheme isstill under implementation. We haveexpertise in the country with organisationssuch as N.S.S.O., TCS, Ernst and Youngetc., which conduct huge survey coveringlarge geographical areas, sometimesnationwide, over periods ranging from twoyears to five years. However, there is noinstitutional expertise for collecting data toassess the impact over a small area suchas a Taluka within a span of a month ortwo. Such service, in my opinion, is aprerequisite for effective schemeimplementation. We can train and involvecolleges to develop such expertise for quicklocalised surveys.iii) Rampant corruption: Corruption isundoubtedly the topmost reason for ineffectivescheme implementation. Take the exampleof infrastructure development schemes.Corruption invariably leads to sub-standardmaterial and sub-standard workmanship,hence an infrastructure which is guaranteedto give sustained benefits over a long life-spanstarts developing defects much earlier, thus,eroding the possibility of benefits anddevelopment. Apart from corruption in the political circles,the corruption within the bureaucracy is an equally greatmenace that can lead to a collapse of the total infrastructure.The latest examples are of the CBI inquiry against the Chief ofAir Staff and the Railway Officer in the rank of Member, RailwayBoard involved in taking or giving bribe.iv) Guarding the turf: I would put lack of vision and passion

amongst the top bureaucracy as the fourth reason. I havecome across several bureaucrats whose integrity is beyonddoubt and the speed of work is also very high. But their jobperception alarms me. Most of them are wary of thinkingbeyond their desk and treading with great caution so as notto step on the turf of other desks or departments. Forexample, if a file is to be initiated for promotion of Hindi oncomputers, then the Department of Information andTechnology which deals with policies regarding computersand the Department of Rajbhasha which deals with policyon Hindi, will spend several years engaging in internal

correspondence to decide as to whoshould NOT take the initiative. If at all abureaucrat comes along who is willingto take the initiative, this internalcorrespondence still goes on for informinghim or her as to why it is not their turf.Further, a bureaucracy who is takinginitiative is often accumulating future risksat each initiative in the form of auditparas. This is because our audit systemhas not been re-vamped for severaldecades and therefore fails to make adistinction between a bonafide initiativeversus a dishonest initiative. The auditsystem is such which will stop 99 honestinitiatives through rules (read chains) tostop one possible dishonest initiative.As a result of the atmosphere of not takinginitiatives, the bureaucracy often lackspassion and vision. A typical attitudedevelops where I judge my action only byasking whether I have fulfilled my part ofthe job, but not by asking whether I havecontributed to generate a collective teamspirit so as to ensure completion of task.

v) Financial laxity in the name of financial discipline:Government schemes are also subject to an outdated conceptof financial discipline. A particular sum is sanctioned for thescheme on the basis of a broad outline which is preparedduring the previous financial year itself, and approved in theannual budget session.

MaximMaximMaximMaximMaximThe Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural, real way of life. We veil ourselves with unnatural masks.On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the Creator’s hand. In the face of anIndian, you can see the natural glory of life, while we have covered ourselves with an artificial cloak.

– George Bernard Shaw

(Continued on page 20)

As a result of theatmosphere of nottaking initiatives,the bureaucracy

often lackspassion and

vision. A typicalattitude developswhere I judge my

action only byasking whether Ihave fulfilled my

part of the job, butnot by askingwhether I havecontributed to

generate acollective teamspirit so as to

ensure completionof task.


WORLD War’s own compulsions forced the Britishgovernment to introduce the first structured publicdistribution of cereals in India through the

rationing system sale of fixed quantity of ration to entitledfamilies in specified cities or towns. The system was startedin 1939 in Mumbai and subsequently extended to othercities and towns. By the end of 1946, as many as 771cities/towns were covered under the rationing system. Thebasic aim of Public Distribution System (PDS) was to provideessential commodities such as rice, sugar, wheat, edibleoil, soft coke and kerosene at subsidised prices. Notsurprisingly, since the mid-1980s the welfare component ofPDS has gained importance and its coverage has beenextended to rural areas in some states, especially subsidisedfood grain distribution, was introduced in 1985 in all thetribal blocks covering about 57 million people.PDS was later expanded under the Revamped PublicDistribution System (RPDS) scheme to 1752 blocks havinghigh incidence of poverty covering 164 million people.Recently, the Government of India (GOI) has made drasticchanges in the Public Distribution System. The new TargetedPublic Distribution System (TPDS) is expected to correctthe regional misallocation of Food Corporation of India (FCI)grain supplies, to the extent that the incidence of povertywill be given substantial weight in grain allocation betweenthe states.

Ensuring food securityIn the context of national food security and povertyalleviation, it is essential to take a look at the “efficiencyand efficacy” of the PDS, which has been operating as thefood access mechanism for several decades. Proponents ofthe rationing system and its successor the PDS, claim thatthese two measures “have played an important role inensuring higher levels of household food security and“completely eliminating the threat of famines’’.In short, PDS, from mere rationing, has evolved into the

Fair prices, unfair practicesFair prices, unfair practicesFair prices, unfair practicesFair prices, unfair practicesFair prices, unfair practicesCorruption and malpractices since decades, are posing a threat to the existence ofPublic Distribution System (PDS), considered to be the largest retail system in theworld. Dr. Sunil B. Bhosale and Pralhad N. Kamble recommend measures tostreamline the system, so that subsidised food and essential commodities reach the poor.

National Food Security System.Both central and state governments made arrangements toprocure essential commodities and supply them throughpublic distribution outlets. In the case of food grains, FCIundertook the necessary operations. Moreover, the centralgovernment shoulders the responsibility of procurement,storage and bulk allocation of food grains to the stategovernments, whereas states take active role inidentification of families Below Poverty Line (BPL), issuingration cards, allotment of commodities, supervision andmonitoring the functions of ration shops. At the lowest level,there are Fair Price Shops to sell essential goods ultimatelyto the consumers.Under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), eachpoor family is entitled to 35 kg of food grains at highlysubsidised prices. With effect from July 2013, the BPL foodgrain allocation will be increased to 35 kg per family permonth for all accepted 6.52 crore BPL (including 2.42 croreAAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana)) families in the country asper the 1993-94 poverty estimate of Planning Commissionand March 2000 population estimates of RGI (The RegistrarGeneral of India).

The largest retail systemIndia’s Public Distribution System with a network of 4.78Lakh Fair Price Shops (FPS) is perhaps the largest retailsystem of its type in the world. Since 1951 public distributionof food grains has been retained as deliberate social policyby India with the objectives of:

Providing food grains and other essential items tovulnerable sections of the society at reasonable(subsidised) prices.

To put an indirect check on the open market prices ofvarious items and

To attempt socialisation in the matter of distribution ofessential commodities.

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMPUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMPUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMPUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMPUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM


Rampant corruption and other failuresThe Public Distribution System of India is not without defects.With coverage of around 40 crore BPL families, a review ofthe PDS leads to the following structural shortcomings anddisturbances: Growing instances of the consumers receiving inferior

quality food grains in ration shops. Deceitful dealers replace good supplies received from

the FCI with inferior stock and sell FCI stock in blackmarket.

Illicit Fair Price Shop owners have been found to createlarge number of bogus cards to sell food grains in theopen market.

Many FPS dealers resort to malpractices, illegaldiversions of commodities, hoarding and black marketing;their grievance is that they are poorly paid.

Numerous malpractices make safe and nutritious foodinaccessible and unaffordable to many poor thus resultingin their food insecurity.

Identification of households to be denoted BPL statusand distribution to grant PDS services has been highlyirregular and diverse in various states. The recentdevelopment of Aadhar UIDAI cards has taken up thechallenge of solving the problem of identification anddistribution of PDS services along with Direct CashTransfers.

Regional allocation and coverage of FPS are unsatisfactoryand the core objective of price stabilisation of essentialcommodities has not been met.

Lack of accountabilitySeveral schemes have augmented the number of peopleaided by PDS, but the number is still extremely low. Poorsupervision of FPS and lack of accountability have spurreda number of middlemen who consume a good proportion ofthe stock meant for the poor. There is also no clarity as towhich families should be included in the BPL list and whichto be excluded. This has led to genuinely poor being excludedwhilst the ineligible getting several cards. Awareness aboutthe presence of PDS and FPS in poverty-stricken societies

in the rural areas, has been dismal.The stock assigned to a single family cannot be brought ininstalments. This is a decisive barrier to the efficientfunctioning and overall success of PDS in India. Many BPLfamilies are not able to acquire ration cards either becausethey are seasonal migrant workers or because they live inunauthorised colonies. A lot of families also mortgage theirration cards for money. Lack of clarity in the planning andstructuring of social safety and security programmes in Indiahas resulted in the creation of numerous new cards for thepoor, but limited information about the overall use of thecards has discouraged BPL families from registering for newcards and has also increased illegal creation of new cardsby such families to ensure maximum benefit for the familymembers.

Lack of storage facilities and faulty storageProcurement, in the last few years, has touched new heightsgiven remunerative MSPs (Minimum Support Price) coupledwith better operational outreach. As a result, Central PoolStocks have increased from 196.38 lakh MTs as on 1.4.2008to a peak level 823.17 lakh MTs as on 1.6.2012. To meetthe short-term peak requirements of storage capacity, theFCI resorts to short-term hiring of covered godowns as wellas storage of food grains under Cover & Plinth (CAP). CAP isalso a scientific method for storage of food grains. Thesampling reports of Programme Evolution Organisation ofthe Planning Commission say that the average monthly costof storing food grains is `41,440 in 13 states. The storagecapacity of food grains in India does not match the productionof food grains. The maintenance cost of food grains is alsoincreasing day to day. Immediate disposal of all the stocksthat are more than three years old should be undertaken. Acredible physical audit of the FCI stocks is necessary.

Streamlining PDSThere are lots of loopholes in the present PDS that need tobe plugged. Here are a few suggestions:

(Continued on page 13)

Festive timesFestive timesFestive timesFestive timesFestive timesThe Sindhu Darshan festival is celebrated in the month of June in Ladakh every year. The festival aims atpromoting national integrity, and is a tribute to the River Sindhu, a symbol of India’s cultural harmony andunity. Many people from various states and different religions attend the festival in large numbers. Peoplebring with them water from rivers from their states in earthen pots and immerse these pots in water… aritual that symbolises unity in diversity! While senior monks perform rituals on the banks of the river, variouscultural programmes are also performed by artistes who assemble here from across the country.


Despite facing some implementation hurdles, Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has exhibited enormous potential toboost agricultural growth and improve socio-economic conditions in rural areas,say Dr. Nilay Ranjan and Dr. Deepender Kumar.

100 days of assured wages100 days of assured wages100 days of assured wages100 days of assured wages100 days of assured wages

MAHATMA Gandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act (MGNREGA) with its legalframework and rights-based approach was notified

on 7 September, 2005. It aims at enhancing livelihoodsecurity by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wageemployment in a financial year to every rural householdwhose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.The Act covered 200 districts in its first phase, implementedon February 2, 2006, and was extendedto 130 additional districts in 2007-2008.All the remaining rural areas have beennotified with effect from April 1, 2008.The primary objective of the Act isaugmenting wage employment. The Actis also a significant vehicle forstrengthening decentralisation anddeepening processes of democracy bygiving a pivotal role to local governancebodies, that is, the Panchayati RajInstitutions.The most significant features of theMGNREGA are that it creates a rights-based framework and that it is a law.Backed by political will and adequatebudget resources from the Government ofIndia, the implementation of the Act hasyielded encouraging results, despite uneven performanceacross the country.During the FY 2012-13, the scheme has providedemployment to around 4.8 crore households through about98 lakh works with more than 213 crore person-days ofemployment being generated at a total expenditure of about` 39500 crore. The average wage rate per day has increasedfrom ̀ 65 in 2006-07 to about ̀ 115 in 2011-12. The womenworkforce participation under the Scheme has surpassedthe statutory minimum requirement of 33% and the trendsindicate an increase in the participation rate at the national

level. Since inception, every year, women participation hasbeen around 48%. (See Table)

Key challengesMGNREGA being a rights-based Act guaranteeing 100 daysof employment to a rural household is likely to encounterchallenges in its nation-wide implementation. At the sametime GOI in consultation with the state governments and

other stakeholders has been trying toaddress these challenges. In addition, theMinistry also engages independentinstitutions for its concurrent evaluationand impact assessment study. Some of theimplementation concerns noticed bydifferent institutions are:Need for awareness on MGNREGAprocess: Inspite of various modes ofawareness adopted by implementingagencies, still there is a section of peoplewho are unaware of the entitlements underMGNREGA.Lack of capacity of GPs: In the effectiveimplementation of MGNREGA, GramPanchayats play an important role.However, it has been found that GramPanchayats and Gram Sabhas lack capacity

in decision making, monitoring of MGNREGS works, assetsmanagement etc.Participatory planning: The whole process under MGNREGAand its effectiveness are dependent on participatory planning.It has been found that the participatory planning at GP levelsin most cases are not done as envisaged under the Act.Better planning of land development works, assets andconvergence activities will make the farmer self-reliant.Maintenance of assets: There are evidences that assetsmaintenance and monitoring are not being done as it shouldhave been.

MAHAMAHAMAHAMAHAMAHATMA GANDHI NATMA GANDHI NATMA GANDHI NATMA GANDHI NATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLTIONAL RURAL EMPLTIONAL RURAL EMPLTIONAL RURAL EMPLTIONAL RURAL EMPLOOOOOYMENT GUYMENT GUYMENT GUYMENT GUYMENT GUARANTEE ACTARANTEE ACTARANTEE ACTARANTEE ACTARANTEE ACT

In the effectiveimplementation ofMGNREGA, Gram

Panchayats play animportant role.

However, it has beenfound that GramPanchayats and

Gram Sabhas lackcapacity in decisionmaking, monitoring

of MGNREGSworks, assets

management etc.


Positive impact of MGNREGADespite some of the implementation challenges which arelikely to be there during the initial years because of its natureand coverage, implementation of MGNREGA has exhibitedthat it has enormous potential to boost agriculture growthand improve environmental services. It has allowed the peoplein rural areas to undertake activities like desilting, pondexcavation etc., in their own villages and on their own land,to increase water availability, soil fertility and develop land.A recent study of four states by Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore has found that MGNREGA works have increasedthe area irrigated, soil fertility and contributed to an increasein crop yields in the range of 46 percent to 100 percentacross the districts. It also shows that MGNREGA isgenerating multiple environmental and socio-economicbenefits, leading to improved water availability and soilfertility resulting in increased crop production. Increasedarea under plantations and orchards potentially contributingto alternate incomes, increased employment generation andreduce migration.MGNREGA also has led to a positive impact on livelihood

on individual beneficiary household. As per a study conductedby UNDP and Sambodhi, in six states, almost 85% of thebeneficiaries have reported an improvement in quality ofland, post creation of MGNREGA assets. Due to this, somesmall and marginal farmers have shifted to moreremunerative crops, for instance 11% of the respondentshave been moved away from traditional crops to horticultureplantation. Also as per the study, a majority of the householdsnoted a 10-15% increase in income post creation of assetsthrough MGNREGA. An interesting finding of the study isthat, almost 52% of the households who sought employmentunder MGNREGA and on whose land work was undertaken,did not come back to work on MGNREGA.In the coming years, MGNREGA is likely to exhibit moreand more positive impact in rural areas once all newprovisions of the recent Fourth Edition, MGNREGAOperational Guidelines, 2013 are put in place and followedin letter and spirit. To count some the expansion of the listof permissible works under Mahatma Gandhi is likely tostrengthen the synergy between MGNREGA and rurallivelihoods, particularly agriculture, and create durable

Overview of MGNREGA Performance, 2006 -10FY2006 FY 2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012-07 (200 -08 (330 -09 (All -10 -11 -12 -13( providistricts) districts) districts) isional)

Employment provided to 2.10 3.39 4.51 5.26 5.49 5.04 4.83households (crore)

Person-days of employment 90.50 143.59 216.32 283.59 257.15 216.34 213.41generated (crore) (Total)

SCs 22.95 39.36 63.36 86.45 78.76 47.70 46.26(25%) (27%) (29%) (30%) (31%) (22%) (22%)

STs 32.98 42.07 55.02 58.74 53.62 39.5 35.45(36%) (29%) (25%) (21%) (21%) (18%) (16%)

Women 36.40 61.15 103.57 136.40 122.74 103.81 110.86(40%) (43%) (48%) (48%) (48%) (48%) (52%)

Others 34.56 62.16 97.95 138.40 124.78 129.06 131.70(38%) (43%) (45%) (49%) (48%) (60%) (62%)

Work provided per year to 43 42 48 54 47 43 44households who worked (days)

Central Release (Rs. crore) 8640.85 12610.39 29939.60 33506.61 35768.95 29189.77 30009.96

Expenditure (Rs. crore) 8823.35 15856.89 27250.10 37905.23 39377.27 38034.70 39537.29

Total Works taken up (lakhs) 8.35 17.88 27.75 46.17 50.99 82.51 98.60

Works completed (lakhs) 3.87 8.22 12.14 6.39


quality assets. It is also likely to improve the socio-economiccondition of marginalised section of the society i.e., SC/ST/small and marginal farmers/IAY beneficiaries/Forest RightAct beneficiaries etc. because most of new works are allowedon the land or homestead of these sections.The past seven years of MGNREGA implementation showsthat the government in coordination with the states and otherstakeholders is proactively taking measures to realise theobjectives of MGNREGA i.e., transforming rural India byguaranteeing 100 days of employment to rural household.

The views expressed in the article are that of the authors and

not of the government.

Dr. DeependerKumar: Working asResearch Associateat Ministry of RuralDevelopmentTechnical Cell.

Dr. Nilay Ranjan:Working as RuralDevelopment andConvergence Expertat Ministry of RuralDevelopmentTechnical Cell.

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Vigilance squad should be strengthened to detectcorruption, but it will prove an added expenditure fortaxpayers.

Personnel-in-charge of the department should be chosenlocally.

FCI and other prominent agencies should provide qualityfood grains for distribution, but a tall order for an agencythat has no real incentive to do so.

Frequent checks and raids should be conducted toeliminate bogus and duplicate cards, which is again anadded expenditure and not foolproof.

The Civil Supplies Corporation should open more FairPrice Shops in rural areas.

It should be made mandatory for Fair Price dealers todisplay rate chart and quantity available on the black-boards in front of the shop.

ConclusionThe overall distribution of commodities to various types ofcard holders in India through PDS is improper and irregular.Particularly, food grains allocation sanctioned by thegovernment to BPL and AAY cardholders is 20 kg (wheat)and 10 kg (rice) per family and 25 kg (wheat) and 10 kg(rice) per family respectively. But both the card holders donot get the quantity assigned to them.There are many schemes announced by the government forBPL and AAY card holders. But there are very few peoplewho benefit because of lack of awareness and proper

knowledge about these schemes. The policy of LPG (Liberalisation Privatisation Globalisation)has, in a way, been responsible in driving most of the cardholders from ration shops to open market. The policy hasadversely affected the poor. If unchecked, it will provedangerous to the existence of PDS in India.

REFERENCES: Ruddar Datta & Sundaram K.P.M. (2009) “Indian Economy”,

S. Chand Publication New Delhi, P.- 519-521 Annual Report 2008-2009, 2012-13 Dept. of Food &

Public Distribution, Govt. of India, P.32-61. Devasahayam M.G. (2001) - “PDS & India’s Food

Security”, Business Line, Financial Daily, 13 August. Madhura Swaminathan (2001) “Further Attack on PDS”,

Frontline, Vol.18, Issue 02, Jan 20- Feb.02. Virmani Arvind & Rajiv P.V. (2001) “Excess Food Stocks,

PDS & Procurement Policy”, Planning Commission, WorkingPaper 05/2002 PC.

Economic Survey of India (2012-13), Govt. of India Tenth Five Year Plan report 2002-07.

Mr. Pralhad N.Kamble is AssistantProfessor, Dept. ofEconomics, Shri.S.H. Kelkar College,Devgad, Dist-Sindhudurg,Maharashtra.

Dr. Sunil B. Bhosaleis Faculty, ResearchAssociate, CSSEIP,Gokhale Institute ofEconomics &Politics, Pune.

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Fair prices, unfairFair prices, unfairFair prices, unfairFair prices, unfairFair prices, unfairpracticespracticespracticespracticespractices(Continued from page 10)


Launched in September 2010, the Unique Identification(UID) also known as Aadhaar project, is on constant watch – not only by Indians but the rest of the world

as well, since it is a daunting task to provide a unique identityto 1.2 billion residents. Not only this, with UID, thegovernment wants to have a surety of other socialdevelopment schemes – financial inclusion, employment,education, LPG subsidy, public distribution system andhealthcare - for all citizens of India. It is also supposed toenhance security through fraud detection and keep a checkon terrorism and il legalimmigration. Given theoutcome that theinitiative tries toachieve, ifsuccessful, UIDAI(UID Authority ofIndia) may helpIndia rewrite itshistory. But is it possiblefor UID to enable andfacilitate such benefits?

Challenges aheadWhatever the case be, thechallenges and demerits cannot beignored. One of the primary areas of concern is that Indianresidents have not shown a committed acceptability andreadiness for adoption for it since it is voluntary. Thereforeits success and sustainability have become uncertain. Theirbehavioural intention to adopt can be gauged only byidentifying the attributes that will drive and inhibit itsadoption and before this awareness of people about thisproject as well as its benefits to them becomes a necessity.

How dependableHow dependableHow dependableHow dependableHow dependableis Aadhar?is Aadhar?is Aadhar?is Aadhar?is Aadhar?The promises made by UIDAI are tall but if it fails to address the plethora ofconcerns, doubts and questions that have been raised again and again, howmuch can we rely on it, ask Prof. Rajanish Dass and Neha Khatri.

Serious doubts also exist in the case of identification of afake person as someone else and getting a UID number,which will make him a genuine resident of India. This maylead to deprivation of UID services for the real person, whichwill make him/her anonymous. Authenticity is also a bigissue in the documents submitted by people to the UIDAIfor the procedure of UID registration. UIDAI has enlisted anumber of documents as the proof of identity and proof ofaddress, but there is no specification on the authenticationcheck of these documents. Also there is a provision for

people to submit certified(by public notary)

photocopies oforiginal documents,

which may leadto fakedocuments and

fake identities.Given that 1.2 billion

people will be coveredunder this UID project, the

problems may reach anescalated figure even if 10% of

the population faces any of theabove issue.

Flawed techniquesThree types of biometric data will be connected to eachUID number: picture of face, IRIS scan, and fingerprints ofall ten fingers, which amounts to 1.2 billion photographs,2.4 billion scans and 12 billion fingerprints. This will requirea huge hardware infrastructure for which a constantmaintenance, up gradation and monitoring will be a recurringcost. Further, other issues may arise such as fingerprint’s

UID SCHEMESUID SCHEMESUID SCHEMESUID SCHEMESUID SCHEMES


bad appearance because of dirt, age, cuts, and worn outfingers and harm to IRIS scan because of the use ofspectacles and contact lenses. Even if the project issuccessfully rolled out with a high success rate, say with99% accuracy, then also with 1% inaccuracy for a countrywith 12,000 Lakh people would mean around 120 Lakhsof fake identity floating around. It has to be noted here thatwith such a large system, the expected accuracy in termsof real life expectations will be much lower, at least in theinitial years, than that of 99% accuracy. A quickconsideration is also required on the subjects of data storageand management of such a huge database, which may facerisks of security, privacy and operational inefficiencies. Evenif these are taken care of, there are high chances of attacksfrom people (registrars and agencies handling theidentification process in various cities and villages), process(validation and transmission of data) and technology (networkfailures or unavailability). With such huge database, wetend to be concerned about duplication, for which UIDAIhas already placed a solution. Whenever a new biometricdata is added, it is feeded in the existing database of UIDnumbers and checked for duplicates, if any. But just imaginethe heavy numbers of de-duplication checks done every daywith the promise of enrolling 1 million records every dayand what impact it has on the system and the server. Lastlythere is the issue of an easy accessibility of all these datato the government, which may very well track and share anindividual’s personal details and transactions leading tomisuse of such data. Will it then mean that there is a newneed for a huge change in various government machineries(take the police department for example) that works andacts for the nation? It then means that a larger portionneeds to be answered at first — given the current instancesof corruption, is India socially ready for UID or shall we atfirst focus on larger reforms like that of administration andgovernment processes? And what if it fails to reducecorruption and money is siphoned off in various socio andtechnical ways?

Unanswered queriesIn addition to these concerns, a constant requirement wouldbe of better harmony and understanding between the variousagencies involved in the entire procedure – right from thecompany responsible for getting the biometric data frompeople to the government who is in control. Further, if anyof these problems arise, people are expected to intimatethe concerned authority about the issue but what is theprobability of getting the correction done and who takes

the responsibility for that and what is the duration? Therefore,this calls for an unbiased, third-party detailed cost-benefitanalysis of this project with focus on the social benefitsthat individuals get after having such a unique number. Ofcourse, enumerating direct and indirect intangible benefitswill be a huge challenge given the unity in diversity that ourcountry is.Moreover, if UID turns out to be only a unique numberassociated with one unique individual residing in India thenhow does it differ from a host of other identities thatindividuals have such as the PAN card, voter’s IT card,driving license, ration card or similar other documents?Therefore the UID project needs to emerge as atransformational exercise for the country linked to citizenwelfare across a lifecycle instead of just facilitating atransaction.Currently the way the UID project has been conceived,controlled and executed, it has failed to get the confidenceof the current government responsible for the launching ofthis exercise itself, leading to critical failures like non-grantingof project budgets and granting statutory status to UID. Howcan the country then rely on such a critical exercise if itstill remains non-transformational and fails to address theplethora of concerns, doubts and questions that have beenraised again and again?

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The writer is formerprofessor, IIM,Ahmedabad, currentlyworking as the founderPresident of a globalManagement Consultingand Executive Educationinitiative, CatallystConstellations. He isengaged as anindependent advisor andthink tank in variousareas impacting policymaking at central andstate government(s) inIndia as well as co-alignment of strategyand IT for numerousprivate sector, publicsector and not for profitorganisations.

Neha Khatri, a postgraduate inManagement,works in theresearch field inCatallystConstellations. Herprimary researchinterests lie insocial anddevelopmentprogrammes forthe people,outsourcingrelationships andvarious policyinitiatives of thegovernment.


Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme in India (IGNOAPS), ascheme aimed at providing financial security to the destitute aged living belowpoverty line fails to achieve its goal because of lackadaisical implemenation,writes Dr. Nidhi Mishra.

Good intent, lackadaisicalimplementation

OLD age brings with it lot of challenges, a majorone is that of financial insecurity. Financial securityof elderly in general and particularly of those

belonging to BPL category has been a matter of concern,and due to increase in longevity, old age health care expenses,increasing cost of living, the problem has only compounded.Due to lower or negligible family income and rise in thecost of living, the poor often find it difficult to depend ontheir family for financialsupport, and thus the roleof government becomesimportant in providingfinancial security to thedestitute aged in ourcountry.

Overview of Indira GandhiNational Old Age PensionScheme (IGNOAPS)Realising the pressing needto provide financial securityto the destitute elderly, theIGNOAPSGovernment ofIndia (GOI) launched the National Old Age Pension Scheme(NOAPS) under the National Social Assistance Programme(NSAP) of the Ministry of Rural Development, on 15 August1995. Like other schemes of NSAP, this scheme is in linewith Article 41 of the Constitution of India which directsthe State to provide “public assistance to its citizens incase of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablementand in other cases of undeserved want within the limits ofits economic capacity and development.”On 19 November 2007, NOAPS was renamed as Indira

Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) andto widen its scope it has been extended to the elderly whofall Below Poverty Line (BPL). Initially under this scheme,all destitute elderly aged 65 years or above were provided apension amount of ̀ 75 per month. Subsequently, with effectfrom 1 April 2006, the pension amount was increased to`200 per month per person in order to make this schememore effective and the state governments were requested

by central government tocontribute a matchingamount for eachbeneficiary of this scheme.It has been noted that notall states are contributingan equal amount of ` 200per person per month to thepension.To further improve theeffectiveness of thisscheme, with effect from 1April 2011, the eligibilityage for this scheme hasbeen reduced from 65 to 60

years and the amount of pension has been raised from `200to `500 per month for those who are 80 years or above.The other two schemes under NSAP– Annapurna Schemeand Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme(IGNWPS) are linked to IGNOAPS in a way that underAnnapurna Scheme ten kilograms of food grains are providedfree of cost to those BPL elderly who though eligible, havenot been covered under the IGNOAPS. And under IGNWPS,once the BPL widows reach the age of 60 years they aretransferred to IGNOAPS.

INDIRA GANDHI NAINDIRA GANDHI NAINDIRA GANDHI NAINDIRA GANDHI NAINDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OLD AGE PENSION SCHEMETIONAL OLD AGE PENSION SCHEMETIONAL OLD AGE PENSION SCHEMETIONAL OLD AGE PENSION SCHEMETIONAL OLD AGE PENSION SCHEME

IGNOAPS aims at providing financial security to thedestitute aged


The Annual Report (2012-13) of the Ministry of RuralDevelopment, GOI, highlights coverage of 223.18 lakh BPLelderly all over India, where the highest number ofbeneficiaries were reported in Bihar (37.87 lakh), followedby Uttar Pradesh (37.67 lakh) and Odisha (17.77 lakh).The total expenditure reported under NSAP for the year2012-2013 is `4855.77 crore, although a total of`8447.30 crore was allocated for it. IGNOAPS is a part ofNSAP and is allotted a major portion of the funds, however,the exact breakup of scheme wise budget allocation underNSAP is not available in the annual report or on the websiteof Ministry of Rural Development.

BenefitsThe IGNOAPS is praiseworthy, as this is the first ever nationallevel scheme which provides economic security to the poorelderly and widows who would have either been dependenton their family’s limited income or would have been forcedto lead a neglected life. This aspect has also been highlightedin one of the participatory study conducted in Madhya Pradeshand Uttar Pradesh by the NGO HelpAge India in 2008, whereresponses of participants indicated that IGNOAPS plays avery important role in poverty reduction.

LimitationsOver the years, government bodies and social scientists havehighlighted some limitations of this scheme mainly in termsof its improper implementation. A research paper jointlypublished by four professors from Harvard School of PublicHealth in 2010 highlighted weak targeting of beneficiarieswhich is generally based on combination of a survey baseddefinition of poverty and community identification of the pooras a major problem related to implementation of this scheme.In a survey conducted by United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) India in 2012, covering a total of 9,852 elderly inthe seven states of India which have higher proportion ofelderly viz. Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa,Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the problem of wrongtargeting was observed. While investigating the utilisationof IGNOAPS, it was found that some non-BPL elderly werealso availing the scheme. It was also observed that there

was low awareness of this scheme among the beneficiaries,thus raising the need for effective steps to be taken by thegovernment to promote the scheme.Another targeting issue identified in assessments of thisscheme is the difficulty of determining the age of a person,particularly in rural areas. Along with this some researchers(Anand and Kumar, 2006) have also highlighted that whilefrom a macro perspective IGNOAPS seems to be workingwell, and meeting its many objectives, a micro analysisshows that there are gaps in areas like distribution and theidentification of beneficiaries.In an assessment report of Ministry of Rural Development(2006) it was found that the IGNOAPS is lacking on twogrounds which cut across states: (i) it involves complexadministrative procedures and, therefore, proves especiallydifficult for the illiterates, and (ii) the size of programmebeneficiaries is capped artificially by using an arbitrary ceilingformula.

Conclusion and recommendationIt is clear that IGNOAPS is a useful scheme for elderlybelow poverty line, however, it is facing problems of improperimplementation such as wrong targeting, limited coverageand irregular payment of pension which needs to be stronglydealt by the government through improvement of coordinationbetween its various bodies. Also through an effectivemonitoring and evaluation mechanism the problem of wrongtargeting and irregular payments can be controlled by thegovernment. Along with this proper need assessment shouldbe done by the government for effective coverage of thescheme. Additionally, the government should publicise thescheme especially in rural areas and slums for creating

awareness amongst potentialbeneficiaries. Civil society can alsoplay an important role by conductingtraining programmes for the targetedbeneficiaries.

The writer is working at TataInstitute of Social Sciences for theUnited Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) Ageing project in India.

Did you know?Did you know?Did you know?Did you know?Did you know?

Naluvedhapathy village in Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu entered the Guinness Book of World Recordsby planting 80,244 saplings on December 2, 2002, breaking a previous record of 42,182 trees planted inNilgiris, in the state. These trees, later, proved to be a boon for the village as Naluvedhapathy remainedalmost unscathed when tsunami hit the shores of the state in 2004. The trees managed to lessen theimpact created by the killer waves!


AFTER the Right to Education and the Right to Food,a new right is being sought to be tabled in Parliament– the Right to Housing. The Draft Homestead Bill

2013 aims at providing a homestead1 of not less than 10cents (0.1 acres or 4,356 sq. ft) to every landless andhomeless poor family in rural areas.Given that India is home to close to eight million homelessrural families, the demand for the right to housing is notsurprising. In fact, the 12th Five Year Plan working group onrural housing estimates the shortage in the Plan period(2012-17) at around 40 million.However, the main question arises is – how will this “right”differ in its implementation from the existing scheme onrural housing – the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

BackgroundLaunched in 1985, Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) is Governmentof India’s (GOI) flagship programme on rural housing. Theobjective of the scheme is to provide funds for theconstruction of dwelling units for members of ScheduledCastes (SCs)/Scheduled Tribes (STs), free bonded labourers,and non SC/ST rural below poverty line (BPL) households.With effect from 2013, `70,000 is provided per dwellingunit for plain areas (up from 45,000 in 2009) and ̀ 75,000for hilly/difficult areas (up from `48,500)2. IAY funds canalso be utilised for up gradation of a kutcha house forwhich a subsidy of `15,000 per unit is provided. Further,IAY beneficiaries can also avail of a top-up loan of up to`20,000.3 In 2009, to assist those rural BPL householdswho have neither agricultural land nor a house-site, IAYalso launched a scheme for providing homestead sites.Over the years, allocations for IAY have increased over two-fold from `3,885 crores in 2007-08 to `8,121 crores in2012-13. The scheme received a significant boost inallocations in 2013-14, when GOI allocated 15,184 crores- nearly doubling the allocations for the previous year.During the 11th Five Year Plan, against a target of 140 lakh

A house for the homelessA house for the homelessA house for the homelessA house for the homelessA house for the homelessThe Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) designed to provide a roof over the heads for India’smarginalised sections is far from achieving its targets because of delays in fund releaseand the slow pace of construction. Availability of land, sub standard quality of thehouses and selection of beneficiaries are other areas of concern, writes Avani Kapur.

houses, 126.98 lakh houses were constructed at a costof `53497 crores. (See Table for performance in the last10 years)4.While these numbers suggest a relatively well-functioningscheme – most of GOI allocations are released, funds are utilisedand houses are being constructed – there are wide statevariations in performance and numerous issues with respect toimplementation. Some of these are highlighted below:-

Implementation highlights1) Delays in fund flows and constructionIn 2012-13, till January (more than three quarters of thefinancial year completed), out of the total funds available5

for IAY, only 63% of the funds were utilised. Moreover,only 46% percent of the annual target for constructionwas completed. These delays are particularly acute in somestates. While Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had utilisednearly 100 percent of their funds available during this period,Jammu and Kashmir had utilised only 21%, Punjab 36%and Tamil Nadu 45%. Other states such as Karnataka,Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Maharashtra hadutilised only between 50-60% of funds available.6 Accordingto reports, part of the problem lies with delayed release offunds. In 2012-13 itself, out of the total allocation of`10513.20 crores only 54% (`5655.37 crores) wasreleased by January 2013.Pace of construction is also slow. Till January 2013, TamilNadu and Uttar Pradesh had only completed 10% and 13%of their annual target for the year, respectively. Most otherstates also ranged between 20-50 percent completion ratesincluding Maharashtra (20%), Odisha (32%), Gujarat (33%),Chhattisgarh (36%) and Kerala (46%).7

2) Quality of housesAn important concern over the years has been with respectto the quality of houses. According to the IAY guidelines,the construction of an IAY house is the responsibility of the

INDIRA AWAS YOJANAINDIRA AWAS YOJANAINDIRA AWAS YOJANAINDIRA AWAS YOJANAINDIRA AWAS YOJANA


beneficiary. While no specific design type has been stipulatedfor an IAY house, sanitary latrine and smokeless chullahs arerequired to be constructed along with each IAY house.The Planning Commission’s mid-term review of the XIth Plannoted many instances of “poor quality construction, saggingfoundation, use of temporary materials for roofing or leavingthe construction incomplete because of inadequate finance”.8

Four years later, similar findings were reported by theMinistry’s National Level Monitors (NLMs). During their visitto 3083 villages across 478 districts, only 15.2% of thehouses were found ‘excellent’ in terms of quality ofconstruction, 52.2% were rated ‘good’, and the remaining32.6% were ranked poor or average condition. 9

The NLMs further found that 16% of houses which havebeen sanctioned for more than two years were still incomplete.Moreover only, 8% of the verified houses visited had smokelesschullahs and only 39% had sanitary latrines provided.

3) Beneficiary selection and allotment of housesSelection of beneficiaries was originally the responsibility ofGram Panchayats (GP). However, due to rampantirregularities and biased selection10, the revised guidelinesstipulate that beneficiaries be identified through a permanentIAY waiting lists prepared as per the BPL list of 2002. Inorder to increase transparency these lists are supposed to

be displayed in all GPs.The NLM reports, however, found that out of 2780 villageswhere permanent IAY lists were finalised, only 53% villageswere lists displayed on the walls. Moreover, in nearly 10%of the villages, the selection of beneficiaries was still notbased on these lists.While guidelines specify that 60% of IAY allocation is meantfor SC/ST families and IAY houses are to be allotted (in thisorder of preference) in the name of the woman or jointlybetween the husband and the wife, audit reports by theComptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have found manyinstances of houses being allotted to “fake persons” or malemembers.11

4) Land availabilityFinally, the biggest constraint faced is often with respect toland availability. Land costs tend to be high and in theabsence of land, houses tend to be incomplete or notconstructed despite being sanctioned.These findings suggest that despite nearly 30 years of thescheme in operation, there are a number of hurdles withrespect to the implementation of IAY. While GOI has takensome steps in addressing these (particularly with respect toincreasing the unit costs of dwelling units, providing additionalassistance for construction of toilets and increasing

Performance of IAY over the last 10 years in lakhs

Year GOI GOI Utilisation Target No. ofAllocation Release (No.of houses

houses) constructed

2002-03 165640 162852.86 279496.46 13.14 15.49

2003-04 187050 187107.78 258009.69 14.84 13.61

2004-05 246067 288310.02 326208.64 15.62 15.21

2005-06 273240 273822.58 365409.05 14.41 15.52

2006-07 290753 290753.06 425342.45 15.33 14.98

2007-08 403270 388237.01 546454.3 21.27 19.92

2008-09 564577 879579.39 834834.33 21.27 21.34

2009-10 849470 863573.99 1329236.4 40.52 33.86

2010-11 1005370 1013945.4 1346572.75 29.08 27.15

2011-12 949120 986477.8 1292632.74 27.26 24.71

Source: Ministry of Rural Development, Annual Report 2012-13


transparency in selection of beneficiaries), there still appearsto be genuine constraints with respect to delays, lack ofmonitoring, technical capacity, lack of awareness amongstbeneficiaries and even unavailability of land. Until theseimplementation issues are resolved the “right to housing”is unlikely to go too far.

FOOTNOTES1 Homestead is defined as a dwelling with adequate housingfacilities including access to basic services (drinking water,electricity, roads and public transport), appropriate location,accessibility and cultural adequacy.2 Ministry of Rural Development, Annual Report 2012-13.3 This is a part of the Differential Rate of Interest (DRI scheme)wherein beneficiaries can apply for a loan from any Nationalisedbank at an interest rate of 4% per annum4 Ministry of Rural Development, Annual Report 2012-13.5 Funding for IAY is shared between GOI and states in a 75:25ratio (for UTs it is completely centrally funded)5 Total funds available would include releases by GOI and Statesas well as opening balances at the start of the year.6 Indira Awas Yojana Portal, PRC Meeting 1 and 2

7 Ibid8 Planning Commission, Mid Term Appraisal for Eleventh FiveYear Plan. Available online at: http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/mta/11th_mta/MTA.html9 Details of the criteria for different categories are available at:http:// w w w. r u r a l m o n i t o r. i n / n l m r e p o r t / R M _ 1 2 - 1 3 _ P h a s e -I_All%20India.pdf10 The 11th Five Year Plan document had found that “25 to 50percent of beneficiaries were not being selected to Gram Sabhas.Allocation among Panchayats was influenced by PRI/MLAs.11 For instance, CAG found that in one district in Maharashtra, in685 out of 2426 cases allotment of houses at a cos of `4.69crores were to male members in 2010-11. A recent report on

Odisha found `1.15 crore in allotmentof houses to 1144 non-BPL familiesin 4 districts and irregular payments to

321 “fake”BPL beneficiaries.

The writer works at theAccountability Initiative (AI),Centre for Policy Research as aSenior Research and ProgrammeAnalyst. (The author is grateful toMs. Saamia Ibrahim for herresearch assistance)

AarogyamAarogyamAarogyamAarogyamAarogyamBad breath, also known as halitosis, indicates other health problems. If timely care is not taken to prevent badbreath, it can lead to serious health issues later. Observing oral hygiene is important to prevent bad breath.Gargling with salt water also helps prevent bad breath. Chewing on fresh mint leaves or parsley leaves or spices likecardamom or cloves is also good to freshen breath.

What ails Government schemes?What ails Government schemes?What ails Government schemes?What ails Government schemes?What ails Government schemes?(Continued from page 8)

The individual sanction however, has to be communicatedseparately which can easily get delayed upto September.The details are then worked upon, drawing authority isdecided and communication sent to district level officers,again as late as in December. Then there is a scramble forreaching out to the beneficiaries, getting necessary paperwork done along with physical work, all of which involvessome expenditure. But whatever remains unspent at theend of 31st March of the next financial year gets "lapsed"which means it has to now await the whole process ofbudgetary sanction, individual scheme sanction, and drawingauthority declared -- thus again nothing may happen tillDecember of that financial year. The corridors of Mantralayaare a scene to be watched in the last week of March, whenalmost everyone is working overtime, scheme approvals areflowing, and huge amounts are sanctioned and drawn, manyof them for ulterior purposes - these sums are shown as"spent for right cause" within a few hours. When it can't bespent as soon as it is sanctioned, it has to await many

months for approval. Unless a timely and smooth flow offunds is ensured, the schemes not only fail but also takeaway all the enthusiasm of good officers.I have often stated that the answer to corruption in governmentis not honesty alone, but honesty coupled with five otheressential attributes. These are inculcating team spirit andcollective action, continuous, adequate and effective trainingof the staff responsible for implementation, proper motivationof staff, proper monitoring and feedback and finally our attitudetowards sustainable scheme completion.Leena Mehendale, presently Member CAT Mumbai in therank of High Court Judge, is an accomplishedadministrator, teacher, thinker and writer. She hastravelled over 400 out of 650 districts in India and isproficient in many Indian languages. As an administratorshe has worked in various departments which includeeducation, women, children, industries, petroleum,agriculture, and health.

Some of her service highlights are economic rehabilitationof Devdasis, making TV and radio serials for energyconservation, designing, training and framing policies forYashada (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of DevelopmentAdministration) and promoting Indian languages oncomputers. Presently, she is actively pursuing revival ofSanskrit language.

She has given over 1000 lectures, authored 25 books ondiverse subjects and over 600 articles, in Marathi, Hindiand English.


PPPPPERSISTENT and high child malnutrition continuesto haunt India in spite of impressive advances thecountry has made in other fields. According to the

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), 20% of Indianchildren below five years are wasted (acutely malnourished)and 48% are stunted (chronically malnourished).Importantly, with 43% of children underweight (with a weightdeficit for their age), rates of child underweight in India aretwice as higher than the average figure in sub-Saharan Africa(22%). The consequences of this nutrition crisis are enormous.In addition to being the cause of one-third to half of childdeaths, malnutrition leads to stunted physical growth andcognitive development that last a lifetime.Research has shown that the age group of up to two years isa crucial window of opportunity to address malnutrition. It isvery difficult to reverse malnutrition after the age of two.Children in this age group also require special services as it isa very vulnerable period. Further, any service for young childrenhas to be linked to the rights and needs of mothers, sincewomen bear the maximum burden of child care. Also, theimportance of breastfeeding makes it necessary to put inplace mechanisms that support mothers. Therefore anyprogramme addressing needs of these young children, mustunderstand that a large number of women in the country areworking in the unorganised sector with very little support inthe form of maternity entitlements or child care services.

ICDS – the central tool to fight malnutritionReducing child malnutrition requires a range of servicesincluding maternity entitlements, crèches, breastfeedingsupport, supplementary nutrition and counselling towardsappropriate infant and young child feeding practices; alongwith improving access of the household to food and

The fight againstThe fight againstThe fight againstThe fight againstThe fight againstmalnutritionmalnutritionmalnutritionmalnutritionmalnutritionMalnutrition not only accounts for one-third to half of child deaths but also leads tostunted physical growth and cognitive development in children that last a lifetime.Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) has been an arsenal in fightingmalnutrition, and the reforms in the scheme are expected to further reduce the rateof malnutrition, says Dipa Sinha.

livelihood, water and sanitation and health services.Therefore for effective interventions on malnutrition, a wholerange of services related to food, nutrition, health, water,sanitation and livelihoods need to be put in place. The ICDS(Integrated Child Development Services) occupies a centralplace in the fight against malnutrition because it is the onlyprogramme that directly addresses health, nutrition anddevelopment needs of children under six. ICDS works througha network of anganwadi centres (AWC) that are run byanganwadi workers (AWW) and helpers (AWH) who, amongother things, are supposed to provide supplementary nutrition,nutrition and health education and pre-school education.

The constraintsThe ICDS currently suffers from low coverage, overburdenedstaff, poor infrastructure and poor quality supplementarynutrition. Major reforms in ICDS are required through theuniversalisation with quality of the ICDS. The quality ofsupplementary nutrition provided in the ICDS needs to begreatly improved to ensure that the food provided isnutritious, culturally appropriate and something that attractsparents and children to the centre.

Improving anganwadi centresThe anganwadi centre must be made into a full day centrethat provides preschool services for children in the three tosix year age group and also crèche services for youngerchildren. This would require appointing a second anganwadiworker and improving the infrastructure of the anganwadicentre. Children who are in the crèches will have to beprovided three meals a day. NGO experiences with crècheshave shown that this can also be an effective strategy forimproving the nutrition status of children. This is done by

INTEGRAINTEGRAINTEGRAINTEGRAINTEGRATED CHILD DEVELTED CHILD DEVELTED CHILD DEVELTED CHILD DEVELTED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICESOPMENT SERVICESOPMENT SERVICESOPMENT SERVICESOPMENT SERVICES


malnutrition. Reducing child malnutrition not only contributesto higher productivity and therefore economic growth inthe future through healthier populations but also leads tosavings of health care costs that arise from malnutritionand future health benefits. Some estimates indicate thatthe losses to GDP from various components of undernutritioncan be as high as three percent of the national income.Many improvements are being made to the ICDS programmesince the last few years. The ICDS was started in 1978 ona pilot basis in 33 blocks and has been gradually expandedsince then. Following Supreme Court orders, there has seena significant increase in the number of anganwadi centres,with almost every village across the country now beingcovered with an anganwadi centre. While there were about5.4 lakh anganwadi centres in 2002, we now have 12.5lakh operational anganwadis across the country. Almostanother one lakh anganwadi centres have been sanctionedand are in the process of being made operational.Similarly the coverage of children under the ICDS has alsoincreased manifold. The number of children covered underthe supplementary nutrition has gone up from less than threecrore to 9.2 crore children in the age group of six months tosix years. The coverage of children for the preschool educationcomponent under the ICDS has also doubled in the period2001-2011 from 1.6 crores to 3.5 crores.The budgetary allocation for ICDS has also been greatlyincreased. While the budgetary allocation for ICDSScheme was `10391.7 crore during the 10th Five YearPlan (2002-2007), it was enhanced to `44,400 crore inthe 11th Plan Period (2007-12). Therefore it is seen thatthere has been an impressive increase in the scale andcoverage of the ICDS in the last ten years. `1,23,000 crorehas been approved as the budget for ICDS over the 12th

Plan period, where a massive restructuring of the ICDSprogramme is also planned.The restructured ICDS plan talks about providing a secondanganwadi worker in the high malnutrition burden districts,improving the allocations for the SNP, starting anganwadi-cum-crèches on a pilot basis and so on. It is hoped thatthese reforms reach the people and are able to truly make a

dent on child malnutrition rates.

The writer is a public health andfood rights researcher and activist.She is involved with the Right toFood Campaign and Working Groupfor Children Under Six (of theRight to Food Campaign and JanSwasthya Abhiyan). She has alsoworked with the Office of theCommissioners to the SupremeCourt on the Right to Food.

providing adequate quality food, care and health services(including growth monitoring). The ICDS should alsograduate to providing these services. Further, there is aneed for introduction of universal and unconditional maternityentitlements and diverse and flexible models of child carebased on the need of working mothers. The Indira GandhiMatritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) which is currently beingimplemented on a pilot basis in 52 districts must be expandedto the entire country.

Stepping up coordination, supervision and monitoringConvergence must also be ensured between the ICDS andother departments, especially health services to ensure thatall needs of young children are met. The ASHA (AccreditedSocial Health Activist) in the village has to be included inefforts towards nutrition counselling and growth monitoringas she makes regular home visits and is in constant touchwith families.There also a need to step up the supervision and monitoringof the programme. The vacant posts of supervisors andCDPOs (Child Development Project Officer) need to be filledand a system of supportive supervision evolved. The AWWsmust be encouraged to properly report on malnutrition andinfant deaths. While there is a role for governance reformsand putting in place better monitoring mechanisms, it isalso very important for community participation in the ICDSto be enhanced. Once the local community is involved andinterested in monitoring the ICDS, it can contribute in amajor way in making the entire programme accountable.For increased community participation formation of mother’scommittees, discussing ICDS-related issues in the Panchayatand related committees, conducting social audits, publicdisplay of information related to growth monitoring and SNP(Supplementary Nutrition Programme), encouragingcommunity contributions to the AWC, conducting massawareness and mobilisation campaigns are some of thestrategies that can work. It is only when the communityrecognises the importance of child nutrition and the ICDSprogramme for its children; and the ICDS is designed in amanner where it responds to the needs of the community,that the programme will be truly meaningful.

Positive signsAll of this requires much greater investment in ICDS andrelated programmes. With such unacceptably high levels ofchild malnutrition there needs no further explanations tojustify such expenditure. There are also compelling economicreasons to invest whatever is required for eradicating

KNOW INDIA KNOW INDIA KNOW INDIA KNOW INDIA KNOW INDIA BETTERBETTERBETTERBETTERBETTER

Bishnupur in West Bengal is abeautiful temple town housingmany unique terracotta temples.There are stone temples toowhich remind visitors of theglorious history of the place thatwas once ruled by the Mallakings. Bishnupur is also famousfor handicrafts, terracottaartifacts and exquisitely craftedBaluchari sarees.

TERRATERRATERRATERRATERRACOCOCOCOCOTTTTTTTTTTAAAAA

BISHNUPURARARARARART OFT OFT OFT OFT OFText and photos: Rangan Dutta



THOUGH Bishnupur, located in Bankura district ofWest Bengal, about 132 km from the state capitalKolkata, can ideally be referred to as a cultural

centre, it is the terracotta temples that give the town itsunique identity. The temples, which have intricately carvedwork depicting the brilliant architecture of the time, stillstand as strong and elegant as ever, turning Bishnupur intoone of the most favoured tourist destinations in not onlyWest Bengal but also in the whole of India.Temples were traditionally built in stone and there are quitea number of stone temples in Bishnupur as well. But sincestone was in short supply inthe vast flood plains of Bengal,the architects looked forsuitable substitute. As clay waseasily available, burnt claybricks soon became a goodreplacement for stone. Thisgave rise to a new form oftemple architecture and led tothe construction of elaboratelydecorated terracotta temples.Terracotta literally meansbaked earth in Italian. West

Bengal has the distinction of housing some of the finestterracotta art in the world, which had reached its pinnacleunder the patronage of the Malla Kings of Bishnupur duringthe 17th century.

The rein of Malla dynastyLegend has it that during the 7th century AD, an exiled king ofa small kingdom in North India was making a pilgrimage toSouth India with his pregnant queen. During their journeythrough the present day Bishnupur area, the queen experiencedlabour pain. She delivered a male baby in the house of a

village Brahmin, but did notsurvive to see her child.Overcome with grief, the kingabandoned the child at theBrahmin’s house andproceeded on his pilgrimage.The poor Brahmin raised thechild as his own. One day, amiracle happened. The boyhad fallen asleep tending tocows in the field. TheBrahmin was astounded tosee a huge snake with his

Rashmancha, the oldest standing structure of Bishnupur, is architecturally unique and one of its kind

A panel depicting Krishna Leela and dancing gopis


hood shielding the boy from the sunlight, which was fallingon the boy’s face. Seeing this miracle, the Brahmin wasconvinced that this was no ordinary child and he provided theboy with best education along with physical and warfare training.The boy not only excelled in education but also turned out tobe an outstanding wrestler. Soon on the request of the localelders, he ascended the throne of the local kingdom, whichwas renamed as the Malla Kingdom (Malla meaning wrestling)and he came to be known as Adi Malla. The Malla Kingdomflourished and Mallas ruled over the region for a long time.After about 300 years, the 19th Malla King Jagat Malla decidedto shift his kingdom to Bishnupur. Over the next 800 years,Jagat Malla and his descendants built several temples andstructures (both of brick and stone) thus turning Bishnupurinto a temple town.

Temples of BishnupurAlthough known for its terracotta temples, Bishnupur containsan interesting mix of terracotta and stone temples. Apartfrom temples, it also contains several other interesting religiousand social structures. Since the temples of Bishnupur arelocated in a small compact area, they can be explored eitherby walking or cycle rickshaw rides or a combination of both.

Shyamrai Temple - terracotta at its best

Joypur Rashmancha is a spectacular octagonal structurecrowned with nine onion shaped pinnacles


Rashmancha: Rashmancha is the oldest standing structureof Bishnupur. It is not a temple but idols of different templesare brought here and displayed during the festival of Rash.The Rashmancha was built in 1600 by the Malla King Hambir.It stands on a raised laterite stone platform and has archedentrances. It is crowned with a stepped pyramidal structuresurrounded by smaller sloped roofed structures.It is architecturally unique and one of its kind in the whole ofBengal (West Bengal and Bangladesh combined). Sadly, apartfrom a few floral lotus motifs, the Rashmancha does notcontain any terracotta art work.Gumgarh: It is a fort like structure that is located atop asmall mound. Not much is known about its constructiondate or the purpose for which it was built. Some say it wasa prison while some believe it was a granary.

Shyamrai Temple: A left turnfrom Gumgarh leads to theShyamrai Temple, popularlyknown as the Panchchura temple,because of its five pinnacles. Builtby Mallaraja Raghunath Singhain 1643, this is terracotta at itsbest. The temple is built of bricksand its exterior and interiors aremade of densely sculptedterracotta panels.Approached by triple archedentrance on all the four sides,Shyamrai Temple containsterracotta on all its four sidesincluding the inner walls and thepinnacles. The sculpturesdepicting the Rasamandala in theKrishna Leela and dancing Gopisare very impressive.Keshta Raya Temple: A shortdistance away from the ShyamraiTemple is the Keshta Raya temple,another terracotta styled structure.It follows the Jor Bangla style ofarchitecture and hence is popularlyknown as the Jor Bangla Temple.Jor Bangla type of temple consistsof two Bengal styled thatched rooflike structures joined together. Inthe case of Keshta Raya Temple

the joined structures are crowned with a turret.The 1655 built temple is considered as one of the finestexamples of Bengal terracotta art. There are numerous panelscovering a wide range of topics. In addition to panels of shipsand boats there are also several impressive panels fromRamayana and Mahabharata but a panel depicting Bhishmain sarasajya (bed of arrows) stands out among all.Radhashyam Temple: Just next to the Keshta Raya templeis the Radhashyam Temple. This ek-ratna (single pinnacled)temple is built of laterite stone and contains lime stone stuccodecoration. The temple is enclosed with high walls and itsentrance consists of a triple domed Islamic style gateway.The temple dating back to 1758 was constructed by theMalla King Chaitanya Singha.Radha Laljiu Temple: A little away is the Radha Laljiu

The 1742 built Dalmadal Cannon weighs 112 quintal and measures 3.8 metres

The double-storey Large Gate accommodated troops and narrowslits allowed the archers and the gunmen to fire their shots


A terracotta panel depicting Bhishma in sarasajya (bed of arrows)

the whole of Bishnupur and should not be missed. Built in1694 by Malla King Durjan Singh the star attraction of MadanMohan is its intricate terracotta work.The temple is dedicated to Lord Madan Mohan (an incarnationof Lord Bishnu or Vishnu) and is still an active temple. Thetemple complex also contains a do-chala (double sloped roofed)structure.Dalmadal Cannon: Bishnupur also has many remnants of aglorious past. The massive Dalmadal Cannon is one such

attraction. The 1742 built cannon weighs 112quintal and measures 3.8 metres with a diameterof 30 cm.Dal Madal means destruction of enemy. It issaid that during wars, elephants were used todrag the cannons out to the fighting spot. It isbelieved that when the Marathas attackedBishnupur in 1742 the deity Lord Madan Mohanhimself fired the gun to drive them away.Chinnamasta Temple: Next to the cannon isthe Chinnamasta Temple, an ancient templemodified into a modern structure which in theprocess lost its beauty and grace. The idol is arare one, of Goddess Kali holding her severedhead in one hand. Just ahead of the

Chinnamasta Temple are seven scattered laterite stone ek-ratna (single pinnacled) temples decorated with beautiful limestone stucco art. Sadly the lime stone art has not survived thetest of time and only traces of it can be seen to this day.Seven ek-Ratna temples: First to the left is the Nandalal Temple.Just across the road is a complex of three temples known asthe Jor Mandir. These temples were built by Malla King KrishnaSingh in 1726. Some beautiful stucco work still remains.

Temple, built 100 years earlier than the Radhashyam Temple.The temple is placed upon a large plinth. It is a squareshaped temple with slanting roof slightly sloping in all sides.Built by the Malla King Bir Singha in 1658, it is consideredas the finest laterite stone temple in Bishnupur.Mrinmoyee Temple: Just opposite the Radhashyam Templeis the Mrinmoyee Temple, the oldest temple of Bishnupur.As the old structure does not exist now, the idol of the templedeity Mrinmoyee is housed in a newly constructed structure.Stone gateways: Short distances away from theMrinmoyee Temple are two stone gateways. Thelarger of the two gateways is known as thePathar Darwaja (Stone Door) as it is built oflaterite stone. This gate once served as thenorthern entrance of the royal residence andwas built in the second half of the 17th centuryby Maharaja Bir Singha.The double storied gate accommodated troopsand narrow slits allowed the archers and thegunmen to fire their shots.A few yards away is a small stone gateway,which was built in the same period. Althoughmuch smaller in magnitude, the small butelegant structure still reminds one of the gloriousdays of Bishnupur.Stone chariot: A short distance from the two stone gatewaysis a small but intricately carved stone chariot. Built in the17th century the laterite chariot is in the lines of the ek-ratna (single pinnacled) temples of Bishnupur.Madan Mohan Temple: As you go a little further from thestone chariot, you reach the Madan Mohan Temple. Thissingle pinnacled temple has some of the finest terracotta in

It is said thatduring wars,

elephantswere used to

drag thecannons out

to thefighting spot.


the Malla King Raghunath Singh, the templewas once covered with stucco decoration. Onlytraces of it remain to this day.Bishnupur Museum: Located at a shortdistance from the West Bengal Tourist Lodgeis the Bishnupur Museum or the Acharya YogeshChandra Purakirti Bhawan. It houses aninteresting collection of folk art and music.There are around five thousand manuscripts,hundreds of sculptures belonging to the 10-

Next is the Radhagovinda Temple built byKrishna Singh in 1729. A short distance awayis the Radhamadhav Temple built in 1737.The ek-ratna temple is accompanied by a do-chala (double sloped roofed) structure. Thetemple was built by Churamony Devi, wife ofMalla King Krishna Singh. The temple has someinteresting stucco work featuring animals.Further down the road is the Kalachand Templewith its towering pinnacle. Built in 1656 by

Gokulchand Temple, once a magnificent monument, is today littered with stone slabs reminding one of the horrifyingdays of plunder

An intricately designed panel showing ships

The 19th MallaKing Jagat Malladecided to shifthis kingdom to

Bishnupur. Overthe next 800years, JagatMalla and hisdescendantsbuilt severaltemples and

structures (bothof brick andstone) thus

turningBishnupur intoa temple town.


and artifacts also feature among the most shopped items ofBishnupur.

Beyond BishnupurThe terracotta temple art of Bengal is not restricted toBishnupur only. Several villages near Bishnupur containsimilar, if not better terracotta temples. Since sadlyinfrastructure and tourist facilities are poor, these places do

not get as much visitors as Bishnupur. Theseplaces can only be covered by cars fromBishnupur and preferably with a packed lunch.Joypur: Located just 15 km east of Bishnupur,the non-descriptive village of Joypur housessome of the finest specimens of terracotta art.It was during the 18-19th century that a fewfamilies of the village took advantage of thecloth trade with the British and made a fortune.They acquired land and became zamindars andbuilt fantastic temples. De and Dutta familywere two such families and they still have atemple standing in the courtyard of theirdelimitated family mansion.

12th century, pre-historic specimens of textiles and otherobjects. There is also an archeological gallery which housesPaleolithic and Mesolithic tools, temple terracotta of 17th -18th century, metal ornaments and beads of terracotta, semiprecious stones and more.Shopping: It is not just temples that attract tourists’ attentionin Bishnupur but also the shopping options that it provides.The terracotta artifacts are the most sought after items. Longnecked giraffe like horses are the most popularof the terracotta artifacts. Terracotta musiciansare also quiet popular. Visitors can also visit theneighbouring village Panchmura to get an insightinto the terracotta artifacts’ industry of Bishnupur.The handloom industry is another thrivingcottage industry of Bishnupur. It is home tothe famous Baluchari sarees, renowned all overthe world for its intricate designs inspired bythe terracotta panels of the temples.Dasabatar cards: Once a traditional indoor gameof Malla Kings, these special cards are now acollectors’ item.Brass utensils: Brass and German silver utensils

Kotulpur contains some fine terracotta temples along with large mansions

The terracottatemple art ofBengal is notrestricted toBishnupur

only. Severalvillages nearBishnupur

contain similar,if not betterterracottatemples.


Elegant terracotta designs atSonamukhi Temple

A panel showing Arjun firing an arrow at the fish’s eye at Draupadi’s Swayamvar

Siddheshwar Temple - one of the oldest and most unique temples in West Bengal


De family temple is a spectacular octagonal Rashmanchcrowned with nine onion shaped pinnacles.Gokulnagar: Located next to Joypur is the village of Gokulnagar,which probably houses the grandest stone temple of WestBengal. The 64-feet high pancha-ratna (five pinnacled)Gokulchand Temple is flanked by a natmandir and the entire23,500 sq. ft. temple complex is surrounded by a high wall,giving the impression of a fort rather than a temple. Anarched gateway leads to the temple complex.The central pinnacle of the panch-ratna temple is octagonal inshape while the four pinnacles at the corners are smaller insize and square in shape. The temple has verandas on threesides, each with a triple arched entrance, and circumambulatorypath goes round the temple. The idol of Lord Krishna has longbeen removed from the temple and is housed in Bishnupur, onlyto be brought back on the occasion of Holi and Rash festivals.A photo of the idol is all that is worshipped today.The eastern and southern face has stone sculpture in low relief.Although heavily eroded by centuries of wind and rain, the sculpturesof Das Avatar and Krishna Leela can still be seen. Sadly thefoundation plaque has been heavily eroded and its content hasbecome illegible, but according to experts the Gokulchand templewas constructed by the Malla King Raghunath Simha I in 1643.

Both the temples are built in naba ratna (nine pinnacles)style and are approached by a triple arched entrance fromthe northern and eastern side. Sadly the temples are in badshape and need urgent professional restoration.The Damodar Temple of Dutta family has elaborate terracottaon the eastern arch panel. The central arch panels havescenes from Krishnalila while those on the left and rightcontain battle scenes from Mahabharata and Ramayana. Theuniqueness of the Joypur terracotta is its deep relief giving analmost three dimensional effect to most of the figures. Theset of musicians on the cornice are three dimensional figures.The temple also contains panels of das avatar, Vishnu inanantasaya and Bhishma in sarasajya (bed of arrows).Located at a short distance away is the Vishnu Templebelonging to the De family and follows the same pattern ofNaba Ratna architecture. The arch panel shows a series ofboats, some with armed guards and other with noble menand ladies, including a scene where a noble man smokes ahookah carried by an attendant in another boat.Another arch panel shows two jumping lions embedded on afloral motif complete with birds and flowers. Just above thelions is a fantastic panel showing Ram and Sita enthronedattended by monkeys and musicians. A little away from the


On the southern end of the temple lies the Natmandir, whoseroof has long been collapsed. Covering a larger area than thetemple, the Natmandir has a triple arched entrance facingthe temple and a single arched entrance marks the two sides.The first systematic efforts of restoration of the GokulchandTemple date back to 1923 when Rakhaldas Bandopadhyayof Mohenjodaro fame, visited the temple complex. But sadlyit was only in 1996 the Archeological Survey of India (ASI)took over the temple and declared it a monument of nationalImportance.During this long period of neglect the Gokulchand Temple hasseen very bad days. Large quantities of stones have been removedby contractors for construction of roads and buildings. Today thelooting has stopped but the complex is still littered with stoneslabs reminding one of thehorrifying days of plunder.Kotulpur: Kotulpur is locatedabout 38 km south-east ofBishnupur and contains somefine terracotta temples alongwith large mansions. TheBhadra family of Kotulpur madea fortune trading with theBritish and constructed palatialmansions and large number oftemples. Sadly the ruins themansions and few of the templesstill stand reminding one of theglorious days of Kotulpur.The Girigobardhan Temple isthe star attraction of Kotulpur.The panch-ratna (fivepinnacled) temple follows the girigobardhan style and lookslike a boulder. The Sridhar temple contains intricate terracottaworks. Kotulpur also has a 17 pinnacled Rashmancha and 9pinnacled Dolmancha.Sonamukhi: Sonamukhi is located 36 km north of Bishnupur.The town was mentioned as a village of tanti (weavers) inthe 17th century manuscript of Deshaabali-bibriti, written byJaganmohan. Sonamukhi, meaning gold faced, is named afterancient village deity “Swarnamukhi.” The temple of DeviSwarnamukhi, although modified into a modern structure,can still be seen in Sonamukhi.But the star attraction of Sonamukhi is the Sridhar Temple.Built in Panchabinsati Ratna (25 pinnacled) style, the templenot only follows a unique style but also houses some of the

Sridhar Temple follows a unique style and houses someof the most beautiful and intricate terracotta art

A church like towering nine pinnacled temple withintricate terracotta in Hadal-Narayanpur

Dharapat Temple has images ofJain Tirthankars


most beautiful and intricate terracotta art of West Bengal.Located in the Madan Gali, near the chowrasta (where fourroads meet) of Sonamukhi, the Sridhar Temple wasconstructed in 1845 by Kanai Rudra, a weaver. Presentlythe ownership of the Sridhar Temple is with a Ganguly family.The Sridhar Temple has terracotta on all four sides but almostthree of its sides are badly encroached upon. This templetoo is in an utter stage of neglect and needs immediateprofessional conservation.Sonamukhi also houses several other temples and religiousstructures but sadly most of them have been reconstructedinto modern structures and in the process wiped out centuriesof intricate terracotta art.Hadal-Narayanpur: Hadal and Narayanpur are twin villagesapproachable from Bishnupur via Sonamukhi. Three branchesof the erstwhile Mondal zamindar family erected huge mansionsand intricate terracotta temples, many of which have survivedthe test of time and can be seen to this day.During the reign of Malla King Gopal Singha (1720-1752)Muchiram Ghosh came in Hadal-Narayanpur and with the helpof Subhankar Das, a member of the royal court, settled downand started his business. He made a fortune by dealing withneel (indigo) and received the title of Mondal. Ghosh built severaltemples and mansions and his descendents followed his footstepsturning the non-descriptive village into a temple town.Today the temples of Hadal-Narayanpur are divided into threeparts Chototaraf, Mejotaraf amd Borotaraf. The Chototarafcontains a natmandir and two terracotta temples. The starattraction of the Chototaraf is a church like towering nine-

pinnacled temple with intricate terracotta. The panel showingArjun firing an arrow at the fish’s eye at Draupadi’s Swayamvardefinitely stands out among the other panels.The nine-pinnacled Radha Damodar Temple is the starattraction of Mejotaraf. It contains a detailed panel of theRamayana war with Goddess Durga in the middle. The templealso contains interesting panels of Bishnu in anantasayana(Lord Vishnu in reclining position).Only Barataraf has no terracotta temple but it is largelycompensated by the huge Mondal Mansion with its archedgateways. A towering octagonal rashmancha with beautifulterracotta work is another attraction. There is also a beautifulbrass chariot, which is taken out during the Rathayatra festival.Dihar: Located 8 km from Bishnupur on the Bishnupur-Sonamukhi highway, the village of Dihar houses two ruinedbut majestic temples. Both the temples are dedicated toLord Shiva and are known as Sareswar and Saileswar. ANandi (bull) guards the entrance of Sareswar Temple.Built in 1346 by the Malla King Prithvi Malla, the templesfollow the Oriya Deul style. Deul styled temples are Hindutemple styles that evolved and became standardised in northIndia, Orissa, and the Deccan between the 6th and the 10th

centuries. The towering spires of both Sareswar and Saileswarhave long collapsed, but they still command majesticpresence. The temple contains beautiful floral and geometricstucco work.Dharapat: Dharapat is located 11 km north of Bishnupur, onthe Bishnupur-Ajodhya highway. A plastered laterite Oriya styleDeul temple is the main attraction of Dharpat. The temple is

Dihar Temples contain beautiful floral andgeometric stucco work

Hadal-Narayanpur Mansion


complete with flying lions, signifying Oriya influence. Built in1701 by King Advesh of Dharapat, the temple contains imagesof naked Jain Tirthankar on its outer walls, hence the nameNangta Thakur er Mandir (Temple of the Naked God).According to historian Amiya Banerjee, the deul like structurewas actually a Jain Temple which may have been convertedinto a Hindu Temple.The temple contains four stone panels on its four walls. Theeastern wall contains a massive panel of Vishnu, completewith two men flying above Vishnu’s head and two women athis feet. The other three sides contain naked images of JainTirthankars. Dharapat also contains a temple complexhousing of 10 smaller Deul styled temples.Bahulara: Located 14 km from Bishnupur, near the Ondagramrailway station, Bahulara village has the distinction of housingSiddheshwar Temple, one of the oldest and unique templesin the whole of West Bengal. It is renowned for its unique

architectural style and exquisite ornamentation of the templewalls. Built in brick, the Siddheshwar Temple stands on abase measuring 30 feet by 27 feet and towers to a height of64 feet. Not much is known about the temple but it isbelieved to have been built in the 11th century. In 1972, Mr.J. D. Beglar of ASI described Siddheshwar Temple as the“The best in this district.”A corbelled arch leads to the inner sanctum of theSiddheshwar Temple which contains images of Ganesh,Durga and a Jain Tirthankar. The southern side of the templecomplex houses scattered remains of dilapidated stupas.

Suggested itineraryDay1: Explore Bishnupur. It can be best done in a combinationof walking and cycle rickshaw rides.Day2: Hire a car to visit Sonamukhi, Hadal-Narayanpur,Dharapat, Dihar and Bahulara. This would take an entire day.Day3: Hire a car to visit Joypur, Gokulnagar and Kotulpur.This would take half a day.

Necessary informationGetting there: Bishnupur is well connected to Kolkata by railand bus. The train journey is more comfortable.

Places to stay: West Bengal Tourist Lodge is the best option,however, there are hotels of all budgets.

Places to eat: Bishnupur has several good eateries but duringexcursion, only basic food is availableat roadside stalls, so it is best to carrysome food and water along.

A mathematics teacher byprofession, the writer is a regularcontributor in the travel columnsof leading newspapers. To knowmore, visit his website www.rangan-datta.info and blogwww.rangandatta.wordpress.com

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36 ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE ONE INDIA ONE PEOPLE June 20132013201320132013

“The proposed National Food Security Bill isThe proposed National Food Security Bill isThe proposed National Food Security Bill isThe proposed National Food Security Bill isThe proposed National Food Security Bill isnothing but an old wine in a new bottlenothing but an old wine in a new bottlenothing but an old wine in a new bottlenothing but an old wine in a new bottlenothing but an old wine in a new bottle”

Huge funds are allocated for the variousgovernment schemes like PDS, NREGA, IndiraAwas Yojana etc, and on paper, they lookalmost perfect but their implementation isinvariably flawed. What should be done toplug loopholes and ensure that the benefitsreach the needy?It is generally believed that the schemes/programmes are well thought of and also wellframed but it is at the implementation stagewhere the problems arise. But in my thinking,much of the fault lies at the policy planning levelitself. Most policies nowadays are prepared by theconcerned Ministries in consultation with the industry.More often than not you will find that the policiesare for all practical purposesproposed and written bythe industry lobbygroups. Even whenthe policies aremeant for the socialsector, mostconsultations happen

FFFFFACE TO FACE TO FACE TO FACE TO FACE TO FACEACEACEACEACE

Devinder Sharma is a distinguished food and trade policy analyst.Trained as an agricultural scientist, Sharma quit active journalism toresearch on policy issues concerning sustainable agriculture,biodiversity and intellectual property rights, environment anddevelopment, food security and poverty, biotechnology and hunger,and the implications of the free trade paradigm for developingcountries and has authored four books.The popular Indian weekly magazine The Week in its issue dated Aug16, 2009 listed Devinder Sharma among the 25 Most ValuableIndians, calling him ‘Green Chomsky”. Sharma is associated withnumerous national and international organisations, civil societygroups and farmers organisations.In an interview with One India OnePeople, Sharma says it is high time India brings back the focus onrejuvenating agriculture.

with the industry or with a groupof experts only.I have never understood how andwhy a handful of bureaucrats/experts should prepare anational policy, and also theaction plan (rules andregulations) to go along withit. With such myopic thinkingand vision, we end up doing ashoddy job. Since these policies,and equally important the framingof rules, isnot doneunder a widely

Devinder Sharma


consultative process, the loopholes remain. It is not atransparent process, and invariably does not involve the publicat large. Take the case of MNREGA. This is considered tobe a flagship programme of UPA. But were the beneficiariesever consulted (through public hearings) before the planwas formulated? I am sure you will agree that it is only thebeneficiaries who could have pointed to the loopholes, andwhat needs to be done to plug these and thereby make theprogramme fool proof and effective.

The proposed National Food Security Bill, 2013 promisesto ‘provide for food and nutritional security by ensuringaccess to adequate quantity of quality food at affordableprices...’ Do you think it will deliver what it promises?What flaws do you see?I think it is an opportunity lost. What is being presented asthe National Food Security Bill is nothing but an old wine ina new bottle. With a little bit of tinkering,and by of course making it rights based, itis the failed public distribution system thathas been rechristened as National FoodSecurity Bill. It is actually a food-for-voteprogramme and has therefore beenintroduced in Parliament just before theelections. It should therefore not be seenanything more than that.Whether the bill brings the UPA-III intosaddle is a different question but what ismore important is whether the proposedbill will address the problem of hunger andmalnutrition in a manner that in the longrun it significantly reduces the populationof hungry. After all, in a country, whichhas the largest population of hungry in theworld, and which as per the Global HungerIndex ranks 66th among 105 countries, the food law willonly serve its purpose if the number of hungry graduallycomes down in the years to come.Moreover, unless the food bill provides a roadmap to buildup the capacity of the hungry to ensure their own foodsecurity, in the sense that they become self-reliant inaddressing their own food and nutritional insecurity, I thinkit may be practically impossible to sustain the massivefeeding programme in the years to come. With policy makersnot looking beyond 2014 elections, it is therefore a lostopportunity.

You have also spoken against the proposed cash-for-foodprogramme. Why?The enthusiasm for routing the food subsidy in the form ofcash transfers has severe political advantages but at thesame time has serious fallout in the fight against hungerand malnutrition.Providing cash in the hands of poor beneficiaries meansless emphasis on the PDS ration shops. The idea is to providecoupons or provide food entitlements in the form of cash,and leaving it to the people to buy their quota from themarket. Whether the money provided would be used primarilyto buy liquor, junk foods or other consumer goods is animportant issue, but what is more important is to understandhow it is aimed at dismantling the food procurement system.This subtle way, very cleverly designed, would undo thegains of food self-sufficiency so assiduously achieved afterthe advent of Green Revolution.

The underlying objective is very clear.Once the direct cash transfers begin, theration shops would be gradually phasedout. Once the PDS shops are removed,the cap in food procurement by FCI thatis being suggested will come into play.With food procurement limited to meetthe buffer requirements, which issomewhere between 14 to 22 milliontonnes a year (against 90 million tonnesexpected to be stocked with the FCI inJune 2013), wheat and rice farmerswould no longer get the benefit of theminimum support price. Farmers wouldbe left to face the vagaries of themarkets, and as has been the experiencein those States which do not have arobust system of mandis and thereby

unable to provide farmers with assured prices, distress salewill become a norm.Withdrawal of food procurement system will have an impacton food production. This would force farmers to abandonfarming, and migrate to the urban centres. This is exactlywhat the World Bank has been proposing for several yearsnow. The 2008 World Development Report had called forland rentals and providing farmers with training opportunitiesso that they can be absorbed in the industry. In fact, thePrime Minister himself has said that the country does notneed 70 per cent farmers, and all out efforts should be

National FoodSecurity Bill is

actually a food-for-vote programme

and has thereforebeen introduced in

Parliament justbefore the

elections. It shouldtherefore not be

seen anything morethan that.


made to shift them to the urban centres. A population shiftfrom rural to the urban centres is the underlined policy thrust.The Food Ministry has meanwhile asked the Forward MarketsCommission to look into the possibility of allowing FCI toenter commodity trading. In other words, the government isalready contemplating divesting FCI of its sovereign role andin turn convert it into a key market player. The cash-for-foodprogramme therefore has to be seen in the light of theother policy changes being considered.

The issue of starvation and food insecurity is not becauseof less production. India’s storehouses are overflowing withrotting food grains. Where is the missing link? How do werectify the system? When can we truly see povertyeliminated from India?Yes, India continues to be faced with a paradox of plenty. Onthe one hand its grain silos are bursting at the seams, andon the other teeming millions live inhunger. Since 2000-01, on an averagethe foodgrain surplus every year has beenaround 60 million tonnes. In 2012, it hasa record surplus of 82.3 million tonnes.Not knowing what to do with the recordsurplus, the government has so farexported about 10 million tonnes each ofwheat and rice. This year again, by June2013, foodgrain surplus will be around90 million tonnes. Once again, thegovernment is contemplating exportingmore food grains.Hunger, malnutrition and starvationtherefore are not the result of any shortfallin production. It is the outcome of faultypolicies leading to gross mismanagementon the food front. I have always said thatit is criminal for any hungry nation to be exporting food grains.I believe that India should adopt a two-pronged strategy toaddress hunger. First, it is important to rework the povertyline. The existing poverty line, of ̀ 28 and ̀ 24 respectivelyfor the urban and rural areas, is actually the hunger line. In` 28 per day it is not possible to feed a pet dog. The povertyline has been kept artificially very low and in reality denotesthe population living in hunger. This section of the populationmust get food aid.In other words, India should have two lines. The approachto address hunger for this section of the population should

be to build up their capacity in such a manner that theybecome self-reliant. In many villages, which have builtcommunity grainbanks and have therefore addressed hungerat the village level itself, have become food secure. It ishigh time the government, by involving NGOs and self-helpgroups, replicate this model.Making agriculture more economical and sustainable is whatis urgently required. Instead of translocating rural population,the focus should be to bring more economic prosperity intothe villages. The terms of trade must be made morefavourable for the villages. As Mahatma Gandhi had said:What India needs is a production system by the masses, andnot for the masses.

India today is in what I would call the greatest agrariancrisis since the eve of the Green Revolution. Do you thinkit is time for another green revolution? What is the way

forward?Yes, India is passing through a terribleagrarian crisis. Over 2.9 lakh farmers havecommitted suicide in the past 15 years,and another 42 per cent want to quitagriculture if given an alternative. What ishowever not being realised is that theprevailing crisis is the outcome of the GreenRevolution. Over the years, repeatedemphasis on intensive farming systems,monoculture, excessive use and abuse ofchemical pesticides, coupled with faultypricing policies have pushed farming intothe throes of unsustainability and renderedagriculture unviable.Instead of learning from the mistakes made,we are however trying to bypass the crisisso that the needle of suspicion does not

point to the agricultural scientists, economists, administratorsand policy makers. The people who were responsible forthe crisis are now being asked to provide solutions. Theproposal to bring in 2nd Green Revolution, which is aeuphemism for corporate farming, shows we haven’t drawnany lesson nor are we keen to make some historic corrections.What is therefore needed is to overhaul the existing farmingsystems by bringing in agro-ecological methods. In AndhraPradesh for instance 10 million farmers are practicing non-pesticides management in 10 million hectares. In half ofthese areas, farmers have stopped using chemical fertilisers

Hunger,malnutrition and

starvationtherefore are notthe result of any

shortfall inproduction. It isthe outcome offaulty policies

leading to grossmismanagementon the food front.


also. Agriculture hasn’t collapsed. Instead it has grown. Soilfertility is getting restored, water mining has been curtailed,pest incidence has decreased, environment has becomecleaner, and the farm incomes have gone up. Why can’t thesame model of farming be replicated elsewhere? What Indianeeds is not a second Green Revolution that will exacerbatethe existing crisis, but to adopt the AP model of ‘CommunityManaged Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA)’.

Farmers’ suicides in India continue to be a matter ofconcern. Agricultural development seems to have beenon the backburner of the government which feels thatindustrial development is the only way forward. How canwe ensure sustainable development?Yes, farmer suicides are a matter of great concern. As I wassaying, it is high time India brings back the focus onrejuvenating agriculture. The obsession the planners havewith agriculture growth needs to be replacedimmediately with the benefit that policiescan bring to improve farmer welfare. This ispossible provided we follow the followingthree broad approaches: 1) Launch a massivenationwide programme to restore soil fertility,revive groundwater levels, and stop thedestruction of the natural resource base.The CMSA model from Andhra Pradesh,with local adaptation in different agro-climatic zones, can serve as the guidingspirit. 2) Disband ‘minimum support price(MSP)’ and replace it with Direct IncomeSupport for farmers. The need of the timesis to set up a National Farmers’ IncomeCommission which works out the monthlytake-home package for farmers dependingupon his production, farm size, and its geographical location.The NSSO works out the average monthly income of afarm family at ̀ 2115. This is scandalous, and since farmersalso generate economic wealth in the form of agriculturalcommodities, it is time to adequately compensate themfor their contribution. 3) Restrict imports of agriculturalcommodities under World Trade Organisation (WTO) andthe Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). There is a need to raiseimport tariffs to protect domestic agriculture. I see no reasonwhy duties on edible oil imports are zero thereby floodingthe Indian market with edible oil imports exceeding`60,000 crores. This money should go to Indian farmers

who can produce enough oilseeds to cater to the nation’sdemands. Raise the duties, stop imports and the farmerswill do the rest.

As an agricultural scientist, who has spent years in researchand policy analysis, could you tell us your key learningsabout the agrarian crisis in India and what needs to bedone to avert a crisis in future?Over the years, I have realised that the continuing agrariancrisis is the outcome of western disturbances. Ever sincethe first agricultural university at Pantnagar (then in UttarPradesh) came up under the land grant system of educationborrowed from the United States, the entire education,research and extension has been tuned to the Americancurriculum. Not only has the university campuses, whichwere initially set up by USAID, the entire education syllabus

too been borrowed from the West. Theresult is that we have producedgenerations after generations ofagricultural scientists and economistswho have been programmed to believethat Indian agriculture is backward, sub-standard and inefficient.We have been programmed to believethat if we really need to improveagriculture we must borrow research andeducation from the western universities.In the process, we ignored our ownstrengths so much so that we destroyedwhat could have been the foundation fora highly successful and economicallyviable agriculture. Take the case ofdomestic breeds of cows. We were madeto believe that Indian breeds were

unproductive and so we have no other option but to importexotic breeds like Jersey and Holstein-Friesen if we had toimprove our milk production. We did it. But now I find thatwhile we discarded our own cattle breeds, Brazil has becomethe biggest exporter of Indian breeds of cows. In other words,if we had worked to improve our own majestic breeds, ourcows wouldn’t have been roaming in the streets.We have already done enough damage. It is time to go backto the farms, look into our own backyards, and find solutionsto the prevailing crisis. The solution to India’s agriculturalcrisis lies within India. We don’t have to look for solutions inAmerica or Europe. There is no other way.

We have producedgenerations after

generations ofagricultural

scientists andeconomists who

have beenprogrammed to

believe that Indianagriculture is

backward, sub-standard and

inefficient.


IIIIIT was nearing midnight in thenotorious district of Hira Mandi inLahore, then a flourishing

cosmopolitan city in undivided India.Several men had gathered outside apaan shop for a quick post-dinner paan.Among them was the lyricist-directorWalli Mohammad Walli, better knownin the Lahore film industry as WalliSahib. For quite some time now hehad been staring at a handsome youngman who seemed ideal “hero

… and, above all, P… and, above all, P… and, above all, P… and, above all, P… and, above all, PranranranranranA talented actor andone of the stylishvillains on Indianscreen, Pran wasrecently honouredwith the prestigiousDadasaheb PhalkeAward for LifetimeAchievement. SanjitNarwekar pays tributeto the iconic bad manof Indian cinema.

material”. Momentslater he introducedhimself to the youngman and invited himto the Pancholi ArtStudio for a screentest.The young man hadambitions in that di-rection but wassceptical of the of-

fer – probably because of the time,place and manner in which it wasmade. He muttered to himself, “Raatkeandhere mein har aadmi apne aapkowalli samajta hain.” Translated itmeans, “In the darkness of the nighteveryone thinks he is a walli (a wiseman)”. And so, the next day, he didnot go to the studio.A few days later the two once againmet during a film show at the Plaza inAs Sher Khan in Zanjeer

INDIAN CINEMA INDIAN CINEMA INDIAN CINEMA INDIAN CINEMA INDIAN CINEMA


Lahore. This time the young man tookthe offer seriously and did go to thePancholi Art Studio where he wassigned for a small negative role in thePunjabi film Yamla Jat (1940). Thusbegan a career which was to span twocountries over a little more than sixdecades.Pran was not a born Lahorite; he wasactually born into a wealthy Punjabifamily of Old Delhi at Ballimaran,Kotgarh on 12 February, 1920. Hisfather, Kewal Krishan Sikand, was atrained civil engineer who worked as agovernment civil contractor. Hisfather’s transferable job compelled himto study in various places, includingDehradun, Kapurthala, Meerut andUnnao (Uttar Pradesh), f inallycompleting his matriculation from RazaHigh School, in Rampur.He was academically gifted, especiallyin mathematics, but, being creativelyinclined, he wanted to make a careeras a photographer and so, he workedas an apprentice with A. Das & Co.,Delhi before leaving for Lahore wheredestiny waited for him.Pran was handsome enough to play thehero – and he did play the hero in atleast one film (Khandaan/1942)opposite Noorjehan, then in her early

teens– but fate had other plans for him.Yamla Jat was a superhit and other filmsfollowed in quick succession, notablySahara (1943), Daasi (1944), KaiseKahoon (1945), Badnami (1946)and Khamosh Nigahen (1946). Hewas so popular that within the spaceof just five years he had acted in 23films.

moment, he decided to stay back withhis family in India. So disappointed washe with the turn of events that henever returned to Lahore even for a visit– though there were several invitationsafter he had made it big in the Bombayfilm industr y. Pran explains hisreluctance to visit Lahore as anemotional matter: he found it difficultto return to a place from where he wasonce forced to leave because of hisreligion.However, the fractured film industry ofIndia had changed considerably. Therewere many other actors from the otherside of the newly-drawn border lookingfor work. So, even the 23 films he haddone in Lahore could not get him anywork in Bombay. He began to work atHotel Delmar in order to look after hisfamily till noted Urdu writer SadatHasan Manto got him the villain’s rolein Bombay Talkies’ Ziddi, starring DevAnand and Kamini Kaushal. The filmwas a huge hit and established thecareers of all three artistes.Within a week of Ziddi’s success, hesigned three more fi lms; S. M.Yusuf ’ s Grihasti (1948), whichbecame a diamond jubilee hit, PrabhatFilm Company’s Apradhi (1949) andWali Mohammad’s Putli (1949).

Partition found Pran in Bombay, wherehe had come to be with his family onthe occasion of his son Arvind’s birthdayon August 11. The rioting had not yetbegun but, sensing the mood of the

Pran received the Dadasaheb PhalkeAward for Lifetime Achievement athis home

Pran paid great attention to change his make-up and approach toevery role so that no two roles looked alike.

With the positive character of MalangChacha in Upkaar (1967), Pran began anew chapter in his career.


Another huge hit was Badi Bahen(1949). In the meantime two filmswhich he had completed in pre-Pa r t i t i o n L aho r e we r e a l s or e l e a s ed : Taraash (1951)and Khanabadosh (1952). After thatthere was no looking back and Pranwent on to become one of the mostsuccessful villains of Hindi cinemaplaying the foil to the top three leadingmen of his era: Dilip Kumar, Dev Anandand Raj Kapoor. Though he played thevillain in film after film he took care tochange his make-up and approach toevery role so that no two roles lookedalike. That plus the dialogue ensuredthat every role he played was avariation, a milestone.In the foreword to Pran’s biography AndPran, Amitabh Bachchan remembershis first association with the legendaryvillain in Zanjeer thus: “I was relativelynew to the film industry. I did feelapprehensive but Pran Saab was veryhelpful and he set me at ease. In fact,he was the biggest selling point of thefilm. I marvelled at the manner inwhich he took tremendous care of his

Kyoon?AurKahan?, Gaddar, AndhaaKanoon, Duniya, Hoshiyar, DharmAdhikari and Azaad Desh Ke Ghulam)the positive roles were in overwhelmingnumbers.Pran had played in comic films likePilpili Saheb (1954) and then oppositeMehmood and Kishore Kumar (HalfTicket, Manmauji) but in the 1980she formed a great comedy team withfriend Ashok Kumar in films likeVictoria No. 203, Chori Mera Kaam,Chor Ke Ghar Chor, Apna Khoon, AapKe Deewane and Raja Aur Rana.After acting for more than half-a-century Pran began to refuse films fromthe mid-1990s, but the pressure

continued unabated till1999 (Manoj Kumar’s JaiHind). In the newmillennium he acted in justthree fi lms: Tum JiyoHazaron Saal (2002), EkHindustani (2003) andDosh (2007). Pran is nolonger in the public spacebut his innumerable films(361 at last count) willkeep him in the publicmemory forever.Even for an actor like Pranwho has won more awardsthan he can possibly

remember, the Dadasaheb PhalkeAward for Lifetime Achievement issurely something special. It was a littlelate in coming (many of hiscontemporaries have won it severalyears ago) but it is undoubtedly a fittingculmination and tribute to a careerwhich spans the history of post-

IndependenceH i n d iCinema.

The writer is aNationalaward-winningfilm historian,scriptwriteranddocumentaryfilmmaker.

looks. Right from ahennaed wig andbeard, to hiscostume andmake-up, heensured that everyelement wasflawless.”During this periodhe played thecentral characteronly once: that, too, as the evil Kingin Halaku (1956). He became evilpersonified–so much so that mothershesitated (if not refused) to name theirboys Pran.Pran began a new chapter in his careerin the mid-1960s when a brief cameoin Shaheed (1965) led to a friendshipwith the matinee idol turned producer-director Manoj Kumar who gave himthe positive character of MalangChacha in Upkaar (1967). Once beforehe had played Raj Kapoor ’ssympathetic friend in Aah but the filmfailed and his performance was lost.Upkaar set the trend and though hedid play the occasional bad man (Kab?

Pran played a comic role in the 1962 classic, Half TicketPran is no

longer in thepublic space

but hisinnumerablefilms (361 at

last count) willkeep him in thepublic memory

forever.


HOW important is one’s mothertongue to the citizen oftomorrow? In an age of rapid

globalisation and the jet-age speed withwhich we are on the informationhighway, ‘not much’ if one were toconsider urban children in most English-speaking countries of the world. Themother tongue cannot afford to receivestep-motherly treatment from social andacademic circles. It opens the windowto the world because it helps the infantstep down from the mother’s lap tocrawl, take its first tottering steps andthen run to join the world.Language is linked to its communicativequalities, its qualities of expression andarticulation in writing, in print and invocal articulation. The mother tongueas a language for daily use in life andat work, in reaching out and crossingborders, has received a bad beating atthe hands of more ‘elite’ and universallyaccepted languages like English orFrench for urban and elite Indians. Themother tongue is described as the firstlanguage an individual learns, alsocalled primary language. This termdefines the language that people knowbest and use the most, thecommunication tool people most closelyidentify themselves with. It is with thisconcept in mind that the celebrationof Mother Language Day was created,to represent two crucial componentsof the value of all world languages.Languages are the communication tools

Mother tongue, anMother tongue, anMother tongue, anMother tongue, anMother tongue, anendangered languageendangered languageendangered languageendangered languageendangered languageOf the 6000 odd languages spoken all over the world, 1652 originate inIndia, where the dialects are spoken in various regions of the states. AsEnglish becomes a preferred language of communication, Shoma A.Chatterjee fears that the mother tongue will soon disappear from our lives.

used by human beings to channel theirexpressions of identity and belonging,while mother tongue represents themost familiar language that oneexperiences while learning tocommunicate.

Fifty per cent world languages todie outAccording to UNESCO, roughly over6,000 languages are spoken across theworld. At least 50 per cent of themare expected to die out during thecurrent century. It is a real challengeto ensure that the ‘endangered’languages, 95 per cent of which arespoken by only four per cent of theworld’s population, continue to be usedalongside the world’s major languages.Monolingual countries like Japan,China, Korea, France and Germany,made rapid progress as a result ofimparting basic and higher educationto their citizens in their own languages.History has shown that the economicdevelopment of these countries has notsuffered in the least as the result ofthe paucity of knowledge and use ofEnglish. No one is suggesting thereplacement of English with themother tongue in education. But basiceducation in the mother tongue hasalways proved to be a big boost to themacro-sociology of the country and tothe development of the personality ofthe child. Studies show that we learnbetter in our mother tongue. But then

it has to be taught in school, which isnot the case for all minority languages.More convinced than ever of the valueof multilingualism, certain countriesare trying to promote learning in anumber of languages. However, thepolitical and economic obstacles areenormous.

Language-based nationalismThe celebration of International MotherTongue day recognised by UNESCO in1999, has a history of bloodshed andviolence that took the lives of innocentpeople, including students, scholarsand intellectuals because they assertedtheir right to use their mother tongue,Bengali, in all forms of communicationin place of Urdu. This day is February21. It celebrates the martyrdom ofpeople who laid down their lives duringthe Language Movement in EastPakistan, now Bangladesh.After the British rule, Bangladesh (theformer East Pakistan) underwent newcolonial subjugation by Pakistani rulers.From the beginning of its ‘emancipation’(1947) Pakistani rulers denied theBengali people equal opportunity. TheBengali community, conscious of thisdiscriminatory policy, took steps toorganise themselves. The LanguageMovement of 1952 brought forth acompletely new movement hithertounknown in the history of worldculture – language-based nationalism.The Bengali community felt that if

ISSUE ISSUE ISSUE ISSUE ISSUE


the mother tongue is denied to them,they would fight for independentterritorial identity rooted in love forits mother tongue. After its leader,Awami League’s Sheikh MujiburRahman gained majori ty in thenational parliamentary election of1970, Bangladesh achievedindependence.Mass support was the key spirit withinfreedom fighters in their struggleagainst a brutal army. Bangladeshgained support from across the world.Together with Pandit Ravi Shankar,pop singer George Harrison arranged aconcert to strengthen worldwidesupport for Bengalis. After a nine-month war of liberation, at the cost ofmillions of lives, Bangladesh wascreated on 16 December 1971. Forthe first time a country had chosen toidentify itself with its language andculture. International Mother LanguageDay, celebrated annually on February

21, aims to promote the recognitionand practice of the world’s mothertongues, particularly minority ones.According to the 1961 Census, Indiahas 1652 mother tongues identifiedwith various nomenclatures in post-Independent India such as ScheduledLanguages, Non-Scheduledlanguages, Regional languages, majorlanguages, minor languages, minoritylanguages, tribal languages, etc.There is no mention of the word‘mother tongue’ anywhere in thisclassification. This creates fear in ourminds about the completedisappearance of many of these 1652languages by sheer virtue of aclassification based on a hierarchy ofcaste and class. The classificationautomatically creates a ‘ghetto’ inlanguage, leading to fragmentation oflanguage based on caste and class andthus, power – economic, cultural andsocial. The aesthetic, scriptural and

literal qualities of any mother tonguewill remain unknown to the world, tillit dies an ignominious death at thehands of politics, bureaucracy, E-mail,the Internet and the Establishment.One is reminded of VigdisFinnbogadottir, UNESCO’s GoodwillAmbassador for Languages, FormerPresident of Iceland, who said:“Everyone loses if one language is lostbecause then a nation and culture losetheir memory, and so does thecomplex tapestry from which theworld is woven and which makes theworld an exciting place.”

The writer is afreelancejournalist, filmscholar andauthor. Shehas authored17 publishedtitles and wonthe NationalAward for BestWriting onCinema twice.


A RE men and women trulyequal?‘A woman is human.

She is not more creative, intelligent,better, wiser or stronger than any man.Likewise, she is never less.Equality is a given.A woman is human.’As I write this, I remember RashnaazApa, who I had met while volunteeringwith a women’s rehabilitationorganisation sometime ago. Apa, acalm and composed elderly woman,was heading the organisation. I got toknow more about her life as I startedworking with her. Apa had lost heryoung daughter to a horrific case ofdowry death and had established theorganisation hence. One day, out of theblue, she asked me in her chaste Urdu,“Do you consider yourself to be afeminist?” My prompt reply was, “Yes,I very much do.” Apa seemed stoic andwhat she said next stunned me. “Oh!I’ve hardly met anyone who is afeminist out of choice. Feminism isgenerally a creation of circumstance,not of choice.” I kept thinking aboutwhat she had said, trying to figure whatit is about our culture and upbringingthat gives women this choice. Sincewhen has seeking equality of sexesbecome an option? Wouldn’t all womenwant it irrespective of what they havebeen through? That brings us to thecrucial question. Are men and womentruly equal? How we answer thisquestion reflects our politics, our

YOUTH VOICEYOUTH VOICEYOUTH VOICEYOUTH VOICEYOUTH VOICE

“When has seeking equality ofWhen has seeking equality ofWhen has seeking equality ofWhen has seeking equality ofWhen has seeking equality ofsesesesesexxxxxes become an option?es become an option?es become an option?es become an option?es become an option?”Anuja Gopalan is a lawyer, fresh out of law school. She cares deeplyabout civil rights, gender equality and education. She enjoys researchand analysis and hopes to make a fulfilling career as an academician.

ideology, highlights our socio-culturalcontext as well as gives hints abouthow we live our private lives.Equality, to me is the recognition ofthe concept that inspite of ourevident differences, we deserve to betreated in the same manner and ascompassionate human beings. It isthe acceptance of our differences,not only physical but also mental andphysiological and the acceptancethat we all have positive qualitiesas wells as faults too. Equality pavesway for human beings of all castes,races, genders, classes to be giventhe same political, social and culturalrights.If this concept is so easy to understand,then why are we failing as a society totreat women on par with the men? Theproblem’s genesis lies in the pre-established hierarchy of Indian society.

Patriarchy has had a strong footholdin India since times immemorial.Patriarchy is evidentiary power. Itallows the male to exercise his powerand dominance over the femalemembers of his family. Women havebeen dominated upon for so manycenturies that the demand for equalityfrom them is hard for the male mindto digest. Every day, we see themonster of a misogynist society raisingits ugly head and sabotaging the effortfor equality. The Delhi gangrape caseonly goes to show the extent to whichmen can go to prove their power on avulnerable woman. Equality only desiresfor women to be treated as civil humanbeings and not cattle. Men and womencan never be equal unless thehierarchical foundation of our socialstructure is destroyed and the idea ofthe inherent equality of human beings,qua human beings, is enthroned in ourculture.The fight for equality does not meanthat women try to be masculine or thatmen have to have feminine traits, butthat women too have the right to herlife and freedom as much as the menhave. What is stopping us in achievingthis simple objective is our obsessionwith power and male dominance.I would like to conclude with a quotefrom John Steinbeck - “And finally, in our time a beard is theone thing that a woman cannot dobetter than a man, or if she can, hersuccess is assured only in a circus.”

Anuja Gopalan


IIIII ts status as a word connotingculture, grandeur, refinement all atonce, has made ‘Raga’ familiar to

the globe. For such popularity, pricehas been paid by Indian Classical Music.Most enthusiasts consider Raga to be-all and end-all of Indian classicaltradition. Oblivious to hazards andachievements that formulate itsprogress, they mistake the lengthyjourney for its current destination. Asmusic matured during Vedic period,Jaati-s came into existence. It was onlywhen Shadja (the defining note of thescale from which the other six notesemerge) stabilised between 8th to 11th

century due to application of frets inKinnari Veena, that the concept ofRaga began to develop. The term findsfirst mention in Matang’s Brihaddeshi(a classical Sanskrit text on Indianclassical music, attributedto Matanga Muni).

Knowing ‘Raga’Defining Raga is challenging. “Raga isa Sanskrit word that has umpteenshades of meaning – from love,affection, desire and infatuation toentertainment, pursuit, disposition,poetry and music.” (http://w w w . o m e n a d . n e t / a r t i c l e s /logicmuse.htm) It does echo thatsensibility, which defies confinementwithin measurable bounds. In otherwords, the expression of Indian musicwhile exhibiting perfect mathematicalintegrity in retrospect, is guided byimpulsive consciousness in practice. Thisleads to complex nature of musicalstructure that constitutes a Raga. In

CULCULCULCULCULTURAL KTURAL KTURAL KTURAL KTURAL KALEIDOSCOPEALEIDOSCOPEALEIDOSCOPEALEIDOSCOPEALEIDOSCOPE

Serving muse through ragaServing muse through ragaServing muse through ragaServing muse through ragaServing muse through ragaThe Raga tradition of India is under dire threat of oblivion, thoughprofit-making stake-holders try to cover up this obvious fact, saysProf. Rajiv Trivedi.

form, it does have a fixed number ofpermitted and prohibited notes followingeach other in prescribed permutations.In practice, a musical Raga is like afractal that despite a well-definedaspect is neither limiting nor limited.One finds a close parallel to theatrewhere different actors in separatepresentations portray a Hamlet or aRomeo in styles individual and unique,yet none of them ever twists the tale.

Classification of RagasThere have been several attempts atcategorisation and classification of raga-s. Two modern accepted forms arethaat and ang. One classifies them bythe structure of notes while the otherby movement of notes. Yet, like allclassif ications, these in no wayrepresent the potential of a given raga.Scholars tried categorising notes indifferent ways; common survivingclassification is of Thaata, of whichonly 10 could be validated. Thisclassification is based on notes. Somepreferred to identify Ragas throughRagang system. An earlier system wasbased on genesis, where each maleRaga had female Raginis and sons anddaughters born out of their union.Late Dr. Lalmani Misra, eminent Indianclassical musician and scholar, hadobserved that an artiste who followsthe path of eternal truth does not createhistory whereas one charmed andfascinated by the world of desire andallure is able to bring about changes.Indian music, it is believed, is thesmoothest way to absolution. Yet, theelement of divinity or spirituality comes

at a stage realised by few; even sageBharat restricts himself to the tangible,logical aspects of music in hisNatyashastra.Time theorists believe that similar tobody clock there exists a note-clock,for time affects music as well. Sobeginning midnight the Ragas of tenAnga cover the day. Lethargic pre-dawnnotes of Sohni, Paraj welcome Brahma-Muhoort (a period of 48 minutes beforesunrise which is considered the mostauspicious time for meditation, worshipor any other religious practice) withfreer movement of Lalit and Bhatiyar.Touched by rising sun notes of Bhairav,Ramkali and Jogiya still sound nostalgicfor night past. Forms of Todi andBhairav are played from eight to ten inthe morning. Bilawal, Bhairavi,Deshkar occupy late morning and from12 forms of Sarang celebrate the day.Multani, Bhimpalasi retain strengthbut late afternoon promotes relaxedmovement of notes. Dusk is welcomedby Patdeep, Poorvi and Shri andevening finds Ragas of Kalyan Ang intheir multi-splendoured frolic. Onceevening loses all contact with daylight,the notes in such Ragas as Durga,Desh, Kedar and Jayjaywanti exploreshades of beauty in their characteristicdelineations. Midnight is reachedthrough late Kalyan and early Kaunsraga-s and then on, it is Malkosh thatreigns supreme. Theorists citecombination of notes in particularphrases and equate it with averageactivity during a particular period in day.Yet, no rule can bind fluidity of notessave that of consonance. The Raga


pattern in simplistic terms, is settingthe boundary or an exposition throughAlap. The artiste takes up notes inproper order and dwells on them toestablish and impress the auralconnection in minds of listeners. Oncethe periphery of soundscape is drawnand connected, he goes on to fill in itwith symmetric and contrastingpatterns of note-phrases. Swara, Layaand Tal together constitute music. Sointroduction of rhythm is the nextphase. Interweaving of beats with noteswhile covering all permittedpermutations of the Raga demands forskill and practice of the artiste.Ten lakshana or characteristics ensurethat only a compatible innovation isaccepted as a valid Raga. Loyaladherents of a school are averse tounstudied ‘invention’ of new Raga-s.Admits Pandit Rajshekhar Mansur, “Ihave not created any new Raga-s…because I do not feel the need to. I haveso much that I received from elders thatall my time and efforts get spent inembracing this treasure.” On other handthere are those, who can come out witha novel Raga for every occasion. KarnaticRaga-s do not follow the regimen of TenLakshana and therefore severalmusicians draw upon this trove to createa unique bouquet. Musicians like the latePandit Ravishankar, knew how to avoidthe discordant note that might mar anotherwise melodious composition. Butwhen an enthusiastic novice tries thesame Raga, she may not sound aspleasant. That does not mean that newRaga-s cannot be created. UstadAllauddin Khan created Raga Hemantwhich employs perfect consonances andhas been performed successfully by severaldisciples. Sameshwari, a perfectShastrokta Raga was created by Dr.Lalmani Misra, which again has beenperformed by several artistes. But often,a perfect invention may still be unable tocapture attention of musicians and islikely to disappear with time.

Flawed innovationsIndian music – north Indian andKarnatic, together – has a repertory ofover 650 Ragas. Combine this withpossible Tals and almost every Indianmay have a unique Raga-Tal melodyfor himself. While this may appeal tothe digital citizen, this mammothrepertory is not conducive to massproduction. Hence, the projection of alimited few artistes has introduced theconcept of brand-marketing in Classicalmusic. Recordings follow a set patternprescribed by limits of media; so insteadof preparing for a two or three hourpresentation, artistes now focus on 28minute, 14 minute or 12 minutepresentation. Within this shortduration, they try to present new Tan-alankar patterns. Increasingly, it is themiraculous instead of melodious thatdominates these presentations. Thisaffects learning of music as well.Instead of learning to explore thecharacter of a raga through alap, thecontemporary learner devotes greatertime to novel permutations. A greatdeal of classical learning is about the“don’ts” so that one may understandthe limits of a Raga. Innovation withoutknowledge of constraints leads to novelsounds that lack cohesion and integrityand thus fail to appeal to a Rasik or amusic connoisseur . So as well-knownRaga-s like Gauri, Malgunji, Patdeep,Gunkali, Jogiya, Jait, Shree, Suha,Bihagada, Bilawal, Shankara and evenMultani go into oblivion,experimentations that vandaliseJhinjhoti, Khamaj, Bageshri andGorakh Kalyan abound. Unimaginativeperformances of Yaman, Bihag, MaruBihag, Rageshri, Bageshri, Malkauns,Chandrakauns, Todi, Ahir Bhairav,Vrindavani and Madhumat Sarang,Darbari Kanhada hurt sensibilities ofconnoisseurs. Repeated performance ofa Raga in a flawed manner by differentartistes creates controversialapplication that drives the original out.

In an earlier age of non-virtual reality,an artiste would be responsible to alive audience. It was a true exchangeof appreciation. Only when theperformer got consumed by hisperformance, did this Anand-Atirek orecstasy permeate to the listener. Suchpersonal, experiential performance waslikely to attain Ras-Nishpatti oremotional satiation. It has beenreplaced by alienated, selectivepackaging of notes which are carefullyrehearsed for a predictable response.There is l itt le Anand or blissexperienced by the performer who isfar too conscious a creator andconsequently the audience neverbecomes his Anand-Sahodar – they areno longer on the same side. By itsdesign, classical music hadtranscendence as its goal; joy andmerriment were aimed by popular music.While for grandeur and exaltation, lip-service is still given to transcendence,in practice it is entertainment thatproducers keep their focus on.

The Raga tradition under threatThe Raga tradition of India is under direthreat of oblivion; only profit-makingstake-holders try to cover up thisobvious fact. Despite severalgovernment and private agenciescreated to foster Indian art and culture,unbridled commercialism has almostsucceeded in subverting this age oldlegacy. Whereas learned enthusiastsand scholars were able to check anydeviation fifty years back, there is astrong need for strengthening the voiceof dispersed scholars/ enthusiasts thatmay inform and guide the performers.Unless a body dedicated to the causeof conservation of our intangibleheritage empowers these lone voices,the art would be silenced in time.

After three decades of teaching, Prof.Rajiv Trivedi is devoted tosafegurading intangible culturalheritage.


OOOOOver the past three decades,the use of illegal drugs hasspread at an unprecedented

rate and has reached every part of theworld. The United Nations Office onDrugs and Crimes (UNODC) estimatesthe international drug trade to bearound US $ 500 billion, which is morethan the international oil trade and onlysecond to the international arms trade.The United Nations describes this as“A menace which no country can everfeel immune”. According to a circularof the World Health Organization(WHO) to member states, “Withincreasing urbanization andindustrialization the modern society hasbecome more permissive and has givenbirth to many social evils… and onesuch evil is substance abuse. For agrowing number of adults, drugs havebecome a way of life. They take pep-pills to get-up, a tranquillizer to staycalm, a cocktail to begin the eveningand a barbiturate to go sleep”. Thusover a period of time substance useseems slowly emerging as a part ofone’s daily life.The United Nations has taken severalmeasures to curtail the supply anddemand of drugs through several globalinitiatives involving member countries.By resolution 42/112 of 7 December1987, the General Assembly decidedto observe 26 June as “TheInternational Day against Drug Abuse

Drug abuse:Drug abuse:Drug abuse:Drug abuse:Drug abuse:A ticking time bombA ticking time bombA ticking time bombA ticking time bombA ticking time bombJune 26 is observed as “The International Day against Drug Abuse &Illicit Trafficking”. Although drug abuse in India has reached alarmingproportions, there is no real will to deal with the menace, writes Johnson J. Edayaranmula.

& Illicit Trafficking” as an expression ofits determination to strengthen actionand cooperation to achieve the goal ofan international society free of drugs.

The Indian scenarioThe geographical position of Indiasandwiched between the ‘GoldenTriangle’ (Myanmar, Laos and Thailand)and the ‘Golden Crescent’ (Afghanistan,Iran and Pakistan), which is one of theworld’s largest opium producingcountries, makes the situation mostvulnerable. Apart from this, India is thelargest legal producer of opium formedicinal purposes. Along with it,illegal production has also flourished.Besides, illegal cannabis cultivation iswidespread in several states of India.Side by side, the abuse of drugs hasreached alarming proportions causingserious public health harm and socialconsequences. As a result the progressof our nation has been hindered, healthhas deteriorated, production hashampered, crimes have increased,besides the erosion of moral and socialnorms. Young people have become thelargest hostage of this menace andtheir vulnerability is increasing day byday. Drug abuse is a crime that imposesa staggering burden on the people andthe Nation. It is a burden no societycan afford to carry.The changing pattern of illicit drugabuse and risk taking behaviour arising

from abusing illicit drugs, threatens thehealth and safety of drug abusers andthose around them. The introductionof synthetic drugs and intravenous druguse leading to HIV/AIDS has added anew dimension to the problem in manyparts of the country.The National Survey on Extent, Patternand Trends of Drug Abuse in India carriedout jointly by United Nations Office onDrugs and Crime - Regional Office ofSouth Asia and the Ministry of SocialJustice & Empowerment - Governmentof India (Ray et al, UNODC, 2004)reported that alcohol, cannabis andopiates were the three mostcommonly used drugs among malesaged between 12-60 years. The projecthad three major components viz.National Household Survey (NHS),Rapid Assessment Survey (RAS) andDrug Abuse Monitoring System (DAMS)with sub-studies on drug abuse amongrural population, prison population,women, and in border areas. Based on data from the above study, itcan be projected that in India thereare approximately 87 lakh cannabisusers and 20 lakh opiate users. Amongthese, 26% of cannabis users and 22%of opiate users are dependent users.These figures translate to about 2.3million cannabis-dependent and 0.5million opiate-dependent individuals.Another biggest concern is thewidespread abuse of Prescription Drugs

THE INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST DRUG ABUSE & ILLICIT TRAFFICKING


which are meant for medicinal purpose.So, it is very difficult to gauge the realmagnitude of the drug problem in India.The survey and studies indicate a highconcentration of drug addiction incertain social segments and high-riskgroups, such as, commercial sexworkers, transportation workers, andstreet children; and in the North-Eastern states/border areas and opiumgrowing regions of the country. Thesituation in the North-Eastern stateshas been little aggravated due to highincidence of Intravenous Drug Use(IDU), especially in the state ofManipur, leading to HIV/AIDS.

Curtailing the menaceDrug trafficking has been recognisedas a “Crime against Humanity” byalmost all the countries in the world.The fight against drug trafficking istherefore of major importance to all.While in some countries this task ranksfairly high in terms of priorities due tothe extent of drug abuse problem, inother countries, this problem is stillconsidered to be of low priority becausethey never consider drug abuse as amajor problem or they might have notassessed the problem properly.Whatever be the reason, no countrycan afford to be complacent about thisCrime against Humanity, for itrecognises no territorial barriers andpossesses the potentials for destabilisingnational governments and threateningthe very security of states, which hasbeen witnessed in several LatinAmerican countries.That is the reason why severalInternational Conventions and Treatieshave been adopted to curtail the drugmenace at the global level, besides theenactment of strong legislations at thecountry level.

Prevention & control strategiesadopted by GOIArticle 47 of the Constitution of India

directs “the State shall regard theraising of the level of nutrition and thestandard of living of its people and theimprovement of public health as amongits primary duties, and, in particular,to endeavour to bring about prohibitionof consumption, except for medicinalpurposes, of intoxicating drinks anddrugs which are injurious to health”.The GOI has adopted a multi-pronestrategy to address the supply anddemand enacting appropriate laws aswell establishing separate departmentsto deal with the issue. The NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB), under theMinistry of Home Affairs, GOI is theCentral Nodal Authority on all drugrelated issues in India. Its mandateincludes enforcement of the lawsagainst trafficking of drugs as wellcoordination among various ministrieson issues relating to drug abuse and itsprevention.The Demand Reduction programmesare under the domain of the socialsector and the Ministry of Social Justice& Empowerment. GOI is the NodalAgency, where the Ministry of Health& Family Welfare is also involved andbroadly covers the healthcare, de-addiction, rehabilitation and socialreintegration of addicts.The Narcotic Drugs and PsychotropicSubstances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act) isthe statutory framework for drug lawenforcement in India. The NDPS Actalso incorporates provisions toimplement India’s obligations undervarious International Conventions.Some further amendments wereincorporated in the NDPS Act in 2001,mainly to introduce a gradedpunishment.Apart from the Narcotics ControlBureau, Department of Customs &Central Excise, Directorate of RevenueIntell igence, Central Bureau ofInvestigation, Border Security Force andthe Coast Guards at the Central leveland the State Police and Excise

Departments at the State level arenotified as designated agencies to dealwith narcotic offences in India.Recognising drug abuse as a psycho-socio medical problem, which can bebest handled through community basedinterventions, the GOI has a three-pronged strategy for demand reductionwhich comprises: Building awareness and educating

people about the ill effects of drugabuse;

Dealing with the dependantsthrough programme of motivationalcounselling, treatment, follow-upand social-reintegration ofrecovered dependants;

Imparting drug abuse prevention/rehabilitation training to volunteerswith a view to build up an educatedcadre of service providers.

The Ministry of Social Justice &Empowerment, as the focal point fordrug demand reduction programmes inthe country, has been implementing theScheme for Prohibition and Drug AbusePrevention since the year 1985-86. Under this scheme, the ministryis assisting 361 voluntary organisationsfor maintaining 376 De-addiction-cum-Rehabilitation centres and 68Counselling and Awareness centres allover the country.Apart from this, under the Ministry ofHealth & Family Welfare, treatmentfacilities are provided through 122 de-addiction centres attached toGovernment Medical Colleges andDistrict Hospitals in different states ofthe country.The government has established a“National Centre for Drug AbusePrevention (NC-DAP)” under the aegisof the National Institute of SocialDefence, to serve as the apex body inthe country in the field of training,research and documentation in the fieldof drug abuse prevention. ElevenRegional Resource and Training Centres(RRTCs) have also been established in


different parts of the country. The Federation for Indian NGOs in DrugAbuse Prevention (FINGODAP) hasbeen formed to facilitate networkingamongst member NGOs (essentiallythose funded by GOI) so as to gain fromeach other’s experience, and also toensure self-restraint towardsimplementation of minimum standardof services.The Ministry of Social Justice &Empowerment in collaboration with theInternational Labour Organization andUNODC, implemented a project on“Developing Community DrugRehabilitation and WorkplacePrevention Programmes”, to sensitiseand train the voluntary organisations andworkplace settings on prevention ofalcoholism and substance abuse inworkplace. This collaboration has ledto the formation of an effective groupof various stakeholders known asARMADA, the Association of ResourceManagers against Alcohol and DrugAbuse.In collaboration with the Ministries ofHuman Resource Development, YouthAffairs & Sports and Women & ChildDevelopment, the Ministry of SocialJustice has also initiated demandreduction programmes addressingvarious stakeholders.A draft “National Policy on SubstanceUse (Alcohol & Drugs) - 2012” whichhas been recently developed is nowwaiting for approval of the Governmentof India.

Enforcement and preventionchallengesThough we have strong legislations andsufficient establishments, a lack ofcommitment and political will is clearlyvisible in the area of drug abuseprevention and control. In spite of themultiplicity of Ministries andDepartments to deal with the menace,no sincere attempts are being made toeffectively deal with the problem.

Enforcement is a big farce and illicitcultivation, trafficking and abuse isincreasing in alarming proportions allover the country. Almost all theNarcotics Special Squads and NarcoticCells constituted under the State Policeand Excise are idle and the Officersconcerned are doing un-related work.The unholy nexus between some of theenforcement officials and the traffickershas affected the credibility of theenforcement agencies to a great extent.It is a sad truth that honest officerscould not survive long inside theseagencies. There is a lack of cooperationand coordination among variousenforcement agencies.Drug traffickers have many advantagesover those trying to disrupt the illicittransactions. Large traffickingorganisations have the financialresources required to pay for theiroperations besides power, equipment,transport and everything else they need.They have the time and material toprepare for the concealment of drugs;they can pick the time, place andmethod of introducing drugs into aState and they are prepared to flout alllaws and regulations as they have thesupport of many godfathers.Enforcement agencies on the otherhand usually lack financial resources,proper training and sophisticatedequipment.There is a need to adopt auniform procedure by the variousagencies. For this purpose, a guidelineneeds to be prepared. Appeals shouldbe preferred to Higher Courts in allcases under the NDPS Act which endseither in acquittal or lesserpunishments. Special prosecutorsshould be appointed in the specialcourts and higher courts for conductingthe cases effectively.Demand reduction activities are alsonot reaching the right audience.Though millions are being spent everyyear towards prevention programmes,the outcome is negligible. Most of the

funds are being spent on treatmentrather than education and preventiveactitvities, and the end results arediscouraging and mostly on papers.The present status of the “NationalCentre for Drug Abuse Prevention (NC-DAP)” at New Delhi is a clear exampleof the Government’s attitude inaddressing the drug menace. It isfunctioning from a small room at theNational Institute of Social Defence(NISD) under the Ministry of SocialJustice & Empowerment headed by aDy. Director who has numerous otherresponsibilities, without any supportingstaff. Interestingly, the nationalheadquarters of the Narcotics ControlBureau is also functioning in the samebuilding, and together they could havecontributed a lot. But that is nothappening. If this is the fate of the“National Centre” for Drug AbusePrevention, then what more can weexpect in a country with 28 States and7 Union Territories and with apopulation of over 1.2 billion…? Theold adage – “An ounce of Preventionis worth a pound of Cure” is an obvioustruth in the fight against drug abuse!!“Drug Abuse is a time bomb ticking alwaysin the heart of our civilization.We must now find measures to deal withit, before it explodes and destroys us”.-Mr. Perez De Cu ‘Eller (Former UNSecretary General)

The writer is Director, Alcohol & DrugInformation Centre (ADIC) – India(since 1989). He is also the ExecutiveDirector of Indian Centre for AlcoholStudies (INCAS) and also theAdvisory Member of ExpertCommittees on Adolescent Health,

SubstanceAbusePreventionand RoadSafety, etc. ofthe Go0vt. ofIndia andGovt. ofKerala andother reputedOrganisations.


I used to laugh at prophets of doom. And for as long as Ican remember, I have abhorred self-righteous,sanctimonious preachers with intensity. By and large I

managed to ignore such people. Which is why my optimismand purpose are still intact after decades of battling thedragons of despair!

But imagine my dismay uponwaking one morning to discoverthat I had almost metamorphosedinto the creature I loathed. Eventhough I never saw myself in theimage, most people believed I wasindeed the quintessential prophetof doom. I realise now that mynear Jekyll and Hydetransmutation came aboutinsidiously, like a winter’s dawn,a consequence of years of trampingthe murky corridors of environmental reporting.

“Life” I was gently reminded by an unsympathetic wifeover breakfast one New Year’s Day “is what happens to youwhile you are making other plans.”

Where, I wondered was the life-loving, affable wildliferI had started out as? And would I ever be able to turn thedoomsday merchant from my inner door?

I have been reading, writing and editing reports aboutglobal and Indian environmental concerns for over a decadenow. I studiously ignored those who, in the mid-seventies,predicted ruin and mayhem, preferring to focus on the morepositive aspect of nature conservation, the magic of plant-animal relationships, the exhilaration of watching that archpredator, the tiger bring down its prey, or the mesmericprecision of a spider spinning its deadly web.

The affable wildlifer is alive and well. But every oncein a while, this cheerful facet of his personality isdented, darkened and tested by those who wouldbuild golf courses in mangroves where flamingos feed;chemical ports on beaches where sea turtles nest andmines that excavate the future of the tiger even fasterthan the minerals they want to turn to cash.

A wonderful life

COLCOLCOLCOLCOLUMN / NAUMN / NAUMN / NAUMN / NAUMN / NATURE WTURE WTURE WTURE WTURE WAAAAATTTTTCHCHCHCHCH

Cocooned in my own world of discovery, I rationalisedmy priorities by believing that appreciation is a precursor toconcern. Why, after all, would anyone mourn the loss ofrain forests, rivers and mountain slopes if the value of theselife-support systems were unknown to them?

People responded emotionally and warmed to myworldview. Without the benefit ofany outside finance (not even abank loan!), I launchedSanctuary, a magazine devotedentirely to the proposition thatwild India was worth saving.

But ‘ real is ts ’ ( readpoliticians, contractors andeconomists) look upon thewilderness - forests, wetlands,corals, mountains and rivers - asl i t t le more than untapped

resources. In their view people like us were locking upresource islands (like the national park in Borivli) thatwere crucial to development. There were jobs to create,food to grow and progress to usher in. And if some forestshad to be sacrificed, so be it.

I am happy to report that the affable wildlifer is aliveand well. He was rescued some years ago, when therealisation struck him that he was not responsible for everyleaf that stirred, or every river that was poisoned. But everyonce in a while, this cheerful facet of his personality isdented, darkened and tested by those who would build golfcourses in mangroves where flamingos feed; chemical portson beaches where sea turtles nest and mines that excavatethe future of the tiger even faster than the minerals theywant to turn to cash.

Bittu SahgalEditor, Sanctuary magazine


Assaults against vulnerable children are heinouscrimes which call for timely and stringentpunishment against perpetrators.

THE government’s acceptance of most of therecommendations of the Justice Verma report andthe introduction of an anti-rape law are welcome

signs that the government is taking cognizance of the heinouscrime of rape and sexual assault. However, a very disturbingdevelopment in recent times is thephenomenal rise in cases of childabuse that are being reported fromdifferent parts of the country.Considering the fact that not evenfive percent of the crimes take theform of complaints to the police,the real figures of abuse could bevery much higher. Children, bothboys and girls, even those right outof the cradle are vulnerable and in many of the cases thecrimes are incestuous, where the perpetrators are familymembers or close relatives.

Most of the cases often do not reach the courts becausea deliberate attempt is made by the parents of the child tobury the issue as they often disbelieve the child’s version.This apart from indirectly abetting the crime also shattersthe confidence of the victim adding to his or her trauma.The rise in number of such cases makes it evident that thisis hardly an issue that can be brushed aside. Children, unlessthey are tutored, only speak the truth and when a childconfides in the parents that a father, stepfather or an uncleor a school teacher has been touching her inappropriately,the parent should immediately take steps to ensure remedialmeasures so that the child returns to a cocoon of security.On the other hand if parents admonish the child and ignorethe child’s version, the torment is bound to continue. In many

Child abusers needharsher punishment

COLUMN / INFOCUSCOLUMN / INFOCUSCOLUMN / INFOCUSCOLUMN / INFOCUSCOLUMN / INFOCUS

C. V. ARAVINDis a Bangalore-based freelancejournalist.

of the cases especially where incest in any form is involved,many of the children are forced to bear the agony, silentlyfearing threats till it becomes totally unbearable or wherethe parents themselves are exposed to telltale evidence ofthe assault. By then it might become too late and the future

of the child could be in jeopardy.The law often fails to nab such

offenders and there are cases wherethe accused go scotfree as thewitnesses could be intimidated andthe victims themselves might be tootraumatised to narrate theincidents, more so, if the criminalsare close blood relatives. Then thereis the hostile environment in thecourt where the defence lawyers in

a bid to pick holes in the statements of the victims subjectthe latter to protracted questioning which often is extremelysexual in nature and causes great discomfort to the childvictim. It is therefore necessary that the government shouldstep in and ensure that the law takes its own course and tosee that such criminals are punished. The onus is also squarelyon the parents of the child as they have a bounden duty toprotect their offspring from such abuse. The tendency ofeducational institutions to defend their personnel who havebeen accused of child abuse deserves to be condemned andsuch institution heads should also be booked for abetment. Ifhorrific crimes like child abuse have to be checked the lawshould be tightened and all loopholes should be plugged.The quantum of imprisonment in such cases which usuallydoes not exceed seven years should be enhanced to life

imprisonment and even death in extreme cases.


1. Who is referred to as ‘the father of Indian medicine’?a. Chanak b. Aryabhatta c. Charak d. Susruta

2. Where is Mahatma Gandhi Setu located?a. Tamil Nadu b. Gujarat c. Madhya Pradesh d. Bihar

Try to answer the questions below and send your answers along with your name, address, date of birth, school andphotograph to: “YOUNG INDIA QUIZ” One India One People Foundation, Mahalaxmi Chambers, 4th floor,22, Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mumbai - 26. You can also log on to our website and answer our quiz online atwww.oneindiaonepeople.com. We will choose two winners (the Cool Champs) from all the correct entries and publishhis/her photograph and name along with the answers in our next issue. (Last date for entries: June 20, 2013)

Quiz No: 113

QUESTION 1Answer: (b) Annie Besant

Annie Besant, a British, made India her home and settledhere. She established the Indian Home Rule League in 1916and presided over the Calcutta session of the Indian NationalCongress in 1917, the first woman to hold the prestigiousposition.

QUESTION 2Answer: (a) Five

Jantar Mantar is an astronomical observatory built by MaharajaJai Singh II. He built five such observatories, the Jaipur onebeing the largest. The others are in Delhi, Varanasi and Ujjain.The fifth one built in Mathura does not exist anymore.

QUESTION 3Answer: (d) Gujarat

In 2006, Gujarat became the first state in India to electrifyall its 18,065 villages. The state government undertook theambitious ‘Jyotigram Yojna’ successfully in 30 months at acost of `15,000 crore.

QUESTION 4Answer: (b) Cricket

Ranji Trophy is the domestic cricket championship playedbetween different state and city teams. It is named after the

Ranjisinghji Vibhaji Jadeja, the Prince of Nawanagar inGujarat, who played test cricket for England.

QUESTION 5Answer: (c) Hawa Mahal

Hawa Mahal or the Palace of Winds is the signature buildingof Jaipur built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799.This stunning example of Rajput architecture is made ofthe famed Jaipur pink stone and has 953 honeycombedwindows or niches. (For more information, read OIOP, March2013 issue)

Answers to Quiz # 112

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QUIZ NO. 112Arjun Kumar Gupta

Bhadar, Dist. Sultanpur (U.P.)

3. What is Raja Ravi Varma renowned for?a. Cricket b. Painting c. Handicrafts d. Pottery

4. This clay pot is actually a musical instrument.What is it known as?a. Jaltarang b. Pungi c. Damru d. Ghatak

5. Where is Sudha Car Museum located?(Clue: OIOP, May 2013 issue)a. Itanagar b. Chennai c. Delhi d. Hyderabad


Sculptor of Steel

IN the capable hands of sculptor Anish Kapoor, even rustlooks beautiful! Born in Mumbai in 1954, Kapoor studied

art in London. The Turner Prize-winning artist is best knownfor his ambitious public installations like Cloud Gate andSky Mirror.Kapoor's early works were made in stone like granite, marble

and limestone. His sculptures areusually monochromatic withsimple, elegant curves. In the late90s, he began working with highlypolished steel.His Sky Mirror is a 6m-wide concave steel dish set at anangle in such a way that it provides a luminous reflection ofthe changing sky. The Cloud Gate in Chicago, said to beinspired by liquid mercury, is a unique bean-shaped steelstructure, which gives a distorted reflection of the city'sskyline. In 2012, he designed UK's largest piece of publicart to commemorate the London Olympics — the 115m-tall Arcelor Mittal Orbit. It features a giant upward spiral ofbright red metal crowned by an observation deck. Kapoor'sworks are displayed in prestigious art museums around theworld like the Guggenheim in Bilbao and Tate Modern inLondon. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2012.

CLOUD GATE, CHICAGO

When and where was she born?She was born on November 4, 1929 ina humble Brahmin family in Bengaluru,Karnataka.

At what age was her talent discovered?At the tender age of three, her fatherwho worked as a magician discoveredher extraordinary calculating skills whenshe was playing cards with him. Shewent on to publicly demonstrate heramazing mathematical abilities at the University ofMysore and Annamalai University at the age of six.

What is her educational background?She did not have a formal education. Her family couldnot afford the fees of the school she was attending andshe was forced to drop out.

What were her memorable feats?In 1977, she outsmarted a powerful computer at anAmerican university when she solved the 23rd root of a201-digit number in 50 seconds while the UNIVAC 1108computer took 12 seconds longer.

She earned a place in the Guinness Bookof Records (1995) when she correctlymultiplied two 13-digit numbers pickedat random by the Computer Departmentof Imperial College, London, in 28 secondsin 1980.She could tell the day of the week forany given date in the century in a jiffy. What did she do to further the causeof mathematics?

Shakuntala Devi was always keen to remove the fear ofmathematics from people’s minds. She wrote manybooks to simplify the science of numbers – Puzzles toPuzzle You, Fun with Numbers, Awaken the Genius inYour Child, Book of Numbers, In the Wonderland ofNumbers, etc. (She has also written other books onastrology and cooking.)She had set up the Shakuntala Devi Education FoundationPublic Trust to provide quality education for poor children.Her dream was to establish a mathematics university inher name.

The Human Computer Shakuntala Devi, the legendary math prodigy,died on April 21, 2013.


© 2013 Amrita Bharati, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Around India The Flower Maiden

KASAULI is a hill resortabout 12 km from the

Shimla-Kalka road in HimachalPradesh. It is located at aheight of 1,800 m above sealevel. According to the localsits name derives fromKusmawali or kusmali,meaning the flower-maiden.Wild flowers bloom throughoutthe year in a riot of colours.Between April and June,rhododendrons, coral trees,gulmohars, katchnars andkashmais bloom along the hillslopes. Chir-pine, Himalayan oak and huge horse chestnutsgive the quaint town with its cobbled streets and gabledhouses with neat little gardens, a bewitching look.The highest point in Kasauli is the Monkey Point. Steps cut

into the mountain lead all theway to the top. Climbing up isfun, especially because you getto ring the numerous bells alongthe way. On top is a small templededicated to Hanuman.According to legend, Hanumanstepped on this peak when hewas returning with the sanjivani.From Monkey Point, you get abreathtaking view of Kasaulitown, the river Satluj meanderingits way to the plains, and thedistant city of Chandigarh.Sir Henry Lawrence is believed

to have developed Kasauli into a settlement.The well knownLawrence School a few kilometres away at Sanawar, wasestablished by him. Sunny Side, the cottage in which helived with his wife, stands to this day.

Mindbender

Answer: Bootlegger

SITTING at a square table are a smuggler, amafia boss, a bootlegger and a contract killer.Only two of these men, Mama and Kalia, aregenuine criminals. The other two are CIDofficers posing as criminals. Mama is sittingopposite the Mafia boss; the junior CID officeris sitting to the left of the smuggler and thesenior CID officer is sitting opposite thebootlegger. If the senior officer is not playingthe role of a smuggler, what is the junior officerdisguised as?

Big Mouth

SOME animals eat seeds thatare much bigger than theirmouths! The green imperialpigeon is unique because it canunhitch its lower beak andelongate its mouth not onlyvertically but also horizontally.It can swallow a nutmegcomplete with its edible rind.The nutmeg is about as big asa hen’s egg with a diameter ofalmost 5 cm. That makes itlarger than the pigeon’s head!The seed remains in its gizzardwhere the rind is stripped offand digested. The nutmeg inside is excreted whole. In fact, the pigeonhas adapted so well to eating nutmegs that seeds that are even slightlysmaller, pass through its digestive system intact.The pigeon is found in South Asia, including India.

AmazingLiving World


EEEEEIGHTY years ago, Anutai Wagh laid the foundationfor tribal education in India. She was a great socialactivist, democratic teacher and educational

researcher dedicated to the cause of early childhoodeducation. As a pioneer in basic education, she had thecourage of conviction in her experimental work. She wasthe disciple of Tarabai Modak, a pioneer of educationprogramme whose curriculum was indigenous, using lowcost teaching aids and was aimed at holisticdevelopment of the participants. Anutaiinfused modern ideologies and researchinto her work. While bringing about arevolution in tribal education, she wentto the grassroots to learn theirproblems. Her work helped inbringing about mindset change formodernisation in the educationsystem.Anutai was born on 17 March1910, the eldest of five children,in a household of humble means.As per the prevalent system then,she was married off at the youngage of thirteen years. She waswidowed just six months after themarriage. This event became theturning point of her life. As a youngwidow with incomplete education, herlife could have been miserable. But shedisplayed rare courage by changing thecourse of her life by registering in the nationalschool in Akola. She appeared for her finalexamination at Igatpuri. She ranked first in the district inthis exam.She got involved in the freedom movement under theleadership of Mahatma Gandhi and worked for 13 years inHuzurpaga as a teacher before moving to Kosbad. Shewanted to complete her matriculation while still working,so she registered herself in a night school. She completedher matriculation in 1938 with a good score. Many yearslater, in 1961, she appeared for her degree in Kosbad.Though, by then, 51 years old and ailing from cataract,she studied with the aid of a reader and appeared for herexam. This too, she completed with good grades. Anutaiwas a lifelong learner.In 1945, Anutai accompanied Tarabai to Bordi, and starteda new chapter in her life. She started a Balwadi (pre-

school) for kids at Bordi along with Tarabai. At that time,with primary education being a novelty even in urban areas,trying to convince the villagers to send their young childrenfor the same was a Herculean task. In the midst of multipleobstacles Anutai’s Vikaswadi (school for progress) tookshape. To resolve the problem of gap in their lifestyle withtribal people, they lived with the tribal people. They started

a school in the courtyard of their house. This is howAnganwadis (pre-schools) came into being. These

two women, who took “the school to thechildren” since the children wouldn’t

come to school, were indeedextraordinary.

To promote women’s education, shestarted crèches attached to the

school. She personally strived toawaken the tribals on socialissues such as banning liquor,encouraging widowremarriages, evils of bride price,indebtedness etc. She arrangedmass marriages of tribalcouples. She expanded her

horizon by starting a school forthe deaf at Dahanu, with facility

of lodging and boarding, andincluded technical and vocational

training in the syllabus to make thechildren economically independent.

Anutai took great efforts to start aTeachers’ Training College, Primary School,

Printing Press and technical training schools atthe campus Gram Mangal, Kosbad.Despite her silent work and low profile, her fame spreadfar and wide. The Government acknowledged her effortsand honoured her with a Padmashri. Her reaction on gettingthe award displays her humility; she said that she feltgreat merely because the work of her institution wouldnow move faster. She was also bestowed many prestigiousawards like The Adarsha Shikshak (Ideal Teacher) Awardby the Maharashtra Government, Dalit Mitra SavitribaiPhule Award and International Child Development Award.Anutai died of old age in 1992. I consider myself fortunatethat I could spend quality time with Anutai between 1988-1989 at Kosbad.

– Dr. Vibhuti Patel is the Professor and Head, Dept. ofEconomics, SNDT Women's University, Churchgate.

GREAGREAGREAGREAGREAT INDIANST INDIANST INDIANST INDIANST INDIANS

ANUTANUTANUTANUTANUTAIAIAIAIAI WWWWWAAAAAGHGHGHGHGHPioneer in basic eduation (1910-1992)


MAJOR General Eustace D’Souza PVSM was bornon 29 November 1921 and had his earlyschooling in St Patrick’s School, Karachi and

St Stanislaus School, Bandra, Mumbai. He graduated fromXavier’s College, Mumbai in 1941 and joined the army in1942. He was commissioned into 1/5 Maratha Light Infantry(Maratha LI) from the Indian Military Academy in June1943. It must have been a surprise to the young officerthat on completion of three months jungle warfaretraining with 14 Infantry Division in Chinwara,he was instructed to proceed to Italy tojoin his unit there in 1944. He foughtin the last great battle of River Senioon 9 April 1945. Later, the unitwent to Japan as part of 268Infantry Brigade in the BritishCommonwealth OccupationForce. Af ter the war, thebattalion was selected to be apart of the BritishCommonwealth Forces. InSeptember 1947 when itreturned to India, he was rushedto Jammu and Kashmir (J & K) tocounter the aggression by Pakistan.His next task was to raise a battalionof J & K Militia. He commanded thenewly raised battalion with distinctionand was awarded Mention-in-Dispatch forgallantry in Uri sector. He attended a courseat the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington in1951 and served on the staff of Military Advisor, Londonfrom 1952 to 1955. He was promoted Lt Col in 1960.After a brief tenure as instructor in Infantry School, Mhow,he raised and commanded 17 MLI in Sikkim and Poonchfrom 1958 to 1961. He commanded a brigade in NathuLa on the Sikkim-Tibet border in 1965 when the Chineseraised a false alarm about intrusion by the Indian Army. Hecontinued to be apprehensive about the Chinese intentionsand warned against its threats. Recent Chineseencroachment in Ladakh justifies his views. He attendedthe NDC course in 1967 and was posted as Deputy MilitarySecretary in Army HQ.His next posting was again to field on promotion as MajorGeneral to command 19 Infantry Division in Baramulla inKashmir. It was not for this committed soldier to ask for asoft posting and he carried out his duties with enthusiasm.

The Indo-Pak War broke out in December 1971. After 1965War, Pakistan had strengthened its defences in this sectorto the extent that frontal attacks were costly. GeneralD’Souza planned limited offensive with considerableadministrative effort and won territory in Lipa Valley andKaiyan bowl for which he was awarded PVSM (ParamVishisht Seva Medal). He took over as GOC (General OfficerCommanding) Delhi Area in 1973 and retired on 30

November 1975. He settled down in Mumbai andcontinued to be Colonel Commandant of the

Maratha Regiment till 1977. He continuedto take keen interest in defence issues

and contributed more than 500 articlesin various magazines. During

communal riots in Mumbai in 1993,he organised a human chain ofnearly one lakh people from AfghanChurch in South Mumbai to Borivaliin North Mumbai. He was an activemember of the Generals for Peaceand Nuclear Disarmament. He gotan occasion to address the BritishParliament and had an hour longmeeting with selected senators of

USA. He was in the forefront toorganise relief for victims of Gujarat

earthquake. He kept an open house andenjoyed guiding retired and serving

defence community. In spite of his failinghealth, he visited his old units regularly. That

association gave him strength. He made a trip toSikkim and Nagaland even after a bypass operation. Hehad kept in touch with the people of Kashmir. An outstandingsportsman, he played for the Army hockey team in Indiaand abroad and was a member of the National HockeySelection Committee from 1974- 78, when India won theWorld Cup. He was sorry to note that regional and parochialinterests damaged Indian hockey standards. Under hisstewardship, the Maratha Regiment Centre team won theAga Khan tournament and three players of the team madeto the national team. Besides hockey he had interest incricket and football too. He led the Army cricket team tovictory in 1969 and was a member of the Durand footballorganising committee.The grand old Maratha soldier passed away on 26 March2013.

– Brigadier Suresh Chandra Sharma (retd)

MAJORMAJORMAJORMAJORMAJOR GENERALGENERALGENERALGENERALGENERAL EUSTEUSTEUSTEUSTEUSTAAAAACECECECECE DDDDD’’’’’SOUZASOUZASOUZASOUZASOUZA PVSMPVSMPVSMPVSMPVSMOnce a soldier, always a soldier (1921-2013)


Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, the renowned scholar-activist, died on 14 May 2013. With this thecountry has lost a major voice that stood for

preservation of secular values and promotion of communalharmony. He was born on 10 March 1939, in a placecalled Salumber near Udaipur and received his graduationin Indore, as a civil engineer. He came from a modestfamily of a Bohra priest.His first struggles were against the stranglehold ofBohra priest on the Bohra community. Hestrove for the democratisation of religiousorganisation and accountability from thepriest. Annoyed by this reformistdemand, the Bohra priestexcommunicated him from thecommunity and he was denied therights as a member of Bohracommunity. He fought this bylaying the foundations of reformmovement in the Bohracommunity. His second major areaof work was around the painfulphenomenon of communalviolence, violence in the name ofreligion. In due course he startedinvestigating the violence in the nameof religion and to his dismay he foundthat the name of religion is abused byvested interests. In these riots the innocentsget killed. He kept on visiting city after citywhere violence was taking place and producedreports, which unravelled the truth behind such violence,showing that religion has nothing to do with the violence.Along with this realisation was the fact that communalviolence is instigated due to misconceptions about the‘other’ community. Through immaculate reading of medievalhistory he could show that India had a profound traditionof peace and amity between Hindus and Muslims. He keptspreading this awareness through articles and books withregular frequency. He came out with reports of all majorsectarian violence and his books are a landmark. He wasconstantly striving to get justice to the victims of violenceand also helped in the rehabilitation process after the actsof violence.The other major area of his work was the interpretation ofIslam. There are lots of misconceptions about words like

Kafir, Jihad etc. His extensive writings tell us that as perKoran, Jihad means striving for better society and the wordKafir is for those who hide the truth. Contrary to the popularunderstanding which links Islam to terrorism and violence,he showed very authoritatively that Islam is the religion ofpeace and that Islam shares the values of love, peace andcompassion with many other religions. He was the worldrecognised authority on Islam and his commentaries on

Koran and Islam are avidly read all over the world.His other major contribution was to show

that Koran and Islam give an equal statusto women. Contrary to the prevalent

perceptions and practices in whichwomen are given secondary positionin Muslim community, he strivedfor gender equality which isinherent in the teachings ofProphet Mohammed, aselaborated in Koran. Topopularise all these aspects ofhis highly relevant work heundertook extensive tours allover the world to attend

seminars and addressconferences on this topic. Within

India he was travelling extensivelyto conduct workshops, to deliver

lectures and to initiate the activitiesfor peace and amity between different

communities. His website www.csss-isla.com carries his articles on secularism

and his essays on issues of Islam and Modern age.He has authored over 100 books on these themes and wasthe recipient of many awards, the major ones amongstthem being, Right Livelihood Award (Also called AlternateNobel), National Communal Harmony Award and honorarydoctorate from four major Universities.He has been a silent worker for the human rights of all andit is imperative that we carry on his struggle for bettersociety far and wide. The title of his autobiography, A Livingfaith: My Quest for Peace, Harmony and Social changesums up the mission which he undertook in his life.

– Ram Puniyani, a former Professor at IIT, Mumbai, is alsoinvolved with social issues, particularly, those related topreservation of democratic and secular ethos in our life.

ASGHAR ALI ENGINEERCrusader for Peace and Justice (1939-2013)

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