This picture is not from some old western. Nor is it a shot from a movie set in medieval days. This is a picture that was taken a week ago,  214 kilometres from where I sit and write. It is making world headline news and simple Googling for the words – cousins – rape – India – will show you how the story has been picked across land and seas. I normally do not like putting such pictures up but this time I felt the need to do so. It is high time we garner the courage to look straight at this horrific picture and have the guts to hand our heads in shame more so because, we are today on a high after the elections and rearing to make India count. Sorry, but until we ensure that no such horror happens we cannot aspire to that dream.

As you can see, the picture is of two girls hanging on a tree. They were so hung after being gang raped. The girls were Dalit – low caste – and the perpetrator of this heinous crime belonged to a higher caste. This reminds one the jus primae noctis an alleged legal right allowing the lord of a medieval estate to take the virginity of his serfs’ maiden daughters. It is yet again of the assertion of feudal lord to assert their old on the weaker communities. The police as always did nothing till the villagers refusing to hand over the bodies forced the administration to book the constables who had refused to act. Ultimately the guilty were ‘booked’ but the girls aged 14 and 15 were no more. As usual local politicians spouted empty words, the Government ‘promised’ action and the Central Government ‘sought’ a report from the State Government. The toothless Women’s Commission has also sought a report.

If you visit our new Prime Minister’s website and leave a ‘message’ you will, after an initial acknowledgment, get a response in a day or two.  The message says:

India is a blessed land, known for its glorious culture. It is our land that has shown the way to the world time and again. Today, we need to once again ignite the lamp of progress that will take our nation to greater heights and I believe together we can.

Once again I thank you for your wishes and I seek your support and participation in our endeavour to create a strong, developed and inclusive India.

When you see the picture above, the words make no sense. How can you be strong, developed and inclusive if revolting incidents like the one recounted above continue with impunity. How can you quote your past glory when the present is outrageous. And these are not isolated incidents. Far from that.

Rather than celebrate the hope that seems to be the flavour of the day, I hang my head in shame for my silence and my total helplessness. I hang my head in shame for our collective muteness and apathy.

We need to stop limiting our rants and raves to what we feel affects us and resort to guilty silence when the crime is perpetrated on people who we consider outsiders. Last year we somehow found our voices when the young woman was brutally raped in a bus in the capital. True a woman who went to see an English movie in a mall sort of made it to our ‘kind’ and the fear became real. But how do two little village girls in a remote area get our sympathy and make us take the cudgels for them.

The two teenagers were Indians just like you and me, they are constitutional rights just like you and me, they had dreams and hopes just like all teenagers even if theirs were somewhat different. The humiliation, pain and horror they felt whilst being raped was the same we would feel if it were to happen to us. The terror they must have experienced when they knew they were dying was no different from the one we would feel. I can go on endlessly. They were someone’s daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend.! And yet no one helped them in their distress, even those who are paid to do so. On the other hand they became willing partners in the crime.

Our December 2012 rants and raves did not amount to much. Rapes have not stopped and the perpetrators are still alive, but even their walking to the gallows would not make a difference to the crime rate. Our voice has to rise each time such an aberration occurs and we should not keep silent till the time they stop. I urge you all to do so in whatever way you feel comfortable with.

I hope our new Government gives the attention needed to these crimes as they mar the image of India in a way we cannot wish away.

The latest polemic in town is the issue of our new Education Minister not having a degree, the hallowed piece of paper that opens doors in India. To me is it is absolutely a non issue and will elucidate my take as we go on. However it has become a free for all that may just boomerang on the initiator! It is the question of the day on some channel, and has created a TwitterStorm so let us try and see which side we stand on.

For the past decade and more I have had ample proof that degrees and certificates mean nothing on their own. I am well placed as for the past that many years I have been working with a bunch of great people who have no degrees or certificates but are doing jobs that I challenge anyone to do. I am taking of my staff at project why which was selected after an intuitive decision of mine to source all my staff from within the community. I needed ‘teachers’ to ‘teach’ kids from class I onwards. Now the community where I was on the prowl had scant degree holders and had this been an imperative in my search I would have found no one. I knew what I was looking for and also what I wanted from them: passion, dedication, motivation and the desire to learn. I realised many women had some education that had often been stopped in the tracks because of marriage; I also found some very bright souls that had ‘dropped’ out of school not because they lacked ability but because of some decision of illiterate and over caring parents. The feisty woman who heads a large part of project why is one such kid. When she came to me she had been taken out of school by her doting mother who did not want her daughter to go back to school after she was severely punished for being a few days late in paying her fees. The young girl had been made to stand in the sun and had subsequently fainted. Today she has certificates and degrees more for form then anything else and runs the project with great aplomb! This kid, as kid she was when I met her, is an indubitable proof of the fact that common sense laced with a passion to learn can move mountains.

My other co-ordinator may have had a degree but that was not why I selected him. I selected him because when I first met him and discussed some social issues, I was amazed at how alike was our thinking processes, our values and our approach to social issues. I decided that I needed him by my side and have never regretted what one may call my impulsive decision. He runs my women and children centre with tact and flexibility and has a solved many a thorny issues that even I couldn’t have.

Both these wonderful souls have been my guides and given me not only support but the best advise I could have hoped for and unable me to grow project why to what it is today. Without them I would have stumbled, fallen and even failed. Yet they do not have swanky degrees, do not speak the Queen’s  English or have the ‘profile’ that is usually sought for such posts. What they have in ample measure is compassion, understanding, street smartness and belief in what we do. I could not have asked for more.

The team my two stalwarts lead is also partly  degree less or possesses degrees that have no value at all as is the case in India where 33% is still the passmark to graduate. It is sad that our education has come to this. I have had young men with BAs and even MAs from other States and the street worthiness of these degrees is nil. Actually they more often than not, prove a hindrance as in many cases it gives the ‘graduate’  a sense of false superiority. We have had such young men who have ‘refused’ to work under a woman coordinator with less education. Obviously we bid them a hasty farewell. But that is the exception to the rule. Team project why is five star and as the proof of the pudding is in the eating, kids they have taught have never failed and some are now gainfully employed. As I write these words I just got a call that one of our students has secured 96% in his XII class! I am waiting with bated breath for all the results though I know it beforehand. My kids have never failed me. All this, with teachers who have scant certificates!

Before I end this post I must mention one more person who proved beyond doubt that diplomas and certificates are not needed when you have a mission. Somewhere circa 1998 I had to make a decision that, though incomprehensible to most, was the only one I could make if I were to be worthy of being a mother. I decided to withdraw my younger daughter from school as I knew it was destroying her spirit. This wonderful kid had told me when she was 9 that she knew what she wanted to do in life: care for people with disabilities. I nudged her as gently as I could and as far as I could down the conventional line of diplomas and degrees. She played the game to the best of her ability but there was a moment when we both knew we had reached the end of the line. Even if I had the whole world against me, I knew that I had done the right thing for my child. She began training with autistic children at the age of 15 and has never looked  back. Today she handles the special children of project why with élan and confidence and has years of experience that no one can match. She is to the manor born!

Over the past years I have had the opportunity of testing some candidates with so called degrees. We had an MBA from one of the new universities that love blowing their bugle and come at a heavy price. I was shocked by the total lack of skills of this young man who barely could write a mail in proper English or for that matter handle any of the tasks assigned to him independently. I am glad he found a job as he did not meet our criteria.

We have also had a few persons with certificates in special education but sadly they have not met our standards as they lacked the compassion and common sense approach that is needed when you deal with students with diverse disabilities and varied ages. In a way I am glad that they too found greener pastures. Come to think of it, the ones who have stayed on came with no degree in special education but with their heart in the right place.

So to me degrees and super degrees do not matter; what matters is how you perform on the ground and more than that how you tackle challenges. Our new education minister may turn out to be a better one than someone armed with Doctorates and Post Doctorates. I am sure she will master in thinking out of the box and come up with the solutions our children urgently and desperately need. She comes with a fresh mind and the desire to prove her detractors wrong.

In India’s capital city which is in celebration mood with the arrival of a new government, a man killed his wife and two daughters aged 2 and 6 months. Their crime? Well the former had not given him a son, and instead born two girls that also needed to be killed. The man and his mother had tortured the poor woman for her inability to ‘produce’ a son and of course for not having brought enough dowry. But let us forget the dowry issue but get back to sex determination saga. To have a boy you need the Y chromosome and that is something a woman DOES NOT HAVE. So she can never be responsible for the child not being a boy.This is a scientific fact and unless we petition to God to change things, this will remain a reality. This was discovered in 1905 by Nettie Stevens who realised that sex determination is due to the presence and absence of the Y chromosome. Women do not have it so how can they be held responsible for something they do not possess biologically.

However it seems to have been traditionally held that women were the ones who determined sex, and  over the ages, women have suffered the worst humiliation for producing girls. In some cases, like the one   cited above, a woman had to pay the ultimate price for something she is completely innocent of. What happened to the innocent until proved guilty!

I have been nurturing the dream of another project, this one named project Y that rhymes with, as my grandson would say as he is into rhyming words, Why! I wonder why, whether it is in biology curricula or sex education, this fact is not made crystal clear. Even to children one could easily say: papa provides the seed and mama the place for the seed to grow. Now whether the seed is an apple or an orange depends on papa. If little boys and little girls were told that at an early age, then the millions of women would not have to suffer a cruel fate.

I know such a project can only work if it is done on a large scale by the State machinery on the lines of an earlier family planning programme initiated many decades ago when catchy slogans appeared everywhere: Ham do, hamare do – we are two, we have two -. I have been thinking of a slogan but my      copywriting skills are not the best. So if somebody can come up with one, it would be great.

As I said this is mammoth task, one that large international agencies should have adopted long ago. To my mind, it would also bring a perceptible change to the number of children born, while of course freeing women from a ‘crime’ they are innocent of.

But who will bell the cat or even cats I should say? That is the question. In our country sex is taboo and considered ‘wrong’, though it is the basis of creation. Hence sex education is defiled by some fringe elements who want to ‘protect’ the honour and tradition of the land. But it is time we talked about it and if the word S** is offensive, then find one that suits your misplaced values, but it is really time we talked about it unabashedly. How can we as a nation, hold our head high when a woman is murdered with her two young children because she gave birth to them!

Will the new Government which has the numbers look at this problem with honesty and courage so that no woman has to ever pay the ultimate price for bringing a little girl into this world.

Dear Prime Minister

Coronation Countdown is what of the news channel has chosen to name the hours before your swearing in today, May 26th 2014, 18 00 hours. As I write these words, the clock is ticking and we are about 8 hours away. I like the use of coronation for your taking over the helm of our country as I view it as the coronation of the voiceless people of India who after being perhaps bedazzled or simply manipulated, believed that their future lay in the hands of those who used ‘poverty’ as a clever political plank. I too must admit that for some time I fell under that spell and was convinced that all the programmes targeted at the poor would ultimately rid us of the shameful bane of poverty. Today I admit my mistake.

There have many new age theories that propagate that the more you talk about something, the more you attract it and hence it seems that we have collectively erred for brandishing the banner of poverty high and loud. True millions in India are poor and this something we must be deeply ashamed of, but we must view them as part of the whole or in other words as Citizens of India. I would like to think of today as the coronation as these citizens who I hope will finally be given a voice. You have said time and again that you are the Prime Minster of 125 crores Indians and that is what we want to believe.

I do not want to rain on your parade as today is your day. You have proved without an iota of doubt that India is a country where anyone can aspire to and become Prime Minister. You come to the hallowed grounds of the land with a story, a story that every Indian can identify with and thus you become a role model, something we Indians did not have. As you rightly pointed out, those who fought for Independence and even paid the ultimate sacrifice cannot be emulated as we have to live for India. Today the humblest heart looks up to you and feels that s/he to as an opportunity to break every ceiling that till now weighed on his head. With you at the helm, no ceiling is strong enough if you have the will, the honesty and the motivation to succeed. I would urge you to put an end to the bogey of poverty that has too long been a stranglehold.

I know that you have your task cut out for you and its is nothing short of Herculean! But I also pray that these tasks do not entail the falling in the crevices of oblivion, of issues that plague people everyday and tar India in a shameful manner. Most of these are due to the arrogance and feudal attitude of the machinery that we finally bid farewell to.

Without raining on your parade, I would like to remind you gently that on this 26th day of May 7000 citizens of India will die of hunger and of these 5000 are children under 5. This has to end not by handing a few kilos of grain a month in the name of food security, but by setting into motion actions that will entail self sufficiency in every family. Indians are proud people by nature and should be rid of the humiliation of having to beg for what is and should be a right granted by the Constitution. I would like to again draw your attention to the story of Ashok Kaurase who walked 35km in scorching temperatures as he was told that his compensation for crop losses had been credited to his account. It had not and on his walk back, he collapsed and died 10 km from his home. The post mortem indicated that there was not a grain of food in the 50 year old’s stomach. The family had not eaten for days. This happened a month ago. The man had made many trips to the bank to be told that it would take more time. The sum was a paltry 4200 Rs, but to him and his family, it meant life or death. That the money was credited a day after the news was reported is to my mind highly suspect. I tried to find a link to this story but could not. It has appeared in this week’s The Week with the title Hunger Strikes. So you see Prime Minister, even what is promised never reaches in time. Maybe your first step should be to ensure that promises are kept and to make those in charge of implementing such programmes aware of the fact that they are not giving charity and need to respect the dignity of the beneficiary. Such programmes are a sad reminder of our failure in implementing the constitutional rights given to them on 26 January 1950. Deaths from malnutrition have to stop specially in a county where grains rot in the open and food is thrown with impunity.

On this 26th of May, Sir, 6 women will be raped and 14 molested in Delhi. This too has to stop and here again it is not simply by sending a rapist to the gallows that we will solve the problem. Gender equality is again something that will need to be addressed by setting into motion changes in the mindset of those who believe in the inferiority of the female sex. Education can play a role in this and  we need to shed our apprehensions about including sex education at an early age. Little girls are raped and abused  in our country. They need to be taught the difference between good and bad touch as early as possible. And the teaching of the role of X and Y chromosome in determining the sex of a child needs to be explained loud and clear to ensure that no woman ever has to suffer the pain of being held responsible for not bearing a son.

You have given hope Prime Minister to every Indian whose heart beats for India and in your coronation we see the coronation of every soul born on this land.

I wish you success and fortitude.

An Indian

Whenever a person in uniform with his cap on enters any space where I happen to be, I normally get up. It is what I have been taught by my parents: RESPECT. If it is someone dear to me then I am quick to ask him to remove his cap so I can give him a hug. I know how puzzled my staff felt when in early Project Why days I sprung up like a jack in the box even if the beat constable entered my office in full uniform. Yes, the very beat constable who has known for his harassing and his corrupt ways. It is only when he removed his cap that I sat down. It was the very woman whose father and loved ones were mercilessly beaten by men in uniform who taught this as there was a difference: the ones who beat my granddad where working for the coloniser; the one who entered my office represented free India. That he was despicable was a matter of his conscience, not a reason to disrespect an institution in free India.

Everyone is busy giving their bit of  ‘advise’, probably unsolicited, to the new Prime Minister. I guess in a democracy that is what you do. You find these in debates on TV, in magazines and newspaper and of course on the social media. I often read them hoping to find some views that concur with mine, particularly on education. I found one in a recent magazine entitled Focus on Quality and Innovation. I rubbed my hands in anticipation as these were words that echoed mine and I was eager to know how the proposed changes would benefit my 1000+ kids. As I read on the glimmer of hope was replaced by a sense of despair and deja vu! Don’t get my wrong, everything that is said is more than politically correct and well articulated and there is a time line that goes from 100 days to 5 years. The first thing that should shock us all is the fact that a blue print made 67 years after Independence should: outline a five-year vision and ensure every child is able to read and write by Class IV. Now this means that either we have not thought it necessary for 67 years to ensure that every child read or write or that all previous governments have failed miserably to address education as a priority or else that education has till now been a great way of garnering funds and pockets. It is sad that in 2104 we are still making a blue print for literacy. But let us go on.

The rest of the article gives excellent technological inputs and solutions that no one can argue with and even, and that was music to my years as I have been suggesting for years now, the creation of an Indian Education Service on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service. But most of the suggestions will take time and as I have always said children cannot wait.

I reread the article trying to extract what could be applied to my kids now, as kids cannot wait 1, 2 or 5 years. A 12 year old will be 17 in 5 years. This 12 year old, a girl, studies in a secondary school in South Delhi and there are 125 students in her class. A period is for 35 minutes. Now how can a teacher, however good s/he might be, teach anything in these conditions. By the way, girls are told to bring a gunny sack or equivalent so that they can sit on the floor after all the benches for 2 have accommodated 80 odd girls. In these condition, I am sad to say, none of the technological tools make sense, and I forgot that electricity often plays truant. Now as the teacher follows the no fail policy till class VIII, s/he does not feel any pressure to ensure that the students are up to the mark. You amble from class to class till class VII. You may barely have learnt to read and write. We have had students of class VII with a class II knowledge. A year later those children have caught up and even excelled. All that was needed was someone to teach them. By force majeure we too have overcrowded classes and sit on the floor, but our passion and the student’s motivation make us winners.

The author of the article suggest allowing outcome-based private remedial centres to be set up. For the past 14 years we have done just that and more so done with untrained staff from within the community, limited resources, scant space and no charge. The proof of the pudding lies in the fact that since the time we began no child has dropped out and every student has passed his or her Boards, some with distinction. It does not take much to redress the situation and though we would have loved to have all the technological and pedagogical support suggested, we managed quite well, even if I say so myself. If we could do it, I am sure many could provided they had the passion to do so, the same passion that our new PM recognised in the freedom fighters who gave their life for the country. He told us we had the opportunity to live for the country. I guess what he meant was to do something for the country. Without all of us, nothing will truly change. Are we ready to make this ‘sacrifice’.

What does it entail you may ask. Giving up some of your ‘goodies’, some of your ‘time’ and repaying a debt you owe to every Indian who has made it possible to live a life of ease. It would be their children that you would be helping.

The author of the article also suggests that a law be enacted  that makes parents will be liable to punishment-say with forced community service-if their children are not in school. Though again it makes perfects sense on paper, the reality is quite different as I learnt on the field at my expense. I believe that most of the parents are now quite aware of the importance of education and also of the fact that State run schools are of poor quality. This has enabled the mushrooming of zillions of private schools charging moderate fees and where many parents send their sons. The girls are still sent to State run schools. In the same school running 2 shifts (girls in the morning and boys in the afternoon) there are 45 boys in class VII and 125 girls in the same class. Get the picture. So in my humble opinion the reason why parents do not send their children to school is not because they are not aware of the importance of education but because of other realities. Girls are often kept back to look after siblings as the mother works; some parents have jobs that are nomadic in nature. Take the case of this little imp. This picture was taken circa 2003. She was one the brightest kids I have ever met and was an avid learner. However she left us soon after this picture was taken as her father worked with contractors and moved on. While in our area, they lived on the roadside like many labour do. Her father was a drunk and a gambler and her mother who must have been married at a very young age was abused by her husband. The little girl must be 15 or 16 now. Maybe she has been married off as is often the case. But the fact is that her education was truncated because of the nature of her father’s job and the unavailability of any school for such children. If her parents are forced into community service, how will they eat. And how do you solve the problem of all the beggar children. There has to be a way.

So let us get back to a roadmap for our children who we are agreed upon cannot wait. Hence we need a ‘band aid’ solution while lofty programmes are drafted and implemented. I can only talk of Delhi as I have first hand knowledge of the ground reality. Maybe a first step would be to redress whatever shortcomings there are in schools. The picture you see is real. The desks were too big so rather than cit the legs, kids were made to study standing! You may find it funny but to me it is the saddest picture and the example of the callousness and insensitivity of those in charge. So let us have an audit of schools and sort everything that can be sorted out now so that today’s children benefit. Most of the State run schools are in tents or single storied building. More tents could be erected while new floors are made. The speed at which builders erect private buildings is mind blowing. Maybe the same zeal should be applied to schools.

There are many things that can be done now. The question I ask myself is whether this hands down approach will be taken or whether everything will be lost in dreams of larger goals that may or may not be met, while children study standing or cramped in classes where they can barely breathe.

These children who remain voiceless, would like the Prime Minister to know that they cannot wait!

And the winner is… we all know who. Curtains have fallen on the biggest reality show ever and one must admit the silence that follows is nothing short of defeaning even if during the past months we have been wanting all the din to end. Come on, let us be honest we had got used to the show, in spite of us, as no matter where you went, what time of the it was, which channel you switched on you were greeted by the next episode of the great Indian tamasha: Election 2014. And even if one may never admit it in public, one has surreptitiously watched all the channels derided by all! Now that is all over, though channels will still try and stretch the last steps of Government forming to the maximum, come Tuesday things will have to settle down and the new formation allowed to deliver. I do hope that every step of theirs will not be dissected and taken apart to increase viewership and hence TRPs. One needs to give them time to discharge their mandate. That is what common sense says.

But I guess the media will always find something to badger you with day in and day out, the latest being the new episode of the AAP soap. Government should govern and opposition should oppose sensibly if we want the country to prosper. The nit picking that we see far too often is not in the interest of anyone.

I do not know if I am for or against, though I know I am pro a strong Government that acts and a CEO that communicates! For the rest only time will tell. I pray that lumpen elements which exist across the board will be kept in check and that every action or utterance will not be viewed with the ‘secular’ angle. This secularism bogey has to stop.

The social media is replete with Letters to the PM, mine included! These offer suggestions or express fears. I hope someone in the entourage of the new PM will look at them as many have positive inputs that come from the 125 crore people he has often mentioned. This morning I was surprised to see An open letter to everyone writing open letters to Modi on my Facebook page. It makes interesting reading if you keep an open mind. The only part I object to is putting all NGOs in one basket and branding them as corrupt. I agree that there are such organisations but want to say that there are people like us who do our bit to make India a better place dipping into our meagre pockets should the need arise. Not all NGOs want to keep people downtrodden,  endangered,  marginalised and victimised. We work because Governments have failed in the past and because children cannot wait for things to happen, they have to helped now, tomorrow is too late for them. I, more than anyone else would like to see my work made redundant today but I am not wearing blinkers and I know that there is a long road to travel before we see no child out of school. For this not only do we need a strong and honest Government, but also an awakening of the like of us with our education and privileges, who should express our outrage loud and clear when we see something that disturbs us: a child begging for instance or working in your neighbour’s home.

I hope our new PM will not surround himself with a bunch of people acting like his eyes and ears. I hope the voice of simple Indians who care for India will reach him. In the days of the Internet and social media ably aided by Aunty Google that should not be a problem.

No matter what the supporters of Prime Minister Modi say, his task is not an easy one. People are expecting miracles and no one can conjure them in the given situation where the rot is so deep. In my very humble opinion, one that comes with a decade and a half of working and learning from the other India, I would suggest looking at what is in existence and bringing short term solutions. For instance a simple audit of schools in the capital can at least ensure desks for children, drinking water, toilets with doors and so on. That is a beginning. A visit to the anganwadis (creches run by the State) could entail working weighing machines, proper nutrition, visits by doctors etc. Such small interventions would be visible and keep hope afloat.

I would also humbly beg the new incumbents to have a look at primary education in India which seems to have not given the results expected. In my mind the no fail policy till class VII can be a good thing in well run schools but in State schools it translates into children in grades IV, V even VII who can barely read. We have had many such children and are proud to say that all of them have made up and some are even topping their classes. It does not take a miracle to ensure this. And also I would urge the new functionaries to do away with the 33% pass percentage and increase it to 50% as that is the minimum required to get simple jobs. Why do we want our children to be 33% educated! To me it is a matter of shame. And believe me this is important as the Principal of a Senior Secondary school told me that as the pass percentage is 33% they only cover 40% of the curriculum. This in response to one of my militant visits to know why the syllabus was not fully covered.

If we want to change India, we have to change its poorest and that means quality education for all. It also means altering the curriculum and including vocational studies as early as class VII. Every child is not academically inclined and so if s/he were to leave school with a certificate as well as skill knowledge, her/his chances of employment would grow exponentially. The skills should be selected keeping the market forces in mind: tailoring, beauty training, plumbing, staff for retail outlets, etc. That would bring the real change we all seek.

The show is over and the winner is and should be India. That is what we voted for.

As I mentioned in my previous blog  I have not been out on my bi weekly peregrinations for a week, as my man was away so food becomes the least of my concern. I guess it is a counterpoint to the obsessive food management needed for Ranjan. I  cannot count the number of tomato sandwiches I have gulped in the past week. Anyway, one of the shops I go to is in Mehar Chand Market. We normally take the Sewa Nagar flyover and imagine my surprise when I saw a big new display board on a house stating: HINDU MAHILA SANGATTHAN – apologies for my photographic skills which are abysmal -. A simple translation would be Hindu Women’s Association I guess. Anyway the board was not there last week I promise. Is this a precursor for things to come, I hope not.

As I travelled along to my destination, my mind decided to wander in another direction. The words on the sign stated Hindu woman and I began asking myself what is a Hindu woman compared to another woman. Be you Hindu, Muslim, Christian or atheist you are before all else woman, the other half, the often denigrated one. You are considered a burden as you have to be wedded at any cost. You are the misplaced repository of the honour of the family and that entails all kind of injustices. You are denied a voice and can be used and abused at will. If you are born in a poor family, whatever your faith, you may be denied an education, given a different diet than your male sibling, married off as soon as possible. In your husband’s home you are under the yoke of the mother-in-law who is the same be she Hindu or of another faith. You will be derided should you not bear a son, no matter X or Y chromosomes. Actually this happens also in educated homes.

You are not safe on the street, not safe in your home environment, not safe anywhere if you do not have a male protector be it your father, brother, husband or son and that happens in all families. You are taught to hate the other without any plausible reason. As a little girl you play the same games, and as you grow up like the same songs, movies, actors and so on. You have similar dreams and feel the same pain when they come crashing.

You feel the same pain when you give birth to a child and cry the same tears when you lose a dear one. The blood you shed every month is red, and the one that flows when you hurt yourself is red to. The colour of your blood or your tears cannot tell me your religion.

In this election we have seen attempts at polarisation and heard the word secular again ad nauseoum. For electoral gains politicians use religion to divide but this time it looks like it did not quite work. I see a glimmer of hope in our beating this monster out of our lives and hope that signs like the one in the picture is an exception to the rule.

For me secularism means respecting all religions as this was what I was taught by my parents. I grew up in lands of different faiths. A friend of another religion meant that many more festivals to celebrate together and that many more goodies to eat. It also meant praying in different places of worship as my parents never stopped me from going to a church or a mosque or a synagogue. I am lucky that this was many decades ago when communalism and extremism had not raised their ugly heads.

The women of India face the same problems and need the same solutions. What differs is more the social strata they come or whether they live in cities or villages. They all need water, food and toilets. There is no Hindu or Muslim in these matters.

I hope our new masters will remember that we are just women.

The whole of last week, I have been happily housebound as the husband is away. This meant that I did not have to go to my sundry treasure troves of organic goodies spread across town. The last week was also the one that changed Indian politics forever and for the better we hope. Many who have voted our new Prime Minster in have done so regardless of the candidate of their constituency or the baggage the man comes with. They all voted for change with a capital C and were willing to pass over the past were the man to deliver the dreams he sold. For some it is the end of corruption, for others it is regaining pride as a nation; for some it is access to new jobs, for others it may be revival of the economic slump; for some it is prices coming down and for others simply getting 2 square meals. The expectations are high and the time is short as the people of India are angry, hurt and impatient. They kept their part of the deal – gave an absolute majority – now it is for the new incumbent to conjure his, and I use the word conjure because he does need to deliver miracles.

There are still some who fear this man and feel that his reign may augur for all of us and more so for the minorities. An open letter to the PM highlights these fears should you be interested in reading it. But I guess the fear everyone talks of comes from the bogey of secularism we have been fed ad nauseum and that has been kept alive by politicians as polarisation of any sort, be it caste or religion, suits their agendas and vote bank politics. However, when we look at the results, it seems that the electorate has obliterated this fault lines and voted across the Board. Maybe the game has been exposed or maybe every one realises that these bugbears belong to times gone by. The electorate voted as a Nation and we need respect that. I strongly feel we should give the new incumbents a chance before crying wolf.

So as I was saying, as the husband is on his way back, I need to replenish the larder and hence set out on my fixed beat to get all needed for the man’s regimen. The first stop was at a general store whose young owner has become a good friend and who pre election was not in favour of the party now in power, but as any young intelligent Indian he too was willing to give a chance to the new Government. We got on talking about many things and also about FDI in retail, something that according to those who oppose the policy would hurt shopkeepers like him. What he said warmed the cockles of my heart and made me proud to be an Indian. He simply said: people should have confidence in the Indian tradesman! He, who has been in the business for years said he did not fear FDI in retail as he knew that his customers would always come to him and that is a fact. Take me. I would not travel miles to go to a Carrefour or a Tesco to buy my groceries. I hate hypermarkets and have had my fill when I was abroad and felt like someone out of Chaplin’s Modern Times with my shopping cart walking corridors filled with goods and almost compelled to buy more than needed or even what is not needed because of the promos and other advertising gimmicks. During my 4 years in Paris I longed for the corner grocery shop and the other regular shops I went to in India.

Even if  had a car and drove, nothing would make me battle the Delhi traffic and drive miles to buy what I can get just by making a call and old Mr M charges a few extra rupees, it would still be less than the fuel. But I move in a three-wheeler and these mercifully are not allowed outside the Delhi borders where these new shopping giants will be located. I guess there are many like me we have succumbed to the charm of the proverbial Indian businessman and is not ready to leave what s/he is comfortable with for impersonal and unknown options.

I hope the new powers that will rule us for the next five years will realise the ingenuity and spirit of enterprise of Indians per se and over and above the new jobs they create through economic growth, they will also clear the way for the small people who have a real feel of the pulse of the market and set up shops where needed: be it the street tailor, cobbler or the food cart or even the young man who sets up a 2 day shop in front of an examination centre selling Guide books. They need to be freed from the stranglehold of red tapism and the numerous pockets they have to help fill. In a land has populated as ours we need to open the ways for such initiatives. And those who say, like the last incumbents, that street shops make the city ugly, I would like to state that this is what makes India, Incredible India!

Of course I hope the new Government will look at primary education and the danger of being seduced by Public Private Partnership in education. The children of India will not forgive you that.

A lot hope and a lot of dreams ride on our new PM. May he fulfil them and not lose his way in doing so.

I must admit I felt a little sheepish not going the Congress way this time as this was the party of my ancestors and most of all my mother. But knowing Kamala, even she would not have voted their way as her heart more than anyone else always beat for India. One was vindicated when one came to know about the farce that was enacted in the name of retrospection yesterday. The reigns remain in the same hands. When will they learn.

I will end by quoting what a friend and a retired senior civil servant in the UK wrote to me: I’ve just read your really interesting piece about your new PM. I couldn’t work out what I thought of him in the run up to the Election – humble origins but said to be right wing and divisive etc – so it was good to see him through your eyes.  He offers the kind of hope for a new and better life ahead that I remember so many of us in Britain felt in May 1997 when Tony Blair was elected … but while some good things were achieved by his Government (most of which have now been dismantled by our current lot), he also led us into war and let his Chancellor lead us into economic recession ….   I wish you and India and Modi better, much better!

We all do!

India’s extraordinary mandate given to one man is a watershed moment in India’s history. It is a vote for India. It is a vote that transcends social strata, caste, religion and political ideologies. India has voted for a man who has managed to instil a sense of hope in every Indian across the board. It is also a victory for India’s democracy as a man of the most humble origins, with no fancy education, degrees or western veneer has made it to the highest job. Maybe that is the reason why the humblest Indian has connected with him, or should I say the reason why he managed to connect with every Indian whose heart beats for India. For this one needs to salute Narendra Modi.

I must admit that I never would have imagined that a person like me would salute the election of our new Prime Minister. It is perhaps because what India had become over the past few years was unbearable for someone so deeply in love with her country. The corruption, the scams, the arrogance of those in power, the total absence of any kind of governance on one side of the spectrum, and on the other the total lack of concern for the poor whose every right was denied. There was something terribly wrong. It seemed as if those in power had locked themselves into some ivory tower and were inured to the issues plaguing the poor. Lofty programmes meant to redress problems,   remained just  ‘lofty programmes’ and never truly reached the beneficiaries. They however were good meat for greedy predators.

Over the past months one has seen and heard our new Prime Minister as he criss crossed  the land with zealous fervour. There were times when one felt scared and worried at what the future might look like were he to win. At times the discourse was vitriolic and scathing as the whole tone of this election seems to have been, with personal attacks and counter attacks. But when one heard some of his interviews, he said things that made sense. One was in a quandary. One just kept watching the biggest reality show and trying to make up one’s mind.

The only thing I was certain of, was that India needed a strong Government and a stable one and no matter who came to power it had to be with a good majority. At that time one could not even think of the thumping majority India ultimately gave him; people who pressed the lotus symbol had scant thought about the candidate, they were voting for Candidate Modi! Even the people from the other side of the fence, the one easily manipulated, knew they wanted a strong Government. No one  wanted a PM who was conspicuously AWOL and deafeningly silent. Everyone wanted a Leader, a Statesman, never mind the political hue as by now every voter knows that politicians change colour faster than a chameleon.

Yesterday I heard Mr Modi’s victory speech in Vadodra and it touched a deep personal chord. Before I elucidate the person we heard yesterday was not Candidate Modi, but PM designate Modi, and that was apparent in the tenor of his speech and in the numerous reference to 125 crore people. Anyway let us get to the personal chord. Mr Modi mentioned that this was the first time that the country’s leadership had passed into the land of a generation born after Independence. These words echoed deep in my heart as my own mother refused to marry before India became independent as she did not want to give birth to what she termed as a ‘slae child’.

Mr Modi went on to say that we had not had the privilege of fighting for our freedom, going to jail and bearing the abuse of the colonial masters or dying for our country. I could not but remember the numerous stories I had heard at my mother’s knee recounting the horrors my Nana who was a freedom fighter had gone through. His stays in jails while the family fought to survive; his lacerated back after meetings that ended in severe reprisal that Gandhians like him had to bear without a sound and that a little girl had to nurse; the coarse cloth that Mama had to wear while her cousins wore soft  ones, the glass of flour mixed with water that my grandmother passed off as milk to her children as there was never money for such luxuries. It was entire families who fought for a freedom we never learnt to respect.

My grandfather was a Congressman but one who felt that the Congress should have been disbanded once India had gained Independence as that was its raison d’être. It was a motley crew of ideologies that in his opinion, and the opinion of other I presume, would break apart sooner than later. He had seen the writing on the wall. The Congress we see today has nothing to do with the bunch of young fiery idealists whose life mission was to free India or die doing so. For us, born after 1947, the opportunity to die for the country is not an option, but the question I have often asked myself is why we have allowed things to reach this low, and why we who have a voice and an education keep mute in front of all the aberrations we see each day.

India is not free. It may be free of colonial rule, but it has let down its most vulnerable again and again. Today after 67  years of Independence there are millions of Indians who have been denied their very basic rights. This picture was taken in Central Delhi where a group of Lohars – gypsy ironsmiths – had been living for decades. One fine day, the very administration that had ‘allowed’ them to camp there provided they paid their tithe, came with bulldozers and razed their flimsy homes. The young girl in the picture came back from school to find her home destroyed. It is shameful that children in the capital city of India have to go to school while living on the street. This after six decades of Independence. What freedom is this and why did the bazillions of people who must have passed by this camp over the years never got disturbed by this sight and ask themselves why such people were not given a proper shelter. Imagine having to dress your child up for school in these conditions come heat, cold or rain?

What makes our silence more reprehensible is that the poor live with dignity and honour and survive the worst plight with a smile. When I decided to take up the cudgels on behalf of the Lohars of Delhi, I needed a picture to prove my point. I asked the people in this snapshot to look sad so that I could make my case stronger. All I got is peels of giggles and funny poses. Remember these were persons who had just lost their homes and shelter but would not give up hope. This is the case of millions of people across our land, people who believe and trust that one day things will be better. It is for them that our new PM’s motto ‘good times are here‘ makes the most sense.

Mr Modi says: It is not time to die for your country but to live for your country. This may seem cliched at the outset but just give it some thought. When we look around India with our eyes open we see a growing disparity between the rich and the poor that seems to be deepening by the minute. It is a matter of extreme shame to learn that there are mothers who ferret rat holes to find grain for their children while food is thrown with impunity on the other side of spectrum. It seems that rather than living for India those of us who could and can make a difference have been busy living for ourselves. For a large part of India food, shelter, education, medical facility and other essentials we take for granted do not come easy if they come at all. Yes it is time to live for our country by each one of us doing what we can.

For the outgoing party, the writing was on the wall but it seemed they were to busy looking elsewhere or perhaps they were so blinded by hubris that they could not understand that a new young voter had emerged and s/he had aspirations that differed from their parent’s. The feudal system that had been nurtured in different forms for dubious reasons had surreptitiously vanished and been replaced by a set of young voters who wanted a better morrow.

The young and restless have voted for Modi for pertinent and well though out reasons. They wanted an end to corruption and aspired to change. The common man was fed up with corruption both large and street corruption and above all price rise and the empty promises given by those in power while prices of essential commodities kept rising. The poor was angry when he heard people in high position stating that you could get a meal for 12 or 5 rupees. They were outraged when the planning commission came out with poverty lines that sounded more like a cruel joke: 32 rupees a day! The trust they had reposed 5 years ago had been broken in a cruel manner. Hubris at its best!

Those who voted for Modi did so because they felt he could deliver and run a government that has stood roots on the spot for five years. They may turn against him if he does not deliver what they want: food to eat.

The question is: can he deliver. This election has been a one in a kind as many factors have come together to make the Indian voter vote in an unpredictable manner. Every one wanted change and was willing to give it to anyone who seemed capable to bring it out. The voter was thinking out of the box. The nation was angry for multiple reasons and angry people are willing to do the unheard and that is what happened. They backed Ana Hazare as they saw a glimmer of hope, then backed AAP in Delhi and then dropped it when they realised it did not deliver. The were left with one option and they exercised it as they had not got the answers they sought from the Government in power. Modi had the stage to himself he had to find the right connect and he did, with the 95 million of new voters by giving them a viable future. The question is whether he will be able to rise above his beliefs and be the Statesman we need. Only time will tell but he must remember that the people who have voted him in and can vote him out too.

And for us Indians, it is time we live for India.

Dear Prime Minister

Please accept my congratulations on your resounding victory. The people of India have risen above caste, religion and all divisive groupings to elect you to lead our Nation. Some follow your ideological views but there are others who voted you in because we believed that you would be able to make us regain our pride which had taken a hit amidst the scams and corrupt ways that seem to have become our hallmark.

You have a huge task ahead of you, a task made onerous because of the immense trust people from across the board have reposed in you. Many believe you will become a conjurer of miracles and have high hope in you, hopes that you will be expected to fulfill. It is not an easy task and I pray God will be with you.

I am a humble senior citizen whose heart beats for India and has always done so. Nationalist parents tend to instil this love in their children, particularly children who are born and who grow up away for the Motherland. My father’s dying words to me were: don’t lose faith in India. That was in 1992 and believe me Prime Minister it has not been easy to hold on to that faith.

You have many challenges ahead of you and I am no expert in matters such as economy, finance or other complex issues. I only see with my heart and react the same way. For the past 15 years I have been working with underprivileged children in slums. Today I want to be their voice and try and reach out to you.

Every time we talk of India we take pride in the fact that we have one of the youngest population. One often hears about higher education and the need to create more IITs and IIMs. Sadly we never hear anything about primary education which is now the Constitutional Right of every child born in this land. This is the reality as one just has to step out of one’s house even in our capital city to come across a child begging or working. Mr Prime Minister no child can aspire to enter the portal of an IIM without getting primary education. In today’s India there are millions of children struggling to get a primary education. You will agree that a young demography holds no meaning if young India does not have education and access to sound vocational skills. A recent UNICEF report states that 80 million children don’t complete the entire cycle of elementary education, close to 8 million are out of school. This is a matter of utter shame. Even when children go to school, and I am not taking of schools in remote areas but the country’s capital, they are packed in classrooms where more than 100 children study in spaces made for 40. How can they learn Mr Prime Minister. Our country has failed in providing the very basic education to its children and children cannot wait as they grow by the day and soon it is too late for them. As I humble citizen who has seen the potential of these children over the past 15 years, I urge you to give primary education the place it has in the economy of any country wanting to compete with the best.

Education should not be privatised. There was a time when almost every child went to a Government school and went on to hold the highest offices. We need that Golden Age to come back. Government cannot abdicate its responsibility in this sector. Privatisation is not the answer. Should you go that way, then education will never reach the poorest of the poor and unless we reach them, our country cannot change.

Look at Delhi. It is replete with State and Municipal schools but not only are they overcrowded but they often run in ramshackle buildings and even tents with sometimes no desks! These are often single storied barracks and should be transformed into multi storied schools imparting quality education. More so it is sad that our capital city cannot provide morning school to all its children and so boys go to school in the afternoon, a time not conducive to learning. I do hope you will look at this as though children have no vote, they have hope in you, Sir.

There is one more reality that makes me hang my head in shame every day and that is the spectre of malnutrition and the fact that even today, as you celebrate your big victory, 5000 between the age of 0 and 5 will die quietly in the India you now lead. I urge you to look at this sad and shameful reality and do something. There are some programmes that could have made a difference had they been properly implemented and not hijacked by wily people. ICDS which should monitor children from age 0 to 6 has failed. Had it worked any Indian under 35 should not have been malnourished. You just need to step into one of the Anganwadis in this city to see what a sham and cruel joke they are: a damp hole, a broken weighing machine and a disinterested caretaker is what what will greet you. As for nutrition, as that is what these creches are meant to give, what the kids get is again a handful of puffed rice and gram and that too not everyday!

Mr Prime Minister we cannot have children dying everyday; we cannot have millions of children out of school.

I hope you will hear the voice of the voiceless.

A citizen of India

A few weeks ago we got a huge shock. One of our most important funders informed us that come September they would be reducing their seizable contribution by half! The reason: India was now considered an unsafe place for tourists and as our monies was dependent on the numbers visiting India, there was no option unless a miracle happened. If no miracle then we would have to make a Sophie’s choice and be compelled to close one of more of our centres.

In my wisdom I put everything on hold praying for a miracle or if not that, at least for an epiphany to save my children. It is sad that when anything goes wrong in the country it is always the voiceless children who pay for it. I remember that when India imploded its bomb in 1998, when I had just decided to start project why, many of my friends who run organisations helping the deprived saw their funding cut overnight. Now how does cutting the funds that help an autistic child or a slum kid help make a statement against the policy of a country?  Beats me.

I agree that when a foreign tourist is raped the people in her country would become ballistic and I also understand the negative reaction that will ensue. I also understand the anger we saw when the young woman was brutally raped and assaulted in December 2012 in Delhi. I can also understand the demand to see the perpetrators hang! But sadly hanging a perpetrator, making stringent laws, and all other such solutions cannot and will not stop rape or abuse as statistics have showed. Rapes have not stopped. Rape and sexual abuse is a hydra headed monster whose multiple heads will keep growing again and again unless we are able to find a way to cut its 8 mortal heads and bury his 9th immortal one. But first one has to identify all these heads and work out the right strategy.

Last week a group of journalists from the country of the women who has raped recently came on what is known as a ‘fam’ ( familiarisation)  tour. These are organised by the Government or by the tourism and hospitality sector  to showcase a country/place. The group also wished to visit one of our centres. I met with one of the members and a friend for lunch a few hours prior to their meeting with a honcho at the Tourism Ministry. She suggested I accompany them but I refused knowing I would not be able to keep my mouth shot at the lame excuses and statistics I knew would be thrown at them. I was not wrong. That is exactly what happened. The pompous official took great pride in telling them that India ranked 19th in women’s safety in the G20 list. I guess he must have also spouted out figures to prove his point. I guess there has to be an official view that defends the indefensible!

That was his job and I presume he must have given himself a pat on the back.

The next day the group was visiting us and would want to know my take on the situation. Actually it is this visit that compelled me to put a bit of order in my head and come up with something that I hoped would sound coherent. Before I go on, I wish to say that these views are mine alone and are based on what I have seen and experienced in the past decade and a half and on common sense if such thing exists.

What today manifests itself in rape, sexual assault and targeting of women in varied ways is indeed a hydra headed monster that has several different heads. It all begins with gender inequality and the sad truth that girls are not wanted from the moment they are conceived. This is unfortunately not a feeling solely perpetrated by the male gender, but more by the female one starting with the mother-in-law and so on to the point when the mother itself resents the arrival of a girl child. The seasons are many but I think the main reason is the financial burden of the marriage and if by any twist of fate the roles got reversed, I wonder if it would be boys who would find themselves at the receiving end. Whatever the reason a girl in India is considered to be in the custody of her natural family as her real home is that of her husband’s. This notion is present in the folklore of the land and is the subject of many songs and even film scripts.

In homes today, including middle class ones, one can witness the fact that girls and boys are treated differently in the choice of schools and education opportunities and in poorer homes even in the food given. At a very young age boys realise that they ate ‘superior’ to their girl siblings and often a 12 year old may be found admonishing his older sister on what he thinks is inappropriate behaviour: talking or laughing loud, looking out of the window etc. The mother, instead of scolding the son will simply laugh it off. This is happening even today. I myself was shocked to hear that whereas the number of boys in a class in Government schools was around 40, the number of girls in equivalent classes was often above 100. The reason is simple. Boys are sent to public schools which are considered better than state run ones. These schools charge fees that the parents happily pay for their sons. The daughters are sent to the State school which is free. That is one aspect of the problem that needs to be addressed.

You will think that this has no relevance to crime rates but please bear with me.

We now need to move to another reality altogether. I am talking of a new class of metropolis dwellers that has grown by quantum leaps in the past 20 to 30 years. This is the migrant population either brought by contractors to meet construction labour needs – this has also happened in western countries – or families of have left their villages in search of a better future for their children. These are mostly illiterate families with strict traditions that they adhere to. Today children of these families have grown up with their own dreams and aspirations which clash with their parent’s traditional views. These young people have urban aspirations that are fed by what they see on TV as a television is a must in the humblest of homes and with the advent of credit facilities, people living in slums are able to acquire most of what their kids want.

The TV serials and Bollywood films of today are very different from the films of yore years that extolled values like family and traditions. Today’s movies are highly westernised and seed impossible dreams in the young minds that watch them. A new social group has emerged in cities and with poor quality education, few skills and little employment these youngsters are rudderless. They fall easy prey to drug mafias, gambling dens and political and religious groups always on the prowl for easy fodder.

Early marriage was and still is the preferred solution for raging hormones but the young people fed on TV viewing and urban realities resist these. Even the law has raised the minimum marriage age. Sex education is practically non existent in State run schools. The chapter on human reproduction barely addressed the biological process but does not touch on gender issues. Sex is never spoken of at home and these children have no mentors to go to. They are left on their own and the heady cocktail of partial knowledge, drugs and alcohol, misplaced conception of the position of a male vis-à-vis a female is a recipe for disaster. Another head to our monster!

Another reality that we do not take in consideration is also the change in the social profile of the western woman. Over the past years the colonial attitude that people of my age had to bear when a hippy with dreadlocks was attended to before you in a shop or restaurant has gone. With the emergence of a new super rich class in India who is always on the prowl for new ways of spending their money, one is witnessing the emergence of a new market for young girls from western countries.   Today it is fashionable to have a western lady shower flowers on your guests at the wedding of your son or daughter or even serve at a cocktail. Event planners do offer this service. And we all know about the IPL cheerleaders.

This has brought about a change in perception in the Indian mind one that can have unfortunate ramifications more so because unlike Europe, Indian men are not used to being refused. Blame it on their mothers!

I am sure there are many more reasons but these can at least put us in the right direction. So where is the solution if there is one.

The only thing that comes too my mind that can address the hydra headed monster is EDUCATION! I know it is not magical pill or panacea. I also know that it not a quick fix but will take time and patience but the only way to address all the issues at hand is education that begins at an early age at home and then in schools.

I cannot begin to imagine how many little girls and boys could be spared child sexual abuse if they were taught the notion of good touch/bad touch at home and taught to say no. How many women who not have to suffer the indignity of being told that they are incapable of producing sons, if the X Y chromosome story was told. How many youngsters would learn age appropriate sexual behaviour and   thus handle their teenage responsibly. The list is endless.

The question is how does one make this happen in a patriarchal society, with religious fanatics and politicians who are on the prowl to annihilate any reasonable programme.

Maybe what we need to ask for to counter rape is not the death penalty but healthy sexual education in schools and perhaps tourist guidebooks should include some information about the social realities of India and advised their clients on appropriate dressing and above all dealing with the opposite gender.

This could be a beginning.

I have borrowed the title of this post from an article that appeared recently in the New York Times: What’s So Scary about Smart Girls and chose to illustrate it with a picture of the 1936-1937 batch of girls from Benares Hindu University. One of them is my mother who fought every odd possible to accede to education at a time when girls rarely went to school. She managed not only to finish school but to go to BHU as a resident and then go on to get a PHD. She was able to do that because she had to formidable allies: her paternal grandmother and her mother and browbeat her father. That was 80 years ago.

Things have not changed as girl’s education is still not fully accepted. So it makes you wonder what is it that makes people – parents, religious authorities, political entities – scared of educated women. Let me quote some parts of the article I mentioned above which are quote pertinent. The author says: Why are fanatics so terrified of girls’ education? Because there’s no force more powerful to transform a society. The greatest threat to extremism isn’t drones firing missiles, but girls reading books. The article suggests that educating girls can change demography and quotes a study that found that for each additional year of primary school, a girl has 0.26 fewer children. So if we want to reduce the youth bulge a decade from now, educate girls today. The article has interesting findings and goes on to say educating girls doubles the formal labor force. It boosts the economy, raising living standards and promoting a virtuous cycle of development. Asia’s economic boom was built by educating girls and moving them from the villages to far more productive work in the cities.

However what really caught my attention was when he states that to fight militancy, we invest overwhelmingly in the military toolbox but not so much in the education toolbox that has a far better record at defeating militancy. This is something I have been repeating for the past decade and a half over and over again. Education and education alone can transform society.

I have been on the receiving end many times. I must confess that the first time I was thrown out of a park by a posse of little politicos simply because I was teaching a bunch of slum kids under a tree, I was dumbfounded. How could teaching children be a danger to anyone. But as time went on I realised how dangerous it could be to those who wanted society to remain static as it suited everyone’s dubious agendas. As time went I understood why the pass percentage was kept at an abysmal 33% as it would ensure that the child was unable to accede to higher education, why State run schools are poorly run and cannot meet the growing demands, why the Right To Education has absurd flaws. Education can rock their boat forever.

I was recently informed that one of our funding partners would be curtailing the size of their donation. The reason was that India was no longer Incredible and thus westerners were shunning it. I guess we are talking of rapes and women safety. I felt terribly sad as it should have been the other way round as helping those who are trying to educate underprivileged children would ensure a safer India. But this is no quick fix solution. It is a long haul but the openly way we can see the change we want provided our patriarchal society, our wily politicians, our corrupt officials allow this to happen.

This afternoon I caught bits and pieces of one of the last election pitches of the star candidate of the ruling political party. This party has been in power for almost 6 decades. However to me the substance of the speech was 6 decades to late. Actually I was reading an interesting book while the TV was own in the background. Most of the time it was the annoying drone one has been forced to get used to. Thank heavens the election saga was under 60 days or as science has proven this jarring and ear splitting campaign could have become a habit we may have found ourselves missing one the show was over. Anyway let us get back to the point in question. As a real member of the second sex, to borrow Simone de Beauvoir’s expression, I am good at multi-tasking, a skill honed to almost perfection during my booth simultaneous interpretation days when I often found myself listening to and then translating some technical speech while writing my postcards! So while I was engrossed in a fascinating book on the Defence of Food, my ears perked up to the content of the speech where the candidate was speaking about heart surgeries a subject dear to my heart – excuse the pun! I snapped my book shut and was all ears. The candidate in question was I guess enumerating the ‘perks’ people would get were his party voted to power again. He was talking about having met ‘mothers’ who came to him as their children had been diagnosed and needed open heart surgery which he estimated at costing 4 to 500 000 Rupees. I have been looking for a transcript of the speech but did not find it. He went on to say that if they came into power the Government would pay for these costly surgeries. I could not but help smile as one does not have to be a rocket scientist to know that the funds will never reach true beneficiaries but get lost in transit and the child in question, who to quote his words has 2 years to live, would certainly die.

I could not help but go back to 2006 when a man hobbling on a stick entered my office with a sheaf of papers in his hand and utter despair in his eyes. He had knocked at every door possible to help him get the money required for his son’s heart surgery. Every door had been banged at his face though in a country where reservation is made a panacea for all ills he came under more than one category: OBC and handicapped. I could not remain a mute spectator. His son was operated upon and is today a smart young lad in class XII. Since we have repaired more than 20 broken hearts and the cost is nowhere near 500 000 but 100 000 max! I felt sad for the thousands of simple souls listening to the words being thrown at them and trusting what was being said as I knew that they were just words and nothing else.

There were many promises made in this speech, promised that as I said were 6 decades too late. Education was also promised. Education that is now a Fundamental Right for every child born in this country. Then my question is: what happened to the children who beg at red lights or work in tea stalls. The promises were lofty and years too late. The Act that came after almost 60 years or 3 generations and is totally flawed. Maybe what politicians needed to promise in Election 2014 was a simple engagement to ensure that all past social policies and programmes would be implemented in their true spirit. We do not need new ones; it is they who need new ones to garner their pockets. Have you ever asked yourself where the 2%  on education levied each time we eat out and pay our taxes. One would have thought that our taxes went to education and social programmes. An interesting article debates the issue. It says: What could be more important for our country than spending on basic education, public health and basic infrastructure? Whatever the government spends on these heads must be fully financed from its primary revenues. In other words, these subjects should have the first claim on the government’s resources. Whatever might be our politics or ideology, no one can deny that these should be our priorities, and after we have adequately provided for these, we should spend on other things. Why then does the government charge a cess for education and another cess on higher education? This seems to suggest that the fundamental priorities of the government are not concerned with improving the lot of the poor, the needy and the citizenry as a whole, but something else. So the question is what is that something else?

To this I would like to add that its time we asked where does the money go! More so because the Right to Education Bill is so drafted that it will never reach the poorest of the poor. Instead of using all the money levied in taxes and ceases to upgrade existing schools to a level which would even attract the middle class to them, as was the case many years ago when the plethora of public schools we have now did not exist, the State chose to come up with its absurd notions. The Bill has been criticised by many as it chose to ignore quality altogether. Today in Delhi, there are in certain schools more than 100 children in a class. Forget all else. 100 kids cannot learn anything in 35 minute periods. To address the notion of quality the State rushed to its favourite cure-all: reservation. Hence 25% of seats in all private schools would be reserved for ‘poor’ children. All private schools means school as diverse as a local school and the uber rich school. The State simply abdicated its constitutional obligation towards providing education. And of course there is more: the right to education covers children from age 6 to 14. Ha Ha! What happens after that is any body’s guess. And not to forget that the pass percentage remains a paltry 33% when colleges require 90%+ for securing admission. So if the child had no dropped out along the way, his chances at gaining higher education at a reasonable rate is limited to open universities, even colleges or correspondence courses.

Back to the speech. The candidate stated that a farmer’s son could dream big and become a pilot and that his Government would ensure this. My humble question is that to become anything  s/he needs basic education and you have not been able to provide that even with ceases and more ceases. So how does he become a pilot. Stop bartering false dreams. Clean up your act first!

And talking of deja vu it has been more than a decade that we have been cleaning your act, albeit with a handful of kids, and though we still do not have a pilot, we have amongst our alumni an international ramp model who was born on a roadside! Talk of dreams. Not to forget the now thousands of kids who have completed their studies honourably and hold good jobs and have broken the cycle of poverty and acceded to the middle class. This was also what was promised to millions in the speech.

The said speech was 60 years too late and so were your promises. The only I got out of it was that I was on the right path. I just hope that I can continue to do so. There are too many dreams to be salvaged and fulfilled.

RG and my team

An article in a leading weekly bought back memories long forgotten and if that was not enough to jog the memory hard another article did the needful: making me decide to share one part if my life I had chosen to keep to myself for my own reasons. But it seems to be open season as books are being published with gay abandon about the very years of India’s history that I am about to write about. Some of you may know about what I could call my brush with the political world. Being an interpreter and conference administrator I was called to service conferences of all kind and thus came into contact with the establishment and for personalities. This is not meant to be my life story but let me simply say that a series of occurrences led me to via many conferences and even the Asian Games to be called upon one evening after the Congress had lost the 1989 elections by Rajiv Gandhi who requested I come to see him at Race Course Road asap. I think I was with him in less than an hour that included a drive from South Delhi and the lengthy security procedure. I had only met him briefly after the elections results and did not quite know what to say but he put me at ease, and with his charming smile told me he needed my help. I need to tell you that prior to this day, I had been engaged in making a data base of Congress workers with my team and hence I guess my administrative capabilities were known to him. Anyway he asked me to follow him and took me to a huge room that was filled from floor to veiling with unopened letters. The simply asked me if I would handle this. It was a challenge I could not refuse. The pile contained letters form Heads of State as well as from humble workers, Xmas and New year greetings as we were in December and much more.

I told him I would get back to him with a plan. Though I knew I would give my time pro bono, I also realised that I would need a team, computers and much more and thus would have to come up with a monthly budget. The next day I had some clear ideas and was all set to share them with RG, but was surprised to find a posse of politicians, some who today are big shots, waiting for me. They said they would be giving me instructions about how to manage the Congress President’s (CP as everyone seem to love acronyms) correspondence. A red light started flashing in my mind. This is was bad news but anyway I would give them a patient hearing. It took me a minute to know that I would not do what they wanted as the first sentence they came up with was: you have to answer all letters written by senior Congressmen and then the coup de grace you will only answer letters written on good quality paper and never to answer nasty letters. I nodded as expected and was just waiting for a chance to leave these men and their ideas and storm into the CP’s office and lay some ground rules.

RG must have known that there was something wrong as I entered his room. Being who I am I told him to find someone else for the task as the conditions his people had set were not acceptable. He asked me to calm down and tell him what happened. I explained that for me his correspondence was a unique occasion to build a PR exercise that would help him regain the trust of many and hence letters by Congressmen on beautiful paper was the lowest priority while the nasty letters were top priority! He smiled and said he agreed 100% and that it would be my way. I felt smug but also knew I had made a whole set of new enemies! I also knew that every letter would be answered no matter what.

We worked out a great system  were not only did we answer all letters but also initiated our own on festivals, birthdays etc. So imagine my surprise when I read an article entitled pre-paid connection that begins with these words: Namaskar! This is your MP speaking. I wish you a very happy birthday and apologise for not being able to attend your celebrations. But I will try to meet you the next time I visit the locality,” says a voice message by Election Awaaz, a Gurgaon-based political consultancy firm… “If you are the voter who gets a personalised call like this, how would you feel? Wouldn’t you vote for the MP?” asks J.P. Singh, founder of Election Awaaz. 

I guess this is how the hundreds of thousands of people from across the land felt when they got an unexpected letter from RG, more so those who had sent vitriolic letters and probably never expected then to be answered. I remember one person who wrote back saying something like: I still do not agree with your views but was consider you a true gentleman!

I guess my team and I were an avant garde political consultancy firm. Makes one feel quite good. Our task was herculean as we had to open thousands of letters each day, categorise them, read them and answer them. Our rudimentary computer and its floppy disk was a help but nothing compared to the software one has today. And then the letters had to be folded, put in an envelope, the envelope glued and then stamped and posted. No SEND button! It was a great learning experience particularly as one understood how political parties worked and how it was not for the likes of me.

In 1991 elections were called and I suggested that we write a nice and positive letter to everyone on our data base. I made a draft and submitted it for approval. Imagine my horror when my letter was rejected and a new draft sent to me which was arrogant and supercilious, the exact opposite of the image we had built over the months. I was up in arms again and sent a rather hard note to CP telling me that I would not be party to the draft he had sent and would resign if forced to do so as I could not do anything that I know would harm him. He sent me a short note stating: your draft OK! Sadly things did not turn out as we would have hoped.

So imagine my surprise again when I read these words in the article mentioned at the beginning of this post: In a new book out this week, My Years with Rajiv and Sonia, Rajiv Gandhi’s aide, former Union home secretary R.D. Pradhan, quotes the late prime minister saying in 1991 that he did not want a negative campaign. His advisers Rajiv Desai, Sam Pitroda, Suman Dubey and Prannoy Roy wanted Rajiv Gandhi to be confrontational. Roy, writes Pradhan, wanted a campaign that would “shock and wake up” voters. Rajiv was adamant, and said no.

Hey that is my story! And I still stand by it.

Seeing what goes in the name of electioneering today makes me gag and run a mile. Where have all the gentlemen gone!

Amidst all the inane news about election 2014 that has turned out to be a circus of the absurd with Chandni is 3, weighs 3.7 kilos. This tiny soul lives in our capital city, a city where famous for its gargantuan parties and its brazen and unabashed habit of throwing food be it at wedding parties or what I call religious feeding frenzies. Just a stone throw away from such wasteful nosh-ups, lives a little girl who his 3 year old and has the weight of a new born. She should have weighed at least 10 kilos. The article quotes the finding of an NGO who ‘mapped’ the children of a single block of a slum resettlement colony and found that one in every five kids who had their heights and weights measured was malnourished and one in nine had “severe acute malnourishment.” Of these, six children were in such a condition that NGO workers took them to a hospital. Chandni is one of them. Does this gives you goose bumps or it is just a news item that you will simply forget once you have closed the newspaper and finished your cup of tea. Such news gives me sleepless nights and finds me seething in anger at our politicians and administrators who fill their pockets with impunity and alacrity. Such news makes me mad at the likes of me who are not even willing to share a coin to help such children. I say this with confidence and full responsibility as I have knocked at so many doors and had them slammed at my face. But no matter what, I will continue writing about it as this is my brand of activism that costs nothing but a few extra grey hairs and lines on my face.
senseless debates on pointless topics like toffees and semantics, today’s newspaper brings us a news item that should make us hand our heads in shame. The article is entitled:

I have quoted these statistics ad nauseum but here they are again in caps this time: IN INDIA FIVE THOUSAND (5000) CHILDREN UNDER SIX DIE EVERYDAY OF MALNUTRITION, THAT IS 1.82 MILLION A YEAR, 208 AN HOUR, 3.4 EVERY MINUTE.

Does this still live you cold.

Here is more. Malnutrition under the age of 5 has severe and life long consequences, should you be lucky enough not to be part of the 5000/day! Here is what Wikepedia says: Malnutrition increases the risk of infection and infectious disease, and moderate malnutrition weakens every part of the immune system. For example, it is a major risk factor in the onset of active tuberculosis. Protein and energy malnutrition and deficiencies of specific micronutrients (including iron, zinc, and vitamins) increase susceptibility to infection. In communities or areas that lack access to safe drinking water, these additional health risks present a critical problem. Lower energy and impaired function of the brain also represent the downward spiral of malnutrition as victims are less able to perform the tasks they need to in order to acquire food, earn an income, or gain an education. Need I say more? By the way do you know what Marasmus and Kwashiorkor mean? They are form of malnutrition.

The bottom line is that you cannot make up for the lost years. Were you to take over a severely malnourished child aged 5 and give him the best nutrition possible, the harm would be done. The very fair and almost blond kids and protruding bellies that beg at traffic lights suffer from Kwashiorkor! It may already be too late for them.

But let us get back to Chandni and her story. Had things run in our country, things like the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme ), remember, the programme that was set up in 1985 and meant to monitor all the children of India through Aganwadis (creches), then Chandni would not have been malnourished. But as is said in the article “Many of the children found to be malnourished are enrolled with aanganwadis,” says Pardarshita co-founder Rajiv Kumar, “Their growth should have been monitored and they should have got some nutrition from there.” Aanganwadis are responsible for the delivery of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)-the only one reaching out to children under six years of age. Chandni’s father, Pramod, a security guard, says none of his five children have ever been weighed at the aanganwadi they go to and they “sometimes get some khichdi.” Get the picture again. You may ask why these aganwadis do not work?

I guess you know the answer. The money is largely siphoned off and a semblance of creche set up. The caretaker is often the local politicos nominee, the room is a dark dank hole with nothing to attack a kid, a broken weighing machine lies in a corner gathering dust, a vague meal is given sporadically.

Little Chandni cannot sit up. She has 4 other siblings and her father a rickshaw puller cannot sit with her in hospital while she is cared for. Her mother needs to look after her other kids, some who attend school. It is heart wrenching to see that in spite of the terrible conditions they live in, they know that education spells hope! Shame on us and on our rulers!

Chandni’s father wants a disability certificate for her, but d**** everyone, Chandni is not disabled and should not have been in this condition if things worked in this country of ours.

Imagine how many Chandnis there are in our city.

ICDS alone cannot help but at least can raise the red flag in time. To combat malnutrition you need clean drinking water, clem surroundings, sanitation and adequate nutrition. Chandni’s father earns 6000 rupees. 2000 rupees go in rent. How can you live in 1000 rupees a week!

To end this post let me draw your attention to another news item in the same paper. Our incumbent PM will not have to pay for water or electricity when he moves too his new house after elections.

This is India!

Today I would like to give you a glimpse of how the other half lives! The images of the over the top house I visited a few days back compelled me to browse the bazillion photographs taken over the last 14 years. They all are from across the divide. What I was looking for was snapshots of homes as well as slums themselves to give you an idea of what goes on behind our iron curtain and to show you how people beat all odds and don’t just survive, but live with dignity and courage.

The question I often asked myself is whether the right to shelter, that is not enshrined in our Constitution is an act of omission, or whether those who framed this perfect peace of legislature believed that it was implicit in the other rights like equality or simply the right to LIFE! The supreme court has debated the question ad infinitum and though it has ruled in favour of a right to housing in some cases, it has failed in others. It is a fact that millions of people are still living in sub-human conditions on pavements, in squatter settlements, bastis, jhuggies or unauthorised slums and are under constant threat of being evicted or even smoked out as happened recently in Delhi. 700 homes were gutted and the question that arises now is the one about ownership of the land on which these homes were erected. It seems far more complex than one could imagine and a true political and administrative nexus at play. The story goes something like this: the camp had 1200 tenements that were ‘owned’ by slumlords and ‘rented’ out with rents ranging from 1500 to 2500 rupees per month. The land it seems ‘belongs’ to the DDA (Delhi Development Authority) as confirmed by an NGO activist.

Today the slum dwellers have decided to take things in their own hands. They want to build their own homes. One of them gives the real picture of their predicament: The thekedars gave us nothing. They became so greedy that the area where four jhuggis stood some years back now holds at least six. There were no toilets either. We had realized that the land does not belong to them but this fire has given us the chance to set things straight. After realizing what we are up to, the thekedars have been threatening us with rape and murder. We have complained to the police. One wishes then success but even if you are an optimist one wonders how they will beat the system.

Talking of system, there is another story in the same paper that illustrates spot on how politicians deal with such situations and how empty their electoral promises are. Good to know in the election times. The article is entitled Slum families wait for flats. In 2009 slum dwellers of Bhawar Singh Camp were present at the inauguration of a redevelopment scheme for them with the promise of  a flat with two rooms, a kitchen, a washroom and access to elevator. It is one of the PPP (private public partnership) whereby a certain amount of the land was to be for homes for the poor and the rest could be exploited by the developer. A brochure was distributed and I guess a plaque put up. Lakhs were spent on the inauguration party.

2014 and nothing has happened. An RTI filed by another activist revealed that no building can ever come up on this land as it is part of the Ridge and Reserve forest area. Voila! Nonetheless the same Minister who inaugurated the foundation ceremony was back asking for votes. When quizzed on the subject you can guess what his answer was that it will be his first priority as soon as he is back in power! I have watched this cat and mouse game in every election – municipal, assembly and parliamentary – over 3 decades now. The promise is always the same and it is also never fulfilled. The people wait just like Becket’s protagonists in Waiting for Godot.

Some years back I had met an activist who is also an urban planner. She is the author of a fascinating book entitled Slumming India. In her opinion the root cause of urban slumming lies not in urban poverty but in urban greed. Her views may be radical but are nevertheless true and I urge you to read this interview of hers. I will just reproduce part of her answer to the question why is India becoming one huge slum: This is happening because of the moral bankruptcy facing our intellectuals, activists and celebrities. They are allowing our cities to die rather than taking steps to the contrary. To cite a few examples, if sprawling farmhouses for a handful are allowed to occupy prime space, then the poor will be forced to huddle in huts, as there is just so much urban land to go around. If fancy malls, used by a few, are allowed to occupy a lot of space, then shops catering to the needs of the majority will come up on the roadside. If only a few industrial houses are given prime sites, then smaller factories needing propinquity to ancillary establishments will come up in residential areas. Get the picture.

Before I continue, I would like to share a few pictures of the slums where we work and our children stay. The conditions are abysmal and shameful. But as I said people live with all the dignity they can muster.

The street where Babli lives

You cook outside

Home is where mom’s feed their kids with love

Imagine if there was a fire

She goes to school and does her homework in one of these shanties

Proud of my home and my TV

Slums are tucked away in any space available

You can barely stand in this one

A nostalgic picture of the Lohar Camp now destroyed.

You will not believe it but residents of all the homes in the pictures above have voter’s ID Card, Adhaar Cards, Ration Cards and all other identifications that make them a citizen of the city. Yet they continue to live in abysmal conditions. Sadly, they are not ready to see the way as they are prisoners of a feudal mindset that makes them believe blindly in the promises of wily and greedy politicians.

After meeting Ms Verma and getting convinced by her views, I requested her to come and talk to the residents of the slums we worked in. We had a workshop but what Ms Verma wanted them to do was a far cry from what they have been doing for ever. She wanted them to take on the next politician who came to their door soliciting votes and claimed s/he would ‘regularise’ the slum in question. She also wanted them to tell her/him that they knew their tenement was illegal but also knew that there was land earmarked for them etc. You get the picture. It all ended there and they still wait for Godot. How could they give up their feudal past.

So now the moot question is whether right to housing is a fundamental right. As it was not stated clearly in the list of fundamental rights by those who framed our Constitution, it was left to the State and the Courts to decide on a case per case issue. And this has been going on forever. In the article I mentioned earlier it seems that there are sufficient loopholes in the law that despite the existence of such rights, the state can still get away with not providing its citizens their fundamental human rights.   Whereas in some cases the Courts decide in favour of the citizen and in the 1990s the Supreme Court reiterated the right to adequate housing as a distinct constitutional obligation of the state, both under the right to life and under Article 19(1)(e), which guarantees the right of every citizen to reside and settle in any part of the country. But in 2000 the same court rules that ‘…displacement of the tribals and other persons would not per se result in the violation of their fundamental or other rights…’ Confusing to say the least.

Today the Supreme Court has pronounced 2 judgements in matters related to housing. In the first case that relates to what is known as the Campa Cola housing Society case, it dismissed the appeal of the residents and have directed them to vacate the premisses by May 31st. Residents were duped by builders who built more flats than sanctioned. In 2002 these extra flats, numbering 100, were declared illegal and the residents were served demolition notice. They knocked at every door possible but to no avail. They have lost their homes for no fault of theirs.

The second judgement concerns a High Courtorder directing demolition of two 40-floor towers in Noida. The Supreme Court has agreed to examine agreed to examine real estate major Supertech Ltd’s plea against the Allahabad high court’s order directing demolition of two 40-floor towers in Noida and ordered the company not to sell or transfer flats in the buildings. One wonders what the final verdict will be.

Housing is the perfect playing ground for politicians and business men. In the bargain the poor suffer as there is no safety net for them and no one wants to give up  land which is the proverbial hen that lays golden eggs.

The question we need to ask is whether shelter is a fundamental right. It is a right that has been recognised internationally. It is time we did so for the sake of our pavement dwellers, tribals, slum dwellers etc as they cannot depend on interpretations of a law that has too many loopholes. As is highlighted in the article quoted above the right to adequate housing an important component of the right to live with dignity, but also therefore an obvious component of the right to equality.

Till housing is not recognised as a fundamental right, how can any social or economical rights be fulfilled. I hope our new Government looks at this crucial issue.

Yesterday I went to a party, yes me the recluse put on her best clothes and best face and accompanied the husband to the engagement party of a golfing buddy of his, the same person whose house I visited a while back and  wished I had sunglasses on to protect me from the glare of the artefacts on display. It was the most over the top house I had ever seen. Yesterday was the daughter’s engagement and one pair of sun glasses would not have been enough. I also discovered that there was a fountain modelled on the Trevi one in Rome spurting precious water at the entrance of the house. I guess I missed it the last time as it was not on. Anyway, everything is Italian in this house. It was, by Delhi standards a small party but everything on offer was uber special. My best clothes paled in front of the glitter and dazzle of the ladies, but somehow it made me stand out. I have always liked that! The guest list was a mix of people who as usual did not know each other and I sat myself on an expensive sofa, hoping the colour of my outfit would not run on the pristine white and gold of the priceless seat. Music was playing through a piped system and there were flowers everywhere. There was an abundance of drinks, soft and hard,  but I settled with my all time favourite H2O. As the husband and I had eaten our vegan food before, we did not eat, but I feasted my eyes on the abundant vegetarian fare on offer with name cards stating what the dish was. I did a double take when I read: Yakitori in a martini glass! It was actually a vegetarian skewer sitting in an empty martini glass! Do a few pieces of vegetables on a skewer become a starred dish if placed in a swanky glass. Maybe they do.

We did not stay long as we were not planning to dine. On the way back, it took some time to get back to reality. After some silent moments, the husband and I shared thoughts about the evening and both of us wondered at the many ways the rich spend their money. If I had surplus money and no project why, I really wonder how I would spent it. I have been blessed from the time I was born to a surfeit of everything and am more than satiated. True there have been times, like now perhaps, where a few extra pennies would be welcome to patch up some cracks in the wall, but what the hell, the cracks have their own story to tell and life is good with them, but I really do not know what I would do were I to win a lottery and not be allowed to use it on project why.

As we reached the traffic light close to home, it turned red and within no time a young girl maybe 7 or so with a baby at her hip knocked at the car window. It must have been well past 9pm. The work day had not ended for these two children of India. That knock was felt deep in the gut by both of us as the husband worded what we both felt: why does this not outrage us?

I ask you that question again: why do we not get outraged when we see children begging! The we here is a collective one. It is me, you and above all the people who are supposed to make and implement decisions, programmes and even Constitutional Rights. Remember the Constitution that everyone quotes and which has a Preamble where WE, the People of India resolve to give all its citizens social, economic and political justice and equality of status and opportunity! Does the child that begs at the red light have equality of status and social justice. And by the way that child also has a right to free and equitable education! Let us forget for a moment about all the other goodies that are sought in her/his name and that we diligently pay for in the form of taxes and ceases. Let me remind you that Delhi has a 2% cess on Primary Education that you pay each time your kid has a hamburger at Mc Donald’s. Where does this money go? And how come the kid that begs at the red light not go to an anganwadi as stipulated by the ICDS that has been in force circa 1975 and according to which every child born in this country has a right to nutrition, immunisation and even  proper psychological, physical and social development! And the programme is still very much on the anvil as recruitments for the said programme are on going. So how come these kids are not part of this programme.

I refuse to believe that politicians, government officials and supposedly responsible citizens do not travel along the roads of the capital and do not encounter such children. How come no one sees them and wonders why they have fallen off the safety net we all pay for. Why does this not outrage everyone and compels us to do something. True they are not our kids and not vote banks so why care.

Not one of the candidates in on going elections speaks about beggar children, malnutrition deaths @ 5000 a day or hunger and yet they exist. No one talks about the abysmal condition of habitat for the poor even in the wake of a recent fire that engulfed 700 homes last week in the country’s capital. Millions continue to live in squalor quietly servicing the rich who enjoy their yakitoris in martini glasses.

The two Indias are not divided but live side by side. The problem is that one of the sides has blinkers on their eyes and refuses to acknowledge the existence of the other.