Assam’s Majuli becomes India’s first island district

The Assam Government has granted district status to Majuli, a 400 square kilometres island in the Brahmaputra River. With this it becomes India’s first island district. Decision in this regard was taken by the state cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Guwahati. With this erosion-troubled Majuli island will become the 34th district of Assam. Earlier it was sub-division of Jorhat district. About Majuli island Geographical occurrence: The fluvial riverine island is formed by the Brahmaputra river system. It is the world’s largest mid river delta (island) system. The island is surrounded by Subanisri River in the North, main Brahmaputra River on the South and kherkatia Suli, split channel of Brahmaputra River in northeast. People and Culture: Majuli island is mostly inhabited by Mishing tribal people. It has been the hub of Assamese neo-Vaishnavite culture initiated by saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardeva in 15th century. The island had some 65 satras (monasteries adhering) to Vaishnavism. But large numbers of them were relocated to the mainland after being washed away. The main surviving satras include Garamurh, Dakhinpat, Kamalabari, Auniati and Bengenaati. Flora and Fauna: Majuli island is a rich environmental hotspot harbouring. It is home of many rare and endangered avifauna species including migratory birds. Erosion: Due to erosion of river-bank of the island it has shrunk from about 1250 sq km in 1891 to about 515 sq km.

Source: currentaffairs.gktoday.in, 29-06-2016

MGNREGS provided just 49 work days on average

he rural job guarantee programme provided only 49 days of work on an average across the country in 2015-16 when drought in several states affected farm output and crimped income.

Rural development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, though, highlighted this number as a record.

Only 10.1% of the total households that had been provided employment had been able to complete 100 days of work as stipulated by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, according to a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) outcome report by the rural development ministry.

And the number of households that had completed more than 100 days of work in areas where a drought had been declared was 283.5 million or 5.9% of the total, the outcome report said. Activities under MGNREGS, including building check dams and village ponds, resulted in 46.43 hectares of land being brought under irrigation, the report said.

Ordinarily, in a year of scanty rain, those engaged in agricultural activities—farm labour and even small farmers—would have been unemployed and looking for jobs and even migrating in search of work.

The year 2015-16 was the second consecutive year that rains had failed. At least 11 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Karanataka have declared a drought. Last year, the central government announced an extension from 100 to 150 days for work under MGNREGS for areas declared as affected by a natural disaster.

It was to stem distress migration and suicides among farmers and alleviate rural distress that MGNREGS was introduced in 2006.

The programme guarantees up to 100 days of unskilled work in a year to every rural household and has been credited with raising rural household incomes. It has been a key source of livelihood for millions of rural households.

“The average of 49 days of work is a record,” rural development minister Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi.

MGNREGS has had a record of never completing 100 days a year since its inception, said Himanshu, associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and visiting fellow at Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, and a Mint columnist.

“It is only 2% or 3% of the people who complete 100 days of work in a year. The reason for that is that some state governments are proactive, some are not, some pay wages on time, others don’t. So, there are a number of factors for this,” Himanshu said.

“Also, the number 49 days is an all-India average; so it is not correct to compare this with 100 days in a year,” he said.

Another reason for MGNREGS to clock an average of 49 days is because wages under the scheme have fallen below other wages stipulated by states; so the priority will be to go for better paying daily wage jobs, he said.

According to the report, the number of households that demanded employment in 2015-16 were 53.5 million and of these, 48.2 million had been prov i d e d with work. The total person days—or the number of people multiplied by the number of days they had been provided work—stood at 2.36 billion in 2015-16, the report said.

The number of jobs undertaken for asset creation under MGNREGS in the past decade stood at 32 million, of which 23 million were completed, the report said. Land development and irrigation works topped the list of activities under the MGNREGS, it said, followed by water conservation and maintenance and development of traditional water bodies.

Source: Mintepaper, 29-06-2016

Middle Path to Nibbana

SWAMI DHYAN VISMAY





Earlier, days and nights were a mystery; the roar of the wind, cloud and the rains were a mystery; birth-death, fire, trees, flowers and fruit were a mystery . This led to uncertainties, pleasure and misery in our lives. It triggered our intelligence and we became truth-seekers.The individual's existence is a combination of the unconscious or Dhamma, and conscious-self or ego, a mix of observer and doer. Normally , the observer keeps a watch over the doer. As we grow, the conscious-self looks for the entities that generate pleasurable sensations and strives at enhancing this. The expansion of knowledge is centred around this `looking for' and `striving for' habits that have become complex activities.
Developments in the form of various institutions, their laws and interrelationships contribute to ego. The persistent endeavour of truth-finders has been to crack many mysteries. But one mystery still remains: God. Symbolically speaking, God is but a manifestation of fear of human ego for not being able to uncover the causes of mysteries around.
“Dhammam Sharnam Gach chhami,“ said the Buddha, pointing towards the conscious-self as the sole contributor of our life's achievements or otherwise. Meditation helps the observer-self remain separate from the doer-self, always aware of the supreme joyous state of mind-body . In this permanent state of alertness, you are never in extreme pain or extreme pleasure. The Middle Path is about balance that makes Dhamma flow peacefully .

Tor, a software that masks location, identity of internet users

A small library in New Hampshire sits at the forefront of global efforts to promote privacy and fight government surveillance -to the consternation of law enforcement.The Kilton Public Library in Lebanon, a city of 13,000, last year became the nation's first library to use Tor, software that masks the location and identity of internet users, in a pilot project initiated by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Library Freedom Project. Users the world over can and do have their searches randomly routed through the library . Computers that have Tor loaded on them bounce internet searches through a random pathway , or series of relays, of other computers equipped with Tor. This network of virtual tunnels masks the location and IP address of the person doing the search.
In a feature that makes Kilton unique among US libraries, it also has a computer with a Tor exit relay , which delivers the internet query to the destination site and becomes identified as the lastknown source of the query .
Alison Macrina, founder and director of the Library Freedom Project, said her or ganisation chose Kilton for its pilot project because it had embraced other privacy-enhancing software the project recommended and because she knew the library had the know-how take it to the complicated exit-relay stage.
Tor can protect shoppers, victims of domestic violence, whistleblowers, dissidents, undercover agents and criminals alike. A recent routine internet search using Tor on one of Kilton's computers was routed through Ukraine, Germany and the Netherlands.
“Libraries are bastions of freedom,“ said Shari Steele, executive director of the Tor Project, a nonprofit started in 2004 to promote the use of Tor worldwide. “They are a great natural ally .“
“Local police asked the Kilton library last July to stop using Tor. Its use was suspended until the library board voted unanimously at a standing-room-only meeting in September to maintain the Tor relay . Kilton's really committed as a library to the values of intellectual privacy ,“ Macrina said.
“In New Hampshire, there's a lot of activism fighting surveillance. It's the `Live Free or Die' place, and they really mean it.''

Source: Times of India, 29-06-2016

1 in 3 women in the workforce marry before they turn 18

More than 32% females in the workforce tie the knot before they turn 18, while the figure for males is 6%

Nearly one in three married women in India’s workforce is below 18, the legal age for marriage, data from Census 2011 reveals.

While 6% of males in India’s workforce who get married are below 18 years of age, more than 32% of India’s married females tie the knot before turning 18.

Worryingly, almost 15% of the females get married before reaching the age of 16.

The new data signals that despite a sustained campaign by the government, India still has a long way to go in preventing child marriages and empower its young female population.

To be sure, India has made substantial progress and these numbers are an improvement from the 2001 Census numbers.

As per Census 2001, nearly one in two married females and one in 10 married males in India’s workforce were married before 18.

Within the Indian workforce, the story is similar for main workers and marginal workers.

Marginal workers are defined as those workers who work less than 183 days in the preceding year of the census.

Under the main workers category, more than 31% of the female workers who married did so before 18. This was more than 33% for marginal workers, as per Census 2011.

In comparison, according to Census 2001, almost 45% of the females in the main workers category and nearly 50% of the females in the marginal workers category were married before the legal minimum age for marriage.

Categorized on the lines of economic activity, the proportion of women getting married before 18 years of age was highest among cultivators and agricultural labourers in the main workers category and for marginal workers.

Among males, too, this proportion is highest for cultivators, followed by marginal workers and agricultural labourers.

Lack of political will to implement policies such as National Education Policy as well as the nature of development policies to counter poverty are responsible for women marrying early, said Indu Agnihotri, director at Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS).

“In the name of being tolerant to cultures, the government has no motivation to implement the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, properly, unless a complaint is filed. Moreover, arbitrary selection of age (six to 14 years) in the Right to Education Act has only shown lack of political will on the part of successive governments,” said Agnihotri.

“The extent of poverty and the nature of development policy have left the poor vulnerable. In this scenario, marriage offers a form of security for girls, and in this process, they become the victims of this paradigm of development which ignores poverty and looks at the problem from a cultural lens,” she added.

The data shows that the worst offender is Rajasthan with the highest proportion of married males and females below 18. While almost 45% of females got married under 18 years of age, 15% of the males also got married before 18.

“The numbers show that the pursuit of gender equality is a sham. We have managed to narrow down the gender gap when it comes to literacy; so more girls are going to schools. However, we have failed in ensuring they get married at the marriageable age, thus reflecting how socially conservative we are,” said Manisha Priyam, a New Delhi-based political analyst.

Source: mintepaper, 28-06-2016

Why the British said no to Europe

This was a vote by those angered and demoralised by the sheer arrogance of the apologists for the ‘remain’ campaign and the dismemberment of a socially just civil life in Britain.

The majority vote by Britons to leave the European Union was an act of raw democracy. Millions of ordinary people refused to be bullied, intimidated and dismissed with open contempt by their presumed betters in the major parties, the leaders of the business and banking oligarchy and the media.

This was, in great part, a vote by those angered and demoralised by the sheer arrogance of the apologists for the “remain” campaign and the dismemberment of a socially just civil life in Britain. The last bastion of the historic reforms of 1945, the National Health Service, has been so subverted by Tory and Labour-supported privateers it is fighting for its life.

Nothing but blackmail

A forewarning came when the Treasurer, George Osborne, the embodiment of both Britain’s ancien regime and the banking mafia in Europe, threatened to cut £30 billion from public services if people voted the wrong way; it was blackmail on a shocking scale.

John Pilger

Immigration was exploited in the campaign with consummate cynicism, not only by populist politicians from the lunar right, but by Labour politicians drawing on their own venerable tradition of promoting and nurturing racism, a symptom of corruption not at the bottom but at the top. The reason millions of refugees have fled the Middle East — first Iraq, now Syria — are the invasions and imperial mayhem of Britain, the United States, France, the European Union and NATO. Before that, there was the wilful destruction of Yugoslavia. Before that, there was the theft of Palestine and the imposition of Israel.

The pith helmets may have long gone, but the blood has never dried. A nineteenth century contempt for countries and peoples, depending on their degree of colonial usefulness, remains a centrepiece of modern “globalisation”, with its perverse socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor: its freedom for capital and denial of freedom to labour; its perfidious politicians and politicised civil servants. All this has now come home to Europe, enriching the likes of Tony Blair and impoverishing and disempowering millions. On 23 June, the British said no more.

The London class

The most effective propagandists of the “European ideal” have not been the far right, but an insufferably patrician class for whom metropolitan London is the United Kingdom. Its leading members see themselves as liberal, enlightened, cultivated tribunes of the 21st century zeitgeist, even “cool”. What they really are is a bourgeoisie with insatiable consumerist tastes and ancient instincts of their own superiority. In their house paper, the Guardian, they have gloated, day after day, at those who would even consider the EU profoundly undemocratic, a source of social injustice and a virulent extremism known as “neoliberalism”.

The aim of this extremism is to install a permanent, capitalist theocracy that ensures a two-thirds society, with the majority divided and indebted, managed by a corporate class, and a permanent working poor. In Britain today, 63 per cent of poor children grow up in families where one member is working. For them, the trap has closed. More than 600,000 residents of Britain’s second city, Greater Manchester, are, reports a study, “experiencing the effects of extreme poverty” and 1.6 million are slipping into penury.

Little of this social catastrophe is acknowledged in the bourgeois controlled media, notably the Oxbridge dominated BBC. During the referendum campaign, almost no insightful analysis was allowed to intrude upon the clichéd hysteria about “leaving Europe”, as if Britain was about to be towed in hostile currents somewhere north of Iceland.

On the morning after the vote, a BBC radio reporter welcomed politicians to his studio as old chums. “Well,” he said to “Lord” Peter Mandelson, the disgraced architect of Blairism, “why do these people want it so badly?” The “these people” are the majority of Britons.

The wealthy war criminal Tony Blair remains a hero of the Mandelson “European” class, though few will say so these days. The Guardian once described Mr. Blair as “mystical” and has been true to his “project” of rapacious war. The day after the vote, the columnist Martin Kettle offered a Brechtian solution to the misuse of democracy by the masses. “Now surely we can agree referendums are bad for Britain”, said the headline over his full-page piece. The “we” was unexplained but understood — just as “these people” is understood. “The referendum has conferred less legitimacy on politics, not more,” wrote Mr. Kettle. “…the verdict on referendums should be a ruthless one. Never again.”

The kind of ruthlessness Mr. Kettle longs for is found in Greece, a country now airbrushed. There, they had a referendum and the result was ignored. Like the Labour Party in Britain, the leaders of the Syriza government in Athens are the products of an affluent, highly privileged, educated middle class, groomed in the fakery and political treachery of post-modernism. The Greek people courageously used the referendum to demand their government sought “better terms” with a venal status quo in Brussels that was crushing the life out of their country. They were betrayed, as the British would have been betrayed.

Perpetual forgetfulness

On Friday, the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was asked by the BBC if he would pay tribute to the departed Mr. Cameron, his comrade in the “remain” campaign. Mr. Corbyn fulsomely praised Mr. Cameron’s “dignity” and noted his backing for gay marriage and his apology to the Irish families of the dead of Bloody Sunday. He said nothing about Mr. Cameron’s divisiveness, his brutal austerity policies, his lies about “protecting” the Health Service. Neither did he remind people of the war mongering of the Cameron government: the dispatch of British special forces to Libya and British bomb aimers to Saudi Arabia and, above all, the beckoning of world war three.

In the week of the referendum vote, no British politician and, to my knowledge, no journalist referred to Vladimir Putin’s speech in St. Petersburg commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June, 1941. The Soviet victory — at a cost of 27 million Soviet lives and the majority of all German forces — won the Second World War.

Mr. Putin likened the current frenzied build up of NATO troops and war material on Russia’s western borders to the Third Reich’s Operation Barbarossa. NATO’s exercises in Poland were the biggest since the Nazi invasion; Operation Anaconda had simulated an attack on Russia, presumably with nuclear weapons. On the eve of the referendum, the quisling secretary-general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, warned Britons they would be endangering “peace and security” if they voted to leave the EU. The millions who ignored him and Mr. Cameron, Mr. Osborne, Mr. Corbyn, Mr. Obama and the man who runs the Bank of England may, just may, have struck a blow for real peace and democracy in Europe.

John Pilger is a journalist and film-maker.

Keywords: Brexit, European Union, EU, United Kingdom

Source: The Hindu, 28-06-2016

India failing: 1.2 million children died of preventable diseases in 2015

Around 1.2 million children died of preventable causes in India in 2015 before celebrating their fifth birthday, a Unicef report has said in a grim reminder of abysmal state of child healthcare in the world’s fastest growing major economy.

Most of the deaths were caused by diseases easily preventable and treatable, says the report released Tuesday that counts India among the five countries accounting for half the 5.9 million under-five deaths reported across the world last year.

The other four countries are Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Pakistan, whose economies are smaller when compared with India’s.

“… some countries in the fast lane for global economic growth- including India and Nigeria – have been in the slower lane for child mortality reduction,” says the State of the World’s Children 2016 report. “The policy lesson: Economic growth can help but does not guarantee improved child survival, and a country’s income need not hinder progress.”

In India, premature and neonatal birth complications (39%) were the biggest killers followed by pneumonia (14.9%), diarrhoea (9.8%) and sepsis (7.9%) among others.

Though India’s under-five mortality rate -- deaths per 1,000 live births -- has improved to 48 from 126 deaths in 1990, it still has a lot of catching up to do, says United Nations children’s emergency fund.

India, which reported 25 million births in 2015, is the third worst offender in the southeast Asian region after Afghanistan and Pakistan. Its next door neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh have a better under-five mortality rate of 36 and 38, respectively.

China, whose economic growth has slowed in recent days, recorded only 11 under-five deaths per 1,000 live births.

Sanitation can go a long was in preventing these deaths, especially those caused by diarrhoea. The report says while 94% of the Indian population has access to clean drinking water, toilet facilities are available to only 40% of the people.

Proper nutrition, immunisation and safe water, too, can substantially bring down the deaths. The UN children’s agency has stressed on educating girls. If all mothers complete secondary education, South Asia will see 1.3 million fewer child deaths every year, it says.

Experts admit the integrated child development scheme, one of the world’s oldest nutrition programme launched by India in 1975, has failed to address the needs of children.

Poor infrastructure, lack of resources, overburdened staff, pilferage and lax enforcement had hit the programme. “There is a need to relook at ICDS and see how it can be effectively used to tackle nutrition issues in children,” said a government official who did not wish to be identified.

In 2013, a comptroller and auditor general report had criticised the women and child development ministry, which is piloting the programme, for diverting ICDS funds. State governments, the national auditor pointed out, had diverted Rs 57.82 crore from ICDS to other activities.

Though globally under-five mortality rate has halved since 1990 but the report calls for sharper focus on vulnerable sections. By 2030, 69 million children could die from “preventable causes” before the age of five if political leaders fail to address global inequality, Unicef warns.

Five countries alone will account for more than half the deaths: India (17%), Nigeria (15%), Pakistan (8%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (7%) and Angola (5%)

Source: Hindustan Times, 28-06-2016

Report: In India, 1.6m premature deaths|year tied to air pollution

Vishwa Mohan





Global Toll 6.5m; Could Go Up To 7.5m By 2040

An estimated 6.5 million pre mature deaths in the world are linked to air pollution every year with more than half of them being reported from China and India together. India alone contributes 1.59 million deaths to this dismal statistic.The global number will increase significantly, touching 7.5 million in 2040, unless the energy sector that emits majority of air pollutants takes greater action to curb emission, says the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its special report, released on Monday .
Referring to Delhi, the report says that the traditional use of biomass for cooking and two coal-fired power plants (Badarpur and Rajghat) are the main sources of PM2.5 emissions in Delhi.
Noting that the air pollution is the fourth largest human health risk after high blood pressure, poor diets and smoking, the IEA's World Energy Outlook (WEO) special report says the energy production and use mostly from unregulated, poorly regulated or inefficient fuel combustion are the most important man-made sources of key air pol lutant emission 85% of particulate matter and almost all of the sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. The report, highlighting links between energy , air pollution and health, says no country is immune as a staggering 80% of cities that monitor pollution levels fail to meet the air quality standards set by the WHO.
In a chapter on India -home to 11of the world's 20 most polluted cities, the report highlights the recent measures taken by the country to curb its emission, particularly in power sector. “But these achi evements are more often offset by strong growth in emissions from industry and transportation sector“, the report says.
Though it notes that the number of deaths due to household air pollution (use of biomass for cooking and kerosene for lighting) at present is more than the deaths due to outdoor air pollution, the trend will reverse in 2040 as more and more people would be able to access the relatively cleaner cooking gas and electricity by then.
The IEA, an autonomous orga nisation, works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy to its 29 member countries. It was set up in 1974 to help these rich nations coordinate a collective response to major disruptions in the supply of oil.
“Clean air is a basic human right that most of the world's population lacks“, said IEA executive director Fatih Birol, noting that the proven energy policies and technologies can deliver major cuts in air pollution around the world and bring health benefits, provide broader access to energy and improve sustainability .

Source: Times of India, 28-06-2016

Living A Life Free Of Problems

Acharya Mahapragya





Life can never be completely free of problems. Where only one person lives, there will be no problem, but when there is more than one person, problems become a given. The word for `two' in Sanskrit is `dwand'. It means both `two' and `conflict'. This is because no two people think alike, look alike or have similar tastes. So there are bound to be differences and judgments born thereof. This creates disharmony and tension. Then what is the solution to live a life of peace?
Bhagvan Mahavira has given a solution. He was a man with ananta chakshu or `many eyes'. That means he was able to perceive truth at many levels. Truth is multidimensional.Ananta chakshu is perhaps the most significant adjective to describe truth for truth also has so many perspectives.Through our eyes, we can see anything as either this or that. As right or wrong, as black or white, as acceptable or not acceptable. With the possibility of different perceptions, there is always scope for difference of opinion and conflict. That's why we need ananta chakshu.
It is difficult for us to understand the truth. A person living in this world sees primarily the gross world and when he has the practical perspective then truth may hide itself from view.The greatest truth is aacharan satya or truth of conduct.
Mahavira observed that there is great fear in the world.He once called all his disciples and asked what they were afraid of. They were bewildered. Their master was asking them such a question, so there must be a reason, they figured. They were silent for some time and then asked for the answer from the master himself. “Dukh bhaya appanam“ ­ we are all scared of sorrow, said Mahavira. Today there is a lot of sorrow and a lot of pain, too.
Bhagvan Mahavira laid the foundation for popularising the concept of ahimsa or non-violence. First, he laid down the principles of fearlessness and then of truth.Where there is parigraha or possession, there is fear. Where there is aparigraha, or no possessions, there is no fear.
Equally true is the fact that a householder cannot be without possessions. Mahavira found a solution. If you cannot give up posessions, observe restraint. This is the solution to today's problems that stem mostly from avarice and jealousy.
The essence to a fearless life, a peaceful life, is through restraint ... we need to have limits. The sky can be limitless but a human being cannot be ... The human being has to set limits to all activities, whether the activity pertains to eating, housing, clothing, possessing ornaments and even money. Observe limits to consumption and possession ...herein lies the magic that will bring the required balance in the consumerist culture of today. Limitless consumption is the reason for our problem ...consumption is consuming us.
We may consider our life at present.Diseases of the mind that are born within, from anger, delusion, ego and greed, are veiling the truth from our vision. All these passions are born with the desire to possess beyond our limits.Let us try to overcome our greed for possessions, then maybe more of our `eyes' will begin to open, as do petals of the lotus once the flower faces the radiance of sun rays. (Sourced by Sudhamahi Reghunathan.)

The beginner’s guide to yoga

Yoga can change your life, but only if you don’t rush headlong into it. Finding the right instructor is most crucial.

While yoga is being marketed globally for its therapeutic and holistic benefits after two high-profile celebrations of the International Day of Yoga, it’s start-up problems that bedevil new enthusiasts of the ancient practice. With so many forms and interpretations in currency, it’s not always easy finding the right yoga instructor. “I like to use the analogy of the blindfolded men trying to identify an elephant,” says Vasant Jajoo, who blends therapeutic elements of the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana with the form popularised by B.K.S. Iyengar, at his studio in Bengaluru.

Over time, yoga inculcates mindfulness and awareness. As Mr. Jajoo says, “In its entirety, yoga is a way of life that will slowly change the way you perceive the world.” But first, you need to find a teacher who can guide you on this path.

1. Discuss your goals: “Beginners should not get bogged down by the different schools of yoga, but should concentrate on finding an experienced teacher who can guide them on this journey,” says Mr. Jajoo, who has been teaching and practising yoga for nearly15 years. He suggests word of mouth over apps that promise to send a teacher to your doorstep. “Don’t hesitate to get reviews from existing students. Discuss your goals and expectations, so that everyone is on the same page.”

Anjali Thomas

2. Weight loss is incidental: Be wary of those who tout yoga as the answer to diabetes and a cure for other illnesses or, use the practice as a weight-loss tool. “Losing weight is incidental,” says Syamla Monie, who trained at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai, which was founded in 1918 and focusses on classical yoga. Ms. Monie has been practising “classical householder’s yoga” in Mumbai for 20 years and shows her students how to integrate the practice with day-to-day activities. “Yoga is not about showing off your headstand or contorting your body. The instructor should be for the well-being of his or her students. Only if people devote time to their physical and mental health can they take care of their family,” she says.

3. Don’t hide your health problems: The relationship between an instructor and a student is one that is built on honesty, much like a doctor or a patient. Mr. Jajoo advises people to discuss their health problems. For instance, if you have a bad knee or a weak back or are prone to migraines, you should tell your teacher in advance. Some asanas can provide relief; others can exacerbate the problem. He gives the example of shirshasana or the headstand. “A trained yoga therapist will know that a student with cervical spondylosis should not be allowed to attempt shirshasana. But the asana is known to help people prone to migraines. A yoga therapist should be able to modify an asana to suit a person’s needs.”

4. Go slow: Hatha yoga practitioner Ratna V. does not introduce new students to complicated series such as the surya namaskar, which has at least 12 steps, immediately. “Students have to learn how to hold each posture correctly, and the right breathing techniques. Even in a group class, a teacher should be able to spot a student who is struggling with a pose and correct them gently,” she says.

5. Do not ignore meditation and pranayama: Pranayama exercises your lungs, helps you become more aware of your body and is a vital part of yoga. Here, too, teachers should exercise caution. Some of the breathing exercises should not be taught to beginners or people recovering from a laparoscopy or other surgeries, say experts.

anjali.thomas@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: Yoga, International Yoga Day, Hatha Yoga

Source: The Hindu, 27-06-2016

Crafting the joyless university

A public audit of the UGC’s functioning is required before it can do further damage to higher education.

One phase of a long-standing stand-off between the University Grants Commission (UGC) and a section of our university teachers appears to have ended on June 16. As reported in the press, on that day the Government of India announced that it was acceding to all but one of their demands on the rules governing their functioning. Some peace would have been bought no doubt, but it cannot really further the principle that at the end of the day, after everyone’s rights and responsibilities have been granted and codified, the experience of the university must be a joyful one for our youth. There is some reason to believe that it is not always so in India today, and this is a pity.

Hours of contention

There are three components to the UGC’s package governing the faculty. Of these, mostly two have proved to be bones of contention between the two parties. These have to do with the mandated workload for teachers and student evaluation of courses, including of the lecturer herself. But it is the third component that needs to be scrutinised for its suitability. This is the assessment of teacher performance on a range of activities, ideally centred on research, or what laypersons would recognise as the contribution made to the stock of our knowledge. As a measure of faculty performance, the UGC has devised the Academic Performance Indicator (API), which is the score the teacher has attained in all activities combined.

Pulapre Balakrishnan

On the workload, having attempted to increase it by 25 per cent via a notification issued on May 10, the UGC has now climbed down and restored status quo, whereby a teacher has to undertake 16 Direct Teaching Hours a week. This may not appear particularly strenuous to the public, who are used to a 40 hour week! However, they may not be taking into account that every hour of lecturing, or even discussion, requires several hours of reading and preparation, these two being distinct tasks.

So how are we to arrive at what is a reasonable workload for our university teachers? I would have thought that it is obvious that in this globalised world of knowledge production, one approach would be to seek to approximate the global norm. Were we to do that, we would notice immediately that India’s college teachers have to teach far too much. They teach more hours per week and for more weeks in the year than their counterparts, at least in the anglophone world. I shall explain how I arrive at this conclusion but first draw attention to the fact that with so much of teaching to do, they are left with little time to read for their classes, which directly impinges upon the quality of the lectures students receive.

This is as far as the dissemination of knowledge is concerned. We are yet to address the creation of knowledge. It is not only that a heavy load of teaching crowds out the time left for research, but too much of teaching deadens the intellect which requires leisure and solitude to flourish. So while the UGC’s decision to not increase the workload may appear conciliatory, it must not lead us to overlook the possibility that the existing work norm itself may be unacceptably high.

A constructive suggestion is made here. Instead of approaching the problem from the perspective of a mandatory number of teaching hours, it could be viewed within a framework that starts out by setting the number of courses a teacher must teach in a year. The global benchmark is four courses, two being taught in each of the two semesters. Nevertheless, this would yet leave open the issue of the number of hours of lecture per course. Again, globally, the norm would be no more that 40 hours per course. I understand that in some universities in India it is as much as 60 hours per course, no doubt determined by the number of hours lecturers must teach per year. This approach has the consequence that students are now forced to attend far too many lectures.

As with teachers, so to for the students, too many lecture hours can be a disaster. Passive participation kills all creativity as there is no responsibility imposed on the student to engage. The student’s misery is compounded when the quality of lecturing is poor. The answer to both overworked teachers and deadened students is to drastically reduce the lecture hours. Back-of-the-envelope calculation based on the proposal that a teacher does four courses of 40 hours each in a year shows that India’s teachers, under present UGC norms, are teaching approximately a 100 per cent more than their peers. The consequence of this for the quality of our universities can be imagined.

On constant evaluation

The second of the bones of contention between the UGC and the teachers concerns student evaluation of courses. Surely students must be given the opportunity to assess the instruction they receive, in particular the quality of lectures. While there is scope for immaturity here, the answer to this is to take the evaluations with a pinch of salt, not to scrap them. The university needs to know how the courses that it offers are perceived so that course correction is possible. There is no substitute for student evaluation here. Teachers must learn to treat this as part of give and take. There is no professional or ethical ground on which they can refuse to stand up and be evaluated by their students. The UGC is right to recommend student evaluation of courses, even though we may argue over the metrics.

Finally, the third aspect of governance of our universities by the UGC. The government’s statement of June 16 makes no mention of it, though it is the most controversial component. Represented by the API, this prescribes minimum scores to be attained before a teacher can be considered for promotion. Mainly two elements are involved. One is the specification of a mandatory number of years to be spent in each category, between Assistant and full Professor, and the other is the assessment of research.

Both are problematic. There is absolutely no reason why the number of years of experience in a post should be a consideration in assessing a teacher’s intellectual progress. Things had been done differently in India in the last century. C.V. Raman came into the university from government and Amartya Sen had been made a full professor when he was all of 23 years. They went on to win Nobel Prizes.

Rule by numbers

The least credible part of the API is the scoring of research. Scores are to be given to publications according to the journal in which they have been published, based on a schedule to be notified by the UGC. I had written in these pages, as soon as the present government was installed, why this is problematic and shall not repeat myself but state the reasoning proposed then. Evaluating articles by the journals in which they are published prejudges their intrinsic worth by privileging the prestige of the journal over the quality of the article. Even though it is a reasonable conjecture that prestigious journals use high standards when publishing articles, it is not always the case that less prestigious journals do not contain very good work. The same goes for the UGC’s privileging of “international” over the merely “national” journals. Finally, the API awards marks for projects undertaken, correlated with the money value of the grant amount. It encourages a form of academic entrepreneurship divorced from the pursuit of knowledge. All in all, the UGC’s “rule by numbers”, as the anthropologist U. Kalpagam has characterised governmentality in colonial India, has turned the university into a space in which teachers chase numerical targets to survive. The resulting neurosis cannot but spill over to the students.

For a full half-century India’s hapless public have faced a continuing deterioration of our higher education system. The blame must be laid squarely at the door of the UGC, which has all along enjoyed unbridled power in the regulation of the universities with scant accountability. Its small-mindedness has succeeded in turning the Indian university into a wasteland, and it has got away with it. The irony is that while the Commission pressurises the universities to maintain standards by submitting themselves to rating, should its own record as regulator be assessed, it is unlikely to cover itself in glory. A public audit of the functioning of the UGC is required before it can do further damage.

Pulapre Balakrishnan teaches economics at Ashoka University. He is currently Visiting Professor, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. The views are personal.

Keywords: UGC, University Grants Commission, University teachers, Delhi University

Source: The Hindu, 27-06-2016

‘Draft’ national forest policy: Good riddance to bad rubbish

A week after the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) put out a document on its website titled ‘National Forest policy, 2016 (Draft): Empowered Communities, Healthy Ecosystems, Happy Nation’, a senior ministry official last week said the document is only a “study” done by Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, and not a draft policy. The preface to the document, however, said it had been prepared “based on village-level focus group discussions, regional and national level consultations, inputs from various stakeholders and analysis of primary and secondary data sets carried out during the years 2015 and 2016”. In fact, nowhere in the document has it been mentioned that the document should be treated as an input for a new forest policy.

What made the ministry suddenly change its stand on the document? Several civil society organisations have been extremely critical of the ‘draft’ mainly because it proposed to dilute the Forests Rights Act (FRA), do away with requirement of having two-third geographical area of mountainous and hill regions under forests, and for allowing industry to have commercial plantations on the forest land. Not only civil society, media reports suggested that even the Union tribal affairs ministry is unhappy with the proposed dilution of the FRA. The criticisms are not entirely misplaced: If a critical policy like the forest policy ignores FRA, combined with the Centre’s other steps — funneling huge amounts of money through Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority to forest officials, bypassing consent for diversion of forest land, instituting forest ‘rules’ to undercut community management, it shows that the aim is to increase the power of the forest bureaucracy and keep local communities out of the decision-making process.

While devising a new policy, the ministry must not only focus on increasing the forest area and bettering the quality of the forests but also ensure that the connection between forest-dependent communities and forests is not lost. The crux of the problem in India’s existing forest policy — the Forest Policy of 1988 — has been that it made the forest department the manager of the forests and the people lost their rights over it. But as the Uttarakhand forest fires showed recently, a few hundred forest officials and a few thousand employees of the department can do nothing when a calamity strikes. They need community support in such emergencies.

Savouring the Moment

K P SHASHIDHARAN





In the hurly-burly of life, many of us forget to live mindfully .We find that our mind is more preoccupied with emotions, feelings, thoughts, aspirations, the past and future, rather than engage with the present.Life, despite its myriad distractions, escapisms, obsessions and passions, makes us feel lonely even when we're among loved ones. There is an underlying feeling of void, a sense of helplessness. We are haunted, for example, by the process of ageing, by what we perceive as impermanence of goodness, and by pain, distress, disease and the thought of death. That's why Buddha talks about `dukha' as the essence of life, not a pessimistic perception, but the reality of life.
Mindfulness meditation enables us to live life mindfully , with awareness of the present to realise the true worth of our being. Mindfulness begins when we stop talking: being silent both inside and outside.We witness thoughts and ideas come and go like uninvited guests in mind waves. Can we listen to the silent song of our soul that is powerful enough to elevate us, taking us closer to Supreme Consciousness? It has power to inspire, and instil in us the true joy of living.
Be quiet first, sit straight, focus on incoming and outgoing breath, and follow and become the flow of air that you inhale and exhale. Keep body , mind and intellect fine-tuned in the present. Enjoy breathing in and out. Let your body be fully energised, and be fully aware of what is going on, effortlessly, like a witness, but mindfully .

Students prefer English in UPSC exams

The number of students writing the UPSC mains exam in English has been disproportionately high over the last few years compared to that in the past, analysis of UPSC data from 2009 to 2014 show.

Data was compiled from annual reports of UPSC by public information portal ‘Factly’, which they shared with The Hindu.

A significant jump was seen in the year 2011 when 83 per cent candidates took the mains exam in English compared to around 62 per cent in 2009. Corresponding to that, Hindi saw a steep decline – a drop of around 20 percentage points from 36 per cent in 2010 to 15 per cent in 2011.

This sudden change coincides with the introduction of the CSAT examination in UPSC prelims in 2011. This change was opposed by many, as it was argued that the new pattern was biased in favor of English-speaking students.

Note that data on the language chosen by candidates to write prelims is not available which makes it difficult to establish whether the jump is indeed indicative of a bias or if that is a consequence of more students taking the prelims exam in English.

Yogendra Yadav, founder of Swaraj Abhiyan and finds this trend concerning. Speaking with The Hindu, he said, “In India, language is one of the most significant markers of social inequality. Much of the social dominance is translated into language. The language of dominance – English – is now the dominant language and it is shocking to see this reverse in trend.”

Mr. Yadav says that students coming to bureaucracy from Indian language medium bring along certain sensitivity and understanding of problems of ordinary people.

In the Indian Languages section, most students opted for Hindi in the period from 2009 to 2014, followed by Marathi. But the proportion of students opting for Hindi is on a decline. 66 per cent candidates chose Hindi in 2014 compared to 74 per cent in 2009.

Caption for above chart: Apart from Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi are the only languages chosen by more than 5 per cent candidates

On the other hand, percentage of students choosing Marathi is increasing – from 5 per cent in 2009 to 9 per cent in 2014, with a peak in 2013 when 11 per cent chose the language. Note that apart from Hindi, only Marathi, Tamil and Telugu are chosen by more than 5 per cent of the candidates in the Indian language exam.

On an average, 20 per cent of the selected candidates are alumni of IITs and University of Delhi put together. Jawaharlal Nehru University, Anna University and Rajasthan University are other prominent universities from where most students come from.

These apart, University of Mumbai, University of Allahabad, MGR Medical University, IGNOU, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Osmania University and University of Pune are the ones from where more than ten students have qualified the exam in few or all years between 2009 to 2013.

Data show that students with engineering background now comprise the bulk of selected students, overtaking humanities. 51 per cent of the recommended candidates in 2013 were engineers, compared to 30 per cent in 2009.

Earlier, Humanities students were the most successful – 50 per cent of the students were from humanities background in 2004. But in 2011 and 2013, students with humanities education comprised of just 27 per cent of all the selected candidates. Around 12 per cent of the students have a background in medicine.

“In my broad experience over decades, I find that technical persons don't do as well or better than non-technical people in the field of administration,” TSR Subramaniam, former Cabinet Secretary told The Hindu. “For the engineering students, it is not their subject knowledge, but their training of mind that comes to play in this role,” he added, while expressing his concern that we need talent in every walk of life not just in administration, which is often glamorised. He also added that because the state spends on education, specialists are much more needed in their respective areas compared to administration, which is of a more generic nature.

Source: The Hindu, 25-06-2016

Life without Britain: European Union will struggle to survive

On Friday morning the ground beneath the European Union (EU) shook and how did it!

The financial implications of Britain’s exit from the EU will be manifold, and if market reactions are anything to go by it’s going to be a tough ride.

But Brussels, the EU headquarters, will have to brace itself for the political aftershocks. And suddenly, almost as though they were waiting for Britain’s decision, leaders of some EU-member nations are voicing similar intentions. The probability of a smaller EU, which seemed almost outlandish until this morning, is now real and amplified.

Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front is on record saying that France has 1,000 more reasons to leave EU than Britain. Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, has promised that if he was elected the next prime minister a referendum will be held in Netherlands. Both countries go to polls within a year’s time. Sweden and Denmark also have their eurosceptics. Unsurprisingly it is nationalist, Right-of-the-centre politicians who are fanning ‘xenophobic’ emotions.

The economic prudence of Britain’s decision aside, Brexit should force Brussels to introspect. The EU was set up almost 60 years back to bring prosperity and security to Europe--while it has brought prosperity in varying degrees, on security the jury is still out.

There are many positives that the EU has brought about, especially when it comes to easing trade bureaucracy, but as is with any alliance, when the going gets tough the faultiness magnify. Two recent developments expose these wide gaps: The EU’s approach to tackling terrorism and the union’s policy towards refugees and displaced people.

The Charlie Hebdo shootings, the November 2015 Paris attacks and the Brussels bombings in March exposed the flaws in the EU’s preparedness to tackle terror attacks. If the Charlie Hebdo shootings caught EU unawares about home-grown terror, the latter two attacks exposed the chinks in the EU’s efforts to monitor and check the movement of suspects.

The refugee crisis, amplified by the current unrest in Syria and Iraq, saw thousands, if not millions, crossing borders into Europe. But not only did the EU lack a policy, but when it came to formulating one, countries were at odds with each other. Finally, all it could do was strike a deal with Turkey to accommodate the refugees and, in many ways, ask it to act as a vetting agency for displaced people wanting to enter the EU.

For the moment it looks unlikely that the EU will disintegrate with Britain’s exit--but it won’t be the same anymore. The EU will have a tough fight to keep its relevance at world forums.

It is to be seen how, or whether, Britain’s exit will affect countries queuing up to enter the union, and how many members will consider following Britain. The EU is changing; it will rest on Brussels on whether that change is for the better.

Source: Hindustan Times, 25-06-2016

Try Saying `Thank You'

SANT RAJINDER SINGH





God once sent two angels to earth to gather the prayers of humanity . The first angel was asked to collect prayers that were essentially requests from people asking God for something. The second angel was asked to collect all the prayers of thanksgiving. The two angels agreed to meet in a month with their collections.The first angel collecting prayers that appealed to God for something became extremely busy . Several baskets were needed to hold the prayers: asking for money , health, car, jewellery and clothing. Some prayed for a spouse, for children, or for better relationships. There were so many such prayers that the angel had to obtain several vans to cart them.
Meanwhile, the second angel travelled far and wide looking for prayers of thankfulness.Several days went by with hardly a prayer of gratitude heard. A month later, the two angels returned to God. The angel collecting prayers for requests was laden with many baskets.The angel collecting prayers of thankfulness had a small amount compared to the prayers requesting things.
The story illustrates the human condition. Many of us request others to do things for us, but how many of us thank them? Let us thank God for the many gifts we have received: for our birth, health, food, clothing, shelter and for our families. Let us also thank God for our education and for our jobs.However, let us not thank God merely with words but with deeds, by leading lives of nonviolence, truthfulness, purity , humility and selfless service.

Valuable Lessons From The Honeybee

Farida Khanam





Once we come to terms with the notion that our thinking and actions may be marred by negativity , we should not allow this problem to go unresolved. Let's look at an example from the animal kingdom, that of the honeybee. Consider how it extracts nectar from flowers and how it wings its way, without once stopping, to a multitude of gardens, and then unerringly lands on the flower of its choice.Of course, there are always thorns in plenty in the path of the honeybee. But adroitly steering clear of them, the honeybee gently alights on the flower ­ its pre-determined destination. We have to reflect on how it finds its way to the flower, how it poises itself above it and how assiduously and devotedly it extracts the nectar! Also worthy of reflection is how, having completed its task, the honeybee does not waste a single moment. Flying straight back to the beehive, it deposits its share of honey. To be able do this, the honeybee has to be totally focussed on its task. It is only fitting that we should learn a lesson from the honeybee in being diligent and persevering and never swerve from the pursuit of our goals. The Creator has sent us to Earth, not without purpose, but to strive towards the perfection of our spiritual personality .Moreover, we must remain fully aware of how the Creator expects us to exhibit an extraordinary spirit in extracting spiritual nourishment from both good and bad experiences.We must never lose sight of the fact that, whatever our mission, we must stay fully focussed. Our path, of course, is strewn with distractions and it is all too natural that we should be tempted at times to pay undue attention to them. But the Creator uses these distractions to test us on our ability to remain patient, to be compassionate, and to give up being vengeful. In eschewing vengeance, we beat back negativity , we steer clear of unsavoury incidents, and, rising above petty vendetta, we are able to forgive others their follies. In so doing we enhance our own spiritual personality , and ensure that we get closer to Paradise.
Negative experiences are a challenge to test us on our reactions in extraordinary , provocative situations because the purpose of the test cannot be served in normal situations.What we are being tested on is how patient, forbearing, compassionate we are.
Faith in the Almighty at every step, shrugging off falsehoods, remaining firm in carrying out our civic and religious responsibilities, and the exercise of restraint in the face of provocation are all virtues that show that we have been continually receiving spiritual sustenance.
This spiritual goal of Islam of attaining a state of peace has been expressed in the Quran in these words: `A soul at peace' (89:27). According to the Quran this is the ultimate stage in a person's spiritual development. When he reaches this stage, he qualifies to be ushered into Paradise, the perfect and eternal world of the Hereafter. The Quran addresses such souls in these words: `O serene soul! Return to your Lord, joyful, and pleasing in His sight. Join My servants and enter My paradise' (89:27-30).
(The author is professor, Islamic Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia and Chairperson, CPS International.)