Dec 23 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`71% of disabled kids in rural India'

Sivakumar B

Chennai:





India has 20.42 lakh disabled children aged between 0 and 6 years.Around 71% of them -14.52 lakh children -are in rural areas. There are 5.9 lakh disabled children in cities. Of them, 11.04 lakh are male and 9.38 lakh are female children. Among them, 1.49 lakh children have multiple disabilities.Children with hearing and eyesight disabilities form the lion's share among them. All age groups put together, there are more than 41 lakh children with eyesight problems and 47 lakh children with hearing disabilities in the country, says the latest report on 2011 Cen sus released on Monday .
“More children with disability are found in rural areas because of lack of paediatricians in villages. Many community health centres in rural areas don't have even a doctor, leave alone paediatricians,“ said chairman and founder of Narayana Health Dr Devi Prasad Shetty . “Only a paediatrician will be able to detect disability in a child at an early stage. If detected on time, the child can be sent to urban centres to consult specialists,“ he said.
“Even many years after independence, in many villages, women give birth with the help of midwives and not under a gynaecologist's care.Problems that a pregnant woman faces affects the child also. At times they are born with mental disability,“ Shetty said.
There are more than 5.80 lakh children in this age group with other disabilities like autism and cerebal palsy .Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of children with disabilities. Bihar is next on the list with 2.90 lakh children. Maharashtra has 2.17 lakh children with dis abilities. In the south, undivided Andhra Pradesh has 1.27 lakh children, followed by Karnataka (92,853), Tamil Nadu (62,538) and Kerala (26,242).Among the smaller states, Sikkim has the lowest number (628) of disabled children.Assam has the maximum number of disabled children (35,742) in the northeast.
“State governments should take steps based on census numbers. Even in Tamil Nadu, the state government has not taken any step like incidence analysis based on the 2011 census,“ said Meenakshi Balasubramanian of Equals, an NGO working with disabled people in the state. The country's disabled population has increased by 22.4% between 2001 and 2011.

Dec 23 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Farmer suicides on rise: IB report

Bharti Jain

New Delhi:





There has been an upward trend in cases of farmer suicides in Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka and Punjab recently , besides reporting of instances in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, said an Intelligence Bureau note submitted to the Modi government late last week.The December 19 report, marked to national security adviser Ajit Kumar Doval, principal secretary to the PM, Nripendra Mishra, and agriculture ministry among others, has put the blame on the erratic monsoon (at the onset stage) this year, outstanding loans, rising debt, low crop yield, poor procurement rate of crops and successive crop failure. It also linked the agriculturists' woes to a depleted water table, unsuitable macroeconomic policies with respect to taxes, non-farm loans and faulty prices of import and export.
According to the IB, “While natural factors like uneven rains, hailstorm, drought and floods adversely affect crop yield, manmade factors like pricing policies and inadequate marketing facilities result in post-yield losses“.
The report `Spate of Cases of Suicide by Farmers' emphasized how government relief packages are of limited use as they do not address the plight of those who borrow from private money-lenders.“The money lenders continue to offer loans at interest rates of 24-50%, while income-generating potential of the land has remained low and subject to weather conditions,“ the IB pointed out.
It observed that though loan waivers and relief packages may mitigate farmers' distress in the short run, “the problem requires a comprehensive solution that addresses crop yield, availability of farm inputs and loan, assured irrigation, cold storage and marketing facilities and fair pricing policies“.

Dec 23 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Job We Met: Teach India's English Edge

Nitisha Kashyap

New Delhi:





30,000 young Indians have been made job ready by the Teach India programme that also conducts special projects for students in ITIs, for Delhi Police and also in institutions such as Tihar Jail

Among the many students and job-aspirants who have undergone a Teach India training for proficiency in spoken English are some key groups. One of the programme's major initiatives was its partnering with government-run industrial training institutes, popularly known as the ITIs.It was often observed that despite receiving training, ITI graduates failed to secure employment in reputed organizations because of their lack of proficiency in professional communication. To skill these students in spoken English, Teach India conducted a pilot in March 2012 with about 100 students. It was a big success, such that Teach India was made the official training partner for spo ken-English training at `World Class Skills Centre' and the programme implemented successfully in many more ITIs in Delhi. Another key spoken-English training programme was launched for Tihar Jail inmates on the premise that this was a crucial skill that would help inmates face job interviews that jail authorities organize for those being released from prison. In the last two years, Teach India has conducted classes in Jail No. 3, 4, 5, 6 (women's jail) and 7 (adolescents' jail). The training has boosted the confidence of inmates facing interviews and a life outside prison. Badal Firozi, for one, could not speak in English when he came to Tihar in 2008, but now says he talks to fellow inmates only in the Queen's language. Undertrial Nadeem Khan says he's read The Alchemist and has taken to quoting Paulo Coelho when talking to fellow inmates. “I had no hope for my future,“ says Khan, but now, “I'm not afraid of the future. Teach India's classes have helped me prepare to land a job.“ Khan practises his newfound skill by interacting with foreign inmates. He says, “They ask, `Are you calling us for your English practice sessions?'“ Firozi, studying tourism, gives Khaled Hosseini's books a thumbs-up. The aspiring tourist guide says Teach India has been a `con fidence-capsule', that made him confident of acing interviews. “I've practised in our `role play' classes a lot. I can face any job interview,“ he says. Another inmate, RJ Shehzad, says he never found English `easy' and is grateful that his teachers “made it an easy learning“.
“Just like other students,“ is how Teach India volunteer Noni Jolly describes her students at Tihar. She taught here in 2012 too. Sharing her experience, she said inmates are excited to learn English. “It is an interactive course: It's like learning and playing together,“ she said, adding inmates make for `involved learners'. Volunteer teacher Tamanna Tandon echoes the sentiment. They want to change their future by learning, said Tandon. “You don't know the people you're interacting with. But once we started talking, perceptions change,“ she said.
Tihar Jail DG Alok Kumar Verma is keen that the Teach India programme become an annual Tihar event.He finds student-inmates excited about the programme's benefits, calling it a personality-grooming module as well. “It's going to help them in placement. We took this opportunity to partner with Teach India that should be made part of our annual programmes list,“ said Verma.
Another project runs for Delhi Police, started with the aim of equipping police with verbal proficiency in English. The Teach India training is specially significant for those manning `100' Helpline and PCR calls. After the success of the pilot to train constables at Delhi Police HQ, Teach India moved on to train 419 probationary sub-inspectors at Delhi's Police Training College. Teach India has now been made mandatory in PSIs' course curriculum. The module's being expanded to train staff at local police stations across Delhi.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING INSTITUTES (ITI)

DELHI POLICE CONSTABLES
DELHI POLICE CONSTABLES


IMPROVED EFFICIENCY
Constable Poonam Nagar hails from Dankur, UP & is posted at Hauz Khas police station. She deals with the women's helpline that requires her to register complaints daily. But lack of familiarity with English made it difficult for her to help callers effectively. She requested her seniors to enrol her in the Teach India programme that improved her spoken English and boosted her confidence, making her an effective communicator & allowing her to perform better

BETTER COMMUNICATOR
Constable Sandeep Kumar from Rewari, Haryana is posted at the Malviya Nagar police station. Despite having a Masters degree in English, he was not well-versed with the language -spoken or written. His training in the Teach India programme helped him improve his spoken English, allowing him to communicate effectively and fluently with his colleagues and superiors, and gave him the confidence he lacked

ACED INTERVIEWS
Commerce graduate from Delhi University, Neha Srivastava came to know about Teach India from the World Class Skill Centre, Vivek Vihar. She describes three months of the classes as a life-changing event that helped her become self assured. It helped Neha hone her fluency & communication skills. “I can express my thoughts with clarity now,“ she says. Neha aced job interviews and is working with a top retail chain

CONFIDENCE TO TALK
Astudent of ITI's World Class Skill Centre, Sargam held a professional degree, but dreaded a conversation in English with peers. The Teach India training helped him overcome the reluctance to speak and he has taken up a parttime job in an electronics retail chain. “I was uneasy about talking, but converse comfortably now,“ he says.

More Indians using mobiles, PCs for education, professional work 

In a survey conducted by IT firm Juniper Networks, India has bagged the second rank in the use of connected devices like mobile phones and PCs for educational and professional purposes compared to those in developed markets such as the US and UK.

According to Juniper’s Global Bandwidth Index report, 45 per cent of respondents from India said connectivity has drastically changed the way they now access textbooks, complete coursework or use teaching tools compared with just seven per cent in Japan. Among the nine nations surveyed, South Africa ranked top position in the use of connected devices for professional and personal usage.

The report surveyed 5,500 adults in developed markets like Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US as well as emerging markets like Brazil, China, India and South Africa.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/12/more-indians-using-mobiles-pcs-for-education-professional-work/#sthash.t0J672m3.dpuf

The train that brings cheer to migrant labour

A major work of paddy harvesting is done by the migrant workers in the Krishna district. A major work of paddy harvesting, done manually, is done by the migrant workers in the Krishna district, where farmers are still facing scarcity of sufficient agriculture workers.

Every November and December when paddy harvesting operations are normally in full swing in Krishna district, the passenger train that plies between Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam speaks volumes about seasonal migration of workforce from India’s two poorest districts.

The compartments of the daily train would be completely occupied by the agriculture workers including women belonging to Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts in Northern Andhra Pradesh region. On Saturday night alone, nearly a hundred families returned to their homes after spending nearly 40 days working in the paddy fields in a stretch of Eastern Krishna district.

“A couple earns Rs. 550 and two kilograms of rice per day to complete the task of crop cutting in the given extent of land. The daily wage offered by the Krishna district is lucrative,” a Mestri who hails from Bobbili area in Vizianagaram district told The Hindu. Many women and men workers accompanied by their siblings who interacted with The Hindu at the Machilipatnam railway station did not want to reveal their names.

The train, the cheapest mode of transportation to reach Krishna district, carries thousands of migrant families every year, bring cheers on the faces of the Krishna farmers. However, the bus fare between Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam is six times higher than the train fare. Many workers change their children’s attire to make them look older in order to get work and better wages.

A major work of paddy harvesting, done manually, is done by the migrant workers in the Krishna district, where farmers are still facing scarcity of sufficient agriculture workers. In Srikakulam district, the extent of land under paddy cultivation is falling, forcing thousands of workers to migrate to other districts in search of jobs in winter season.

“We cannot expect kharif season without the migrant workers from Northern Andhra Pradesh districts as they known for offering good physical labour for their survival”, a farmer S. Rajasekhar of Kautaram in Krishna district.

Keywords: Srikakulam, Migrant labourers, Machilipatnam, Krishna District, Train

A good measure of kindness

Isn’t education all about students growing into concerned citizens?

It’s somewhat hackneyed to comment on the approach of the year’s end, but I’ll do it anyway. This is my last column for the year, and that’s enough reason to remark upon it, don’t you think? It is also the 51st instalment of the Backpacker’s Guide and the rucksack continues to surprise me with its contents. One of the pleasures of writing a column is getting to hear from readers, and these responses and comments feed into new ideas to write about.

In response to the last fortnight’s column, many people wrote in with examples of how they had been able to either stand up for certain ideals or intervene in the system and force positive change. However, these brave people seem to be the exception rather than the norm, and I’m sure many of us have been in situations where we have stood by feeling helpless and unable to do anything.

While some of this has to do with how we are socialised — in the home and among our peers — a good chunk of it might also have to do with how we are educated. Even a cursory look at the adjectives that are used to sell educational institutions of every hue will reveal a dominance of words that relate to the idea of competence. Schools and colleges build skills, provide knowledge, make young people market ready, create leaders and achievers, people who can stay ahead of the race.

We’re all so busy running the race that we forget why and what we are going to do when we reach the finish line, or what we become in the process.

It’s not very fashionable these days to talk about human values. I’m not getting into a morality lecture here but it strikes me that in all this selling of education as competence-building, we lose sight of that other major task of education—of humanity-building. Our time in school and college is supposed to open our minds to the rest of the world, to make us realize and appreciate the connectedness of things, so that when we become part of the working world, we understand the consequences of what we do and how it affects other people.

To some extent, we become inured to all the talk about being considerate and kind because it is couched in a self-righteous language that makes us want to rebel. The other problem is that kindness is often mistaken for weakness. We wish to be seen as strong and confident, sure about our actions.

Kindness makes us pause and shift our focus from ourselves to those around us. It can demand discomfort. It can mean we put ourselves and our professional development on hold at least temporarily while we re-chart our decisions.

Of course, all kind acts do not demand that we give up something. But we often set aside kindness because we are afraid that it might take something from us, that we might lose out in the race if we pay too much attention to such things.

In fact, most parents focus almost entirely on academic achievement during the school and college going years, and show little or no interest in whether the young person is also growing to be a caring community member or concerned citizen. We all assume that this aspect of personality evolves naturally — but does it, really?

Our years in school and college are certainly about building skills and knowledge. But they're also about growing into balanced, healthy individuals who can contribute intellectually, physically and psychologically to the world we live in. An over emphasis on mental development does an injustice to the other aspects of life. We do have the mandatory “socially useful productive work” or outreach programmes designed to build empathy, but these too end up being about marks and grades rather than anything else. Students who do find these enriching are the exception. This is partly why there is a flourishing extra-curricular business in teaching life-skills and building emotional intelligence — our schooling effectively removes these aspects from our personalities.

It's a sad commentary on the world we live in that we need to “teach” and “learn” something that ought to be taken for granted. Yes, technical competence is extremely important, and I am in no way suggesting that we downplay that. But it has no meaning if it is not accompanied by a good measure of kindness. This is something that is worth keeping in the face of a system designed to rob us of it!

Dec 22 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

CAUSE OVER CASH - IITians give up fat pay for social work

Yogita Rao

Mumbai





Fellowships, Social Start-Ups Attract GenNext

Even as several students from the current batch of IIT Bombay are looking forward to becoming multi-millionaires for the last three weeks, some passouts have dared to swim against the tide. It's no longer a mad pursuit to get sevenfigure salaries for these IIT students; it's a quest for their dreams that matters to them.While some want to teach, some have taken up social entrepreneurship and a few have taken up social work.IIT-Bombay's 2010 passout, Pratyush Rathore, was earning an annual package of Rs 44 lakh (salary plus incentives) in a New Yorkheadquartered financial firm in Gurgaon when he quit his job to pursue his dream of teaching, against his parents' wishes.
After training students for IIT entrance exams for three years, Rathore has now purchased land to set up a school in a small village close to his hometown -Sirlay , in Madhya Pradesh. He has applied for the diversion process and is awaiting a nod from the local authorities for his plan to take off.
Rathore said, “I was into algorithmic trading. But my hobby was to teach and after three years of experience, I am confident about pursuing my dream.“ He had to get his parents to visit Gurgaon to show them the lifestyle he led. “It was only after the visit that they were convinced,“ said Rathore.
When Rathore quit his job to set up a school in 2011, his plans tanked after his partners backed out. “I continued training students for IIT preparations, and simultaneously , was looking for a job. My parents were relieved after I got a work-fromhome profile from a firm based in Mumbai,“ he said.
But now, his idea is taking shape. “Since it is my hometown, it is not difficult to get contacts and resources here.I plan to set up a school similar to the one in the movie `3 Idiots', where we will not follow the conventional schooling system,“ said Rathore. A passout from the 2014 batch, Siddharth Shah, opted for a Gandhi fellowship, a two-year residential programme which requires him to work with schools in small towns to train principals and teachers in leadership qualities and better teaching practices, and help them in transforming education.
Shah said, “I wanted to explore opportunities that could help me bring about a social change. I am content with less. I can always go back to research once the programme is over.“
Suhani Mohan, also an alumni from IIT-B, quit a cushy job with a multina tional bank with a pay packet of over Rs 20 lakh. She is now setting up a firm, which will make machines that can produce low-cost sanitary napkins for rural India.
“We knew that our skills can be used to make this product. It is a start-up and we are currently using our own resources for funding the venture,“ Suhani said.She has set up the venture with two of her friends.
Meanwhile, for some students, the fellowship programmes on offer during campus placements seemed like the way to go. Ankur Tulsian, a mechanical engineer from the 2011 batch, opted for the Young India Fellowship over an MNC offer.
The fellowship allowed him to get lessons in liberal arts and leadership from global experts for a year.“The programme gave me an opportunity to learn courses that I had not studied at IIT. It helped me to put whatever I had learnt in perspective.The diversity of class was also a refreshing change from that of the engineering cohort at IIT.“
Tulsian said that some convincing went into get his parents onboard the idea.Since he was offered a scholarship, they agreed to it eventually , he added.