JNU creates special cell for differently abled students

In an effort to take better care of the visually and physically challenged students as well as students from marginalised sections of the society, the Jawaharlal Nehru University has created a special cell within its Equal Opportunity Office (EOO), the first of its kind among Indian universities.

“JNU is providing all possible facilities to disabled students by providing them opportunities and empowering them, and for this purpose a special cell has been created within Equal opportunity Office (EOO) of the university to oversee the challenges faced by them. The university is proud of those disabled students who have excelled in studies and sports,” said Prof Sudhir K Sopory, university vice-chancellor at a seminar organised by the Visually Challenged Students’ Forum and EOO to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disability 2015.

Besides carrying out a drive to make the entire JNU campus barrier free for differently abled, JNU follows the 3% reservation policy in its admission and provides hostel facilities to disabled students on the same day of admission. JNU also provides laptops with assistive software, voice recorders etc to its researchers with visual disabilities.

“All educational institutions should have an EOO and JNU is ready to share its experience and challenges with establishing such an office for effective implementation of policies for disabled and marginalised section students, which is very important for social justice at institutions of higher education and society,” said professor Manu Mittal, chief advisor, EOO.

Recently, Akshansh Gupta, a student of the university’s School of Computer and System Sciences who has 95% disability due to cerebral palsy, completed his Ph.D and a special felicitation program was organised to acknowledge his hard work and achievement on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The university patrons hope that many more students like him could be facilitated to complete their education.

Source: Hindustan Times, 11-12-2015

Don’t forget migration while making policies on climate change

With some one billion people on the move around the world, we are confronted with tragedies brought about by migration. The effects of climate change, that force people to migrate either within countries or across borders, compound these tragedies. A climate agreement in Paris will open new ground to build sustainable economies and hence address some of the root causes of migratory flows. From a migration perspective, advances in both the mitigation and adaptation goals are important. The effects of climate change — intertwined with those of wars, social unrest and poverty — exacerbate human insecurity.

Migration can be an adaptation strategy and migration policy has a major role in being part of the solution. This includes putting in place policies to manage the movement of people; favouring international labour agreements allowing people from degraded areas to move and creating a policy environment to channel migrants’ financial and social contributions into adaptation efforts.

Climate change also threatens the well-being of populations, endangering livelihoods through desertification, water stress and droughts. The South Asia region exemplifies these dangers, and the combination of both immediate and long-term climatic threats make it one of the world’s most vulnerable regions. One strategy for adapting to climate change is to ease migratory pressure on at-risk populations. This can be done by linking disaster response with climate adaptation strategies, thereby increasing the resilience of affected communities. This means supporting local climate adaptation projects to diversify livelihoods, improve infrastructures and provide energy. These interventions in migration-prone areas would provide residents with the choice of migrating or not.

When areas become inhospitable, safe migration channels should be made available to those who wish to move. Diasporas and established migrant communities should also be engaged as climate adaptation “champions”. Addressing climate change, mitigating its effects, and financing adaptation in all countries will be crucial. For this to happen world leaders need to conclude an enforceable global climate agreement in Paris. Climate and migration are crucial global policy challenges. We need the climate policy community to integrate migration concerns in the climate agreement.

William Lacy Swing is director general, International Organization for Migration.

Source: Hindustan Times, 11-12-2015

Religion is a Luxury

OSHO





I consider religion to be the last luxury . Only when a society becomes affluent does religion become meaningful. And now, for the first time, a greater part of the world is not poor.To be religious, or to be interested in the ultimate questions of life, one needs to have fulfilled all lower wants and needs.For example, in Buddha's time, India was like America is today . In those days, India was the richest land. The religion that we have in India today is just a leftover from those days. There is a basic difference between a poor man's religion and a rich man's religion.
If a poor man becomes interested in religion, it will be just as a substitute. Even if he prays to God, he will be praying for economic goods; the basic problem of man will not yet have arisen for him. So, Marx is right in a way when he says that religion is the opium of the people. But for a rich man, there is a basic change of dimension. Now he is not asking for economic goods, he is asking for the meaning of life.
Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha, the 24 tirthankaras of the Jainas, and the avatars of the Hindus were all rich: royally born, sons of kings. India has not had one avatar who was a poor man. Your mind's needs arise for the first time when your bodily needs are fulfilled.And religion is a need of the mind, not of the body . That is why animals can live without religion, but man cannot -the mind has come in.

In Infinite Expansion There's No Straight Line
Osho


What is Brahmn or Universal Consciousness? The meaning of Brahmn is ­ that which goes on expanding. It is not that it has expanded or spread; it is not a static condition, but it is that which is constantly expanding. The activity is going on. What happens is constantly expanding.
Even from a scientific point of view, Brahmn has two forms ­ one is the unmanifest, which is called asambhuti by sages of the upanishads. The unmanifest Brahmn means the zero-Brahmn, the seed-Brahmn.

Let us imagine the time when it had not started to expand, when the seed had not broken. Then imagine the absolute first moment of expansion ­ and after that the sprouting, the continual expanding, the growing of the tree. From such a tiny seed, such an enormous tree will grow that thousands can take rest under its shade. And from that tree will fall innumerable seeds; and from each seed will grow again a vast tree; and again each tree will propagate countless seeds, and from each seed the tree and seeds and trees and seeds and trees, endlessly . Thus a single, minute seed, through its growing process, gives birth to endless seeds. The unmanifest Brahmn is the seed-Brahmn, the zero-Brahmn, the centre point.We can only imagine this, because the centre point can only be imagined. We know only the manifest Brahmn ­ that which is outside.We know the tree-Brahmn which has unfolded. The manifest is not yet complete; it is becoming and is in the process of becoming, it is constantly expanding. Our universe is becoming larger and larger every moment. To describe its increase by the day is too much; it is inconceivable. Both Einstein and Planck, who did a great deal of research work around this theory , were baffled by it; they finally had to leave it a mystery .

But the upanishads talk about this phenomenon from quite a different and strange perspective, and it should be understood properly . If not today, then in the future, scientists will have to work from that perspective. But up to now it has not been the way of reasoning in the west, and there is a reason for this: the whole of western science has developed from Greek philosophy . It stands on the foundations of Greek philosophy , and one of Greek philosophy's basic beliefs is that time travels in a straight line. This belief has led western science into great difficulty .

Indian philosophy thinks about this in a vastly different way; it says all motions are circular. No motion can be in a straight line. The wise men of the east believe that all movements are circular. The earth revolves, seasons revolve, the sun, moon and stars move round and round. Every movement is circular, no movement is straight. Life moves in a circle. And the expanding universe, too, moves in a circle. Suppose a child remains young; then a difficulty will arise. Where will its being young end? Where will life stop if it goes on expanding and does not return to the point of death?

So Indian thinking says that this manifest Brahmn; in its expanding process, will pass through childhood, youth and old age and again return to fall into unmanifest Brahmn. It will again be zero and void. It will return to the original source from where it began its journey . Its circle will be a huge one.

Malnutrition down, but not enough

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Child malnutrition in India has declined but continues to be among the highest in the world. Between 2006 and 2014, stunting levels in children under five declined from 48% to 39% as compared to global level of 24%, the India Nutrition Report says.Being stunted means that the affected children are not fulfilling their potential either in childhood or as adults and their brain and immune systems are compromised, often for their entire life, the reports says. However, there has been an increase in the decline rate of stunting at the national level. “Though India's national rate of stunting decline has increased from 1.7% in 200506, to now 2.6%, it is not fast enough,“ said Lawrence Habbad, senior researcher from International Food Policy Research Institute. A global report assessing India's performance vis-à-vis 193 countries concluded that India was on track to meet only two of the eight global targets on nutrition though it had significantly improved its performance in the past 10 years.
The India Nutrition report and the Global Nutrition Report was released by Union ministers J P Nadda and Maneka Gandhi on Thursday .
Nadda urged for suggestions to accelerate action at state level and strengthening and accountability for impact of nutrition programmes.
In order to strengthen the ICDS programme, women and child development ministry has been undertaking capacity building measures for Anganwadi workers equipping them with tablet devices and giving them promotional abilities, Gandhi said.
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com

Source: Times of India, 11-12-15

Mainstream Weekly

• About Mainstream
• Archives (2006 on)
• 2015

Most recent articles

• An Existential Threat to Secular India

  6 December
  political notebook
  The Babri Masjid at Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992. The forces that demolished the historic mosque have become far stronger today and are threatening to demolish the entire edifice of India’s secular and democratic polity. The insecurity that the members of the minority community felt at that time has grown manifold. There is a pervasive fear among them. Witness the cold-blooded lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq of Bisada village near Dadri in UP in late September (...)

• Climate Change in India: Challenges and Solutions

  6 December
  by Sharat Poornima
  “The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed.”
  —Mahatma Gandhi 
  The idea of environmental conservation was built into India’s traditional culture. The ancient dictum in India “tyakten Bhunjitha” (concept of consumption along with sacrifice) indicates towards the method of checking the state of imbalance. With the scientific progress and technological development, man started utilising resources at a much higher scale. Large-scale (...)

• A Secularist Responds to Minister Rajnath Singh ....

  6 December
  by Ram Puniyani
  The celebration of the Constitution Day (November 26, 2015) marked the revival of the debate, on, rather questioning of the concept of, secularism yet again. Rajnath Singh, the Union Home Minister, repeated the arguments which the RSS Parivar has been raising time and again. He said that the perverse use of the term secularism is causing social tensions. As per Singh, secularism is the most misused term in the country and it is this misuse of the term which is causing (...)

• Patriots and Intolerance

  6 December, by Mukul Dube
  Some weeks ago, a friend and I were discussing the returning of the first few awards by writers. I said that the gesture was likely to have little effect as too few Indians cared for writers and their work. I added that what would be effective was something similar from the world of popular films. Sure enough, the actions of a couple of directors drew attention: but the real bomb-shell was the words of Aamir Khan, a major star, from a well-publicised platform.
  The reaction of the Hindu (...)

• Growing Intolerance

  6 December
  by Neha Dabhade and Irfan Engineer
  Recently in an interview at an award function, Aamir Khan mentioned that his wife, Kiran, asked him whether they should leave the country. To Aamir Khan, the statement of his wife was disastrous and indicated growing intolerance in the country. Though we condemn any such sweeping statement coming from a celebrity idolised by millions in the country, one must, without politicising the statement, reflect over the context in which it was made. The Indian (...)

• How Not To Counter Communalism

  6 December
  The following is a revised version of an article published in opendemocracy.net/ and the revision has been carried out by the author himself for its publication in Mainstream; we are, however, using it here with due acknowledgement. —Editor
  by L.K. Sharma
  Combating communalism is a creative enterprise. A few well-crafted statements or protest meetings would not be adequate to immunise a vast population against the communal poison. The civil rights activists who demonstrated in London (...)

• Not Sorrow but Atonement

  6 December
  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following piece, which was published as ‘Political Notebook’ in Mainstream (December 12, 1992), is being reproduced on the twentythird anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Its significance is heightened due to the ongoing offensive of the Hindutvavadi forces following the seizure of power at the Centre by the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah-led BJP in May 2014. —Editor
  The vandalism that brought down the Babri Masjid structure on December 6 will remain a (...)

• Rubble

  6 December, by Gopal Gandhi
  You lifted one fistful of salt
  And an empire was shamed.
  Lift
  One fistful of rubble
  Now
  And pour it on our shameless heads.
  December 5, 1992 Gopal Gandhi

• In the Aftermath

  6 December, by SC
  The mosque was eloquent History,
  Everything else was shrouded in mythology.
  Yet they, under the spell of fiery oratory,
  Chose to chase the mirage of a myth,
  Pull down the building
  And build hatred in their hearts
  When I, a citizen of this vast land
  With the pulsating impulse of History behind me,
  Watched helplessly in speechless agony
  My dreams lie shattered,
  My country split
  And its future back to the tribal past.
  I know not how to atone for my immoral silence
  For History (...)

• Aamir Khan, P.B. Acharya, Gajendra Chauhan

  6 December, by Humra Quraishi
  MUSINGS
  What tolerance are we showing for Aamir Khan’s harmless little utterance along the strain that his wife, Kiran Rao, had contemplated moving out of here as she feared for the safety of their child in this atmosphere hanging heavy with intolerance? What tolerance are we showing for the flow of thoughts, of words, of sentiments, of emotions? What tolerance we are showing for dissent—for the sane voices of dissent? What tolerance are we showing for arts and artists and for their very (...)

Practise All You Learn

GEETIKA JAIN





How do we actualise and fructify our acquired knowledge?
First, we need to realise and accept gracefully that at a very deep and invisible level, we all are kindred souls. Hence, each one of us is a co-creator in whatever good or bad is happening in the world. We all bear an equal responsibility .Here, it is relevant to mention cosmic consciousness -expounded in the Upanishads -which pervades the entire universe and forms a substratum for all living entities to connect with one another.In the hurly-burly of life, we tend to lose touch with our inner core, which is an integral part of cosmic consciousness.To connect with our pure, divine and blissful Self, we need to meditate regularly .
This practice can lead to supreme serenity , clarity of thought and sharp intellect. This state of mindfulness and quietude is conducive to our being aware of the nuances of our behaviour -are we actually incorporating our wisdom in our day-to-day dealings?
Secondly , an honest, unbiased self-appraisal done occasionally can keep us on the path of righteousness. Are we following what we learn? If we do, then we can be the positive change we wish to see in the world. Once we take the first step, others are likely to follow.Normally , we make a mental note of whatever knowledge we assimilate. It is best to write down salient points and revise them when possible. This way , wisdom will permeate our daily behaviour. If we practise goodness on a regular basis, it will become a way of life.