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 .