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Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Law university in Kolkata offers course on Harry Potter

The course titled “An interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special focus on Rowling’s Potterverse” will be offered as an elective to 4th and 5th year students of the B.A LL.B (Hons) programme at the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata.

Potterheads take note! A law university in Kolkata is offering a new course on Harry Potter which will encourage students to explore legal aspects of JK Rowling’s fictional world and its many real life lessons. The course titled “An interface between Fantasy Fiction Literature and Law: Special focus on Rowling’s Potterverse” will be offered as an elective to 4th and 5th year students of the B.A LL.B (Hons) programme at the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata.
The course, designed for the winter semester by assistant professor Shouvik Kumar Guha, attempts to serve as a breather from the orthodox law school curriculum.
“This course is meant to be more of an experiment. It will take both me and the students out of our comfort zones,” Guha told PTI in a phone interview.
“In law schools, people get a very specific set of subjects. The curriculum revolves around the hard letter of the law, case laws etc. Given the fact that this course lasts about five years, students also get bored,” he said.
Students will learn to apply legal principles in a completely new scenario, and understand how things will work through insights into a wizarding world constantly under government surveillance.
Given the many societal, legal and political changes, including the slew of landmark Supreme Court judgements, law students need to learn to adapt and respond to events unfolding around them, Guha said.
“I could have designed the course based on our real political situation but it is not necessary that all my students will share my political leanings,” he said. Guha decided instead to turn to a fictional universe, which would not create political controversies but help students learn to apply their legal knowledge to a completely alien set of scenarios.
According to a statement by NUJS, the Harry Potter series vividly exposes the limitations of laws and institutions.
In Potterverse for example, The Ministry of Magic uses its representatives to torture children for daring to tell the truth, and imprisons or even executes its citizens without the benefit of due process of law.
Its infamous prison Azkaban is designed to drive inmates to despair and suicidal tendencies without any hope of reformation In numerous instances, the wealthy control and influence government policy.. Freedom of the press in Potterverse is curtailed, and the major newspaper ‘The Daily Prophet’ is used to spread propaganda.
The series thus provides a unique platform for students to reflect and compare the legal situations with their own government. The course aims to cover legal traditions and institutions, crimes and punishments, economy, politics, contracts in the Potterverse.
Guha says his assignments to the students would be very creative in nature, and hopes that some of the works can eventually be published.
“I was introduced to Potterverse in my tenth standard. Since then I have read the books multiple times. I am familiar with each and every line of all the seven books. So it will come to me naturally,” said Guha, quipping that he probably knows Harry Potter literature better than Company Law.
Classes for the course are due to start this December. This is not the first time in India that a professor has turned to the magical world of Harry Potter to pique student interest.
Rashmi Raman, a former student of NUJS, first started a Potterverse-centric elective law course at the Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat in 2012.
The course was one of the most popular among students in the law school, Raman told PTI.
“I have not offered it for the last two semesters because it always exceeds the class limit, and I end up having to teach a class of 40-45, when I could teach another elective and get away with 15-20 students,” she said.
Raman said she plans to bring back the course again in the spring semester.
Rowling’s series of seven books — which were made into eight films — about the boy wizard Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermoine has already found its way into classrooms abroad. The Kansas State University in the US, for instance, offers a class called “Harry Potter’s Library,” where students have the opportunity to examine political themes that reoccur in the series. Frostburg University, also in the US, offers “Science of Harry Potter” which teaches students about the scientific concepts behind the magical events in the series.
For example, students explore the physics that makes Quidditch possible and the possible genetics associated with magical creatures.
Source: Hindustan Times, 23/10/2018
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The lack of upward mobility among Muslims is our democracy’s failure

The historical and political marginalisation of Muslims is significant. The political mobilisation around communities explicitly work against Muslims

Mobility has been a hall mark of growth and democracy. The myth of mobility is one of the moral myths of the growth century around the legend of Horatio Alger. Even Benjamin Franklin’s moral adages were tips for upward mobility. The study of mobility once caught in acts of storytelling has now become a methodological conscious exercise. The search for certified indices of mobility is acute, and a study by Sam Asher, Paul Novosad and Charlie Rafkin is a methodologically self-conscious about mobility. The research focuses on upward mobility of an inter-generation kind and the insights it offers are revealing. In fact, in its neutrality, the Asher study amplifies its political implications.
The study focusses not on the income, but educational mobility. The three findings must be stated explicitly. Firstly, if one separates Muslims and the SC/ST from the rest of the population, upward mobility for the rest of the population is happily comparable to the United States. Secondly, upward mobility has improved significantly for the SC/ST population. Almost all the mobility gains that have accrued are a result of political mobilisation. Oddly the upper classes have not suffered though they have mobilised against affirmative action. It is the third finding which is devastating to swallow. Intergenerational mobility has been negligible for Muslims. It is as if democracy in an electoral sense has worked more for OBCs and SC/STs but not for Muslims. Neither liberalisation nor democracy has offered much to Muslims in terms of opportunity. The Asher study is based on educational mobility because economic income data has been sparse. Educational mobility can be measured more precisely than income mobility. While parsing the data one also finds that mobility in urban areas is significantly higher than rural areas. The gap between urban and rural is equivalent to the gap between upper castes and SCs. The gap is also higher in the North rather than the South.
The study argues that the historical and political marginalisation of Muslims is significant. It emphasises that the political mobilisation around communities explicitly work against Muslims. The discrimination is overt. A paper in the Economic and Political weekly estimated that displacement from riots is the second biggest demographic displacement after dams. Studies of riots especially in Gujarat reveal that victims unlike earlier do not return to their homes. Violence not only breaks the mentality of hope but prevents a consolidation of income which mobility requires.
Social policy has been as relevant as violence. Group strategies have targeted people belonging to the SCs/STs. Asher states that he can cite no major policy which specifically works on the amelioration of Muslim disadvantages. This is a point that social critique has to recognise and discuss. Muslims in India face the stark fact of stagnation, if not downward mobility.
The nature of education may also be problematic. SC/ST groups tend to access secular mainstream schools which are more open to the society. Madrasa education tends to be provincial, often regressive, and makes only nominal acknowledgements to the demands of education and mobility. To this regressive policy, we now have to add the fact, that the current regime polices food, dress and the real estate of the city in a way that it becomes disadvantageous to this religious minority. The Muslim status in an inter-generational sense offers little hope. The situation of women must be even more hopeless. What one senses is a missing-ness of both strategies to improve Muslim education and strategies to link this to the political economy. Democracy as an imagination has failed Muslims. This I believe is one of the biggest benchmarks of the Indian democracy. It is a fact democracy needs to discuss.
Shiv Visvanathan is professor, Jindal Global Law School and director, Centre for Study of Knowledge Systems, OP Jindal Global University
Source: Hindustan Times, 23/10/2018
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Our cities cannot be smart, until they are accessible for everybody

Contractors hired to remove the barriers in the urban built environment must not be paid till civil society representatives sign off on the projects

The Delhi government’s public works department has set December 2019 as the deadline to make more than 500 buildings managed by it accessible to differently abled people, a notification issued by the department this week said. The buildings will have ramps, railings and accessible washrooms, apart from trained staff to assist the physically challenged.
At first glance, the State appears to be becoming more sensitive towards the needs of the more than 26.8 million physically challenged people in the country. The National Democratic Alliance government was proactive in amending the Person With Disabilities Act, 2016, to broaden its scope along with the Accessible India campaign with the objective of encouraging disabled-friendly buildings and human resource policies. As a part of this, 1,707 buildings were identified to be made accessible. Across 57 Indian cities, auditors provided pointers to the government on the features that could help buildings become accessible. After the audits, state governments sent proposals to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) which released funds to retrofit these buildings. According to section 44 of the Persons with Disabilities Act, the norms for retrofitting included the creation of ramps in public buildings, modification of toilets for wheelchair users and installation of Braille symbols in elevators. But the progress on this front has been sluggish. In March this year, even the Delhi High Court criticised the slow pace at which access audits for the disabled were moving.
In May this year, the Union finance ministry made it mandatory for new projects to incorporate accessibility costing in the total project cost when proposals are sent for expenditure finance committee approvals. This can help in creating an accessible physical environment since retrofitting later turns out to be a financial and design challenge. Any new construction project such as a flyover where pedestrian crossings are being planned or an overbridge or a new government building – would mandatorily have accessibility features built in.
As part of the Accessible India Campaign, the flagship national programme to make public buildings and transport less hostile for the physically challenged, 50% of these were to be made fully disabled friendly by July 2018. But more than two years after the launch of the campaign, only 3% of buildings have become accessible, according to the DEPwD.
It isn’t just inaccessible buildings that create barriers for the disabled. Along with that, our public transport is notoriously hostile towards the needs of the differently abled. The Centre’s target of making at least 25% of public transport disabled-friendly is yet to be met. Unlike the Metro rail, which has accessibility features built in, other trains are inaccessible. Census 2011 data reveals that of the 13.4 million people with disabilities in India in the employable age group of 15-59 years, 9.9 million were non-workers or marginal workers. Not only are we forcing millions of India’s unemployed with disabilities to be dependent on social security or their families and caregivers, the hostile environment and public transport also robs them of the dignity of carrying out tasks that everybody else takes for granted.
Access is no longer a a social duty, it’s a constitutional obligation. The government’s Smart Cities Mission offers a good opportunity to ensure inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in workplace, neighbourhood activities and in social life. Beyond displaying the political will to create disabled-friendly buildings, the government will now have to hold stakeholders accountable. Perhaps, Indian cities can emulate the example of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where disability organisations identify barriers in a city’s built environment. The contractors hired to remove the barriers are not paid till civil society representatives sign off on the projects. Our cities cannot be called smart till they are accessible for everybody.
aasheesh.sharma@hindustantimes.com
Source: Hindustan Times, 23/10/2018
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Remapping Memories


Each one of us is born with a unique genetic make-up, which provides a basic template for our general behaviour. This behaviour is further modified by our surroundings. These interactions, especially in early life, imprint powerful memories in our brain. Our mind is the total sum of our memories that govern our actions. Our actions then reinforce our memories in a feedback loop-type mechanism. Sanskars, as Patanjali calls memories in his Yoga Darshan, are the genesis of karma. Karma is action embracing the whole meaning of living. We are because of our karma. Our karma, or actions, good and bad, decide our future in this or the next life. All four systems of yoga — jnana, raja, bhakti and karma — teach us to live positively in thought, word and deed. This helps produce positive memories and, hence, good karma. Every individual has the power to change his destiny and memories by his actions in this life. Our actions change the neural pathways in the brain and, hence, the mind. We can change our memories through cultivation of deep thought, and change our karma. Deep thought for a long time is the essence of yoga, the sanyam in Patanjali yoga. Sanyam allows memory removal or sublimation of existing memories into new ones. Thinking deeply about a subject for a long time requires tremendous processing capability of the brain and it can only be achieved if the mind gets rid of some existing memories. To remove unhappy memories, we can think about happy events so that this process dissolves unhappy memories.

Source: Economic Times, 24/10/2018
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Monday, October 22, 2018

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 53, Issue No. 42, 20 Oct, 2018

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What is information cascade in Sociology


This refers to a social phenomenon where people make decisions purely based on the choices made by others, thus in effect ignoring any personal information that they may possess about a certain situation.
It is prevalent, for instance, in the world of business where firms may simply copy the actions of other firms instead of making decisions based on the independent evaluation of the facts.
The news industry is also prone to information cascades when false information that is initially broadcast by a few channels is assumed to be true by others without any verification, thus leading to the widespread propagation of false information to the public.
Source: The Hindu, 22/10/2018
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Lip service to labour rights


The exodus of migrant labour from Gujarat highlights the indifference of States to their well being and rights

Gujarat is one of the top States in India that receive migrant workers, largely temporary and seasonal, on a large scale. In Gujarat, they work in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs in a wide range of activities such as in agriculture, brick kilns and construction work, salt pans and domestic work, petty services and trades (food and street vending) as well as in textiles and garments, embroidery and diamond cutting and polishing, small engineering and electronics and also small and big factories.
Scant data
These workers are from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and even from as far as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Karnataka. Employers send contractors to distant unexplored places to gather labour at the lowest possible wage rate. For example, a new township in Gujarat being promoted by a large industrialist is to be built with workers from Assam. Surprisingly, the Gujarat government has no data on/estimates of migrant workers coming to Gujarat. Informally, the figures are estimated to be between 40 lakh to one crore.
Segmenting the labour market and creating a separate labour market for migrant workers — who are easy to exploit — has been a common strategy of employers across India. The pathetic conditions migrant workers face have been widely documented. They earn low wages, work very long hours without any overtime benefits, and are almost without any leave or social protection. Lakhs of unskilled and migrant workers live on worksites in makeshift huts (usually made of tin sheets) or on roads, slums and in illegal settlements not served by municipalities. They are neither able to save much to improve their conditions back in their home States nor save enough to live comfortably in Gujarat. They go back home only once or twice to celebrate festivals. Semi-skilled workers with some education and skills (such as those in diamond cutting and polishing units, power looms and factories) get slightly higher wages and earn some leave. However, these workers are also exploited in multiple ways and are mostly unprotected. Factory owners, employers and traders are only too happy with such a situation as they earn huge profits from wage labour exploitation.
Embers of resentment
Local workers resent the presence of migrant workers who they feel take away their jobs in factories and other places on account of being cheap labour. The recent attacks on migrant labour after an incident in Gujarat late last month, involving the sexual assault of a 14-month-old girl, allegedly by a migrant labourer from Bihar, appears to be have been a consequence of this resentment. Many migrant workers have now rushed out to their home States out of fear despite several local people having been taken into custody on the charge of inciting violence against migrant workers. There have been reports of an estimated 60,000 to more than a lakh workers leaving the State. Those who have stayed back now live under constant fear.
The exodus is cause for concern as it is bound to impact Gujarat’s growth and create resentment among factory owners and other employers, especially at a time when the general election is drawing close.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has blamed the Opposition for inciting locals to push out migrants while the latter have accused him of not stopping the migration. Some have even demanded his resignation. The anger on both the sides is essentially more out of fear that losing cheap labour will be at the cost of Gujarat’s prosperity than out of genuine concern for the welfare of migrant workers. The signals from the top leadership of the Chief Minister’s party are “to bring the situation back to normal”. This would also avert a crisis in the migrants’ home States which would have to cope with an army of the unemployed.
All this shows the utter indifference of States to the well being of migrant workers and their rights. The Gujarat government wants normalcy to return so that migrant workers can toil for the prosperity of Gujarat, while the Bihar government, which is at its wit’s end trying to manage the sudden inflow of returning migrants, wants migration to Gujarat to continue as before. It is not surprising that Uttar Pradesh has lauded the Gujarat government “for handling the situation well”.
Only on paper
Under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act and other labour laws (for unorganised workers), migrant workers in Gujarat are legally entitled to all their basic labour rights. These include minimum wages, regular wage payment, regular working hours and overtime payment, and decent working and living conditions which include taking care of the health and education of their children.
Under the same Act, the governments of the States from where migrant workforce originate are expected to issue licences to contractors who take workers away, register such workers and also monitor their working and living conditions in other States. But most State governments remain indifferent to these laws. Gujarat has taken a few steps but these are far from adequate. In the political sphere, there has been hardly any mention about protecting the legal rights of migrant workers in India. The political impulse has been to maintain status quo — the continuation of the situation where migrant workers are exploited.
The Gujarat government passed a rule in the 1990s making it mandatory for industries and employers in Gujarat to give 85% of jobs to local people. This rule was never really implemented in reality, but watered down by the State government in its subsequent industrial policies, as new and large investors coming to the State did not like any such restrictions. Now there is a move in the State to introduce a law for industries and investors in Gujarat which reserves 80% of labour jobs for State domiciles and at least 25% for local workers. But those behind the idea are perhaps fully aware of the futility of such a move. As long as there are huge surpluses from the labour of migrant workers, employers will have no incentive in hiring local workers. The objective of such a move is to perhaps contain the anger of local workers — at least till the 2019 election.
A way out
In the end, the real solution to this issue would be to enforce all relevant labour laws for migrant workers so that segmentation of the labour market becomes weak, and workers (local and migrant) get a fair and equal deal in the labour market. This will also weaken unfair competition between local and migrant labour and enable migrant workers either to settle down in the place of destination or to go back home and make a good living there. But are State and Central governments genuinely interested in improving the conditions of workers in the economy?
Indira Hirway is professor of economics and Director, Centre For Development Alternatives, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Source: The Hindu, 22/10/2018
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