Monday, October 29, 2018
No is a complete sentence
But sexual predators don’t get it. Because they draw on deep reservoirs of misogyny.
Facing up to what true equality looks like between two genders disturbs the equilibrium of the most enlightened of men. From the time a son begins to absorb the nature of relationships in his home, he learns that in most cases the father is the boss, even if he does a bit of the housework. The father’s voice is usually louder, people listen to instructions and orders from him more willingly, “do it or I will tell your father when he comes home”, is a threat often used by the mother, and boys don’t usually shout bossily at their fathers to find their socks or feed them when they are hungry. Nothing wrong in that, if it is a clearly accepted separation of powers and duties, but have we stopped to ask how “accepted” it is by the woman, or is it simply a situation that has been “understood”? The transition from boss to decision-maker to demanding submission is not a difficult one.
In the public field, it is widely understood that racists have a deeply entrenched contempt, if not hatred, of a particular race because of feelings of superiority and the knowledge that they possess the power to oppress them. Slavery, bonded labour, human trafficking, even prostitution, from the man’s point of view, are all areas in which a man has full power and control over the victim who is helpless and, therefore, bound to be submissive to survive.
The undermining of women stems from the same innate feeling of physical superiority and prowess that older societies easily acknowledged when men went out to hunt and kill, while the women looked after the hearth and home. Protection accorded by men to women obviously seeped into their collective psyches. This earlier consciousness has not yet been fully erased in this age of intelligence, technology, computers and labour-saving machines. Preference for non-violence and peace are the catchwords of an enlightened society. It is in this kind of society that women aspire to stand on their own feet, work as equals and be economically self- reliant, even while aspiring to have families of their own, looking aesthetically pleasing in their own eyes, and, retaining the special female qualities of gentleness and grace.
The tension between the existing world view of men and the promised land seen by women results in faultlines like those emerging out of the #MeToo movement. If one looks closely at the earlier presumptions of men and their responses to the new woman, one detects a common characteristic reaction. In the earlier scenario, men presumed they could be predators as it was their natural right, and entitlement, to demand and get what they wanted from a woman. Sex of course, but also washed clothes, hot meals, healthy sons and submissiveness. What happens when a man is faced with the new woman who believes she has a choice in the matter? He does not say sorry and back off, but uses force instead, because that is what has ultimately made him superior. His mind shuts itself off to the possibility of rejection.
Whether film directors, professors, corporate bosses or editors in all forms of media — all these men are in fields that are now attracting aspiring women who are smart, well-turned out and self-confident, and have certainly not planned to be submissive. When a man with predatorial instincts confronts someone like this, he often turns to undermining her in other ways because he cannot yet understand, as Jane Fonda, in a new Netflix documentary, Feminists: What were they thinking?, says, “‘No’ is a complete sentence”. The man has not yet learned that a woman can really feel and be equal to him, and that if she is not willing to give in to him in his sexual demands that does not mean she is worthless.
Interestingly, politics is not such an easy field for predators because it is usually confident, feisty and articulate women who venture into the political arena. There aren’t many cubby holes or instances of drunken partying. But here is where men with predatorial tendencies find ways of undermining the woman they know they cannot prey upon. During distribution of tickets, women are, generally, always considered “weak” candidates or put up as proxies for men. Men in most “equal” areas, even outside politics, expect women to look attractive and provide the tea at meetings. She is thus constantly reminded of her role as a housekeeper and as someone who must, as in the visual media, look attractive to the male eye. If she challenges a man publicly or even privately, she can be called “horseface” in front of the whole world as Donald Trump did of the stunningly beautiful Stormy Daniels.
If a man knows he cannot get his way with a woman because she feels “empowered”, he will isolate, ignore and undermine her by calling her anything from being a “favourite” (wink-wink), to the mistress-companion-girlfriend of someone in power, rather than acknowledge her capabilities. At social occasions, these predators will talk flippantly for a few moments, and with obvious lack of interest, with intelligent, serious women — if they are bound to, for courtesy’s sake, before moving off for more important conversations with men. All these subtle forms of woman-hating because they cannot accept them as intellectual equals or make them submit to physical advances cannot be termed as anything but closet misogyny.
Source: Indian Express, 29/10/2018
How fair is social media criticism?
Instant online opinions impoverish our public sphere
Social media activists seem to have different notions about corrective action, justice and fairness. They want retribution, revenge and punishment rather than non-punitive course correction, which is the essential function of a news ombudsman. A news ombudsman adopts a light-touch approach to visibly mend mistakes. I refrain from naming the reporter while reporting errors or the subeditor in case of editing errors because the primary focus is on rectifying the mistake rather than stigmatising individuals who work under deadline pressure. A disturbing element about the shrill criticism of activists is the suggestion of overreach and breach of other rules in their overwhelming focus on a single theme.
Reporting on mental health
At 3.07 p.m. on September 30, there was a tweet that accused The Hindu of breach of law and insensitive reporting on mental health. The reference was to a Delhi report headlined, “Mentally ill woman beheads 8-month-old son”, published on April 21. Within four hours, the reader put out a second tweet saying that there was no action from The Hindu despite his earlier tweet and added that this was a shameful display of indifference. First, this activist assumed that health reporters follow him and hence, his tweet would have been noticed. Second, he did not write to the Readers’ Editor’s office, which has been designated to look into these types of lapses. Third, for reasons best known to him, he failed to mention that The Hindu report, written and edited sensitively, was published in April while the new law, the Mental Health Care Act, 2017, came into force only from July 7, 2018. The new law emphasises that the privacy of a mentally ill patient should be maintained and prohibits naming the individual. Aren’t Indian laws prospective in nature and not retrospective, unless and otherwise stated? How did The Hindu break any law if the law had come into effect after the publication of the report?
The issue gets more complicated with a newspaper like The Hindu because its online archive is available from 2000. Is it right to pull out an old story and take it down because it violates a law that came later? Can we alter our past to reflect the present? Is it right to play with archival material? Can history be moulded in such a way that all contentious issues are eschewed from the public domain? Over the last six years, I have tried to explain in detail why this newspaper generally refrains from altering or taking down a story. Does the non-existence of particular material online mean that it does not exist in any other form in the archives? What about the existence of the physical newspaper, which carries content that some readers want to take down, in not only the newspaper’s office but also various public libraries?
Activists working on a single theme tend to be oblivious to the requirements of a complex, multilayered society, which media scholars term as interlocking public, and come up with solutions that might not empower in the long run but undermine some of the wellsprings of plural coexistence.
Laws related to the newsroom
I would like to share a portion of a recent note from our senior managing editor that lists various laws relating to the newsroom. Apart from the well-documented laws of defamation — both criminal and civil — he listed more than 25 specific laws that govern reportage. For instance, contempt of court where, technically, fair criticism is allowed but there are instances of the courts being inconsistent in interpreting what is fair comment. Legislative privilege, where we are yet to codify the privileges of our elected members, is a powerful tool to keep the media on a leash. The laws relating to sexual crime, juvenile crime and crime against children are explained to every reporter and subeditor during their induction period in the newsroom. Twitter warriors may not know that a newspaper can be prosecuted under Rule 13 of the Aircraft Rules which says that “no person shall take, or cause or permit to be taken, at a government aerodrome or from an aircraft in flight, any photograph”. Instead of studied reflection, many who are active in cyberspace come up with instant opinions and impoverish our public sphere.
readerseditor@thehindu.co.in
Source: The Hindu, 29/10/2018
Mythologies engage with science fiction to inform real science
In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, NASA has named 21 constellations after present day mythical heroes and objects. From The Hulk to Doctor Who’s TARDIS, Godzilla to Thor’s hammer Mjolnir, and Albert Einstein to the Starship Enterprise, all of those things have now been memorialised in the stars.
Those constellations that the very first astronomically curious humans were able to spot with their naked eyes were named after mythological heroes and objects that those early astronomers could identify with — depending on which civilisation they lived in. There’s no reason why that trend should not be followed in the present day as well. NASA appears to agree. In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, NASA has named 21 constellations after present day mythical heroes and objects. From The Hulk to Doctor Who’s TARDIS, Godzilla to Thor’s hammer Mjolnir to the Starship Enterprise, all of those things have now been memorialised in the stars.
These constellations are not regular stars, but are groups of gamma-ray sources that scientists have discovered using the Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope, the most sensitive gamma-ray telescope in orbit around the earth. The Fermi has been in orbit for a decade now and has helped scientists understand the mysteries of objects that emit gamma-rays such as supermassive black holes, merging neutron stars, and streams of hot gas moving almost at the speed of light. The Fermi maps the entire sky every three hours, and studies some of the universe’s most extreme phenomena such as pulsars, supernova remnants, and gamma-ray bursts. Gamma-ray radiation is a high energy radiation billions of times more energetic than visible light. Studying these phenomena using the Fermi can give us more insight into the birth and the early evolution of the universe. Bringing together cosmologists and particle physicists, the Fermi has helped scientists test the very fundamentals of science, such as the speed of light, what sort of particles dark matter is made of, and to study younger, and more high-energy pulsars in the Milky Way.
Since all good science fiction is rooted in actual science, it is hardly surprising that most of the fictional heroes and objects that these gamma-ray constellations have been named for are linked in some way to gamma-ray radiations too. Godzilla’s trademark “heat ray” weapon “bears at least a passing resemblance to gamma-ray jets associated with black holes and neutron stars” according to NASA ; while the Hulk is famously a result of Dr Bruce Banner’s experiments with gamma-rays going horribly wrong. The Starship Enterprise’s engines were powered by the annihilation of matter and antimatter, a process that produces energy in the form of gamma rays. Immortalising such symbols in scientific endeavour is as much an acknowledgement of modern day mythologies as it is of the power of science fiction to inform real science.
Source: Hindustan Times, 26/10/2018
Look Beyond Compulsions
When we are physically born, it is the birth of a possibility. Only you can make yourself from a human being to a divine possibility. A possibility that does not become possible is a tragedy, like a seed that does not sprout and a flower that does not bloom. Brahmacharya means to walk the divine path. They are people who are striving to go beyond their compulsive nature and move into a conscious process of life. The very effort is sacred. Will they rise beyond their limitations today or tomorrow, in 10 years? That’s not the point. The fact that someone is striving to go beyond his compulsive nature, to become a conscious being, is what is significant. It is said that Gautama had over 40,000 monks around him. Among these monks, there were kings and emperors, and today, the world is enjoying the fruits of his effort. Brahmacharya does not mean just change of clothes and names, it’s a much deeper process. The fruit of that seed, the fruit of that effort, one may not be able to see immediately, because a simple weed outside will flower in three days; but if you want the coconut tree to flower, it takes six years. If you want to produce something worthwhile, it takes time. But if the seed is right, and the way we nurture it is good, the fruit is bound to happen, there is no doubt about it. If we can function consciously, take away all compulsiveness within us and make every aspect of our life into a conscious process, then we don’t have to worry about ultimate liberation. Brahmacharya is about becoming an instrument of the Divine.
Source: Economic Times, 29/10/2018
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Board Remuneration: Miles to go for Women Directors
Pay gap reflects poor representation of women at the top, but situation changing with younger women aiming for high-paying roles
For every 100 that a male non-independent director earned on the board of a large Indian company in FY18, his female counterpart earned 74. The gap in average remuneration earned by men and women directors stood at 1.2 crore, according to data sourced from Prime Database for BSE100 companies. On average, 412 male directors earned 4.5 crore in comparison with 52 women directors who earned 3.3 crore in the last fiscal. Does this reflect deep-seated discrimination or are there other forces at play? “Pay gap is a function of labour market participation, degree of executive discretion, compliance with labour laws, selection bias or pure serendipity,” said Bino Paul, dean of School of Management and Labour Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). “There are regression analysis methods like Oaxaca Decomposition to find the proportion of discrimination due to gender.” The pay gap is 5 lakh in the case of independent directors, although this has been shrinking over the past three years. While male independent directors have drawn 36 lakh remuneration on average in each of the last three fiscal years, the average pay of their female peers has steadily increased from 27 lakh in FY16 to 29 lakh in FY17 to 31 lakh in FY18. The gender gap has been narrowing in recent times, said Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO of Nykaa, a cosmetics and wellness retailer, and an independent director on several boards. Women need to drive a harder bargain, she said. “As far as the role of non-independent directors is concerned, it will take coming generations to negotiate harder. I don’t think women negotiate hard enough,” she said. In the case of independent directors, she doesn't think companies differentiate based on gender “as it depends on the responsibilities taken, the committees they are in charge of, etc.” The pay gap reflects the poor representation of women at the top.
‘A Supply-Demand Issue’
At 24%, India is among the lowest among peer countries in women’s participation in the overall workforce. This is starker at board level where there are about eight times more men than women. “It becomes a typical supply-demand issue in the labour market, where money chases the talent that is more readily available,” Paul said. In the five years since it became mandatory to have a woman on the board, representation has been growing but the pay gap hasn’t narrowed. That’s also down to the relevant function, said Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. “I serve on several boards and disparity in board remuneration certainly is not the case—it’s about the role you play,” she said. For instance, committee chairs get paid more than committee members and those on audit committees get paid higher than others. “If it is about the fact that most of the roles are attributable to male board members, then there is likely to be a perceptible difference in board remuneration but it should be put into the right context and not just a generalised computation,” she said.
GLOBAL SCENERIO
Global studies have shown that the gender gap widens and diversity drops as one goes higher up the corporate ladder. The pay gap is most in the private sector, according to these. In the UK, legislation made it compulsory for all companies with 250 employees or more to report gender pay gaps by March. The results showed eight out of 10 UK companies paid men more with the national median pay gap at 18%. “Males are at high-paying positions because there are less females to take up those jobs,” said Ronesh Puri, managing director of Executive Access, a search firm. “With information on remuneration being available in the public domain, it is not possible to discriminate on this count as no female senior executive would agree to work at a lower pay package than drawn by the earlier incumbent.” Some companies incentivise search firms to get female hires for top management roles to improve diversity, “It is most likely a function issue rather than a gender one,” said Sunit Mehra of Hunt Partners. “Males are generally seen heading higher-paying functions like finance or operations compared to functions like HR or marketing.” The pay gap arises not because men and women are paid differently for the same work but because the labour market incentivises them to work differently, according to Claudia Goldin, Lee professor of economics at Harvard. One of the reasons women receive less pay than men is that they're not working the same amount of time and in many occupations, working more hours or being there when the firm wants you to be there earns you a lot more, she has said. Nayar said younger women are increasingly making stronger professional commitments. “Women, in general, need to commit to a serious career, be where an organisation needs them to be,” Nayar said. “I see those kinds of commitments in women of the younger generation giving to their careers, taking transfers to different countries as and when a requirement comes up.”
Source: Economic Times, 27/10/2018
Think small: on Ganga rejuvenation
Decentralised sludge management systems are vital to achieve clean water goals
Bad sanitation is India’s worst-kept secret, but recent data from Uttar Pradesh show that in spite of working in mission mode to expand sanitation, 87% of faecal sludge expelled from toilets in urban areas is untreated. Viewed against the 2030 goal to achieve clean water and sanitation for all under the UN Sustainable Development Agenda, this depressing statistic shows how much work remains to be done. State support for improved housing and planned development has never been strong, and the National Urban Sanitation Policy of 2008 has not changed that significantly. At the national scale, a United Nations report of 2015 estimates that 65,000 tonnes of untreated faeces is introduced into the environment in India annually. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan promised a major shift, but it has focussed more on the basic requirement of household and community toilets in rural and urban areas. The study in U.P. conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment has now exposed broken links, of faecal sludge and septage being collected from household tanks and simply discharged into drains, open land and wetlands. The problem of the waste not being contained, collected without manual labour, transported and treated safely is becoming graver. It is now time for a new approach. This has to be decentralised and different from the strategy being used to clean the Ganga, for which the NDA government announced an outlay of ₹20,000 crore in 2015. That strategy relies on large sewage treatment plants for riverside cities and towns.
Immediate investments in decentralised sludge management systems would bring twin benefits: of improving the environment and reducing the disease burden imposed by insanitary conditions. It is welcome that the CSE study is being followed up with a mapping exercise on the flow of faecal waste streams in individual cities. The results for Varanasi, Allahabad and Aligarh in particular should be revealing, since the collection efficiency for sludge in these cities ranges from just 10% to 30%. One immediate intervention needed is the creation of an inter-departmental task force to identify land to build small treatment systems for sludge, and to provide easily accessible solutions to houses that are currently discharging waste into open drains. The business of emptying faecal material using tanker trucks needs to be professionalised and de-stigmatised. It is untenable that manual scavengers continue to be employed in violation of the law to clean septic tanks in some places, and caste factors play out in the recruitment of workers even in the mechanised operations. All aspects of the business of sanitation need reform if India is to meet Goal Number 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals with egalitarian policies. A large State such as Uttar Pradesh provides the opportunity to demonstrate commitment to policy. Success here can transform lives.
Source: The Hindu, 26/10/2018
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