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Friday, November 06, 2020

Keep a positive attitude, it will help boost your memory: Study

 

Science gives you another reason to have a happy outlook towards life; find out!


Even the most positive and optimistic of people have struggled with their outlook this year, because of the strange global situation brought about by the pandemic. But, even if you have had no reason to be in a celebratory mood this year, you need to consciously maintain a positive attitude towards life, because it can help you immensely with your mental well-being and your memory.

A recent study, carried out by Northwestern University in Illinois, has revealed that people who are positive and generally enthusiastic about life, are less likely to experience memory loss when they become old. Weakening of memory is a natural thing to happen to a person as they age, but their mental outlook can slow down this process.

Published in the journal Psychological Science, the research was done with 1,000 adults in the US, and was carried out over a period of time, as the participants got older.

For the study, between 1995 and 1996, 2004 and 2006, and 2013 and 2014, the participants were asked to describe the emotions they felt over 30 days leading up to the study, before being asked to take a memory test. The test had them recall words directly after hearing them, and again 15 minutes later.

The participants’ age, gender, education and history of depression was taken into consideration, and the researchers were able to find a link between “positive affect” — how a person experiences positive emotions — and memory loss.

In other words, while all participants for the study showed a natural decline in memory with age, those with “higher rates of positive affect, had a better ability to recall information”.

“Individuals with higher levels of positive affect had a less steep memory decline over the course of almost a decade,” Emily Hittner, lead author of the study, was quoted as saying.

Source: Indian Express, 5/11/20

UGC releases guidelines for phased reopening of higher education institutions

 

The number of students attending classes on campus, at a given time, should not be more than half the total student strength, the guidelines state

In Assam, young women are learning to defend themselves —a punch and a kick at a time

 Puja Das, a 21-year-old from the middle Assam town of Patacharkuchi, was pandal-hopping last year when a strange man shoved her in the crowd. The college student remembers feeling angry and humiliated, and yet was not able to “do or say anything”. “I wish I had but I just did not have the confidence,” she said.

Last month, Puja took matters into her own hands, when she and five friends traipsed down to an empty field in their town for a self-defence class at the crack of dawn.

Just a few days before, she had come by a Facebook post by a group called “Prahar”, offering free self-defence lessons — promising a mix of Karate, Taekwondo, and a healthy dose of self-confidence.

“For a class to happen, the organiser had told me that we had to collect at least eight-ten girls and find a suitable open-air venue,” she said, “I convinced five of my friends, and they agreed.”

A month on, the group has grown, as has Puja’s confidence — which she thinks will come in handy particularly next year, when she plans to move 100 km away to Guwahati for her Master’s. “It’s a big city — I will travel alone, possibly live alone too. I will need to have my guard up all the time.”

And that is what Prahar is aiming at. Moon Das, the 23-year-old BSc student and black belt holder in Taekwondo, whose brainchild it is, said that he was looking for ways and means to promote the concept of self-defence among women in Assam. “Initially I thought I could collect videos from martial art practitioners across the state and upload videos on a Facebook page,” he said, “But when the Hathras case happened, it gave us a push. That is when my friend, Rakesh, who holds a black belt in Karate, and I decided to hold free lessons.” The duo was later joined by another friend, Bibhu.

There is no business model, said the organisers. “We aren’t thinking of it like that — consider this social service. We are on-call self defence teachers, willing to travel to any part of the state — as long as those who are calling us can arrange an empty field and a group of willing students,” said Moon. The idea is to train them, and for them to train others, and so on.

In Puja’s town, after one week of lessons, the girls continued to practise by themselves. “On day one, we had just six girls,” said Pratyashi Nath, who had joined with Puja initially. “Now we have 15 — and a group oPuja said that her friends were sceptical initially. “So were my parents. But now they have realised that this is actually something good and a skill that may come in handy.”

On the first day, the class began with warm-up exercises, followed by running and then basic Karate and Taekwondo moves. “We recreate possible scenarios from real life — be it purse snatching, or unwanted — and have designed specific action sets as to how the girl can react/defend herself, whether she is on the road or at home or on the bus,” explained Moon.

So far, camps have been organised in a network of lower Assam towns — Pathshala, Tihu, Bajali, Barpeta, Nalbari and Sarthebari — following Covid-19 protocol. “We don’t take big groups, so that there is enough social distance during the lesson,” said Moon, “While the masks have to come off during exercise, they are on at all other times.”

Once a request comes, the organisers form a WhatsApp group to work out the logistics. “While initially people are a bit unsure, they do finally take to the idea,” said Moon.“Even if Assam is considered traditionally safer for women, there are a lot of incidents that go unreported.”

According to the annual National Crime Record Bureau’s “Crime in India” 2019 report released in September, Assam reported the highest rate of crimes against women (177.8 per lakh population).

“A lot of small things happen indoors, and no one knows about it,” said Puja, adding that the latest figures were rather worrying. 21-year-old Nath, who has been studying in Guwahati for the past year, said: “I am only attending the lessons because I have realised that I need to be prepared to protect myself. If I don’t, who will?”f curious onlookers, wondering what on earth we are upto so early in the morning.”

Source: Indian Express, 4/11/20


Thursday, November 05, 2020

Quote of the Day November 5, 2020

 “In my friend, I find a second self.”

‐ Isabel Norton

“अपने मित्र में मुझे अपनी एक और अस्मिता दिखाई देती है।”

‐ इसाबेल नॉर्टन

Academia and the free will

 

India’s dismal score on the Academic Freedom Index reflects the issues plaguing the country’s education system


India announced its National Education Policy (NEP) on July 29 this year. The policy aims at overhauling the educational system in the country and making “India a global knowledge superpower”, with a new system that is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal-4 (SDG 4). It also emphasises universal access to schools for all children, raising the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), and ending the spiralling dropout rate in India.The academic community is still debating and weighing the pros and cons of the NEP. However, one of the key disappointments is that the real problem plaguing the educational system in the country and the higher education system, the erosion of academic freedom, is being discussed by nobody.India has scored considerably low in the international Academic Freedom Index (AFI) with a score of 0.352, which is closely followed by Saudi Arabia (0.278) and Libya (0.238). In the last five years, the AFI of India has dipped by 0.1 points. Surprisingly, countries like Malaysia (0.582), Pakistan (0.554), Brazil (0.466), Somalia (0.436) and Ukraine (0.422) have scored better than India. Uruguay and Portugal top the AFI, with scores of 0.971 each, followed closely by Latvia (0.964) and Germany (0.960).
The AFI and the accompanying report quantify the freedom of scholars to discuss politically and culturally controversial topics, without fearing for their life, studies or profession — an aspect where India is failing terribly. In such a scenario, it is important to look into what the NEP 2020 has to offer. The NEP 2020 claims that it is based on principles of creativity and critical thinking and envisions an education system that is free from political or external interference. For instance, the policy states that faculty will be given the “freedom to design their own curricular and pedagogical approaches within the approved framework, including textbook and reading material selections, assignments and assessments”. It also suggests constituting a National Research Foundation (NRF), a merit-based and peer-reviewed research funding, which “will be governed, independently of the government, by a rotating Board of Governors consisting of the very best researchers and innovators across fields”. However, the question is whether these promises and offers will be put into practice or remain just a rhetoric.
The AFI has cited the ‘Free to Think: Report of the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project’, to suggest that the political tensions in India may have something to do with declining ‘academic freedom’. The police brutality against students at Jamia Millia Islamia University and Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, and their being labelled as anti-nationals, has raised concerns about the state of academic freedom.
The AFI used eight components to evaluate the scores: freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression, constitutional protection of academic freedom, international legal commitment to academic freedom under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and existence of universities. India has not fared well in components like institutional autonomy, campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression and constitutional protection of academic freedom. Most universities in the country are subjected to unsolicited interference from governments in both academic and non-academic issues. It is common knowledge by now that a majority of appointments, especially to top-ranking posts like that of vice-chancellors, pro vice-chancellors and registrars, have been highly politicised. Such political appointments not only choke academic and creative freedom, but also lead to corrupt practices, including those in licensing and accreditation, thus promoting unhealthy favouritism and nepotism in staff appointments and student admissions. This reflects a ‘rent-seeking culture’ within the academic community.

At present, many educational institutions and regulatory bodies, both at the Central and State levels, are headed by bureaucrats. However, the NEP 2020 aims to de-bureaucratise the education system by giving governance powers to academicians. It also talks about giving autonomy to higher education institutions by handing over their administration to a board comprising academicians. This may help de-bureaucratise the education system and reduce political interference to an extent.

Jos Chathukulam is the director of Centre for Rural Management (CRM), Kottayam.

Source: The Hindu, 4/11/20

Israel launches PhD sandwich programme with scholarship up to Rs 17 lakh

 

Selected students will get an annual scholarship of 80,000 NIS per year (Rs 17 lakh approx). Interested candidates must apply directly to the relevant Israeli university. Scholarship recipients will be notified by the university by February 15, 2021.


The Council for Higher Education, Israel launched a scholarship programme for international PhD students to study in Israel for a duration of up to one year as part of the doctoral studies – a ‘PhD sandwich program’. Under the initiative, international PhD candidates will get the opportunity to further their doctoral research through a unique academic experience in Israel, while collaborating with leading scholars and scientists.

Selected students will get an annual scholarship of 80,000 NIS per year (Rs 17 Lakhs approx). If a scholarship recipient is in Israel for less than one year, the scholarship amount will be determined based on the actual time the scholarship recipient studied in Israel. Scholarships will not be awarded to doctoral students who spend less than three months at the host university, as per the rules.

“Through this initiative, Israel seeks to attract top young recent PhD graduates to take on a postdoctoral position with leading scientists and scholars in Israel on cutting-edge research in all fields of science, social science, and humanities,” the official statement read.

Each of the eight universities that offer doctoral programs: Ben-Gurion University, Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Technion, Tel Aviv University, Weizmann Institute of Science, University of Haifa, and Ariel University will offer the course.

Any student enrolled in a doctoral degree program at an accredited institution of higher education having completed their first year of doctoral studies successfully can apply for the scholarship. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the current call for applications is open for candidates who plan to arrive in Israel beginning of Spring 2021. Interested candidates must apply directly to the relevant Israeli university. Scholarship recipients will be notified by the university by February 15, 2021.

Source: Indian Express, 17/10/20

Marriage equality is a constitutional right, do not deny it to same-sex couples

 

India has finally joined the democracies that have decriminalised same-sex relationships. It is now time to join the many democracies which recognise the right of a citizen to marry anyone she chooses.


Recently, three couples (two male, one female) have filed petitions, two in the Delhi High Court, and one in the Kerala High Court, arguing that the state’s refusal to recognise their marriages violates their constitutional rights. The first couple that I know of who tried to register their marriage were Vinoda Adkewar and Rekha Chaudhary in Maharashtra in 1993. Still earlier, in 1987, Leela Namdeo and Urmila Srivastava, married by religious rites in Bhopal. Even earlier, in 1980, Lalithambika and Mallika in Kerala, tried to drown themselves, with their hands tied together.

In my book, Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriages in Modern India (2005), I examined hundreds of cases of such young women (and a few men), almost all from non-English speaking, lower-income backgrounds, who got married by religious rituals or committed joint suicide or both. They are from all over India and include Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Dalits, tribals, fisherwomen, agricultural workers, students, construction workers. Most of them had never heard words like “lesbian” or “gay”. Such weddings and suicides continue today. Those who commit suicide often write notes, asking to be buried or cremated together and saying that they will be married in the next life.

The solicitor-general of India was recently quoted as saying that same-sex marriage is against “Indian values.” TIn many cases, families violently separated the couples, often driving them to suicide. But several families, after initial disapproval, accepted the partnerships and celebrated the weddings. In 2001, two nurses, Jaya and Tanuja, got married in Bihar. At the same Hindu ceremony, Jaya’s sister married a man, and Jaya’s family participated, along with 200 guests. But the registrar of marriages refused to register the marriage. In 2006, Bodo tribals of Simlaguri, Assam, asked MLA candidates to provide legal rights to Thingring and Roinathi, a daily-wage labourer and a domestic help, who got married in a temple in 1999. Are these families and communities not Indians?

Male-female couples whose families disapprove of their relationships also marry by religious rites and some commit suicide. It is precisely because Indians disagree about values that the Special Marriage Act exists. It allows couples whose marriage may be disapproved of for any reason (inter-religion, inter-caste, different income groups) to obtain the legal rights of marriage.

I have interviewed Hindu priests and swamis, who performed same-sex weddings (one as early as 1993). They told me that the spirit (atma) has no gender and marriage is a union of spirits; and that when people get inexplicably attached despite social disapproval, this is due to a bond from a former birth. The 11th-century Sanskrit text, the Kathasaritsagara, provides the same explanation for cross-class and cross-caste couples who want to marry.

In most countries, the demand for marriage equality has come not from LGBT movement leaders but ordinary people. In the US, the first couple who got their marriage registered were Jack Baker and Michael McConnell in 1971. They have now been together for 50 years. When lawsuits were filed in the US to obtain marriage rights, many LGBT movement activists disapproved. The demand came from ordinary couples.

Most male-female married couples take for granted that the day after they marry, they can open a joint account, make health and funeral-related decisions for each other, and inherit each other’s property. Two women or two men who are married by religious rites or in a foreign country cannot do these things. When an Indian man marries a foreign woman, she immediately gets the right to apply for a PIO card, which allows her to permanently live and work in India. But when he legally marries a foreign man in another country, say, Taiwan, his husband remains a legal stranger to him and can only get a tourist visa to stay a maximum of six months.

India has finally joined the democracies that have decriminalised same-sex relationships. It is now time to join the many democracies which recognise the right of a citizen to marry anyone she chooses. Until this happens, we have a strange situation where a couple is legally married in, say, England, but when they come to India, they are single. What should they state about themselves in a visa form — single or married? If they write “single” they are being forced to lie.

This article first appeared in the print edition on November 4, 2020 under the title ‘Let law not do them part’. Vanita is a novelist and scholar.

Indian Express: 4/11/20