To protect women, challenge patriarchy

 Seldom has the State’s concern to protect one half of its citizens been so high. In Andhra Pradesh, a Disha law. In Maharashtra, a Shakti Bill. And “love jihad” ordinances in three states. All in the name of protecting women.

We should be so reassured. But even as Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was launching a “samman” (respect) programme, explaining how employed women can register at the local thana so that they can be tracked for their own safety, came news of nine men raping a 13-year-old multiple times over a span of a couple of days in Umaria.

India’s endemic rape problem is a matter of concern. Laws passed since 2013 have not flatlined the graph. In nine states, the number of young women who faced sexual violence as children has gone up, finds the latest round of the National Family Health Survey.

Now, Maharashtra’s stringent Shakti Bill, based on Andhra Pradesh’s Disha law, expands the death sentence for rape, but also dilutes the standards of consent, making rape more difficult to prove in courts. An outcry by women activists has led to a review.

So many laws, still no solution. Perhaps because there’s a contradiction here. The contradiction in wanting to protect women but within the decorous folds of patriarchy. We will keep women “safe” as long as they are bound by family structures, even though data on domestic violence and sexual abuse tells us the family is not the safest place.

In Uttar Pradesh (UP), the police have announced they will use artificial intelligence to spot women in “distress”. How is distress defined? How this will work is yet to be revealed. What we do know is that UP subscribes to the idea of the helpless Hindu woman duped by the scheming Muslim man. This is the bedrock of its “love jihad” law that robs adult women of autonomy, an autonomy that the Allahabad High Court and some other courts still defend.

Safety means empowering all women — single, divorced, rebellious — to live as equal citizens. It means respecting women’s choices. Rape stems from male entitlement and the idea that a woman’s consent doesn’t count. You cannot solve it with laws that spring from the same patriarchal mindset.

This mindset is not limited to our legislators. The chief justice of our highest court wants women to stay away from protests, as if we have not been an integral part of movements from Independence and Chipko onwards.

The head of the National Commission of Women (NCW) meets the Maharashtra governor to discuss “love jihad”, even though NCW has no evidence of it. One of its members says a rape and murder in Badaun could have been avoided if the 50-year-old anganwadi worker had not ventured out alone in the evening. Clearly, we are looking at the wrong solutions. A good start is a new vocabulary. Reduce words like “protection” and “respect”. Embrace a more affirmative language of empowerment, independence, rights.

Namita Bhandare writes on gender

Source: Hindustan Times, 22/01/21

Quote of the Day

 

“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.”
C S Lewis

“हमारे जीवन में जो भी दृढ़ और स्थायी ख़ुशी है उसका नब्बे प्रतिशत उत्तरदायी प्रेम है।”
सी एस लुईस

Current Affairs – January 22, 2021

 

India

Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur celebrate Statehood Day

On January 21, 2021, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura celebrated their statehood day. The three states gained their statehood on January 21, 1972.

Exercise Kavach

The larges scale joint military exercise Kavach involving Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force is to be held in January 2021 under the Andaman and Nicobar Command.

HAL test fires SAAW

On January 21, 2021, the HAL successfully test fired the Smart Anti Airfield Weapon, SAAW from the Hawk aircraft.

Fire at Serum Institute of India, Vaccine works unaffected

On January 21, 2021, a major fire broke out at the building of Serum Institute of India in Pune. The Manjri facility located in the outskirts of Pune is where the COVISHILED vaccine is produced.

Election Commission allows those excluded from NRC to vote in assembly poll

On January 20, 2021, the Election Commission announced that those excluded from the National Register of Citizens will be eligible to vote in the upcoming Assam assembly poll.

Economy and Corporate

Indian Army sign MoU with SIDM

The Indian Army signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers to provide impetus to indigenization and achieve strategic independence to reduce dependence on foreign origin equipment.

MASCRADE 2021 organised

On January 21, 2021, the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the seventh edition of “MASCRADE 2021”. MASCRADE is Movement against Smuggled and Counterfeit Trade. It is organised by FICCI.

Centre proposes suspending implementation of three new Farm Laws for 1.5 years

The Central Government recently proposed to suspend the implementation of farm laws up to a year and a half. According to the Government, this is being done to arrive at a consensus with the farmer union. The farmer union announced that they will revert on January 22, 2021.

PMAY-Urban: Centre approves construction of 168,000 houses

The Government of India recently approved the construction of 1.68 lakhs of houses in urban areas under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. This will increase the total sanctioned houses under the scheme to 1.1 crores.

SEBI nods to Reliance-Future deal

On January 20, 2021, SEBI approved the Future Group’s Scheme of arrangement. Also, SEBI approved sale of assets of Reliance.

Shyam Srinivasan named Business Standard Banker of the Year 2019-20

Shyam Srinivasan, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Federal Bank was named as the Business Standard Banker of the year for 2019-20.

Migration: A compulsion, not a choice

Tuesday dawned with the harrowing news of fifteen migrant labourers, from Banswara in Rajasthan, sleeping by the roadside in Gujarat’s Surat district, mowed down by a speeding truck. The tragedy which happened near the Kosamba village, around 60 km from Surat, was apparently due to the driver losing control over the vehicle after hitting a sugarcane-laden tractor.

There is more to this tragic event than what meets the eye. It is a wakeup call to understand the plight of the victims and their ilk. It is time to understand the misfortune faced by lakhs of migrant labourers who seasonally flock the towns of Gujarat from southern Rajasthan in search of livelihood. The real story here is the narrative of criminal inequality of social groups with historically deprived positions finding themselves in extremely disadvantageous spots even after seven decades of independence.

A study by Aajeevika Bureau, a non-profit entity working with the migrant labourers, estimates more than 4,00,000 migrant labourers from tribal-dominated southern Rajasthan districts reach Gujarat every year in search of livelihood and work under severe wage differentials and unequal access to basic human amenities.

The Scheduled Tribe population along with the Dalits falls in the bottom-most rung among all the diverse labour population in the urban centres of the country as per the report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector brought out by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector in 2007. The agrarian situation in southern Rajasthan makes the situation more worse for the labourers from this region with many cases of bonded and child labour reported in the past. The form of bonded labour is more nuanced with the labour supply linked to a workforce provider in the source areas who pay money in advance to the family in lieu of the wages. The requirement for money often necessitated due to farming needs or for the medical treatment of a senior member in the family, who most probably would have been a migrant labourer himself.

The vicious cycle of intergenerational transfer of debt along with the historic impoverished condition of the tribal community of south Rajasthan has found little or no tangible solution from the policy makers. Even if there has been any effort, it has found only mentions in the budget speeches of successive governments and in official schemes often not percolating to the real beneficiary.

The worrisome aspect for the government and for every sensible citizen must be something more. With time, even after intervention through MGNREGA, the nature of the labour market segmentation of the region remains social identity-based. This also leads to inequality of wages and working conditions.

The recent Code of Wages passed in August 2009 will have more severe consequences for the lives of lakhs of migrant labourers from southern Rajasthan working in Gujarat. The Act claims to consolidate and codify the four major wage-related legislation of the Minimum Wages, Payment of Wages, Equal Remuneration and Payment of Bonus on the pretext of simplifying them for compliance and coverage.

Lack of focus of policymakers irrespective of governments on internal migration was at play with ample glare after the announcement of lockdown in India in March last year. Migration as a form of livelihood has been more a story of compulsion rather a monetary choice for the labourers of south Rajasthan. However, the impact of the meagre remittances received by the families in poor villages back home has often been a strong incentive for the younger lot to abandon schools and take the bus to Gujarat. The region is covered under the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) area in Union Budgeting for special financial and scheme privileges. The TSP mode which has been diluted substantially after the winding up of the Plan Budgeting further clouds the possibility of any improvement in the lives of people in the region. While labour migration continues unabated, there seems little chance for the Adivasi communities of south Rajasthan to migrate out of poverty in near future.

 Written by Santosh Koshy Joy

Source: Indian Express, 21/01/21

Getting top foreign universities to open campuses requires more institutional autonomy

 The National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020), the fourth since Independence, was rolled out in July 2020 and has led to intense discussion on school and higher education. The most challenging aspect of the policy is the implementation of even those aspects on which there is some sort of consensus. The earlier education policies (1968, 1986 and the 1986 revised in 1992) were lauded as documents with clear vision. However, these policies could not yield much due to faulty implementation.

There are many provisions in the policy for improving the quality of higher education. For the first time, internationalisation of higher education has been highlighted as an objective. One such provision is to invite the top 100 World Class Universities to open international branch campuses (IBCs) in India. The underlying assumption is to raise the standard of research and teaching to international levels and slow down the out-bound mobility of Indian students. The biggest challenge would be the inclination of top universities to establish a campus in India. Not many such universities have such policies in place. At the same time, many universities are yearning to turn truly global and hold institutional mobility as a prerequisite.

Internationalisation of higher education in India has a pre-history. Many top foreign universities collaborate with Indian higher education institutions such as IITs and central universities for research and knowledge transfer. The collaboration has been strengthened by government’s schemes such as GIAN and SPARC. Conventional wisdom dictates that the existing research and academic collaborations between foreign and Indian institutions would facilitate the entry of IBCs in India.

To explore the potential of the policy of branch campuses and gauge the mood of top universities’ interest in India, a series of conversations have been held with experts, academic administrators and global heads of foreign universities. The discussions throw up interesting points. Top foreign universities are willing to respond positively provided there is sufficient clarity in areas essential for operationalisation of branch campuses in India. Interestingly, such universities are not looking forward to state sponsored infrastructure of the kind that the Dubai Knowledge Hub has offered — ready to move in campus, office space, and other facilities. A closer look at the IBCs suggests that these campuses are driven by the desire to accumulate profit in the manner of business enterprises. This implies that India will have to allow IBCs to repatriate income. The outflow of the money may not necessarily be 100 per cent of what these universities earn in India, but it will have to be a significant amount. As of now, there does not seem to be a viable model to balance the ploughing back of the resources earned in India and cash remittances to the parent university.

A key issue in the internationalisation of higher education is the preference for subjects and the areas of research considered rewarding. Social sciences and humanities do not generally figure in the imagination of decision makers — they are not seen as profitable ventures. There does seem to be a heartening change in this respect. However, here, and in a much greater measure compared to the science and business-oriented courses, foreign institutions demand more autonomy in framing and changing curriculum, daily functioning of the institution, the freedom to say no to industries, and even in the manner the institution is branded. The favourably inclined foreign universities also expect to be treated on par with Indian institutions in matters of government funding and scholarships. In return, they are willing to implement the Indian policy of social inclusion in higher education in their IBCs.

A related aspect of internationalisation of higher education is India’s keen interest on increasing the inflow of foreign students. The Study in India programme was launched in April 2018 with generous scholarships. Top universities encourage their students to go abroad for a semester or a year. Exposure to multiple cultures, subjects and pedagogies is deemed to be an asset and part of cultural capital. India is no doubt a potential destination for such study abroad experiences although it must be admitted that it is not happening on a large scale. The establishment of IBCs in India would gel well with the Indian quest for the in-bound mobility of students and scholars. The international standards maintained by the IBCs would be attractive enough for international students to explore and experience Indian education and culture.

Written by Anamika

Source: Indian Express, 22/01/21

Quote of the Day

 

“Fight with yourself, why fight with external foes? He, who conquers himself through himself, will obtain happiness.”
Lord Mahavir

“स्वयं से लड़ें, बाहरी दुश्मन से क्या लड़ना? जो स्वयं पर विजय प्राप्त कर लेता है, उसे आनंद की प्राप्ति होती है।”
भगवान महावीर

Kamalam: Gujarat renames Dragon Fruit

 The Gujarat Government is to patent the Dragon Fruit in the name of “Kamalam”. Kamalam is also the name of the BJP state party headquarters in Gujarat.

Dragon Fruit

• The Dragon fruit is a cactus variety fruit. It is widely cultivated in South east Asia, United States, Australia, India, Caribbean islands and Mesoamerica.
• The total lifespan of a Dragon fruit plant is fifteen to twenty years. They grow in regions where summer temperatures rise above forty degrees Celsius.
• Dragon Fruits grow only during summers. They do not grow in the rest of the year. However, when they grow their growth is rapid.
• Dragon flowers bloom only at night. It occurs only once in a year. They rely on nocturnal pollinators such as moths and bats for fertlization.

Dragon Fruit Cultivation and Demands in India

India imports 95% of its Dragon fruit from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. The Dragon Fruit has great export potentials to countries such as USA, Gulf and European. The farmers in the states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka have taken up Dragon Fruit Cultivation only in the recent years.

Vietnam is the largest producer and exporter of Dragon Fruit. The fruit was brought here by the French.

 Farmer Benefits

• The Dragon Fruit plants are raised on poles. One pole can support four plants. In an acre, more than 300 poles can be installed. Commercial planting is highly beneficial as they can be planted in clusters. Thus space consumption in dragon fruit cultivation is very minimal.
• They will require only one to two litres of water per day. This can easily be achieved through drip irrigation.
• Also, Dragon fruits fetch good rates. They are sold for Rs 300 to Rs 400 per kilogram.
• In India, Dragon fruits are consumed for their taste and health benefits.