In case of Women's Safety, Life imitates Art

[First published in Women's Web] 

A young couple who were sitting on a bed, presumably kissing, pull apart when the door flings open and four friends walk into the room. “Shot mara lagta hai”, says one. “Haan maara”, replies the boy who is with the girl. “Ab hamari baari”, says the first, striding purposefully towards the girl. She stares in fear and horror till he reaches for a bottle of deodorant and sprays it on himself.

This advertisement has been telecast on prime-time television during cricket matches which are watched by millions of young people. One can argue, as many on and off social media have, that “nothing really happens”, but the intent is very clear. The word “shot” is clearly an innuendo for taking a shot at the girl, and the advertisement plays on ideas of gang rape. It plays on the deepest fears of women- while indulging in a consensual sexual activity, the last thing she wants is for her partners friends to barge in and take their turn with her.

On the same day when netizens took to twitter to protest against the advertisement, another terrifying incident from Hyderabad made headlines.

A 17 year old girl who was returning home from a party was gangraped by a group of teenagers who had either attended the same party, or who offered her a lift while she was waiting to get home. Though details of the crime have not been released, if CCTV footage is to be believed, the incident happened in daylight, and the victim was on familiar terms with at least one of the perpetrators. Clearly, she didn’t think she was in danger when she got into the car, or she would not have gone with them. Yet, not one, but multiple teenagers sexually assaulted her and the incident was so traumatic that she didn’t even realise it was rape till she spoke to trained social workers and counsellors a few days after the event.

There is a clear co-relation between the two incidents. Both involve teenagers- one female and five male. In both, there was some element of consent on the part of the girl, but the boys presumed that since she had consented to a bit, they had the right to do much more. The emotions portrayed by the girl in the advertisement would have been exactly the same as the girl experienced in the real life incident. The only difference is in the real life incident, the boys finished what was implied in the in advertisement.

The advertisement didn’t spring from a vacuum. It was conceptualised by someone in the creatives department of the advertising agency, approved by account management department and presented to the client. The client approved it. The script was written, the actors hired, the film shot and edited. Someone in the television network must have the seen the movie before airing it. Clearly a long chain of individuals, none of whom thought to call the advertisement out for the allusions that promote gang rape.

That the client, the advertising agency and the network knew exactly what they were implying is clear from the other advertisement for the same product. A young woman is pushing a shopping cart in a supermarket when four men come behind her, stand menacingly and say, “We are four and there is only one. So who will take the shot?”, before grabbing the bottle of deo and spraying it on themselves. A supermarket with it’s CCTV coverage should be a safe place for women, but there is palpable fear on the face of the woman- she is clearly terrified of what might happen to her when she steps out of the supermarket weighed down with shopping bags.

Both the advertisements certainly propagate the idea of gang rape. They play on the paralysing fear that grips women whenever they find themselves alone surrounded by men. In both advertisements, the remark of “taking a shot” is addressed to the woman, even if it eventually turns out that it is directed at a bottle of deo. The advertisements normalise making women feel unsafe and insecure, and they create an environment where men do not think it is wrong to “take a shot at a woman”.

In the real life case of the 17 year old who was gang raped, a section of people are indulging in victim blaming- why was she at the party, why was she alone, why did she get into a car with four boys, what was her relationship with them- but none of those questions are valid. Yes, she got into a car with four boys, but she could have been sexually assaulted in a cab also. Even if she was sharing a cab with another girl, one of them would have got off first, and the other would have been alone in the cab with a (male) driver. Even if she was in a relationship with one of the boys, that certainly does not give the other boys the right to sexually assault her. (Importantly, also, the age of consent for women is 18, which is a fact that many couples indulging in consensual sex ignore.)

That the gang rape happened in the manner in which it did is proof that the culture of rape has been normalised to an extent that men think it is their right to make suggestive remarks at women, and to sexually harass them. Consent is something that is unknown to popular media- countless movies, TV shows, music videos, and plays have driven home the message that ‘No’ doesn’t mean ‘no’, ‘No’ only means ‘try harder’

After receiving complaints from netizens, including many Bollywood personalities, the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) took note and wrote, "Thank you for tagging us. The ad is in serious breach of the ASCI Code and is against public interest. We have taken immediate action and notified the advertiser to suspend the ad, pending investigation." Despite this, the advertisements are continuing to be aired.

While we know that the advertisements will eventually be taken down, the damage has already been done. One 17-year old has come forward and registered a case of gang-rape. How many more have suffered the same fate, but haven’t come forward we will never know. Until equally strong measures are taken to counter this narrative in unequivocal terms, women will continue living under the fear of sexual harassment or worse.

 

When will the so called 'honour killings' end?

[In a patriarchal society, the purity of caste, class and religion is rigidly maintained by controlling the sexual agency of women. First published in Women's Web.]

Trigger Warning: descriptions of extreme violence

Nagaraju and Syeda Ashrin Sulthana, a newly married couple were traveling on their two wheeler in a Hyderabad suburb when they were forced to pull up. In front of Ashrin’s eyes, the assailants attacked her husband with steel rods. She tried to shield him with her body, but she was pushed aside. She screamed and begged bystanders to intervene, but nobody came to her rescue. The assailants stopped only after Nagaraju was dead.

A dazed Ashrin later named her brother as one of the people who murdered her husband. It was what is called an “honour killing”.

Though we often hear of “honour killings” in India, this gruesome murder sent shockwaves because of the audacity with which it was conducted on the busy streets of a city, in full view of the public. It also shone the spotlight on how dangerous it can be for a couple to marry outside their prescribed faith and/ or community.

The crime can be looked at in multiple ways

Their’s was an interfaith union- Ashrin Sulthana was Muslim, while B. Nagaraju was Hindu. It was also an intercaste union- though Islam doesn’t have a formal caste system, Ashrin was a Syed which is considered one of the ‘highest’ communities, and B. Nagaraju was a Dalit.

In a statement made to the press, Ashrin stated that Nagaraju was willing to convert to Islam to marry her, but her family made it clear that they would not permit them to get married even after conversion. To her family, according to Ashrin, Nagaraju was an unsuitable suitor because he was from a lower caste. This is borne out by some of Nagaraju’s relatives who say that he was willing to convert so he could marry Ashrin, but her family was still not willing to accept the union. Even after the wedding, Ashrin feared for Nagaraju’s life, and her worst fears came true when her family killed him in an extremely gruesome manner.

Women ‘owned by their families and community’?

Regardless of whether Ashrin’s family killed Nagaraju because he belonged to a different religion or because he belonged to a different caste, the root cause of the crime is patriarchy.

It is the belief that the woman is the ‘property’ of the family and the community, and that she somehow brought shame upon them by marrying someone they deem unsuitable. For the family, the only way to restore their “honour” is by eliminating the man who dared make “their” woman fall in love with him.

Honour killings are not unknown in India, nor is it restricted to any one community. Whenever a couple ignores the barriers of caste, class or community and falls in love, they find themselves pitted against the might of their community.

“in every house is a life bomb that can erupt at any time. Do you know who that is? Daughters are the honour of the family and the community, and to protect them is our … duty and … culture.”

This statement was made by a VHP leader as quoted in Kavita Krishnan’s book Fearless Freedom, but it could well have been uttered by Ashrin’s brother, or by the families of the countless other women who fall in love with a man outside their community, and are willing to defy their family to marry him.

In a patriarchal society, the purity of caste, class and religion is rigidly maintained by controlling the sexual agency of women. When a woman chooses to fall in love with someone outside her tightly controlled community, she threatens the established order of things. Her family perceives that their “honour” is challenged when a man who is deemed unsuitable because of birth based limitations succeeds in winning her affection.

Everything is tried to break up a couple like this, including violence

When the family finds out about such a relationship, they exert tremendous emotional and physical pressure on the woman to give up the man she has fallen in love with, and marry someone who they deem suitable. Most women give in to this intimidation or are tortured into submission. It takes extraordinary courage for the women to defy the community and marry the man they love.

Even after the couple has got married, the family feels compelled to restore their lost prestige by breaking up the couple. The family attempts to intimidates the couple through emotional blackmail, or by threatening violence. Often, the family of the woman even file false cases of rape and abduction against the man to coerce him into walking away from the relationship. For instance, while analysing all the cases of sexual assault that came up in the sessions courts in Delhi in 2013, it was found that 40% of cases involved parents filing cases of kidnap and rape against young men who their daughters had eloped with- most of whom were inter- caste or interfaith couples who chose to defy parental opposition to the relationship. The family resorts to honour killings when such intimidation fails.

Nothing can get back the dead – what justice?

Ashrin’s brother and his associates have been arrested for the gruesome murder of Nagaraju, and the police has promised to fast track the case. In this case, since the politicians and civil society have condemned the crime and demanded justice, and the entire crime was caught on video, it is likely that justice will be served. In other cases, however, the perpetrators often get away because with her husband gone, the woman succumbs to grief and emotional pressure and doesn’t push hard enough for conviction.

While Ashrin may get justice, that will not bring Nagaraju back to life. Ashrin will not only live with the guilt that it was her love that got her husband killed, she will have to face a family that will continue to blame her for “bringing dishonour upon them” and indirectly causing the imprisonment of her brother.

It is not enough to merely respond to an honour killing after it has taken place. We need to create and maintain networks that support people who are in inter caste and interfaith relationships. This should include proactively ensuring the safety of such couples, but enabling them to file a formal complaint against families that threaten their safety. If required counselling support should also be provided to the families of such couples to help them accept the relationships.

Most importantly, those of us who believe in the right of young women and men to love without fear should stand up against patriarchy, and against a system that seeks to maintain caste and religious purity by breaking up such unions. Till the larger society starts to accept the agency of women to love who they want, such tragedies will continue to occur.

How Close are we to a Gender Just Workplace?

 A couple of years back, when I reached office after attending an International Women’s Day event, my team surprised me with a huge bouquet of baby pink roses and a beautiful handmade card inscribed with thoughtful messages. I was thrilled- who wouldn’t be to receive such a token of affection from their team. But after the mandatory photographs were taken, and I sat back with my coffee, the subtle scent of the roses almost seemed to mock me.

Yes, I was leading an entire region. But was the fact that I was the only woman in the regional office really a matter of pride? At the entry level, nearly a third of the staff was female; why then were we so poorly represented at the managerial level?

I thought of the lady who had put in her papers two weeks earlier when her mother fell ill. Her brother couldn’t look after her, so she had to take a break to be a full time caregiver. Neither she nor I knew when she would be back in the formal workforce, and how long she would remain there before another family emergency demanded a sacrifice.

I though of the young lady who had dazzled me during the interview process. I really wanted to recruit her, but she had backed out when informed that she would need to travel for a week at a time once every quarter; she had young children and while she was willing to work long hours and on weekends, she couldn’t travel for more than a day or two at a time.

I thought of the young lady who would hop onto her two-wheeler and zip down district highways to monitor the rural programmes. Her parents worried about her safety and forced her to leave the job she loved and take up one in retail marketing instead.

I had tried really hard to bring more women into the management team, and the sweet smell of roses constantly reminded me of my failure.

But was the lack of gender diversity at my office my failing, or was it symptomatic of a larger problem? The latter, according to all the studies on employment in India. According to the NSS (National Sample Survey), for instance, as of January 2018, 77% of the Indian workforce is male. This figure includes not just formal and full-time employment, but also casual labourers, part time workers, self employed and even those helping in family enterprises with or without a formal contract.

The reason for this gap is simple. In India, housework, child care and elderly care is seen as the sole responsibility of the women, and Indian women put in as much as 3.29 billion hours of unpaid labour everyday. These activities are both unpaid and unrecognised, and after discharging these responsibilities, women simply do not have the time to seek paid employment elsewhere.* While young women certainly have aspirations of working and being financially independent, most women drop out of the formal workforce after they get married either because of societal expectations or because they are just not able to manage to balance full time work with housework and caregiving.

As in the case of my former colleague, elder care is automatically assumed to be the responsibility of the women, and women are forced to sacrifice their careers if either a parent or a parent-in-law falls ill.

Parenthood is the next barrier that working women have to cross. While many women continue to work well into the third trimester of the first pregnancy, in the absence of adequate childcare felicities at the workplace, and given the fact that child-rearing is still considered the prime responsibility of the mother, very few are able to get back to full-time paid employment. Since few workplaces allow flexible working hours, work from home options or part time employment, most women end up taking a career break after they give birth, and this break often ends up being a permanent one.

Women who do re-enter the workplace after childbirth are often forced to compromise on their career progression since they are unable to work long hours and travel extensively. The additional responsibility of child rearing also limits the choices available to women, particularly mothers of younger children.

Workplace safety is another factor that affects women’s participation in the workplace. Women are discouraged from entering many fields, or taking up certain roles that are deemed unsuitable for them. Engineering is one such field. Though almost a third of engineering graduates in India are women, very few take up engineering jobs and many of them drop out because working conditions are not conducive to women. Women are also discouraged from taking up jobs that involve travel, and this pushback comes both from their families and from prospective employers.

Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is a measure of the number of people who are employed and actively seeking employment. In 2018-19, in urban India, LFPR for men was 73.8%, and for women 21.1%. This implies that four out of every five women are not only not engaged in paid employment, they are not even actively seeking employment.

The situation in my office was not an aberration; it was clearly a reflection of prevailing norms. It is a very small percentage of women who join the formal workplace, and a smaller percentage who continue in the workplace.

One way to increase the gender diversity is for organizations to adopt policies that encourage women to remain in the workplace. This involves setting up childcare facilities in the office premises, offering flexitime, part time and work from home opportunities, and encouraging all employees (not just the women) to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Other measures like period leave, sick leave for illnesses of children will also make it easier to retain women in the workplace.

However, ultimately, it is societal expectations that need to change. Families need to realise that housework, caregiving and childrearing are not gendered roles, and that both partners should participate equally in both. It is only when men start taking on greater responsibility at home that the workforce participation of women will increase and they will be able to achieve their full potential.

In an ideal world, the roses I received on International Women’s Day should be distributed between all the employees, male and female, to celebrate a gender just workplace.

* According to reports, regardless of their professional qualifications and/ or experience, seven out of ten women in India aged between 25 to 35 are engaged solely in full-time unpaid housework, and 66% of an Indian woman’s labour is unpaid.

First published in Women's Web

Why A Mob Decided That This 20y.o. Woman 'Deserved' To Be Raped And Beaten Up

[In our toxic patriarchal system, men stalk women in the smug knowledge that the woman dare not turn them down. And if do, they are made to pay the price for it. First published in Women's Web.]

Trigger Warning: this has violence against women and sexual violence and may be triggering for survivors.

In a horrific incident that took place in New Delhi on Republic Day, a 20 year old woman was abducted from her home, mercilessly beaten, sexually assaulted, gang raped, and tonsured in front of dozens of witnesses. Her face was then blackened and she was made to wear a garland of chappals before being paraded in public to loud cheers from the entire community.

All of this was captured on several videos which were shared with impunity by the witnesses, who justified the entire incident as 'punishment' against the young woman.

What had she done to deserve such a barbarous attack?

She, a 20 year old married mother living with her husband, had rejected the sexual advances of a 14 year old boy, who took the rejection badly and jumped in front of a train. His family held her responsible for his death by suicide and sought to avenge his death by physically, sexually and emotionally assaulting her in public.

While everybody who participated in the crime- either directly, or by egging on the actual perpetrators, or silently watching it without making any effort to stop the crime- needs to be punished, the incident throws into focus a much greater issue- the subservient state of women in society.

If you look at the incident dispassionately, there was nothing wrong in the behaviour of the woman- all she did was to turn down the advances of a male she deemed was unsuitable. Even if she was single and unattached, and the male was an adult, she was not obliged to accept his advances. In this case, considering the fact that she was married, there was no reason for the male to think she was available or interested, he should have stayed away from her. To complicate it further, he was a minor and well below the age of consent. If anyone was at fault it was the 14 year old who made sexual advances on the woman. If he could not handle rejection, it is certainly not the fault of the woman.

In fact, had the woman reciprocated his advances, his family would have almost certainly disapproved. The woman, being older than him, would have been blamed for "leading him on". Their relationship would have certainly been broken up, and the family would have done all they could to tarnish the reputation of the woman and her family. In all probability had she reciprocated, the family would have meted out exactly the same punishment to the woman as they did now.

However, since the 14 year old died of suicide, the family chose to blame the woman and attempt to achieve closure by taking revenge on her.

No matter what happens, women are always saddled with the blame

In the toxic patriarchal system where they operate, women are denied the agency to turn down the advances of a man for any reason. Men stalk women in the smug knowledge that the woman dare not turn them down. And if do, they are made to pay the price for it.

This is a storyline that plays itself out in different settings. We have grown up on Bollywood movies, where after the heroine turns down the hero, his friends harass her till she agrees to go out with him. Life imitates cinema, and it has often been seen that whenever a man declares his affection, even for a woman he barely knows, she is expected to accept the advances and get into a relationship with him. If she turns him down for any reason, she is often harassed, stalked, and emotionally blackmailed till she gives in.

I personally know of a bright young woman who strode through college and life with a jaunty step, excelling in academics and anything else she set her mind to. She was cheerfully single because she chose to be that way, till the day a classmate she had never even noticed chose to declare his love for her through his friends. Though she turned him quite gently saying she didn't have the mindspace for a romance, he took the rejection personally and his gang made life miserable for her for the rest of the time she was in college. In their patriarchal minds, he was "doing her an honour by bestowing his interest on her, and she had no option but to accept it with gratitude."

Toxic patriarchy - how dare she turn him down?

It is this toxic patriarchy that was exposed by this gruesome incident. How dare the 20 year old woman turn down the advances of someone who was "paying her a compliment" by declaring his affection for her.

That, also, was the reason why there were as many women as men among the perpetrators. They were the women who nourished him, and expected him to repay that in future. In their eyes, he was a poor innocent Raja beta who was "seduced" by the 20 year old married woman who then broke his heart by rejecting him. They wanted revenge, and who better to take their anger out on than the "seductress" who was (according to them) not even worthy of his attention.

All their anger was poured out on the woman, and they were the ones shouting out instructions on how to physically and sexually assault the woman. They were also the ones who took the lead in tonsuring the woman and blacking her face, thereby sealing the physical and sexual violence by making her as physically unattractive as possible.

I am sure the perpetrators will be caught and will stand trial. I hope that many of the bystanders will also be taken into custody and questioned on their role in the incident. I hope the woman gets justice, and her family is eventually able to heal.

But more than anything else, I hope we recognise how toxic the patriarchal society we live in is, and that we start addressing the issue of gender equity at the societal level. I also fervently hope that there are no copy-cat crimes, and women do not have to fear for their life when they turn down unwelcome advances.

Feminists could be allies of MRAs

[While MRAs reserve the greatest vitriol for feminists, if they put their prejudice aside, they will realise that feminists will be strong allies.]

 In the social media storm surrounding the ongoing hearings at the Delhi High Court to seek to do away with the exception provided to marital rape under the IPC, the greatest noise has been made by the self-proclaimed MRAs (Men’s Rights Activists).

These men are mostly victims of the misuse of Section 498a of IPC, which was enacted to protect women from harassment from their husbands and their families. Their contention is that just like S/498A has been used to harass men, similarly criminalisation of marital rape too will be misused to “destroy the lives of men”.

MRAs have chosen to direct all their ire against “feminists”, and hold them responsible for the fake cases filed under S/498A, and for the cases that they assume will be filed after marital rape is decriminalised. However, if MRAs step back for a moment, they will realise that their biggest allies in their quest for justice will be feminists.

Before I go further, I will say that the statistics MRAs quote are misleading. They say "majority" of cases filed under S/498a are "fake". What they actually mean is that of the cases filed under S/498A, less than 15% have ended in conviction. That does not, however, mean that 85% of cases are false, because that figure includes cases that are still pending in courts, cases withdrawn under duress, cases which were settled out of court, and even a few cases that were dropped because the victim lost faith in the system and moved on. The number of cases which resulted in a direct acquittal is actually quite low.

More importantly, a very small fraction of women who are victims of harassment actually approach the police, and of them, the police registers an FIR in fewer cases. So to get the percentage of false cases, one will have to compare the number of acquittals to an estimate of the number of women who experience sexual, physical or emotional abuse from their husbands and their families. This figure is sufficiently small to dismiss all the arguments about how the lives of “millions of men” will be destroyed by feminists once marital rape is decriminalised.

Having said all that, S/498A is certainly misused. Even if the number of men who are victims is low, each of them does face mental suffering which cannot be trivialised. However, far from enabling women to file false charges, feminists will actually side with the victim. Feminists, by definition, strive for an equitable world. We side with the victim who is seeking justice. So if a woman files a fake case under S/498A against her partner, our sense of natural justice will make us side with him, as long as we are convinced of his side of the story.

That apart, there are two other very practical reasons why feminists are against "fake cases".

Every time a woman misuses S/498A, it makes it harder for a genuine victim to seek justice. Anyone who has approached the police to register a case under S/498A knows how the police uses one "fake case" they might have handled a few months back to discredit the testimony of all subsequent victims. The victim seeking to file a case against her husband or his family is subject to a barrage of questions, and the police often delays filing the FIR for several weeks, thereby exposing the victim to prospective violence in her marital home. No feminist wants that, so we will provide as much support as we can to ensure that fake cases are weeded out.

Also, whenever there is a case of spousal violence where the aggressor is a woman, it is used as a whip to lash at all feminists. Thousands of women could be subject to domestic violence everyday, but if one woman hits her husband it makes news, and all feminists are expected to take responsibility for it. We, therefore, want to do all we can to keep down the number of fake cases, so we do not have to expend energy explaining that though we are called “feminists”, we are not responsible for the actions of women who are oppressors themselves.

It is to be noted that feminists are often the first to speak up for vulnerable men- male victims of CSA, homosexuals, physically challenged. We will, similarly, speak up for men who are victims of misuse of S/498A, since we side with the victim against injustice.

I wish the Men’s Rights Activists take some time to understand what feminism means, and instead of targeting feminists all the time, try to get us as allies in their quest for justice.

Annihilation of Caste- a critical review

 [My impressions after reading Annihilation of Caste, by Dr. Ambedkar]

I first read Dr. Ambedkar’s essay a few years back when I had just started thinking about caste and how it is important to acknowledge caste exists and working to dismantle it, instead of sweeping it under the rug of poverty alleviation.

Why did I re-read Annihilation of Caste?

In the years between the first read to now, I have sharpened my own thinking. Had numerous discussions (often acrimonious ones) with Ambedkarites who speak glibly about “destruction of Hinduism” without getting into how they propose to do it, or what they will replace Hinduism with. I have witnessed Amebdkarites lock horns with Communists and as a keen but dispassionate observer seen how each calls the other casteist for approaching the issue of casteism from different directions (I also saw how at Gail Omvedt’s funeral, chants of “Jai Bheem” and “Lal Salam” were raised in tandem). Above all, I have seen how everyone who quotes AoC seems to have no clue about how to go about doing what they want to do.

I picked up the “Annihilation of Caste: with a reply to Mahatma Gandhi” with the full weight of expectations on it. I had already internalised the issues relating to caste privilege and of how relative economic affluence does not necessarily translate into lack of social oppression. I had no doubt that “….the real method of breaking up the Caste System was not to bring about inter-caste dinners and inter-caste marriages but to destroy the religious notions on which Caste was founded”. I recognise that what is needed is “social reform in the sense of the reorganization and reconstruction of the Hindu Society”. What I really expected from the book was the “how”. How does one bring about the destruction of a practice sanctioned by religion.

Unfortunately no solutions are offered

Alas, no solutions were offered. Dr Ambedkar says, and rightly that “To ask people to give up Caste is to ask them to go contrary to their fundamental religious notions.” Since caste system is a hierarchy in which the divisions of labourers are graded one above the other, when people seek the annihilation of caste, they stand to lose as much as they gain. There is a great incentive for preserving the status quo, especially since to get out of that, you need to take on the entire nation.

Dr. Ambedkar calls for the “ancient rules of life be annulled” and that “its place … be taken by a Religion of Principles, which alone can lay claim to being a true Religion.” Drawing a distinction between principles and rules, he rightly points out that “the principle may be wrong but the act is conscious and responsible. The rule may be right but the act is mechanical. A religious act may not be a correct act but must at least be a responsible act.”

However, he leaves it at that. He urges Hindus to take on the task of overthrowing the religion which has too many inflexible and inhuman rules, and replacing it with “a society based on Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.” But he doesn’t tell us how to make that happen.

In the context of 1936, and given the fact that the address was to be made to a society which was working towards annihilation of caste, the fact that he doesn’t offer solutions doesn’t matter. What is disappointing is that today the work is selectively quoted, and his vague calls for action are offered as solutions. Which they are not. I felt let down because the book did not address what I sought.

Which should come first- political reforms or social?

There was a long analysis on the order in which political reforms, economic reforms and social reforms could take place. How a person addresses that question depends on where they stand. Someone from a privileged social position will prioritise political reforms since that affects them most deeply. But post-Independence history has shown that unless one continues demanding social reform after attaining political reform, it gets missed out. In the context of today, in my opinion, since the prevailing political ideology is pushing society towards greater casteism, political reforms will need to be dealt with on priority, though social reforms continue in parallel.

Read the book if you are looking to learn about caste system

If you are looking to learn about the caste system, and why it should be weeded out completely, this is the book for you. To illustrate how petty the upholders of the caste system could be, one example from the book would suffice.

In November 1935, some untouchable women of well-to-do families started fetching water in metal pots. The Hindus looked upon the use of metal pots by untouchables as an affront to their dignity and assaulted the untouchable women for their impudence.

Similarly, people from the lower caste were not permitted to consume ghee, wear gold bordered clothes, or gold/ silver jewelry (things have not changed much- even today they are not permitted to ride horses during wedding celebrations or style their moustaches in a way deemed inappropriate).

As Dr. Ambedkar puts it, caste system is not, as popularly thought ‘division of labour’. It is the division of labourers, in a tightly controlled and static manner.

However, if (like I did) you are seeking answers to questions you are already asking, you may be disappointed because he too is asking those same questions.

The distinction between rules and principles

Dr. Ambedkar made a distinction between rules and principles. Rules are practical, principles are intellectual.

“Rules seek to tell an agent just what course of action to pursue . Principles do not prescribe a specific course of action. A principle supplies a main head by reference to which he is to consider the bearings of his desires and purposes , it guides him in his thinking by suggesting to him the important consideration which he should bear in mind.”

He rightly points out that even when a rule is right, the act of obeying it is mechanical, and even if the principle is wrong, the act is conscious and responsible. Since a religious act should be a conscious act, “Religion must mainly be a matter of principles only . It cannot be a matter of rules.” Unfortunately, however, as Mahatma Gandhi points out in his response to the essay, by this rule, most religions will fail.

Why did I give the book 4 stars and not 5?

I would have still given the book five stars- that the author offers no solutions does not in any way take away from the phenomenal work done by him in explaining the intricacies of the caste system.

The reason I gave the book only 4 stars was because I did not find him a totally unbiased observer. For example, a lot of what Dr. Ambedkar said about Hinduism holds equally true for all religions. Almost all religions are dogmatic, almost all religions discourage reasoning, almost all religions are a collection of static rules. Yet, only Hinduism was singled out for criticism. Since it was about the caste system, I can understand why that might be so. However, in other sections of the book, Hinduism was compared to other religions and found wanting. Since they were brought up as a contrast, for the sake of neutrality, they should have been mentioned in other contexts too. Either keep it about one religion only or criticise all- selectiveness shows a marked bias.

Book Review: On Balance, An Autobiography

We are what we are because of the many women who opened doors and left them ajar for us. Leila Seth is one such woman. I knew she had been a practicing lawyer, the first female judge to be appointed to the Delhi High Court judge and the first woman to be the Chief Justice of a High Court. I also knew her as a woman who stood up for LGBTQ rights, and who wrote a beautiful book for children introducing them to the Constitution. I picked up "On Balance, An Autobiography" because I was curious to know the lady behind those accomplishments. And I was delighted.

In a lot of ways, Leila Seth reminds me of so many women of her generation that I know. Women like my mother and grandmother who kept perfect homes. Women like my grandmother who ran households which straddled joint family sensibilities with nuclear family constraints. Women who took the hard decision to send their children to boarding school so their studies would not be interrupted.

What makes Leila Seth extra special was that she did all of that and also was extremely successful professionally. How she landed up studying and practicing law seems almost serendipitous, but once she qualified, it was clearly her grit and knowledge that got her to scale the professional peaks that she did. Like many other women of her (and subsequent) generations, she followed her husband around, till they (like many other couples) took the decision to settle in a city of their choice. She did it with grace, even though it meant virtually starting afresh each time.

Reading the book through the prism of today, you notice the emotional burden she carried throughout her life. Despite her qualifications and her success, she is the one who silently does the things she would have been expected to do if she had not been working. The only time she speaks of that is in the poignant passage on her time as Chief Justice in the Shimla High Court where she says that for the first time ever she was living for herself. That passage more than anything else, sends out a strong message that this emotional burden is something that should be acknowledged, because only after acknowledging it can we work towards changing it.

As someone who grew up in small towns in Eastern India, I loved the description of her life in Darjeeling and her pen portrait of the many gardens she knew. Her account of her years in Calcutta brought back many pleasant memories. If my mother writes her memoirs, she can pick large chunks out of the book.

Leila Seth is also, as we know, the mother of Vikram Seth, and the protagonist of 'A Suitable Boy' is loosely based on her. A lot of people thought that Latha of the book could have married "better"- that the man she chose was not at all 'a suitable boy'. After reading this autobiography you understand exactly why Premo Seth and only Premo Seth was the "Suitable Boy" for the amazing Leila Seth.

If you like reading a well written autobiographies written in a slightly self deprecating tone; if you are a woman who wants to know and understand the women who paved the way for us; if you love "A Suitable Boy", then this book is for you.

Book Review: Rumble in a Village

[Book review of ‘Rumble in a Village’ by Jean Drèze and Luc Leruth]

Jean Dreze is person I deeply admire, so when I saw his name on a work of fiction with an eye-catching cover, I had to pick it up. I am glad I did. Though the book is written by two academicians, and the themes are heavy, the book is an absolute delight to read.

Imagine a village in the middle of nowhere, with a railway tracks cutting past the landscape. A village demarcated along rigid caste lines. The people knowing their place, yet, striving to improve their lives with limited or no opportunities.

Into this village comes an NRI, accompanied with vague memories of a trip to the village when he was three, and the notes which his father intended to covert into a work of non-fiction, but didn't. With no knowledge of how caste works, he bumbles through, thinking he is making a difference, but actually being played along by virtually everyone.

The author(s) employ self deprecating humour to make a point about casteism, misogyny and corruption. The book is full of harsh truths, but put forward in a way that neither preaches nor accuses.

Palampur can be any village, anywhere. The cast of characters too.

The United Colours of Navratri

 The Navratri Colour Code united women in a tight Sisterhood. It is meant to be celebrated, not imposed.

Twelve years back when I had re-entered the formal workforce after a break, amidst lots of discussion and banter, the “colour code” for Navratri was written out and posted on the office noticeboard. Those were days when I was going through a monochromatic phase, so on the first day, I wore red earrings with my black shirt and indigo jeans. On the second day, feeling festive, I draped a blue stole over my white shirt and faded jeans. The next day when I had to go to office, the colour was ‘cyan’, and since I happened to have a dressy cyan and purple kurta, that’s what I wore. On the way to work, I noticed something strange- almost all the women in my railway carriage were in cyan. Thinking back, I realised that most of the women had been in red and blue the previous two days too, but since they were common festive colours I hadn’t noticed. But cyan? An entire city of women in cyan, when most people don’t even own a single piece of clothing in that colour. That was my first introduction to the famous “Navaratri colour code”.

When I asked, I was told that a different manifestation of the goddess was worshipped on each day, and the colour was dedicated to her. For the next couple of years, I worked out of a home office, so the Navratri colour code was something I was only vaguely aware of, but I did notice something strange. The order in which the Goddesses were worshipped remained the same, but the order of colours changed from year to year. Clearly, the colours were not associated with the Goddesses!

Then someone then told me that the colours were decided by the Nakshatrams, but even that didn’t explain why some colours remained constant year on year, but others changed. What was also not explained was why the order of colours was never the same. Finally, I realised that even people who have been participating in the Navratri Colour Code for years have no clue where the colours came from, so I took to google to seek answers.

The mystery was finally solved. There is no religious significance to the colours. The Maharashtra Times first introduced the Navratri colour code in order to engage with the female readers and boost their circulation figures. The Navratri colour code proved to be so popular, it spread across the state, and through saree pacts spread across the nation and even abroad. Navratri Check out the popularity of Instagram or Facebook and you see how people plan their wardrobe well in advance so they can be a part of the global “Navratri colours” hashtags.

But what are these colours? Do they have any significance?

They do. The days of the week are named after the Sun, the Moon and five planets, each of which is associated with a particular colour. These are the colours that form the base of the Navratri Colour Code.

Once you know this, cracking the colour code become easy. In fact, there are many women who follow the colour code even otherwise. My grandmother, for instance, always wore red on Tuesday and black or blue on Saturday. It was something she did as a matter of course.

But hang on, what about pink and purple. Cyan, peacock green and sky blue. Where did they come from?

Good question, simple answer.

Once the first seven colours are allocated, the other two slots are determined by the person who finalises the code every year. Maybe she has a purple saree she wants to drape?

Why then is it so popular?

The Navratri colour code is popular because it is fun. Participating in the trend is a way to assert your individuality while submerging in a collective. It symbolisers Sisterhood. Whether you are the CEO or the lady cleaning her room, you were in the same colour. I have had colleagues remove their black burqas in office to reveal Navratri colours- it was a social celebration, not a religious one.

But now, the colour code is being forcibly implemented. The Senior Management of a PSU bank not only made it mandatory that all employees and vendor partners conform to the Navratri colour code, they threatened punitive action against those that did not. The circular even specified that the colour of the day should be the base colour of the outfit to be considered. While any organization is within its rights to specify and implement a dress codes, they cannot impose a custom that is religious in nature. Thankfully, it was withdrawn after public outcry, but it is a sign of a country that is moving far away from it’s secular tradition.

What is more ironicay is that the colour code which is being implemented by threatening punitive action against who do not confirm is of questionable significance. India is a pluralistic country. We have a wide diversity of customs and traditions. To impose homogeneity is to go against the ethos of the country. And that is extremely disturbing.

As for me, I did dress according to the colour code this Navratri as I have for many previous Navratris. But I did it my way. Once the seven days were completed, I circled back with yellow and green which are the ‘official’ colours of the day. My grandmother would certainly approve.

Book Review: Lahore (The Partition Trilogy #1)

It is hard to review a book that you have been waiting two years for. A book you had high expectations from both because of the subject matter and the author. A book you pre-ordered because you wanted to grab it as soon as you could. And a book which lived up to expectations, yet left you without words.

There have been many books written about the Partition. There are books that describe the high level political negotiations between the people who made history. And there are books written about the people who bore the brunt of Partition. Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’s ‘Lahore (The Partition Trilogy, #1)’ does both.

In Delhi, Mountbatten, Patel and Nehru lay down their non-negotiables and engage in a game of give and take around it. In Lahore, till the very end, the coolie, Belli Ram, who was brought up by his friend Mehmood’s family refuses to accept Partition till be actually “sees” the line separating India and Pakistan.

In Lahore, the ‘mad woman’, Billo, is thrown out of her home when she predicts a rain of blood, and takes up residence on the branches of a tree. In Delhi, Edwina Mountbatten shivers when she sees the unseasonal blooming of the Laburnums because when death is imminent, trees bloom and set fruit in a last ditch attempt to secure progeny.

The stories of the people and events that make up history, alternate with those of the people who have to bear the consequences of those decisions. Many of those stories end at a climatic point, where you are forced to pause and process what you witnessed before you can move on.

And, of course, at the end, she had both threads meet, however briefly. A reminder that Partition, eventually, was about people. People who survived. People who didn't. Dreams that were crushed. Pieces that were picked up.

This book is particularly significant because it puts many events in their proper context. The British would have left behind two partitioned nations and 565 princely states. Today, people try to assign the blame for Partition on certain leaders, choosing to forget that it was they who stopped the Balkanisation.

You will love ‘Lahore (The Partition Trilogy, #1)’ if you are interested either in the history of the subcontinent or in reading stories rich in human emotions. Take a bow, Manreet, for yet another masterly book.

School Reopening- Part 3

[Third in a three part series on school reopening. Here we look at the challenge that the education system faces and how it could perhaps be converted into an opportunity.]

Minimizing the risk of COVID outbreaks is just one part of the challenge. The greater challenge is to engage the students who are returning to school, address the gap in learning level, and address the psychological needs of the students.

According to a report released by UNICEF (United Nations Children Emergency Fund), less than 10% students in India had access to online education during the pandemic. Other reports put the figure a little higher. Whatever the actual number, the reality is that the vast majority of students found themselves at the wrong side of the digital divide. Families did not have a digital device that could be used for online classes; those that did had to prioritize which of the children would get to use it; students that had a device had to struggle to find reliable internet; and after all those conditions were met, the screen was often too small for an optimal learning experience. It is safe to conclude, that except for a very small minority of students, practically no teaching or learning has occurred since the start of the pandemic.

During the time when there was no school, many of these children went into the informal workforce as child laborers. Though we do not have firm numbers, we know that many adolescent girls fell victim to child marriages. Though some of them might be able to negotiate with their families and re-enroll in school, for them, the opportunity cost of coming to school is high. Unless they feel they are learning something significant in school, they (and their families) may decide it doesn’t make sense to continue with an education and may therefore drop out of the school system permanently.

The vast majority of students have been promoted two grades without attending any classes. They will find it extremely challenging to learn from a grade appropriate curriculum without the benefit of bridge courses, and this might cause them to drop out in frustration. It is, therefore, imperative that teachers change their methodology of teaching to ensure that the students are able to learn, and the experience in school remains a safe and enriching one.

Even before the pandemic, there was a huge ‘learning gap’ between the expected learning level and the actual learning level. According to the Annual Status of Education Report released in 2018 (ASER, 2018), less than 30% students in grade 3 in rural India could read grade 2 level text, and by the time they reached grade 5, only half the surveyed students could read grade 2 level text. Similarly, in mathematics, more than half the students of grade 8 struggled with grade 4 level mathematics. Since literacy and numeracy are the basic skills without which other subjects cannot be taught effectively, this is a clear indication that not much learning was happening in India despite students getting automatically promoted at the end of the year.

This gap, which was already significant before the start of the pandemic would have been exacerbated by two other factors. Studies conducted in India and abroad have shown that there is a significant drop in learnings levels during the summer vacations due to disuse of literacy and numeracy skills. With schools closed for more than 18 months, it is safe to conclude that a vast majority of students would have lost even the limited skills they had acquired. At the same time, students have been automatically promoted, leading to an even wider gap in basic literacy and numeracy.

The single objective of the education system should be to address this learning gap in literacy and numeracy. Even if that is the only thing that is accomplished in the current academic year, it would be sufficient. The most practical solution would be to forego written examinations during the current year, and to use the year to reinforce the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy with the goal of ensuring that the gap is narrowed, if not completely bridged. By the end of the academic year, at least 50% of the students should be at age and grade level in literacy and numeracy, and the gap should have been significantly reduced for the rest. The pedagogy for bridging the learning gap exists, and appropriate workbooks should be printed and distributed to the students. The workbooks should be designed in a manner where they can be used under supervision in the classroom, and for self-study. Since the progress of students will be tracked as they proceed through the workbooks at their own pace, and will give them a sense of accomplishment and motivate them to continue.

Students who have a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy can be encouraged to mentor the other students. This will develop team work and communication skills, both of which are important life skills to learn. Since some of the exercises can be completed through self-study, adopting this model will also reduce the amount of time that students need to spend in school, thereby reducing overcrowding in schools.

Other subjects like science, literature, history and geography can be taught orally, so students with without sufficient literacy skills are not left behind. This can be done using a mixture of lectures, discussions and simple projects. Students with age/ grade appropriate reading and writing skills can be encouraged to dive deeper into the topic covered in the subjects. Grading for all the students can be done based on class participation and/ or project work.

By shifting the focus from completing the curriculum to strengthening fundamental literacy and numeracy skills, the system will ensure that all students are brought upto a basic foundation level. If this can be achieved in the current academic year, it will lead to a paradigm shift in the quality of education imparted to the students.

All of this will require a major shift in the way students are taught and what we want them to learn. The situation the education system finds itself in is unprecedented. If we rise to the occasion, it can be a tremendous opportunity; if not, we would have put our students at risk for questionable returns.

When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. — Alexander Graham Bell

Now is the time to seize the opportunity which has presented itself to us.

School Reopening- Part 2

[Second in a three part series on school reopening. This looks at the steps to be taken to minimize the risk of COVID outbreaks.]

Whether we like it or not, over the next few weeks, schools are going to reopen for all students. While some students might continue to have the option to take classes online or offline, the vast majority of them will return to physical schools despite the fact that none of them are vaccinated. The question now is, what next.

The education system will have to deal with two major challenges- putting in place adequate precautions to minimize the risk of COVID outbreaks, and developing appropriate curriculum and pedagogy to ensure optimal learning. Unless both these aspects are addressed, the entire school reopening exercise could end up being an experiment in futility.

Schools have re-opened in several other countries, so we do have a good idea of what works and what does not. It is imperative that we learn from the experience of these countries while framing the guidelines for school reopening. This would be a huge challenge in India given the fact that most schools in the country are overcrowded, and people have not yet internalized COVID appropriate behaviour. While all schools require of mandatory masking, double vaccination of teachers and staff, hand hygiene and periodic disinfection, this alone is not enough.

Each school would need to come up with specific processes, keeping in mind their own special challenges. In the broadest sense, this would fall into three main buckets- Awareness about COVID, adoption of COVID appropriate behaviour and setting up a safe physical environment.

By studying outbreaks across the world, it has been found that all other factors being the same, three situations contribute to the spread of COVID.

These ‘Three Cs’ which should be avoided are-

• Closed Spaces, with poor ventilation
• Crowded Places, with people nearby
• Close Contact settings where adequate distancing is not observed

It may not always be possible to eliminate all three in a school setting, but in order to minimize the danger of a COVID outbreak, each school should take steps to mitigate the risk from each of these should be mitigated to the extent possible. By conducting an audit at the school level, appropriate processes should be drawn up for individual schools and they should be clearly communicated to all staff and students.

All teachers and staff of the schools should be trained on how the virus spreads and steps to be taken to mitigate the spread. They should also receive training on the symptoms of the disease so they can take informed decisions on asking students to quarantine themselves, and should be aware of the myths around the disease so they do not get duped by wrong information. Post- workshop, teachers need to clear a test before they be allowed to take classes.

Prior to reopening schools, both parents and students should be also be made to undergo a session on adopting COVID appropriate behaviour, particularly on proper masking, physical distancing and hand hygiene. Students, particularly older students, should be made to understand how the virus spreads, so they can take adequate precautions. Parents should also be cautioned to not send their children to school if they are feeling unwell, and to inform the school of the same immediately so other students can be asked to quarantine if required.

Both the staff and students should internalize adopting COVID appropriate behaviour, and they should be total compliance. Everybody should be properly masked at all points of time, with the nose and mouth appropriately covered. Sharing objects should be discouraged, and if it is absolutely impossible to avoid it, hands should be sanitized both before and after touching the shared objects. If space permits, teachers can let individual students leave the classroom for short breaks if they start feeling claustrophobic with the masks.

Wherever possible, classes should be staggered so there are fewer students in the school building. This can be done either by operating in two batches, or by reserving a few days for self-study where students do not have to physically come to school.

Schools which can should designate separate entrances and exits and should try to regulate movement in corridors or on stairs in one direction only. This will reduce the possibility of people coming face to face with other people. If possible, some classes can be taken outdoors to increase safety.

The use of common facilities needs to be regulated to ensure reduced crowding. This can be done by staggering break times so the entire school does need to access them at the same time. Since students will not be able to keep their masks on while eating, lunch/ meal breaks should also be staggered to reduce close contact.

Exhaust fans need to be installed in classrooms which have poor ventilation, and schools were classrooms are airconditioned will need to invest in air-filteration systems.

Schools will also have to keep a supply to disposable masks to give out to staff or students in case of an emergency. They will also need to make arrangements for the proper disposal of masks and other bio waste, should it be required.

If all these precautions are taken, the risk of COVID outbreaks can be reduced to some extent.

Despite taking all precautions, there will be situations where staff or students get exposed to potential infection. In such cases, the school should work proactively to trace the people who may have come in contact, and ensure that they self-quarantine.

Most importantly, each school should make arrangements to providing learning support to students who’s family may not be comfortable sending them to school. This should be a no tech or low tech solution, so all students can access them.

Minimizing the risk of COVID outbreaks, however is just one part of the challenge. The greater challenge is to provide an education to students who have been out of school for so long they have probably forgotten most of the things they learnt.

School Reopening- Part 1

 [First in a three part series on school reopening. This examines why reopening may not be a good idea, and how we could have done better last year. ]

“Should schools reopen?”, is no longer a question up for debate. Schools have already reopened partially or fully in many states, and others are in the process of doing so too. Some states have given schools the flexibility to continue with a hybrid model, others have reopened only for high school students, but the reality is that unless there is a sudden spike in number of infections and/ or hospitalizations, by the end of the year every parent with children of school going age will soon have to decide whether or not to send their children to school.

One could question why we are in such a hurry to open up. Unlike this time last year, we now know that children below the age of 17 are also likely to get infected, and the symptoms can be severe enough to require hospitalization. It is no longer just a case of children being carriers of the virus and infecting grandparents and older relatives- we have seen how the capacity of pediatric ICUs have been stretched to the maximum and of how children have died of the virus. What then is the scientific basis for re-opening of schools, especially since none of our school children are vaccinated? There is none.

Unfortunately, it is not science that is driving the decision to reopen schools; the haste is entirely on account of sociological, developmental and economic factors. School closure and shifting to the online model has effectively blocked off access to education for millions of children of school going age. Studies have revealed that there has been a drop in learning levels among children on the wrong side of the digital divide. Most of these children have been pressed into child labour, and many have fallen victim to child marriage. There is a real danger of losing an entire generation of learners, which is why many are pushing the government for a reopening of schools. Medical doctors, who should be giving advice from a scientific/ medical perspective have, unfortunately, fallen for the rhetoric; they cite “our students cannot afford to lose another academic year” as the reason to reopen schools.

While there is certainly merit in the argument that students have already lost too much learning, and that further delays could potentially be irreversible, what most people are ignoring is the fact that reopening schools without putting proper procedures in place will only put millions of children (and unvaccinated members of their family) at risk.

Ideally, the issue of loss of learning should have been taken up and addressed last year. When India went into Lockdown, the service sector immediately moved to the online mode, and a few weeks later, private schools followed suit. While there were a few examples of the TV being used to reach out to students enrolled in government schools, for the most part, any teaching that was done was done online, using the Internet. Very few families had digital devices suitable for online classes, fewer still had reliable internet, and even those families which had both needed to prioritise which of their children would have access to the device.

Knowing that the vast majority of students would fall on the wrong side of the digital divide, an attempt should have been made to use other means of reaching out to students. Radio or TV have much better penetration than mobile phones, and either could have been used to reach out a much larger number of students.

More importantly, instead of merely reducing the curriculum, the Boards should have taken the decision to focus on reinforcing verbal and numerical skills. Given the fact that a majority of students do not have age/ grade specific verbal and numerical skills, this learning gap could have been bridged using a combination of self-study workbooks and on-on-one assistance from community level volunteers. Subject specific concepts could have been taught using either TV or radio. Students with age appropriate learning levels could have been taught concepts using a combination of self-study and TV or radio programs. Had this strategy been adopted, the pandemic would have proved a blessing by enabling India to address and bridge the challenge of the steadily increasing learning gap.

Unfortunately, all we did during the previous academic year was to shift what would have been taught in the physical classroom to a digital classroom. And today, we are left with a generation of students who have been promoted two grades, without attending a single class in over 18 months. The learning gap, which already existed, has now become wider, and it remains to be seen if and how teachers and students will be able to bridge it.

This, probably will be the greatest challenge to the education system.

Book Review- Landscapes of Loss

 I picked up Kavitha Iyer's 'Landscapes of Loss: The Story of an Indian drought' because someone I trust described it as "Superb reporting. Terrific writing". She was absolutely right. It is a brilliant book. One I wish everyone would read.

Kavitha concludes the book with ".... to introduce readers to real people, their very real everyday struggles, their occasional triumphs and their unremitting agitations requesting justice. The countryside has spoken. I hope urban India finds it in its heart to listen."

And doing so, she sets 'Landscapes of Loss', her detailed chronicle of ongoing struggles in drought prone Marathwada within the much larger context of the ongoing Farmers' Agitation in the country.

Marathwada is one of the most drought prone regions in the country, and most of us hear of it when there is a spate of farmer suicides which make it to the headlines. The book goes much beyond that.

It takes us through how the drought affects entire communities, how relief measures fall short of expectations. It breaks down caste dynamics, and looks at how women are affected even worse than men.

Importantly, the book looks at the reasons for the water crisis, and analyses how the proposed measures might only delay the crisis by a few years. She shows us how what is needed is not annual relief measures, but a systematic change in how we view water as a resource.

Above all, the book introduces us to the people of Marathwada- their distress, their successes, their hopes and their reality. Though their stories, she inspires us to do more. 'Landscapes of Loss' is a MUST read.

India's tryst with Vaccines

 We all now know about the Plague Epidemic that started in 1896, and spread from Bombay to other parts of the country. It was to deal with this that the Epidemic Act was enacted in 1896 (and which continues to this day). What is much less known is that in 1897, Dr. Haffkine developed the Plague Vaccine in his 2 room laboratory in Parel, Bombay. This was the first case of a vaccine developed in India being used across the world.

The cholera vaccine too has strong connections to India. Dr. Haffkine developed the vaccine in France, but it was in India that he conducted the clinical trials and proved the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing the disease.

By the first decade of the 20th century, India had the capacity to produce vaccines against four deadly diseases- smallpox, cholera, plague and typhoid. Over the next few decades,  both development and manufacturing facilities were set up across the country, and India was a favoured destination for conducting clinical trials.

By the time we gained Independence, India was already a major player in the vaccine space.

Post independence, a facility to manufacture the BCG vaccine was set up in Guindy, Madras in 1948, and after a pilot project, the BCG vaccinations was extended to schools across the country. The campaign to ensure that all children receive the BCG vaccine, however, took off only many decades later.

In 1952, Zydus Cadila was the first indigenous compnay to set up manufacturing facilities for drugs and vaccines, following which many others came up.

Serum Institute set up facilities for the development and manufacture of vaccines 1966.

Genome Valley was developed in the then Andhra Pradesh in the mid 1990s, and attracted many, including Bharat Biotech and Shantha Biotechnics. Shantha Biotechnics, developed a recombinant product which received WHO prequalification as a Hepatitis B vaccine,  which cost a fraction of what the original vaccine cost.

India has been largely ‘atmanirbhar’ when it comes to vaccines for close to a century.

Our biggest successes have, however been in the immunisation of our huge population.

Small pox was finally eradicated in India in 1975- despite our large population and the challenges of reaching far-flung areas, we managed this feat before most other countries.

India's success story with the Oral Polio Vaccine is something that is studies in all public health courses. 

If we want to take pride in anything, it is our many historical successes that is what we should be proud of. Not just in the fact that we are a part of the supply chain of a global corporate.

To end with a story of the first “celebrity endorsement” for a vaccine campaign. When the smallpox vaccine was first introduced in the country, the response of the public was not very encouraging. In a bid to boost public confidence, before her marriage to the Maharaja of Mysore, Devajammani, his second wife got herself vaccinated with “minimum loss of dignity” in 1805. A portrait of the queen by Thomas Hickey where she is pointing to the place where she took the vaccine inspired the public to come forward to avail of the vaccination. People sharing photographs of themselves being vaccinated, therefore has a historical precedent from two centuries back.

You want papers?

 

You want papers?

What papers?

The aunt who eased me out of my mother’s womb

as the candle spluttered and died in the wind; she

couldn’t read or write. She knows I was born

on the day of the heaviest rains.

That is my birth certificate.

Will that do?

No, I don’t know the day, 

or even the year when I was born.

It may have been fifteen years back, 

Or sixteen

Time has little meaning for us , you know.

What?

Who are my parents, you ask?

That stone you see there? 

That’s not a stone. That is my mother.

My mother who died giving birth to me. 

My father, his father,

his father’s father, 

his father’s father’s father,

our fathers, all the way to the first man-

We were all born here.

We belong here.

Every stone in this valley is us.

You want papers?

Why do I need papers?

This is my legacy. 

These trees, these hills, these streams.

Every plant in the forest, every stone on the hills. 

It is mine.

I don’t need no papers

This is my land.

The land of my forefathers.

The land where we’ve always lived.

The land where my children,

and grandchildren and great grandchildren will be born

Everything you see around me is mine.

These are my papers.

You cannot displace me from my land.

Not even if you find bauxite under the ground

- natasha ramarathnam

[This poem was written during the protests against CAA+NRC. Indigenous tribals will be most affected by NRC.]

Sustained Behaviour Change to deal with COVID

 In August when I went to a patisserie, they didn’t let me in till I donned a pair of plastic gloves. Today, when I went to the same place, all the did was a thermal check; even the sanitizer dispenser was empty.

We have clearly let down our guard, and that’s scary.

Do I want to go back to the days of paranoia and plastic gloves? Certainly not.

As I had pointed out to the management even then- plastic gloves are counter productive because they lull you into false complacency. You are likely to touch the front of your mask with gloved hands and leave germs behind.

[Plus the unnecessary use of single use plastic that cannot be recycled.]

But what was needed then, and what is still needed today is an understanding of how the virus spreads, so people can guard against it.

And that is something that is sadly missing.

If you are going to wear a mask on your chin, you’d be better off not wearing the mask at all. Masks do not emit a force shield that keeps the virus away.

A mask acts as a physical barrier, and can only work if it covers both the nose and the mouth.

If you are a carrier of the virus, you discharge the viral load through your mouth when you speak, sneeze or sing. Pulling down the mask while speaking to make yourself audible defeats the whole purpose of wearing the mask.

If you are a carrier, the germs would settle on the part of the mask that covers your nose and mouth.

If you, like most people do, keep fiddling with the mask, you get the germs on your hand and leave it behind on the surfaces you touch.

There are even people who pull the mask down, sneeze, and pull it up again. If they paused to think about it, they would know how foolish that is, but none do so. To them, mask wearing is the mandate, and they do it merely because they are required to.

And then there are people, many people, who are so fed up of being cooped up that they have just decided to pretend the virus has gone away, though there is absolutely nothing to suggest that.

What then, is the solution?

Behaviour Change Communication (BCC)

The only proven way of changing behaviour of individuals and communities to bring about positive public and personal health outcomes.

Five Stages of BCC

BCC works by raising awareness, creating an enabling environment to adopt new practices, adopting practices and supporting each other to sustain the practices.

In India, BCC has demonstrated positive results in adopting practices to combat waterborne and vector borne diseases.

Ad hoc messaging by the government, especially when it is not backed up by their action, does not serve any purpose. The Corona message you get instead of a ringtone has been unchanged for months, and is easily ignored.

What is needed, instead, is a sustained campaign.

Behaviour change is required because intermittent lockdowns do not serve any purpose, and neither do punitive actions like fining people for not following guidelines.

We need to understand the nature of spread and adopt suitable behaviour to mitigate it.

At this stage, we seem to have given up, which is reflecting in sudden spikes in numbers. We certainly cannot afford a situation similar to the one in Delhi to spread across the country, and neither can be afford another lockdown.

We need to change behaviour patterns now.

If you look at the countries that have fared relatively well in the current pandemic, most of them are countries which were previously hit by the SARS virus, and where people adopted mitigating practices.

The sooner we take this up, the better for us as a nation.

Was this how it was meant to be?

[On the Day of the Girl Child, a few girls share moments from their life.] 

The cold steel blades advance towards her.

Merciless. “I don’t want to die”, she screams.

Her shrieks echo off the walls of the womb.

 

Firm hands grip her head, and ease her out.

Gently. The touch changes. “It’s a girl”,

A voice snarls, dropping her in disgust.

 

She wakes up from the dark. Something soft

Pressed against her. “I can’t breathe”,

She thinks before slipping back into the black.

 

Dizzy with hunger, her eyes are fixed on the bread.

One piece. She wants just one piece.

Her brother grabs it. She will sleep hungry again tonight.

 

Chocolate. She hats chocolate. Chocolates are secret.

‘Uncle shouldn’t tell mother what she did.’

She takes the chocolate. Good girls always smile.

 

She smiles. Her clothes are itchy. She smiles.

Yesterday, she was going to school. Today she is married.

“It is for your own good”, she’s been told.

 

She married him in a temple; one he can enter.

They ran away. Started life together.

Her brother found them. Raised his sword. She shut her eyes.

 

Pain. Excruciating pain. Flashes of faces.

Men entering. Leaving. Laughter. Kerosene. Pain.

Through the flames, her last thought-

 

“Was this how it was meant to be?”

Does Rising Unemployment lead to increased Rape?

 The unemployed youth, turning to crime to find a vent for his frustration is a common motif in popular culture.

But is there really a co-relation between growing unemployment and an increase in sexual crimes? Maybe not.

If you look at recent years, there have certainly been two complementary trends- a increase in crimes against women, and a growing population of employed youth failing to find sustainable livelihood opportunities.

It is convenient to link the two.

Globally, there is a body of research on the positive and negative association between unemployment rate and crime. The Cantor and Land (1985) model studied two distinct and counteracting structural effects on the linkage between unemployment and crime against women: the motivational effect and the opportunity effect.

The positive association is predicted by assuming that reduced job prospects and increased income disparities can result in frustration which would in term lead to increased sexual crimes against women. Unemployment would also reduce the opportunity cost of facing the consequences of committing a crime. This is the ‘motivational’ effect.

The negative ‘opportunity’ perspective argues that since unemployed youth are more likely to spend time in or near their home, there have fewer opportunities to interact with vulnerable targets and therefore to commit crimes.

Globally, opportunity dominates motivation, and there is a negative association between rape and unemployment. Or to put it the other way, increase unemployment leads to fewer incidents of rape.

Prashansa Srivastava looked at data from 11 states (Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Odisha, Assam, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Haryana and West Bengal) which contribute to 80% of reported rapes in India to analyse the relationship between unemployment and rape.

The data was very clear. Regions with higher unemployment reported a lower incidence of rape. Which means the opportunity perspective holds true even in India. Unemployment reduces the opportunity to come in contact with potential victims of rape.

This was supplemented by the fact that increased population density led to higher incidence of reported rape.

Interestingly, the data also showed that increased literacy levels had a positive co-relation with rape, but this could be explained by the fact that a higher level of literacy may increase the probability of the rape getting reported.

Most significantly, there was a strong co-relation between a higher Women Empowerment Index (WEI) score and reduced crimes against women.

This study conclusively proves that there is no link between unemployment and rape, and merely providing more employment opportunities will not bring down the incidence of rape and other crimes against women.

The only thing that will bring down rape is deconstructing the patriarchal mindset of society. States where with greater gender equality showed a reduction in rape.

Thus, instead of making excuses for youth and focusing on their frustrations, a concentrated effort needs to be made to improve the socioeconomic status of women through better access to health services and hygiene, safety from domestic violence, involvement in household decisions making, empowerment through ownership of land and amenities like cell phones and financial autonomy.

Till women are empowered and men are taught to accept women as their equals, sexual violence against women will continue, regardless of economic conditions.

The study can be accessed here - https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/uer/vol15/iss1/17/

Let my country awake

Growing up in a mining colony in the 1970, your defining identity was that of an Indian. At home, we spoke different languages, worshipped different gods and celebrated different festivals, but outside, we were Indian. We spoke a mixture of English and Hindi, with assorted words from other languages thrown in. We landed up in each other’s houses without warning. We exchanged thalis of sweets and savouries during our festivals. And we often ended up celebrating different festivals with our friends.

“Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai. Aapas mein hai bhai bhai”, was not just a slogan for us. We genuinely believed in it. From the folk dances that we took part in during various cultural programmes, to the sheer diversity of food each of our kitchens churned out, to the festivals that were celebrated in the community center. Everything was a living personification of “Unity in Diversity/ Unekta mein Ekta”.

As we grew older and moved away from the projects, we continued to see the country through our ‘Indian’ lenses. The food we ate, the movies we watched, even the people we dated; everything was cosmopolitan, secular, Indian. Our Indianness was our identity, and we viewed current affairs through our secular lens.

 

Long after the Babri Masjid was brought down. Long after Godhra and its aftermath. Long after the Hindutva ideology established itself in the political landscape of the country. Long after all that, I continued believing that it was only a fringe element that supported the divisionary politics that were tearing the fabric of the country.

It was only since 2014, and, more specifically, after 2019 that I started questioning whether the secular nation I thought I had grown up in actually existed or if it was merely something I imagine. On the eve of the Bhoomi Poojan of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya,

I finally articulated what I had beenthinking for awhile- had the nation I loved ever existed, or had my image of a secular Indian just been a mirage?

My friends heard what I said and wrote in to tell me that they were happy I had articulated what they could never say. That they were mourning the secularism that they had grown up with but which no longer existed. “Thank you for saying this. If I said it nobody would have listened”, said three Muslim friends.

They had all grown up in colonies like the one I grew up in. Through their childhood and youth, they had never felt they were any different. So close was their belief in an Indian identity, some had even married non-Muslim men. Some of their closest friends were still Hindu, their families still went on holidays with Hindu families, and their children spent most of their waking hours with their Hindu friends. However, despite that, they could still sense the alienation. They recognized that things were no longer as they had been, and they missed those days.

It was heartbreaking to hear the words they left unsaid. These are the people who have lost most with the rise of fundamentalism. They had identified themselves as secular Indians, but were left bereft when that categorization was done away with.

But even in their heartbreak, I saw a glimmer of hope. They too were mourning a secular India that had once existed, but no longer did. But the fact that they felt the vacuum proved that the India I thought I grew up in had actually existed.

What never existed cannot be summoned, but what has been lost can certainly be reclaimed.

“Into that heaven of freedom, let my country awake.”