EDITORIAL
DRINK
COLA, NOT WATER
Lady luck seems to have
smiled at various Cola bottlers-- Coca, Campa, Pepsi, et
al. Reports that 70 percent of the tap water supplied by
the Public Health Department to the consumers in Jammu
was unfit for human consumption has caused panic. While
the less affluent sections of society have not immune to
the adverse effects of the malcontents in the tap water
due to continued consumption for decades, it is the upper
creamy layers of residents of posh Gandhi Nagar, Trikuta
Nagar colonies, who are on the look-out for a safe
substitute. They could switch over to either mineral or
carbonated water or bottled tap water being marketted as
''mineral water''. In fact, supply of ''safe'' water in 5
litres, 10 litters jerry cans, is a lucrative business in
New Delhi, Noida and surrounding areas of Greater Delhi.
But for the citizens of Jammu there is little hope. Four
of the seven samples picked up for laboratory tests have
revealed that the so-called mineral water contained E
Coli bacteria, which though by itself is not dangerous,
its existence points to other disease causing bacterium.
This is said to be the main cause of the common occurence
of diseases such as jaundice, worm infections, giarda
cysts and other stomach ailments. The presence of facial
matter in drinking water also leads to infections such as
dysentry, diarrhoea, cholera and even polio, we have been
warmed. According to the powers that be in the Jammu
Municipality and the Public Health Engineering
Department, Jammuites should not expect any reprieve in
foreseeable future because Tawi river, the main source of
drinking water supply is itself highly polluted, Besides,
the task of monitoring the maze of leaking pipes-- the
source of facial matter getting into drinking water-- is
......more
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|
Indo-Pak
relations Dr. Karan Singh, MP
Over the last half
century, there has been a lamentable lack of cordiality
and cooperation between India and Pakistan on a whole
range of....more
TALES
OF TRAVESTY
Who cares for
Jammu
during Musharraf talks?
By: Dr
Jitendra Singh
It is an interesting
sight, nay a hilarious sight, nay a pathetic sight to
watch! With Pervez Musharraf in .........more
A billion
reasons for
sustainability
Dr. Roopa Vajpeyi
India's population has
touched the dreaded I billion mark and the present global
population of six billion people .....more
Players in
search
of
a place
By Rajesh Dhar
After surge in militancy
in State, Sports sector in the State re-ceived a setback.
No importance was .....more
Academic
Pulse
New English syllabus
for class XI students
By: Prof.
S K Bhalla
It is really a matter of
some satisfac-tion that J&K State Board of School
Education under its English ....more
Civil
society and
the environment
By Dr B K Fotedar
We have myraids of
problems with regard to environment that we cannot bring
back ourselves.....more
|
EDITORIAL
DRINK COLA, NOT WATER
Lady luck seems to have
smiled at various Cola bottlers-- Coca, Campa, Pepsi, et
al. Reports that 70 percent of the tap water supplied by
the Public Health Department to the consumers in Jammu
was unfit for human consumption has caused panic. While
the less affluent sections of society have not immune to
the adverse effects of the malcontents in the tap water
due to continued consumption for decades, it is the upper
creamy layers of residents of posh Gandhi Nagar, Trikuta
Nagar colonies, who are on the look-out for a safe
substitute. They could switch over to either mineral or
carbonated water or bottled tap water being marketted as
''mineral water''. In fact, supply of ''safe'' water in 5
litres, 10 litters jerry cans, is a lucrative business in
New Delhi, Noida and surrounding areas of Greater Delhi.
But for the citizens of Jammu there is little hope. Four
of the seven samples picked up for laboratory tests have
revealed that the so-called mineral water contained E
Coli bacteria, which though by itself is not dangerous,
its existence points to other disease causing bacterium.
This is said to be the main cause of the common occurence
of diseases such as jaundice, worm infections, giarda
cysts and other stomach ailments. The presence of facial
matter in drinking water also leads to infections such as
dysentry, diarrhoea, cholera and even polio, we have been
warmed. According to the powers that be in the Jammu
Municipality and the Public Health Engineering
Department, Jammuites should not expect any reprieve in
foreseeable future because Tawi river, the main source of
drinking water supply is itself highly polluted, Besides,
the task of monitoring the maze of leaking pipes-- the
source of facial matter getting into drinking water-- is
beyond the capacity of the somnolent PHE department.
Therefore, the alternative for the denizens of this city
of temples is to keep drinking the polluted drinking
water in the hope that in due course they would become
immune to the harmful effects of the bacterium in it.
Else, take recourse to drinking various brands of Cola.
Who knows, the Almighty may bless you with ''Chappar Phar
Ke'', as an added bonus. Remember the jingle; ''Kuch bhi
ho jaye, Coca Cola enjoy.''
|
Indo-Pak
relations
Dr. Karan Singh, MP
Over the
last half century, there has been a
lamentable lack of cordiality and
cooperation between India and Pakistan on
a whole range of territorial, commercial
and diplomatic issues, including the new
imperatives that have emerged after both
countries crossed the nuclear threshold.
It is expected that these issues will be
addressed in the forthcoming summit
meeting between Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez
Musharraf, which will certainly be a
historic event whatever its final
outcome.
Despite
the apparently irreconcilable positions
regarding Jammu and Kashmir, 1 have
consistently supported the necessity for
a dialogue with Pakistan, based not only
on the Simla Agreement and the Lahore
Declaration, but also upon the ground
realities and the fact that the people of
all the regions of the State have been
undergoing immense suffering and turmoil
ever since the present phase of militancy
began almost 12 years ago.
While
Pakistan may call Jammu and Kashmir a
‘core’ issue for us it is
certainly a’sore’ issue. Indian
citizens there are under great pressure,
sandwiched as they are between the
violent activities of the militants
trained, motivated, financed and armed
from across the border, and the stern
counter-insurgency measures by our
security forces. I would not, at this
stage, like to hazard any views regarding
what the Simla Agreement calls "a
final settlement of Jammu and
Kashmir". Hopefully, this will
finally emerge as a result of the peace
process which will enter a new phase with
the Agra Summit. However, I would like to
highlight three aspects of this whole
matter which are not always fully
understood even by well-informed
commentators.
The first
point is to recall that the State of
Jammu and Kashmir was founded by my
intrepid ancestor, Maharaja Gulab Singh,
in 1846 as a result of a combination of
diplomacy and conquest, including some of
the most extraordinary high altitude
military expeditions in world history led
by legendary commanders such as General
Zorawar Singh, in which thousands of
Dogra soldiers gallantly fought and
perished. This State was in effect a
Dogra empire, and became the largest of
the Indian States under British
suzerainty with an area of over 84,000
square miles.
From its
very origins, it was constituted of five
clear-cut geographical, ethnic, cultural
and administrative regions - the other
areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, the
western strip of Muzaffarabad-Mirpur,
Jammu province, Ladakh (which includes
Leh and Kargil), and finally the Kashmir
valley. Certainly, the Valley is the most
populous and famous of these regions, but
even in the composite State its
population was only about a third while
its area is barely 6,000 square miles.
A common
mistake is to use the word
‘Kashmir’ as a shorthand for
the multi-regional J&K state, and
then to proceed politically on that
basis. This approach is at the root of
many of the problems. Each one of these
units - two of which have been under
Pakistani control since the ceasefire
agreement on January 1, 1949 - have a
distinct cultural and geographical
entity. For example, a point often missed
is that the people living in so-called
‘Azad Kashmir’ are not Kashmiri
speaking at all; their language is much
closer to Dogri- Panjabi. And in Gilgit
and Ladakh, they have entirely
independent languages, customs and
culture. This fact has to be kept in mind
by both sides.
Political
groups, such as the Hurriyat or the
Ladakh Buddhist Association, which may be
significant in one part of the state,
have hardly any impact in the other
regions. Even if we consider only the
three regions of Kashmir, Jammu and
Ladakh which have been with India since
1947, we can clearly see widely divergent
political views and aspirations among
their predominant sections, and this is
surely true also of the Northern Areas
and PoK.
Unlike the
hundreds of other Indian States which
were rationalised through the States
Reorganisation Commission in the
mid-Fifties, notably Hyderabad which was
the only one comparable in terms of area,
J&K remains in a state of suspended
fragmentation. Although de jure the
Instrument of Accession signed by my
father Maharaja Hari Singh cannot be
challenged, defacto the original
State has already been trifurcated with
about half its area divided between
Pakistan and China, and only half left
with India.
The second
point is that while some people still
talk of a plebiscite under the United
Nations resolutions passed in 1948,
although there is now a worldwide
consensus shared by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan that they are virtually
unimplementable, they do not realise that
even if theoretically we were to go back
to when the resolutions were passed it
should clearly mean that Pakistan would
need to entirely vacate the Northern
Areas as well as PoK before the next step
of implementation could be taken.
Constitutionally,
apart from the three subjects contained
in the Instrument of Accession signed by
my father - defence, communications and
foreign affairs - all the residual
authority would revert to the Dogra
monarchy which was the only legal and
constitutional authority in the State at
that time. Having myself spear- headed
the transition from feudalism to
democracy, 1 am well aware that this has
purely archival importance now, but
nonetheless, it is a point which needs to
be made for the record.
The third
aspect is with regard to the tremendous
advantages that would flow both to India
and Pakistan if the J&K imbroglio,
which has been a theatre of war and
conflict for half a century, could be
amicably resolved. Just imagine a
situation in which trade, tourism and
transportation between the two countries
are free. The sheer economic and
commercial advantages to people on both
sides would be tremendous. Tourism would
flourish, the Uri-Muzaffarabad and the
Jammu- Sialkot roads could be reopened,
and a whole new era of goodwill and
cooperation would be initiated. Not only
would there be tremendous bilateral
advantages, the danger of a nuclear war,
howsoever remote, would also disappear
along with the awesome possibility of
unimaginable destruction on the
subcontinent.
SAARC,
which has virtually been hamstrung as a
result of India-Pakistan tension, would
come alive and start moving towards a
European Union type of situation.
In this
age of regional formulations and
globalisation, the whole concept of
‘national interest’ needs to be
looked upon from a broader perspective.
France and Germany, enemies for half a
millennium, now consider it in their
national interests to move towards an EU
with a common market and a single
currency.
The great
seer, Sri Aurobindo, writing about India
and Pakistan after Partition in 1947,
stressed the need for "an increas
ing recognition of the necessity not only
of peace and concord but of common action
and the creation of means for the
purpose".
As an
Indian who is also a global citizen, I
have for years dreamt of a new
dispensation in this area which would
enable our ancient civilisations to break
the shackles of poverty and deprivation
in which we have been bound for
centuries, and start the process of a
final thrust to eradicate the curse of
poverty in our lands. Even as 1 write,
millions of children in India and
Pakistan go to bed without one square
meal a day, literacy standards are
dismal, health delivery systems in many
areas are rudimentary, housing
unavailable to millions, sums are
proliferating, and pandemics threaten
whole populations.
How long
are we going to tolerate a situation in
which such widespread deprivation is
allowed to continue while vast sums are
diverted to expenditure on armies and
armaments?
Is it not
the duty of our generation to leave for
posterity a legacy of peace rather than
conflict, of cooperation rather than
competition, of hope rather than despair?
All the
religions of the world, including
Hinduism and Islam, have prayers for
peace and prosperity. As Vajpayee and
Musharraf meet in the historic city of
Agra, let us, each one in his or her own
way, pray that both men are imbued with
the courage and compassion, the strength
and understanding needed to lay the
foundations of lasting peace, and to
begin the process of transforming Jammu
and Kashmir from an insurmountable
barrier into a stable bridge over
troubled waters, so that instead of
fighting each other we can together rise
in SAARG as a major focus of power,
stability and prosperity in the emerging
global society. Courtesy: Hindustan
Times
|
 |
TALES
OF TRAVESTY
Who cares for Jammu
during Musharraf talks?
By: Dr Jitendra
Singh
It is an
interesting sight, nay a hilarious sight,
nay a pathetic sight to watch! With
Pervez Musharraf in India.....apparently
to discuss Kashmir, with the Hurriyat
reacting through its
"separatist" card, with the
national Conference retorting through its
"nationalist" card and with
Shabir Shah's DFP resorting to its
"separatist-cum-nationalist"
card; the Jammu leadership, if at all
there is any, appears to be at its wit's
end to play any card. Because, over the
years, the socalled "prominent"
citizenry of Jammu has got conditioned to
accept the card played by the Kashmir
leadership and now for the first time it
finds itself totally unprepared to
respond to diverse political cards being
played by diverse sections of the Kashmir
leadership.
The
Kashmir developments in the recent weeks
ever since the announcement of Musharraf
visit to India have inadvertantly exposed
a serious lack of direction and confusion
of purpose in Jammu's political and
social echelons. While in the Kashmir
Valley, political outfits of all
hues---------whether separatist or
non-separatist, nationalist or
non-nationalist--------- have seized the
opportunity to assert their respective
stands, in Jammu not a single political
or semi-political group has come out
clearly to seek for itself a role in the
ongoing politicking which is taking place
in the name of Jammu and Kashmir.
The
reasons for this strange phenomenon could
be more than one. First, Jammu is devoid
of any meaningful leadership and those of
the Jammu activists who claim to be its
leaders are themselves directly or
indirectly dependent on the Kashmir
leadership for their own survival.
Second, in Jammu there is no cohesion or
commonality among the different political
and semi-political outfits which
constantly work at cross-purposes with
each other. Third, the vociferous
sections of Jammu, in general, lack the
appropriate perception of Jammu's stakes
in any future dispensation determined
under the pressure from Kashmir Valley.
In the ensuing vacuum, Jammu is a victim
of motley groups of retired Government
officers or defeated politicians making
bizarre statements which lack perspective
or weightage and thus fall on deaf ears.
In a
situation of leadership crisis which
exists in Jammu today, the paradox stands
out quite unmistakeably. There are, for
example, certain protagonists in Jammu
currently asking for a separate Jammu
State but you organise a public reception
for Omar Abdullah or Shabir Shah or Abdul
Gani Lone and be sure that these same
very protagonists will be found occupying
the front row in the audience. There are,
for example, certain Industry and Trade
leaders in Jammu incessantly crying
hoarse over discrimination in matters of
Power distribution or Income Tax
collection but you organise a function at
Hotel Asia or Hotel K C Residency and the
same very businessmen-leaders will
tacitly manipulate for themselves a seat
on the dias.
The
results are there for everybody to see.
Nobody bothers or cares for these
"paper-tigers'' or, shall one say,
"newspaper-tigers" from Jammu.
When Atal Behari Vajpayee sits down with
Musharraf to decide upon the future of
Jammu and Kashmir, he may keep the
Hurriyat or Farooq Abdullah in mind but
he would care two hoots for these
inconsequential self-seekers from Jammu.
At the end
of this disgusting predicament, it is the
common man of Jammu who is left to fend
for himself----- at his own risk and
responsibility. His interest is watched
neither by Srinagar nor by New Delhi nor
by Islamabad nor even by his socalled
spokespersons based at Jammu. Left to his
fate, the common man of Jammu is
reconciled to sail with the tide as it
comes. A deserted, uncared, unattended Umapathy
finds echo is poet's lament: "Tum
Mere Kisi Tarha Na Hue! Varna Duniya Mein
Kya Nahin Hota?"
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A
billion reasons for sustainability
Dr. Roopa Vajpeyi
India's population
has touched the dreaded I billion mark and the
present global population of six billion people
is about 30 percent more than the earth's
biological capacity to sustain present standards
of living. Estimates say that by 2050, the planet
will be teeming with 10 billion people and the
population may not even stabilise at that. It is
the developing world that is generally blamed for
the population explosion and its consequences
like security of food, environmental degradation
and general fall in standard of living but
equally serious reasons for scarcity of resources
and human underdevelopment are the unsustainable
consumption patterns of the developed world
consumers. The population is not just a nunber's
game but also a delicate equation of consumption,
production, growth and sustainability. The
environment is the first casualty of
irresponsible consumption-something that the
developed world has for long practised and
perpetuated.
Over-consumption-The
Developed World Paradigm
As long as world
consumers view increasing energy consumption as a
yardstick for standard of living, the world
population and environment will only be pushed
further to the brink. Feeding and supporting the
ever-growing billions is not so much about the
depleting resources of the earth but about gross
over-consumption of energy indulged in by the
North.
* An American born
in the 1990s will produce in his lifetime
approximately one million kilograms of
atmospheric wastes, 10 million kgs of liquid
wastes, and one million kgs of solid wastes. An
American will consume 700,000 kgs of minerals,
and 24 billion BTUs of energy-- equivalent to
4000 barrels of oil.
* In a lifetime an
average American will eat 25,000 kgs of animal
products, provided partially by slaughering 2000
animals. The US per-capita consumption rate is
ten to 100 times that of most of the world's
countries. Compared to Indians, Americans (on a
per capita basis) produce 27 times as much carbon
dioxide, and consume 35 times as much energy. And
yet, India's population problem is often viewed
as something far more serious and dangerous than
the 'affluenza' that has gripped American
consumers for the past 50 years.
* According to
1997 data, U.S threw up 1488 million metric
tonnes of Carbon, China 821, Russia-421, Japan
296 and India 236 million metric tonnes
respectively. The Ecological Footprint of the US
is 27 acres per person.
Americans and
Europeans together spend $17 billion a year on
pet food, $4 billion more than the estimated
yearly additional amount needed to provide
everyone in the world with basis health and
nutrition. The wealthiest 20 percent of humanity
consume 45 percent of all meat and fish, use 58%
of all energy produced and own 87% of the
vehicles. Clearly, a billion Indians are more
sustainable than 200 million Amercians!
Looking
Ahead
The greatest
problem with the developing world's population is
that every body else knows what's best for them.
India has for centuries practised and perfected
sustainable living techniques. The typical Indian
paradigm of small-farming, vegetarianism.
moderate consumption, and recycling of waste has
been an ecologically perfect one. Small farmers
produce 2 to 10 times more per unit are than
larger, corporate farmers. They take better care
of biodiversity, and preserve resources like
water and soil. The natural Indian pest-control
methods of using neem extracts and rotation,
conservation of water by water harvesting
techniques, and growing organic crops are far
more sustainable than the industrialised farming
methods of the West. The developed world
consumers have realised the virtue of organic
food and are making an about turn in favour of
organic produce.
There are gigantic
multinational companies that have more power and
money than most of the less-developed countries.
They have an interest in propagating to the
developing world consumers that they must aspire
for a America-like life-style, that the world is
going to go hungry and they have the answer to
the world's hunger in GM food, cash-crop farming,
and free trade. There is tremendous pressure from
the North on the Southern governments to accept
North-endorsed solutions to the developing
world's population problems. The need of the hour
for the developing world is to empower its people
to adopt people-based solutions-give them their
right to education, health and basic needs.
Educated people with better health care
facilities, economic independence and state
support will respond positively to the state's
efforts to control population. Empowerment of
women is crucial to any population-control plan's
success.
India has the
inherent advantage of being better equipped to
support its burgeoning population because of its
sustainable practices. India's ecological
footprint is still very small -modest 0.8
hectares per capita as compared to 10.3 of the US
and 1.2 hectares per capita of China, but
population pressure is siphoning off all
benefits's that sustainability has to offer.
Rural-urban migration, over-exploitation of
natural resources and increasing energy
consumption and demand is eating into India's
resources. This steady deterioration in living
conditions of the people and rise in population
have to be arrested. Coercive population-control
policies like that of China are bound to fail in
India. It is also known that though they may
achieve short-term results, they augur ill for a
population's self-confidence and development.
India must steer clear of this path and
unambiguously invest in human development. Even
today, India spends 2.5 percent of its GNP for
military purposes but only 0.7 percent on health,
which includes family planning. It is only
universal education, women's empowerment and
people-participation in resource management that
holds hope for the future.
|
Players
in search of a place
By Rajesh Dhar
After surge in
militancy in State, Sports sector in the State
re-ceived a setback. No importance was attached
to games by the Government during this period.
That is why J&K State did not shine in this
sector on the national scence. As a result, a lot
of potential was wasted in the state. The careers
of various talented players belonging to three
regions of the State came crashing down.
However, the
players from KP Community were the worst
sufferers.
Now, there is no
doubt in it that there are lot of talented
players in different disciplines of sports in the
exiled community but they lack exposure and are
not in a position to make it to the higher
levels. In this atmosphere they have the dismal
facilities available every where; in schools,
colleges and at homes. There isn't any sports
infrastructure in migrant institutions so, no
intra morals, inter schools, inter colleges and
what to talk of inter universities.
In migrants
institutions there aren't even bats and balls not
to talk of badminton halls. No libraries. and
laboratories, what to talk of sports kit bags.
When there aren't
any interschools, interzones or inter districts,
the players from displaced community are
obviously not seen in the camps held for state
squads to participate in school nationals. In the
open trials held by the Jammu and Kashmir Sports
Council (JKCA) or any other sports association
for selecting senior national squads in different
sports disciplines, the players from this
community are not considered because of the quota
system. What is this quota system ?
There is a trend,
a practice a custom or a system in our state that
in selecting state squads to represent the state
in the nationals we take an equal quota of
players from the two regions in which the quota
for the displaced community stands nowhere. And
when displaced community is not at all considered
for this quota how can its players get a chance
at higher levels is quite understandable. And
when the players from the displaced community
intend to attend the trials in one of the two
regions they are asked to attend these in the
other region. There is no way the Jammu region
could accommodate the community in its quota
because the community is originally from the
other region of the state where the community
youth is not in a position to attend the trials
for some known reasons in the present political
scenario and if some body anyhow manages to
attend the trials there, he, she is not awarded
with create due share. So in such an atmosphere
how can one expect the community in exile create
a place in the field of sports.
Despite these
hardships and curt treatment meted to the sports
persons of the community, some of them have
proved themselves in different disciplines.
Rakesh Koul and Rohit Bhat in cricket and
Ramandeep and Indu Raina in Softball are some of
the examples. Koul, the gutsy cricketer is the
only boy from the community to represent the
state in Ranji trophy championship in Cricket.
How he managed to get this chance? See.
Two years before
he attended the selection cum conditioning camp
for the Ranji Trophy squad at Jammu but the Jammu
and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) members of
this region asked him to join it at the other
region and the members of the association of that
region were not ready to accept this guy. Feeling
that no region was going to accept with the boy
instead of wandering here and there, left the
camp half way, so there was no way for him to be
considered for selection. But due to factionalism
in JKCA, the players from the valley boycotted
and the fractured association fell short of
players which made the entry of this players
possible. And after performing well in that match
against a formidable side like Delhi, to
everybody's shock and sorrow he was shown the
doors once and for all. Who is ready to come to
his rescue? Perhaps nobody.
Indu Raina, the
gritty soft ball girl is the captain of the state
team from last five years representing the state
in many Junior and Senior national Championships
but she could achieve this mile stone only when
this game was not fully established and was not
having much recognition in J&K State. And the
association was not having many players to field
its teams in different championships held in the
country.
How shocking is it
that we do not see many sports stars from the
community which has produced legends like Ram
Chand Tikoo (popularly known as Ram Joo) who was
one of the founder members of Cricket in J&K
State.
Now the community
being in 12th year of its exile is waiting for
the same legends to serve it as beacon lights to
guide and goad it in this grim atmosphere of
banishment.
Presently, the
sports promoters in the community leave no stone
unturned in taking initiatives for making
possible the entry of talented youths of the
community in various sports disciplines at the
higher level. In this connection the sports
promoters of the community have organised a
Sports Club namely ''Kashyap Sports Club'' aimed
at helping the sportsmen to prove themselves at
various levels in different disciplines of
sports. But in the prevailing scenario and in
present circumstances this club too lacks proper
sponsorship. The club presently fields its teams
in different cricket tournaments held in the
region and also aims to produce basket ball,
handball and soft ball teams, so that the budding
sportmen get a chance to expedite their talent
upto the optimum level. The club invite India
Camper and leading fast bowler of the State
Surinder Singh Bagal and Virender Sharma, a well
known SAI coach of the state to give bowling and
batting tips to the cricketers of the club. For
giving coaching to the handball team the club has
decided to invite Ranjit Singh Chib, the former
Handball captain of India. And to coach soft ball
team the club has decided to invite Indu Raina,
Captain of women soft ball team of J&K State.
And the struggling
players hope that the Government may consider
their problems and find any solution to it.
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Academic
Pulse
New English syllabus for class XI
students
By: Prof. S K Bhalla
It is really a
matter of some satisfac-tion that J&K State
Board of School Education under its English
Curriculum Renewal Programme has come forth with
new course content in General English for class
XI which shall be taught from this session in
Jammu Division and from March-April 2002 in
Kashmir Division. The credit for this belated and
unexpected change goes to a voice or two in the
prevailing scenario of general academic penury
putting forth concern for changing age-old text
books for class XI & XII at different levels
viz writing to men who matter at Board and in
local dailies to stress in loud and clear terms
to do something meaningful so far as teaching of
English is concerned alongwith other healthy but
hitherto missing academic reforms.
The objectives of
teaching/learning English as second language at
+2 level detailed in new syllabus definitely
appealing apparently as also the information
regarding proposed improvements in different
domains in English as a second language by
teaching the new course content.
Students are
required to obtain an aggregate of 36 percent
marks in the unit and term tests besides
enjoying" an inalienable right to see their
marked answer scripts to know their weaknesses
strengths and seek reevaluation if they are not
satisfied with the scoring of their
answers".
So far so good.
But it is genuinely apprehended that owing to the
influx of students in schools teacher will not be
in position to do justice. The unit tests we are
advised should veer round
debates/discussions/conversation etc. based on
prescribed lessons. These exercises can be
conducted in a rewarding manner in those
institutions where the teacher student ratio is
ideal and reasonable infrastructural facilities
are available. Besides these we cannot ignore the
quality of teaching and teachers which is one big
headache. The other day it was reported in The
Hindustan Times in the context of IT education
that "meeting faculty shortages, improving
the quality and retaining quality faculty and
critical to improving the standards of Infotech
education". The Task Force on H.R
Development has urged for the launching of an IT
Faculty Development Institute.
The spirit behind
writing all this is to impress upon the
authorities that change in curriculum to keep
abreast of times is one area, while the
implementation of envisaged aims/objectives in an
entirely different task. It is here we have
wonderfully floundered in the past fifty years.
The need of the hour is devise a mechanism to
monitor first whether the teachers will be in a
position to handle the course content in the
manner suggested by the esteemed editor of the
book. Designing additional comprehension tasks
and helping large number of students to use
language effectively and efficiently is no mean
thing. Despite teaching outdated English course
by incorporating new techniques in my own way in
Degree Colleges for the last 25 year I have seen
no perceptible improvement in Communication
skills of a majority of students.
The overall
improvement in tone and tenor of educational
institutions will in the ultimate analysis be
instrumental in successful implementation of
language improvement programme which we have now
chosen after playing with the careers of a few
generations of students.
Here is shall not
be out of context to add that the printing and
general get-up of the prescribed text book is not
at all impressive. There are also glaring
printing mistakes in the test prescribed adding
to confusion and the number of words handled in
Glossary is also inadequate. It is after teaching
the book for one full session an exhaustive
write-up on the strengths and weaknesses of
'SPECTRUM' can be produced. These are preliminary
observations without any bias.
Civil
society and the environment
By Dr B K Fotedar
We have myraids of
problems with regard to environment that we
cannot bring back ourselves to normal from the
deterioration that has been caused to it. How
many aspects of the environment can we set right?
This is the question that presently haunts a
common man every minute. As far as to think of
measures to save the environment, we are slow at.
We in the present scenario of environment have no
access to pure air nor do we have access to pure
water. There is enough of contamination in both
air and water and every state of India is
suffering from this menace. Air contains both
inorganic as well as organic contaminants and
this has already caused a high mortality rate in
most of the metropolitan cities. There is an
excess of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone,
standard particulate matter and what not. These
are performing a slow murder on the human
society. The leaded petrol has enormously been
spewed into the atmosphere, wherefrom it enters
the water bodies and gets passed on to the food
chains. The children in the US suffer lower I.Q
levels even at acceptable levels of lead in the
blood. According to researchers, one in every
thirty children in the US suffers harmful effects
of this metal. Children with lead concentration
of less than 10 micrograms per decilitre of blood
scored on an average 11.1 points lower on the IQ.
than the mean of the children with a lead
concentration of one microgram or less. The
contaminated waters with lead and other metal
ions have disturbed the immune system of large
section of population, who later become prey to
fatal diseases like AIDS, T.B. gastrointestinal
infections, abnormal growths etc. etc. The air
quality measurements at various places are also
disappointing. Take the single case of Delhi
where 470 tonnes of carbon monoxide are spewed
into the atmosphere daily, together with
hydrocarbons 310 tonnes and standard particulate
matter 13 tonnes. In Bombay the concentration is
slightly less but still above permissible levels.
In Kolkota 188.24 tonnes of carbon monoxide are
spewed into the air daily together with 310
tonnes of hydrocarbons and SPM as 3.25 tonnes.
This all has been proved a menace to excessive
use of diesel. Knowing fully well the disastrous
effects of diesel use as a fuel, still
dielisation has not been completely haulted in
Delhi inspite of the supreme court order of
changing all the diesel engines into CNG. The
dead line for this was kept as march, 2001, but
again the dead line has now been posted to
September, 2001. So the diesel race is still on
and as such the ambient air quality of Delhi is
not going to improve which appears certain.
Besides the above,
there is the problem of water crisis together
with the pollution of the rivers. The River Ganga
Action Plan having since been started has not
brought out any substantial improvement in the
waters. Then the case of cleaning Jammu river is
since on the cards. On April 10, 2001, the apex
court has asked the Delhi Government to clean up
the river by March 31, 2003. It is now
understandable that Jammu also would go Ganga way
and by 2003, Jamuna water would be still worst
than the present and this way 13.8 million people
of Delhi would be deprived the right of clean
water. Similarly great number of lakes in our
country have been contaminated. The world famous
Dal Lake of Kashmir is suffering from
eutrophication and extreme heavy metal pollution.
So this was the
problems are so many and the role of the
governments towards addressing these has been
altogether disappointing. In all fronts the
government has failed to provide a good
governance which could set all these problems.
One thing is sure that wherever the matters were
taken by the civil society, all types of projects
have met a success. A good will gesture has
always come from the people, who worked hard and
succeeded in putting the environment on the right
track. Now the need of the hour is that civil
society should come in force for dealing with all
these problems or in short the civil society can
only be banked upon to make concerted efforts in
saving the environment. It needs to be mentioned
here that civil society in Nepal, Germany, UK
Kenya, Singapore, Japan have worked wonders in
protecting the environment. They have helped
their respective governments in combating
vehicular pollution, have solved the problem of
water crisis, have improved their water sheds to
reduce runoff and have made hectic efforts to
protect forests to check floods and siltation.
Singapore's water management is the classic
example of water management throughout the world.
Some case histories in India also can be cited,
where people have changed barren lands into
cultivable lands, bringing prosperity and
happiness to people mostly living in rural areas.
Sukhomajri, a
village in Haryana is an example where the
communities managed their resources better. In
the year 1980, the people earned a nation-wide
acclaim for the way they utilised forests and
water. Due to the hard work put in, the people
laid attention first to afforestation, and then
they developed the water sheds and removed the
water scarcity. They became the masters of the
forests and abundant grass was grown in the
village which found a good market later on. It
has now become a prosperous village. Recharging
of wells in Dihra (Bihar), various places in
Gujrat, Duku block (Rajasthan) was done most
successfully by the civil society. Similarly in
Chennai, many old tanks were revived for
capturing rainwater. voluntary organisations in
Rawatwada (Gujrat) made successful attempt of
rainwater harvesting. Stone bunds were raised and
water shortage was removed. Jabua is another
example of a district in MP which was once a
barren landscape got changed into green belt. The
chief minister Mr Digvijay Singh who has been
rated as second green Chief Minister by Centre of
Science and Environment, Delhi, gave money in the
hands of civil society (Panchayat) and gave them
full powers of developing a drought free area.
The village was fully developed and the barren
landscape was changed into a model village
bringing economical, social and ecological
changes in and around all villages in Jabua
district. Similarly Tarun Bharat Sangh, a
voluntary Organisation in Alwar district, Reaglan
Sindhi in Daccan Plateau area, were changed into
model villages by the communities living there.
In Alwar (Rajasthan) there was no water in any
part of the area and the wells had gone dry.
Livestock had been affected and villagers had
been compelled to leave their villages to nearby
towns. But it was with the efforts of Tarun
Bharat Sangh who rejuvenated the whole area. They
had now enough of water to last them for drier
months. Five rivers which had gone dry there were
made perennial by the volunteers.
The success
stories finally to decentralization as has been
done in MP and Kerala. At these places everything
for the development of the village is done by the
civil society. The government budget has cme
directly in the hands of local bodies.
Civil society has
thus worked wonders in shaping their destiny by
their hard work in different parts of India. When
Anna Hazare like could shape the forest and water
management in Reaglan Sidhi (Maharashtra) and P R
Mishra in Sukhomajri, who cant' Jammuites improve
the region on the same lines. Different sansthas
and volunteer regimes have already been doing a
lot for saving the environment, but they should
go a step further in attending to immediate
measures for removing water crisis, for creating
mass awareness in rural areas and improvement of
water sheds for minimising the runoff and last
but not the least helping in rainwater
harvesting- the only viable method of removing
water crisis gripping the whole area of Jammu.
These are all necessary steps which need
immediately be attended to by the Jammuites. The
delay in such an action would otherwise. make the
problems relating to environment very complex
during the years to come.
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