EDITORIAL
Vicious Politicking
Politics is admittedly an
inseparable part of a democratic polity. People have a
right to raise issues, have, hold and express opinions on
any topic. That, indeed, is what democracy is all about.
In an ideal situation people especially the politicians
would not generate issues to suit their politics but
would base their politics on the issues themselves nor
would they tailor issues to the needs of their
politicking. That politics would be for constructive, for
development not for politicking. Politicking as an end in
itself is not the intended meaning of democratic
politics. But somehow that distinction has got hopelessly
blurred here. We have politicians seeking and airing
issues chosen to further particular brand of politicking
and particular agendas. A further degeneration is when
politics, parties and whole policies are structured
around personalities, which more often are bare egos.
Though few political parties would accept that they are
not the most ideal ones operating in the arena, there are
few that adhere even to the preliminary points of what
the people would call honourable politics. Most come
through as pahalwans in the ring out to
floor the opponent by whichever dhun they
can. Of course, wrestlers punch by rules, but anything is
kosher for the political wrestlers
of our polity; anything and everything is an issue for
politicking. But that is not politics but a perversion.
Take the case of ban on
SIMI. There is a legally, constitutionally constituted
Government responsible for administering this very
complex, multidimensional country. That Government is
answerable to the parliament for all its actions and
nobody can say that this Government is very comfortably
placed there. All the actions of this Government whether
those of omission or commission, whether momentous or
trivial, are scrutinable by the courts whose impartiality
and competence has been established over half a century.
The least the political parties and interests can do is
respect the Government of the day in its decisions. When
the Government says that it has proof that SIMI is
involved in anti-national activities it has to be
believed. Or challenged in the courts, questioned in the
parliament. Unless the parliament has refused approval
and /or the decision has been rejected in the courts of
law, the action of the executive has to be accepted as
the best, taken by the legal and constitutional
Government of the nation. That action and acceptance is
the privilege of a legal Government. It decides for the
country, as it alone is competent to do. The sundry
political parties or individuals are not competent to
comment on the validity of the proof for the action
taken.
Yet, we have the unsavory
spectacle of the politicians, political agendas and
interests, politicking on a plain point for the sake of
gaining political capital. If there is evidence, as the
Government says it has, of the involvement of what should
have been a pure students' organization in anti-national
activities, proof of their links with the most dreaded
terrorist organization in the world Al Qaida,
indications that is members are mixed up with the
terrorist organizations operating in the country, their
having received arms training clandestinely, and being
active in spreading communal hatred, there just is no
point of calling the Government's action into question.
What little information about the goings-on in the SIMi
is available in the press and media does not show up the
organization as an eminently desirable body, less so one
working for the betterment of a sensitive section of
populace like students. Possession of high explosive,
training or getting members trained in terrorist tactics,
publication and dissemination of inflammatory materials,
questionable activities, manifest communalism etc. are
not what any organization in the Indian set up is
supposed to indulge in, much less a student body. The
Government must have more evidence, much more details of
these and other activities. Until that evidence is called
for examination by the appropriate authority and
rejected, there simply is no case for disbelieving the
Government of the day or criticizing its action.
Indeed, it can be... nay,
must be questioned on how it allowed the situation to get
as grave, as its assertions indicate it has gotten,
before taking action. If it did not act earlier, for the
lack of evidence there is a serious case for overhauling
the whole intelligence gathering system in the country.
If any thing, the WTC strike has made in mandatory for
the countries to spruce up their intelligence set-ups.
Twenty people supported by, may be, another fifty on the
ground were able to overcome the whole security-net of
America and wrecked one of the most dastardly assaults on
the sole superpower of the world. It has amply
demonstrated that another dozen, fired with a similar
zeal - how so misplaced, how so inhuman, how so
unsanctioned, that may later be called- can easily bring
a whole nation down. On the other hand if action was
delayed for the fear of communal capital being made out
of it the Government must inform the people about the
elements who it fears can and would pervert issues of
highest national security for the sake of political
gains. Those elements need to be identified. In fact, the
society may need to take measures to prevent the abuse of
the national interest for the sake of personal, political
or party ends. For the national interest had definitely
been imperiled if even part of what the Government says
about SIMI is true.
And it ultimately boils
down to the society, the people who make the nation, to
see that the nation does not become one pocket of
interest for this or that politician to play with. There
has been a trend to present the nation of India as clutch
of interests, communities and groups. No nation that
holds that it is essentially divided can survive. For the
nations to survive the essential integrity has to be
stressed. They have to practise and feel the underlying
oneness, which must transcend all interests, all
identities. That is the primacy of the national interest.
Any politicking there is vicious. Unfortunately there is
a widely shared feeling in the country that political
parties are rarely circumspect in the choice of issues
they use for their politicking. SIMI is just one facet of
this vile opportunism. As it is there is little to
question the assertions of the Government in this regard;
the word of the lawful Government has to be believed. No
Government in the country can lie in affairs as serious
as these. And there is nothing to patently doubt it. Yet
the plain law and order action has become hot politics.
It is not only vicious but also sadistic, to seek to play
with the security of the nation with subtlety and
subterfuge.
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MEN
AND MATTERS
Vajpayee
revives Ayodhya controversy
From B L Kak
All
eyes are focussed on India’s
politically-important State-that is Uttar
Pradesh. And if the Uttar Pradesh (UP)
Chief Minister, Mr Rajnath Singh, opened
a new chapter in the politics of
reservation by declaring that the
recommendations of the
Government-appointed Social Justice
Committee would be implemented before
October 1, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal
Behari Vajpayee, seemed willing to offer
his helping hand to those men and
measures that aimed at weakening the
BJP’s rivals and winning the next
round of Assembly elections.
The Social
Justice Committee has recommended
restriction of the quantum of reservation
for the Yadavs and the Jatavs, who form
the core constituencies of the Samajwadi
Party (SP) headed by former Defence
Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mr
Kanshi Ram, to a meagre 5 and 10 per cent
respectively.
Of the 21
per cent reservation available for
Dalits, the Social Justice Committee has
recommended the reservation of 10 per
cent for the castes in Schedule A
comprising Chamars, Jatavs and Dhusias
and 11 per cent for those in Schedule B
comprising 65 other categories in the
Dalit category. The castes in Schedule A
form the traditional support base of the
BSP.
The UP
Chief Minister made no secret of his hope
to derive political benefits from the
report of the Committee. He has let it be
known: Over 54 per cent of UP’s
population will benefit as a result of
the new policy. More than 50 per cent of
backward Muslims are covered. "This
will certainly give us electoral
benefits. We shall form the Government in
Uttar Pradesh", Mr Rajnath Singh has
asserted.
Mr Rajnath
Singh’s optimism about his party
(BJP) forming the next Government in UP
is apparently based on intelligence
reports and feedback from some
‘independent’ professional
agencies. His revelation: "According
to feedback we got two months ago, the
BJP alone will win 135-140 seats. Now,
after this (the quota policy), I would
not be surprised if we crossed the
200-mark".
Another
issue which has engaged public attention
not only in UP but also elsewhere,
pertains to Ayodhya. The issue, if not
handled skillfully, can result in
high-voltage confrontation between the
two major communities-Hindus and Muslims.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the
All India Muslim Personal Law Board
(AIMPLB) are once again involved in a
bitter fight over the
‘disputed’ site at Ayodhya.
The fight
this time seems to be the product of the
recent announcement by the Prime
Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, that a
solution to the Ayodhya problem is
possible by March 2002. Talks, he
disclosed, were being held with various
groups at various levels.
Which are
these groups? The Vishwa Hindu Parishad
has been spearheading the temple
movement, while the All India Muslim
Personal Law Board has upheld the cause
of the Babri Masjid. But both these
organisations do not know anything about
the talks the Prime Minister referred to
in Lucknow.
Not even
the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr
Rajnath Singh, knows anything about the
talks. According to observers, Mr
Vajpayee’s unexpected statement
vis-à-vis talks with various groups at
various levels was aimed at revitalising
the hardcore supporters of the BJP, who
were disappointed with the party’s
decision to put the Ayodhya issue on the
back burner.
Significantly,
a message has gone to the Prime Minister
that any solution arrived at through
‘secret talks’ that do not
involve the4 VHP and the AIMPLB will be
acceptable to neither of them. The VHP
should have been privy to any talks on
the Ayodhya issue because it had
announced that the construction of the
Ram temple would begin in March 2002.
But Mr
Vishnu Hari Dalmia, president of the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has let it be
known that he is not aware of any such
effort by the Prime Minister. He made it
clear: "We know nothing about any
such talks at any level. No solution to
the Ayodya prob lem is possible without
involving the VHP".
Mr Dalmia
opined that with the elections to the UP
Assembly a few months away, the Prime
Minister’s statement was just
"another political gimmick"
meant to attract some Muslim and Hindu
votes. Mr Dalmia also made it abundantly
clear that irrespective of that Mr
Vajpayee had said, the VHP’s
programme on temple construction after
March 12 remained unaltered.
Reiterating
that the VHP will begin the construction
of the temple after March 12, Mr Dalmia
maintained: "The only solution to
this problem is to concede that there was
a temple there". He said that the
BHP was willing to start a dialogue with
Muslims on this issue.
In view of
the VHP’s rigid stance, what purpose
will a dialogue serve? Mr Dalmia’s
reply: "Oh, just to convince Muslims
to give up their claim. They can have the
mosque anywhere else in Ayodhya. In fact,
we will construct the mosque for them. In
order to convince them about this, we are
willing to enter into a dialogue".
Vocal
Muslim politician and member of All India
Muslim Personal Law Board, Syed
Shahabuddin, has warned that any solution
that was arrived at without the
involvement of AIMPLB would not be
acceptable to the Muslim community.
"We are willing to enter into a
dialogue with the Government provided the
atmosphere is conducive to such talks.
But so far the Government has taken no
initiative. The Prime Minister’s
statement is nothing but a last-ditch
effort to save the sinking ship in Uttar
Pradesh", he said.
The All
India Babri Masjid Action Committee
(AIBMAC) and the All India Babri Masjid
Coordination Committee (AIBMCC) have
authorised the AIMPLB to head the Babri
Masjid movement. Syed Shahabuddin stated:
"In the three years that Mr Vajpayee
has been in power no Muslim organisation
of any repute has had any interaction
with the Prime Minister on this issue.
And suddenly he is talking of a
solution".
Syed
Shahabuddin also warned: "Since the
matter is in court, any action by the
Government will be illegal and tantamount
to contempt of court. The Government
cannot transfer even an inch of the
acquired land in Ahyodhya where the Babri
Masjid once stood". He claimed that
Mr Vajpayee’s statement was an
indirect attempt to pressure the
judiciary into taking a decision before
March 2002. He asserted: "No one can
dictate terms to the judiciary. Mr
Vajpayee cannot do anything before the
verdict is delivered".
According
to one report doing the rounds in the
capital, Mr Vajpayee intends to use the
services of the newly appointed Civil
Aviation Minister, Mr Shahnawaz Hussain,
to build bridges with Muslim leaders. His
promotion to Cabinet rank is seen as a
measure of the Prime Minister’s
confidence in his ability to carry out
the task.
Yet
another report says that Mr Vajpayee may
rely on Lak Sabha member, Swami
Chinmayanand, for opening channels of
communication with Hindu leaders.
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Cities
without slums
By :
Aarti
World
Habitat Day observed World Habitat Day
observed by the United Nations across the
globe on October 1, to reflect on the
state of human settlements apart from the
basic right to shelter and build greater
awareness about the need to improve our
living environment will focus this year
on the theme, "Cities without
slums". The occasion is of special
significance to our country because an
estimated 30 million Indians are believed
to be living in urban slums and squatter
settlements without shelter and basic
services.
Many
cities in India though envisioned to
provide its inhabitants a healthy living
environment are on the brink of an
ecological collapse. Lack of management
planning and monitoring by the local
administration to check the rapid
increase in city population has resulted
in the growth of what is commonly called
slums and squatter settlements.
Primarily, for want of a disaster
management programme, slum dwellers in
many cities of the country are rendered
homeless every year due to floods,
cyclones, earthquakes and other
calamities. Beyond depriving a large
number of people of basic services, these
slums have forced them to live in
overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.
Around 20 to 25 per cent of the urban
households in our country live in slums,
squatter settlements and refugee colonies
due to non-availability of affordable
habitat settlements. It is appalling that
while more than five million people live
in slums in Mumbai and Kolkatta
respectively, slums in Delhi having
gobbled up 8,000 acres of land supports
four million people living in them.
Bangalore City has over one million
people living in its 700 slums. Hyderabad
has over 970 slums accomodating 0.6
million people. Slum dwellers not only
face eviction but also serious risks to
diseases, fires, floods, landslides etc.
Open sewers in many urban slums have been
responsible for a rash of polio cases.
Many of
our cities that have been slumming for a
long time for want of a coherent policy
accounting for 75 per cent of the
country’s slum population. According
to official figures, the percentage of
urban households living in recognised
slums is 25.4 per cent in Maharastra,
19.1 Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh 18.2,
Madhya Pradesh 18.1 and West Bengal 17.6.
Other projections show that the slum
population in major metros is slated to
rise from 36.26 lakhs (1991 figures) to
43.15 lakhs by the end of 2001 in
Kolkatta, while it will rise from 43.21
to 58.55 lakhs in Mumbai, 22.48 to 32.63
lakhs in Delhi and 15.25 to 19.62 lakhs
in Chennai.
Despite
several initiatives undertaken to the
check the rise in slums, we have a long
way to go. In 1972 the Central scheme of
Environmental Improvement of Urban slums
was launched in order to improve the
living environment of slum dwellers by
providing them with basic minimum
facilities. In 1974 the scope of the
scheme was enlarged, made an integral
part of the Minimum Needs Programme and
transferred to the State sector. With
none of the State Governments in a
position to provide sufficient funds for
the scheme, the National Slum Development
Programme (NSDP) was introduced in 1996
by making available additional Central
assistance to States and Union
Territories for the development of urban
slums. Even as a total of Rs 1,374 crores
have been provided under the scheme to
various states since its inception for
providing basic facilities such as water
supply, sanitation, primary education,
healthcare, adult literacy and non-formal
education facilities, maternity and child
care/primary health care etc.,
utilisation has been only Rs 533 crores.
If several well-intended programmes for
slum development have not been able to
bring the desired results it is
apparently because there is no effective
coordination between funding and
monitoring activities that are by three
different agencies. While the Planning
Commission and the Department of
Expenditure under the Union Finance
Ministry do the actual fund allocation to
State Governments, the Ministry of Urban
Development can only monitor the various
schemes. A new National Slum policy aimed
at making all the six-mega cities and 35
metros in the country with a population
of over one million slum-free by 2010 are
on the anvil. By rehabilitating slum
dwellers, relocating them from hazardous
places, upgradation of infrastructure and
provision of secure land tenure for slum
dwellers, the policy also is directed in
strengthening the urban local bodies to
ensure that they frame suitable policies
for slums and involve all the
stakeholders in the development of slums.
Reports
indicate that illegal hutments and slums
not only provide a powerful vote bank but
also musclepower for political parties.
In Mumbai for instance slums have risen
dramatically since the 1950s. Of an
estimated 9 crore people in Maharashtra,
there are 4.35 crore slum dwellers. In
Mumbai of the 1.25 crorepeople, 55 per
cent of them live in slums. There are
over 12-lakh hutment where the quality of
life is subhuman. Wih one-fifth of them
has no latrines, people ease themselves
in the open giving Mumbai a bad stench.
Some years ago the Maharashtra State
Government announced some 10 lakh free
apartments for 40,000 families in the
slums. Consequently, the squatters
increased, land sharks propounded,
building activities came to a standstill,
real estate prices crashed and nobody
reportedly benefited except slum lords
who controlled numerous illegal hutment
colonies. With a view to protect the
rights of legal slum dwellers and prevent
the proliferation of slums, in Mumbai
plans are afoot to issue identity cards
to people who settled in a slum before
January 1, 1995 and demolish slums and
hutment that came after that date.
Worldwide
efforts are on in developing countries to
scale-up slum upgrading. Brazil is
building on the experience of its cities
to develop a decentralised national slum
upgrading policy. Cambodia is banking on
community development committees to
effect a citywide poverty reduction
strategy. Indonesia’s large-scale
slum upgrading initiatives is said to
have improved the living conditions of
over 15 million people across 300 local
government units. South Africa’s
comprehensive housing program has been
designed to provide secure tenure.
Vietnam is initiating the development of
basic infrastructure in low-income urban
areas by extending access to affordable
credit.
In India,
recent initiatives like the proposal to
create a corpus of Rs. 5,000 crores for
an Integrated National Slum Development
Programme, and the draft National Slum
Policy which is under circulation to the
States can go a long way to give some
respite to slum dwellers. Since the
global urban population is expected to
double from 2.5 billion to 5 billion over
the course of the next generation, there
is an imperative to get cracking. A
coherent approach linking physical
development, community programmes and
human resources development merits can
create an opportunity for local slum
dwellers to gain basic facilities,
dignity and human rights.
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Time
for water revolution
By K James Christopher
Rain water
harvesting and water conservation hold immense
potential in helping us overcome the chronic
problem of depletion of ground water and shortage
of drinking water. Total Water Revolution like
Green Revolution and the White Revolution should
be a voluntary effort, not an officially
sponsored and promoted enterprise, if we are to
achieve results. The Pani Roko Abhiyan in Madhya
Pradesh is a people oriented initiative, says the
author and adds, it is showing results where the
Government run watershed management programme has
not over long years.
On the eve of
Independence
Day, our capital, Delhi ex-
perienced the heaviest rain in four decades on a
single day. As the skies opened out, life came to
a standstill; the city became the Venice of the
sub-continent with several areas inundated for
hours. The scene was the same from the busy
Connaught Place to the Nehru Place, from the
oldest Lodi Colony to the new concrete jungle,
Vasundhara Enclave adjoining Noida. Planning
Commission's Deputy Chairman K C Pant too
experienced first hand the hardships ordinary
Delhiites face every rainy season. His compound
collected all the water overflowing from a
blocked drain and made his bungalow on the VIP
district look like an island.
Delhi's basic
drainage system is not capable of talking
high-intensity rain. Everyone who is anyone in
the administrative hierarchy knows this but
seldom any remedial action is taken. Before the
onset of rainy season, nevertheless, top
functionaries of the civic body declare grandly
that his monsoon would be different from the
previous years. 'All drains have been cleared of
blockages and there should be no inundation'.
Come the first shower, history gets repeated. The
bureaucrats indulge in buck passing once again.
The commuters suffer.
Vulnerability to
downpour is not peculiar to the nation's
political capital. The country's commercial
capital Mumbai too experiences the same problem
year after year. Kalkota and Chennai fare no
better. The emerging metros, Bangalore and
Hyderabad, with all the hi-tech at their
disposal, courtesy the IT industry, offer no
comfort either. With unfailing regularity, rains
have been causing havoc with our civic life and
we have learnt to put up with the
bumper-to-bumper traffic and impatient honking
horns.
This agonising
rain display is followed by shortage of drinking
water. Just like the drainage system, the water
supply has not kept pace with the population
growth and the mushrooming of colonies,
authorised and unauthorised. Consequently, even
before summer sets in, we become witness to
drinking water shortage and excessive dependence
on bore wells.
The story is same
from Assam to Bihar, from Uttar Pradesh to Madhya
Pradesh and from Kerala to Maharashtra. An
editorial writer can get away with the sermon:
some thing needs to be done urgently before the
situation slips out of hand. Politicians too can
get away as they often do by mouthing platitudes,
sharing people's concern and promising an El'
Doradao. That there is a gulf between promise and
performance is common experience.
Funnily, while
deluge hits some parts of the country, many other
parts remain in the grip of drought, as is the
case this year too, despite a fairly good
monsoon. River waters are still a bone of
contention - Cauvery in the case of Tamilnadu and
Karnataka, Krishna in the case of Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh, Vasundhara in respect of Andhra
Pradesh and Orissa, Yamuna - Sutlej between
Haryana and Punjab.
The list of rivers
and the theatre of the absurd they generate are
very long. In the pursuit of larger share of
their states, the politicians in the drivers'
seat donot mind allowing the surplus river water
to just go down the drain. Nor do they appear to
care for the parched lands and poor yields as a
consequence.
This is a luxury
the country can ill-afford to enjoy
year-after-year. Hoping for a national river
water grid to materialise one day is no solution
either, when we know that all the river projects
in various stages of execution need a shopping
Rs. 3300 billion.
The national river
water policy is still light miles away, even
according to the Union Minister for Water
Resources Arjun Charan Sethi. There is wide
disagreement amongst the states on how to go
about the task.
Even the question
of criteria for constituting a river water
dispute tribunal, there is no consensus. Nor is
there any commonality of views on how to ensure
that an upper riparian States is not deprived of
its share even while the lower riparian State
continues to enjoy its historical advantages.
What the World Bank said years ago that the next
century would witness wars on water may indeed
come true in our country if we allow the present
drift to continue.
Against his
backdrop, the Pani Roko Abhiyan in Madhya Pradesh
and water user associations in Andhra Pradesh
offer hope for a better future. In a manner of
speaking, the Andhra experiment is not a new one.
It has been in the conceptual stage for years; it
was, in fact, tried in some areas with varying
degree of success. To the credit of Chandrababu
Naidu, however, it must be said he has given the
concept a concrete shape and has been
implementing it with gusto.
The Madhya Pradesh
Abhiyan, on the other hand, is a take off on the
not so successful watershed management programme.
Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is leading the
campaign and has made it a broad based voluntary
movement. It is too early to look for results and
to assess the Abhiyan's impact. Since the
political executive has taken direct charge of
the movement, and fresh life has been breathed
into the soil conservation and watershed
management departments, fairly good should
follow.
Madhya Pradesh is
a plateau. It is always in the grip of water
scarcity though it is home to the mighty Narmada
and many small and big rivers. The only way out
is to conserve and harvest water in a
decentralised manner. People in the villages
should be made participants in the endeavour, not
by the diktats of the DM saheb but voluntarily,
enthusiastically, as a community effort. Most of
the community based programmes originating from
the Yojana Bhavan in Delhi have failed primarily
because the planners laid bench marks for local
help in cash and kind with no scope for local
innovation.
The Pani Roko
Abhiyan of Chief Minister Digvijay Singh doesn't
suffer from such handicaps. It is cashing in on
the enthusiasm as well as awareness that have
been built at the community level regarding
ground water recharging and water conservation.
As Anil Agarwal of the Centre for Science and
Environment reportedly said, such an extensive
water conservation programme is unprecedented
anywhere in the world.
North-eastern
States like Mizoram and Nagaland are pioneers in
rain harvesting in India. There every household
collects rainwater to supplement drinking water
from other sources. Probably because of the
climate or may be because of the pristine purity
of their habits, water quality remains same
through out the year.
The key to rural
prosperity lies in people - oriented action,
according to Mohan Dhariya, yester years Young
Turk, who has found his moorings in rural
development after a stint at the Yojana Bhavan
and is currently heading the Vanrai organisation
in Pune, his chosen Karma Bhoomi.
The 'total
revolution' in Mandsaur and Neemuch districts
(Madhya Pradesh) and the consequent cent percent
ground water recharging in many villages proves
the Dhariya contention right. People's collective
effort motivated by political action has achieved
what a retinue of Government officials and
karmacharis in the agricultural and soil
conservation department failed to accomplish.
It is time to
'transport' the Pani Roko, Abhiyan from central
India to other states, where there is more water
going waste and where there is no water to drink.
Only a water revolution can plug the gaping holes
left behind by the green revolution and white
revolution in our village economy and contribute
to an increase in the per capita income of the
rural people.
Industrialisation
doesn't ensure equitable growth but the Pani
Abhiyan can as the water conserved will help to
utilise more land productively, not grand plans,
grand vision is what makes life worth living?
Syndicate
Features
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Women
and peace process
The Baha'i
International Community welcomes this opportunity
to address the critical role of women in the
peace process. Owing to their particular
experiences, women bring to the peace dialogue
certain qualities and perspectives complementary
to those of men. Baha'is, therefore, take
seriously the challenge of bringing women as
equals of men into the mainstream of decision
making. It is an essential element in the
attainment of worldwide unity, and as Baha'u'
llah wrote more than a century ago,'' The
well-being of mankind, its peace and security,
are unattainable unless and until is unity is
firmly established.
Startling changes
in recent years have profoundly altered the
character of society, plunging humankind into a
State of anxiety. Everyone on the planet has been
touched in some way by the breakdown of religious
and political institutions which traditionally
have provided stability. As disturbing as these
dislocations are to individuals, Baha'is view
them as preparing the ground for the process of
building a new social order which can support a
lasting peace. Peace-building over the long term
requires the transformation of society, a
transformation based on justice, involving
education for all, the alleviation of poverty and
the abandonment of deeply rooted prejudices.
At a time when
conquest and aggression have lost their
credibility as means of solving difficult
problems, qualities in which women are strong,
such as the capacity to link intuition to the
other rational processes, and facility with
networking and cooperation, are gaining
importance. Thus as increasing numbers of women
are admitted into centers of decision-making,
consultation is being enlightened by fresh
perspectives, a new moral and psychological
climate is spreading, enabling new dynamics of
problem-solving to emerge. The inclusion of women
thus directly affects the pace and success of the
peace-building process.
The progress of
humanity depends on men and women working
together, therefore, both must be equally
developed. Women, given equal opportunities for
education, have already proven to be the equals
of men in intellectual and creative capacity. Men
must encourage and facilitate the full
development of women, as women must support men
in their development towards this new condition
of society.
These requisites
are reflected in the data presented in the report
of the Secretary-General on the theme ''Peace:
Women and the Peace Process''. The report points
out that women have historically been at the
forefront of peace movements. It carefully
documents their courageous and unflagging efforts
to end war through the channels available to
them, which have been mostly non-governmental.
The report also notes that women, as peace
researchers, generally take a holistc approach to
peace- based on the assumption that real peace
requires the elimination of all forms of
oppression and discrimination. This approach is
particularly well suited to dealing with the
interconnected problems of this age. Yet, as the
report sadly notes, ''women are virtually absent
from the peace process at the official level.''
Despite rational
arguments for including women in decision-making,
there is an almost involuntary resistance. The
exclusion of women from important consultations
is so deeply ingrained in most cultures that
change is unlikely without a conscious,
deliberate effort to involve them. Change, even
when undertaken voluntarily, is rarely perceived
as positive at first, rather it is often
profoundly disturbing. Baha'is acknowledge that
fundamental changes in the way human beings
relate to one another are both necessary and
inevitable, but will not occur overnight. The
transition to full equality between women and men
is an evolutionary process requiring education
and patience with oneself and others, as well as
an answering determination.
Within the
worldwide Baha'i community, efforts have long
been underway to bring women into the mainstream
of collective decision making. Participation by
women is understood to be an integral part of a
dynamic which is gradually transforming Baha'i
communities all over the world. The fundamental
power this generates is most evident in the
Baha'i decision-making process, a methodology
which is consultative and participatory in
nature.
(State
Baha'i Council of J&K)
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