EDITORIAL
Why
only Kashmir?
Kashmir is an
important part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
But it is not all of the State. It definitely is
better known within the country as well as
outside. In fact, it is so well known that most
people make the mistake of taking it to be the
whole State. Whether it is this larger, than life
image of Kashmir or something else, but it is a
fact that it has taken over not only the
minorities there but has practically come to loom
over the whole State. Most of the people see this
as a big brother attitude. Now, big brother
attitude may be a nasty thing in the western
context-wherefrom most of the Indian thinkers
take their cue and outrightly condemn it-it is
not so bad a thing in the Indian ethos and
practice. Here it is a tradition of duty, a
privilege born out of sacrifice. It is not born
of power but is earned with practice of giving
the better part to the youngsters. That was what
Gandhiji meant when he asked the majority in
India to be a big brother towards the minorities.
That, indeed, is what has marked the soft
attitude towards minorities in India, all along.
Somehow that
feeling and understanding has not been very
evident in this State. The privilege here has not
been earned but has been demanded as a sort of
right. That, of course, makes it much nastier
than the Orwelliant nightmare of the powerful
lording over everything, because that way it
becomes a right to be taken and never to be
justified. Perhaps, it is most evident in the
post-election scene today, as the ‘potential
coalition partners’ the Congress and PDP
bicker over the Chief Ministership of this State.
As a norm that privilege goes to the party with
the larger numbers. Congress with clear larger
number has an edge here over the other partner.
Of course, that arrangement is open to wide
negotiation. Much, probably, would depend on the
remaining numbers, the party and person, the
other people who may enter the coalition, would
support. Thus there could be either a PDP or a
Congress head. But the way the headship of the
State is being demanded to be given to Kashmir
part, as a matter of right, has features that
cannot be justified on grounds, either of
tradition or those of an equitable distribution.
Yet that is what is becoming the most
determinative element in the wrangle.
And, that is a
wholly inequitable thing. Just when people
thought that they had finally gotten around the
prejudices and stood for the total unity of the
State without slant and subtlety those very
things are coming in from the backdoor as it
were. And all that-the argument as well as the
appeal-is untenable. If PDP has promised a
healing touch to the people so has the Congress;
if one party has made promises to Kashmir, the
other has made commitments to Jammu. Yet another
potential partner in the Government has made more
solemn commitments in Ladakh and sealed them with
a formidable solidarity. Probably, the greatest
need of the hour is to show to the people outside
Kashmir that this State and its people are not a
ransom or something of that sort. All the people,
all parts of the State are equal and that
equality has to be enforced both in letters and
spirit. It has to be demonstrated in
psychological and connotational terms: the people
in all regions must feel that they are equal
partners here, with equal rights.
That the people or
politicians of any part suffer from no inherent
disabilities, that no preordained prejudices
would be forced. This becomes all the more
necessary because dispensations in the past have
not been equal to the different peoples of this
State. That the people so wronged also-happen to
be minorities in the State makes the need for
that psychological assurance more acute. Today
Jammu and Kashmir are more or less equal in the
matter of population. Though the contribution of
Jammu in financial terms right now is more, that
may be equalized on the complete return to
normalcy and ouster of the terrorist menace from
the valley. Thus there is a crying need to
balance the distribution of services, amenities
and allocations among the regions so that all the
peoples of the State become equal partners as the
constitution promises. If this State is to be
taken forth as a united entity those imbalances
would have to be corrected. Else, the grouses can
become causes that may prove hard to bridge in
future. And there certainly is no case to drill
in those feeling of alienation.
Alienation, today,
is more a phenomenon in the other regions of the
State than Kashmir. Terrorism has caused very
deep wounds in the valley. It has a vice grip
over it that needs to be loosened as a priority.
A healing touch is needed there and must be
applied. But then terrorism is as much a reality
in Jammu. It is hurting people as much if not
more. Indeed, the need to cater to the other
regions is factually more acute and pressing.
Successive Governments have not dealt with these
regions and the people there fairly. People
actually refer to hierarchies of preferences that
are said to have been fixed by the rulers of this
State in all matters from appointments to
postings, to allocation of funds and assigmnent
of offices. All that has bred a sense of
alienation that is more substantial, more
factual, more true, than any alienation in
Kashmir. The recent vote for peace and prosperity
is also for fostering greater bonds between the
regions and peoples with an equitable treatment,
an attitude of equipoise and removal of
disabilities, inequalities and prejudices. That
balance mould not be reached if the State reverts
to the era of special treatments and paradigms of
one part being more equal than others. The
present pitch for Chief Ministership for Kashmir
as a matter of principle embodies that
inequitable arrangement, which is inherently
unfair. It is also deeply undemocratic.
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Afghanistan's
unwelcome liberators
By
Sreedhar
Three
distinct trends are emerging as far as
the future of Taliban-al-Qaeda is
concerned. First till the time of
writing, the Taliban-al-Qaeda
leadership and cadres are hiding
somewhere under someone’s patronage.
Whether such patronage is being provided
by the State actors or the non-State
actors or a combination of the two is not
known. Their developments since 11
September 2001, especially in terms of
attacks on the US property and personnel
and its allies, make one to assume that
it is a combination of the two.
This also
brings to the forefront the question:
what is the rationale for the state
actors to continue to provide patronage
to Taliban-al-Qaeda. One can give a
number of interpretations for this
phenomenon. The Taliban-al-Qaeda were the
first to challenge the West’s
hegemony. Their attacks of 11 September
projected them in the Islamic world as a
group of people who can challenge even
the US. These people appear to have no
shortage of sympathizers and money
suppliers across the entire Islamic
world. They crossed into Pakistan along
with their families and men without any
difficulty in October-November 2001.
This
clearly indicates that the official
policies of the Government of Pakistan
cannot be implemented effectively. This
can be due to sympathies of lower rungs
of bureaucracy for Taliban-al-Qaeda. It
can also be due to the dual policy being
followed by the ruling elite in
Islamabad. Some even suspect that there
is a split in the higher echelons of
Pakistani decision-making process.
Whatever may be the reason, the Pakistani
media is full of accounts of how some
officials advised tribal warlords to move
away Taliban-al-Qaeda men under their
protection to far off places to avoid the
US carpet bombing. These officials never
asked the tribal warlords to hand over
the extremist fighters to them.
Similarly,
the sympathizers of Taliban-al-Qaeda in
countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE
feel that they are upholding their
"faith" by supporting the
terrorist combine. It was argued
extensively by intelligentsia in the
Islamic world that Israeli occupation of
Palestinian land is the primary reason
for this feeling of injustice among the
Muslims. Since the enemy is more
powerful, they argue, the aggrieved can
adopt any means to achieve his objective.
They also feel that it is their moral
duty to support people who are fighting
for the cause of their faith. Their logic
is also quite persuasive. When fighting
the Red Army from 1979 to 1989 they were
declared as friends by the US. At that
point of time whatever they did was
justified in the name of a justifiable
cause. The same men, while fighting for
their own cause, suddenly became
terrorists. This contention does not hold
water after the last year
September’s suicide bombing.
After
regrouping, the Afghan terrorists have
begun guerrilla attacks. According to one
Pakistani commentator, the rocket attack
on US-occupied Khost airbase on March 3,
2002 night was an incident in which the
Americans were targeted. The US warplanes
retaliated by bombing suspected
rocket-launcher sites near Khost town.
Later reports indicated that the US had
lost one of its soldiers in Khost earlier
when a teenager reportedly ambushed a
convoy. Another American soldier was
wounded in the attack. The media reports
said that up to the end of March 2002,
Khost and the adjoining Paktia and
Paktika provinces remained hostile
territory for the Americans, even though
some tribal commanders are now fighting
on their side.
The
US-held Kandahar airport came under
repeated attacks by unidentified gunmen.
The airport, which serves as the biggest
US base in Afghanistan, has been attacked
quite a few times since November 2001
despite its extraordinary security. The
airport, which also houses contingents of
Australian, Canadian and German troops,
is likely to remain a primary target for
remnants of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda
marauders.
A convoy
of US troops was also fired at near
Jalalabad during the Tora Bora campaign
late last year. An American soldier was
injured in the attacks. The killing of a
CIA official Johny Spann during the
Taliban prisoners’ uprising in the
Qala Jhangi fort in Mazar-e-Shareif was
the first reported American casualty in
combat in Afthanistan. It was followed by
more American deaths in plane crashes in
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The
downing of the MH-47 helicopter by the
Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in the
combat area near Gardez capital of Paktia
province, neighbouring Khost on March 3,
2002 and the death of six US soldiers in
the incident was another indication that
the Americans would continue to suffer
casualties while serving in a dangerous
place like Afghanistan. It would
certainly embolden all those who want the
US and its allies to pull out their
troops from Afghanistan. The more the
Americans stay in Afghanistan, the more
they would become embroiled in local
disputes and expose themselves to
retaliation.
Taliban
supreme leader Mohammad Omar was not
taken seriously when he vowed to wage a
guerrilla war against the US military in
Afghanistan. As has been mentioned
earlier, his Taliban flghters failed to
put up much resistance in the face of the
intense US aerial strikes and most of
them made a hasty retreat from town after
town. Unlike the Taliban, Osama bin
Laden’s militia fought until death
in Tora Bora, Kandahar airport and a few
other places. About a dozen injured
al-Qaeda fighters admitted to the
Mirwai’s Hospital in Kandahar before
the fall of (the city to ant-Taliban
forces, preferred death over surrender
and died fighting the US soldiers and
their Afghan proxies.
The
appearance of the so-called
"Shabnamas" (night-letters) in
Afghan cities such as Kandahar, Jalalabad
and Khost in early 2002, was another
cause for alarm for the US and its allied
forces. The pamphlets, mostly in Pashto
and some of Persian Dari declared
"jehad" against the foreign
troops in Afghanistan as mandatory and
urged the Afghans to evict the
"occupation forces" from the
homeland. They also warned the Afghans
cooperating with the USA of serious
consequences.
The ISAF
(International Security Assistance
Force), after enjoying a degree of
support in Kabul, began attracting some
criticism. By their own admission, the
British troops in the ISAF have been
fired at thrice in Kabul. They have
suffered no casualties until now, but it
seems the British troops are the primary
targets for those opposed to the presence
of foreign troops in Afghanistan. One
reason behind the attacks could be
historical, because Afghans are very
mindful of their history. The British and
Afghans fought three wars in the past
when the former tried to colonise
Afghanistan. The Afghans put up a stiff
resistance and won their independence.
The British troops also earned the enmity
of many in Kabul when they killed a man
who was trying to take his pregnant
sister-in-law to hospital in Kabul at
night.
Inspite of
all the support mobilized by the US from
its allies and friends across the globe,
the sheer logistics of fighting a war in
a country which is 20,000 miles away is
not an easy task. It is going to be a
prolonged and time-consuming war. In
addition, the sheer identification of the
enemy, Taliban-al-Qaeda leadership and
cadres, is also not going to be an easy
task. As one Taliban sympathizer told me,
"Every Afghan living in Pakistan
cannot be targeted. The carpet bombing
has reached its saturation point in terms
of eliminating Taliban-al-Qaeda
cadres." In addition, if we go by
the US media’s portrayal of Osama
bin Laden, he is still around in
Afghanistan/Pakistan, knowing fully well
that his Pakistani sympathizers can play
any number of games to keep the US at bay
in tracking him down.
Apparently,
the Taliban-al-Qaeda combine is working
on the principle of tiring the adversary.
If the US and its allies are made to get
stuck, like in Vietnam, the domestic
pressures in those countries will
automatically force them to withdraw. As
one commentator put it that the US and
its allies are going to commit the
mistakes like they did on 30 June 2002 (a
marriage party was mistaken for a
Taliban-al-Qaeda group), and the people
are going to protest over them. The
situation can be cleverly exploited by
people like Osama to turn die tide
against the US in Afghanistan and
Pakistan. In this game of patience, it is
extremely difficult even for a super
power to sustain itself for a prolonged
period across the seven seas.
At this
point of time in history, the
Taliban-al-Qaeda is down but not out
completely. They surrendered Kabul but
not beyond that. There seems to be
an element of truth that a low intensity
conflict, more in the form of a guerrilla
warfare, will continue in Afghanistan for
quite sometime to come. In the process
what the US Central Command, incharge of
operations in Afghanistan, can do and
cannot do in an unconventional war fought
by unconventional means, is being clearly
exposed. For the time being the Afghans,
tired of more than two decades of war,
may feel comfortable with the US efforts.
But since the Taliban-al-Qaeda have, been
allowed to escape, into Pakistan and
regroup there, US is now completely
dependent on Pakistan to achieve its war
objectives.
From the
Indian perspective, the US war on
terrorism has reached a dead end. Some
feel it may continue for years and the US
may slow down the tempo of operations.
The cumbersome ground operations in
Pakistan is a time consuming process with
a fair amount of uncertainties. If by any
chance the Taliban-al-Qaeda leadership is
caught, the US may immediately
call off the war. In such a situation,
the compromises the US has made in
fighting this inconvenient war would
leave some legacies like at the time of
1979-89 US war against the Soviet Union
in Afghanistan. Drug money is one
example. That means India has to prepare
itself to fight its war against
terrorism, which has become transnational
in character. The convergence of Indian
and the US interests is, therefore,
accidental and limited to fighting
terrorism. - CNF
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Role
of women in agriculture
By R. D.
Gupta
The nature
and extent of women's involvement in
Agriculture varies widely not only from
region to region but also within the same
region depending upon the differences in
ecological subzones, farming systems,
castes, classes and stages in the family
cycle. However, there is hardly any
activity in agriculture or food
production except ploughing wherein women
are not actively involved. Some of the
farm activities like selection and sowing
of seeds, nursery bed raising puddling
and transplanting of paddy seedlings,
winnowing, storage of grains are almost
done entirely by the rural or farm women,
while the role of men in performing such
activities is numerically insignificant.
In other agricultural jobs like thinning
and gap filling weeding and hoeing,
harvesting and threshing, vegetable
picking processing and storage, the farm
women share the work with men.
History
gives an evidence that it was woman who
for the first time domesticated crop
plants about 12,000 years ago and
thereafter an art and science of farming
came into existence. It is believed that
while men went out for hunting in search
of food, the women started collecting
seeds from the then existing flora and
began cultivating them for obtaining
food, fodder, fibre and fuel which all
constitute the basic necessities of life.
Thus, women have an umbilical attachment
with agriculture since time immemorial.
Recognition of women's role in
agriculture should, however, not obscure
the fact that the farm women continue to
be concerned with primary functions as
wives, mothers and home makers.
There is
no doubt that farm women have kept
themselves involved in contributing
agricultural production, live stocking
rearing, horticultural as well as in
fisheries and forestry, but by and large
they have remained as invisible workers.
These days their participation, however,
has become of utmost importance,
especially in decision making processes
relating to farm activities. Further, an
involvement of farm women in agriculture
has been realised to make them
knowledgeable about the ill effects
created by the "Green
Revolution" and scientific
Agriculture and tackling them
effectively.
Sustainability
and farm women
Generally
the women have less working capacity then
men do. Hence, they devise small and
efficient agricultural models with more
sustainability due to having traditional
knowledge and skill of various farm
operations. For example, "Bara
Aanaj" the typical mixed cropping
system of Uttranchal hills has been
evolved by the rural women which is
sustainable. In this system of farming
almost all cereals and pulses required in
a household are cultivated in the same
field, hence the term Bara Aanaj. This is
totally self sufficient sustainable
agricultural practice, preferred by women
in the hills. Thus keeping in view the
traditional knowledge and skill of farm
women in different farm activities, it
will not be wise to ignore the
possibility of increasing avenues which
uphold the country's food status through
utilisation of this unattended and
unrecognised force.
As a
matter of fact, agriculture based on
women's participation is natural, self
reproducing and sustainable as the
internally recyeled resources provide the
necessary inputs for seeds, soil
moisture, soil nutrients and pest
control. Moreover, this system of
agriculture does not harm the environment
and maintains, ecological balance. In
reality, it looks for an ecofriendly
approach for evolving and popularising
ecology based low cost input and
environmentally sustainable basis.
In
sustainable agriculture based on
maintaining the soundness, health and
fertility of soils, the women have played
and continue to play a paramount role,
particularly providing a close linkage in
sustaining the food cycle. They assist in
feeding animals collecting foliage from
trees and bushes, gathering crop
byproducts and cutting the grasses from
grass lands. They prepare farm yard
manure and compost and fertilise the
fields with these manures. This protects
the health and fertility of the soils and
thereby their productivity.
The farm
women also help in managing crop
diversification methods such as crop
rotation, mixed cropping and multiple
cropping. The main benefits of
diversified agriculture include to check
soil erosion, improvement in soil
fertility and enhancement of crop yield.
This also reduces the need for nitrogen
fertilizer in case of legumes grown in
crop failure due to pests and diseases,
where even if one crop fails there
remains other crop that withstands yield
and supports the farmer. Genetic
diversity, location specific varieties
use of local plant, shrub and tree
species as an inexpensive source of green
manure to build up or maintain soil
organic matter and fertility are
essential for realising sustainability.
In areas of India which are still free
from green revolution, the farm women
continue to work there as soil builders
rather than soil predators. It is from
these areas or tracts of natural farming
are emerging the ecological struggles to
protect the nature.
To make
agriculture more sustainable and
environmentally sound, it is absolutely
necessary to adopt "Farming system
approach". Farming system refers to
a particular arrangement of farming
enterprises (Cropping, live stock
rearing, processing of farm products)
which are managed in response to the
physical, biological and socio economic
environment and according to farmers
goals preferences and resources. Farm
enterprises such as live stock rearing,
poultry farming agroforestry,
sericulture, aquaculture, are the
monopoly of the farm women. These farm
activities not only provide food (milk
meat and fish) fodder fuel timber, fibre
but also manure (farm yard manure,
poultry manure and green leaves) for the
fields. Thus when all these farm
enterprises are integrated in
crop/horticulture and olericulture
production, the farming system becomes
more productive and sustainable.
Suggestions:
Agriculture
is the mainstay of Indian economy as more
than 70 percent of its population is
dependent upon agriculture and allied
occupation for their livelihood. The farm
women who constitute almost 50 percent of
farm work force have an umbllical
attachment with agriculture, since time
immemorial. Their role therefore, in
performing various farm activities must
not be neglected. As far as enhancing
women's role in agriculture is concerned,
the following priorities are required to
be adopted.
i) Without
any obstacle the farm women must be
allowed to participate in all facets of
life, culture, social, economic and
political like man.
ii) They
should be made well acquainted with the
latest agricultural technology. This can
be done by involving them in production
oriented training and extension
programmes.
iii) The
farm women including drop out girl
students must be imparted trainings in
income generating vocations like mushroom
cultivation, bee keeping, poultry and
dairy farming and sericulture. After
acquiring such training, they will be
able to start their own income generating
units.
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Damodar
pollution - blame it on coal
By Dr.
Nitish Priyadarshi
Today the
picture of Damodar or Damuda, considered
a sacred river by the local tribals, in
Jharkhand State is quite like a sewage
canal shrunken and filled with filth and
rubbish, emanating obnoxious odour. It is
also contaminated with toxic metals like
arsenic, mercury, flouride, and lead.
The
Damodar river basin is a repository of
approximately 46 per cent of the Indian
coal reserves. A high demographic and
industrial expansion has taken place in
last three decades in the region.
Exploitation of coal by underground and
open cast mining has lead to a great
environmental threat in this area.
Besides
mining, coal based indus- tries like coal
washeries, coke oven plants, coal fired
thermal power plants, steel plants and
other related industries in the region
also greatly impart towards degradation
of the environmental equality vis-a-vis
human health.
The most
affected part of the natural- resources
is water in this region and thereby human
health.
It is a
small rainfed river (541 km long)
originating from the Khamerpet hill (1068
m), near the trijunction of Palamau,
Ranchi, and Hazaribag dis- tricts of
Jharkhand. It flows through the cities
Ramgarh, Dhanbad, Asansol, Durgapur,
Bardwan and Howrah before ultimately
joining the lower Ganga (Hooghly estuary)
at Shayampur, 55 km downstream of Howrah.
The river is fed by a number of
tributaries at different reaches, the
principal ones being Jamunia, Bokaro,
Konar, Safi, Bhera, Nalkari and Barakar.
The total
catchment area of the basin is about
23,170 km of this, three- fourth of the
basin lies in Jharkhand and one-fourth in
West Bengal. The major part of the
rainfall (82%) occurs during the monsoon
season with a few sporad- ic rains in
winter. Damodar basin is an important
coal bearing area and at least seven coal
fields are located in this region.
High
increase in the population i.e. from 5.0
million (1951) to 14.6 mil- lion (1991)
has been observed during the last four
decades which is the out- come of the
heavy industrialisation in this basin
mainly in coal sector.
Due to
easy availability of coal and prime
cooking coal, several thermal power
plants, steel plants have grown up.
Discharge of uncontrolled and un- treated
industrial wastewater, often containing
highly toxic metals is the major source
of pollution of Damodar River.
Mine water
and runoff through overburden material of
open cast mines also contribute towards
pollution of nearby water resources of
the area. Huge amount of overburden
materials have been dumped on the bank of
the river and its tributaries, which
finally get spread in the rivers
especially in the rainy season. These
activities have resulted in the visible
deterioration of the quality of the river
water.
The large
scale mining operations going on this
region have also adversely affected
ground water table in many areas with the
result that yield of water from the wells
of adjoining villages has drastically
reduced. Further, effluents discharged
from the mine sites have also seriously,
polluted the underground water of the
area.
Mine water
does not have acidmine drainage problem.
It may be due to the fact that coal
deposits of this basin are associated
with minor amounts of pyrites and contain
low Sulphur. Iron content in this water
is found in the range of 1 to 6 mg/1.
Though it is not alarming but it may be
toxic to some aquatic species. Mine water
is generally bacterially contaminated
which is clear from the value lying in
the range of 100 to 2500.
Heavy
metals like manganese, chromium, lead,
arsenic, mercury, floride, cadmium, and
copper are also found in the sediments
and water of Damodar river and its
tributary like Safi River. Permian
coal of this area contains all these
toxic elements in considerable amount.
Presence of lead is high above the
alarming level i.e. 300 ppm (parts Per
million) in the coals of North Karanpura
coal field.
The study
warned that long term exposure to the
lead present in that area might result in
general weakness, anorexia, dyspepsia,
metallic taste in the mouth, headache,
drowsiness, high blood pressure and
anaemia etc.
The
Damodar sediments are deficient in
calcium and magnesium and rich in
potassium concentration. Titanium and
iron are the dominant heavy metals
followed by manganese, zine, copper,
chromium, lead, arsenic, and mercury.
Other heavy metal like stron- tium shows
more or less uniform concentration
throughout the basin. Average
concentration of strontium in the
sediments of the river is 130 ppm. Silica
is also high in the sediments of Damodar
River and its tributary. The value is
28ppm.
Arsenic in
the water ranges from 0.001 to 0.06 mg/1,
mercury ranges from 0.0002 to 0.004 mg/1,
floride ranges from 1 to 3 mg/1.
It is
obvious that due to extensive coal mining
and vigorous growth of industries in this
area water resources have been badly
contaminated. The habitants have,
however, been compromising by taking
contaminated and sometimes polluted
water, as there is no alternate source of
drinking water. Thus, a sizeable populace
suffers from water borne diseases.
As per the
heath survey of about three lakh people,
the most common diseases are dysentery,
diarrhoea, skin infection, worm
infection, jaundice, and typhoid.
Dysentery and skin infections occur in
high percentage in the area. If proper
steps are not taken up the total
population mostly tribals will be on the
verge of extinction.
PTI
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