SEXiST MINDSET OF MEN IN AUTHORITY IS AN INCENTIVE TO RAPISTS

Abhijit Mukherjee symbolises the perverted,chauvinistic mindset of the male authority with outdated stereotypes of women. In an unguarded moment his real misogynist self was exposed by him. Many politicians, bureaucrats, police officials, public figures, and even some judges have strong sexist bias. They are thus complicit in the increasing number of crimes against women as there is a widespread belief among men that they can get away with sexual harassment or rape of girls and women. FIRs are either not registered or registered reluctantly,investigation is shoddy and unscientific,rape victims and families are often pressurised to withdraw charges,trial is endless,and the quantum of punishment,in many instances, is far from adequate. Otherwise,what is the excuse for a low conviction rate of around 22% during 2009--2011 (source:NCRB ).

The report of the National Commission for Women recommending financial assistance and rehabilitation services to rape victims is gathering dust. The spontaneous protests by the students and the youth of the country after the shocking Delhi gang-rape is an apolitical movement for gender justice and fairness in the social system of India. Instead of seizing the opportunity, the government mishandled it,and is now trying to discredit and defame the movement. History will never forgive the ruling class. Abhijit Mukherjee, MP and son of the Indian President, compared in his ignorance or arrogance with the Arab Spring referring to the movement as PINK REVOLUTION by " dented and painted pretty women". Is he prophetic? What happened in Egypt and to President Mubarack could happen to the short-sighted Delhi rulers in 2014.

IS OUR COUNTRY SAFE FOR OUR GIRLS AND WOMEN ?

One of the most heinous gang-rapes and savage assaults in India took place in the nation's capital on Sunday. The mass protests across the country against the inhuman brutality and violence against a hapless 23-year old woman by six men in a moving bus shook the generally callous political class and the apathetic police. The outpouring of  public anger has been unprecedented and the people, particularly the young women and men, having felt that " enough is enough " , demanded bobbitization, castration, stoning to death, and hanging in public of the rapists. That is the mood of the angry nation.

One rape takes place every twenty-two minutes in India according the NCRB. These are only registered cases and the actual number of rapes would be  very high because many rape victims and their families do not report to the police for fear of social stigma as well as fear of police. Police stations generally are not safe places for women. A rape victim's father took his daughter to a hotel room on the advice of a police officer to record her statement in privacy in order to protect her identity; but at the hotel room the father had to witness the police officer raping his daughter.Most policemen lack gender sensitivity and have sexist bias. Many of our political leaders are no better. Recently one leader said that "most of the rapes are consensual acts". The CM of  West Bengal had no hesitation to brush aside a horrendous rape in Park Street as a political conspiracy to malign her reputation. Those in power, who have the duty to protect our girls and women, often blame them for "inviting rapes " on them. Instead of protecting the women they protect their predators.

Rape is an intentional act of crime for sexual gratification without concern for social norms and the laws of the land.Rape cannot be treated as a psychiatric aberration because a psychiatric patient will not commit a rape. Rape is also not an animal behaviour as animals do not rape the female species. It is only the human male who commits such a horrific criminal violation of the female body and mind. For instance, is the man in Paravoor ( Kerala ), who raped his fourteen-year old daughter and forced her into flesh trade , psychiatrically ill ? NOT AT ALL. He is a hardened criminal . But he was convicted only for seven years imprisonment. There is an increasing chorus from the people for death penalty for rapists. Convicts are awarded death sentence only by applying the  " rarest of rare " principle of criminal justice. But death sentences are kept in abeyance for many years awaiting clemency . Former President Pratibha Patil's action of commuting death sentence to life imprisonment of some convicts received adverse reaction. Men who raped and killed a five-year old and a six-year old respectively were allowed to escape the noose through the Presidential pardon. The death sentences often become " state protection ".

Rapists, child abusers ,and habitual eve teasers should be given exemplary punishment such as chemical castration , long term rigorous imprisonment , jail sentence till the end of the life , and death penalty depending on the gravity of the crime. Recruitment of a large number of women in the police force, protective policing , scientific and speedy investigation ,and early sentence to be enforced within a brief time - frame . Otherwise , as the Delhi High Court cautioned ,PEOPLE WILL LOSE FAITH IN THE POLCE AND THE JUDICIARY .

ABUSIVE PARENTS DESERVE PUNISHMENT

There are no bad children ,but only bad parents and bad teachers : that is a well-known dictum. Children in all cultures are dependent on their parents and other adults. They need a caring family and supportive environment to grow as independent adults. Children err , and err often. Traditional
wisdom suggests advice, reward, admonishment and punishment in that order to correct children. But the rationale of the punishment should be explained to them. It should never be disproportionate to the mistake. When the punishment becomes excessive, it damages the child's psyche. Some children become aggressive, while some others become timid. Failure in studies and unsuccessful career are often associated with harsh parenting during early childhood. Many children run away from their homes because of parental torture and end up as " street children" in the cities. Some children even commit suicide.

Systems Analyst Chandrasekhar and wife Anupama would never have dreamt that they would be in a Norwegian prison for  disciplining(?) their seven-year old son Sai Sriram,a student of  Oslo International School. It  started  early this year when the child complained to his teachers that his parents had threatened to send him back to India for wetting his pants. He was reported to be under treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. The school reported the matter to the Child Welfare Service of  Norway. The parents were arrested and the investigation by the Oslo Police revealed that the child was subjected to brutal abuse for the past five years: severe scolding, repeatedly beating by a belt causing scars, pressing hot spoon leading to burns on the lower leg, etc. An  Oslo court sentenced the father and mother to jail terms for 18 and 15 months respectively.

Chandrasekhar's brother-in-law reacted with a sense of shock: " I have never heard anything like this. Is disciplining a child by his  parents a crime?" Most Indian parents will  share these sentiments as beating children is the norm in our society as parents justify beating for the good future of the children , which depends on the way the child internalizes the punishment. The punishment awarded to the Indian couple is not because of cultural misunderstanding as is made out to be because even Norwegian parents are punished for similar parenting. Parental cruelty to children are not uncommon.An Indian-origin mother in UK killed her young son by severely "beating like a dog" for not reciting passages from the Holy Book and her conviction is in the news.

In India there are no laws that specifically deal with child abuse and neglect, physical or psychological ,by parents. European laws prescribe fine to imprisonment for abusive parenting. Scandinavian countries, United States, Australia, etc. have strict child protection laws against parental abuse. Indian family, no doubt, has many strengths. But over-glorification of the Indian family values when rapid social change has been taking place will be at the cost of the well-being of  our children.

KERALA MODEL OF HEALTH CARE

Malda Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal earned the sobriquet Horror Hospital for record-shattering crib deaths: around100 in January 2012 and now 25 in four days during November end.

United Nations MillenniumDevelopment Goal ( MDG) aims to reduce under five mortality rate(U5MR) by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015 as agreed upon by 191 member-countries when they signed the UN Millennium Declaration in September 2000. But the findings of a recent study by the  Indian Council of Medical Research, the National Institute of Medical Sciences , and the UNICEF indicate that only six states are likely to realise the MDG and India as a whole may fall short of achieving this goal.of 39 deaths per 1,000  live births from 109 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990. The six states are Kerala(12 in2012 to  11 in 2015), Tamilnadu  (22 to 19), Maharashtra(28 to 26), Punjab (33 to  30), Himachal Pradesh (38 to 35), and Karnataka (37 to 34 ).  But the government of India is confident that the country would  achieve the MDG as the U5MR now is around 46 per 1,000 live births.

In India,2.1 million children die before their fifth birthday and half of these children die even before they are 28 days old. UNICEF estimated that India accounted for about 21 percent of under- five children 's deaths worldwide in 2009. Survival of children depends on good quality care during pregnancy of mothers, efficient per-natal care,education of girls at least up to tenth standard,delay in the age of marriage, adequate spacing between births,empowerment of women, and good Public Health Service. Union Minister Jairam Ramesh admitted recently that the public health system in India had collapsed.In many parts of India Public Health Service does not  even exist.

Health indices of Kerala are comparable to those of many developed  countries. It is an exception among the Indian states. An effective village administration,an efficient public health system, an uncompromising insistence of accountability from the service providers by the people , and an alert  media are additional strengths of the state. Let the other Indian states emulate Kerala.

HUMAN LIVES ARE PRECIOUS: AREN'T THEY?

Under most unfortunate circumstances, Savitha Halappanavar, 31-year old dentist, lost her life in Ireland, a country known for strong family values. It was an untimely and perhaps a preventable death because of strict adherence to law prohibiting abortion and the consequent refusal by the medical practitioners to terminate her 16-week pregnancy leading to miscarriage and blood-poisoning. There was massive outrage in the Indian media, particularly in the electronic media competing with each other with breaking news, exclusive interviews and panel discussions with high profile analysts criticizing the Irish doctors for the alleged medical negligence.

It is an irony that such an outcry was made by the Indian media when India itself has a very high maternal death rate due to unsafe abortions. In India, a pregnant woman dies of abortion every two hours; 65 percent of all maternal deaths in the world resulting from unsafe abortions are in 11 countries including India. In India, an estimated 57,500 maternal deaths take place every year. These human lives are as precious as Savitha's life. Aren't they? Ireland is a country with a low maternal mortality rate. Before sermonizing to its health care personnel, a serious introspection needs to be made by the Indian media and the critics.

MANGO PEOPLE IN A BANANA REPUBLIC

“An aam admi from a different era” is a touching reminiscence of C.Rajagopalachari (Rajaji or CR as he was popularily known), the first Indian Governor General of independent India from 1948 to 1950 by Radha Padmanabhan in the New Indian Express.Her memory lane takes us to the early 1960s,when she recalls her first meeting with the great man: “He was sitting there all alone in a third class waiting room of the Calicut railway station……….waiting for a connecting train” , despite the highest class entitled to him.Rajaji could command the best government accommodation,but he preferred to live in a small house in Madras (now Chennai). Gandhiji once said that Rajaji was “ the keeper of my conscience”. A Bharat Ratna awardee, Rajaji led a very simple life.As a leader he was a role model for others.His family never capitalized his high position.Those were days when political leaders upheld high moral standards like the former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri,who resigned from the post of Railway Minister owning  moral responsibilty for the Ariyaloor(in Tamil Nadu) train accident. Such instances are unthinkable today. Scams, scandals and corruption charges involving astronomical amounts of public money are brushed aside by the ruling class. If Shastri’s resignation is the moral standard to be expected from leaders, then there would not have been any Minister for the Railways in recent decades. For that matter, resignations from Ministers would have been a regular feature. Many of our leaders are indeed “dealers”.

Political leadership today is hereditary as political dynasties from the national to the state levels have become the order of the day. There are even district level dynasties. Dynasties have become common in professions and in film industry. Powerful individuals and their families control enormous wealth of the nation. Nobel Laureate and economist Joseph Stiglitz warned the wealthy in the United States: “The top 1 percent have the best houses ,the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought : an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late”. This warning is extremely relevant for the Indian rich too. But they are confident that the mango people in our banana republic would remain powerless for ever.

PEDAGOGY OF THE INDIAN CHILD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) conducts an international test PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) to evaluate the mathematical ,English and science abilities of students at the end of compulsory education once in three years. Nearly 70 countries voluntarily opted for PISA. India participated in 2009.OECD randomly selected 16,000 students from 400 schools in Himachal Pradesh and Tamilnadu for the test. Chinese students were ranked first in all the three subjects, while Indian students did very badly. Most questions needed comprehension and reasoning skills. Rote learning is the mode of education in most schools in India. Only a small proportion of schools and teachers facilitate learning through questioning and innovation.

The paradox of our school education is that teachers (not all) in government schools give least priority to teaching, though they enjoy security of tenure, good salary and social security. In government- aided private schools, the highest bidders are selected as teachers. For instance, a school management in Kerala is reported to have taken 1.5 million rupees for a teacher’s post. Reasonable says the beneficiaries. In unaided schools, teachers are made to overwork for low compensation. Private tuition is quite common and the teachers put in their best in the tuition centres while they take it easy in the schools. In the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) conducted by the government of Tamilnadu in July 2012, not even 1 per cent passed out of a total of more than 6,80,000 teachers who appeared for the test. The re-test conducted in October 2012 with an increased duration of three hours from the earlier one and a half hours (to answer 150 multiple- choice questions) yielded only a marginal increase in the percentage of results: just 3 per cent. What analytical skills and creativity can these under- prepared teachers transmit to the children? Years ago, a Malayalam movie depicted the state of education in Kerala; an unemployed young man (Mohanlal being the protagonist) becomes an English teacher in a private school in a village producing fake certificates ( not an uncommon practice) and greasing the palms of all concerned. When students asked the teacher the English equivalent of “uppumavu or uppuma” (a popular snack which is a mixture mainly of wheat flour / “rava”, coconut and salt), the teacher impressed the students and his ignorant colleagues with the translation “salt mango tree”. Even today this translation remains a popular joke among the Malayalees, and a sad reality in many Indian schools.

A strong foundation is essential for a strong edifice. Otherwise the super structure will collapse. India’s educational pyramid has a very weak base. From primary to higher secondary levels, the education offered to the young children is generally of low quality. Lower the educational level poorer is the quality of education. India’s education industry is massive with the private entrepreneurs reaping enormous profits with low investment. The pre-school sector is almost in the hands of private profiteers.

Schools in India vary from the elite to the egregious. A large number of schools lack basic infrastructure, teachers and other facilities. Many private schools in the country are run without any recognition from the state governments. For instance, in Tamilnadu, a developed state,4.35 million students are in 10,896 private schools of which 2,600 are unrecognized schools, that is, more than one in four (2012) .Recently, Ministers in Rajasthan were heckled by the girl students of a school en masse because of shortage of teachers and lack of facilities. The Supreme Court ordered in September 2012 that all schools in the country should provide toilets (particularly to girls) and drinking water facilities within six months. It is to be seen how far this order would be complied with seriously and sincerely.

The Right to Education (RTE) Act is a watershed constitutional amendment. But the private schools, which are the custodians of the exclusive system, are determined to keep the poor and the disabled off from their “holy” precincts despite the Supreme Court verdict upholding the validity of the Act. The road ahead in realizing the vision of the RTE Act is full of hurdles and roadblocks. The government should be uncompromising in its goal of providing good education to our children, which is their right. It is irrational for the state to bear the heavy burden of higher education, when the focus of the state should be on school education, with a well- designed, complementary vocational stream. Kendriya Vidyalayas and similar schools should be set up in all parts of the country under the auspices of the government, instead of state-funded IITs, IIMs and such other institutions which can be in the private sector. It is an irony that not even a single Indian University or IIT made it to the list of top 100 universities in global ranking. Further, it is shocking that just 3.5 per cent of global research output was from India in 2010 according to the Thomson Reuters study report presented to the Department of Science and Technology of the government of India. India’s global share of research in economics was an insignificant 0.7 per cent. Surprisingly, the share of research in computer sciences by India was a meagre 2.4 per cent in contrast to China (15 per cent) and South Korea (6.3 per cent).There is a serious mismatch between these findings and India’s claim to be the future knowledge superpower. The potential of our enormous human resources needs to be fully tapped. Otherwise, India’s demographic dividend will fall far short of our national expectations.