THE END OF INEQUALITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER, TITLE & PAGE NUMBER

PAGE
CHAPTER TITLE
NO.
PREFACE 5
CHAPTER 1A A PRELUDE 11
CHAPTER 1B “TOWARDS A HAPPIER WORLD, OUR MISSION 12
SHOULD BEGIN NOW”
CHAPTER 2B THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF THE 20TH 21
CENTURY, CHALLENGES FOR THE 21ST
CENTURY AND BEYOND
CHAPTER 3B FROM GOLF GREENS TO EARTH FRIENDLY 43
GREENS, LET US PLANT MORE TREES IN THE
NEW MILLENNIUM
CHAPTER 4B TALKING OF THE STARS AND STRIPES, LET US 60
HOPE THAT THE [UNITED] ‘STATES’ DO NOT
START ASKING FOR SEPARATE STATEHOOD,
WE WANT TO SEE NO MORE SOCIAL
DISINTEGRATION OR ETHNIC CLEANSING, WE
WANT TO SEE PEACE
CHAPTER 5B THE WORLD AS IT IS 85
CHAPTER 6B SEXUAL REVOLUTION IN INDIA – A MYTH OR 93
A REALITY
CHAPTER 7B FROM BLUE REVOLUTIONS TO GREEN 141
REVOLUTIONS

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PAGE
CHAPTER TITLE
NO.
CHAPTER 8B ONLY VISIONARY MANAGERS CAN DREAM 149
OF DREAM- VILLAGES
CHAPTER 9B OUR CREDO SHOULD BE: LET US HELP A 163
VISUALLY HANDICAPPED MAN CROSS THE
STREET
CHAPTER 10B THEY ARE NOT OF MY CASTE, CREED OR 170
RACE, NEVER MIND, HELP!
CHAPTER 11B FROM GOD’S CHILDREN TO THE CHILD 188
CHAPTER 12B AS A CHILD OF ( THE ) FUTURE( INDIA), I 208
DESERVE TO BE EDUCATED
CHAPTER 13B AT THE TURN OF THE 21ST CENTURY, HUMAN 216
RIGHTS: THE NEW CONSENSUS
CHAPTER 14B CREATING A RIPPLE OF HOPE – HOW DO WE 220
ORGANIZE THE RURAL POOR?
CHAPTER 15B LET US DEVELOP THEM GENUINELY 225
CHAPTER 16B POVERTY IS A STIFF BILL OF GOODS 267
CHAPTER 17B THE POOR ARE CLOSER TO YOU THAN YOU 286
THINK
CHAPTER 18B WE GROW UP ON THE STREETS 296
CHAPTER 19B I MAKE MY LIVING BY BEGGING 300

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PAGE
CHAPTER TITLE
NO.
CHAPTER 20B LET US CARE FOR THE DYING, THE 304
DESTITUTE, THE LONELY, THE HOMELESS,
THE ELDERLY AND THE INFIRM
CHAPTER 21B WE, THE INDUSTRIAL REFUGEES AND 316
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ARE CONSTANTLY
SUFFERING
CHAPTER 22B WHEN NATURE HAS THE LAST SAY 326
CHAPTER 23B A LOT OF UNREST IN MAN’S MIND 329
CHAPTER 24B FORGIVE US OUR SIN 337
CHAPTER 25B LET US GO FUND-RAISING FOR A BETTER 341
WORLD

CHAPTER 26B FROM GUIDELINES TO GOALS 386
CHAPTER 27B WOMAN IS THE CREATOR OF SOCIETY 412
CHAPTER 28B CAN WE FEED THE FUTURE WORLD 447
POPULATION?
CHAPTER 29B NGO’S-ROLE TO PLAY-A TYPICAL APPROACH 454
CHAPTER 30B VOICES FROM THE GRASSROOTS 461
CHAPTER 31B MESSAGE OF PEACE COMING FROM RELIGION 468

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PAGE
CHAPTER TITLE
NO.
CHAPTER 32B SAVE OUR WORLD, YOU AND I ARE NOT 474
POWERLESS

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PREFACE

“Now the trumpet summons us again…

…a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out,
rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’s struggle against the common
enemies of man : tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself. Can we forge
against these enemies a grand and global alliance, north and south, east and
west, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind?”

-President J F Kennedy, USA, in an address to the nation

Our world’s future hangs precariously…lopsided development and rampant
consumerism have widened the chasm between the world’s rich and the
world’s poor. We have witnessed a gross violation of human rights across
the globe. Millions of the world’s children still cling precariously to life.
About 40,000 of them die every day due to preventable causes-hunger,
disease, war and neglect. Women in the developing world face gross
inequities in food and nutrition, income (s) and opportunity. Terrorism is
devastating large parts of the globe. Millions of the world’s people lack
access to safe drinking water, decent health care, shelter, education, and
means of communication and jobs. The task of ending world hunger
remains formidable. Increasing population pressures, deforestation and
desertification are eating away our precious natural resources. Many
countries face the ‘darker’ side of development, “debt”. War and disease
are forcing millions to flee their home countries. And, indigenous people
all over the world are becoming fast endangered under pressure from the
forces of global expansion. Also, there are those innocent people being

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sexually abused, raped or mutilated (as in war). Drugs, alcohol, poor
mental health, juvenile delinquency and HIV/AIDS are taking a heavy toll.
Pollution is now a major health hazard. The ozone layers are getting
depleted. And the Earth is warming up…

Numbers do not matter. We are too much preoccupied with them. What we
need today is sound vision coupled with forceful, efficient and effective
policies and a firm commitment to the eradication of poverty and its
attendant ills. The time has come in the history of nations to liberate their
peoples from centuries of illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, disease and war.

For instance, a part of global spending on arms can be diverted to the social
sector. Why at all spend so much? I understand there are countries that do
not have a defense budget. This book seeks to address the vision required
towards effective global change by tracing world problems, topic by topic.
This book is not a continuous flow, but a collection of random thoughts,
quotations and extracts. Hope the book makes for good reading.

I do not understand much of fiscal policy or bulls and bears. What I do
understand is the language of the poor and the marginalized, the language
of the harsh realities of staying alive till the next moment, the next day, the
language of survival…

Change and love are the most important themes of the book.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep…”

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-Robert Frost

Indeed what I am trying to convey is a message: a message of peace of my
dreams of utopia (or near utopia) on Planet Earth. I firmly believe that the
best way to serve the poor and the underprivileged is to walk hand in hand
with them and allow God to show you the way. Each one of us has a
promise to keep. If each one kept his/her promise, the world would surely
be a much better place to live in.

It is not just one planet; it is one home, one family. Is this utopia?

Let us challenge our limits in our endeavor (however small it may be) to
bring about a happier world.

Let us help shift development attention away from economic growth as the
main index of progress to look more closely to what is happening to the
poor in terms of equitable distribution of income.

One’s world could be big or small, depending on opportunities and
circumstances. Therefore, we should always make an effort towards
improvement and change in our own as well as in the lives of others.

I was only…. looking at the world through my eyes. So they say: “tiny
drops of water make up the ocean”. Only when we work together hand in
hand can we create a better world to live in.

Man’s quest for the unknown, his thirst for knowledge will never end, and
believe me, factors such as burgeoning populations and a decrease in arable
lands, the absence of peace and prevalent poverty and civil strife may force
man to settle in space or inside peace stations.

This may be a dream. We know of the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd worlds. Very
soon we will have a zeroth world (most advanced) characterized by highly

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sophisticated scienti-technogenic people residing in space – possibly on the
moon or on Mars? Will these be peace stations? The emphasis on zero in
the 1st chapter highlights the stark contrast between the 0th world and frozen
poverty. The 0th world may be characterized by hi-fidelity cities, a
complete disregard for the health of (the) earth, suave cyber – commoners,
cyber-laws, cyber-vehicles, cyber-parliaments, cyber-shanty towns etc. I
seek to add here that settling in the distant future may ease population
pressures on land, and that would be a tremendous achievement, but new
problems may arise!!!

The need of the hour is an intelligent humano-cryogenic system to awaken
man out of his deep slumber and work towards solutions to problems
persisting on Planet Earth.

And so they all sing…

“It is better to light just one little candle than to stumble in the dark...…

All you need is a tiny spark…

And the world will be free…”

Yes, we need to act urgently on issues. Some of the most pressing issues
are global warming, the extinction of species around the globe, massive
population growth, poverty and hunger and human rights abuses. The poor
are often reduced to development reports and socio-economic statistics.
Scant attention is given to the harsh realities of survival in their daily lives,
be they are lying below the poverty line, or be they lie displaced, or be they
stand infected with TB/HIV/AIDS.

The book begins with a surrealistic view of hope and contradiction…. a
note of pathos.…

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In the end, it offers hope for me, hope for you, and hope for all of us, a
hope for mankind….

It may be fair to conclude however that as long as there are people, there
will be problems. We can however, minimize the extent and enormity of
such problems (and alleviate them all together) by better investing in our
children (primarily in the form of love, security and education), particularly
children in the rural areas and /or in unfortunate circumstances (children on
dope, AIDS orphans, young alcoholics, juvenile delinquents, minor
offenders, street children, child labor etc).

I have faced a lot of pain in my life so far. And I have chosen to express
myself particularly my anger and discontentment at the system. I could also
feel the ferment within me, as I wrote this book. The ferment to come
forward and work towards the health of human beings and that of the
environment.

I confess however that I cannot provide solutions. In fact, at places, the
ideas and thoughts may appear to be contradictory. Besides, solutions come
through work and experimentation. It is to the poor, the most unfortunate,
the most wretched and the ugliest on the planet that I dedicate my work.
Also to those working to make the world a better place to live in…

Talking of globalization with a human face (strengthening of the ‘HIPC
Initiative’ for instance), let us start with a vision of a just and sustainable
world. Let us relegate poverty to history! Let us work towards a future that
is economically, socially and ecologically viable for all, in other words
“sustainable”. People, who matter, need to have a closer look at realities
and make targets, which can not only be met but can also be sustained over
a period.

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Let us work towards a more sustainable future-

Let us work together towards a new global order-

Let it truly be ‘the End of Inequality’!

10

CHAPTER 1A
If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain.

If I can ease one life from aching, or

Cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin into his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

- Emily Dickinson
I fall at the feet of the Lord almighty that he may protect the planet from
ultimate destruction and send some ‘divine Martians’ to protect every child
and every flower and every bird and every forest and every other creation
of God from being abused.

It may seem man is trying to escape to Mars with all this applied space
research because he may have discovered there is no peace left on earth
after Nazism, Fascism, the Cold War, and Bosnia and so on. If man starts
behaving like God, God will remind him that as a human being, he has
certain responsibilities left on Earth. At this moment, a child may be crying
out of hunger, another may be getting sexually abused (or, mutilated by a
landmine), a man may be dying of cold on the streets at night, and a bird or
an animal may be facing extinction.

At the turn of the century, man must start telling himself, telling his
“atman” (soul) that there is plenty of work left to do, that he must come
down to Earth, and for once, stop running after the Martians and the
Venetians.

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CHAPTER 1B

“TOWARDS A HAPPIER WORLD, OUR
MISSION SHOULD BEGIN NOW”

The year : 1999 Anno Domini following the birth of Christ.

The place : Cape Canaveral, the United States of America.

The event : preparing for the launch of a rocket into outer space.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) testing all
controls and communication instruments, pressure testing the combustion
chamber, testing the nozzle, testing the fuel.

Time: 10: 15: 03 GMT.

At this particular moment, something else is happening in another part of
the world, called the Third world, (may be), in Brazil or in India, God is
trying to touch a trash can, yes, a little flower called a child is picking
subsistence (“food for thought”) out of a trash can (actually, a garbage
dump). And God wanted to warn policy-makers and environmentalists of
the perils of neglecting a child (hunger / malnutrition) and neglecting the
environment, our beloved eco-system. Yes, the policy-makers and
environmentalists were sleeping and the two superpowers were vying with
each other trying to build superior space shuttles. One underwent a series of
reforms with Glasnost and Perestroika…as also a fall of its system
(Communism) …another power (may be star power) rose out of the ashes

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after President Harry Truman and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, the land
of Zen Buddhism, ‘Shinto’ and beautiful Mt.Fujiyama and the Kamakura is
now busy building fashionable cars, more comfortable cars. Pray, how
much more comfort do we need? When, at this moment, a child is being
born as a cretin because his mother’s diet lacked iodine.

[I must say that discrimination begins before birth]

Did the almighty want this kind of a world?

He wanted peace.

Day by day, wars are increasing.

Have computers, technology been able to bring peace, solved poverty?

Has science been able to bring peace, solve poverty? (I am, however,
gradually coming to believe, that science and technology, well applied, can
cure much of what ails mankind).

What is mankind coming to?

It may sound futuristic, but man is trying to act like the extra-terrestrial,
create Jurassic parks around himself. Man wants peace, “shanti”. Man may
be dreaming of peace, actually dinosaurs, which means life in the jungles
(yes, man probably thinks he was at peace in the jungles, the beginning of
civilization, so may be he wants to go back to the jungles).

There was peace in the past. There will hopefully be peace in the future,
and the present is in turmoil. Before we discuss this turmoil, let us observe
a moment of silence:

“Om shanti” (a salutation to the concept of peace)

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“Silent night, holy night” (a salutation to Lord Jesus, Christ the Lord)

“Buddham Sharanam Gachhami” (a salutation to Lord Buddha, the prince
who renounced the world, let us put ourselves under his protection) and
pray:

• for those millions of children who have been traumatized by mass
violence (orphans of war, never again!) e.g. in Rwanda, Bosnia-

• for those suffering from the after-effects of the holocaust at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki (never again should that happen!!)-

• for those in Asia, Africa and in the rest of the world suffering from
(famine), disease and hunger-

• for those languishing under poverty-

• for those sleeping on the streets because of lack of adequate housing-

• for the rights of indigenous peoples-

• for those displaced by multinational projects-

• for those displaced from their homes as a result of civil war and social
disintegration-

• for every plant, every flower, for every tree-

• for every animal or bird on the verge of extinction-

• for every man or every woman who has faced cross-cultural friction,
community friction-

• for global refugees-

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• for every man or woman or child who has been denied the right to read
and write-

• for all those who have suffered abuse of some kind-

We break our silence, our peace, our “sadhana” (meditation)

Time: 10: 20: 23 GMT.

The space rocket has taken off from the blast site, planning to go into a
condition of zero gravity, weightlessness, perhaps carrying a cat (first there
was a dog called “Laika” in outer space). At this moment, a man in a
country called Nepal in the trans-Himalayas is freezing in the cold on the
streets at night, when the temperatures have fallen below zero. (Be they in
Nepal or in America, imagine those having no homes to go back to?) At
this time, in the Northern Hemisphere (God, why on Earth is everything on
this planet so divided-including the Hemispheres?) lakes have frozen at the
North Pole. So a man has frozen on the streets when temperatures have
fallen below zero? Yes and the Earth is probably heading for frozen peace.
So, let me tell myself, my heart melts for a child (and it will any way, if not
for other reasons, under present conditions of global warming!).

So, let me sacrifice my ice cream for a hungry child on the street. Let me
look into my mirage and try to create an oasis in a desert.

Let me, for once, sacrifice my meal for a hungry child, and try to work to
green a desert.

Silence peace

Om shanti a salutation to peace

Peace peace

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Commonality togetherness

At this moment, antiballistic missiles are getting fired!!!!!

Think for a moment, while I pay homage to an American called Carl Sagan
of “Cosmos” fame and a Frenchman called Jean Jacques Cousteau of
“Secrets of the Sea” fame. With or without heresy, (remember
Copernicus?), once again, take the plunge. Get a little deeper into someone
else’s world. I know that in 1960, bathyscaphe Trieste reached the deepest
ocean bed- the Mariana trench in the Pacific Ocean. But you do not have to
build a “more fashionable” bathyscaphe. I have better things to do-
attending a “glamorous” ‘international convention’ where policy-makers
(and I am one of them) will discuss???????, the three most unfinished tasks
on the global agenda-

Poverty

The environment

And

Global human security

And ways to manage the events!!!!!!!

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CHAPTER 2A
We are facing a number of threats to the welfare of the world’s population
… some arise from natural causes such as droughts, floods, locusts, crop
failure and disease…. also, trading rivalries between nations, felt injustices,
narcotics, AIDS…. authoritarian governments… war… poverty (of food,
shelter, health care, work & education, lack of clean drinking water), we
are living in a dangerous world, of human rights abuses, man’s lack of
humanity to man… a grim picture… refugees… war – torn countries in
which both young and old suffer…a burgeoning population threatening life
itself… too many of the world’s children still cling hazardously to their
lives…natural disasters… unemployment… crime and extremism (also,
commonly known as guerrilla warfare) … racism, sexism… religion… we
are living in a world full of inequalities… gender inequality… a straight
demarcation between the “North” and the poor “South,” where people
continue battling hunger, ignorance and disease… to make better lives, we
have to relieve the immediate suffering of people in the developing
countries, and to help them raise their standards of living by their own
efforts. imbalance in our world, stems from, among other things,
unpredictable climate, poor soil, natural disasters (e.g. floods, earthquakes,
sudden drought), insufficient natural resources… also, heavy spending on
arms instead of on essentials… in many of the world’s largest cities (and
remote rural and tribal hamlets), people fight for survival (picking out
“food” from garbage dumps)… there is extreme malnutrition... infant and
maternal mortality… there is a need to close the gap… and then, there is,
the problem of “debt”… we are examining the darker side of
development…. and there arises a need to re-orient national and
international plans and policies in favor of the poor…

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The UN has brought relief from under-nourishment to many millions (in
the Third World) and saved many more, by providing vaccination and
treatment… from disease… has delivered many small farmers in
developing countries from struggling on poor or unirrigated soil… our
world is changing… we have achieved a victory over smallpox…new
vistas of communication have opened up… the risk of nuclear war has
receded… and yet, a vast number of people are living in inhuman and
degrading conditions… we face environmental pollution, extinction of
animal and bird species and most importantly, depletion of our ozone layer
and global warming...

Talk cannot prevent a child from dying… cannot produce enough food for
a single family… or sink wells or dig irrigation channels to produce better
crops… it cannot provide medical care for families that have never seen a
doctor in their lives… all “unfinished business of our ‘beloved” planet.. So
much to be done, so much that can be done… Its high time we begun…..

“Western civilization has made and continues to make great progress in
material development, but if techniques can also be created for achieving
internal happiness, modern society will become far more advanced.
Without such internal growth, we become enslaved to external things, and
even though called humans, we become like parts of a machine.”

- The Dalai Lama

It is not just one planet

It is one home

One family.

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“What the world has to eradicate is fear and ignorance.”

- Jan Masaryk

Although communications have improved,

… Have the Third World’s poor gained…?

Let us challenge our limits in our endeavor to bring about a happier world.

“Just begin, one, one, one… begin at home by saying something good to
your child…. begin by helping someone in need in your community … do
something beautiful for God.”

- Mother Teresa

Let us eat the food, learn to weave a mat or make a gesture of respect … or
recite a charm…. during our interactions with people from other cultures.

“Humanity is indeed a family… I hope that people all over the world….
will realize they share similar experiences. Then they might think, this is
our world, we better take care of it.”

- Ken Heyman

The gap in living standards between the few with money, houses, or good
jobs, and the many that have none of those good things, is wide. It may be
widely resented….

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Some are out of the era, some still in it… of cannibalism, headhunting,
infanticide, incest… the rest of the world has moved ahead. What an
anomaly?

Poverty…. racism, unemployment, gender inequality, employment of
children in factories… street children…. illiteracy…. ignorance…. a lot
more to achieve…

“Many of us have fixed ideas… we should talk together with open minds
and grasp anything which is a step forward; not hold out for our particular,
ultimate panacea…”

- Eleanor Roosevelt, from a speech at a meeting of women’s clubs, 1925

The task of ending world hunger remains formidable. There is such a big,
muddled world, so much to be done, so much that can be done… in
learning to care, in thinking of hunger not as an abstraction but as one
empty stomach, in having a hospitable mind, open like a window to
currents of air and to light from all sides.

- Anonymous

“It is a pity that operations to find homes for millions of refugees, to bring
rapid emergency relief after grave natural disasters in any part of the globe,
to wipe out smallpox from the earth, to stamp out the drug trade all over the
world, to help organize family planning activities among much of the
world’s population, to organize the world’s meteorological services, or
abolish pollution in the oceans, to mention only a few, are not so well

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known to the general public as the angry speeches hurled across the
horseshoe table of the Security Council chamber.”

- A former British UN delegate.

“Corruption is anti-national, anti-poor and anti-economic development”,
said the Central Vigilance Commissioner (India) in his letter of June 23,
2000 to all government departments. The ‘Corruption Perception Index’
released by the Berlin-based Transparency International in September 2000
places India in the 69th position in a list of 90 countries. India’s
performance is worse than that of China, Ghana, Mauritius and South
Africa.

The UNDP report on human development, 1999 on South Asia, tells us that
if corruption in India goes down to that of Scandinavian countries, the GDP
as well as foreign direct investment will go up (and much of this growth
can be redirected into agriculture, the mainstay of the Indian
economy)….time for introspection!

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CHAPTER 2B

THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF THE 20TH
CENTURY, CHALLENGES FOR THE 21ST
CENTURY AND BEYOND
Quote

“And it is not only that the master sees when a particular method is
suitable. It is much more. There is an alchemy that takes place when we
meet an enlightened master, an intuitive recognition is born in us that, yes,
this man represents our own ultimate possibility, that what he is we can be.
So the master acts as the catalyst to awaken in us a trust in ourselves, in our
own flowering. This trust is enough to start us on the path.”

Unquote

Excerpt from Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)

The greatest unfinished task on the global agenda is managing an event
called time. An event is happening and we on Planet Earth are running out
of time. At this moment, someone’s expectations are rising. Can we predict
the consequences of a rising expectation? A man in a remote village
expects an e-mail facility in his village at subsidized rates so that his wife
can send a message to him during his lunchtime in the field. But think, a
heavy metal group slashes innocent pigeons on stage and a big group of
people watch. Is Interpol sleeping? Come to think of it, such a thing
happening at the turn of the century?

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Actually, how humane are we? Glaring inequalities in society exist. Those
wallowing in luxury and privileges beware. Unrestrained open displays of
wealth and privileges and indifference to the poor might one day arouse
such rage as to cause a bloody revolution as happened in France.

We still have a long way to go to call ourselves civilized or humane or
compassionate or sufficiently tolerant.

Growing instances of communal and caste conflicts, religious
fundamentalism, domination of the forces of “mono-thinking” (which is
destroying world peace), lack of gender equality, and lack of concern for
the underprivileged and crass materialism pervade. Oppressive practices
such as bonded and child labor still exist. Yes, nimble fingers (of the child)
make fireworks at Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu state of India and footballs in
Sialkot region of Pakistan.

Let us teach human values and pray for human rights, pray for world peace.
A humane society would employ respect for the environment and for
human beings.

In India, for instance, despite the “wake up” calls (revival / renaissance)
given more than a century ago by national and religious leaders beginning
with sages like Rishi Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda and Raja Rammohan
Roy, the national scenario is still uninspiring. The country has (relatively)
the largest number of illiterates. Emaciated women of Rajasthan state trek
long distances to fetch drinking water. Female infanticide exists. Child
marriage exists. In many areas, the plight of women is no better than that
of cattle. And an often-mere object of man’s lust… the obnoxious practice
of “Lausa” exists wherein rural women in Rajasthan state have to wear iron

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underwear when their husbands are away. And then, there are those victims
of superstition and ignorance waiting for light in their lives:

Only god knows why a group of people stood and worshipped while a
young innocent widow bride called Roop Kanwar was made “Sati”, burnt
to ashes in Deorala village of Rajasthan state in India.

The ideal should be love for fellow beings and solidarity of mankind.
Attitudinal changes in the people to build up a more humane society, more
tolerant, and truly secular and democratic is advocated.

“Atmabodha”
or
Self-knowledge:

I am composing the “Atmabodha”or “Self-knowledge” to serve the needs
of those who have been purified through the practice of austerities and who
are peaceful in heart, free from cravings, and desirous of liberation.

To serve the needs etc-needs conducive to the attainment of liberation, only
self-knowledge can destroy ignorance and free one from repeated rebirths,
in “Samsara”, the relative world of incessant change and movement, which
is characterized by pain and pleasure, weal and woe, love and hate, life and
death, and other pairs of opposites.

“Therefore know thyself. When the true self is known, the jig-saw puzzle
of the world gets solved, doubts are at an end, and all misery vanishes.”

-Sri Sankara, Swami Nikhilananda of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda
Institute of New York, USA.

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At this moment, the internet is probably replacing a learned man in
explaining the philosophy of the Holy Vedas, the Upanishads, and the
Bhagwad Gita????? What a pity!!!!!

We constantly find that man acts relative to society; we are all victims of
society in some way or the other, for instance, the victim of poverty. Let us
learn to convert our dislike for society (presuming that at least some of us
dislike society) into love for all victims of society.

Om shanti.

A salutation to the concept of peace.

Let us observe silence for a moment and move ahead…

More progress in human well being has been made in the last 50 years than
in the previous 200, according to a recent report from a children’s
organization. Average life expectancy has risen. There has been a wide
range of improvements in income, nutrition, health care and education. In
the last 50 years, the proportion of children who die before the age of 5 has
been reduced. Adult literacy rates have doubled to approximately 70%.
There has been a victory over smallpox. Rising immunization levels have
eradicated polio from the Western Hemisphere. Let us work to eradicate
the virus ((which virus)?) from the other hemispheres?????

The British historian Arnold Toynbee predicted in the 1940’s that the 20th
century will be chiefly remembered…not as an age of political conflicts or
technical inventions, but as an age in which human society dared to think
of the welfare of the whole human race as a practical “objective”.

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Judging from the headlines of the 1990’s, this prophecy seems a bit too
optimistic.

Politically, the disintegration of Russia and the failure of Communism will
be remembered. Communism failed because of volcanoes from beneath.
First, the Cold war, then the Gulf War, then Bosnia, Chechnya,
Herzegovina, then Rwanda??? What kind of peace, what kind of
democracy (or, democratization) has been achieved? The Earth itself is in
danger?? A fifth of the world’s people still live in absolute poverty (or,
relative poverty)?? They are the 1 billion absolute poor-“those who are
without the basics of life, those without education and jobs (mass
unemployment), those without clean water or basic health care, those
whose children die or become disabled in such numbers, those who are
forced to ruin their own environments and futures for the sake of staying
alive today”. Women are among the poorest of the poor. Women in the
developing world face gross inequities.

“Meeting these unmet needs” is the primary unfinished business of the 20th
century. And not to do so is unconscionable in a world made one by
communications. The main question is that of morality, which must match
with global increases in productive capacity. The world’s primary need is
meeting the needs of the poorest children. Children in the Third World
suffer from malnutrition, childhood diseases, polio, suffer from lack of a
nutritious diet, from the lack of primary school education, the lack of clean
water and safe sanitation in all communities.

Given a sustained effort and more help from the industrialized nations,
more developing countries can reach (if not utopia) in lesser and lesser
time. The world will then have taken a major step towards finishing the job

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of erasing from the planet, the worst aspects of poverty, malnutrition,
preventable illness, and illiteracy and all in good time, that too.

Before we move ahead, I quote Swami Vivekananda: “poverty there must
be (yes, the biggest disease on this planet), so long as the disease known as
civilization exists: and hence the need of relief.”

Swamiji (quoted above) spoke of greed, now every village probably has a
television set, and out of the attraction of a city life, (more so, out of sheer
desperation over difficult living conditions in the villages) millions are
flocking to the cities, creating slums, squalor, shanty towns. Some are
sleeping on the streets, some on railway tracks, some are having to dig food
out of trash bins. One important question that policy- makers should
consider, is that, where is there more happiness-in the villages (despite
poverty) or in the cities (urban poverty)? Are they poorer in the cities or in
the villages? Policy-makers should carry out PRA (participatory rural
appraisal) and PUA (participatory urban appraisal) with the poor to
measure their degree of happiness? Then starts our event management. the
principal technologies for meeting the unmet needs at low cost are already
available and the financial cost is negligible in relation to what humanity
has at stake. Money alone will not be sufficient. Political commitment and
competent management are just as important.

However, according to one estimate, the total cost of providing basic social
services in the developing countries, including health, education, family
planning, clean water, and all of the other basic goals agreed on at previous
social summits is less than what the world spends on playing Golf???

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CHAPTER 3A
God created nature
and then he created man
did he think of the consequences?

Today the birds no little chirp
the waters of the mountain stream carry a melancholic strain
and our planet weeps,
pray, have we forgotten how to think deep
Oh! Give me a world,
where all looks green
where you can hear the music of the water
and the song of the stream
where seldom is heard a discouraging word
and seldom can a barren tree be seen.

And in our efforts to preserve nature
and to restore harmony,
oh! Let us work as a team,
save the planet,
save mankind
help!

Making an effort to clean our immediate surroundings is the first step
towards a clean environment.

The well being and the hopes of the peoples of the world can never be
served until the environment and eco-systems that sustain all life on earth
are secure.

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People have now to survive on an environmentally fragile planet. By the
middle of the next century-during the lifetimes of today’s children – the
world population may double and the world economy may quadruple. Food
production must triple if people are to be adequately fed, but the resource
base for sustainable agriculture is eroding. Energy is needed, but even at
present levels of use, fossil fuels threaten stability of world climatic
conditions. The world’s forests are being destroyed each day, and the loss
of biological wealth and diversity continue relentlessly.

We cannot expect the poor to be preoccupied with the blaring emergencies
of global warming or the depletion of the ozone layer. It is the silent
emergencies – polluted water or degraded land-that put their lives and
livelihoods at risk. Unless poverty ‘per se’ is addressed, environmental
sustainability cannot be guaranteed…

One way to control “global climate warming” would be to spread more
greenery around the area of operation (e.g. a city).

There need not be any tension between economic growth and
environmental protection and regeneration. Much of environmental
degradation (e.g. destruction of forests) results from poverty and limited
human choices… therefore, economic growth becomes vital for poor
societies.

Today’s guides and scouts are in the forefront of conservation and ecology.
Tree planting, waste re-cycling, preservation of footpaths and hedgerows,
work in nature reserves and support of the World Wide Fund for Nature,
are just a few of the ways in which they care for Planet Earth. All this is
true to the spirit of Robert Baden-Powell, with his love of nature and hatred
of pollution and over production.

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Worldwide, pesticides and toxic chemicals pose a risk to public health and
the environment. Let us promote safer means of pest control.

Think, industrialization and urban expansion have taken a toll on the
famous Sherwood Forest, the vast expanse of wilderness just north of
Nottingham, England.

A comment on conservation: by George Pope Morris: -

“Woodman, spare that tree!

Touch not a single bough!

In youth it sheltered me, and I’ll protect it now.”

Through “afforestation”, forests, or tree cover is recreated on land, which
may, earlier, have been forested land. Land, which is covered with trees
and bushes, supports all life forms, including human life. Roots of plants
hold the rich topsoil and prevent its erosion by wind and water; help the
soil absorb rainfall thereby raising the water table, which fills the wells.
Trees and shrubs slowly create humus, which makes the topsoil rich. Trees
and other plants produce a more comfortable temperature and more
oxygen, thereby creating a pleasant living environment.

Every organization, which has under its charge a large area, must try to
afforest at least those regions, which are within the vicinity of living areas.
There are two basic methods of afforestation. In places where the land
already had trees and other plant cover, protection and watering will lead to
natural afforestation. On bare land, one has to plant trees to effect
afforestation. One can imaginatively plant trees to capture the real and
aesthetic effects of a “true” forest.

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To make afforestation successful, one has to

identify and analyze suitable lands;

identify and select suitable species;

manage water effectively and efficiently;

manage cattle effectively;

operate nursery and plantations;

ensure high rate of sapling survival;

monitor, evaluate and take feedback.

Activities of afforestation on community basis will boost tree cover on land
and fuel wood and fodder programs, seed development, etc., to create a
peaceful, sustainable living environment.

The world’s oceans contain enormous volumes of biotic, mineral and
energy resources. The ocean’s role in creating the conditions required for
life on Earth is highly significant. The oceans still continue to sustain many
living organisms, and as such, are called “genetic nurseries”. In recent
years, due to indiscriminate human interference in the form of unplanned
catching of fish, offshore oil drilling and dumping of waste products, the
natural environment of the oceans has been greatly disturbed. As a result, a
large number of marine species have become extinct.

It is estimated that 80 percent of fossil fuels will be exhausted in a century
if the current rate of exploitation continues. Similarly, over fishing has led

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to scarcity of fish even in some of the once important fishing grounds of
the world. All these call for “Conservation”.

The process of “bio-diversity conservation” means the conservation of all
forms of natural life that would earlier exist in a particular area, and would
still exist there, if not human beings had altered the land and water and / or
polluted them. Let us raise awareness towards conservation of natural life
forms such as elephants, tigers and crocodiles … and allow other natural
species, both plant and animal, to live peacefully….

Conservation is necessary in that much of land and water surrounding
natural life is getting altered. Bio-diversity Conservation requires that a part
of the unutilized area in a region be protected, to allow a small pocket of
nature to live peacefully….

Both wasteland development and afforestation can be planned in innovative
ways (using mostly local species of plants) to help bio-diversity
conservation.

Conservation of coastal and marine life like sharks, jellyfish, corals,
plankton, etc. is also of prime importance…. the first step would be to
identify those species of flora and fauna that lie threatened or endangered…

“Wastelands” are degraded, under-utilized or deteriorating (owing to lack
of water and soil management, or natural causes) lands. These wastelands
can be brought under vegetative cover given the right amount of effort.

India’s land resources were healthier earlier. India has 2.4% of the world’s
land area but 15% of the world’s human population and about 16% of the
world’s cattle population. Due to increasing population pressure, per capita
land availability has declined. Over exploitation of natural resources, mass
increase in the demands of food, fuel, fodder, fiber, shelter, industry,

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communication, etc. and changes in individual lifestyles have exerted
tremendous pressure on India’s land resources, leading to soil erosion, land
degradation and finally wastelands. An estimate places 23% of India’s
geographical area under “wastelands”.

The main causes of development of wastelands are: -

erosion caused by water or winds;

improper land and water management;

overgrazing by cattle;

“shifting” agriculture;

water – logging;

salinity/alkalinity.

Developing wastelands has many advantages: -

it is a source of income and employment to the rural poor;

it ensures a constant supply of fuel, fodder and timber;

it contributes to soil fertility;

it enables maintenance of balance in ecology;

it enhances forest cover;

it helps bring about conventional rainfall;

it helps supplement income of farmers;

an increase in the number of trees reduces pests, with trees sheltering
fields from insects;

trees help recharge ground water.

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Initiatives should be taken to tackle the problem of degraded lands and
putting wastelands to uses that respect the principles of sustainability…

There is a need to educate common people on issues such as land
degradation, soil erosion, conservation of land and water, technology for
afforestation, income-generation and social issues. This gigantic task has to
involve government and voluntary agencies as well as the community…

To achieve higher productivity, local “eco-friendly” species should be
planted. We would be able to generate more fuel and energy.

Finally, this “greening” will have a significant effect on the immediate
vicinity…

Talking about putting wastelands to productive use! –

The entire developing world is facing the problem of acute energy
shortage, so very important for developmental activities. “Renewable
energy” or energy from the sun, wind, biomass and water are not only
viable options but also reduce pressures on fast-depleting conventional
fossil fuels. Renewable energy is pollution free, locally available
abundantly, external, efficient and cost-effective.

Alternative sources of energy can be utilized in many ways:

(i) Bio-gas: is obtained from cow dung and human waste. It is efficient,
simple, and cheap and can be used to generate electricity. enriched
manure can be obtained from the left over residue in a biogas unit;

(ii) Smokeless cooking stove: traditional cooking stoves often are
detrimental to health. They may cause problems of the eye and of
respiration. but “smokeless” cooking stoves with chimneys reduce
health problems, reduce firewood consumption and enable speed
cooking;

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(iii) Windmill: helps harness wind energy. Windmills are pollution-free,
cost-effective and easy to obtain. they can be used to drain water
from wells and generate electricity;

(iv) Solar energy: can be used to generate heat and electricity. Dryers,
solar cookers, etc. use solar energy. Other uses are water heating,
pumping of water and lighting. Solar energy is pollution-free and is
easily available and cost-effective.

A “revolving fund” should be formed to provide monetary help to
producers and users of renewable energy technology.

Renewable energy sources (or devices) such as smokeless cooking stoves,
solar lanterns, solar home lighting systems, domestic heaters; etc. should be
sold at subsidized prices to the rural poor….

The government should promote the establishment of co-operatives of
renewable energy entrepreneurs in small towns and rural areas…

– small earthen dams for water harvesting are both ecologically sound and
economically profitable. Small reservoirs can transform rural economies
without eroding soil, deforesting or desertifying regions or displacing
people…

– exposure to radiation can lead to many biological hazards. It is known
that even low doses of radiation exposure can cause cancer and genetic
disorders. A radioactive element can enter the human body through the
food chain over a distance of thousands of miles.

– toxic wastes are dumped in Third World countries by industrialized
nations’ industries. Some of these-such as PVC, industrial incinerator
ash, contaminated earth, etc. are extremely dangerous. These radioactive

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waste materials often mix with the soil and vegetation, polluting rivers
and the environment; and leading to serious health hazards.

– with regard to agriculture, economic development is possible through
systematic infusion of scientific and technological inputs, which in turn,
would lead to higher agricultural productivity and sustainability.

– forests are very close to man’s culture. They are not only a source of
material prosperity but also the birthplaces of our culture. Materialistic
civilization has completely changed the man-nature relationship. Forest
– dwellers have an ethnical relationship with forests, and depend on
them for their survival. “Social forestry” should, therefore, be taken up
at all levels.

– the quantity of water present for human consumption is becoming more
and more scarce. Scarcity of water is now a national phenomenon and
the breakdown of storage and conservation systems in rural areas has
further increased the problem. Water crisis threatens the survival of the
rural poor. There is a need to develop appropriate technology in order to
improve the water crisis, which will get worse if not checked (Third
World Network Features, August 1988).

– let us develop community – based one-tier systems to provide safe
drinking water to the weaker sections of the society particularly the rural
poor. A person selected from the very community itself should be
formally trained and provided with proper tools and knowledge for
installing water pumps. Government hand-pump systems are costlier
and do not involve the community

- (“Water in the Desert” – Health for the Millions, June 1988).

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– in ecology, we may find the basis for a renewal of politics – ecology
becoming capable of forming the nucleus of a new ideology of the
future. The management of land, water and forest resources may have
political implications. Talking of political implications of ecology!
(Ecology and the Renewal of Politics, Jan 1989).

– pollution, particularly water pollution, has adverse effects on fisheries
with both the number and numbers of each species consequently
declining. The detection of mercury in fish flesh and sediments is a
serious matter. Talking of industries creating problems for fisheries!

– with regard to afforestation, there is a need to make village peoples’
needs the primary objective so as to establish a healthy rural economy.
Maximizing revenues for the government and maximizing yields for
industry should be of secondary importance.

– forests are of great importance to managing water resources. Two major
uses include (I) the regulation of the disposition of rainfall, thereby
reducing the chances of soil erosion; and (ii) regulation of floods
through management of forests in the upstream catchments.

– water is very important to life but it is unevenly distributed in the world,
and subject to misuse. Continued exploitation of global water resources
can have disastrous implications.

– let us have alternate technologies for increasing source of drinking
water. The source would differ depending upon the terrain. Traditional
methods can be improved with latest scientific technologies.

– we cannot afford to ignore the hazards of nuclear (energy) plants.
Radioactive waste is to be safely disposed of, but very often, built in

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design safety systems offer no guarantee of protection. As happened
during the Chernobyl gas disaster (former USSR), the general publics in
the surrounding towns and villages may not have been warned about
radiation hazards.

– during famine-relief operations, authorities should allow decision-
making at all levels. Self-planned and self-managed relief activities by
(local) rural women’s groups will go a long way in famine relief. Call it
‘gender-based famine relief’!

– let us “embrace trees” to protect forests from commercial felling!
((The Evolution, Structure and Impact of the “Chipko” (embrace the
tree) Movement, India, May 1986)).

– development depends on the environment. The problem(s) of the
environment exist in a vicious circle and the solution lies in improving
the country’s gross nature product.

– “conservation of resources” does not run on its own. For conservation,
there must be broad policies based on economic principles and human
ethics. To achieve conservation, policies should encompass: (I)
substitution (e.g. synthetic fiber for cotton), (ii) recycling (reuse of
wastes), (iii) innovation (through study and research), (iv) minimization
of wastage, (v) extension of education and knowledge, (vi) enactment of
laws of conservation, (vii) correct estimation of reserves (e.g. of fossil
fuels, fish, etc.), and (viii) an assessment of requirements for the future.

Floods are becoming rampant in China and India. Drought has devastated
the American Midwest and Africa. Storms and hurricanes in Europe and
the Caribbean are taking heavy tolls. Waves in the North Atlantic have got
bigger.

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There is environmental imbalance throughout the globe. Health is at
considerable risk, for instance, young children in Bangkok and Mexico are
suffering from high lead levels. Lopsided development and rampant
consumerism is leading to ozone depletion, global warming, the green
house effect, rise in ocean and sea levels, and glaciers and ice caps will
melt. Bangkok is sinking at the rate of one inch per year (to be confirmed).

The rise in temperature does not merely threaten life and property of
humans but puts in danger the entire biodiversity of the earth. Marine life
will very soon become extinct.

Worldwide, today there are 1-1.5 lakh additional cases of cataract-induced
blindness. Predictions are that in the lower latitudes, the eye cancer rate
will greatly increase in the coming years … The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has projected that in the 50 years between 1991-2041,
12 million Americans will be affected by skin cancer and 2,00,000 will die
from malignant melanoma…

Changes in the Earth’s climate will sweep away one-third of the global
forests. The rain forests in Africa are shrinking by 1.3 million hectares
annually…

Although following the Kyoto protocol in Dec 1997 the U.S. has
reluctantly agreed to reduce its emissions to 7 per cent below the 1990
levels by 2012, this cut is too little for a nation which consumes a major
percentage of the Earth’s energy…

World policies on energy usage and control of greenhouse gases have to
change, or global warming will demolish ecological balance. Time to
think!

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“Today the most religious movement in the world is environment
movement.”

- Archbishop of Canterbury

i. “environmental management” rests with individuals – those who
manage land, sea and space. Such scientists as oceanographers, social
scientists, ecologists, demographers, economists, geologists,
geographers and medical scientists all collect and analyze environment
data. But what is important is how and to what extent each individual
participates in environment conservation.

Global environments are deteriorating and becoming more and more
“unlivable”. Our lives now stand affected. It is the poor and the
marginalized that are suffering the most.

ii. awareness of the environment: only concerned persons can influence
attitudes and bring out change… the need of the hour is an
“environment awareness program”-to pressurize the ministry, the courts,
the administration and the legislature. Press and the media and
educational institutions can disseminate information on environment.
Groups of vital importance to the environment include – rural people
who depend on forests for their livelihood, livestock grazers on common
lands, urban housewives who can recycle or dispose of domestic waste,
rag-pickers who help recycle used household material, politicians and
the courts…

iii. there are some that feel that environment should be taught in schools.
Education on environment can make it a part of our lives. How many of
us are (actually) willing to behave in an “environment-friendly” way,

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like recycling paper, waste, etc., reducing car emissions, or not using
CFC-based car air conditioners or refrigerators?

Non-formal methods of education should be incorporated into formal
school and college education in addition to community “environment
campaigns”.

A very good way to make for more “environmentally – sensitive”
individuals is to actually take students on “site visits” towards observation
of natural services, damages caused to them. Sites include – deforested
wastelands, rivers and such quantities of garbage as cannot be managed…
we can set up “eco-(friendly) clubs” to instill respect and love for nature
among our children, the citizens of the world’s tomorrow…

Let us pursue issues related to forests, wildlife, pollution, environmental
degradation and cruelty to animals.

“Environmental Information Systems” can be setup…

Article 51 (g) of the Indian constitution states “it shall be the duty of every
citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including
forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living
creatures.”

Nature conservation and environmental protection form the basis for
sustainable development. Remember where food comes from? The
following areas need serious thought and concrete action:

environment education and awareness;

conservation of biological diversity;

sustainable utilization of natural resources;

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pollution and waste;

lifestyles; and

exploitation of renewable energy.

Conservation of nature… will inevitably lead to human happiness!

(Most of the above are extracts from a book on Community Development,
courtesy: the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, date not
known)

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CHAPTER 3B

FROM GOLF GREENS TO EARTH
FRIENDLY GREENS, LET US PLANT MORE
TREES IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
“The world requires a few hundred bold men and women. Practice that
boldness which dares know the truth…then you will be free.”
-Swami Vivekananda

I am quoting Swami Vivekananda at this moment because one bold
woman’s effort could convince a mighty corporation of a need for
“Green Earth”. A Californian woman, Miss Julia Hill finally returned
to Earth at the weekend after saving the Giant Red Wood tree that
had been her home since December 1997. She lived in the sixty
meter Red Wood as a one - woman protest against continuous
logging of the massive trees, which can live for two thousand years
and which once covered two million acres of the Western U.S. Miss
Hill finally reached an agreement with the Pacific Lumber Company
(Corporate social responsibility, Corporate partnership- we will
come to this point later), which owns the land, that she called
‘Luna’- and a two point nine acre buffer zone around it would be
spared the axe. We remember Sting (Gordon Sumner) who had sung
for the Amazonian forests (charity music). This time singers Joan
Baez and Bonnie Raitt were among celebrities who clambered up to
her platform to express their support. Any way, many other trees are
being felled at this moment and the sources of livelihood for

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indigenous peoples are being destroyed. And space shuttle
“Discovery” (what about the other important things waiting to get
discovered???) is streaking into orbit from the Kennedy space center
in the United States of America.

Anyway, let us not waste time. Let us recycle waste in the cities, crush
mineral water bottles after use. Fight pollution-for instance, prevent
ourselves from throwing waste into the seas and the oceans. Pollutants and
industrial waste from factories kill a number of people. After inspection,
such factories should be closed down. It is our moral duty to protect
innocent people, who are often victims (of no fault of theirs) of such
industrial pollution.

Much of what follow are extracts from “Every Girl’s Handbook” by Roger
Coote, 1994:

It is to be known that there are about fourteen lakh (1400000) species of
plants, animals and other living things on earth. Many biologists believe
that there are countless other species that have not yet been discovered and
that the real total may be more than one crore (10000000).

All life depends on plants, which recycle the gases in the atmosphere to
produce the oxygen that is vital to life, and provide many animals with
food.

In each habitat-forest, desert, sea or any other, the larger ones eat the
smallest organisms and still larger creatures eat them in turn. Every species
has its place and depends in some way on the others. So, if a single species
becomes extinct, the balance of the habitat may be threatened. What
happens in the Arctic-the polar bear at the top depends on all the other
organisms – the seals it eats, the haddock the seals eat, and the small fish,

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the animal plankton and the tiny plant-plankton right at the bottom.
Tropical rainforests are the richest habitats on Earth and contain more
living species than any other. Let us work to protect our forests- yes, I am
talking of “conservation” of natural species. Remember what happened
around 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period and the
Jurassic period, which preceded, the dinosaurs and many other reptiles and
plants died out. No one knows why this happened. The most likely reason
seems to be that a huge meteorite from space struck the Earth with
immense force. This could have set off wildfires, the giant Tsunami, and a
cloud of dust. All of these effects could have combined to wipe out the
dinosaurs and other life forms.

After the death of the dinosaurs, more and more mammals appeared, and
among them, man has come to dominate the earth.

Charles Darwin in his “Origin of Species” has spoken of “survival of the
fittest”, and using his terms, the dinosaurs may have neglected nature and
have been wiped out, leading to the emergence of man. Now if man
neglects nature, the human race may become extinct. But in this world too,
women are surviving in a man’s world, sea creatures and river creatures
and forests are surviving in a human world, plants and flowers and children
in an “adult wild world”. Imagine for a moment, if some men and women
settled on Mars or Venus and threw down waste on Planet Earth, what
would happen to the planet??? Think and act-before that happens!!!!!

Consider this-many species of plants and animals on our planet are at risk,
and in most cases, they are threatened by human beings (birds being
poached?). The most common cause of extinction is loss of habitat-the
places where wild animals and plants live are taken over or altered by
people.

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The most famous example of this is the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
Everyday vast areas of rainforest are cleared to make room for farms, roads
and towns. Many thousands of species could be wiped out and lost forever
unless the destruction of the forest is halted.

Let us sing at this stage

From Bretton Woods to the Amazon Woods / the Giant Redwood, have we
come a long way???

There are many other examples: the Giant Panda has been pushed out of
large areas of its natural habitat in Northern China. Hunting and poaching
have also been responsible for the extinction of many species in the past,
and many others are threatened now.

The Siamese Crocodile has been hunted for its skin and is now extinct in
the wild. It survives only on crocodile farms in Thailand. The North
American Red Wolf has suffered a similar fate: there are now very few left
except in zoos.

Tigers are in danger because their jungle homes have been destroyed; they
have been hunted for their skins and killed by farmers who accuse them of
killing livestock. Despite the ban on the trade in rhino horn and elephant
ivory, we come to hear of instances of ivory trade and horn trade.

Man’s mind is getting polluted. While the WWF acts to protect wildlife,
man sits at Trump Plaza and watches WWF-the World Wrestling
Federation and cheers on brute aggression?????

It is time we built natural reserves for our animals, and the money paid by
visitors helped to pay for the costs of running such a reserve, providing
safety and security to the animal concerned. Let us in our own lives love

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and protect our pets- take them to the veterinary hospital as and when
required. Let us practice pet therapy for our (pet) animals.

Let us protect the vital rainforests of South and Central America, Southeast
Asia and Central Africa, which contain at least half of all the world’s plant
and animal species. Yet, these forests are being destroyed or damaged at
the rate of about 50,000 hectares each day. Almost half of the world’s
rainforests have disappeared in the last fifty years.

Most of the destruction is caused by poor people desperately trying to find
land for farming. They clear and burn an area of forest and plant their crops
but after two or three years the soil loses its fertility and produces fewer
crops and the people move on to clear a new area of forest. This way the
vital rainforests are becoming extinct.

In the distant past, I remember having read in the newspapers that an
injured whale had been dragged on to the beach in some part of Asia (in
some part of the Earth? distant??) and the media were taking photographs
of it, what a pity! (how the media glamorizes events! the paparazzi chased
Princess Diana to a death she did not deserve. the Diana Memorial Appeal
now works for victims of land mines, yes, the environment is involved).

(Lady Diana touched a malnourished child in Africa, she touched a child at
Nirmal Hriday –Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, she
obliged the International Red Cross at Sudan, she did so much for the
world, really!). But before we talk of working for the world, let us come
down to earth and take blessings from God.

God bless

Every desert

Every scrub and semi desert

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Every tropical rain forest

Every savanna

Every temperate forest

Every coniferous forest

Every tundra and ice forest

And

Every other species of plant or animal that has adapted itself to its
immediate natural environment.

What is natural and what is artificial?

What is natural-music of the mountains, the rivers, the seas, the blue sky,
the beautiful waterfalls, the glaciers, the free bird, the free tiger ((not to
roam about the cities (then they would, ‘perhaps’, pose a threat to man) but
in their natural habitat)) – again man has sensed a threat to his own
security, he craves for peace, man may have peeped into a “natural history
museum” and sensed that the Earth is in danger.

Very soon, the tiger will roam the streets freely, and apes and gorillas will
hang onto city trees, and strange - looking populace wearing space suits
and calling themselves Robo- cops and singing ‘ we are the Robo boys and
girls’ (!), and carrying strange cyber- paraphernalia in their hands will land
in an “unidentified flying object (UFO)” called “Stars of Mars” to facilitate
a process called “Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind” (Are we not
forgetting the Third World ?)

Yes, the Earth is in danger, because human beings are neglecting the
planet, damaging our planet in a number of ways-by destroying the habitats

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in which plants and animals live, by using up precious resources too
quickly and by pollution. Transport is the major source of air pollution.
Cars are especially damaging to the environment because of the poisonous
exhaust gases they produce, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides
and sulphur oxides. Air is also being polluted by heating homes, burning
forests, some factory pollution involving burning fossil fuels-oil, gas and
coal and burning wastes.

Water pollution occurs with toxic chemicals, oil (yes, oil can pollute the
sea, when oil tankers run aground or collide and leak) and sewage (yes, our
beautiful seas and oceans are being contaminated). Chemical fertilizers and
pesticides damage the soil. Added to this, is the destruction of parts of the
ozone layer mostly over Antarctica, also over North America, Asia, Europe
and Australia. Another major problem is “global warming”. The
atmosphere traps in some of the heat we get from the sun. This is called the
“green house effect”. Many scientists think that too much heat is being
trapped in because we are adding to the amounts of certain gases in the
atmosphere. These “green house gases” mainly carbon dioxide and
methane- are produced by factories and by the burning of forests to make
way for cities and farmland. If the world’s temperature does increase even
by a few degrees, the polar ice caps could begin to melt, raising the sea
level and flooding many coastal areas. In other places, food crops could be
destroyed by hotter drier climates, and wild life could be threatened with
extinction.

Most scientists believe that the universe began with the “Big Bang”, a huge
explosion that occurred about 18 thousand million years ago. Since then,
the universe has been expanding outwards at an enormous speed. Some

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astronomers believe that the earth will stop growing and then collapse back
again, ending in a “big crunch”. Hope that never happens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some others believe that the Earth is in danger because there are chances
that the sun will run out of fuel. When this happens, it will expand to
become a red giant and swallow up the earth and most of the other planets.
The sun will then become more dense and explode, destroying the rest of
the solar system. All that will remain will be a tiny dwarf star.

Very soon we shall all be singing, twinkle

twinkle little star how I wonder where you are????
Yes, stars (under present circumstances of pollution) cannot be seen in the
skies at night????

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CHAPTER 4A
Peace comes only from loving,
from mutual self-sacrifice
and self-forgetfulness.

Few today have humility
or wisdom enough
to know the world’s
deep need of love.
We are too much possessed
by national and racial
and cultural pride.

- Horace W. B. Donegan

My life has been an intensely happy one, not only in my family circle, but
also in the world outside it…

Looking back on a life of over eighty years, I realize how short life is and
how little worthwhile are anger and political warfare.

The most worthwhile thing is to try and put a bit of happiness into the lives
of others.

- Excerpts from Robert Baden Powell’s farewell message “to the general
public”.

Today we are so interdependent, so closely interconnected with each other
that without a sense of universal responsibility, a feeling of universal
brotherhood and sisterhood, and an understanding and belief that we really

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are part of one big human family, we cannot hope to overcome the dangers
to our very existence – let alone bring about peace and happiness.

- The Dalai Lama, from “A Human Approach to World Peace”

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human
relationships- the ability of all people of all kinds to live together and work
together in the same world, at peace.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

The time comes in the life of any nation when there remains only two
choices – submit or fight. That time should never again come in the life of
any nation…. let us try to achieve “true” liberation without bloodshed and
civil clash –

-Anonymous

“Human Security” binds together all people and all nations, and it can be
addressed only through “sustainable human development” strategies, not
through the acquisition of ever-more-powerful weapons. This security
consists of the security of people in their homes, in their jobs, in their
communities, in their environment. There is need for preventive diplomacy
on the part of the international community….also, any decline in global
military spending can be (translated into improved human development)
and used to finance the world’s social agenda.

What we need now is a pressurizing for reduced global military spending
and to make an explicit link between reduced military spending and
increased social spending…

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The industrial nations should be persuaded to close their military bases,
phase out their military assistance and eliminate their subsidies to exporters
of arms…

A major concern of many countries in the future must be to avoid violent
social dislocations-especially-ethnic conflicts. To achieve “social
integration”, measures to promote more equal opportunities for all include:

equality before the law – to bring about an integrated society, we
must ensure basic legal rights for all;

rights of the minority – countries must ensure minority rights,
including those related to minority culture;

antidiscrimination policies – measures to counter discrimination (and
application of penalties for violation) should be taken by
governments;

education – governments must ensure that all sections of society
have access to basic education respecting local cultures and
traditions;

employment – the state should make employment opportunities
available to disadvantaged and marginalized sections like women;
and,

governance – should be brought closer to the people, through
decentralization and accountability, by promotion of grass-roots
organizations and by creation of avenues for people’s direct
participation.

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- (Source: Human Development Report, UNDP,’ 94).

“They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall
they learn war any more.”

This prophecy did not come true with the end of the Cold War. At any one
time, many military conflicts are going on in “trouble areas” globally.

These conflicts are increasingly threatening the lives of military as well as
civilian populace. At the beginning of the 20th Century, around 90% of war
casualties were military. As of now, about 90%, disastrously, are civilian!

One of the greatest worries of the 20th century was the extent to which
whole societies were militarizing themselves. This fear will pervade the
21st Century as well…

In weak democracies, armed forces have been positioned strong enough to
direct the political process and subvert democracy.

Armed conflicts within states increasing: of the 82 armed conflicts between
1989 and 1992, only 3 were inter-state. Most conflicts are in developing
countries. But, practically, all regions have experienced conflicts-Bosnia
Herzegovina in Europe; Iraq, Israel and Lebanon in the Middle East;
Colombia and Guatemala in Latin America; India, Myanmar and Tajikistan
in Asia; and Angola, Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda in Africa. More than half
of conflicts in 1993 took the lives of 4 to 6 million people. These conflicts
have caused millions to flee their countries to avoid repression and death,
creating a trend in “war-induced international migration”.

Since 1945, millions of people have perished in wars and other conflicts
and the numbers are simply not abating. Kashmir, a center of strife within

54

the Indian sub-continent has seen thousands of casualties in the past years.
Unless national and international communities take concrete action, deaths
will continue unabated.

Despite all the brouhaha over the global agenda of human insecurity, world
military spending still equals the income of nearly half the world’s people
(as of 1992).

The continuing nuclear threat: the threat of nuclear war has definitely
dwindled, but it has by no means disappeared. A major concern is nuclear
proliferation. In addition to the five nuclear powers (China, France, Russia,
the United Kingdom and the United States), there are states like India,
Israel and Pakistan which have the capacity to deploy nuclear weapons on
short notice. On the positive side, 3 other states (Argentina, Brazil and
South Africa) had halted nuclear weapons development as of 1992. It was
further proposed to extend the 1967 Non-Proliferation Treaty after 1995.
However, some countries complain of “Nuclear Apartheid”, and some
developing countries feel that nuclear technology can have “non-nuclear”
uses. Some countries feel threatened by their neighbors and value the
possession of nuclear weapons. What is most important is removal of the
causes of conflict.

The human cost of military spending in developing countries is enormous.
As of 1992-94, 12% of military spending could be diverted to health
(preventable, infectious disease, malnourishment, access to safe water,
primary health care including immunization), 4% to education (primary
education, adult literacy, female literacy) and 8% to population control
(basic family planning services and family welfare)… In developing
countries, people are 33 times more likely to die from social neglect

55

(malnutrition and preventable diseases) than from war. Yet, there are 20
military personnel for 1 doctor…

Arms spending eat up precious resources than could otherwise be spent on
human development. Some of the world’s poorest countries – Angola,
Ethiopia, Somalia, Mozambique and Pakistan spend more on their armed
forces than on public education and health.

High military spending among poor countries

GNP p. capita Military Expenditure
Country ($US) p.c. ($ US)
1991 1990/91
Sudan 400 23.3
Ethiopia 120 14.9
Chad 210 10.7
Burkina Faso 290 10.5
Mozambique 80 9.5
Mali 270 6.8
Promoting human security globally will be a tedious process. The future of
world disarmament demands higher goodwill between the ‘North’ and the
‘South’- the creation of new fora for peace discussions, regulation of trade
in arms and a novel role for the United Nations. The Third World urgently
needs disarmament. The job is only half done. Let us-

i) Establish fora for disarmament: first of all, let us start with existing fora
such as the Organization for African Unity (OAU); the Organization of
American States (OAS); the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC); the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN); the Non-Aligned Movement; etc. Some neighboring
countries can apply some pressure towards peace. The Tegucigalpa

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Commitment (Dec. 1991) by six central heads of state is a good
beginning.

The UN could involve itself more forcefully. It has already taken
initiatives on one of the worst killers-land mines;

ii) Defuse tensions around the globe: since opposition parties and domestic
public opinion may treat peace alliances as unrequired interference, it
would be better to involve the United Nations in major problems. We
should bear in mind that these problems may arise from economic,
social and natural causes. a former UN Secretary-General has said in his
‘Agenda for Peace’ :

“Drought and disease can decimate no less mercilessly than the
weapons of war. So at this moment of renewed opportunity, the efforts
of the organization to build peace, stability and security must encompass
matters beyond military threats in order to break the fetters of strife and
warfare that have characterized the past.”

To conclude, the role of the UN in development must be strengthened;

iii) Phase out military assistance: military bases, which contribute to the
militarization of developing countries, should be phased out;

iv) Regulate the arms trade: commercial arms traders have no regrets about
making profits out of poverty – selling “high-fidelity” jet fighters or
nuclear bombs to nations in which millions struggle to survive each day
in their lives. Not only this, arms are supplied to ‘potential’ trouble
areas, leading to further conflict. We must design a concrete policy
framework for regulating the arms trade. Both industrial and developing
countries should cut down on their arms production.

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Chemical weapons and land mines (which cause such terrible suffering
to civilians: globally, millions of land – mines remain buried in
unsuspected locations) should be emphasized. Land mines kill and
maim civilians even when wars are over. Clearing them is very
cumbersome and costly.

The UN should make a list of sophisticated arms, maintain regional
(Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America) registers of armaments, tax
the sales of arms and establish more innovative methods of peace-
keeping;

v) Design a new aid policy dialogue: the need of the hour is to make
allocations of aid subject to a “military: social spending index”, or
giving positive incentives in the form of greater aid to those countries
that are working towards peace;

vi) Agree on criteria for UN mediation in conflicts within nations: the UN
has always intervened in conflicts between nations – through cease-
fires, sanctions and more permanent solutions. However, intricate
questions arise when the UN is called upon to intervene within nations,
with regard to the form of intervention to be made – UN forces,
temporary assistance or long-term development aid?
vii) Create more effective information systems: we need to build up more
effective information systems to follow the movement (s) of arms;

Finally, we need to bear in mind that a genuine improvement in human
security requires the complete harnessing of that one most important
world resource – peace, peace and only peace.

- (Source: Human Development Report, UNDP, 1994)

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I remember what Oscar Arias, winner of the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize had to
say:

“…I would like to propose the establishment of a global demilitarization
fund… Let the nations of the world, both rich and poor, commit themselves
to atleast a 3% a year reduction in their military spending levels over the
next five years…

The actual numbers are not important…

Only global cooperation can foster the security, which we have sought for
so long, but which has eluded us so frequently. Let us make a definitive
effort to use the peace dividend for the construction of just, prosperous and
demilitarized societies. And let us capitalize on the benefits of disarmament
to promote and guarantee the rewards of peace.”

– War Crimes Court: the world’s first permanent ‘War Crimes Court’ will
try war crimes, genocide and crime(s) against humanity.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is said to have remarked: “In taking this
action… we reaffirm strong support for international accountability and
bringing to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against
humanity.”

- 25 years after the Vietnam War, the people of Vietnam gave a red carpet
welcome to U.S. President, Bill Clinton, when he visited their country…
even when they are still suffering from the war’s after-effects – the
Vietnam landscape still hiding hundreds upon thousands of mines that
still kill and maim many unaware innocent citizens… a dear price for
the scourge and cruelty of war…

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CHAPTER 4B

TALKING OF THE STARS AND STRIPES,
LET US HOPE THAT THE [UNITED]
‘STATES’ DO NOT START ASKING FOR
SEPARATE STATEHOOD, WE WANT TO
SEE NO MORE SOCIAL DISINTEGRATION
OR ETHNIC CLEANSING, WE WANT TO SEE
PEACE.
In recent years, some parts of the world have changed dramatically. In
1989, revolutions spread through the countries of Eastern Europe, and the
people drove out the Communist leaders who had ruled them since 1945. In
1991, the USSR suffered a similar fate, and that vast country broke up into
15 separate states.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the policy known as “Apartheid” was coming
to an end. Since 1948, color of skin formed the basis of segregation
between the whites and the non-whites. The ANC or African National
Congress fought for change for many years, and in May 1994, Nelson
Mandela became the country’s first Black President.

When Civil War broke out in the former Yugoslavia, UN peacekeeping
forces were sent in to intervene, at a place where atrocities were being
carried out on women and children. At this moment, I feel there should be
an “international government”(apart from the UN) composed of all nations,

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with one principal “shareholder” in each nation, a group of individuals
committed to human rights, peace, poverty, and the environment.
Institutions can be set up for the Ghetto populace in America, the homeless
in Britain, street children in the Third World, those sleeping on the streets,
etc, by this international government. The need for such a government
arises because most other organizations will serve only particular countries-
e.g. NATO will serve only countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance,
the Colombo Plan will serve only member countries, SAARC will serve
only SAARC countries etc.

Coming back to world political affairs, let us judge the present situation.
Hijacking of aircraft, plenty of ethnic cleansing going on, social
disintegration, sabotage, espionage, nationalistic sentiments rising and
differences within the ranks of national leaders. Does it not seem that the
world is heading for frozen peace??? The era of good feelings that followed
the collapse of communism has ended. It has been on the wane for some
time. Europe, particularly, is in danger of plunging (after Kosovo, Poland,
the USSR, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia and
Bulgaria- all experienced revolutions) into a cold peace. A cold peace
could be nearly as tricky to handle as the cold war was.

While the threat of nuclear war (after the nuclear non-proliferation treaty)
has dwindled (or has it?) the risk of small but devastating ethnic or
nationalist wars is rising. We cannot forget the Rwanda massacre in which
innocent children were affected the most. And for years in the birthplace of
Christ, a war has been raging. If only Christ the Lord were alive!!!

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Our message of peace: instead of a toy gun, give a sweet Christmas present
to a child at Kosovo- Pristina. Lord, forgive them, for they know not what
they do, and help us work on the planet as it is.

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CHAPTER 5A
There is no alleviation
for the sufferings of mankind
except veracity of thought and action,
and the resolute facing
of the world as it is.

- Thomas H. Huxley

Questions on “survival” in the
Third World have always haunted me.
Whenever I journey by train,
I look at the countryside, the barren fields,
the huts; etc. my mind tries to trace
and locate the answer:
how does an average
man in the Third World “survive” (e.g. in extreme summers or in extreme
winters)?

World Economic Crisis: some fundamental issues:

Our world economy is passing through a phase of unprecedented crisis. At
one end, are the problems of population explosion, food shortages and total
depletion of raw materials, energy and non-renewable resources-a long
term perspective on which was laid down by Dennis L. Meadows and his
team, who concluded that: “If the present growth trends in world
population, industrialization, pollution, food production and resource
depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on the planet will be
reached some time within the next one hundred years. The most probable

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result will be a rather and uncontrollable decline in both population and
industrial capacity.” And then there is the most immediate and pressing
problem of debt burden of the developing countries, the incidence of which
is quite staggering.

The other important dimensions of the world economic crisis include:

a) slow growth of global output – particularly, output of the developed
countries;

b) sharp increase in the unemployment rate in the developed countries;

c) persistence of acute poverty, destitution, low purchasing power among
the millions of the third world;

d) persisting of and widening of the gaps in income levels, technology,
resources, etc. between the developed and the developing countries;

e) continued disillusionment with the abilities of international institutions,
such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
UNCTAD and GATT to deal with the problems of developing
countries.

Statistics alone cannot provide good insight into the major intricacies of
factors responsible for and remedies for dealing with the current economic
crisis. The need of the hour is to trace the origin of the current crisis. With
regard to the above, several misconceptions and wrong perceptions – some
in the vested interests have arisen, and a number of fundamental issues are
being neglected.

There are many paradoxes to the present crisis:

– firstly, the world economic situation was never considered a crisis as
long as phenomena such as high rate of unemployment, poor resources,

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high incidence of poverty, etc. were confined to the developing
countries even though they accounted for 2/3 rd of the world
population. The situation became a crisis as soon as the same
phenomena started engulfing the developed countries those have near
total command over the reins of the world economic system;

– secondly, surprisingly, the problems which the south presents to the
north – such as poverty, resource constraints etc. are being experienced
by the North itself. It is to be noted that developed countries are not so
much concerned about the South which are restructuring the world
trading system, as they are for themselves;

– again, paradoxically, at a time when the South was trying to realize
better and fairer returns to the producers of primary products, it was
being punished by significant falls in commodity prices;

– fourthly, countries claiming to be intellectually rigorous are
“disastrously” adopting restrictionist policies to meet their internal
crisis. Further, those countries professing liberalism and a free
environment for production and trade have themselves adopted highly
protectionistic policies…

Even as way back as 1977, many thoughtful men had pleaded before the
Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, that the government need
not take drastic measures in response to the trade deficits of 1976, 1977.
Professor Cohen argued: ‘… I do not view the present U.S. trade deficit
with alarm, nor do I feel that radical revision of current U.S. economic
policies is warranted… The present trade deficit signifies neither a serious
deterioration of our competitiveness in international markets nor a
significant loss of a capacity of world economic leadership, although the
fact of a deficit remains…’

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It is clear that the main question is, how should the South pursue its
objectives, particularly, the combating of poverty and fusion of internal
peace and security with development? The “poor” South has long lived
under the illusion that the North is extremely generous in its attitude…

Partial delinking with the North and more effective “South – South”
cooperation is necessary. More attention should be diverted towards bodies
such as OPEC, ASEAN, SAARC, NAM and the Colombo Plan. A separate
Third World Secretariat located at a Third World country (particularly, one
ranked low on the Human Development Index), holding of independent
Third World summit meetings and encouragement of preferential
arrangement for intra-South flows of goods, manpower resources, etc, are
the needs of the hour. A center for science and technology for developing
countries, a “bank” (particularly, micro-credit) for developing countries, a
“research and information system”, a “solidarity fund” for economic and
social development, are now just for remaining on “official machinery
papers”. Concrete action programs should back them. We can also have a
“consortium” or “group” of debtors…

There is need for a new strategy for development. It is high time
developing countries built up more efficiency in agriculture, agro-based
industries and optimum land utilization. W.W. Rostow in his suave
analyses of the world economy has also argued for a shift in “thinking”
from “lame” industrialization to agriculture.

Finally, the world economic crisis should be viewed in its wider
perspectives through less of debates and more of concerted action
following “dialogues” between the North and the South.

The critical role for official development assistance: (developing countries)
(source: BIS Review):

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Developing countries have to be managed well to achieve internal stability
and implement development policies. Aid is a very critical resource in that
it helps countries improve their policies by providing technology, training
people and strengthening institution building.

The question is, how much has actually been accomplished in terms of aid?

Much of the world has changed. We can now communicate across the
globe instantaneously. Countries are now more interdependent. Firms are
producing globally and bankers moving money quickly from one part of
the world to another. The capacity to develop has been improved by
advances in science and technology. Yet, poverty is far from being solved,
and gaps between the world’s rich and the world’s poor have widened.
And, there are now serious problems not earlier perceived, like the
depletion of the ozone layer and Earth Warming, or the “Greenhouse
Effect”.

The aid community now knows that problems are more complex and more
diverse, and human and institutional factors are now more important to
change, as never before. Extraordinary progress has now been made, life
expectancy at birth has gone up, and now there are medicines and cures for
virtually every ailment…

Aid is only one influence in a complicated process, which involves factors
such as open trade policies, trends in commodity prices, the weather and
accumulated debt…

Yet, aid is still not unimportant apart from the uses outlined above, it also
communicates ideas and encourages initiative. It helps build much needed
infrastructure and finances goods needed for production. Aid is important
in disaster management, and has a humanitarian role to play.

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It is important as to how funds will be used and what will be achieved. It is
heartening to note that countries are moving forward through bold policy
reforms and more commitment.

In a number of low-income countries, especially in Asia, additional aid
could translate into accelerated growth, creation of jobs, rural
infrastructure, and investment in human resources. a former World Bank
Vice-President for Asia described two Asias: first, the high growth,
industrializing economies, and second, an Asia with massive problems of
development and containing more than half of the world’s poor, but which
have been able to avoid payments crisis through prudent management.

What are some of the key areas where aid can play an important role in the
years ahead?

Our ozone layer is depleting, we now (as never before) need to find
solutions to Earth warming, air and water pollution, loss of soil,
deforestation, and desertification. Some environmental issues can be
mitigated by direct investment, while others require a change in values and
life styles or simply development.

Every year, large numbers of people enter developing country job markets,
where there is a need for power, water, communications, transport, and
ports, and improved financial institutions. Aid can help in these, as well as
in facilitating foreign private investment.

In only a few decades, a majority of people in the developing world will
live in cities, therefore, more aid agencies are focusing on urban issues
these days.

Poverty forces millions of children under five to die every year. Aid can
complement political commitment and management of developing

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countries in providing low cost inoculations and oral rehydration and
education for children (in developing countries).

World population is increasing rapidly every year. If, country by country,
societies could speed up the “demographic transition” i.e. reach the years of
lower population growth sooner, this would reduce death rates, make
higher quality and universal primary education and training more feasible
and make sustainable development more manageable. Aid has a critical
role to play.

At least another five billion people are expected to be added to the total
world population over the 21st century; leading in turn to greater demand
for food. For most developing countries, overall economic growth will be
led by high – technology agriculture. There is now an increasing need to
give priority to agriculture.

Aid has to assume a new role. No development program can be
successfully implemented without political commitment, good policies, and
improved management in developing countries. In addition to sound
macroeconomic policies, sector and sub-sector plans need to be thought
through. There arises a need for much better aid management. Donors need
to respond to areas of need. Common visions of needs and high-quality
national planning and management have to be combined. Global problems
need to be solved locally, country by country.

In this complex world, there is no right level for official development
assistance. Yet, there is no doubt that faster growth could be made in the
world if donors could increase their aid levels significantly.

And aid (which provides important resources) has to assume a new role, the
role of a “catalyst” in development…

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– as new demands of human security arise, a new and more positive
relationship between North and South – a new era of “development co-
operation” becomes the need of the hour. Developing countries argue
that most of their economic problems arise from an inequitable
international order. But, now they have come to recognize that “no
amount of external assistance can ever substitute for the fundamental
reforms needed in their domestic economies.

India: the Indian social system is in a flux. We have become one of the
most corrupt societies anywhere in the world. There are still areas that are
extremely poor, there is grinding poverty in many areas. Another very
major economic factor has been our total inability to check the population
explosion. This has been one of the great disasters and tragedies of free
India. Our population is growing at the rate of over a million people a
month, a crore and a half of people every year.

That is, we are adding one Australia every year to our population. How are
we going to abolish poverty? What meaning does all this talk of poverty
abolition have when millions of people are coming into the job market
every year, and you are unable to provide for them? We still have over
50,000 villages with no drinking water. Many children still don’t go to
school.

Why is our social revolution unfinished? Why is it that there are temples
where “Harijans” (Mahatma Gandhi “Children of God”) are not allowed to
go? It is a shame and a disgrace.

We also find a sharp and growing confrontation on the basis of religion.
We have to use religion in a creative manner. The message of religion is
love, compassion, harmony and helpfulness, not conflict.

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We need a “revolution”- the kind of the Indian renaissance, the sort of
revolution that took place in Bengal in the middle of the 19th Century –
with Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen and Ishwar Chandra
Vidyasagar, with Bhandarkar and Ranade and other great reformers, with
Tilak and Sri Aurobindo, the great seers and visionaries, with Vivekananda
and Shri Shri Ramakrishna. This is the sort of renaissance that we require if
we are going to build a truly great country.

Because India has a lot to offer to the world. Her sheer size, her cultural
continuity, her extraordinary vivacity, and her “spiritualism” make it
important for India to play an important role.

May God bless our country.

Oh India! - It is true that in 1995, the country’s granaries were overflowing
with unsold grain. At the same time, more than 300 million people were
living below the poverty line.

Our countrymen are too poor to purchase the food produced in their home
country. Kalahandi district in Orissa is best known for its starvation deaths.
In 1996, the district suffered from drought and people died of starvation.
Yet the same year, rice production in Kalahandi was higher than the
national average. What often happens is that rice is exported to the center,
while some grain is diverted to the black market (some people get away
with fake ration cards!)?

Stark, isn’t it?

India is trying to build more sophisticated weapons, but has it been able to
provide a decent education to its children? What do you have to say about
the fact that poor, rural women have to walk miles and miles in parched
heat to fetch drinking water? Or, get to the nearest clinic? What about those

71

who are forced to live, eat and wash on the roadsides? About traditional
practices such as Sati, Lausa, dowry and female infanticide? About the
highly unfavorable sex ratio? What about the fact that owing to lack of
sanitary latrines, unfortunate slum dwellers have to defecate on the streets,
river banks, parks; etc. under conditions detrimental to health and the
environment? Also, the fact that endemic dysentery and diarrhoea carry
away millions of children every year? What about the high value placed on
entertainment, especially films? And sex, violence and obscenity? Rampant
consumerism? Corruption? Debt? What about the damage being caused to
our fragile ecosystems?

May God bless India,

May God bless every country.

Food and famine: starvation amidst plenty – the Bengal Famine of 1943:
(Source: Human Development Report, date could not be recalled)

Nature often avenges herself on hapless humanity in one very dangerous
manner – local food shortages, which turn to famine in the hands of man.
People go hungry not because food is not available – but because they
cannot afford it. This is what happened in the Bengal Famine of 1943.
Between 2 and 3 million lives were lost, even though there was no overall
shortage of food.

The famine was partly caused by an economic boom. War-related activities
suddenly increased, exerting powerful inflationary pressures on the
economy and causing food prices to rise. In the urban areas, those with
work could pay these prices. But in the rural areas, agricultural laborers and
other workers found that they could no longer afford to eat, and many

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people headed for the cities, particularly Calcutta, hoping to survive. Prices
were then driven even higher by speculation and panic buying.

Timely government action could probably have averted the famine. But the
colonial government did nothing to stop hoarding by producers, traders and
consumers. They only “waited and saw”. Relief work was totally
inadequate, and the distribution of food grains in the rural districts was
inefficient. Even in October 1943, with 1, 00,000 sick and destitute people
on Calcutta’s streets, the government still went on denying the existence of
a famine.

What resulted was one of the largest man-made catastrophes of our time.

And this has a direct impact on poverty.

What then, does “food security” mean?

It means that all people at all times have both physical and economic access
to basic food, which requires not just enough food to go round. People
should have ready access to food – that they have an “entitlement” to food,
by growing it for themselves, by buying it or by taking advantage of a
public food distribution system. Therefore, that food is available is not a
sufficient condition of security, and people can starve even when enough
food is available – as has actually happened during many famines.

Food is available in the world. And there is enough food to offer everyone
in the world around 2,500 calories a day – 200 calories more than the basic
minimum.

But not everyone gets enough to eat. The problem is the poor distribution
of food and a lack of purchasing power, among other factors. Some 800
million people around the world go hungry. In Sub-Saharan Africa, food
availability has considerably increased in recent years, and yet about 240

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million are undernourished and in South Asia, 30% of babies are born
underweight, a sad indication of the fact that people, particularly women
(who often eat after the entire household) have inadequate access to food.
Access to food comes from access to assets, work and an assured income;
therefore, these are the problems that the state has to tackle at the earliest.

The world as it is

‘… A sequel to what lies ahead….’

“Let us be clear as to what is our ultimate aim. It is not just the negation of
war, but the creation of a world of security and freedom, of a world which
is governed by justice and the moral law. We desire to assert the pre-
eminence of right over might and the general good against selfish and
sectional aims.”

- Clement Attlee, British PM, in 1946

… There are the prosperous nations such as those of Western Europe and
North America, and the poorer developing countries that cannot afford to
provide adequate food, water, health care, and education for their people…

- Vastly improved communications and the growth of international trade
have made the world “a smaller place” with nations increasingly dependent
upon each other.

And yet, today, we are becoming increasingly envious of one another, and
prepared to take up arms. Conflict within countries is now more rampant
than ever before…

There is much human suffering and people are on the brink of starvation in
many countries of the Third World… and then there are war casualties and

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severe shortages of food and other essentials like fuel, housing, work,
clothing and education… disease is rife… and then, there are the world’s
“refugees” (remember Sarajevo?).

Children are suffering from hunger, disease and illiteracy. Clean water has
to be provided, schools have to be repaired and children have to be taken
care of. Relief has to be brought to children caught up in civil strife,
epidemics of disease or natural disasters.

We have witnessed a gross violation of human rights across the globe…
The fact that the nearest antenatal care clinic for pregnant mothers in rural
areas is often miles away… is so disheartening… and that development
projects often displace thousands of people…

Poverty is the worst disease known to mankind. “Poverty” does not mean
merely not having enough money to buy everything the developing
countries want. It means not having enough to provide people with
essentials such as sufficient food, shelter, health care, work and education.
In the cities, people have to “fight for survival” in any way they can.
Survival was beyond the victims of the drought in the Sahel region of
Africa hit by decades of crop failure. Millions suffer from extreme
malnutrition.

One of the ways of measuring poverty is to look at “life” in different
countries (for example, life expectancy). We can also count the number of
babies who die in the first year of life (in Afghanistan, one out of five
babies does not survive until its first birthday). As for food, an intake of
about 2300 calories a day is regarded by nutrition experts as the average
daily nutritional requirement for most people (in Bangladesh, the average
calorie intake is less than two-thirds of what is needed for good health).
Another indicator of poverty is the availability of clean water. Germs

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carried in impure water spread many fatal diseases (e.g. cholera and
dysentery). According to estimates, over a quarter of the world’s
population cannot obtain safe water for their everyday needs. In health
care, also, there is a huge difference between developed and developing
countries.
In many poor countries, shortage of energy supplies holds back economic
progress. There is a need to explore new energy technologies, for example,
power using geothermal heat from deep inside the earth’s crust.

“Development” goes beyond providing seeds and equipment. It also
involves developing a country’s farming skills and much-needed
knowledge and expertise (on training) which will finally guide a
developing country to food-sufficiency.

For some developing countries, it will be difficult for farming to bring
prosperity. Nepal, which is one of the world’s poorest countries, is
dependent almost entirely on farming. However, only about one-fifth of its
land is suitable for farming. Most of Nepal’s population lives in the hills,
where the terrain is sloping, the soil is of poor quality and the climate
unpredictable and often violent.

Countries like Nepal are the most challenging to development planners.
Very often, floods and landslides can ruin work by carrying away irrigation
channels, together with the growing crops. Also, forests get depleted,
loosening soil for agriculture. Yet, “hill farmers” have no other source of
fuel for cooking and heating.

The size of the “gap” between rich and poor countries is mammoth. This
calls for enormous investment.

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“…. It is not true that there is insufficient food to go round...” so said John
Ferguson, in “Not Them But Us” … “The grain produced, if properly
distributed, would give every human being ample protein and more than
3000 calories a day. But a third of the grain produced is fed to animals.
There are terrifying anomalies. In 1971 during acute drought the countries
of the Sahel actually exported 15 million kilos of vegetables, mainly to
Europe. In 1974, after the floods in Bangladesh, people could not afford the
rice which was actually available.”

And, then, there is the darker side of development. A great deal of aid is in
the form of loans that the countries must pay back with interest. This
burden of “debt” adds to the problems of the poorest countries.

“If the governments cannot agree to feed the world, they cannot agree
about anything”, said Boyd Orr.

The Sahel is a strip of land along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in
Africa. Drought and overgrazing of the sparse vegetation in the past led to
expansion of the desert, resulting in starvation and death for herdsmen,
their families and their animals. Ethiopia and Somalia were the worst
sufferers. The crisis worsened with civil war and a rapidly growing
population… resulting in one of the greatest human disasters in history. In
1985 and 1986, humanitarian aid poured in from all directions, but over
one million people perished of starvation. This vicious attack stunned
audiences all over the world. As for Uganda, even in normal times,
Ugandans eat, on an average, much less food than they need, which leaves
them disease-prone, and in cases of crop failure, to famine.

I feel sorry for the poor. We go on…

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The “green revolution” aimed at improving the productivity of farmers in
the developing countries and enabling them feed themselves. Between
1950 and 1985 the total land area of the world made fertile by irrigation
doubled. New strains of cereal seeds were introduced; along with the use of
artificial fertilizers and pesticides. World cereal production went up.
Countries like China and India greatly benefited. And yet, poor (small)
farmers using hand tools, failed to afford the new seeds or the fertilizers,
and the small size of their farms made it difficult to employ agricultural
machinery. The revolution definitely led to better crops and less hunger.
But it produced adverse social and economic effects. In recent years, more
emphasis is being placed on agricultural development projects targeted at
small farmers.

“Development aid” is a very complex issue. The money is not always well
spent. Some of it goes on government palaces and such luxuries as artificial
sport(s) turfs and conference halls. The money does not always reach the
target groups, but percolates down into the pockets of politicians and
officials, or is used to pay the defense forces. The “gap” remains…

World War III? By the mid-50s, many renowned world figures – like the
British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and the American
scientist Linus Pauling – doubted whether the world would survive to the
year 2000 without blowing itself to pieces.

There has been no world war during the life of the United Nations. Since
1945, no nation has dropped a nuclear bomb on another nation. There has
been no nuclear war. Space, which could have been a kind of storehouse
for nuclear weapons, has been kept free of arms. (How long will this
continue? what about Afghanistan?)

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The message is love; we all live in the same world and must learn to share
it-or perish.

We have survived, and yet there are many more miles to go…

On India: -teachings of Swami Vivekananda:

From “India – Cause of Her degeneration”: -

Among several causes: - ‘I consider that the great national sin is the neglect
of the masses, and that is one of the causes of our downfall. No amount of
politics would be of any avail until the masses in India are once more well
educated, well – fed, and well-cared for?’

From “India – The Way to Her Regeneration”: -

‘India is to be raised, the poor are to be fed, education is to be spread, and
the evil of priestcraft is to be removed. … More bread, more opportunity
for everybody! ….

– Your duty at present is to go from one part of the country to another,
from village to village, and make the people understand that mere sitting
about idly won’t do any more. Make them understand their real
condition and say, “O ye brothers all arise! Awake! How much longer
would you remain asleep!” Go and advise them how to improve their
own condition, and make them comprehend the sublime truths of the
scriptures, by presenting them in a lucid and popular way… also,
instruct them, in simple words, about the necessities of life, and in trade,
commerce, agriculture, etc. If you cannot do this, then fie upon your
education and culture, and fie upon your studying the Vedas and
Vedanta!

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– A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness,
fortified with eternal faith in the lord, and nerved to lion’s courage by
their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the down-trodden, will go
over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of
salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising – up – the
gospel of equality.

– The hope lies in you- in the meek, the lowly but the faithful. Have faith
in the Lord,… feel for the miserable and look up for help- it “shall
come”-

– India will awake, when hundreds of large – hearted men and women
giving up all desires of enjoying the luxuries of life, will lay and exert
themselves to their utmost for the well-being of the millions of their
countrymen who are gradually sinking lower and lower in the vortex of
destitution and ignorance. Good motives, sincerity and infinite love can
conquer the world.

– You merge yourself in the void and disappear, and let new India arise in
your place. Let her arise – out of the peasants’ cottage, grasping the
plough, out of the huts of the fisherman, the cobbler and the sweeper.
Let her spring from the grocer’s shop, from beside the oven of the
fritter-seller. Let her emanate from the factory, from marts and from
markets. Let her emerge from the groves and forests, from hills and
mountains.

– Say, elevation of the masses without injuring their religion.

– Remember that the nation lives in the cottage. But, alas! Nobody ever
did anything for them. Our modern reformers are very busy about
widow-remarriage. Of course, I am a sympathizer in every reform, but

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the fate of a nation does not depend upon the number of husbands their
widows get, but upon the “condition of the masses”. Can you raise
them? Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of
great deeds. Onward for ever! Sympathy for the poor, the downtrodden,
even unto death-this is our motto…’

– Many projects that the industrial countries support in the Third World
have global effects. Controlling the flow of drugs and halting the spread
of communicable diseases are projects that serve the interests of
industrial countries – and humanity.

Poor countries assist with the security of the rich ones in several ways:

Environmental controls – most of the world’s tropical forests are in the
developing countries, and it is in everyone’s interest to preserve them
so as to help slow global warming and maintain biodiversity. The
world community should share the cost of environmental preservation;

Controlling communicable diseases – a global joint initiative should
be launched to control such diseases as malaria, TB, cholera and
HIV/AIDS, which is of interest to countries worldwide. It is much
more meaningful to initiate global vaccination campaigns against a
contagious disease than to exclude individual carriers at national
frontiers. It is easier to clean up the water supply in cholera – prone

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countries than to monitor all the agricultural produce they export. The
world community will stand to gain from slowing the spread of
HIV/AIDS. Investment upstream can curtail the spread of the disease;

Control of drugs: experience shows that curbing demand for narcotics
is more crucial than curbing supply. A truly global effort is needed;

Famine, pollution, ethnic violence and AIDS – their consequences can
spread rapidly worldwide. Other problems that require international action
and have to be “nipped in the bud” are international terrorism, nuclear
proliferation, natural disasters and excessive international migration.

Motivation for aid: the process of development along with official foreign
assistance-has had more successes than its critics usually concede.
Development cooperation has enabled vital technologies-like vaccines for
children to hybrid seeds-spread rapidly throughout the developing world. It
is true that not all development models have been right, or that not all
technology has been appropriate. But, we must remember, that without this
transfer of financial resources, technology, expertise and equipment,
development in the poorer countries would have been much slower.

To genuinely benefit the poor, aid will have to become much more
participatory and people-centered. Open public discussions on aid will help
aid become more effective-and to help remove disparities in society...
talking about regions where the needs are the greatest…

Costing essential human development targets, 1995-2005: source: Human
Development Report, UNDP, 1994: -

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Approximate
Sector Specific Targets annual additional
costs
♦ Education ♦ Basic education for all and adult illiteracy $5 to $6 billion
reduced by 50% with female illiteracy no
higher than male
♦ Health ♦ Primary health care for all, including $5 to $7 billion
complete immunization of all children
♦ Reduction of under-five mortality by one-
half or to 70 per 1,000 live births
whichever is less!
♦ Elimination of severe malnutrition and a
50% reduction in moderate malnutrition
♦ Population ♦ Basic family planning package available $10 to $12 billion
to all willing couples
♦ Low-cost ♦ Universal access to safe drinking water $10 to $15 billion
water
supply and
sanitation
Total for priority human agenda $30 to $40 billion

Global governance for the 21st Century: “mankind’s problems can no
longer be solved by national governments. What is needed is a world
government.
This can best be achieved by strengthening the United Nations system. In
some cases, this would mean changing the role of UN agencies from advice
– giving to implementation. Thus, the FAO would become the world
ministry of agriculture, UNIDO would become the world ministry of
industry, and the ILO the world ministry of social affairs.

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In other cases, completely new institutions would be needed. These could
include, for example, a permanent world police…

Other institutions could include an ocean authority… and an analogous
outer space authority, to deal with matters such as outer space, aviation and
information satellites.

But some of the most important institutions would be financial – a world
treasury and a world central bank. The world treasury would serve as a
world ministry of finance… in addition, there should be a world central
bank based on a reformed IMF to deal, among other things, with monetary,
banking and stock exchange policies…

There should also be a redistribution at the international level through
development co-operation…

Some of these proposals are, no doubt, far-fetched and beyond the horizon
of today’s political possibilities. But the idealists of today often turn out to
be the realists of tomorrow.”

-Jan Tinbergen, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for Economics.

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CHAPTER 5B

THE WORLD AS IT IS
When the well of fight dries up:

“I have seen many droughts, perhaps this is the worst of the century.
Further on in the hapless desert I came by another set of dwellings. A man
sat there, lonesome, with not even flies to swat. His cattle were all dead or
gone. The last of his two cows lay dead nearby under the claws of a brood
of vultures, their wings fanning an air that reeked of something that must
be called death.

It would be a joke, a rather cruel one, to ask these people which side of the
poverty line they lie on. And it would be ruthlessly unkind to inform them
of the morning’s headlines of all the crisis management cries the
newspapers are full of, of all the grains and fodder that are rolling out of
the government’s godowns for the dearest of the dear: those below the
poverty line.

Actually, what do they know about poverty lines and what those below it
are supposed to get? The government does and its many agents do-
contractors, fair price shop owners, bursars of poverty alleviation funds.
Aren’t they the ones who really define that line called poverty???”

– excerpts from “The Worst Drought of the Century”, The Telegraph,
India, 26/4/2000.

I wish to bring to your attention the fact that there has been a “national
water crisis” (India) in the recent past. Chronically water-deficit areas like

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Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan as well as some other states in India
have experienced disaster.

Relief funds, food grains, fodder and rushing trains carrying water to the
affected areas are not sufficient enough. They are short-term remedies.
What India needs today is sound water (resource) management. The
presence of officials is not sufficient a condition (as a remedy). Is a nation
(India) that prides itself on constituting 30 % of software professionals
worldwide and that has emerged as the highest milk producer in the world
too poor to implement sound water management schemes? If several NGOs
and people’s groups can devise locally viable water conservation schemes,
can’t the government implement schemes that would do away with drought
forever?

Almost 30 years back, we came up with the idea of a “national water grid”-
a scheme to interlink all rivers of the country to solve for all time the
problems of drought, desertification, floods etc. This scheme was shelved.
We can off course build storage tanks in villages for recharging of a dead
river.

God bless our country.

God bless all nations in similar situations.

- (source: a national daily)

What follow are extracts from “Every Girl’s Handbook” by Roger
Coote, 1994:

Rich world, poor world: the world is divided between developed
countries, which make most of their money from industry and finance, and

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poorer developing countries that rely mainly on farming. Most developing
nations are in Africa, Asia and South and Central America.

Food and famine: the world produces more than enough food to feed its
entire population, and yet there are many many people who do not have
enough to eat. The reason for this is that the world’s food is not evenly
shared out.

The largest food producers: the countries that produce the most food are the
USA, China, the CIS and India. Both China and India are developing
nations, and although they produce vast amounts of food, they also have
very large populations to feed- many of whom are too poor to buy as much
food as they need.

The richest countries grow more food than their people need, while poorer
countries often can’t grow enough. About 70% of the world’s grain is eaten
by people in the rich, developed countries, which have only 20%of the
population.

To earn money, poor countries often grow “cash crops”- crops such as
coffee, bananas, tobacco and cotton that can be sold to richer nations. This
leaves less land for poor farmers, and means that even less food can be
grown.

The worst situation of all occurs when a poor country suffers wars or
drought- a period when not enough rain falls-lasting several years. Crops
cannot be grown because of the fighting, or the plants die in the fields for
lack of water. The result is that the people have even less to eat than usual,
and often many thousands of them starve to death.

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Industry: since the industrial revolution, which began in eighteenth-century
Britain, most industries have come to rely on machines to make their
products. At first, machines were driven by waterpower and coal-fired
steam engines, and later by electricity and diesel engines. Machines can
make things faster and more cheaply than people, and only a few expensive
items are still made by hand.

In many wealthy, developed nations, heavy industries such as mining, steel
making and shipbuilding are declining. They are being replaced by service
industries, including banking, insurance, tourism and leisure, and by light
industries such as electronics.

Another trend is for more and more industrial processes to be controlled by
computers and carried out by robots.
Resources and energy: resources are things such as fuels, the raw materials
from which products are made, and plants and animals that supply such
things as food, timber and natural fibers.

The land itself is also a resource. In some places it is being grazed by too
many animals and is becoming dry desert where nothing grows.

Many resources are now being used up far faster than nature can replace
them. This is most true of fossil fuels-oil, gas and coal-from which most of
our energy is made.

At present, the developed countries use far more energy than the poorer
developing nations. But as the poorer countries become more
industrialized, they will consume more and more energy.

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Some species of fish are disappearing because of overfishing-too many are
being caught before they are able to breed. Stocks of cod, herring, haddock
and other common fish are now at an all time low.

We can make our resources last longer if we reuse and recycle them, and
use renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. These actions
would also cut down on pollution and reduce the damage caused by
mining.

Religions: throughout the world, there are many different religions, all
trying to give their followers an explanation for the aspects of life that are
beyond our control. There are four major religions: Christianity, Islam,
Hinduism and Buddhism. Other religions include Judaism, Sikhism,
Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism and Jainism. One of the oldest religions
is “animism”, in which people believe there is a god or spirit in every
object, from animals and plants to rocks and rivers.

Population: the world’s population is about 5575000000 (approx. 557
crores) people and this number is growing by 96000000 (approx. 9.6
crores) each year. The United Nations has estimated that by the year 2050,
it will have reached 10000000000 (approx. 1000 crores). Most of the
growth in population is occurring in the poorer countries of the world,
where people are now living longer because of better health care, and more
babies are being born, too.

The papacy is opposed to abortion and family planning, but family
planning is a must. Because event - management for this large number of
people would be difficult under the present circumstances of world politics
(ethnic and nationalistic sentiments rising, anti-race sentiments). Whether
the one child norm should be enforced or implemented raises certain moral

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(nee-ethical) questions. No change should be enforced but implemented.
The one-child norm could be implemented in developing countries where
both the health of the mother and the health of the child are at stake. The
economies of scale operate in the case of Third World hunger, malnutrition
and reproductive status of women, hence the need for birth control. As for
abortion, it is a matter of choice. Both the lives of the mother and the foetus
are at stake. In the case of unwanted pregnancy, abortion may be fruitfully
carried out. To prevent unwanted pregnancy, knowledge of sex and
morality (to prevent delinquent behavior) is required. Talking about sex
education, let us discuss whether there has been a sexual revolution in
India.

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CHAPTER 6A
“We will not be forced back into the ‘biology is destiny’ concept that seeks
to define, confine and reduce women and girls to their physical sexual
characteristics. We will not let this happen – not in our homes, our
workplaces, our communities, our countries…..”

– From message from NGO women to UN member states, the Secretariat
and the Commission on the Status of Women, April 3, 1995

“Unisexual sport” – one of the best ways to bring the two sexes together-

There are greater issues than the exposure of the human anatomy in
cinema-

Sex creates greater inequality between men and women than anything else
does

Worldwide, 13 million children - more than the child population of the UK
– have been orphaned because of AIDS –

Six people under the age of 25, are infected with HIV every minute –

This is about the “Lesbian Avengers”, a creative action group that uses
grass-roots activism to fight for lesbian survival and visibility. They struck
at an anniversary conference of an organization for children in the UK…
The organization had cancelled the appearance of a popular TV comedian,
Sandi Toksvig, after she had come out publicly as a lesbian a month before.
They shouted: “she (Sandi) isn’t here because she said she is a queer.”

Later, Toksvig said, “Perhaps there is a theory that in expressing my
sexuality, I have lost my compassion and concern for others in the world.”

And Toksvig (actually) happened to be the co-parent of three children and
a regular helper to the organization for many years.

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“People in the U.S.

Used to think

That if girls were good at sports

Their sexuality would be affected.

Being feminine

Meant being a cheerleader,

Not an athlete.

The image of women

Is changing now.

You don’t have to be pretty

For people to come and see you play.”

- Martina Navratilova, former tennis champion.

Shockingly, in the island nation of Sri Lanka (in fact, all over the world)
the wealthy can “buy” sex with young men and boys. A major racket in
child sex abuse was unearthed sometime back.

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CHAPTER 6B

SEXUAL REVOLUTION IN INDIA – A MYTH
OR A REALITY
“It is evident that every emission of semen in such a way that generation
cannot follow, is contrary to the good of men. And if this is done
deliberately, it must be a sin”- said Thomas Aquinas. Over the years, sex
and sexuality have been very sensitive issues, but in the past, not many
great men have done revolutionary thinking in this context.

Aristotle’s view stressed that “it is man’s nature to rule, while it is
woman’s nature to be ruled.” Dr. Sigmund Freud, the father of
Psychoanalysis, was certainly no great advocate of the feminist cause. He
shocked the Victorian world with his views on “infantile sexuality”, but
maintained an orthodox stand in sexual differences.

There is off course nothing new in these arguments. but I shudder to think
that sex should be repressed in India, the land which produced the
“Kamasutra”, fifteen hundred years ago, a manual on the act of sex which
was so explicit (erotic temple sculptures?) and daring that its sale was
banned in America. The question is, if Indian society was so uninhibited
once, as during the time of Vatsyayana (the author of the “Kamasutra”),
why did it become so prudish? Is it a revolution or a mere superficial
change? Is it a sign of a new beginning? Now, a “revolution” occurs when
a complete change has taken place (this goes for everything). To
“revolutionize” is to alter (everything) completely. This is also known as
“revival” or “renaissance”.

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“Reality” is the quality of being real, not imaginary. A situation can be
termed as “real” when what seems, is actually what is…

A “myth” contrasts with truth and reality.

Let us view the present sexual trends in India in the light of these terms. A
spark has been ignited. We come to see a change in terms of the parameters
of family, marriage and social class. The media is providing all the means
for stimulation of the sexual drive. It is no longer reluctant to show sex
more explicit than before and vulgar and erotic Hindi movies seethe with a
sexual current. Also, now we have condom ads and sex education
documentaries as well as adult movies. Daily newspapers promise
forbidden joy.

Sex has now changed from marital to premarital and extramarital forms.
Dating is becoming common. There has been an increase in the number of
abortions. Increase is also seen in the demand for contraceptives and
sexually stimulating pornographic magazines and movies. The gay culture
has already come to India. The World Health Organisation (WHO)
estimates that India will have the largest number of AIDS patients in the
world. Previously reluctant parents are now sending their daughters to late
nights and overnights. A revolution, if any, has been seen more among the
younger generation, with the middle classes getting affected the most.

We know that India is fast emerging as one of the most industrialized
nations in the world. (What about agriculture?) The super computer
represents the beginning of an Indian techno-revolution. Recycling of
waste in the Indian cities represents the beginning of an ecological
revolution. (Has there been an ecological revolution really, in Delhi, the
stars cannot be seen at night?) Sterilized needles herald a medical
revolution. (Has a medical revolution reached the remote villages?) Does

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then the growing AIDS awareness mark the beginning of a sexual
revolution?

There is the other side of the story. The reality is that we have a distorted
version of the changes that have occurred.

Today, the average Indian is experimenting more with things related to sex.
Yet, the degree of advancement in these matters in our country is still less
than (that) in the West. Though the media is providing all the means of
stimulation, it is not channelizing the sexual drive in a proper manner.

There is a vast difference in attitudes towards sex within the country. Sex
in day-to-day life is not accepted openly. Women are still not comfortable
about their sexuality. Still in some places, women are kept secluded during
the period of menstruation.

Added to this, now, there is access to pornography on the internet. Young,
impressionable minds are getting access to the internet. Yes, daddy’s
present – a computer??? And is there a need for “cybernetic sex”??? A
separate issue altogether!

In India, feminine sexuality still stands rejected and it is male sexuality,
which is always acceptable. For some women, sex is a wifely duty. The
Indian man enjoys conjugal rights over his wife and marriage can be
annulled on the basis that she refused him sex.

Osho Rajneesh said, “In India, atleast 98% of women have never had an
orgasm.” The suppression of sex seems terrible in North India where
people make vulgar comments on young couples.

Apart from all this, sex education is still missing in most Indian schools.
There is lack of proper information, which has led people to many
misconceptions. The Indian man still complains of premature ejaculation

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and is anxious about masturbation. Interaction between the sexes is
confined to the highly educated. There is still a lot of social stigma attached
to open expression of affection in public.

When asked about vulgarity on MTV, media baron Rupert Murdoch said
that he had been thinking of banning MTV till he watched our Hindi
movies. Our own movies are showing increasing amounts of sex and
violence. AIDS has come to India and this is a very real threat and
unprotected sex is one of the major causes. We still do not have condom-
vending machines in rural areas as targeted.

Prostitution (largely forced) is a big evil. But have we been able to provide
alternative means of livelihood to these sex workers? Have we provided for
the education of their children? Can we attempt to evacuate them and build
a separate township for them so that they can lead decent lives???

One major disadvantage about sex coming out of the closet in wrongly
channelized ways is that it is now turning up in unexpected and sometimes
unwanted places. The best example of this is the booming soft porn
magazine industry. Until some years ago, “Debonair” was the only soft
porn magazine. Now, there are over 5 such magazines; each one with a
circulation of over 40,000 per issue. More and more neighborhood video
libraries are now offering hard core pornographic movies. The problem is
that there is no control over the age limit of customers for such movies and
magazines. A young boy or girl going through them might end up with
twisted ideas about sex, which may last for the rest of his or her life.

Another serious drawback is the rapidly changing attitudes and lifestyles of
the young people which parents of the middle class do not know how to
handle. In some cases, the youngsters themselves do not know how to

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handle these matters, like an incident in which a 17 year old girl was
murdered by an 18 year old boy.

Attitudes like these have to be guarded against. The solution is not to go
back to a time when the very word sex was taboo. It is to make people have
not only more openness in matters related to sex but a more correct and
responsible attitude towards it. Sex education should be made compulsory
in schools so those children can build up a proper attitude from the
beginning. And parents have to be taught that beyond a certain age it is
better to explain those tough issues.

For animals, sex is a means of reproduction. For human beings, however,
sex involves much more than reproduction. It has natural and important
biological, psychological and sociological effects on the lives of human
beings.

Even though the so-called sexual revolution has come full circle in the
West, sex is far from being safe and healthy. The winner of a former
American beauty pageant for children, a little girl of six, was sexually
harassed. Is this what we want in India when we talk about the need of a
sexual revolution???

What about the rural and urban slum areas where women have no control
over issues related to sex and reproduction????

The teacher’s duty is not only to teach his subjects but also impart correct
values, correct morals and ethics to our children. Sex and moral education
should begin in the classroom, whether a modern, urban classroom or a
slum class session or a rural area classes session. Besides, it is essential to
fight for women’s reproductive rights.

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The idea of a sexual revolution is evident in the words of Jo Mattison:
“every person should rid himself or herself of self-hate and see the
absurdity of denying his or her sexuality.”

This idea is by itself entirely Western. Today, not even the West is happy
with such a revolution. Until the average Indian feels proud of his or her
own sexuality, the idea of a sexual revolution in India will remain a myth
and only a myth.

From here, let us analyze the impact on society of a change in color of the
revolution…

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CHAPTER 7A
(For writing this chapter, I have consulted quite a bit of literature on
agriculture and rural development)

In countries where farming is the mainstay of the economy, agriculture
should be made a full-fledged industry. More and more foreign investment
should be poured in. To combat poverty, more money should be poured
into small industries and agriculture. At the same time, we should make
efforts to spread literacy and give incentives (and disincentives) to control
population.

No nation has attained strength and power until it overcame its problems on
the land and established a sound agriculture to support other kinds of
economic growth.

- Anonymous

– Farmers in the USA and other developed countries can afford expensive
equipment to pump water from below the ground to irrigate their crops.
This option is very often not available in the developing world. There,
farmers may or may not be able to afford the equipment, and in many
places there is no source of water.

– Methods and organization of production and business in Africa, Asia
and Latin America greatly need modernizing… the greater strength of
the countries of the “North” comes from the fact that they have already
carried out this work of modernization. Most of them have passed
through an industrial revolution – in other words, their hand-production
has given way to machine-production. So, what has their coming to the
“South” done for its modernizing? Trade has expanded… but? What

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about the backlash of this “colonial development”?? Poverty (largely,
rural)???? …traditions have been dying! The most successful farmers
have often got into debt because the prices they are paid are not
covering their costs of production. There are no proper facilities for
borrowing money from banks… and no access to cheap credit… and a
long term consequence… because of export, very little food can be
grown for local use…leading to serious… local food shortages…

– adapted from “Look Into a Barren Field of Farm Policy”

Author – a former agriculture minister of India (the Telegraph, India, 12
July 2000):

Instead of daydreaming, the Indian government should take a good hard
look at the country’s farming sector, which determines the livelihood for
two-thirds of the country’s population…

The prices of products farmers have to buy have been rising faster than the
prices of the produce they grow… when the agricultural growth rate falls
below the population growth rate, the result is bound to be an increase in
rural poverty… The policy framework must encourage high investment in
rural assets, and channel public expenditure towards supportive
infrastructure…

The existing restrictions to movement of agricultural produce between
states should be eliminated, so that farmers can benefit from a single
national market…

Survival in the global agricultural market depends on comparative access to
subsidies and cheaper inputs…

India’s agricultural potential is great. Its farm production could be
increased manifold, if the following basic steps are observed…

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First, agriculturists should be made literate. Only one in four farmers can
measure the size of his field, or calculate how much fertilizer or pesticide
needs to be applied to his fields.

Second, India’s villages need to be linked by all weather roads.

Third, a more efficient marketing system is needed for farm products. The
efficiency of such a system should be judged by how much of the consumer
price is actually passed on to the producer.

In India, most of the money consumers pay for agricultural product goes to
middlemen rather than farmers. A network of rural warehouses needs to be
established.

Farmers should be allowed to deposit their produce in such places and get
bank advances worth up to 80 per cent of the price of the products
deposited…

In course of time, such warehouses will serve as direct links between
producers and consumers, even with wholesale traders. This would
eliminate the horde of middlemen.

Finally, the mechanization of Indian agriculture needs to be accelerated.
Indian agriculture is most mechanized in Punjab, the state where
unemployment and the incidence of poverty is the lowest … Japan and
South Korea have shown that small land holdings are no impediment to
mechanization.

And yes, corruption in the system has to be weeded out…

- All Soviet - style economies collapsed by 1990. But India is yet to heed
the warning. Globalization leads to neo - colonialism, for instance, cheaper
imports of consumer goods causes great risk to small industrial units…
Disparities of income and wealth between regions and between individuals

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have widened, and we now have a mass of destitutes without food,
employment, shelter, or hope…. These are “Outcasts of the Global Village”
and most of them are confined to the Third World…

Actually, what do the information revolution, our new fashion houses, our
beauty parlors, our Chinese or Thai or Italian restaurants and the Miss
World or Miss Universe pageants mean to the "victims” of globalization?

-Soil and water are of crucial importance to mankind. However, available
soil and water resources in the world are being continually depleted and
degraded. Reckless felling of trees, improper land use and plugging of
natural drains are leading to continued loss in land productivity, severe
erosion, in turn, the loss of valuable top soil and its nutrients, drought,
floods, sedimentation of reservoirs, wastage of precious water, ecological
crisis and impoverishment in rural areas. Technical and socio-economic
knowledge - based approach coupled with people’s participation can arrest
this degradation, conserve soil and water in a process called “watershed
management”, promoting livelihood and ecological sustainability.

-In the context of increase in agricultural production, one can think either
of an expansion of irrigation or increase in fertilizer use or increase in area
under “high-yielding variety” (HYV) cultivation. One can also think of
mixing these three technologies in different proportions. It is worth noting
that capital which is needed for irrigation is of a traditional variety where
coal, iron and cement are the major inputs. Fertilizers are petro-chemicals.
Although HYV can be successfully used with irrigation and fertilizer, it is
susceptible to pests, and “pesticides” have to be employed… talking about
“choices in agriculture”!

– A vast majority of the world’s farmers are economically backward and
poor. Therefore, many farmer families raise crops with the sole

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intention of household consumption, or for “subsistence” only. They
generally do not use machinery and hired labor and do not think of
selling their produce in the market. These poor farmers remain deprived
of other basic essentials such as shelter, clothing, health care and
education.

On the other hand, many crops, especially tea, coffee, rubber, indigo and
jute are grown with the prime motive of selling the produce in the market.
Machines are put to use for various works, laborers are hired, and the crops
are grown for “commercial” purposes.

In many parts of the world, cattle rearing are practiced extensively. The
farms are very big in size. Animals are reared for different purposes
following scientific management techniques.

“Co - operative” farming becomes necessary in those countries where
holdings are very small and uneconomic, or bad economic conditions do
not permit individual farming to be profitable. Amul Dairy is one of the
most successful co-operative farms in India.

-Joske Bunders, Bertus Haverkort and Wim Hiemstra define
“Biotechnology” as” the application of indigenous and/or scientific
knowledge to the management of (parts of) micro - organisms, or of cells
and tissues of higher organisms, so that these supply goods and services of
use to human beings”. The real challenge lies in developing appropriate
biotechnology for the rural poor.

What we need today is an “evergreen revolution”, where biological
productivity can be improved without damaging the environment.
Biotechnology becomes essential to sustain agriculture in the long run.

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-“Rural development can (and should) involve the creation of an ‘enabling’
environment in which rural people can identify their needs and priorities
and with professional support, organize themselves to improve the quality
of their lives”

– His Highness the Aga Khan

Rural development requires the support of specialized skills, focused
management with perspective, and adaptable technology to improve the
quality of rural life.

One should have concern for the disadvantaged while organizing rural
people towards viability and (self) sustainability through optimal use of
local resources. The rural poor (themselves) should be allowed to
determine their priorities for development, take joint action in
implementation, and gain access to resources and services available from
government, VO’s etc. Consider this, a change in attitude from merely (for
household consumption only)”subsistence agriculture” to “irrigated
farming” (using the latest technology) can provide “other” basics such as
shelter, clothing, health care, safe drinking water, education and
employment, leading to higher standards of living and poverty reduction.

Important quality parameters include:

i) people’s participation;

ii) technical excellence;

iii) cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency;

iv) equity;

v) sustainability.

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Rural programs should be organized and implemented through appropriate
village institutions, which would decide, execute and manage the
development programs. Key target areas should be (poor) tribal and / or
famine / drought prone areas. These experiments would greatly benefit
rural South Asia, rural Africa and rural Latin America, the poorest
‘societies’ of the world.

Training can be a crucial support system for institution – building and skill
– development of staff as well as village functionaries. More training
programs should be run for “extension volunteers” and office – bearers of
village institutions. Workshops on “participatory training methodologies”
can and should be organized especially in the poorest rural areas.

Irrigation systems can be “turned over” from government administration to
farmers’ organizations, as was done successfully in the Philippines in the
past.

Policies should always be “people-centered”. Voluntary organizations can
play a crucial role in demonstrating how to build social and physical
infrastructure. A “participatory” development approach is the need of the
day.

i) “Turnover” of irrigation schemes effects more efficient irrigation
management and speedier implementation of projects. Construction of
check dams needs more dialogue and participation from villagers.
Sound water resource development is very, very important;

ii) When the topography of land is such that the impact of soil and water
conservation structures cannot be ascertained, and farmers are left with
little incentive to work due to scarcity of top soil and marginal
productivity, water harvesting structures can be constructed, under an

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integrated micro-watershed development plan; which can greatly help
farmers increase their income from improved agriculture;

iii) In a process called “wasteland development”, “greening” can be
undertaken by planting trees, grass, saplings; etc to develop unutilized
or underutilized lands;

iv) In a process of “agriculture development”, a few demonstrations (on
small plots of land) can be carried out jointly by farmers and extension
volunteers and field exercises can supplement such efforts. This
process can scale up agricultural input (moreover, of superior quality),
specifically, agricultural development programs reflect specialized
needs and farmers’ ability to adopt and adapt to new technologies. For
instance, in the case of water resource development programs, there is
great emphasis on initiating farmers of lift irrigation projects to the
skills and knowledge of cultivating irrigated crops. Emphasis should be
placed on high-yielding varieties (HYVS) and improved cropping
patterns. On-farm research should be carried out and farmers’ visits to
various agricultural universities for specialized inputs in rain-fed
farming, seed production, relay cropping practices, grain storage
technology, the economics of cultivation, etc. be organized;

v) Bio-gas slurry, a high quality organic manure, not only increases yield,
but also makes for more porous soil, attracts no flies and mosquitoes
and is free from foul smell;

vi) The success of any animal husbandry program depends on a) the active
participation of the semi-nomad communities, b) a pasture land
development scheme acceptable to all communities, c) a reliable
veterinary service network, and, d) a viable milk marketing system. We

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must bear in mind that there are strong social, cultural and economic
relationships between the pastoral community and “common property
resources” like wasteland; pastureland; etc. With the right animal care
and feeds, animals produce significantly higher yields. To further
improve livestock yield, artificial insemination and immunization of
animals through vaccination camps should be carried out. Fodder banks
should be established;

vii) There is a need to focus on “credit for the disadvantaged”. Villagers
have limited access to institutional finance, and in most cases, have to
face complicated procedures. Private finance is very costly, exploitative
and unavailable for the chronically cash-starved farmers. an “ideal”
savings, credit and supply scheme is based on certain “principles” :-

(a) physical infrastructure is not sufficient for economic development;
(b) schemes to focus on economically weaker sections, like small,
marginal and dry-land farmers; (c) all schemes should aim to enhance
savings and bring about self – reliance; (d) appraisal and disbursement
of schemes should rest with village level functionaries; (e) schemes
should be extended to women and the landless, the more vulnerable
groups in rural areas, and self-help groups can be formed; (f) crop
finance should be extended to village institutions.

“Agricultural input supply centers” can be setup to provide inputs at
reasonable prices to farmers;

Farmers would benefit from “collective” marketing to maximize returns on
their produce. The main advantage of collective marketing is to provide
farmers with a better price for their produce;

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viii) In India, village institutions mainly exist in the form of local self-
governments called “Panchayats” and cooperative societies undertaking
varied functions. While a few of these bodies have been operating
successfully, the majority has not performed satisfactorily. A lack of
dynamic leadership, unhealthy politics and corrupt practices are to
blame.

The main indicators of a good village institution are: (a) growth in
economic activities; (b) growth in savings; (c) regular meetings of
members; (d) systematic book-keeping; (e) stable leadership; (f)
financial discipline of members; (g) effective linkages with external
agencies.

Some village institutions have actually expanded and need to be
recognized as more formal entities;

ix) The issue of gender in development should be addressed at the stage of
project planning itself. Two important questions come to mind: (a)
what is the woman’s role in development? (b) what is the impact of
development projects on women?

There is a need to change the rural woman’s role in village level from
that of a passive recipient to one of an active participant. Savings and
credit activities, homestead farming, animal husbandry, agriculture,
horticulture, soil and water conservation and biogas plants are some
major activities that can be undertaken by rural women. More and more
women should be encouraged to participate in “Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA)” exercises.

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Rural women lead a very tough life. PRAs involving both sexes
confirm this. “….little did they (the men) think of their women, their
punishing work load and a life of drudgery.

The women … deserved a better deal…

As soon as a woman gets up, she cleans the house… the women collect
water after they clean the house… in the absence of a flourmill in the
village, women have to grind their grains themselves…. then cook the
morning meal… take care of the animals and collect fuelwood from the
forest…

Carrying food to the field, working in the field at weeding, grazing
cattle, cutting fodder, pounding and de-husking of grains, serving food
etc.

…Even in the summer heat women walk barefoot … they get a lot of
smoke in their eyes and body while cooking… they don’t even get
water to drink, especially in summer- it is very difficult…”

It takes time, and repeated conscientization to change attitudes… such
is the stereotyping of women’s status…;

(xi) A “participatory approach” to development would consist of a package
having three essential instruments :-

a) Village institutions (VIS): the role of a village institution is
identified chiefly through its requirement in a program. they take
up appropriate forms and responsibilities;

b) Extension volunteers (EVS): are public-spirited keen learners
willing to spend their time and effort to share their knowledge and
skills with other villagers. EVS save on staff cost, promote access

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to technology and services, are able to identify with the language
and culture of the people, are aware of local strengths and
limitations, and are in a position to convince villagers of the value
of a proposed project;

c) Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA): consists of getting reliable
and relevant information about villages in a participatory way.
Information can be obtained on local resources, problems, and
priorities of development. The PRA technique establishes informal
and friendly contact with ordinary people. PRAs have special
focus on agriculture, animal husbandry, watershed, biogas, credit,
etc. benefits include identification of weaker sections, selection of
tree species, identification of training needs for agriculture
development program, etc;

(xii) NGOs can be strong partners in development and should therefore be
given more support in procedures related to seeking technical and
administrative sanction and availing themselves of finance.

Cattle development: using high quality frozen semen from disease-free
bulls can produce calves of superior genetic potential. Pregnancy diagnosis
measures should be taken. Technical field staff should closely interact with
the rural cattle-breeders. There is a need to apply research in the areas of
animal breeding and animal reproduction. Cattle development can
significantly reduce rural poverty and under-employment by providing
income-generating assets and gainful self-employment opportunities at the
doorstep.

Animal health: the need of the hour is to develop standard quality for
health, vaccines, diagnostics and pharmaceutical products to optimize the

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potential of livestock and poultry. Monitoring and surveillance of disease
status and direct application of recent advances in biotechnological
innovations should be the major goal of research on animal health.
Education of farmers may be a significant factor in controlling mastitis and
other diseases.

Agro forestry and afforestation: let us go greening our industrial premises.
Let us try to test how well our tree species perform on wastelands under
protective irrigation. Or, how well they perform on saline soils and in an
arid environment. Or, how much tolerant are dry zone tree species to
drought? Let us set up “seed orchards”. Let us encourage farmers to
cultivate medicinal plants. To make barren wastelands more productive, let
us develop suitable models of afforestation, soil conservation and
horticulture. This method could rehabilitate many landless families.
“Kitchen gardens” can ensure higher participation of women and children.
Treated effluent from factories can be used for irrigating plantations and
the sludge as manure to replace farmyard manure which has high organic
content and plant nutrients. Afforestation programs can generate
employment apart from their other benefits, like conservation of birds and
wildlife, and control of air pollution.

Bioenergy: socio–economic development and energy consumption are
directly correlated. With an increase in development, both the quantum of
energy consumption and the composition of energy sources change, in the
former case; an increase may be registered. In the light of increasing prices
and shortage of conventional non-renewable fossil fuels, renewable energy
sources assume a very important role. Amongst these, bioenergy has a
special role, as bio-fuels, apart from being renewable, can be locally
produced. waste-recycling systems should be established around houses in

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rural areas, including bio-gas, low cost latrines, soak pits, bathing and
washing platform, kitchen garden, vermicompost and mushroom
cultivation unit.

Social science: self-help groups can be formed, which can help women
resolve their social problems and gender issues. These (self-help) groups
should be linked to banks. School-based programs can be undertaken to
involve children in their own development as well as that of the
community.

Community health: the environmental and social aspects of health are
important aspects of community health. Hence, activities should be planned
and closely linked with programs focusing on environmental protection,
promotion and on improvement of the livelihood of rural poor families.
Activities to promote health and prevent morbidity and mortality should be
undertaken, with special emphasis being placed on the involvement of
women. Local women can be encouraged to be “village health guides”
(VHGs) and given training in MCH care, health, nutrition and sanitation.
Community health programs (like regular MCH clinics in the rural areas,
periodic health camps, schools based programs for nutrition, sanitation,
primary treatment, raising of kitchen gardens and plantation of herbal
gardens, construction of low-cost sanitary latrines, health activities and
training, improving quality of drinking water, maintenance of potability
through regular chlorinating) should be undertaken, and applied health
research should be carried out. Participatory techniques of data collection
like village mapping and health mapping and wealth ranking are very
informative methods of collecting information. It has been found that most
villages in India still suffer from poor facilities and limited access to health
services. Regular growth and weight monitoring in village kindergartens

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should be carried out. Teachers should be trained to detect the nutritional
status of children and apply corrective measures.

Sericulture: provides year – round employment as well as a sustainable
income to the farmer. It also provides raw material for industrial
development in rural areas. An appropriate package of sericulture
technology (through establishing a grainage for production and supply of
disease – free layings, introducing suitable mulberry varieties and
cultivation practices) should be developed, and applied silkworm rearing
and moriculture studies carried out. It would (from the point of view of
poverty – reduction) be advisable to extend sericulture activity to small and
marginal farmers.

“Farm school programs” should be broadcast on air for the benefit of small
and marginal farmers.

Cross – breeding for a secure future: low-producing cattle can be upgraded
to provide livelihood for millions of rural people. A crossbred cow
generates a stable income from milk alone. However, that needs good
health care, vaccinations and a large amount of concentrated feed. Milk-
processing co-operatives help farmers get an assured price for milk. To
develop cattle, liquid nitrogen has to be regularly supplied to maintain
frozen semen in good condition; timely inseminations and vaccinations
have to be undertaken, and training in skills, feeding and management and
well-organized extension have to be promoted. Farmers should be
encouraged to adopt stall-feeding towards regeneration of degraded
pastures and improvement of the eco-system.

Need to collect germplasm of indigenous tree species: our natural forests
are degenerating very fast and it will be a difficult task to increase the area
under greencover, until we revised upwards the present afforestation target

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in the near future. The potential of newly introduced exotic tree species is
confined to areas with fertile soils and assured moisture supply. For the
vast degraded wastelands, it is necessary to identify indigenous tree
species, which are hardy and produce a variety of commodities, in addition
to wood, so that the major income can come from other produce. This
seems to be an important strategy, as majorities of the villagers do not have
the capacity to buy fuelwood. Collection of superior quality germplasm is
the primary step in producing good quality seed for propagation. The
superior germplasm thus selected can be used to establish seed orchards on
a large scale to ensure supply of superior quality seed material in the future.

Development of wastelands: role of micro-level planning: micro-level
planning for development of wastelands will be helpful in establishing tree
plantation. With minute planning, it is possible to reduce investment and
improve productivity and marketability. Such successful ventures can serve
as good demonstrations to motivate a large number of local people to take
active part in developing our wastelands.

Environmental pollution in rural areas: is caused by several factors such as
mismanagement of natural resources, poor hygiene and sanitation, use of
agro-chemical and fossil fuels and impact of industries. The best way to
motivate rural people to protect the environment is to link environmental
protection with income-generating activities. Villagers should be educated
about their right to have a clean environment so that they can initiate
suitable action wherever necessary to control pollution.

Biodiversity and ground realities: it is necessary to preserve our plants and
animals because our present knowledge extends to a few species only and
the benefits of the remaining millions of plant and animal species are not

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known to us. Nevertheless, they play an important role in maintaining the
ecological balance.

The cost of agricultural protection: the industrial countries have achieved
agricultural self-sufficiency partly by subsidizing their own farmers – and
partly by raising tariff and non-tariff barriers against foreign producers.
This has, however, led to substantial overproduction of grain and butter.

This approach, which is very costly, may benefit farmers, but ordinary
people in the industrial countries find it costly because they have to finance
the subsidies by paying higher taxes. Not only this, they are kept away
from cheaper foreign produce by barriers to import.

Farmers in the developing countries suffer as local prices plummet when
industrial countries dump surpluses of products like sugar, cereal and beef.
In 1991, the European Community dumped 54 million tonnes of frozen and
chilled beef in Africa – further impoverishing four million Sahelians who
depend on cattle farming. Farmers in these (developing) countries also lose
out because industrial countries to keep their produce out use tariff and
non-tariff barriers.

“Liberalizing” the trade in agricultural commodities would definitely
benefit both industrial and developing countries…

Sowing an agricultural agenda – Dr. M.S. Swaminathan: India’s leading
agro-scientist: “… famines were frequent in the 19th Century and the 1892
– 93 famine claimed about 10 million lives. The famine-avoidance strategy
of independent India, with its concurrent emphasis on food production,
need-based imports, an effective public distribution system and rural
employment programmes, has helped to prevent the occurrence of famines
(like the Bengal famine of 1942-43). However, widespread under nutrition

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and chronic hunger persist because of inadequate purchasing power at the
family level. We have now reached a stage where “food for all” can be
achieved only through a “jobs for all” programme.

Agricultural progress holds the key to India’s socio-political stability, since
every citizen is affected by it in one way or another. In 1992, when
everything else went wrong in the country, starting with the financial scam
and ending with the Ayodhya tragedy, the only factor that saved us from
total chaos was the work of our farm women and men. In spite of economic
difficulties, they produced as much as possible of grains, oilseeds, milk,
sugar and fibre.

That is why I feel troubled about the uncertain future facing this primary
industry, which influences both the food security and the livelihood of over
70 per cent of our people.

What are the trouble spots? Three E’s-Ecology, Economics and Equity can
represent them. Ecologically, we have no legal instruments to promote
scientific land-use and to prevent the diversion of prime farmland for non-
farm uses…

In terms of Economics, the impoverishment of the countryside and
marginalization of small farmers and landless labour families continues
unabated…

Equity is a distant dream, whether in gender or economic terms. No wonder
India has the largest number of the world’s poor. The poor especially
depend on common property resources for their survival. They suffer the
most from land abuse, ground water depletion and forest denudation.
Women suffer even more, since they have to ensure the household’s
nutrition security, including safe drinking water.

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It is against this backdrop that we have to consider the next steps in our
agricultural evolution…

The challenge now is to keep up the per capita production level and ensure
better distribution. This will call for an integrated approach to economic
entitlements and ecological obligations…

The real issues before the country are:

how the 100 million farm families can be helped to improve agricultural
productivity on an ecologically sustainable basis;

how the livelihood security of the landless labour and marginal farmer
families can be enhanced through greater opportunities for skilled
employment, both in the farm and non-farm sectors;

how the youth, who constitute over half our population, can be attracted
to farming and retained in farm-related enterprises;

how nutrition security, i.e., economic and physical access to balanced
diets and safe drinking water, can be assured at the household level; and

how India can become a major agricultural power in the world in terms
of agricultural trade.

First, we must develop public policies and promote people’s action to
protect the ecological foundations essential for sustained advances in crop,
animal and fish productivity… also urgent are scientific planning of land
and water-use as well as conservation of biological diversity…

A second major area is nutrition security at the household level. This is
fundamental for the full expression of children’s innate genetic potential
for physical and mental development. Nutrition security is again dependent

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heavily on multiple sources of income, both farm and non-farm, at the
household level.

Particular attention to women’s employment and income is essential. The
organization of a “small farmers’ agri-business consortium” (SFAC) …
will help to take the benefits of modern agri-business to the families of
small and marginal farmers and landless labour, provided the SFAC
remains pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women. It can generate the necessary
degree of convergence and synergy among government agencies and
private industry. Such a consortium can help to diversify employment
opportunities in villages and promote a dynamic biological software
industry involving the rural level production of hybrid seeds, bio-fertilizers,
bio-pesticides, veterinary pharmaceuticals and bio-mass based products.

Third, we need a technology policy, which will help to improve the
economic well being of resource-poor families. For example, high yielding
and disease resistant seeds of crops serve as a safety net for resource-poor
farmers and nothing should be done which will deny them access to the
fruits of modern breeding technology involving genetic engineering. The
Biovillage programme started in Pondicherry (India) by the Centre for
Research on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development provides a
model for this goal.

Fourth, we should have a marketing strategy, which will promote the flow
of a fair share of the consumers’ money to the producers. The experience of
the dairy sector should be adapted in the case of the other perishable
commodities.

Fifth, there is need to promote a small farm extension and management
technology… there should also be research on methods of empowering
resource-poor families in eco-management.

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Sixth, investment in rural techno-infrastructure development must be
stepped up. Gandhiji’s statement… that the bane of rural India is the drain
of brains and financial resources from the village to the city, still holds
good…

Finally, there is need for a clear-cut policy on intellectual property rights in
the field of plant and animal breeding and biotechnology. In the midst of
much debate on the patenting of genes and living organisms, we should
develop policies which will harmonize the quest for private profit with the
need for applying technology for public good.”

Farmers do not get heard: V. Kurien: “… Amul Dairy started with handling
200 litres of milk a day; today, we are handling a million litres a day. This
happened because the co-operative invested in increased production; and
that, in turn was brought about through investments in programmes to
develop artificial insemination and in-breeding programmes…

In dairying, we should follow what the other countries have done. In New
Zealand, there is no private sector. Every dairy is owned by the farmer.
Seventy per cent of the dairying in the U.S. is with co-operatives. Sri Lanka
calls it ‘people-isation’.

All that the milk and milk-products order says is that dairies will be
inspected to ensure appropriate sanitation levels. But it you want a
capitalist to enter this sector, then I would say the farmer will get exploited,
unless there is some balance. It is not that all business is done by co-
operatives… in every village, there is some milk merchant who collects
milk to make Mawa (a festive milk product) or ghee (clarified butter)
especially during festival time.

But co-operatives should not be forced to do losing businesses…

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While I think removal of bureaucratic control on industry is desirable, I
would have first liberated agriculture. If you leave agriculture in shackles
and liberate industry, industry will further prey upon agriculture. Cities
thrive at the expense of the villages; industry exploits agriculture.
Therefore, I object to the sequencing of reforms.

I have a feeling that the government thinks that liberalizing industry is
popular. They have forgotten that there is a more important sector of the
economy, on which more of our people are dependent. But then the
government hears only the voices of industry. Farmers do not get heard.

With industry being liberalized before agriculture, more money will flow
into the cities. There will be fancy universities in cities and no blackboards
in village schools. The imbalance will be aggravated and then the farmers
may revolt. That danger is real. Since I am in touch with farmers, I know
that there is unrest and a feeling that the government and bureaucracy are
more sympathetic to industry, and do not care about agriculture.”

– Poverty and hunger should be recognized as strong human rights
violations, right?

– Three regional economic blocs dominate the emerging economic order
in a changing world, North America, the European Economic
Community and the Asia-Pacific rim (as of 1994-95). The whole trend
is towards an economic integration. Technological advancements have
taken a quantum jump. In such a scenario, the developing world
including India will have to modernize their economies to reap the
benefits of the new economic order.

Investment in people and knowledge are recognized as a factor deserving
of the highest priority. Developing countries like India will, therefore, have

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to reorder their domestic priorities to make the import and absorption of
advanced technology possible.

With each passing year, rich and poor nations alike share an increasingly
common destiny. The world community must begin to realize that a more
equitable international economic order is not only possible, it is essential.
Such a new order, should be based on the fundamental principle that each
nation’s and each individual’s development is the development of every
other nation and every other individual.

Liberalization and its impact on the Indian economy: the major changes in
India’s economic reforms fall broadly under five categories – industrial,
trade, financial, fiscal and monetary. However, these measures of
stabilization are not by themselves enough… An important aspect to be
considered is the large number of people in the country living on the
poverty line. To make any reform process socially acceptable, a poverty
alleviation program must be built in. In the context of resource constraints,
serious thinking has to be done as to the extent and pace of economic
reforms…

The government’s ownership of the financial and banking institutions has
enabled it to achieve the multiple objectives of mobilization of resources,
enhancement of availability of long-term loans to all levels of industry and
agriculture and increased access to credit to small industrialists, farmers
and weaker sections of society...

However, a large proportion of India’s population continues to be subject
to malnutrition and ill health. For further reduction in fertilizer subsidy,
nothing has been worked out…

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The government should provide higher outlays on elementary education,
rural drinking water supply, assistance to small and marginal farmers,
programs for women and children, programs for welfare of scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes and the weaker sections of the society, and
increased expenditure on infrastructure and employment generation
projects in rural areas. Further steps have to be taken to re-allocate social
expenditure, particularly in health and education for the poor. Nutrition and
employment programs should be strengthened and broadened. To provide a
cushion to the poor against high price increase, the government uses the
Public Distribution System (PDS); however, its effectiveness needs to be
improved. The whole approach towards impact on the vulnerable sections
of the society should be reviewed in the light of reduced public expenditure
on social programs. For example, cuts in the health program could lead to
increase in India's already high incidence of tropical diseases. In addition, a
poor education program has its impact not only on the rural wages of the
poor but also in the drive for adoption of better technology, by making the
labor force more illiterate. More specific action should be taken for the
betterment of agriculture...

Efficient transport and communication links are needed. More investment
should be made in human development and domestic research and
development…

India initiated the process of economic reforms with several handicaps. A
high poverty ratio with nearly 32 to 40 percent of the population living
below the poverty line. Very low foreign exchanges reserve and level of
confidence about India’s credit worthiness. An unfavorable world scenario
with its projected low-income growth and increasing regionalism.

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However, there were some plus points: the liberalization package was
preceded by the minimum essential political setup: India’s democratic form
of society. There were others like a large supply of skilled manpower and
cheap labor, and a reasonable basic infrastructure.

It will take time before any liberalization can have its fruitful impact upon
the economy. In liberalizing the economy, the government must not forget
to protect the poor and the needs of human development.

- (Contributed by S. Sen, Kothari, Nayak and Mansukhani, 1994).

-Talking of imbalances: today’s Third World states are not undeveloped
but under-developed states … “Development” would mean improvement in
the well being of the masses and their quality of life. The minimal level of
well being must include the satisfaction of the basic needs. Conversely,
“under-development” involves the denial of basic needs to the people while
enhancing the material returns to the dominant groups. It deprives the
majority of their survival and sustenance…

Poverty continues to be a major problem in India. Even in the green
revolution Punjab, 24 per cent of small farmers and 31 per cent of marginal
farmers live below the poverty line. This means slow death. Because
malnutrition is less dramatic than outright famine, it does not provoke the
kind of public outrage and government actions that mass starvation do.
Given past trends, by the end of the 20th Century, India was expected to
have 472 million poor, or more than the total number at the time of
independence.

Countrywide diet surveys by the National Nutritional Monitoring Bureau
(NNMB) show that diet in nearly half the households surveyed in different
parts of the country was deficient even on the basis of lowered yardstick of
adequacy adopted by the NNMB since 1976… Because of under nutrition

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and infections, millions of children will grow into adulthood with impaired
stamina and poor mental abilities, and many others will grow into
adulthood suffering from milder forms of malnutrition, resulting in mental
and physical impairment. Very few babies will grow into healthy,
productive and intellectually able persons. According to Mr. James Grant,
former director, UNICEF, about 3,000 children died daily in India in
1985…

The problem of malnutrition in our country, including the problem of
malnutrition in our children, is a problem of inequitable distribution rather
than of insufficient food resources.

While million tons of food lie wasted on the one hand, on the other, half of
India’s population does not have the purchasing power to buy food. The
government is always trying to increase export outlets for agricultural and
allied products in spite of serious hunger and malnutrition… The accent on
exports has caused diversion of land used for growing food (millets, pulses
etc.) for poor people, to the production of items for export like Soya.
Even the food-for-work programs have practically been given up inspite of
the huge food stock with the government and famine conditions in some
parts of the country like Kalahandi district of Orissa where children are
abandoned or sold for paltry sums for want of food and mothers and wives
are deserted due to extreme economic distress.

At the other extreme, according to the World Bank, 10 per cent of Indians
control over 33.6 per cent of the national wealth…

The disparities in income distribution go hand in hand with uneven regional
development. Punjab with the green revolution stands out in contrast to the
severely depressed gangetic state of Bihar. In the villages, the death rate is
twice as high as in the cities.

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It is the rural rich who grab most of the benefits like credit and irrigation
facilities and subsidies. The poor households have to depend on traditional
moneylenders for both their “production and consumption” loans. This has
led to massive indebtedness and reduced millions of poor in the rural areas
to a state of slavery in the form of bonded labor. This century-old practice
forces generations of a family into unpaid work from “womb to tomb” to
pay off a debt. According to the London based Anti-Slavery Society’s
conservative estimates, the number of India’s bonded laborers in 1972 was
3 million – 3 million slaves in the world’s largest “democracy”…

There is still much economic suffering, abject poverty, destitution,
exploding unemployment and growing economic disparities…

The distribution of the national income has been too uneven to prevent a
grave distortion in the production and consumption patterns…

Post – colonial India has registered considerable industrial growth. It is a
leading industrial power in the Third World. It confirmed its status as a
potential member of the nuclear club with its 1974 Pokhran nuclear test. It
has a large (third largest) pool of active scientific manpower…

A tiny minority, leaving the overwhelming majority sidelined, however,
has hogged most of the benefits of the economic growth. India is still
bogged down with accentuating polarization between an affluent minority
and the masses below the officially defined poverty line…

For whom is the development process functioning? Growth is not
distributionally neutral. The income distribution, flow of capital, and
concentration of economic power continues to be in favor of the income
brackets in the rural and urban areas.

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There is no hope of improvement for the world’s economies without
change in the distribution of assets and incomes in favor of the poor…

May the good Lord bless India.

May the good Lord bless the poor worldwide.

- (Contributed by S. Sen, Kothari, Chopra, Hanagudu, Nayak and
Mansukhani, ’94)

The uses of space technology for national development: the Indian space
program, from its very inception, has been geared towards national
development. It has harnessed space technology for the benefit of our
society right down to the grass roots level.

… Space platforms are now being extensively used for reaching global
communication even into remote rural areas… for monitoring and
management of natural resources thus significantly contributing to the
development of human society. With the rapid progress achieved, the
remote sensing applications in India now cover diverse fields such as
agricultural crop acreage and yield estimation, detection of crop diseases,
ground water utilization, drought warning and assessment (is it really
happening?), flood control and damage assessment, land use/land cover
mapping, wasteland management, urban development, forest survey, soil
utilization, ocean resources management, water resource management,
mineral exploration and disaster warning (is the system effective?) etc.,
thus covering almost all facets of national development…

Satellite remote sensing has now established itself as the most powerful
tool for carrying out an integrated sustainable development at the micro-
level, which is the only way to improve the agricultural productivity in the
country… ...Combining the space-based information with meteorological

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information and socio-economic factors, integrated land and water resource
maps at the micro level are being prepared highlighting priority areas for
agriculture development, fuel and fodder development, soil conservation
and afforestation, etc., for arriving at a package of practices and strategies
to address the local problems leading to sustainable development at village
level. This is an important application.

Space technology should now be extended to eradication of illiteracy in the
rural areas. In this context, powerful audio-visual media (through satellites)
should be put into operation in the rural areas to disseminate culture and
region-specific knowledge on health, hygiene, environment, family
planning and better agricultural practices in each of the regional languages.
Facilities should be provided continuing education for special groups and
for updating of technical skills…

As India enters the 21st Century, with the optimal planning and utilization
of the space technology, it is hoped that the national problems of hunger
and illiteracy will become a thing of the past and this country will emerge
as a strong and healthy nation to play its rightful role in the community of
nations.

Science in the service of small farmers: science and technology have
immense potential for improving the quality of life in rural India by
providing services such as weather forecasting, medical care and
generating employment opportunities.

Science and technology can be of great potential use for the upliftment of
the farming community in a predominantly agrarian economy like India. As
agro-weather-forecasting is very essential for the farming community, a
“national centre for medium range weather forecasting and development of
agro-advisories”, a multi-disciplinary project has been efficiently meeting

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this objective. For developing irrigation technology for the marginal
farmers, a program has been launched which is a successfully designing
device using the latest technology. There is a move to commission land and
water management programs on an all – India basis. Science has also
helped in developing techniques and products for improvements in medical
services. In order to popularize science and technology at grass roots level
and to generate sustainable employment, the skills of engineers are being
used. Science and technology is also playing an important role in uplifting
women and weaker sections of the society. In order to upgrade the skills of
women, training is being imparted in various fields, like poultry, water
management, conservation of soil and moisture (by planting specific types
of plants), weaving; etc. to provide low cost houses to the poor sections of
the society, “cost reduction techniques” (using locally available material)
are being utilized.

Various development programs have been carried out successfully to
benefit small farmers and tribal populations in rural India. Satellite
technology is also now being used for the benefit of the farming
community. Are these programs actually reaching the poor?

– The poor are always starving; the rich never do suffer. There has to be a
way out of hunger. Let the world community pledge itself to hunger
eradication.

– Eco-technology and rural employment: Dr. M.S. Swaminathan: a
disturbing feature of contemporary development pathways is what
UNDP in its 1993 Human Development Report termed “jobless
growth”. Since 1975, employment growth has consistently lagged
behind GDP growth. This gap is widening during the 1990s.
Consequently, expanding work opportunities, particularly for the rural

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and urban poor, is now high on the political and technological agenda of
both industrialized and developing countries.

(Let us have) an ecologically and socially sustainable job-led economic
growth strategy… a paradigm shift from a growth model based entirely on
economic criteria to one based on concurrent attention to the principles of
ecology, equity and employment, in addition to Economics. "Eco-
technology" helps to combine traditional wisdom and techniques with
modern science and technology, in such a manner that rural livelihoods are
strengthened both ecologically and economically. Eco -technology is both
knowledge and labor-intensive and provides opportunities for integrating
intellect with labor in a synergistic manner.

China’s experience in creating millions of non-farm jobs through its “Rural
Township Enterprises Program” and Brazil’s “Biofuel program” are indeed
rich… vast and varied experiences in the area of diversification of work
opportunities in villages.

Nearly 100 million new jobs will have to be created in the farm and off-
farm sectors in India (through livestock raising or nursery plantations, for
instance) in order to achieve the goal of work for all. This will call for both
a new deal for the self-employed and for greater research and development
efforts in the field of eco-technology – adapted from an analysis by Dr.
M.S. Swaminathan, former Independent Chairman of the FAO Council
(1981-85), former Director – General of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (1972-78), and a fellow of many leading science academies of the
world; has authored many books like “Science and the Conquest of
Hunger” (1982) and “Global Aspects of Food Production” (1986).

To promote employment/self – employment in rural areas, the industrial
policy should be framed in such a way that agricultural and local products

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would be reserved for local entrepreneurs. The government should adopt a
rationale for reserving products for small/ cottage/ village industries.

In India, there are a few “agro-industrial” growth centers in rural areas,
example, Anand and Khera districts in Gujarat for dairy, the south –
western region of Maharashtra for sugar, jaggery, and dairy and the like.
These structures have been developed through the co-operatives.

The village as the unit of integrated development: in the cities, a large
number of people live in slums in subhuman conditions. Environmental
degradation results. The remedy is to shift the paradigm of development
from the city to the village. There is a need to adopt the notion of village-
level planning through optimum utilization of available natural resources
with people’s participation.

By harvesting rainwater, social forestry can be created on barren lands.
People’s participation could make every village a “republic” with a strong
foundation of social democracy. Experiments on agro-forestry and raising
of capital through credit cooperatives and investment in dairy, poultry
industry could win the confidence of the people.

Every other thing will proceed smoothly once we have won the confidence
of the masses…

-From subsistence agriculture to irrigated farming – experience of
community managed lift irrigation in Bihar and Orissa plateau: Tilak D.
Gupta – September 1999 (Pradan): In most Indian villages, farming is the
main occupation of the rural masses. In many areas, land is cultivated in the
age-old way, and yield from agriculture is low as well as uncertain. There
is very little investment in inputs. Output from “subsistence agriculture” is
meagre and crops altogether fail in drought areas. Sloping terrains, absence

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of vegetative cover and proper soil conservation techniques cause massive
run-off of water from uplands. Many water resources like perennial
streams, rivers and rivulets remain grossly under-utilized. Many irrigation
schemes operate far below their rated capacities.

Small and marginal farmers suffer the most when cultivation is almost
entirely dependent on nature. The starving local people, either migrate to
alien lands in search of work or encroach upon dwindling forests to collect
and sell fuel wood…

Bringing “irrigated farming” (like lift irrigation schemes drawing water
from small rivers, streams or other minor water-bodies) using modern
methods, would be a quantum leap for these poor people… Appropriate
management of available water resources can go a long way in increasing
the agricultural output and mitigating rural poverty…

Community – owned micro lift irrigation schemes are suited to specific
regions and within the reach of the rural poor… Such small-scale schemes
are low cost, use local materials wherever possible, available water
resources that are often neglected in conventional irrigation planning and
can adapt flexibly to changing local conditions… Above all, local people
can actively participate in the planning, implementation and management
of schemes. The model can be tailored to the needs of small farmers and
especially in regions starved of electricity… cooperatives can be formed
and linked to local regional rural banks. Organizations should assist with
agricultural training, crop production assistance and market linkages. A
“revolving fund” for agricultural credit should be created. “Water users
associations” can be established in the rural areas. After all, to have water
or not in the fields, is a life and death question for the farming community.

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Patient efforts are needed to educate farmers to handle large sums of
money and keep accounts, and train them to operate the schemes. Apart
from that, exposure trips to modern agricultural farms should be organized.
Suitable transport for carrying agricultural produce to distant markets for
getting a better price for agricultural commodities should be procured…

There’s nothing better than women self-help groups managing to control
the irrigation schemes within a conservative social environment…

Policy initiative needs to be taken at the highest level of the concerned state
administrations for formulating a concrete plan and allocating adequate
resources…

Graduation from primitive agriculture to modern irrigated farming calls for
basic change in attitude. New forms of training like games, role-plays and
group exercises can simulate real-life situations to enable attitudinal
changes, particularly among small peasants, who are often fatalistic and
complacent.

(Lift) irrigation should be made as simple, efficient and economical as
possible.

The economic gains: the greatest impact of irrigated agriculture is ensuring
a degree of food security to small farmers running the schemes; freedom
from hunger for these small farmers; quality of food intake significantly
improves. Irrigated agriculture makes possible more variation in “crop
rotation”. These families enjoy more nutritive and balanced diets. Now
they have extra income to purchase consumer goods, build houses or
renovate them, start savings banks accounts in banks. Irrigated agriculture
enhances value of command areas, land assets appreciate (increase in
value). Families can trade in food-grains and vegetables as a sideline

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occupation. Farmers can pay back loans from increased savings as incomes
rise. Farmers now have access to cheaper institutional credit through the
establishment of linkages with banks and the government. A fund can be
established for loans towards inputs. Gainful employment opens up,
through, for example, double cropping in the command areas.

The social benefits: migration to distant places during lean season in search
of work is common in starved, semi-starved (rural) regions. Irrigated
farming leads to decline in migration, as the farmers need to work in the
field almost throughout the year. Children are better taken care of
following process reversal. There is less incidence of child labor due to
food security and surplus income. Investment on children’s education rises.
Both parents can now look after the child’s educational needs. There is now
better school enrolment and better awareness of quality of education.
Families enjoy better standard of living, better nutrition levels, better
health, the surplus earned from irrigated agriculture can be used for
medical treatment. Other needs beyond irrigated agriculture can be
addressed. Farmers now raise their voices against social vice. A new spirit
of entrepreneurship and economic opportunities arise. Irrigated agriculture
definitely makes for better nourishment, clothing and shelter, better health
care and children’s education. Irrigated agriculture boosts thirst for
knowledge.

Yet, there are still miles to go to attain a really decent standard of living.
Proposals should be taken from farmers for sound water resources
management. Irrigated agriculture is not just about provision of water. An
integral view of irrigated agriculture is that farmers use water towards
multi-crop modern agriculture.

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– On December 13, 2000, scientists cracked plant gene code, an
achievement that could herald a new “green revolution” of supercrops –

-Feb 8, 2001, The Statesman:

Greenhouses were so far meant for rearing plants under controlled climate
conditions. Thanks to a group of agro-scientists led by Dr. M.S.
Swaminathan, low-cost greenhouses would now serve as temporary
shelters for quake victims.

The scientists have divided reconstruction plans into three categories –
shelter, water and work. Dr. Swaminathan said the idea was to provide an
economically sustainable livelihood – cum – shelter for affected farmers
through low-cost greenhouses. Quake-affected areas could be turned into a
big “horticulture estate” if the program succeeds. First, a mapping of the
area and estimation of availability of water would need to be done. A
greenhouse, built of bamboo poles, plastic sheets and jute, would cost Rs.
1000/- and no repair would be needed for two years. Farmers could adopt
techniques other than they usually use for cultivation.

The greenhouses would later be used to rear medicinal plants, vegetables,
hybrid cottonseeds and flowers. In arid areas with very little rainfall, the
greenhouses would carry out experiments with methods of water-
conservation and harvesting.

Once farmers learnt the importance of living in controlled climate
conditions, they could adopt the improvised cropping pattern that would be
economically beneficial to them. “Don’t forget that Operation Flood began
there and milk cooperatives flourished in Gujarat (India) after farmers
realized that they were getting maximum return on their investments. The

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same response can be expected with this experiment,” Dr. Swaminathan
said.

– New genes can be added artificially to cells to prevent a disease, for
instance, artificial chromosomes can be applied to agriculture in several
ways.

‘Development eludes millions’: there is an ever-increasing concern over the
failure of development to reach millions of our countrymen, even though
India is scaling new heights in every field.

According to the latest Human Development Index (HDI) released by the
UNDP, India is placed at 134 out of the 174 countries surveyed and the rate
of human development is just 0.5 per cent.

Though the literacy rate is 65 per cent, 53 per cent children are
undernourished while 70 per cent of the population has no sanitation
facilities. Over 63 percent population is below the poverty line, according
to the international standards. Women are still discriminated against and
they are not given equal opportunities in education. Famines have been
conquered to a certain extent, but much more remains to be done.

The new green revolution: agricultural bio-technology can be harnessed for
the good of mankind: Ingo Potrykus: “Golden Rice’ is … an excellent
example of how genetic engineering can directly help people, especially the
poor and the disadvantaged in developing countries. Here, genetically
modified food offers more opportunities for the improvement of livelihood
than for those living in well-fed developed nations. UNICEF says that at
least 124 million children report Vitamin A deficiency each year. One
million of these die while another 3,50,000 go blind. It is a serious health
problem. But now there is hope. Golden Rice is genetically modified rice

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and it contains many genes derived from rice, daffodils as well as a certain
class of bacteria. The Beta Carotene (a nutrient which is the building block
for Vitamin A) gene is derived from the daffodil flower, which has been
introduced into the endosperm (starchy interior of the grain) giving it the
golden hue. It is a modest start to a new green revolution. It is the
culmination of years of research and in many ways its history is
synonymous with history of the development of plant genetic
engineering…

Food security was my abiding interest. There is ample reason for it, having
grown up in war-ravaged Germany, I know what it feels to go to bed
hungry…

Of the three billion rice-eaters worldwide at least 10 percent suffer from
Vitamin A deficiency. ‘Golden Rice’ (rice grains which when dehusked
and polished give out a golden hue, proof of Beta Carotene) was developed
for the Vitamin A – deficient and iron-deficient poor and disadvantaged in
developing countries. To fulfil this goal it has to reach the subsistence
farmers free of charge and restrictions. It has to be distributed free to the
poor countries… One way of contributing to food security…”

– Ingo Potrykus invented the Golden Rice in partnership with Peter
Meyer. He is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Plant Sciences,
Geneva, Switzerland –

– Let us develop nurseries, which will help large-scale plantation in the
area concerned besides generating employment and income for the
community. Let us maintain livestock, a practice that has high potential
for income generation.

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– India does not have proper food storage capacity. On the one hand, food
was wasted (in the recent past) because of inadequate storage facilities,
on the other, people were starving. Why do such situations arise in the
first place?

– Slums are not only an economic problem but also a problem of lopsided
socio-economic development, under both a social system in a traditional
set-up and a capitalist system in a modern set up.

Various programs of wage employment, rural development and equity have
not helped improve the lot of the rural poor. To check the migration of the
rural poor, water, electricity, roads, sewerage and other essential services
should be provided. The permanent solution of agricultural growth through
watershed development schemes and agro-industrial growth can improve
the lot of the rural poor.

Source: S.M. Dahiwala - ''Rural Poverty and Slums”

– Agricultural growth strategy for the removal of rural poverty:

a) irrigation facilities should be provided;

b) industries should be provided to the drought-prone and the under-
developed (rural) areas;

c) land reform measures (including redistribution of lands) should be
undertaken;

d) a green revolution is needed;

e) rural infrastructure i.e. transportation, electricity and the like should
be upgraded;

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f) provision of assets to the poor should be made, and effective
implementation of the public distribution system carried out;

g) spread of the cooperative movement is very necessary.

China’s experience (under Mao’s leadership) in setting up ''Communes'' in
rural areas (to meet rural needs and utilize their potential) should be borne
in mind.

Poverty has many diabolical dimensions: illiteracy, poor health, rising
infant and maternal mortality rates, poor enrolment in schools, high
dropouts, large-sized families, child labor, exploitation of women labor and
tribals, unemployment and under-employment and the mass exodus from
the villages to the cities and the proliferation of slums in the cities.

According to UNDP, the top 20% in the world possess 85% of the global
wealth. 'Poverty' is not just about people's access to food or purchasing
power to buy the minimum food to stay alive. The 'poverty index' consists
of food (basic calorie intake), shelter, clothing, safe water, sanitation,
electricity, education and health care.

The international HRD expert, Mahbub-ul-Haq had pointed out that the
best thing would be to increase the productivity of the poor. He spoke of
meeting imperatives like health, education, land reforms, expansion and re-
distribution of public services, short-term subsidy programs. The poor’s
assets include a pair of hands and a willingness to work.

Surprisingly, hardly anyone talks of literacy in these days of hype on it. On
the one hand, we have five-star hotels, on the other, schools in rural areas
lie vacant? It is as though some ruling sections suffer from insecurity over
universalization of education and empowering the poor.

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J.B.S. Haldane in his book ''Daedalus or Science and the Future'' (1923)
asserted that our ethical outlook has to keep pace with the development of
science and technology, otherwise social chaos and disaster (as increasing
rich-poor divide, damage to basic life - support systems, jobless economic
growth, ethnic conflicts) will result....

We must take the benefits of modern technology to the rural marginalized,
by introducing them to concepts such as ''plant genetic resources'', ''farmer's
rights following the development of science and technology'',
''biotechnology and bio-villages'', and information technology in simple,
understandable language.

Inadequate work opportunities result in low household income and
purchasing power, and then malnutrition. China has succeeded in creating
millions of skilled jobs in the non-farm sector during a period of 10 years
through the application of ''Eco-technology''.

It is estimated that the global population may go up to 8.5 billion by 2024,
and most of this population will be concentrated in the developing
countries, where most of the world's poor live. The expansion of world
agriculture to feed the growing population has led to the degradation of
more than a billion hectares of soil since 1945. Water resources are
becoming scarcer. In this situation, integration of ecological principles in a
job-led economic growth strategy is the need of the hour. ''Ecotechnology''
implies adding sustainability concerns to technology development and
dissemination (Swaminathan). The 'pro-nature', 'pro-poor' and 'pro-women'
approach to technology and policy is important. Every individual can now
create his or her own income, thus adding value through self-employment.
We need to create appropriate institutions....

Land reforms

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a) tenancy reforms - ownership rights should be conferred on tenants
through lawful means or farmers be enabled to acquire ownership
rights on payment of a small compensation to the landlords;

b) ceiling on agricultural holdings and redistribution of surplus land
among weaker sections;

c) updating and maintenance of land records through technology,
computerization of land records - targeted at the benefit of the
landless rural poor;

d) transparency in land records management;

e) resettlement and rehabilitation of persons displaced by development
projects.

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CHAPTER 7B

FROM BLUE REVOLUTIONS TO GREEN
REVOLUTIONS
“With industry being liberalized before agriculture, more money will flow
into the cities. There will be fancy universities in the cities and no
blackboards in village schools. The imbalance will be aggravated and then
the farmers may revolt.”

- V. Kurien, founder, Anand Milk Union Ltd., Gujarat state, India.

“Developing nations could hasten progress by accepting more foreign
private investment in agricultural projects”

–Extract from a book by Miss. Tadd Fisher (“Our Overcrowded World”).

At the beginning of the last decade, Issac Asimov published a book with a
one-word title “Change”. The word was not only a description of the
environment he saw around him; it was also a directive to the people
around him. He said, among other things, that

A global vision is needed.

The urban consumer has woken up. Science has brought us together in the
form of communication. Information and entertainment on airwaves from
abroad in the form of satellite TV have given consumers global exposure
and sharpened awareness, making them more discerning.

But liberalization has brought in products like Allen Solly and Peter
England which the ordinary man cannot afford. Science is helping
consumerism grow, it has given a lot of choice to (urban, middle class and
above) consumers, but it has not taken care of agriculture to that great an

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extent as it should have. And we are talking of those regions (Africa,
Bangladesh, India) where a majority of people are dependent on
agriculture. If agriculture is further ignored, farmers may revolt.

In Asia, Africa and Latin America, societies are largely agricultural. About
80 % of their people depend largely upon the land to provide them with the
essentials. Farmers can barely feed their families, and frequently they must
work on land they do not own. Traditional systems of land ownership and
lack of modern equipment, markets, and means to transport produce prevent
agriculture from becoming a profitable business. This represents a very
serious failure. No nation has attained strength and power until it overcame
its problems on the land and established a sound agriculture to support other
kinds of economic growth.

The new millennium should be the farmers’ millennium. Green Houses
should be constructed. Research and development activities should be
expanded. Biotechnology plants should be set up. Horticulture, sericulture
and pisciculture should be encouraged and the government should help.
This way, it would be possible to create millions of new job opportunities
in developing countries. The government should launch projects for
providing quality seed production and training to farmers. We should adopt
certain strategies for the 21st century and beyond. An e-mail facility (at
subsidized rates) and an internet facility with an instructor in every village
would help connect the villagers directly to policymakers.

Let us through thoughtful planning and perfectly conducted research,
develop superior hybrids in all the important horticultural crops for various
agro-climatic regions of the country. Let us start rearing silkworms
(sericulture) and fish (pisciculture). Let us identify and conserve forestry
plant species through modern biotechnologies. Let us diversify into other

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allied areas (such as forestry), and related research (lab) to land programs
for the upliftment (economic well being) of a still larger farming
community.

Let us go greening the deserts. Israel has done it. Many Asian and African
countries suffering from chronic shortage of food and endemic hunger, can
certainly benefit from the example of this courageous nation in the
greening of the deserts and turning arid zones into croplands. Solutions,
however, should be country-specific. Let us have great visions of turning
deserts green and creating artificial oases as the 21st Century becomes truly
the century of modern farmers all over the world.

Let us have more gatherings of modern farmers and farm experts and
international agricultural fairs. Let us have gatherings of the media, policy-
makers and farmers. Farming nations could become farm powers of the
world with faster modernization, more research into farming, more farm
technologies (like combined harvesters) and more and more sophisticated
farm management that could cover land management, water management,
seed management, marketing management, processing, packing
management, data management and human resource management. There
are enormous possibilities in these areas. Let us bring in fresh technologies
in the field of irrigation, horticulture, social forestry, seed farming, gene
banking, fertilizer management, pesticide management, high altitude
farming, digital genetics and of course storage, processing, packaging and
transportation.

Let India offer a hand of friendship to the rest of Asia, and Africa to create
a fresh new impetus in the battle against hunger.

Let us halt for a moment. From the newspapers, it seems that militants have
hijacked a Kathmandu-Delhi flight. Let us pray for peace.

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Om shanti

A salutation to the concept of peace.

The poor are constantly being wooed. Therefore, the need for an
international government which will protect the poor when national
governments are not acting on the issue. The function of the international
government will be to cater to the problems of each nation, in fact, each
state and resolve conflicts. The international government will be composed
of representatives from each country (however small it be) well versed in
issues pertaining to each country, e.g. the representative(s) from India
should be well versed in security and defense (problems in Kashmir) to
agriculture and poverty. This international government should have a
steering committee consisting of a few representatives with a chairman.
This body should be attached to the United Nations.

Coming back to agriculture, India is predominantly an agricultural country.
A majority of India’s populace lives in the villages. Despite what policy-
makers say, liberalization has ignored agriculture. Liberalization has
improved communications to the extent that at the press of a button, two
people at two ends of the Earth can link up. This communication facility
(human technology) should be extended to the rural areas. We should
encourage self-help groups, and savings and thrift groups, especially
women’s groups. We must have scientific means (like a truck) of reaching
food to the villages, slums. Because food will never reach the poor!

To combat poverty, an expert group should be brought in, who will
examine the wholesale- and-retail-price-export-import-food distribution
grid and then give suggestions. Let us take the case of India. India is among
the four largest (USA, Russia, China, India) producers of food, and yet a

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majority of Indians are starving??? The major reasons are corruption, lack
of efficiency and unequal distribution of food.

To build up a high standard of living, let us alter our environment and use
our natural resources (within limits).

This is dedicated to Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, India's leading agro-scientist
(and E.F. Schumacher, the founder of the Appropriate Technology
movement).

Context: Third world poverty. The success of opening up (like
liberalization) in any part of the world will depend on agriculture.

Presumption: it takes years to address the root causes of poverty.

We assume and tell ourselves that poverty can be erased. We take science
(especially information technology) to the farmer and bring the farmer to
science. Take people from the lab to the farm and bring the farmer to the
lab. By working both ways, we can promote extension. And, thereby
innovative ways of farming, trying to revolutionize the entire concept of
agriculture. Let us try to educate our rural folk, and work to change
attitudes. Education is a must, for we need moral, spiritual and social
rejuvenation of the rural masses.

Our goal: to reach the highest. For this, all our agro-scientists and agro-
universities go right on to the field. And advise our farmers to make the
most of the findings from the lab. Try to give the farmers the latest seeds
and know how- how to use fertilizers and chemicals. Also teach them the
latest techniques in marketing and irrigation. Start a forum of business
entrepreneurs and business leaders in agriculture. Let us introduce business
courses in agriculture in our universities.

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In view of the possible change in the quality of rural life as a result of
agricultural advancement, there could be a reverse process of migration
from the urban to the rural areas. That should be the main reason for
prosperity to the villagers. Who lives in those slums? Let us tell ourselves
that we do not want our farmers to live in slums, amidst squalor, filth and
unfulfilled expectations in the cities? If we provide all facilities to our
farmers in the villages, why on Earth should they come to our cities? Let
us take a plunge, tell ourselves that we are going to make beautiful “dream
villages” where all amenities are available.

We must involve every village through the community development
program. Good agro-business should be encouraged. Let us work to
eliminate exploitation of farmers by landlords. Let us give community
leadership, involve women in leadership and development (build co-
operatives), make provision for seeds and tools, make available
immunization facilities, nutrition and health care education, encourage
women to build co-operative dairying, give loans, give training in skills and
involve the villagers in income-generating activities-like poultry farming.
Let us promote small and ancillary industries. Let us promote products and
handicrafts made by the villagers. Let us promote literacy classes for every
man, every woman and every child.

Let us work to change attitudes. Let us build up an attitude towards change.
Let us involve ourselves in agricultural training and irrigation. Let us revert
to solar cells for solving the energy crises of most villages. Let us bring
civil engineers to supervise construction of “homes” (huts), for water well
and tank construction and small dams for generating energy in hilly and
rainy rural areas. Let us build tree nurseries and work to prevent

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deforestation and promote reforestation, promote adult literacy classes at
night and primary education for children.

Let us work to build concrete roads and through the “information
explosion” bring the villagers close to all civic amenities and subsidize all
amenities for them. Let us break all barriers (communication is no longer a
barrier???) and raise a thunderous applause to our “dream-village”.

- (This chapter has also been written out of some research literature on
agriculture and rural development).

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CHAPTER 8A
What is virtue?

It is to hold yourself (and your organization)

To your fullest development

As a person (and as an organization)

And as (a) responsible member(s)

Of the human community.

- Arthur Dobrin

There is now an ever-increasing concern for a business organization to be
seen as a good corporate citizen, having a concern for the community in
which one is operating. It would involve putting combined interests above
personal gain or exploitation, towards a contribution to the community,
quality of life, the environment, rural upliftment, etc, rather than merely
being concerned about profitability.

Treat people as assets: historically, owners have viewed investing in
equipment as important. But people make the difference. They are the only
assets that really count. What we get out of our people depends on what we
do for them. Encouraging them to give their best means creating incentives
for higher performance. A worker must feel individually important for the
organization’s growth.

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CHAPTER 8B

ONLY VISIONARY MANAGERS CAN
DREAM OF DREAM- VILLAGES
“Everyone is an organ of society and exists for the sake of society.
Consequently, each profession must try to maximize its contribution to
society… As managers, always and in everything, strive to attain, at the
same time, what is useful for others and pleasant for oneself…Because the
downtrodden man is crying out – ‘rescue me, helpless as I am, from the
trackless forest of this miserable world’… Yes, strive we must, to attain
what is useful for others… because expressions of love… yes, to a poor
man, an expression of love is more important than thousands of crores of
development aid… Because expressions of care need no language, no
religion, no culture or no designation or incumbency… So commit
yourself… to a lofty target worthy of you… Be convinced that you will
succeed.”

We are talking about ‘managers’- as agents of change, managers as
visionaries, future driven managers, innovative, creative, motivated
managers, socially responsible managers, environmentally conscious
managers, responsive, efficient and effective managers, managers who are
global in mindset, and above all, versatile managers, people – who can
manage an enterprise, a hospital, a voluntary organization, a school system
or a business and all alike. Such managers can make a big difference to our
world. They can make a difference to our world by supporting the
development of the people who work for them. What I am trying to convey
to you is the very positive view of the job of a manager. I believe that the

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job of a manager is among the most exciting, challenging and rewarding.
Individuals can and do make great contributions to society as members of
managed organizations- not only firms, but also universities, hospitals,
research centers, government agencies and other organizations. For most of
our lives, we are members of one organization or another- a college, a
sports team, a musical group, a religious or civic organization or a business.
All organizations, formal or informal, are put and kept together by a group
of people who see that there are benefits available from working together
towards some common goal – the goal may vary- to win a league
championship, to entertain an audience, to sell a product, but without a
goal, no organization would have a reason to exist. Organizations, for
example, the International Red Cross-contribute to the present standards of
living worldwide. We rely on them daily for food, shelter, clothing,
medical care, communications, amusement and employment. Further, such
organizations may have an impact on the future status of our natural
environment, on the prevention and control of disease and on war around
the globe.

Charles Wendel and Elaine Svenson in “Business Buzz - Words:
Everything you Need to Know to Speak the Lingo of the Nineties”
(published by Amacom, a division of American Management Association,
New York, USA) have spoken of managers as “renaissance
communicators”, or, in other words, people who must communicate
effectively in the process of being responsible to society. This is the
“organizer” or “manager” breed of development professionals.

Way back Confucius said: “radical changes require adequate authority. A
man must have inner strength as well as an influential position. What he
does must correspond with a higher truth…”

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It would be better that we used the term “leader” instead of manager.
“Leaders see what others cannot” (Taylor). They have a vision.

Effective leadership requires a vision, a better way of life for the
“company” workers (I am using the term “Company” in an era in which the
term “Corporate NGO” has come up). Leaders have in mind improving the
common good, for instance, to a political leader, the vision may be a state
of affairs which is attractive to those who are governed. All successful
entrepreneurs and strategists have been masters in communicating a vision.
Jamshedji Nasserwunji Tata had a vision -that of a steel plant in India…and
beyond…today, Tata Steel’s concerns- human resource, particularly rural
development and social welfare, environment, community development,
sports and adventure, reflect the dreams of the founder.

At the inauguration of the Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur, India, someone
had said (I do not remember who it was), but it carries a very powerful
message. These are not even the verbatim words-

“I hope and wish that the Tata hospital remains as much vacant as possible
and all this, despite the heavy expenditure involved.” such is the
commitment of Tata Steel…

Now we come to the concepts of “Business Ethics” and “Corporate Social
responsibility”. Corporate social responsibility is a beautiful concept. In
1995, the Ford Foundation supported a workshop organized by “Partners in
Change” (corporate citizens) of Actionaid India, to share the experiences of
intermediary organizations in the NGO and philanthropic sectors. A major
issue for discussion was: is there a need for an apex support organization to
promote philanthropy? And the consensus was “yes”. The outcome was the
establishment of “the Indian Centre for Philanthropy”. The center was
started with a mission to promote a philanthropic movement in India and to

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promote a caring and sharing culture by encouraging the giving of time,
money, knowledge, skills and other resources in order to create a socially
aware, responsible and participatory society.

A similar concept had led to the formation of the “Prince of Wales
Business Leaders Forum” (PWBLF) (with the head office in the UK), a
consortium of business leaders with representatives across the globe, who
practice and support good corporate citizenship.

Managers today must pay close attention to the values that guide people in
their organizations. Robert Solomon has argued that “managers must
exercise moral courage by placing the value of excellence at the top of their
agendas.” Continually striving towards excellence has become an
organizational theme of the present era. Today, ethics has moved away
from the fringe of management theory to the heart of it.

We are working in a world where quick fixes do not exist. It takes years to
address the root causes of poverty. Sometimes, the first step is emergency
relief, but sustainable, lasting change depends on long term relationships
and authentic partnership with communities, governments, businesses,
churches and individual supporters.

For many years, many organizations and managers have talked about an
organization’s responsibility to society. “Corporate social responsibility
focuses on what an organization does to influence the society in which it
exists, such as through volunteer assistance programs.” Companies like
M/S Johnson and Johnson, M/S AT & T have used their past experiences
and value systems in setting new moral visions for the future. One
particular business owner has instituted a practice of hiring ex – convicts.
He believes that business has to play a large role in changing our society.
Another employs homeless people to serve ice cream. Campbell Soup

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Company, Burger King, IBM and Colgate Palmolive are running education
programs. Reebok has been providing services to inner city street kids. In
1899, Andrew Carnegie, founder of the US Steel Corp, talked about “the
Charity Principle” which requires the more fortunate members of society to
assist its less fortunate members, including the poor, the unemployed, the
handicapped, the sick and the elderly. After the Los Angeles (USA) riots,
corporations such as AT & T, American Express and Merrill Lynch gave
cash to church relief efforts.

The question is, how does management fit into corporate social
responsibility? Keith Davis feels that “responsibility must follow power.
Corporations (or, for that matter, all organizations) should treat people as
ends in themselves. Take them seriously, accept their interests and desires
as legitimate, and important….” This is how management fits into
corporate social responsibility.

(Source of what follows: “Partners in Change” corporate partnership:
making social responsibility work, Actionaid India, date not specified)

I would strongly suggest that social responsibility be made compulsory in
all companies and social audits be carried out. The question is, how do we
make corporate social responsibility work, on how the corporate sector can
participate in social development. Like any other corporate endeavor,
corporate involvement in social development too needs to be approached
systematically:

(a) Defining the vision: should be a part of the corporate mission to ensure
a consistent, focused and sustained involvement of the company.
Money is not the only corporate resource that they can provide to
social development initiatives. Others include executive time
management, total quality management (TQM) of social services,

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Human Resource Management, marketing and technical areas, support
to ancillaries, usage of company facilities etc. The company could
look at sectors (education, health, economic programs) or issues (child
labor, AIDS awareness) or categories (disabled or women or children
or tribal, etc). The period of support is crucial, as development is a
long-term process;

(b) Determining the approach: “sustainable development” is about
providing opportunities or choices to the disadvantaged to enable them
to stand on their own feet with dignity. It requires working “with”
communities in a participatory manner and adopting the most suitable
methodology for a program.

Companies can adopt any of the following approaches to their social
development activities:

“Do-it-yourself”- companies can run their own programs through their own
employees. However, it will be vital to employ specialized persons for this
task who have the necessary experience and expertise to design and operate
such interventions;

“Partnership”- the other option is that the company can work in
partnership with an implementing voluntary organization. The company
can provide some of the resources the voluntary agency may require, such
as development skills and expertise;

“Support”- alternatively, the company can just make resources available to
a development agency and allow it the discretion to use them optimally.
This usually works best with monetary contributions from the company;

(c) Planning the interventions: once the vision is clear and the organization
choices determined, the interventions must be designed. This requires

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a deep understanding of local and long- term development issues.
“Participatory Rural Appraisal” (PRA) - which helps identify local
issues with the communities is a very useful methodology that
provides inputs to the program design;

(d) Monitoring and evaluation: the company which chooses the “do-it-
yourself” approach must get expert inputs at this stage either from its
own experts or from experienced agencies. The “partnership” and the
“support” approaches are relatively easy for the company as the
expertise is readily available with the partner and start-up is quicker.

Social development is an extremely complex process and hence needs to be
approached in a professional and systematic manner, using the appropriate
field-tested methodologies. Companies can create employment
opportunities by employing the disadvantaged (person with disabilities, for
example) or developing / supporting ancillary units employing the
disadvantaged. Companies can allow usage of company infrastructure such
as medical facilities for referrals, camps, conference facilities,
communication facilities such as fax and telephones, equipment such as
photocopiers and computers ((an e-mail facility in the village man’s
expectations!, tapping of ground water through a computer, yes, a village
woman’s expectations!(because she has to walk miles and miles to fetch
water)).

Companies can offer financial support either as money ((this can be in the
form of a cheque or employees contributing a part of their salaries or cause-
related marketing. It can form specific capital projects (school, vehicles,
water harvesting structure) or running costs (training of teachers and health
workers, salaries, publications, etc)). Companies can help by appointing
NGOs in the process of donation or discounts on products and assets-

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company manufactured products (office equipment, vehicles, agricultural
inputs etc) or second hand/used assets (computers, furniture, office
equipment).

What every company can do

Social development is a long term process. It will, therefore, be useful for
every company to participate in whatever manner it wishes. Once
employees get involved, innovative ideas can come up and the company
can call itself a “good corporate citizen”.

It should be an era of corporate social responsibility and the corporate
sector should focus on poverty and other problems. Corporate social
responsibility should come in when villages are close to industries; and in
remote areas, other arrangements may be done.

The corporate sector should buy tractors, seeds, implements and fertilizers
for nearby villages and sponsor research on improvements in agriculture
for nearby villages.

<< Companies can do a lot for the poor, the homeless, the unemployed and
others disadvantaged>>.

How???

– a company can support an NGO by funding, say, for instance, a school
building and some community halls from its office-

– a company focusing on economic and business issues can provide free
advertising space to NGOs in its newspaper-

– companies can provide technical and financial support to the NGOs
working in the slums and rural areas (to the savings programs, for
instance)-

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– the corporate sector can support NGOs by funding research on disease
e.g. tropical sprue, dengue, Hepatitis B, cholera, malaria, filaria etc,
which largely affect the developing world-

– companies can support NGOs working for women (or, men) who are
victims of sexual harassment and violence by providing volunteers with
mobile phones, greatly facilitating their rescue and counseling efforts-

– multinational companies can provide vocational training to
underprivileged youth by partnering with NGOs working in urban slums
or rural areas-

– the corporate sector can have an employee volunteers program where
the employees can contribute a part of their salaries as well as share
their skills in management, computers and marketing on weekends with
a few NGOs-

– leading pharmaceutical companies can work in partnership with NGOs
by establishing medical centers, providing medicines free of cost and
supporting health initiatives-

– a safe drinking water project benefiting some villages can be run by the
corporate sector providing the funds, the NGO the technical expertise
and supervision, with the community providing the labor-

It may sound ridiculous but my ideal dream would be: a group of
companies and NGOs get together and through corporate partnership make
social responsibility work by providing infrastructure or help in whatever
way for a group of buses which will go to the slums and remote rural and
tribal villages as part of a literacy drive. Children will learn to read and
write on the buses itself. Reading and writing for children will be

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interspersed with play activities. Food (a midday meal) will be provided on
the buses. Moral education will also be imparted. This package will include
some education for adults like information on the disadvantages for farmers
when they migrate to cities. There will be a common package for slum and
rural children. The package for adults will be separated in quality, stressing
more on survival strategies (like science in agriculture) for farmers and
strategies for slum dwellers. Coordinated by experts, this drive could stop
the flow of farmers to the cities and promote welfare of the slum dwellers.
They could for instance learn better ways of sanitation.

Let us sum up the temperament I believe in with the credo of a reputed
company (I do not remember which company it was):

“We are responsible to our employees. Every one must be considered an
individual in his own right. We must respect their dignity and recognize
their work…however minute a contribution they might make … we are
responsible to the communities in which we live and work and to the world
community as well. We must…. be good citizens – support good work and
charity. We must…. encourage civic improvements and better health and
education…. We must…. work to protect the environment and natural
resources… We must experiment with new ideas, research must be carried
on, and innovative programs developed… And yes, mistakes must be paid
for….this is our credo.”

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CHAPTER 9A
Let us open our eyes and see man not as a commodity, but as a reasoning,
rational being capable of becoming self-reliant with slight help from others.
This is especially true of those who are mentally or physically
disadvantaged or otherwise.

She (Helen Keller) will live on….the woman who showed the world there
are no boundaries to courage and faith.

– Former Senator of Alabama (USA) Lister Hill

I believe that life is given to us so that we may grow in love, and I believe
that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of a flower-the
light in my darkness, the voice in my silence.

– Helen Keller

Homeless blind people of all ages roamed the streets of most large towns,
and even well-educated men and women seemed to find it amusing to
watch them groping their way and bumping into buildings. They would
throw things at them or trip them up, and then burst into laughter.

-Norman Wymer, from “The
Inventors”

On the highways it was common to find groups of sightless people…these
people were regarded as incomplete beings, ignorant and simple.

- Lennard Bickel, from “Triumph over Darkness, the Life of Louis
Braille”

At the fair at St. Ovid, in 1771, Valentine Hauy saw blind people clowning
to the shouts and jeers of the audience. The sight of human beings so

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degraded and so helpless before the cruel laughter of others shocked him
profoundly. It set his feet on the path which led to the foundation of the
world’s first school for the blind (visually handicapped) where Francois
Lesueur was Hauy’s first pupil.

It is high time for Louis Braille’s genius to be recognized….he built a
large, firm stairway for millions of sense-crippled human beings to
climb…..

- Helen Keller

They took away what

Should have been my eyes,
(But I remembered Milton’s Paradise).

They took away what
Should have been my ears

(Beethoven came and wiped away my tears).
They took away what

Should have been my tongue, (but I had

Talked with God when I was young).

He would not let them take

Away my soul – possessing that, I still possess the whole.
- Helen Keller

Children who hear acquire language without any particular effort….the
little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful process. But
whatever the process, the result is wonderful….

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- Anonymous

(The following extracts have been taken from a book on community
development, “Outreach”): -

Care for people with disabilities: the disabled should never be subjected to
any barrier- 'environmental' (access to public and private buildings,
educational institutions, workplaces, factories, shops, public transport
systems), or 'attitudinal', as in social stigma. They are definitely not
inadequate, pitiable or in any ways inferior. They are not different, but are
like any other human being....

Employment opportunities: the first special employment exchange for the
physically handicapped in India was established in Bombay in 1959. The
Ministry of Labor has established 17 vocational rehabilitation centers for
the evaluation and placement of the disabled. The “National Centre for
Promotion of Employment of Disabled People” (NCPEDP) works in
facilitating an interface between industry, the disabled and NGOs involved
in rehabilitation.

Disabled people now have legislative protection of their rights, but, are
laws sufficient? We and our attitudes towards the disabled have to change.
Governments should

(i) take concrete steps to prevent disabilities from occurring;

(ii) integrate disabled children into normal schools or establish ‘special’
schools for those with such need;

(iii) establish non-formal education and ‘open’ educational institutions
for the disabled; and,

(iv) help disabled people train, employ and rehabilitate themselves.

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Incentives should be given to employers to employ the disabled, whether
the blind or those with low vision, those with hearing impairment, those
with locomotor disability or those with cerebral palsy. Time to treat the
mentally ill as normal, and able to make positive contributions to society.

All public buildings should have ramps; adaptable toilets for all users of the
wheelchair should be established and Braille symbols and auditory signals
should be set up inside elevators. At the same time, we should try to
integrate people with disability into mainstream society, create social and
economic opportunities for spastic children, integrate culture of the
disabled into main society and widely disseminate information and
awareness about facilities available to the disabled. Let us try to provide the
above-mentioned facilities in rural areas....

Loans can be given for setting up small business or a small industrial unit,
for higher studies, vocational and/or professional training, for agriculture,
for production of devices for the disabled, for self-employment of those
with mental retardation, cerebral palsy and autism, for entrepreneurial
development programs, for “disability societies”, etc.

We should start making a difference to the lives of the disabled, through
our own efforts, if not through the efforts of others.... call it, looking at the
(lives of the) disabled through one's own eyes....

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CHAPTER 9B

OUR CREDO SHOULD BE: LET US HELP A
VISUALLY HANDICAPPED MAN CROSS
THE STREET
Before I begin, let us pray the way I prayed during my last visit to the
Missionaries of Charity:

“Oh father who art in heaven

(How inhuman they were who nailed you to the cross)

Holy be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On Earth as it is in heaven,

Give us today our daily bread,

Give them (the poor, the downtrodden) today their daily bread,

Forgive us our sin,

As we forgive those who sin against us,

Do not bring us to the test,

But deliver us from evil,

-Amen”.

We all know about Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan and Louis Braille and
his system for the blind. At the same time, we have to bear in mind that

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The blind cannot see the blue sky,

The deaf cannot listen to the sounds of the mountain stream,

The mute cannot appreciate (verbally) the beauty of a flower or a mother’s
love. They cannot express (verbally) a concern for the family,

And the mentally retarded are impaired in such a way that they have
difficulty in making bodily and social adjustments.

But they all sing in chorus:

Blessed are those

Who understand my awkward step and clumsy hand

Who know the ways of my heart and love me as I am

Who make me feel loved, respected and not alone

Who will listen for I too have something to say.

- Anonymous.

Blindness, deafness, muteness are physical handicaps. Braille, a system of
writing and printing for the blind was invented in 1843 by Louis Braille, a
Frenchman who had been blinded in an accident in his childhood. The
world has plenty to learn from Louis Braille’s experience. The sign
language was developed for people who are deaf, mute or both. The first
known sign language for the deaf was developed in France. As a tribute to
the inventor, let us put sign language on TV programs so that the deaf as
well as people who are able to hear can enjoy. Let us get college students
involved with reading to the blind or learning how to communicate with the
deaf.

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We must all realize that mental and physical impairment (e.g. mental
retardation, deafness, blindness) are conditions that can be improved with
special education (e.g. Braille), training and rehabilitation. You can make
them more self sufficient through training. Such handicap can occur in any
family- rich or poor, illiterate or educated. I just heard that a rich
businessman, who is a patient of Thalassemia, has started a fund towards
Thalassemia, with the help of well-known citizens of his city. The idea is,
rich patients of mental or physical disability should help poor patients
monetarily and / or in other ways. Schools for those with disabilities of
some kind should keep admissions open to needy children from all
backgrounds throughout the year. Concessions and freeships should be
made available for needy students. Such schools should impart education in
self-help and pre-vocational skills, including academic training, vocational
skills, self-help skills and other extra-curricular activities. Services of
counselors, social workers, special educators, clinical psychologists and
therapists should be provided. Trips, excursions, and cultural shows should
be arranged. Social integration programs with general schools should be
held to create awareness and positive attitudes among other school
children.

Regular extra-curricular activities like yoga, dance, music, drumming,
painting, sewing, embroidery should be held. Indoor and outdoor games
should also be encouraged. State level, national and international level
Olympics should be held for the blind, the deaf and the mentally retarded.

A vocational training center would be useful in such “special” schools and
the corporate sector should purchase and promote products and handicrafts
made by the children of such schools. The corporate sector should be
involved in as many ways as it can.

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Remember: the blind cannot see the world, beautiful nature. The deaf
cannot listen to the songs of the mountain stream. The mentally retarded
find it difficult to make social adjustments.

Therefore: if you can, help know more about mental retardation, mental
illness, blindness, and other disabilities. Spread awareness among others.
And accept them without pity.

Whatever might be your caste, creed or race,

Help in whatever way

You can but

Help!!!

- (Source: some literature on mental retardation and other common
disabilities)

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CHAPTER 10A
There are different countries,

And different people speak different languages,

But only one sun, one moon, one tide, one mother Earth.

So let us live in peace, in harmony.

1) “If we don't stop helping these African flesh eaters, we will soon wake
up and find Rev. King (Martin Luther King Jr.) in the White House.”

- From a leaflet circulated by some racists -

2) “Segregation Forever”, “Communist Jews behind Race Mix”, “Go
Home to Africa”, and “Keep Alabama (USA) White.”

- Anti-black poster in Alabama (USA), 1950s-

3) “Attitudes changed as they saw negroes being watered down with fire
hoses...innocent children being bombed in churches, there was a
reaction to this type of thing.”

- William Nix, Morehouse College, America -

4) “Those who are equal before God shall now be equal in the polling
booths, in the classrooms, in the factories, and in hotels, restaurants,
movie theaters, and other places that provide services to the public.”

- President Johnson of the USA, after signing the Civil Rights Act, July 2,
1964-

5) “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last.”

- From R.J. Owen: “Free at Last” and Flip Schulke: Martin Luther King, Jr.

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6) If the Negro is a man...there can be no moral right in connection with
one man’s making a slave of another.

- Abraham Lincoln, from his speech at Peoria, Oct, 1854

7) Racial prejudice??? Why????

8) Multiracial classes in schools have become increasingly common in
South Africa. They bear out Archbishop Desmond Tutu's vision of
racial harmony, a vision of the future.

9) ‘You must defend the right of African parents to decide the kind of
education that shall be given to their children. Teach the children that
Africans are not one iota inferior to Europeans. Establish your own
community schools where the right kind of education will be given to
our children. If it becomes dangerous or impossible to have alternative
schools, then you must make every home, every shack, every rickety
structure a centre of learning for our children...’

- Nelson Mandela, speaking at the ANC’s Transvaal Conference, 1953.

10) One of Eleanor’s (Roosevelt) closest friends was the great education
and Civil rights leader, Mary McLeod Bethune.... White racists called
her (Eleanor) a “nigger-lover”…. In May 1936, she organized a garden
party in the grounds of the White House for the mainly black inmates
of a training school for delinquent girls where disease was rife and
conditions miserable.... She was said to have entertained “a bunch of
nigger whores at the White House”.... When she uncovered similarly
dreadful conditions at an old people’s home for black people... she
said: “we should be ashamed. I was sickened. If that is the way we

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care for people who are not able to care for themselves, we are at a
pretty low ebb of civilization.”

- From Eleanor Roosevelt by David Winner

11) ‘First the White man brought the Bible, then he brought guns, then
chains, then he built a jail, then he made the native pay tax’ - a
Zimbabwean trade unionist, J.H. Mphemba, describing the process of
turning African farmers into wage - workers, 1929.

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CHAPTER 10B

THEY ARE NOT OF MY CASTE, CREED OR
RACE, NEVER MIND, HELP!
To some extent in the modern era, there is inter - racial and intra - racial
hatred. But these are extreme cases of racism. I wish to cite the examples of
the Ku–Klux-Klan and the Dot-Busters.

There was a pronounced victory over racism when W.E.B. Du Bois in
America founded the “National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People”. This was in 1909. Upto May 1994, racism was
predominant in South Africa in the form of “Apartheid”. There was a
tremendous victory over racism when Nelson Mandela of the African
National Congress (ANC) was voted the country’s first black President.

Actually, the terms black, white and brown are misleading. The terms
European, African (Kenyan or Egyptian), Afro-American, Indian, or
Caucasoid, Negroid or Mongoloid should be used.

Gone are the days when “Blacks, dogs and Indians” were not allowed into
public places. Moreover, the situation is changing every moment at
Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban in South Africa and in other
cosmopolitan regions. Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of a train when he
tried to protest. This, however, is a matter of the past.

Racism in the true sense of the word has perpetually vanished, or has it???
Now, a great many Europeans (Whites) are working for development in the
deep jungles of Africa. Many Europeans are working in India, under
difficult conditions of climate, food, water, clothing and cultural

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differences. However, ethnic fighting continues. The Gulf War is an
example. Bosnia and Rwanda are other examples of countries where we
have witnessed further and further social disintegration.

There are still caste feelings and creed feelings. Inter - caste marriage is
still taboo in India. In certain parts of India, casteism is rampant. Let us
take blessings from the gods, because there have been cases of witch -
hunting and lynching of inter-caste couples who had eloped.

Let us take blessings for all those who have been or are being abused in the
name of race, caste and creed and especially for “Harijans” (named by
Mahatma Gandhi as “Children of God”).

Let us quote Swami Vivekananda: “keep the motto before you: elevation of
the masses without injuring their religion”.

• And let us work to protect God’s children.

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CHAPTER 11A
“I am the child.
All the world waits for my coming;
All the world watches with interest to see what I shall become;
Civilization hangs in the balance;
For what I am, the world of tomorrow will be.
I am the child.
I have come into your world,
About which I know nothing,
Why I came I know not;
How I came I know not;
I am curious, I am interested.
I am the child.
You hold in your hand my destiny.
You determine, largely, whether I shall succeed or fail.
Give me, I pray you, those things that make for happiness.
Train me, I beg you, that I may be a blessing to the world.”

- Mamie Gene Cole

1) In our society, grown-ups are too unfree to be positive about
anything, adults are too cynical to change society and the spark of
hope lies only in children. Let us motivate children to change and
spiritualize society.

2) “Child (a beautiful flower in the giant garden called Earth) my heart
bleeds for you”-

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3) In every child which is born….the potentiality of the human race is
born again-

4) I pledge myself to care for…, especially children, and to look upon
other children all over the world as my friends.-Junior Red Cross
Pledge

5) Child sexual abuse, child rape??? Are the authorities sleeping? The
police, the courts, society??? We have to adopt stern measures to nab
‘potential’ abusers, and afterwards change them into ‘human
beings’….

6) “Police massacres of blacks had punctuated South Africa’s history but
nothing so terrible had been known: a modern armed force moving
against school children.”-Mary Benson, South African author, date
not specified-

7) “Be more thoughtful to each other, respect people different from
yourself…. it is wise to teach children that intrinsically every human
being has the same value before his maker, but that the moment a
child enters the world, he is conditioned by his surroundings. There is
inequality…therefore, we as individuals should always try to
recognize the actual worth of a human being…. and work towards
such a world…..”

8) Since the Declaration (of Human Rights), human rights have
improved. But…. some of the most flagrant, inhumane actions of
despotic governments have not been disciplined….the worst sufferers
are children: like the orphans of the millions of people murdered by
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1970’s…or Kurdish children
from Iraq who were murdered by their leader when chemical weapons

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were used to wipe out their village in 1988….the story (of these
unfortunate children) goes on….What will happen to the future of our
planet….if children continue to suffer?

9) Destitute, homeless, hungry, poor children in “big” cities and remote
hamlets of a “small world”. What an anomaly?

10) U.S. Service Agency CEPAA has announced the establishment of a
social standard to check workplace abuses, including child labor. A
year 2000 campaign to re-direct world military spending to human
development has also been started –New York, Nov 4, 2000.

11) Until the 1970’s, black children and parents often had to build their
own schools…The walls were made of mud and the patterns on the
walls were caused by the nimble fingers of children, as they plastered
the walls – from Desmond Tutu by David Winner-

12) Let us not accept that anyone should suffer because they are women,
or….worse still….children… The world is truly one world, and all its
inhabitants members of one family….

13) Can you believe this? That some children are born into confinement,
inside jails and prisons, where young mothers may have been
detained?? - adapted from “Childhood in India” by Jon. E. Rohde
(UNICEF)-

14) “The toss of a coin, or the throw of a dice, and who knows what face,
aspect, or hue will reveal itself in the ‘game of chance’ – that is a
child’s life in India.”- adapted from “Childhood in India” by Jon. E.
Rohde(UNICEF)-

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15. June 16, 1976 was the start of the “Children’s Revolt” against
Apartheid (in South Africa). It began in Soweto among school
children but spread rapidly through the country…. many fell “victims”
to police bullets. Shocking!

16. Gabriele Mistral, the famous poet and a great humanist, said way
back: “we are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst
crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many
of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the
time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his
senses are being developed. To him we cannot say ‘tomorrow’. His
name is ‘today’...”

It is constantly argued that society can get rid of social evils if only
there is a change in the attitude of the people. The greatest change can
be brought about by ensuring children grow up with clear notions of
the rights and wrongs in conducting their lives in society....

It is better late than never. The benefits may not be immediately
obvious... But we do need a more ‘complete’ education of the child.
As John Haywood said, “better unborn than untaught” -

17. The little one was crying out in hunger. There was no one to comfort
her. Her parents had deserted her and she had been thrown into a
garbage bin, wrapped in a piece of cloth. It was yet another case of
child abandonment and this time too it was a girl child... Women in
our country are obviously still treated as subhuman. Giving birth to a
female child is considered a curse...

A government report on family planning in India paints a sorry
picture. Less than 40% of women have access to contraceptives and

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more than 60% women in the country are still in the dark about the
basic ideas of contraception. In states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in
India, illiteracy and poverty have forced females of all ages to be
victimized and discriminated against in the worst possible ways. This
includes being abandoned, or worse, sold off at a price cheaper than
that of cattle. Shocking! Is it not?

- From ‘Why Leave Crying Babes in the Wood’ - Child Abandonment
- The Telegraph, India, 14 Nov. 2000.

18. Hold my ‘today’, I‘ll hold your ‘tomorrow’, Child Rights: Towards a
New Dawn: a nation marches on the feet of its children. Let us
rededicate ourselves for the development of our children, by
empowering them with knowledge and resources by meeting their
basic needs, fighting malnourishment and improving the quality of
their childhood by making them healthier and stronger. Healthy and
strong children make a great nation. Let us compliment mothers as we
welcome the Women Empowerment Year 2001.... The future of our
children shapes the future of our country.

19. “….Children, the world over, are the greatest human resource. The
prosperity and the strength of a nation depends largely upon the
health, well being and education of its children. It is today’s children
who will chart the future frontiers of progress...

Let us rededicate ourselves to making every effort so that our children
can grow up in an atmosphere of joy, prosperity and peace; so that
every child is assured a life of dignity, free of hunger and
exploitation.”

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-Message from the Prime Minister, Shri A.B. Vajpayee, New Delhi,
India, Nov. 14, 2000.

20. ‘... Though we have achieved steady progress in several spheres like
improving the immunization, literacy and mortality rates in children...
We have to overcome the vicious cycle of poverty, discrimination
against the girl child, and illiteracy, and give all children in our
country a real childhood invested with love, care and knowledge....’

-Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi

Min. of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
India, 14 Nov’, 2000

21. A novel scheme in Haryana (India) has been revised to provide direct
help to the girl child, in the form of a grant (scholarship) of Rs. 500/-
to be deposited in a joint account in the name of the girl child and a
designated officer, in a nationalized bank or post office. This entire
amount is to go into education. Laudable effort!

22. Child labor is cheap and ideal, because of “small and delicate” fingers.
And nimble fingers earn daily bread for impoverished families in so
many countries across the globe. Most economic analysts agree that
the social and economic factors behind it should be addressed.
Governments which import goods manufactured by children can help,
for instance, by providing opportunities (financial or otherwise) to
bonded children to attend school or to be trained in vocational skills....
or, to pay off loans taken by their parents... or pay a “bonded-child”
sum to childrens’ organizations.” Work by children has to be phased
out and replaced by education, with the work being taken over by

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unemployed adults.”(Keith Cooper)…Some work can be provided to
mothers and elders of the children concerned, who, should, however,
never be moved into more hazardous work. The role of the ILO and
the appropriate trade unions need not be underestimated – adapted
from Hussain, Elliott and Goodbody, “ The Statesman”, India, 30
Oct,’ 97-

23. Adapted from ‘The Telegraph’, India, May 1999: - ‘... the “Dai”
(midwife) delivered the baby without too much trouble.

But the mother’s joy was short-lived. For three days, she could not see
her son, with both confined in separate chambers. In keeping with the
age-old traditions, the mother had to go without food as she prayed for
the well being of her child...

... Both the mother and the baby had survived the ordeal - the “period
of separation” - not many villagers of Patamda block, (East
Singhbhum district, former Bihar state, India) have this kind of luck.
The lack of medical facilities and trained nurses offering pre-natal and
post-natal care result in both the mother and the baby risking their
lives...

There are areas plagued by dismal literacy rates, low individual
income and high rates of infant mortality... About 56% of the
population comprise tribals who live without safe and healthy medical
practices and supplies, which influence survival rates.

... Medical practices in these areas are primitive and people are mired
in superstitions and live below the poverty line leading to high
mortality rates...’

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Let us discuss an ideal “child survival project”: -

a) inculcation of tenets of healthy behavior among mothers and
midwives during the pre-natal and post-natal periods, to increase
chances of child survival;

b) setting up of free clinics and supply of free medicines,
immunization and healthy diet programs for infants;

c) awareness camps on safe childbirth and breast-feeding;

d) songs and skits in tribal and rural languages;

e) health and hygiene programs;

f) training camps for midwives;

g) monitoring of pregnant mothers;

h) vaccination of mothers. Projects should involve and rest with the
community itself.

24. First time, worldwide, Children’s Day was celebrated in October
1953, under the sponsorship of the International Union for Child
Welfare, Geneva. On its basis, let us formulate an ‘action agenda’ for
children :-

- Create awareness about social issues in the school, family and
community.

- Encourage and inculcate suitable work ethic among women so as
to make them economically self-sufficient.

- Create awareness about women and children’s rights in poor
sections of the society.

- Treat girls with respect and discourage discrimination.

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- Make ‘each one teach one’, a compulsory mandate for all children
in middle and senior schools.

- Mobilize sponsorships for educating poor children.

- Discourage parents from sending children to work (they have no
choice anyway).

- Students’ organizations to go to villages to promote primary
education and educate children and women on health, hygiene and
environmental sanitation.

- Students’ union to visit remand homes and interact with children.

- Set up a forum in villages with whom students’ unions can interact.

- Promote peer group action to plant trees to prevent pollution and
conserve the environment.

- Create awareness to prohibit telecasting films that are harmful for
children.

- Donate old toys and clothes to children of underprivileged sections
of society.

- Market child survival.

25. Their hunger - ravaged bodies bring back stark images of a Sub-
Saharan region. It is Somalia revisited as you enter Araria (Bihar state,
India), where children are born to die.

Situated near the rough, hilly terrains of Nepal, this poverty - stricken
North Bihar district is being put on the same, horrific map of child-
care neglect…. where, according to UNICEF, more than 90% children
suffer from acute malnutrition.

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Only Sub-Saharan countries stand comparison in the level of
malnourishment in the district.

.... Deaths are attributed to absence of trained midwives, lack of
proper medicines for common scourges like diarrhoea and non-
availability of safe drinking water...

Programs to make available adequate Vitamin A can help combat
night blindness and malnutrition.

.... Investment in early childhood development is essential to make any
real gains in education, economic development and crime and debt
reduction.

- from “ UNICEF Echoes Kids’ Rights – Violation Cry”, the Telegraph,
India, 13 Dec, 2000:- Children around the world:

- Education : % of children who - Malnutrition : % of children
finish 5 years of primary under 5 years old suffering from
education(1995-99) : stunted growth(1995-2000) :
industrialized countries – 99%, industrialized countries – 0 %,
developing countries – 73% - developing countries – 33% -
- Life expectancy (1999) : - Mortality rate(1999) : before age
5, for every 1000 births :
industrialized countries – 78 years, industrialized countries – 6,
developing countries – 63 years - developing countries – 90 -

The rights of children are being continually and blatantly violated…

India is home to a third of the world’s malnourished children, trapped in
intractable poverty, violence and disease.

In its report “The State of the World’s Children” 2001, the UNICEF
underlined that 47% of children under three in India are still underweight
and malnourishment is high, despite the fact that the country produces
enough food for its entire population.

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Only 27% of children in this age group, suffering from diarrhoea are
treated with oral dehydration salt. Discrimination against female children
begin in the foetus and continue through infancy.

UNICEF’s Executive Director Carol Bellamy says,” the lives of children
and women are the truest indicators of the strength of communities and
nations. If the youngest and most vulnerable are left to find their way alone,
a country violates the rights of its people and sabotages its future as an
equal partner in the global economy.”

The top five child killers in 1998 were respiratory infections, diarrhoeal
diseases, vaccine – preventable infections, malaria and prenatal conditions.

10 million children under 15 have lost their mothers or both parents to
AIDS. In the developing countries over 20% of children are out of school
and 15 million girls in the 15-19 age group give birth every year.
The picture at the turn of the century does indeed appear very bleak…
- No newborn child should be doomed to a short or a miserable existence
merely because he or she happens to be born in the “wrong class” or in
the “wrong country” or to be of the “wrong sex”-

- An analysis of childhood in terms of infant mortality rate, life
expectancy, enrolment in school; etc, would generate numbers,
providing an incomplete picture, making it easy to lose sight of the daily
realities of the human lives that lie behind such statistics. Millions of
children are growing up in poverty in the shantytowns and villages of
the Third World. The condition of girls is pathetic. When they are made
to feel special, there is likely to be an association with their maternal
role(s)-the onset of menstruation, a wedding, the announcement of
conception, the birth of a son.

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- The most comprehensive statement of children’s rights ever made is the
“Convention on the Rights of the Child”, broadly grouped as the right to
survival, to development, to protection from abuse and exploitation and
to participate in decisions affecting their lives. Adopted by the UN
General Assembly in 1989, it has since been accepted by over 180
countries, making it the most widely - ratified human rights treaty of all
time. Countries, which ratify the convention, have agreed to meet the
standards set for all children, regardless of their gender, religion and
income group. Although the main responsibility for meeting the rights
of the child lies with the government, everyone has a role to play.

- Thousands of boys work on the looms in the carpet belt of
Mirzapur/Bhadohi (India). Many of them are bonded; others are paid a
few rupees a day for their work.

- In mass marriage ceremonies which begin on the festival of “Akha
Teej” (day after the harvest is brought in), girl children in Rajgarh
district of Madhya Pradesh, India, are “married off”. While child
marriages are illegal in India, in several communities, they are a
common practice, and a daughter reaching adulthood in her parents’
home is considered a matter of serious concern.

- India has the largest proportion of children out of school (22% of the
global total).

- I come from a country (India) where children grow up on railroad tracks
and on the streets. How can I remain quiet?

- Many children traverse long distances to get a good education. What
matters in education is the enthusiasm and skill of a good teacher, in
village schools. adopting activity - based teaching would mean making

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learning joyful and productive, for example, teaching how to count six
toy pigeons or the English Alphabet. One should provide incentives for
learning, and physical punishment (as is often done) should never, never
be resorted to.

- The majority of India’s child labor works in the agricultural sector - 15
million of them (for example, girls working in the sugarcane fields of
Bihar) are bonded, their work pledged to pay off the debts of their
families. Tens of millions of children in India have an adult’s burden of
work (example, children working in gun factories, glass industry in
Ferozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India - children as young as ten years).
Children are attractive to employers because they are cheap, pliable and
do not unionize. The burden of work falls heaviest on girls and yet is
often not recognized as child labor at all. The girl who spends her days
looking after her siblings and performing household tasks is denied her
rights to education and healthy development as much as the child
working in a factory. And boys have to accompany their fathers on
fishing trips. Girls and women work in prawn - peeling units (of
factories) in Orissa. Boys usually load and unload the catch until 4 p.m.,
after which peeling is done till 7 a.m. though the Factories Act prohibits
the employment of children at night, splitting the factory into smaller
units, which are not covered by the Act, circumvents the rule. Untold
numbers of girls are sold into prostitution and forced to service upto ten
men a night. Girls most vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation
are those from poor families living in marginal communities on the
orbits of the major towns, daughters of destitute families living in
villages, migrants who have no night shelter and daughters of
commercial sex workers. there are many other forms of child labor-

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shoeshine boys, children performing acrobatics, little children of
nomads going through daily routines of jumping through a ring of fire.
Sometimes, children have to beg on the streets to make a living.
Countless children work in the unorganized and self-employed sectors-

- Street children? Their hopes, their aspirations, their futures? Falling
asleep on the pavements?? Children of 15 and 16 year olds, children of
drug-addicts??? Homes on disused railroad tracks???? Children earning
a living by collecting plastic cartons at railway stations and selling them
for a few rupees?

- Babies born inside jail, where young mothers are detained, birth in
confinement?
- In addition to over half of preschool children who are malnourished, a
large number of young children suffer from serious micronutrient
deficiencies, particularly those relating to iodine and Vitamin A.
- Adolescent mothers (approximately 10-16 years of age) are likely to
remain physically underdeveloped and are at greater risk of obstetric
complications and maternal deaths, as well as of bearing under-weight
infants with reduced chances of survival. For the adolescent mother,
childhood is effectively over and her education comes to an end. The
premature assumption of childcare responsibilities ensures that for the
child mother, there is no world beyond the family. In all this, economic
considerations are often critical, and the sale of girls to much older and
affluent bride-grooms is not uncommon. In some districts of Rajasthan
(India), 45% of 10-14 year olds are married off. When the eldest
daughter is married off, her younger sisters may also be married off at
the same time to reduce the expense of the wedding. The cost of dowry
is also much less for a child groom than for a man.

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- Some children are born amidst conflict. Children in Kashmir are
surviving past heavily armed militants. Children come face-to-face with
violence when soldiers enforce curfew in areas of violent conflict
(remember Sarajevo, Rwanda?)

- Some children are born into a loving, nurturing and protective
environment, while their families outrightly exploit some others. Some
children are struggling in a hostile world of street life and other difficult
circumstances. 18 million children work under hazardous conditions.
Millions of children have an adult burden of work from an early age.
Don’t we all see the scars of pain and long-term neglect on these
innocent faces?

- Despite commitment to education stated in the constitution, only a half
complete primary school. Even then, the quality rendered is abysmal.
Children in the rural areas have to traverse long distances to reach
school, which are normally run down, leaky and over-crowded but with
no playgrounds.
- Children grow up in different environments. Some grow up in opulent,
restricted royal families or comfortable urban middle class families,
while some (the very poorest of the urban and rural poor) live in
insecurity with constant threat of violence. It is remarkable how these
children and their families survive at all, given the extreme difficult
conditions under which they are living. Indeed, many do not...
- The family, particularly the mother, is crucial to the survival and
development of the child, and a lot depends on the amount of care
received. In many homes, mothers struggle to provide safety and
security to their children under most difficult conditions. Infants face
special problems when mothers are children themselves.

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- At the time of (Indian) independence in 1947, only 14% of India’s
population were literate and one child out of three had been enrolled in
primary school. One of the Directive Principles of the Constitution of
India stated that the state shall endeavour to provide, within a period of
ten years from the commencement of this constitution, for free and
compulsory education for all children until the age of fourteen.
53 years have passed, and yet only a little over half of India’s population is
literate, and almost half of the children enrolled in primary school drop out
before completing even five years of schooling, thus fuelling illiteracy in
the future. Girls are particularly affected. The female literacy rate remains
much lower than that of males and dropout rates for girls in the six large
northern states are higher than that of boys. But, there is now a growing
consensus that universalizing primary education is the most pressing
priority for the country’s well-being benefiting both the economy and the
health of the country’s people, as well as contributing to a slowing of
population growth.

- “The air, the water and the soil are not a gift from our parents but a loan
from our children.”

-saying of a Canadian Indian tribe.

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CHAPTER 11B

FROM GOD’S CHILDREN TO THE CHILD
“Producing a child is really no great accomplishment. The truly great
accomplishment is to give a child life in the fullest meaning of the word…”

- Extract from a book by Ms. Tadd Fisher, former Executive Editor of the
Population Reference Bureau in Washington D.C., USA (Moral Issues in
the Production of a Child).

The child, a flower, every child, rich or poor, maimed or otherwise, is a
beautiful flower. Everytime I see a child crawling on the ground, or
learning to walk, or going to Montessori (then to primary school unto the
time the child grows up) I am reminded of a beautiful flower…

Michael learns to rock has sung

“Oh my sleeping child

The world so wild!”

Yes, the world is so harsh, so wild, for so many children - victims of war,
domestic violence, children who lack good nutrition, child labor, children
who do not have the opportunity to read and write and so on.

Children of the world are crying out:

“O Lord of the Universe! Refuge of the whole world! O thou of infinite
forms! Soul of the universe! O thou in whom repose the infinite virtues of
the world! O thou adored by all! Compassionate one!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable
world.”

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- Sri Sankaracharya (a renowned Indian saint)

The world’s most pressing problems at a time of “dramatic global change”
are unemployment, poverty and social disintegration. The denied sections
are Third World women and children, like health of the pregnant mother
and her to–be-born baby. Every person has a right to development,
including those relating to education, food, shelter, clothing, employment,
health and information.

Liberalization (in India) has opened up new means of communication, yes,
now we can watch Australian and British and American channels, but what
way has it helped the man on the street??? How has it helped women (I
mean slum and rural women) and children??? How will children benefit if
political leaders continue wooing the poor???

Children (and women, for that matter) should be placed at the center of
international development strategy. The world will not solve its
fundamental long-term problems until it learns to do a better job of
protecting and investing in the physical, mental and emotional development
of its children.

Because we protect

Today’s children,

We protect

Tomorrow’s world!

Yes!!!

Children are

Tomorrow’s world!!!!!

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We solve the problems of development, especially those relating to men
(think for a moment) and children in poverty, and all security problems
(frustrated aspirations, rising social tensions, internal conflicts, failed
states, mass migrations, disaffection of large numbers of people from their
value systems, governments and institutions) will vanish!!!!

Millions of children are suffering - from malnutrition, ill health and poor
growth, from an inability to read and write, from disease, from exploitation
as child labor, millions are being pushed into the flesh trade, are being
married off (child marriage), millions are victims of war, or are being
sexually abused or mutilated, many are being abused at home by drunken
parents, millions are victims of superstition (female circumcision /
infibulation, female infanticide). This is no foundation for sustainable
development.

Childhood is the time when minds and bodies and values and personalities
are being formed. And it is a time, when even temporary deprivation is
capable of inflicting lifelong damage on human development. It follows
that the vital, vulnerable years of childhood must be protected at all costs.

Think about children who are caught up in armed conflicts. Example in
Rwanda, what must have happened to children caught up in the
catastrophe? What kind of adults will they be, these millions of children
who have been traumatized by mass violence, who have been deprived of
homes and parents, of family and community, of identity and security, of
schooling and stability, who have been denied the opportunity to develop
normally in mind and body? What scars will they carry forward into their
(own) adult lives? And what kind of contribution will they be making to
their societies in 15 or 20 years from now?

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At one time, wars were fought between armies. But in the wars of the last
10 years, far more children have been killed or disabled than soldiers.
Millions of children have been forced into refugee camps, and millions
have been left homeless. It’s a shame that world governments have not
been able to avert such calamities.

Economic forces also deprive far larger numbers of the kind of childhood
that will enable them to become part of tomorrow’s solutions rather than
part of tomorrow’s problems.

“For many millions of families in the poorest villages and urban slums of
the developing world”, says UNICEF, “the daily consequence of these
economic forces over which they have no control is that they are unable to
put enough food on the table, unable to maintain a home fit to live in,
unable to dress and present themselves decently, unable to protect health
and strength, unable to admit in school or sustain education of their
children.”

The impact of these forces on nutrition, health and education, means that
the heaviest burden has fallen on young children. The very young are
paying the highest price of all, because they are paying with their one
chance to grow normally in mind and body.

Millions of families are becoming destitute and desperate. Most of the
victims are young, uprooted and urbanized. According to UNICEF, these
groups know far more about the world than their parents did, and they
expect far more from it. The almost inevitable result is an increase in social
tensions, ethnic problems, and political turbulence.

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It is under these circumstances that the rise of crime, violence, alcoholism,
drug abuse etc. (by which the aggrieved and the discarded have always
sought to console themselves) should be inevitable.

Protecting the normal development of children is a practical as well as a
logical proposition.

At least the most basic needs of all children - for nutrition, clothing, health
care and primary education, should be met within the next few years. We
can of course deploy today’s new knowledge, new cost technologies and
new communication capacities. If the efforts can be sustained and
increased, then our goals for protecting all children from malnutrition and
preventable disease- and ensuring that the vast majority have at least a
primary education- can certainly be achieved.

The industrialized nations should give more support to these efforts. Action
to protect the rising generation should be encouraged worldwide.

(Source: several books and magazines containing articles on children)

I will sum up with a beautiful song by Mark Owen: - “Child”

“Sleep peacefully now my child

I hope that you go away

To a place where your dreams can play

Wipe all the tears from your eyes

There is a sky of blue

This is your time of truth

Like a bird high on the wind

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May you fly away….

Like a snow fall in the spring

May your cares melt away…”

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CHAPTER 12A
By the end of the 21st century, books as we know them will no longer exist,
replaced by such new technology as electronic books. In 100 years, few
people will want to read at all, and fewer still will know to write.

- Geoffrey E. Meredith, a California (USA) marketing consultant

What about the Third World slums and villages? Who will bring such
technology to them? By the time the Third World gets the benefits of more
sophisticated technology, the industrialized world will have gone on to
something totally different.

And, what about

- broken down buildings;

- the lack of interest on the part of teachers;

- falling ceilings;

- lack of toilets;

- lack of electricity; and

- lack of clean drinking water???

[In India and in many other countries of the Third World]

And, how can we forget those men and women who labor by day and by
night to lay the bricks of a school building? And, in a rural area???

1. ‘Everyone has the right to education. Education should result in
people learning about and respecting human rights. It is a tool for
understanding and liberation...’ - Article 26 of the UN Declaration of
Human Rights.

2. Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing;

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education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

- Will Durant

3. It is well when the wise and the learned discover new truths;

but how much better to diffuse the truths already known amongst the
multitudes.

- Horace Mann

4. Education is a debt due from the present to the future generations.

- George Peabody

5. Education is the process by which the individual relates himself to the
universe,

gives himself citizenship in the changing world, shares the race’s
mind and enfranchises his own soul.

- John H. Finley

6. In the Third World (particularly, Africa, Bangladesh, India) very few
children can hope for a place in primary school. In the most backward
countries, fewer still, can hope for such a place...

Independence has come... and gone... and a revolution in education is
needed... The size of populations is growing fast... Independent
governments have, therefore, to provide many more schools and
teachers...

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Both quantity and quality (in education) are needed... Girls are still in
an inferior position, many fewer girls get to school than boys... Efforts
have to be made towards correcting this... Sports and recreation
should be included...

Education curricula should include, among other things... value (or,
moral) education, a simple and lucid discourse on “development” of
the countries of the students concerned, human rights, vocational
schools for practical training (to enable employment), agricultural
schools, schools for medicine (particularly, indigenous medicine), a
discourse on “culture” or the worth of local traditions and beliefs,
modern science, and the need for national and “international unity” in
facing common problems…. A need for “social” hygiene, personal
health and hygiene, a need for cleanliness and sanitation….Expansion
in education must continue...

Africa has more than 700 languages, many of which are spoken by
small communities. Some are spoken by numerous peoples, for
instance, the Yoruba language in Nigeria; or the Akan or Twi in
Ghana; Arabic in North Africa and Sudan; Swahili in East Africa; and
Hausa in West Africa. There is need for a common language...

Very few actually possess “literacy”, or the knowledge of how to read
and write. Many literacy campaigns should be launched, and the
teaching of elementary arithmetic be made an integral part of them...

The number of illiterates remains high. For the problem of “literacy”
goes beyond teaching people to read and write, to produce conditions
in which people form the habit of reading, writing and/or both.

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The time has come in the history of nations to liberate their peoples
from (centuries of) superstition, illiteracy and ignorance. There is
imminent danger that the growth of population will very soon begin to
outrun the literacy campaigns, and fresh efforts are needed... And
every village and every tribal hamlet, however remote... will have a
school (within close access)....

7. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC-India) declared in a
report that the “problem of child labor will persist... until the reality of
free and compulsory primary education... is realized.” There is no
dearth of laws prohibiting employment of children below 12 years in
several industries, and India is also a signatory to the “Convention on
the Rights of the Child” of 1989. Yet there are as many as 44 million
to 100 million working children. An ILO convention has described
compulsory primary education as the most effective antidote to
exploitation of children.

Due to continued neglect of the problem for decades, the number of
children out of school has grown as fast and large as the country’s
population. The requisite financial and infrastructural resources are
just not there... time to re-orient national policies on education....

-It has been observed that the economic, industrial and social
development of any nation depends on the number of literate
population. Many things about a country can be known from the
number of educated people and the level of education.

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Literacy in some major countries

Country Literacy rate (%)
USSR (former) 99.8
Australia 99.0
Japan 98.0
UK 97.0
Belgium 96.0
Argentina 94.0
Thailand 88.0
China 65.0
India 52.0
Pakistan 25.0

Source: CMIE report, Sept. 1990-

(Source of the following extracts: “Outreach”, Min of HRD, India)

– Man has gradually been recognized as an important resource of
development and progress. The concept of human capital or resource
development is now an integral part of planning. The value and quality
of the human resource can be increased through education. Therefore,
literacy plays a vital role in human resource development.

– Education is an important tool to help people and groups in coping with
the process of transition and change. The concept of basic education
was reinforced by the World Declaration for All adopted by the Jomtien
Conference held in 1990.

Illiterate persons cannot do practical things as read or write a letter, read a
bus plate or keep accounts. An ignorant person remains poor, and vice-
versa. In India, there is widespread resistance to female education. Girl

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child labor is prevalent. Rural women and those belonging to weaker
sections are largely illiterate.

The importance of literacy:

i. encourage independence and escape exploitation;

ii. avoid regular humiliation and frustration;

iii. increase in productive skills and confidence;

iv. helps fight against social evils and restrictive beliefs;

v. gainful access to health and other information;

vi. increase in participation in nation building and enabling people to
determine the direction of developmental process;

vii. higher enrolment and retention of children in schools;

viii. enhanced participation in community health, environment and other
programs.

– In the “mass campaign approach” to literacy, local volunteers
implement literacy programs, whether in a slum area, a village, a
cluster of villages, or even a whole district within a fixed time frame.
This approach creates a conducive environment for learning, with
educated individuals coming forward to help the illiterate -without any
incentive.

The most difficult job in any literacy effort is to provide enough motivation
to illiterate people to learn and educated people to teach on a sustained
basis. There have to be minimal dropouts. Special efforts should be made

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to mobilize girls and women. Efforts should also be made to dispel doubts
and misgivings about literacy and spread positive perceptions of it.

Methods of literacy could include play, games, song, drama, stickers,
posters, banners, slides, hoardings and films.

Children in the 9-14 age group, and those in the 6-9 age group who cannot
attend whole day schools due to economic or family compulsions, should
be given “non-formal education” (NFE). Also, vocational training,
immunization of children and family welfare can and should be included.

- Continuing Education for Development (CED):

Essentially extends literacy and primary education to promote human
resource development (HRD). Most Third World developmental plans and
policies aim at strengthening formal education to ensure that there is
enough knowledge and skill for development. Unfortunately, this policy
has largely failed, and inequalities of all kinds, low productivity and
illiteracy and semi-literacy remain. The formal educational system, which
is largely urban- based, has caused massive migration from rural to urban
areas. (Urban) schooling has alienated people from society and led to social
disintegration, conflict and aggression.

In “Continuing Education”, an individual can engage in lifelong learning.
Continuing Education gives individuals a second chance and focuses on
human resource development (HRD).

Many theorists say that problems like unemployment, illiteracy and social
inequality cannot be addressed by education alone. Continuing education
seeks to address this problem in two ways:

i. it equips people with the capacities and skills needed to address
structural flaws in society;

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ii. more importantly, it switches emphasis from something “imposed” as
a formal system of education, to something self-run by individual
learners. In continuing education, individuals set and sustain their
learning objectives, not the system.

Efforts should be made to provide library facilities and reading rooms to
create a good learning atmosphere. Cultural and recreational activities
should be organized.

Continuing Education programs should be extended to neo-literates, school
dropouts, primary school pass-outs, NFE pass-outs, and any one interested
in life-long learning. Programs should take into account local conditions
and available resources.

– Alternative education programs may be provided to out-of-school
children who have acquired basic literacy skills or have completed
primary school and who would like to study further.

– Programs of individual interest should be encouraged, particularly
among children. These may include sports, hobbies, art, painting,
drawing, music, dance, drama, creative writing, leadership skills, etc.

For each of the following articles, I have consulted the “Public Report on
Basic Education in India” - Centre for Development Economics, Delhi,
India.

“Elementary education as a fundamental right”: the 83rd Amendment to the
Indian Constitution which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in July’, 97
recognizes elementary education as a fundamental right. Political leaders
are hardly concerned. There is a good chance, however, that the 83rd
Amendment will be adopted in the near future.

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Education has been neglected for so long. The system of schooling is
nowhere near the goal of providing decent education to every child.

The successful ‘Universalization of Elementary Education’ depends on the
‘positive’ involvement of parents, political parties, and society in general.
The Right to Education may be hampered by a system in which either
teachers abscond from school, or children are withdrawn by parents from
school for financial or other reasons, or a child laborer is exploited by his
or her employer. We need to make social responsibility more forceful.

Millions of children are still excluded from the schooling system.
Guaranteeing the right of every child to education is a question of basic
social justice.

The states of Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and
Himachal Pradesh account for 40% of India’s population and more than
half of all out-of-school children. Except for Himachal Pradesh, these states
are the worst performing on elementary education.

“The state shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the
commencement of this constitution, for free and compulsory education for
all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.”

(Constitution of India, Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 45)

It is still believed that it is not essential for all citizens to be educated,
hence public commitment to universal elementary education is so half-
hearted.

Enormous resources have been spent on institutions of higher learning (e.g.
IIMs and IITs) while thousands of primary schools (mostly in rural areas)
go without black-boards, sanitary toilets or clean drinking water.

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Education is important for various reasons – firstly, for economic growth. It
is also a fundamental right. Demand for education is rapidly growing.
Education is important in that, for poor families, education for boys is more
important, as they work and earn incomes. Education may be important for
the “sheer joy of learning” without being repetitive and cumbersome.
Education helps achieve good health, and protect children from disease. In
Kerala, India’s most literate state, infant mortality is only 14 per thousand
live births, while in Madhya Pradesh, the rate is 97 per thousand.

Education facilitates a number of activities: reading newspapers, availing
oneself of a bank loan, avoiding extortion or harassment, and participating
in local affairs. Education facilitates social progress as persons who acquire
good education can help their own communities develop, mothers can
educate their children. Education enables work on disease, population
growth or environmental degradation. Educated people are better able to
participate in the political process, like exercising their votes. Lack of
education makes a person powerless, and increases economic disparities.

Education can liberate children from a feeling of powerlessness, which is
so much experienced by those who are illiterate or ignorant.

In a letter to the International League for the Rational Education of
Children (14 August 1908), Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore viewed
education as ‘a right which enables individuals and communities to act on
reflection.’ His words have largely gone unheard.

Economic returns to elementary education: “in mainstream economics,
education is treated as an ‘investment.’ International studies of economic
returns to education suggest that (i) education is one of the best investments
developing countries can make, (ii) economic returns to education are

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highest for primary schooling and decline with rising levels of education,
and (iii) female education has higher economic returns than male
education.”

With reference to India, “Anganwadis” can help: “we are talking about a
crèche or child-care facility being available. This is one of the aims of the
‘Anganwadis’ run under the Integrated Child Development Scheme
(ICDS). In fact, a well-functioning ICDS center can provide much more-
from looking after the nutrition and health-care needs of pregnant and
lactating women, to enabling poor women and their elder children go to
school without constraints. It would even look after the developmental
needs of the young children placed in its care.

A well-functioning Anganwadi has much to contribute to the success of
schooling. If pregnant women are looked after, then babies are less likely to
have a low birth-weight, with all its attendant problems. Providing the right
kind of stimulation as well as food to small children helps their healthy
development. And a good pre-school program enhances the readiness of
young children to enter school.”

Health and schooling: convenient access to basic health-care may be an
important reason for high school attendance. It may be possible that in
areas where access to health-care is limited, school attendance is much
lower. Poor patients are always suffering from lack of contacts or lack of
financial resources to avail themselves of good health care. Very often,
children miss school either due to their own illness or due to the illness of a
family member. In a country like India, infant mortality rates are high, and
when survival of children becomes important, health becomes a higher

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priority than schooling. High fertility also tells upon schooling. Better
health-care helps reduce gender disparities in school attendance.

Distant schools?

Leaking roofs...??

Damaged walls???

.... Dampened learning????
An oppressive environment: How can a child grow? (Source: PROBE in
India, Oxford, 1999)

Experience Effect
- school building is usually bare, - going to school is neither attractive
often dilapidated, even filthy nor stimulating to the child
- teacher shortage; overcrowded - children play or fight among
classes; Class 1 usually neglected themselves; puzzled and bored and
switched out, particularly the younger
ones.
- teaching activity is of short - spoils chances of success especially
duration; teachers arrive late and for first-generation learners; child’s
leave early; when present they self-esteem hurt: ‘I am not important
may not teach and neither is learning’
- no teaching aids used; alien - child repeatedly experiences the
curriculum; child may not even burden of non-comprehension and
have a textbook with it a sense of failure.
- copying and cramming are the - no stimulation for a thinking mind to
most common teaching methods develop or for self-confidence to grow
- no craftwork or color or music; - boredom; schooling is not
physical activity is rare invigorating for the child
- gender bias; quiet discrimination - further marginalization of under-
against children of disadvantaged privileged children.
background
Access to education in India is sharply skewed, even at the primary level.
At one end are the resource-rich, mainly private schools that cater to a

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privileged few. At the other, are a large number of ill-equipped and badly
managed government schools, which are supposed to educate the majority
of children. The contrast between these two schooling systems is so stark
that they are virtually different worlds altogether.

Boy fails in exam, commits suicide: New Delhi, the Times of India, 20
June 1998: a 16-year old boy who failed in the Class-X board examination
reportedly killed himself. The body of Ravinder Kumar was fished out
from a canal.... He is learnt to have been missing since he went to check his
examination results.... He was studying at a government school.

Does not the system shock you?

The case for ‘school meals’: the major argument is that they make for
better school enrolment and attendance. School meals attract children by
giving them scope to enjoy a free meal. School meals can help provide
(even simple) nutrition to children at least in deprived areas. Finally, meals
help children sit together and share, without the barriers of class and caste.

Success with Child Labor-Elementary Education: by Neera Burra: “free
and compulsory education is a necessary, if not sufficient condition, for the
elimination of child labor.... In the carpet-weaving belt of Bhadohi,
Mirzapur district, children themselves are making lists of all out-of-school
children to enable CREDA (an NGO) to put pressure on the administration
to provide schools....

The NGOs that have succeeded in eliminating child labor are those which
have mobilized parents, children, communities, employers and government
officials to get children out of work and into school. These NGOs have
searched for community solutions.... This changing of mindsets has to start
with all of us…The poor are ready to make all the necessary sacrifices to

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give their children a chance in the future - but are we ready to share the
shrinking cake of opportunities with others who are more disadvantaged?”

A model school:

i. teachers affectionate towards children;

ii. teachers have atleast a basic understanding of child development and a
concern for children;

iii. incentives to boost childrens’ confidence;

iv. innovative and child-friendly practice;

v. care and compassion for children;

vi. interesting learning atmosphere;

vii. orderly premises;

viii. low pupil-teacher ratio.

Elementary education in the media: one point worth noting is the poor
coverage of elementary education in the media, which gives more attention
to issues like foreign investment and celebrity weddings. And moreover,
very few articles in newspapers talk of the daily struggle of underprivileged
children in rural areas (nearest school 2-3 kms away, physical
punishment?) and, there is always more coverage of defense and Pakistan’s
antics, than of elementary education.

The time is for concerted action. The future of hundreds of millions of
children is at stake.

- [Source: the PROBE Team (report) c/o Centre for Development
Economics, Delhi].

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CHAPTER 12B

AS A CHILD OF (THE) FUTURE (INDIA), I
DESERVE TO BE EDUCATED
“Delivering a lecture in Rome in 1981, Mrs. Indira Gandhi said that an
intercontinental missile costs the same as setting up 65000 primary schools.
This explains why India is both a nuclear power and a world topper in
illiteracy and child labour. Let us face it, India has chosen to develop
military might in preference to children’s health and education.”- Krishna
Kumar, former Head and Dean, Department of Education, Delhi
University, India.

Universal elementary education for India’s children in the 21st Century will
involve a series of mammoth tasks. India has to tackle them. Can India, for
instance, make economic progress so long as half its population never goes
to school? But why would these children ever go to school when their
illiterate parents are not compelled to send their children to school? Why
should they not be allowed to send their children to do all sorts of
hazardous work just for money? How can millions of children be given free
elementary education in a desperately poor country like India? The above
questions hold good for all poor nations.

We halt for a moment!

“Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and
runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have life-building, man
making, character building, assimilation of ideas.”

- Swami Vivekananda

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I have spoken earlier of moral education and basic literacy skills.

“If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character,
you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole
library!”

- Swami Vivekananda

(The following extracts are based on an article in “the Telegraph”, cannot
recall the date)

First, wishing – as most people possibly do - all children should be able to
go to school for their elementary education, is, I believe, a matter of human
values.

Every child’s right to (get) free, elementary education stands recognized as
a fundamental right. This is the law of the land as it stands. This holds good
for all the world’s children.

One real problem, however, will remain with us: that problem will lie in
deciding how to provide education for all of India’s children – around 200
million of them, which will make up the world’s largest child population.
First, to decide on the right languages of literacy and primary education;
second, the contents of what is to be taught; and third, how to maintain the
quality of the elementary education to be imparted. In India’s special case,
how to teach across a country which is multicultural, multilingual in
character. Clearly, this is one enormous task.

This goes for children in all poor nations. Illiterate parents in general, are
today ready to make greater sacrifices - to the extent of doing without the
money earned through the working child - to send their children – even girl
children, to school. This, if there are regular schools to go to. (I have
suggested mobile education units promoted by the corporate sector. In my

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opinion, such units can go a long way towards reduction in child labor). For
the task, we need dedicated people.

To send all children to “regular” schools with “regular” teachers, if that
“rare species of human capital” (“regular” teachers) can be made physically
available in sufficient numbers-will cost an enormous sum. But the
respective governments can always pay that “rare species of human
capital”.

If we could persuade kind-hearted and qualified people to help out at
nominal salaries and teach for about 1000 teacher days each over a few
years, then we could achieve universal elementary education in India for a
song. But that is a distant arrangement. Conversely, we could practice the
“Ripple Effect” wherein one teaches a second, a second teaches a third, and
so on.

How do we educate children of farmers?

• start with small projects – for raising finance, we can look for small
businessmen / women, like those who have money they cannot pump
back into their own business when it reaches saturation point. such
people can invest small amounts (e.g. for a small school building ) -

• provide “book bank” facilities for them-

• provide boarding facilities for students-

• give each student a plot inside the campus on which they can be
taught to grow flowers and crops-

Fearing that education may generate even larger scandals than what
food and fodder have, I can foresee that this would be one of the
most daunting tasks facing India at the moment…

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We must bear in mind, however, that (the Right to) Education is an
important human right, and should not be neglected…

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CHAPTER 13A
“You ought to believe something in life, believe that thing so fervently that
you will standup with it till the end of the day.... We have a power, a power
as old as the insights of Jesus and Nazareth and as modern as the
techniques of Mahatma Gandhi.”

- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

‘I was so overwhelmed, when I heard it.... I was so moved, I cried.’

– Ximena Campos (Chilean) whose brother had disappeared earlier, on
Sting’s famous song, “They Dance Alone” as part of his “Human
Rights Now” tour of North America (1988).

1. “Forty years ago (on 10 Dec 1948) the governments of the United
Nations made a historic promise to the world. They proclaimed, for the
first time in history, that all human beings would be recognized as free
and equal in dignity and rights. This was the promise of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948)... that promise has not been kept.”

- Franca Sciuto, Amnesty International.

2. “We will not have finished until cruelty, be it killing or torture, is seen
as obscene and impermissible.”

- Peter Benenson, 1991.

3. People get killed at peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations... Troops
open fire... Students and spectators get shot at random... Men, women
and children get beaten or shot... and more.... This is the kind of
repression humanity has to put up with.... Children disappear.... People

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are tortured for many reasons - religion, ethnic origins, sex and political
beliefs.... The death penalty.... detention camps.... forced refugees....
mass killing.... mass rape.... massacre.... The electric chair for juvenile
offenders, suppression of kids for minor offences.... people sleeping in
cardboard boxes on cold wintry nights... massive starvation....street
children.... children looking for food on rubbish heaps, sleeping under
parked cars, victims of war and persecution… The list is endless.

4. Nazism in World War II... six million Jews.... herded into....
concentration camps.... Dachau…Auschwitz.... Nuremberg… The gas
chambers.... Unimaginable...!!!

5. ‘Hopes have been aroused in many people through the ages. But it has
never been possible for the nations of the world to come together and
try to work out in co-operation such principles as will make living more
worthwhile for the average human being.’

– Eleanor Roosevelt. On the night of Dec. 10, 1948, the “Universal
Declaration of Human Rights” (set out in a way that the average person
could understand and drawn for an improvement in the lives of
ordinary people everywhere), was adopted by forty-eight countries of
the United Nations. Its articles set out the fundamental rights of every
human being on this planet-whether they be freedom from arbitrary
arrest, or the right to food, shelter and health care -

6. ‘The poorer nations were deeply committed to the rights aimed at
eradication of hunger, disease, illiteracy and homelessness. To some of
their governments it seemed almost irrelevant in comparison to fight
for the rights of a few score political prisoners....

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Basically “Human Rights” has a different meaning to Soviets and
Westerners. In the West, “Human Rights” conjured up political
persecution, imprisonment and torture ... but for Russians ... they meant
the rights to employment, to medical aid, to housing, to education and
to freedom from hunger. Viewed from the USSR, Western
unemployment, homelessness and poverty were serious violations of
rights.’

- Adapted from David Winner.

7. “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places,
close to home-so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any
maps of the world.... unless these rights have meaning there.... we shall
look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

- Eleanor Roosevelt.

8. Our common humanity should link everyone in the world.

9. Suharto’s Indonesia in the 1960s, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, Idi
Amin’s Uganda in the 1970s, Iraq of the 1980s and 1990s - have
tortured, murdered and tyrannized their own people while continuing
to pay lip service to UN human rights principles.... Murdered students
of Tiananmen Square in China.... Civilians in the Philippines under
the tyranny of Ferdinand Marcos (1980s)....???

10. ‘Governments are very concerned about their “image”. No one likes to
be seen committing atrocities. If all the evil can be carried out under
the cover of secrecy, in the dead of night, in remote places, then it is

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easier to get away with it. A government can present a good face to
the world in the light of day and no one will know the difference...’

11. Can you believe it that a four-year-old girl in India was married off to
a dog by her parents? Shocking! This came out in the newspapers a
couple of years ago.

12. Human Resources form the vital foundations of long term economic
prosperity in any society... the experience of South-East Asia provides
some sobering lessons for Indian policy makers.... The important,
long-term lesson that India should draw, is that growth depends not so
much on markets and financial institutions, as on the basic quality of
life of the people.... A strong economy can be built on the rock of
human development only….

13. From “Human Development in South Asia”, 1988, Mahabub-ul-Haq
and Khadija Haq, Oxford - despite being a region with a lot of promise,
South Asia has failed to convert its potential into reality. A major
failure has been the inability to transform the region’s vast human
resource potential, represented by one-fifth of humanity, into a
productive, vibrant work force. Being deprived of the basic levels of
health, literacy and gainful employment, a large number of South
Asians continue to live on the brink of deprivation. If the South Asian
governments do not act now, catastrophe is imminent....

The challenge in South Asia consists of the reality of imparting
education (“human” knowledge) which is responsive to the needs of
the domestic and global markets (including technical skills). Education
should involve community participation, flexible timings and cost
effectiveness.

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CHAPTER 13B

AT THE TURN OF THE 21ST CENTURY,
HUMAN RIGHTS: THE NEW CONSENSUS

A child views his rights:

“The majority of the leaders in this world never had to carry a gun when
they were eight years old. They never had to experience starvation. They
never had to see the death of their parents or brothers and sisters. I assume
that these government officials never had to go through life begging in the
streets just to live day by day.”

These are the words of a young child gazing at the panoply of modern
world leaders speaking for Coalition for Children of the Earth at the World
Conference on Human Rights convened in Vienna (Austria) by the UN
General Assembly. Her words have now been published.

It has been predicted that the 21st Century will be a Century wherein there
would be no wars, but all the Asian and African countries will be plagued
with a number of small and medium battles in which thousands of innocent
people will be killed. Inequality will reach the highest level. There would
be very few islands of abundance, encircled by a sea of poverty. This
pattern of world phenomena will be seen all over the world. In countries
like India, there would be 80% poverty - stricken people. In the world, only
6-7 nations will be rich, encircled by the poor South. On the whole, 80%
will be in poverty and 20% will be rich. Justice, truth and equality will be
trampled over. The weapons and the physical strengths of 6-7 nations
headed by the “Big Boss” cannot be challenged by conventional methods.

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How to fight against injustice, exploitation and the dons of inequality?
These are the patterns and the problems of the 21st Century.

Human Rights in the Post-Cold War Era

In too many places, everywhere on the planet, human dignity is under
assault. For too many of our fellow human beings, life is nasty and brutish.
This, despite an evolving international human rights system. After 1945,
nations decided that the promotion of human rights ought to be a principal
purpose of the new UNO. In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights was presented to the UN. It was a historic achievement, and an
important movement in the development of international human rights. But,
now in the Post-Cold War Era, our world community is facing some critical
human rights challenges. The forces that challenge and test our human
condition – the forces of technology, demography, political disintegration,
cultural animosities, ecological damage – are severe and in many respects
increasing. Respect for all – regardless of gender, age, race, creed, social
status, religion, and culture, into which he or she is born, must be
developed. We now must reformulate the challenge of well being to
include poverty and a basic right to food, to health and to shelter. In a
world of 5,500 million people, 1,500 million live in absolute poverty. That
a child dies of starvation is as much a denial of human rights as when an
adult is tortured. What we need now is an agenda for dignity. All this takes
a special kind of courage.

The late Robert F. Kennedy observed at Cape Town, South Africa in 1963:

“It is from numberless acts of courage and belief that human history is
shaped. each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of
others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends out a tiny ripple of hope....

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these ripples build a current which can sweep down the highest walls of
oppression and resistance.”

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CHAPTER 14A
From the little spark

May burst a mighty flame.

- Dante.

1. Scientists have predicted that one day, every one, including farmers,
will be able to tap directly into data generated by new user - friendly
satellite imaging systems. Will the ‘Ripple Effect’ work? Will farmers
in the Third World benefit?

2. Throughout the world, tribal and rural people face the brunt of social
and economic backwardness (e.g. the Masai in Africa, the Ho, and the
Birhor in India). They have to be given global exposure. Let us create
a consumer’s forum for tribal and rural services. Tribal and rural
culture - dances, art, music, sport, etc, have to be taken to the global
market.

3. Let us sponsor rural and tribal students pursuing education
(particularly, technical education) anywhere in the country.

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CHAPTER 14B

CREATING A RIPPLE OF HOPE -

HOW DO WE ORGANIZE THE RURAL
POOR?
Poverty alleviation can be achieved through the “Ripple Effect”. Through a
difficult process of building cadres of rural workers, a new generation of
dedicated and properly – motivated workers with a vision for development
must be created.

Over 75% of India’s population live in about 5,50,000 villages. Out of an
estimated work - force of 250 million, 200 million consists of landless
laborers, share -croppers and artisans in the rural areas. Yet, the paradox
remains that rural labor is by and large unorganized.

The forty thousand and odd trade unions which together claim to represent
Indian labor have but a total membership of around six million, most of it
in the urban areas. Illiteracy, ignorance, ill - health and the grinding poverty
resulting from decades of exploitation and penury compel millions of rural
workers to subsist in sub - human conditions.

This condition exists in all Third World nations.

Stop! Just for a moment, and think-

• Time – 11:00:24

• Event – an athlete has tested positive on the dope test

• On what – Stanozalol

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• Who did this - man ( with negative use of science )

• Conclusion: animal bestiality put into human behavior.

The emphasis can no more be on “raising the people above the poverty
line but how to halt further impoverishment ”, especially in the rural areas.
No amount of statistical jugglery (of the population below the poverty line)
can hide the fact of the stark and naked poverty prevailing in the villages,
where parents are obliged to sell their children and men their wives,
daughters and sisters to get temporary relief from the pangs of hunger.

The situation of the rural poor in the Third World nations, therefore, is such
that it is a Herculean task to organize them for effective action to pull
themselves out of the quagmire, and march towards development and self -
reliance. Caught as they are in the vicious circle of extreme poverty and
ignorance, which prevents their organizing themselves, their situation
cannot be improved unless they are better organized and are allowed to
become a strong and articulate pressure group. The rural poor continue to
remain where they have been, inspite of the entire well meaning and widely
publicized schemes of their respective governments.

To win the confidence of the rural poor without inviting the hostility of the
local vested interests right at the initial stage, the activist begins with
seemingly innocuous programs like crèches, nursery schools, and
elementary schools for children, informal education activities for the young
adults and the women, and some welfare programs in the fields of health
and medicine.

These help arouse the awareness of the rural poor. The conscientation
process then begins to operate. The desire to improve their conditions takes
shape in their minds. The possibility for it spurs them to demand from the

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activist, facilities and resources, who in turn, then points out to them the
need for some kind of an infrastructure – in such a situation emerges a
registered society, a cooperative or a public charitable trust. Since these do
not invite the wrath of the vested interests, as does a ‘trade union’, at this
stage, the activist sets the course of the poor towards “development”. He
enables them to secure financial and other assistance from government and
non-government agencies, banks and other financial institutions to
supplement the meager local collections through voluntary contributions
and donations.

It is only when the rural poor have at least half their bellies full, that they
will listen to his discourse on the need for their own organization. some
local youth, (perhaps educated unto the primary or middle level and may
be motivated by public service and attracted by the image of the selfless
and devoted activist), will then risk dangers and begin to organize the rural
poor. The steep and perilous paths of suffering, sacrifice, struggle and
service are indeed difficult to tread as much for the activist as for the rural
poor.

Having identified the “who” (should be doing), the journey now leads to
the question of “what”?? And “how”???

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CHAPTER 15A
In the developing world, millions of people survive every day without
access to the formal economies of their countries, and related facilities.
They live and work daily by means of their own creativity and ingenuity.
We are talking of a world where necessity is the mother of invention.

We must infer

That all things are produced

More plentifully and easily

And of a better quality

When one man does one thing

Which is natural to him

And does it at the right time,

And leaves other things.

- Plato

1. The best investment
Is in the tools of one’s own trade.
- Benjamin Franklin

2. No gain is certain
As that which proceeds
From the economical use
Of what you already have.

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- Latin proverb

3. The high prize of life,
The crowning glory of a man
Is to be born with a bias
To some pursuit
Which finds him
In employment and happiness
Whether it be to make baskets,
.... or canals,
Or statues, or songs.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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CHAPTER 15B

LET US DEVELOP THEM GENUINELY
Educational research and training for rural workers: by “rural workers” we
mean those persons who work in a rural area to obtain food, shelter and
clothing they need for themselves. In practice, this generally means anyone
who is working in agriculture, forestry, fishing, or a directly related
occupation. They may be working for a wage (as contractors) or they may
be self -employed and they include the wives and children of rural workers
(child labor) who often work with them and who sometimes take their
place when the men find other work.

Rural workers form the bulk of the population of our country. They are
spread in more than half a million villages neglected and uncared for
compared to their brethren in urban areas and in industrial occupations.
Since they are dispersed over a large area, they remain unorganized unlike
industrial workers. Education is therefore, necessary to make them realize
the abject condition they are living in, and also, the opportunities and
possibilities available for them to get out of this situation. Poverty
alleviation alone will not redeem them from the centuries of oppression and
suppression to which they are subjected to by the clever manipulation of
social and economic forces in the rural communities. A dynamic and
purposeful education leading on to well-directed and organized action will
alone save them from their present deprivation.

Mass media like radio, TV and newspapers, invasion by political parties
and their top and petty have provided some information to villagers. The
content of education has to be enlarged to include an analysis of the

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economic and social conditions of rural communities, the position of
women in families and the community, the various schemes and programs
initiated by the government for the development of villages and the
eradication of poverty. The other component for self – development should
not be ignored in Third - World poverty. These self-development activities
are essentially Indian, but they should provide an example for all Third
World nations. Promotion of cottage and village industries, initiating agro-
industries, initiating bio-technology plants, manufacture of selected
consumer products, promoting self-employment opportunities like poultry,
brick-making, coir making, Khadi spinning and weaving require special
skilled training. Making of products which could be bought by outsiders
may also be an additional source of income. These non-farm activities for
rural workers are absolutely necessary for them to make a living during
lean periods. Organizing women, helping the self-employed increase their
income and ensuring their social well –being have necessarily to form part
of any training program.

Pray…

Durga! Goddess of Mercy’s Ocean!

Stricken with grief, to thee I pray:

Do not believe me insincere;

A child who is seized with thirst or hunger

Thinks of his mother constantly.

– Excerpt from Sri Sankaracharya

Note: Durga is the Hindu goddess who represents victory of truth over evil.

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Some of the problems of poverty are essentially linked to the land the poor
grow crops on, which do not belong to them. They are also essentially
related to the problem of unemployment. From David Ricardo, on the
effect of machinery on employment, a rise in the rate of capital
accumulation which enables the absorption of the unemployed or low-
productivity workers into high productivity jobs at higher wages, is,
therefore, considered in the traditional development literature as the
standard panacea for poverty.

Within the modern sector, the tastes and aspirations of the elite are strongly
influenced by the lifestyles of the advanced countries. Their consumption
patterns change accordingly and these are sought to be emulated by our
elite. Consequently, there is a sort of product - cycles and process
innovations in the Western world. The Third World nations produce today
what the Western world produced yesterday, and by the time they (Third
World - India, Bangladesh, the Sudan, etc.) start to produce today what the
West has produced yesterday, it is already tomorrow, and they have gone
on to something altogether different.

The basic problem is that while tastes and consumption habits are
transmitted from the West (at any rate to the elite), capital is not, nor is
labor allowed to migrate freely from the backward to the advanced
economies. Further, in economies like ours, “opening up” destroys existing
productive capacity without bringing the solution to mass poverty any
nearer. Overcoming mass poverty is far more complex than is usually made
out. The main characteristic of the path of development would be:

a) land reforms (with direct impact upon poverty ) ;

b) a check on wide income inequalities ;

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c) independent innovations, so that the economy does not always have
to choose between remaining technologically frozen or dependent ;

d) rampant consumerism should be curbed and a social consensus built
against it ;

e) an open and accountable government which sees a need to
decentralize power ;

f) a planned thrust in exports ;

g) far higher rates of investment ; and

h) measures of social security, which are immediate and do not await
“development”.

To be sure, this is a stiff bill of goods, but then genuine development
is not an easy task. Let us take a fresh look.

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CHAPTER 16A
Farm mechanization will result in higher productivity and reduction in
human drudgery and will generate more employment. Transitory
unemployment situations caused by mechanization get readjusted with the
creation of jobs in agro-processing and manufacturing industries, set up in
the wake of higher productivity and demand for machinery. During
economic liberalization, mechanization can be profitably adopted in
irrigation channels, development of underground water resources, soil
conservation, dairy and veterinary sectors, and food processing industries.
Lamartine and Warrier say that the types of machines that one needs will
depend on the nature of work for which they are used. Benefits include
freeing farmers from much laborious, tedious hard work, making life more
beneficial and raising the standard of living.

1. Be not concerned
If thou findest thyself
In possession of unexpected wealth,
Allah will provide
An unexpected use for it.

- James J. Roche

2. That man is to be accounted poor,
Of whatever rank he be,
And suffers the pains of poverty,
Whose expenses
Exceed his resources;
And no man is, properly speaking,

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Poor, but he.

- William Paley

3. Let us define Poverty:

“It is a state of existence whereby people are inhibited from
participation in society because of a serious lack of material and social
resources...

Most writers distinguish between ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ poverty.
The former refers to conditions that will not sustain physical life, the
latter to a lack of resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in
the activities and have the living conditions and amenities that are
customary, or at least widely encouraged and approved, in the society
to which a person belongs....

Early studies conducted by Booth and Rowntree in the 1890s in
Britain revealed widespread absolute poverty, which has now virtually
been eradicated....

Recent studies have suggested that race and gender have strong
associations with poverty....

In the main, people blame the poor for their poverty. Media coverage
of poverty issues presents a fairly constant set of negative images of
poor people as lazy and welfare - dependent. These views do not
accord with the evidence, which reveals that many are actually in
work, but that it is poorly paid.... the vast majority, made up of
children and old people, could not in any event be expected to be
economically active.... the belief that the poor are responsible for their

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own difficulties is persistent. In the public domain, the idea of the
cycle of deprivation, and among sociologists the theory of culture of
poverty, seek to explain the persistence of poverty by reference to
ideas and behaviours transmitted from one generation to another.
Critics of these views point to the major changes that have occurred
when governments have pursued policies that seek to redistribute
wealth - the clear implication being that poverty is a structural feature
of society and not a question of individual behaviour....

Poor people form the largest group of consumers of social services.
Poverty is a major source of stress... has strong associations with
mental health problems, with crime, with family problems including
child abuse and with ill health....

Few social workers have poverty centre-stage or indeed are required
or permitted to develop an effective anti-poverty strategy. Such an
approach might entail income-maximization programmes, money
advice, housing improvement programmes and programmes to
facilitate the involvement of poor people in employment (for example,
adult education services, nursery provision, and work and food
cooperatives). Many such ventures would require at least a community
- focus and methods rooted in the approaches of community
development and community action.”

P. Townsend, “Poverty in the United Kingdom: A Survey of
Household Resources and Standards of Living”, Harmondsworth,
Penguin, 1979.

The tillers of the land (the producers of food) are themselves not in a
position to buy food. What a disaster!

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4. “Food Security” means that all people at all times have both physical
and economic access to basic food. Even when there is enough food to
go round, people are to have ready access to food-that they have an
“entitlement” to food, by growing it for themselves, by buying it or by
taking advantage of a public food distribution system. People can
starve even when enough food is available as has happened during
many famines, because they cannot afford it. Ample food is available
in the world, even in developing countries. But not everyone gets
enough to eat. The causes are poor distribution of food and a lack of
purchasing power. Some 800 million people around the world go
hungry. In Sub-Saharan Africa, despite considerable increases in the
availability of food in recent years, millions are undernourished. And
in South Asia, a large number of babies are born underweight - a sad
indication of inadequate access to food, particularly for women, who
are often the last to eat in a typical household.

Access to food has been denied because access to assets, work and
income has been denied....

5. It would be wise to offer people direct incentives - to encourage
people to economize on consumption patterns harmful to future
generations - for example, through taxes and subsidies.

6. The World Bank’s latest report for the year 2000-01 “Attacking
Poverty”, coincides with the centenary of poverty studies. Rowntree
carried out a pioneering study on poverty in the English town of York,
the findings of which were published in 1901....

With reference to South Asia, the report predicted that “the number of
the poor is expected to fall dramatically”. It is true that the proportion
of the population of South Asia living on less than one dollar a day -

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the line of “extreme income poverty” - has gone down from 44% in
1990 to 40% in 1998. But, the absolute number of people in this
category has actually increased from 474.4 million in 1990 to 522
million in 1998 in the region....

In India, according to a 1997 estimate, a staggering 44.2% of the
population lives below the poverty line. This is worse than that of
other countries of the region such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s performance is worse than South Asia’s. While
the share of its population on less than $ 1 a day marginally decreased
from 47% in 1990 to 46.3% in 1998, the absolute number of people in
this category increased by more than 34%. A new development is the
phenomenal growth of poverty in former Communist countries in
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which are changing to market
economy (? - vagaries of the market, “prices”, export-import-
procurement-food-distribution, “exchange-entitlement”; poverty). In
these countries, the number of people living on less than a dollar a day
has increased more than twenty-fold.

If we take the world at large, around 1/5th of the world population with
an absolute figure of more than 1.2 billion (more than a 100 Crore)
people still live on less than $ 1 a day, although the percentage of
people living below this level has been reduced from 29 in 1990 to 24
in 1998.

... “Poverty, thus, remains a global problem of huge proportions.”
There is ‘a need to broaden the agenda’ and go ‘beyond Economics’,
to such things as expansion of the poor’s assets e.g. land and
education. The poor are to be ‘empowered’ by a more pronounced

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popular participation in the political process... because they are
vulnerable to ill health, natural disasters and violence....

There is a need to combine local, national and international efforts and
a complete commitment.

The world, is, however, waiting to see action. The affluent world is
imposing its own solutions on the Third World....

There is required more realistic and concerted action involving the
‘desperately’ poor and their representatives.... (The Telegraph, India,
14 Nov. 2000).

7. (July 23, 2000: The Telegraph, India): there is nothing to tell
Sirpurwa village apart from the hundreds of other villages in Eastern
Uttar Pradesh... all of which are reeling under poverty.... except that a
12-year old girl was ‘sold’ in marriage to a farmer old enough to be
her grandfather. Her mother, a landless laborer lost a few of her 10
daughters and her husband to a debilitating disease.... Tottering under
the weight of poverty, the girl’s mother could not afford to take
chances.... could not wait atleast until little pinky (12) attained
puberty....

And, so they say, poverty takes its toll, a very heavy toll....

8. In the seventies, the eradication of poverty became big business.
Solutions to poverty-related problems are no longer in the hands of
the poor, but are now global management problems.... There is a
strong vested interest for the poor to remain poor, today, as many,
many jobs depend on them. Pure business, ah??? -

9. “.... A point of concern is the continued and rather irrational
obsession of policymakers with laws of mathematical progression. In

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the long run, they fail to come to terms with the more important
factors. Humans do not multiply like bacteria by binary fission. So it
is impossible to plan or predict population growth with the aid of a
definite mathematical formula....”

- K. Panda, Indian Council of Medical Research, Calcutta, The
Telegraph, India, 28 Oct. 1997.

10. Let us develop simple and efficient computers at low cost, which can
be used by non-literate or neo-literate users. Let us take it to the rural
masses and the urban poor. Software in the vernacular (e.g. Hindi in
India) should be developed. (I believe this has already been done).
Let us use them for microbanking, data collection, educational
programs and dissemination of agriculture information....

11. A boy, Neethirajan, who was treated as a bonded laborer, started
consuming metal out of frustration. His poor parents took him to
about ten private nursing homes that expressed their inability to
remove the metal pieces. This happened in Andhra Pradesh, India
(The Telegraph, India, 20 Nov. 2000).

12. “Disease and debt dog hamlet” (The Telegraph, India, 20 Nov. 2000):
a quarter of a century ago, 250 families came to Bongaon as refugees
from what was then East Pakistan. As of now (Nov., 2000), a vicious
circle of disease, drink and death has reduced them to 60 families.

Leprosy, Kala-azar, excessive consumption of hooch and acute
poverty have taken a heavy toll on the Sarder tribe of Kansona, North
24-Parganas, West Bengal. The tribals living in this hamlet are now
awaiting death on empty stomachs.

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Several suffer from leprosy and most earning members lie crippled by
the disease...

With disease came addiction. Both men and women begin drinking
country liquor from the morning. When they run out of money, they
borrow from local moneylenders, sliding into a debt trap that
eventually devours their houses and land....

When the tribals starve, landlords and money lenders offer them a few
kilos of rice in exchange for thumb impressions on blank papers....

The story goes on....

13. Poverty is the greatest threat to political stability, social integration
and the environmental health of the planet. Some key lessons for
poverty reduction are:

• basic social services - countries must ensure basic social services to
the poor, particularly basic education and primary health care;

• agrarian reform - a large part of poverty in developing countries is
concentrated in the rural areas, therefore, a more equitable
distribution of land and agricultural resources is needed;

• provision of credit for all - equal access to credit must be ensured,
thus opening markets to the poor. Credit institutions must be
decentralized;

• employment - productive employment opportunities should be
rapidly expanded so as to ensure a sustainable livelihood for
everyone. This employment creation is one of the most difficult
tasks in an economy. Every country should invest heavily in the
education, training and skills of its citizens. Governments should

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create an enabling environment - fair and stable policies, equality
before the law, sufficient physical assets and incentives for private
investment. Access to assets- land, means of production like credit,
etc are equally important. Developing countries have abundant
labor, and labor-intensive technologies have to be developed. In
certain regions or at certain times of the year, public works
programs e.g. street repairs may help people survive. Countries
should intervene when markets start discriminating against
disadvantaged groups like women and ethnic groups. Now that the
phenomenon of “jobless growth” is growing, we must think and
consider more innovative and flexible working arrangements like
“job-sharing”;

• participation - the poor can benefit from economic development
only when they actually participate in its design and
implementation. all strategies must be decentralized;

• a social safety net - is needed for catching all those whom markets
exclude;

• economic growth - the poor can benefit from as well as contribute
to economic growth only when development efforts focus on
increasing their productivity;

• sustainability - poverty pressurizes the ecosystem. The content of
growth must change from material-intensive to equitable
distribution.

- (Source: Human Development Report, UNDP, 1994)

By 2001, the total population of India was expected to be equal to the total
population of entire Europe (excluding the erstwhile USSR). The density of

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population is very high and the rate of unemployment increasing rapidly in
a country which is still under-developed. In this situation, the standard of
living can be raised only by increasing the per capita productivity of labor,
through mechanization and development of agriculture, and by increased
utilization of power. But, expansions of net sown area, irrigation and
agricultural production is not unlimited. Our mineral resources are
gradually depleting, but nearly 170 million new jobs have to be created,
with pressure on agriculture, and social and economic facilities. Our
environment is becoming more and more polluted.

What is needed for achieving a balanced development is a well-designed
population policy, rational use of natural resources, ecological balance
between man and his environment and thoughtful planning.

(i) Africa re-visited: Some Lessons for Us: - adapted from “Modern Africa”
by Basil Davidson: -

The new nations of Africa became independent amidst a deepening social
crisis caused by colonialism. New problems of rural poverty, the rapid
growth of urban concentrations of ex-rural peoples as well as internal
division had arisen.

Historically, Africa’s economies had been small-scaled, suiting the needs
of mostly rural communities. There had been no industrial revolution, no
dependence on machine-production, and no need for imports of food.
Africans were sheltered from the shocks and strains of the world market
and its fluctuating prices.

Even after independence, Africa’s terms-of-trade were unfavorable (viz. its
export prices were much lower in value compared to its import prices). The
economic legacy in Africa was found to work in several ways: - first, by

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exchanging African raw materials for imports of manufactured goods,
secondly, by fixing export-import prices, and, thirdly, by paying debt-
interest on loans advanced by the industrialized countries.

i. ) export-crops or food? By the 1960s, large rural populations were
earning their living by growing cash crops for export-cocoa,
groundnuts, coffee, cotton, etc. Yet, governments in Africa could not
simply ask farmers to stop growing export-crops and start growing
food, as they (the farmers) were dependent on export-crops for their
livelihood. Besides, governments were dependent on cash crops for
export for earning revenue.

But it became desirable to cut down on cash crops grown for export
and to utilize the extra money for the national benefit. Another reason
was the need to produce more food. Once cash crop production
became important in an African country, there were shortages of local
food, because more land and labor that could be used for growing
food, was diverted to growing cash crops. Acute local food shortages
began to be felt, as early as the Second World War. In the worst cases,
famine broke out, as in Northern Mozambique where the Portuguese
forced farmers to grow cotton instead of food. Cotton, they pointed
out, became “the mother of poverty”.

As a result of increasing shortages of local food, both villages and
cities had less to eat than before. Also, (African) governments had to
import foreign food, often at high prices. As a consequence, by the
1960s, Africa, whose population, was still largely “farming”, could no
longer feed its own people. Another major fact was the formation of
two Africas after the Second World War - rural and urban, and their
interests clashed. Following the great depression of the 1930s and the

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Second World War, large areas of rural Africa had come into a
deepening poverty. Consequently, rural folk migrated to the urban
areas where political power was also concentrated. The situation is no
different now.

ii) Population growth and movement: after the 1940s, African
populations began expanding rapidly, for reasons not as yet known to
scientists, but perhaps because of the spread of preventive medicine-
vaccinations against disease. By the 1960s, most African populations
were growing at an average rate of 2.5 % annually, meaning a
doubling of nation size in another twenty or thirty years.

Doubling of numbers could be good for Africans in that national
skills, labor, teamwork, and planning could annually result in more
food, more production and more wealth. However, if production of
wealth backfired, Africa would get poorer, and standards of living
would plummet, as has actually happened in most of Africa in recent
years. Large economic changes were desirable for another reason.
Growing cash crops, as well as shortages of rural labor caused
shortages of local food. From the 1940s on, people in Africa were
migrating from villages to the towns and cities out of hunger or
because they were being forced labor. Rural people looked to the
urban areas for a less hungry life, and towns expanded.

But what did the author mean when he said that the new urban
populations would work in various ways to increase the national
wealth? He was talking about the need to build better systems of
production.

Now, what did that mean?

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The author meant “development”.

iii) The meaning of development: was a question difficult for new African
governments to answer. Broadly speaking,”development” meant the
question of building a better system of production by using national
resources - human beings and materials - to produce more wealth. The
quantity of natural resources like those of soil fertility or minerals
mattered. For instance, Niger and Burkina Faso were generally poor in
natural resources. What also mattered was the amount of real freedom,
which each nation had won.

The major task was how best to “develop”. This meant more than the
development of skills, methods, and organization of work. It meant a
change in culture; habits and attitudes of work from handwork to
machine work. Development was to be a complex process in human
minds as well.

For the process of development to operate, the new African
governments had to acquire national control over national resources,
had to start building a new national infrastructure, better transport and
communications, power, and, had to make a vast improvement in the
poor systems of education and public health left behind by the colonial
legacy.

Finally, countries had to decide on “planning” for their peoples, either
by the system of private enterprise (Capitalism) or by the system of
collective enterprise (socialism). Were they to prioritize rural areas or
urban? Agriculture or industry? How to promote economic life, how
to raise national savings, and to what extent foreign loans were to be
raised, were other questions confronting African governments of the
post-colonial era.

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Having “alternative policies” meant having alternative strategies for
development. However, in actuality, all new African states had to
combine policies. Nigeria combined private enterprise with some state
ownership of production and trade. And some like Angola combined
collective type with private ownership of farms by farmers.

Most Nigerians still lived in the rural areas, and rural people had
fallen into further poverty by the 1970s. Rural food-growers were paid
very low prices for their produce by national marketing boards, which
fixed prices for the overall benefit of urban-dwellers. It was hoped that
the Nigerian government would support city investors going into
agriculture and boosting agricultural output. But Salisu Na’Inna
writing in “West Africa” (4 July 1988)

“... the policy failed to admit that many of the so-called large-scale
farmers often leave most of the land they control to lie fallow. They
take bank loans, ostensibly to promote agriculture, and end up using
the money in building dream mansions, buying expensive cars and
aircraft, and organizing fairy-tale type weddings.”

Very little was done to help ever-toiling peasants or small rural
farmers with better prices for his produce, subsidized fertilizers, more
rural roads or medical and health clinics.

Zimbabwe combined free enterprise with a genuine concern for the
interests of peasants and small farmers, and the recorded successes
were impressive. By 1990, farmers’ share and their crop revenues
went up impressively. No hunger at home and no imports of foreign
food, and Zimbabwe was actually able to export food, and gift food to
drought-hit countries like Mozambique, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

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Policies favoring peasants included giving peasants more land, giving
good prices for peasant produce and setting up new distribution
centers for seeds, fertilizers and tools, etc.

Other countries followed different kinds of mixed development, with
slight aberrations. Malawi remained strongly free enterprise (under the
severely dictatorial president Kamuzu Banda), which tried to expand
production at the cost of the standards of living both of small farmers
and of urban wage earners. Zambia combined a mixed economy with
national ownership, as in its copper mines; also with an expanding
private sector of Zambian private businessmen, who prospered at the
cost of increasing rural poverty. Uganda, during short periods of
internal peace, combined support for co-operative production with a
growing private-business sector.

All these countries had to put up with two major problems:

a) The general failure in increasing farming output and productivity.
For instance, Kenya’s farming output grew during the 1970s at
an annual rate of 2.5 per cent; but its population grew even faster;
and to feed its growing population, Kenya had to import
expensive foreign food;

b) The “poverty-gap” - the difference in living standards between
the minority having good jobs and property, and the majority
having neither. Inequalities grew much greater than before, and
the poverty-gap widened. It soon led to discontent and instability.
But Africa was not the only region to experience such
circumstances; private-enterprise systems elsewhere have
experienced the same.

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iv) The search for better solutions: Capitalism was (painfully) helping the
lucky few at the cost of the hungry many, and social inequalities were
increasing. It was leading to greed, immorality, strife and even greater
poverty. Africans wanted a better way.

Outside Africa, nations were following “socialism”, based on the
principles of Karl Marx. Two trends developed in Africa. One was
“Africa socialism” (Senegal and Kenya) under which inequities that
existed grew worse.

A second trend developed in Tanzania under President Julius Nyerere,
who pointed out that since independence, inequalities between the
‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ had increased, and public resources were
wasted. Tanzania was developing an economic and social ‘elite’ - a
‘chosen few’....

After 1967, a policy called “Ujamaa” (Swahili for togetherness) was
developed, under which a big program was launched to bring together
scattered hamlets and homesteads into “Ujamaa” villages, which were,
in turn, to be provided with primary schools, health clinics, better and
more farming tools, and even tractors. These initiatives, however, ran
into major problems in administration.

Furthermore, Tanzania had to abandon many development projects,
face adverse terms-of-trade, largely because power was “centralized”
in the cities.

Some countries like Angola and Mozambique started developing
African solutions, “people’s power” or “people’s participation”. But
the policy failed after independence.

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Most Africans realized that any successful solution would have to be
suited to Africa’s needs, and not imported. This was to be the major
concern of the 1990s.

The island republic of Cape Verde had built a strong grass roots
democracy based on “people’s power”. The purpose was to eliminate,
to as great an extent, “systemic” exploitation: ways in which the
poverty of the many has to derive from the privileges of the few.

Said one Cape Verdean political thinker in 1986: “we had to carry our
people with us.... in an enormous effort at self-realization and
common purpose. It was completely obvious that any policy at the
cost of the majority - a terribly impoverished majority in 1975 - would
bring failure. There could be no case for trying to adopt - as Europe
adopted for its own self-development - the policies of Capitalism:
policies to benefit the few on the argument that later on they would
benefit the many. We couldn’t have accepted that. We were bound to
look to the interests of the vast majority of our people.”

Cape Verde is small but can fight poverty. Did David not overthrow
Goliath? (Davidson, 1990).

v) A deepening crisis: the 1990s inherited many problems. After years of
bad governments, failed experiments and world recession were
leading to a more serious crisis of poverty and hunger.

In April 1981, the Nigerian Executive Secretary of the UN Economic
Commission for Africa, Dr. Adebayo Adedeji, warned that: “with
deteriorating economic prospects and a generally bleak outlook for
growth, no continent has been worse hit than Africa. In the poorest or

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least-developed countries, people are as badly off as they were in the
1970s.... with drought in the Sahel countries, and escalating drought
situations in East and Central Africa, many countries face imminent
economic collapse.”

It was clear that poverty, now as of never before, would be very hard
to overcome....

vi) National planning and infrastructure: the new African nations were
now required to develop. For that, they needed information on the size
of their populations and natural resources. Next, they were to plan for
their economies, like how much money to be spent on daily needs, and
how much for development, and in what manner?

One major priority of national planning was to grow more food at
home, for two reasons, to feed growing populations, and to cut down
on expensive foreign food. However, communications were poor, and
rural labor was scarce. Besides, more cash crops were to be grown in
exchange for imported goods and luxuries. This meant less food
produced locally.

It was understood that Africa had many economic problems, but it was
rich in economic resources, which were to be utilized for the nation’s
benefit. This was sometimes been done, and sometimes not.

vii) Big dams: could make provision for new fishing industries, but many
would have to leave their homes, and farmers and their families had to
be re-habilitated on irrigated land in other places. Dams were
definitely a source of more power and more water for irrigation, but at
the cost of the environment.

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viii) Farmers are not fools: productive farming could not be achieved for
two reasons - too much reliance was placed on the advice of experts
from abroad who did not understand the actual problems, and African
farmers were not consulted on how best to increase output.

The countries of the Sahel (like Niger) were hit by severe famine
during 1968-74 and people died. The main causes were drought and
poor policy. Both people and cattle in Niger perished when both land
and labor were being utilized for growing cash crops instead of food.

There was felt a need to shift policies in rural development, to turn
away from previous experiments (e.g. the large-scale use of tractors in
Sierra Leone) to the knowledge and skills of Africa’s farming
communities, and their opinions and self-solutions.

Experts from abroad? Were recommending?? Solutions??? To
(African) farmers???? In its difficult ecology-irregular or tumultuous
rainfall, thin soils, differing climates?????

It was gradually realized that the key solutions to food shortage lay in
the hands of the farmers, and that farming output would increase if
governments and their agencies paid better prices to peasants for their
produce. In Zimbabwe, for example, the new government paid much
attention to small peasant farmers’ needs as it believed “that the rural
population is the backbone of a country’s agriculture...” President
Robert Mugabe said:

“... to give an example, prior to 1980, peasant farmers had virtually no
access to farm credit. By the end of the 1984-85 farming season, the
number of loans extended to small farmers had risen to 70,000. (At the

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same time) we reduced costs to the peasant farmer by making sure he
is within a maximum radius of 20 kms from a marketing depot....”

New varieties of seed also yielded successes. The use of “hybrid-
maize” seed in Kenya yielded a larger harvest.

One major conclusion from these experiments is that an intelligent use
of Science with close co-operation of farmers can result in more food.

Cape Verde, which was very poor at the time of freedom, built stone
dykes and retaining walls to conserve rain and store water, planted
drought-resistant trees over their bare hillsides in a process called
“afforestation”, thereby improving upon their rocky conditions. These
were some “success-stories” to learn from.

ix) Foreign aid: is given in cash or kind (in goods as food) by the ‘rich’
industrialized countries to the ‘poor’ countries. It may be provided
free of charge, or, paid for by the recipients as debt with interest (on
loans). The USA started giving or lending a lot of money to Africa.
This was strongly supported by the American people.

The main drawbacks of aid are:

a) how to utilize aid towards development (and social welfare); and,

b) how to pay off loans with interest. Changes in policy are
required, changes in the “international economic order”: in the
relations between the industrialized countries and the former
colonies.

Africa was already suffering from “underdevelopment” and the crisis
worsened when the time came to pay back loans taken.

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x) Conclusions: the “Black Continent” was suffering from worst crises of
poverty, famine and hunger by the mid-80s, and yet, injustice
continued to be part of the “world economic order”.

Africa must find its own way out of poverty…as Kwame Nkrumah,
Africa’s “Prophet of Modern Unity” wrote “Africa must unite…”

xi) Experiments and lessons: the 1980s saw Africa facing a crisis of
poverty and conflict, human famine; and by 1985, AIDS was
spreading fast. Africa’s “get-rich-quick” policies took it nowhere;
great forests lay destroyed for ever, wide grassland plains had been
over-grazed, and Africa was now facing poverty, hunger, violence and
conflict.

The world is divided into very different parts, the “developed” North
and the “poor” South, of which Africa was and is still a part. The
major problems facing Africa in the 1970s and 1980s were a choice
between scarce resources and death by famine by the rural peoples,
urban poverty, and militarism and dictatorship.

In such a situation, everyone but the privileged few suffer. War causes
wastage of big resources while buying arms and paying the armed
forces; resources which could be diverted to overcome poverty. This
happened in the case of Ethiopia. How can Africa hope to put an end
to its poverty with so much spending on war paraphernalia?

Africa is very rich naturally, including big tropical forests. In recent
years, these forests were being destroyed.

In 1985, 30 per cent of Nairobi (Kenya) were facing serious poverty.
But, about a century earlier, London was facing the same problem.

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And, are there not any hungry people today in the middle of
America’s opulence?

What Africa needed, said King Mosheshoe of Lesotho in 1985: “was
to develop open and participatory forms of economic and political
planning: forms within which people can take part in public debate
about the main production and development issues, and then have a
direct say in the final decision.” A decolonization of minds, a change
in attitude and a new vision are needed to shape Africa’s future.

May God bless Africa. May God bless the world.

(ii) Health: -

Working together against TB and HIV: TB kills. And AIDS kills. 1 in
5 people are HIV-positive in Lusaka, Zambia. AIDS is the major
cause of death of women in their 20s in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In Odessa
(the CIS), a large number of injecting drug users are HIV-positive. A
number of female users have started selling their bodies, but their
clients, who are not drug users, are getting affected. In Calcutta, India,
only 3% of men visiting sex workers use condoms. More than 1
million Americans are HIV-positive. 14 million people (reportedly)
have died of AIDS. The most disheartening aspect is that the world’s
youth are indulging in irresponsible behavior (casual sex with multiple
partners; needles; or refusing to wear condoms). AIDS is (still)
incurable.

Most people are unaware of the enormous and deadly role TB plays in
the AIDS epidemic. TB is the leading killer of HIV-positive people. In
a study of prime causes of death in HIV-positive patients (Abidjan,
1991), it was found that TB alone killed 32% of patients, with

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septicemia killing 11%, cerebral toxoplasmosis (10%), pneumonia
(8%), malignancies (6%), meningitis (5%), and other infections
(10%). unaccounted causes killed 18% of people.

It is to be noted that HIV destroys a person’s immune system, leaving
the HIV-positive individual highly susceptible to TB (and other)
germs.

WHO had predicted that by 2001, the spread of HIV will cause more
than 3 million new TB cases. Ill-prepared health care systems would
suffer the most. Until 1995-96, the worst danger zone was Sub-
Saharan Africa. But Asia, home to two-thirds of the world’s active TB
cases, will increasingly come under vicious attack. It is a stark fact
that in Asia, HIV is spreading more rapidly than anywhere else in the
world.

With proper attention, techniques and resources, the doors can be
slammed on the TB/HIV epidemic before it worsens.

(iii) Bangladesh - which is the land of three rivers, the Brahmaputra, the
Ganges and the Meghna, has rich and fertile land. Crops (like rice) are
grown all the year in subtropical climate.

Agriculture was abundant in the past. The Moroccan Adventurer Ibn
Battuta described Bengal (which consists of Bangladesh and a
province in India today) as “a country of great extent and one in which
rice grows abundantly... indeed, I have seen no region of the earth in
which provisions are so plentiful.”

As of now, circumstances have forced Bangladesh to become one of
the poorest countries in the world. The country has failed to provide
the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, health care and education to

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its population. However, Bangladeshis are working harder to extract
latent and neglected resources of the country - its “fertile land, water,
manpower and natural gas for fertilizer not only to be able to feed its
own population, but to export food as well...”

Bangladesh is recovering from under-development and stagnation.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has gone up since 1990. The primary
school enrolment of females went up from 31 in 1960 to 71 during
1986-93.

By 2025, Bangladesh is projected to have 175 million people, an
increase of 56 million from 1996 level. The people of Bangladesh will
continue to suffer from unemployment and shortage of housing,
school and medical facilities.

What Bangladesh needs today is more intensive local participation
through “decentralization”, optimum utilization of local resources,
development of human resources, especially in the fields of systems,
program planning, MIS, PM and IR, and an expanded “technology
(both computer and indigenous) movement” at the grassroots level.
More rural extension projects, community mobilization, applied
operations research projects, applied logistics, IEC (information,
education and communication) campaigns, and government-NGO
collaborations in the fields of family planning, health, credit and
education, are the needs of the hour.

Some NGOs are actually doing some very good work, notable among
them being Proshika, BRAC (the Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee) and the Grameen Bank (a world-famous pioneer in the
field of micro-credit).

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Poor Bangladeshi women, millions of them, have greatly benefited
from activities rendered by NGOs such as the Grameen Bank and
BRAC. They are earning cash income either by employment or by
starting income-generating activities. Many women are enjoying
better lives. Many women are now going to the polls.

Pregnancy and childbirth are quite dangerous in (rural) Bangladesh
because of insufficient health services, mother’s poor nutrition and
health. Women must start taking good care of themselves. (Do women
in the developing world have the resources?) It is time we taught the
younger generation to respect their sisters, mothers, wives and women
classmates and friends.

As of now, people in Bangladesh get to see such messages on
television as “have a polio injection”. Bangladesh is working harder
towards progress....

The main barriers to progress in the case of Bangladesh are high rate
of illiteracy, natural calamities such as floods, high infant mortality,
high fertility levels and a traditional society with unfavorable
economic conditions.

Most of Bangladesh’s burgeoning urban population is living in
unhealthy and crowded conditions. And a large proportion of people
still remains poor and illiterate. Child - bearing is concentrated at
young ages, with most first-births taking place during adolescence,
leading to high risk of maternal and infant mortality, and maternal
morbidity. A major proportion of births in rural areas is still assisted
by traditional birth attendants (TBAS), relatives and friends, etc., and
at home under unhygienic conditions. Bangladeshi women are rarely

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healthy. They suffer from much non-reproductive ailments-general
weakness, anemia, dizziness/vertigo, nausea, anorexia, abdominal
problems; etc. We do hope women in Bangladesh will be strongly
empowered to nation building in the 21st Century and beyond....
through education, skills training, employment opportunities and user-
friendly information and services in health (particularly, reproductive
health)... like oral rehydration therapy, immunization, pregnancy care,
contraception; etc.

.... Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world
excluding city states such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Floods and
cyclones occur every year. There is tremendous resource scarcity and
people live at subsistence level. Majority of the people lives below the
poverty line. The per capita income is as low as $320. Agriculture is
the mainstay of the economy, but per acre yield is still among the
lowest in the world, though adoption of high yielding variety (HYV)
technology in paddy production has been continuously increasing the
level (of per acre level). The country continues to suffer from chronic
food deficits.

The social and health situation is deplorable - worse than that in most
countries in South Central Asia. Most adults are illiterate. Around 78
percent of females are illiterate. Life expectancy is among the lowest
in the region (with Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal being worse off).
Access to health and sanitation is inadequate. The median age at first
marriage for females is low. In the rural areas, maternal, infant and
child mortality remain quite high and fertility level still remains
high.... besides, Bangladesh still remains very traditional…

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Bangladesh has to focus on literacy, functional education, family
planning, environmental sanitation, skills training, small credit,
income generation and reduction of maternal and child mortality, and
malnutrition, and, basic human needs of shelter, clothing, housing,
safe drinking water, health care, etc.

Bangladesh needs local inputs to make its development programs
“sustainable” in future. It is tragic that too many Bangladeshi women
die of preventable complications resulting from pregnancy and child
birth, too many Bangladeshi children die in large numbers of
malnutrition, too many girl-children in Bangladesh do not go to
school....

Dear Bangladesh, may the good Lord bless you in future...

iv Creating new job opportunities through promotion of silk-culture: -
the birthplace of silkworms covers Nepal, Bhutan, Indochina
including Vietnam, and parts of China. This region is very
underdeveloped owing to geographic limitations, and many people
live in poverty. The status of women is low.

The author suggests that to enhance the status of women and improve
the standard of living in such traditional and poor societies, it becomes
necessary to create job opportunities for women, for which the author
recommends ‘sericulture’. He tells us that, first, women are suited to
work in raising silkworms, second, those engaged in sericulture can
earn income as side jobs. Third, silk-raising farmers can earn a lot
through modernization.

Some people may assert that not much can be raised particularly in the
initial stage (compared to farming). The author argues that the level of

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income from silk raising could be raised higher with the increase in
productivity. It should be emphasized that securing fixed jobs is more
important than receiving higher income from short-term work from
the viewpoint of the strategy to fight against poverty.

There are some problems, however. First, there is lack of appropriate
technology. Second, local experts do not have the satisfactory level of
expertise as yet. Very often, quality eggs cannot be secured. Lastly,
expensive technology on silk-culture has to be imported from
developed countries.

It is possible to raise the silkworm in many parts of the world.
However, raw silk production concentrates on Asia, with China being
the largest producer, followed by India.

The author adds that promotion of silk-culture also leads to
“conservation” of existing forests and tree planting.

An increasing number of forests are being destroyed in many
developing countries. There are a number of reasons for deforestation:
first, trees are being cut down to be used as fuels for daily cooking and
baking bricks for building materials. Second, forests are needed for
factories. Third, forests are being increasingly converted into farm
land, in countries where population grows annually at about 2 - 2.5 per
cent and there is greater demand for grain (for food, for fattening
poultry and domestic cattle for meat, and for alcoholic drinks).

More efforts should be made to protect our forests, which are an
essential part of our ecology. It also becomes important to reforest
bare mountains.

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Mangroves on lagoons (which are parts of diversified ecosystems
where various life - forms like birds, fish and shellfish live) are also
disappearing in many countries.

Under circumstances in which trees are being destroyed at
unimaginable speed, afforestation becomes urgent.

Planting of trees is not easy. Reforestation requires time and funds.
What is crucial for tree-planting is active participation of the
community. However, poor people often are not willing to participate
in reforestation because they get no immediate benefits. Their major
priority is to support their families today. Hence, it becomes necessary
to give them good incentives like cash (as daily wage, medicine, food,
etc).

The author has said that silk-culture can help in sustainable
afforestation. Silk-spinning worms of wild species feed on various
local trees and leaves of mangroves. Thus, local people will benefit
from preservation and plantation of indigenous trees. Also, unlike
“monoculture” (in which foreign ‘cash’ crops like rubber, coffee,
sugar, pepper, etc. disturb the ecosystem) reforestation of indigenous
trees will cause no harm.

Diffusion of silk-raising will contribute to afforestation as well as
forest preservation. Silk raising is a very promising economic activity
in rural areas. Moreover, it can provide employment opportunities to
women. It also leads to development of spinning and textile industries.
In developing countries, silkworms of wild species should be used
(according to the author). Silk-raising is expected to bring about
improvement in the social status. The greatest advantage is that one

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employed person will be able to support ten persons including his/her
family members: ten persons will be saved from poverty.... a very
interesting fact, this one....

v The family planning program in Indonesia has in the past extensively
involved women. Family planning has been perceived in sociological
than in medical terms.

The “Family Welfare Movement” (a national women’s organization),
family planning acceptor groups and female volunteers have, in the
past, formed the very core of the program: they plan, implement,
evaluate as well as form the ‘recipients’ of services....

This has been (as of 1997-98), the experience of Indonesia....

vi To reduce poverty, we must shift our attention away from the
traditional goal of creating jobs, and focus on “sustainable
livelihoods” (the capabilities, assets and activities required for a
means of living) and people’s everyday economics -

Some reflections on reproductive health and youth: as of 1995: -

i) “reproductive health in china is a ‘new term’ and.... although we have
started broadening the scope of our family planning/mother and child
health activities to include general health care, community
development and poverty alleviation, the topic of reproductive health
services to youth is still a sensitive one. So, not much is done for
youth in this area....”

- Ms. Zhang Zhi Rong (China)

ii) “modernization and economic development in many parts of Asia has
put a lot of pressure on young people, creating situations or

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conditions, that have aggravated certain social ‘problems’ such as
teen sex, drugs and rebellion against parents....

As a result of this, there are now many countries with active
programs for youth that focus on leadership training, drug abuse
prevention, reproductive health, and so on. They may have different
names but the concern is the same....”

- Mr. Shiv Khare (India)

iii) “we have been doing work with STD referrals, sexual health, and
cancer screening and so on.... within the Penang (Malaysia) FPA,
youth programmes were first discussed and proposed in 1978. A
recreational, social youth centre was set up in 1982....

We are also trying to reach out to the factory workers in Penang.
Reaching out to youths is important because of their emerging sexual
awareness. They should be given the right information in a way that is
non-threatening or judgmental....”

- Ms. Engie Ng, FPA, Penang (Malaysia)

iv) “Reproductive health services for youth is an important area for
Vietnam because young people comprise almost 40% of the
country’s population.

The government has been aware of this situation from the late 1970s
when sex education first started. Since 1989, there are new activities
like the premarital club and AIDS prevention education for youths,
now the focus is on ‘family happiness and good life’ as an integrated
concept that includes young people. The ‘Vietnam Youth Union’ is a

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mass movement that works to change community behaviour so that
RH services can be provided to young people without any obstacles.
Activities also include income-generating projects for youth. We also
wish to see more experience sharing on the problems of youth at the
regional level....”

- Mr. Nguyen Ba Binh (Vietnam)

v) “.... young people in different countries act and think differently.... in
South Asia, the culture is more conservative than, for example, in
South East Asia. Young men and women in South Asia have fewer
opportunities to interact socially. They also tend to marry early due to
the custom of arranged marriages, hence they have a longer period of
child bearing....”

- Ms. Malicca Ratne (UNFPA)

vi) “we are concerned with reproductive rights especially with respect to
domestic violence and incest.... I find that there is no attempt at
gender analysis in many youth programmes.... we must realise that...
a young woman has different perceptions and needs on sexual and
social matters. This must be taken into account when designing
programmes for the youth….”

- Ms. Azucena Pestano (Philippines)

Creating employment (Source: Human Development Report, 1994,
UNDP): -

The creation of sufficient opportunities for productive employment and
sustainable livelihoods is one of the most important and most difficult -

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tasks in any society. Experiences have shown that the following strategy
may be effective:

• to compete in a fast-changing global economy, every country must
invest heavily in the education, training and skills of its people;

• the private sector is likely to generate employment. but markets can
work effectively only when governments create an enabling
environment, including sufficient physical infrastructure and
incentives for private investment;

• a more equitable distribution of physical assets (land) and better
access - to means of production (credit and information) can ensure
sustainable livelihoods;

• developing countries must make the most efficient use of their factors
of production - like (abundant) labor. tax and price policies should try
to encourage “labor-intensive technologies”;

• where private markets consistently fail to produce sufficient jobs, in
certain areas or at certain times of the year, the state would do good to
offer employment through public works programs to help people
survive;

• the state needs to consider targeted interventions at disadvantaged
groups; and,

• it becomes necessary to rethink “work” and to consider new and
flexible methods - like “job-sharing”.

“Poverty”, in my own analysis: - imagine a situation in which a landless
laborer (or, farmer) owned land. Imagine, also, that he or she had the power

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to consume most of his (own) produce (because he would need other basics
like shelter, clothing, health care and education) without subjecting it to the
vagaries of the market. The point in contention is “power”, as I would call
it, not just purchasing power as laid down in poverty studies. Land and
tenancy reforms can give the poor this power. The ‘poor’ would no longer
remain “poor” if they had things their way. What would be, is that, worse
still, as soon as food entered the market, the “purchasing - power principle”
would begin to operate. The poor would start to have very low purchasing
power, and very obviously, in comparison to the ruling “elite”. According
to me, poverty arises when food has to pass through a complex maze
(including “corruption”) of wholesale, retail, import, export, and, above all,
middlemen, with much of those who are part of this vicious triangle,
remaining cold to the needs of the tillers of land and the producers of food!
Weren’t famines in the past a result of “man-made-factors”?

When Adam Smith showed his concern that economic development should
help a person mix freely without being “ashamed to appear in publick” he
was saying that poverty should go beyond counting calories to integrate the
poor into the mainstream of the community.

There is ‘real’ tension between wealth maximization and human
development... Many countries have a high GNP per capita, but low HDI’s
(Human Development Indices): life expectancy, adult literacy, and high
infant mortality rates. Similarly, opulence is not necessary for fulfilling
human choices – democracy, human rights, and gender equality. Second,
peace of mind, fresh air and long lives may go beyond economic well-
being.

Poverty is a “vicious circle”. Fortunately or unfortunately (most)
developing countries grow “cash crops” e.g. cotton, for export and what

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comes to them are expensive foreign products like Peter England and Allen
Solly. And, offcourse, foreign exchange circulates among the ‘elite’.

For the poor, what hardly matter are the vagaries of global trade and
exchange, for they have a number of mouths to feed. What is of concern to
them is that they have to survive today, or, in other words, remain alive till
the next day. The needs of the world’s poor women and children are to be
met. What we need is an efficient and effective distribution of food,
housing, health care, education and other essential services. More food
should be grown locally. Very often, land lying fallow can be used to grow
more food. I still fail to understand as to why so much stress is laid on cash
crops. Poverty is poverty of many basics - beginning with lack of
“entitlement” to food.

As part of the backlash of globalization (in every village), the poor have
been badly hit. Commodity prices remain very high. Land reforms should
be undertaken. I would suggest that fallow land be offered to the poor at
subsidized prices by the government. The government should set up a
‘support price system’ for farmers. The facilities of “fair-price shops”
(offering basic amenities) and schools be provided to the poor. Let us
create a “dream village”!!!

The elitist are always feeling threatened. They might wonder: who will fix
our bulbs? Who will drive our cars? Who will cook our food? Attitudes
towards the poor should change.

We live in highly specialized societies. There is division of labor, and,
mechanization may, in certain societies, render labor unemployed. There is
a need to create jobs through more “labor-intensive” (not capital-intensive)
technology.

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Corruption is eating away our moral fabric. Corruption should be
investigated.

An expert should be brought in who will examine the “price
(wholesale/retail) - export - import - grid” and give suggestions. There is no
scarcity of food and yet millions are starving? (Actually, food grains are
being diverted to the black market through the use of fake ration-cards, this
is happening in India!) Efforts should be made to build strong, weather-
resistant (food) storage facilities.

Urban poverty can arise out of man’s greed or compulsion, and can be a
cause of much hardship-misery, deprivation, homelessness, crime and
conflict. By the middle of the 21st Century, much of the world’s poor will
live? (or, die?) in the world’s cities.

People should be placed at the center of development, and due respect
should be accorded to our natural systems. The livelihoods of the poor
depend on forests, fishing, flora and fauna (i.e. our forests, rivers, seas,
etc). There is a need to enhance human capabilities to the full, carry out a
major restructuring of the world’s income distribution, production and
consumption patterns. “Sustainable (Human) Development” is all about
bringing human needs into balance with the coping capacities of societies
and the carrying capacities of nature.

The world must pay attention to the status of women - without which not
much can be achieved. “Empowering” people is all about enabling them to
design and participate in the decisions, processes and events that shape
their lives.

Agriculture is the basic foundation, curd or cheese cannot be produced
without milk, in turn a cow, a farm or ranch, a farmer. There is a need to

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develop agriculture/farming. The establishment of “co-operatives” would
be a positive step in this direction. Food is a basic essential, and every
food-industry product consists of ingredients from agriculture.

Economic growth does matter in improving the quality of life. A lot
depends on how the fruits of economic growth are shared - especially on
what the poor get, and to what extent the additional resources are used to
support public services – particularly, primary health care and basic
education. What is important is what use is made of the extra income. A
society can spend its income on arms or on education. An individual can
choose to spend his or her income on drugs, alcohol, or music systems
instead of on essential food.

We often confuse ends and means. Once we start concentrating on people
as “human capital”, forced child labor and the exploitation of workers can
result. Improving human capital has offcourse resulted in enhanced
production and material prosperity, as in Japan. But we must remember
Kant’s injunction, to treat humanity as an end withal, never as means only.
The quality of human life is an end.

The very poor, struggling for their daily survival, often cannot avoid
degrading the environment. After all, in poor societies, what is at risk is not
(just) the quality of life - but life itself.

From ‘The Telegraph’, 25/2/2001: Betul, MP, India - “a woman holds
forward her baby, as a blacksmith or a “doctor” raises a red hot iron sickle.
As the iron touches the baby, she screams so loud her lungs might burst.
She throws about her arms, her legs, fights her mother’s iron grip as the
glowing sickle touches her again and again, the sickle journeying down
slowly from her neck downwards.

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As the air is filled with the pungent smell of charred flesh, the mother tells
her eight-months-old: ‘just a little bit more, this will make you strong and
healthy....’

The tribals know of only one ‘cure’ for all diseases, be it goitre or
stomachache, fever or cancer - branding with a hot iron sickle.

In Chhattisgarh (Madhya Pradesh, India), they call this ‘Damhah’, an
ancient practice of treating all diseases. It was initially prevalent among the
Korku tribe of central India, but now it has become popular with even the
Gonds and the Banjaras. It thrives in the remote tribal villages of Bastar,
Dantewara in Chattisgarh, Jhabua and Betul in south Madhya Pradesh,
India....

What about more conventional cures? Tablets and capsules - how can they
be any good, ask the tribals. Their message is clear: ‘you have to suffer to
rid your body of an ailment....’ ‘Damhah’ does.”

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CHAPTER 16B

POVERTY IS A STIFF BILL OF GOODS
“The greatest poverty in the world is not the want of food but the want of
love. The poverty of the heart is often more difficult to relieve and to
defeat.”

– anonymous

“Work among the poor, suffering people, give whole hearted free service to
the poorest of the poor. Try to bring tender love and compassion to the
unwanted, to the unloved. Our works of love reveal to the suffering poor
the love of God for them.”

– anonymous

It is only in the Twentieth Century that poverty and the poor have come to
be matters of our concern and obligation. Just why are people so hungry?
Why is it that so many in our world go without adequate food? How do
problems such as deforestation, over – population and desertification
contribute to poverty, in say, Africa? (Africa needs a new direction:
development in Africa must arise out of famine relief and rehabilitation to
end the vicious cycle). Good development must be people-centered. It
requires time, sensitivity and culturally - appropriate planning and
technology. Credit for all with education may be a good alternative.
Sustainable livelihoods may be good too as an approach to poverty.
However, we are working in a world where quick fixes don’t exist. It takes
years to address the root causes of poverty. But impart love to a poor man,
and he starts responding to you. Therefore, it is said lasting change depends
on firstly love, then long-term relationships and authentic partnership with

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communities. Corporate intervention helps. Before we discuss what causes
poverty, let us quote Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore: -

“I slept

And dreamt that life was all joy

I awoke

And saw life was but service

I served

And understood that service was

God, was joy.”

What causes poverty?

David Elesh (1973) has given three causes of poverty: –

I) Individual: – if one ends up in poverty, it is his own fault, because he
is lazy, dull, and inefficient or lacks initiative. This ideology
maintains that poverty is good for society because the fittest will
survive.

II) Culture or subculture of poverty: – this concept suggests that despite
economic changes, the poor have remained so because of their
culture or subculture, which fosters behavior and values, associated
with poverty. It has kept the poor out of the mainstream of industrial
society.

The first cause ignores the humanity aspect. How can we ignore a
group of people simply because they do not fit into Darwin’s theory.

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Besides, it is not their fault that they have remained poor, they have
not chosen to remain poor.

III) Social structure: – sociologists link poverty to social structure or to
“miserable and unjust social conditions”- our social institutions, our
economy, low educational attainment, lack of employable skills,
long-term unemployment or under- employment. Over - population
causes an additional burden on society and perpetuates poverty.

• Economic causes: – we have to understand the difference between
people engaged in work and those not engaged in work. This may be
examined in terms of the following five factors: inadequate
development, inflationary pressures, lack of capital, lack of skill in
workers and unemployment.

• Demographic causes: – population growth is the most important
factor in poverty. India is all set to become the most populated
country in the world. (At present, China is the most populated country
in the world). According to one estimate, the per capita consumption
expenditure (PCCE), i.e. the minimum amount required per person
per year for food, shelter, health, education or to maintain a minimum
standard at the 1981 price level in 2001 would be Rs. 1032 and the
per capita income (PCI) per year at 6% annual growth rate would be
Rs. 3,285.

• More mouths to feed: – if the present inequality of income in
developing countries perpetuates, the lowest percentage of people
will be below the poverty line. It is therefore, essential, that all efforts
towards population control must continue. It has been observed that
poverty, age structure and health are inter-related and interdependent.

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If a person is healthy, he is not only able to earn but he spends less on
his sickness. If a large number of people in the country suffer from
chronic malnutrition or live in an unclean environment, they suffer
from many diseases, which make them incapable of working and
earning. Poverty is correlated to ‘increase in family size’ as well. The
larger the family, the lower the standard of living. Business families
are exceptions. Lastly, the “educational level” of the people in the
country also contributes to poverty.

• Social causes: – discrimination, prejudices, casteism, communalism
(in India) and parochialism also affect employment opportunities and
the gross income.

• Climate is another reason for poverty. Hot climates reduce the
capacity to work hard. No wonder, cool, hilly regions are more
prosperous, though not necessarily.

• One thing worth noting: – the “wars” and “threats of wars” force
countries to divert their minds towards defence instead of
development.

Are there no problems of the poor???

Are there no pains of poverty???

Can anybody deny this???

The stark truth is…

And no one can deny it…

Poverty is very painful!!!!!

How????

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We want an answer!!!!!!

We want an answer to all of the following:

I) Social discrimination and social condemnation: – in the Third World,
employers, the rich, the officials and even the government look down
upon the poor. They are considered a burden on society. They are
harassed, humiliated and discriminated against at every level. Now
efforts are coming in, but still they have to face the challenges of
illiteracy and social prejudice. the hostile attitudes of society at every
stage lowers their self-image, creates in them a feeling of inferiority,
and curbs their efforts of gaining means to help themselves.

II) Housing: – houselessness, overcrowding, slums and rental laws are
serious problems in urban areas. The houses of the poor are not only
overcrowded but lack privacy. Their children are driven out into the
streets. Family tensions affect their personality and behavior.

III) Subculture of poverty: – poverty is a vicious circle. “When poverty
is transmitted over generations, it becomes a culture”, according to
Oscar Lewis. Their children inherit a subculture of violence, which
becomes a part of their lifestyle. This in turn becomes a medium for
solving petty and / or difficult problems. Purchasing power of the
poor is very low.

Working innovatively to combat poverty (largely rural): there is no
ultimate panacea for poverty.

I) Population crisis management (intervention): – “man’s fate, like that
of all living creatures, depends on a planet with limited resources.
His environment will ultimately control his numbers. If he does not

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use his powers of reason to curb population growth, nature will do
the job for him. No species can endure if it exceeds its resources.”

-
Anonymous

What has accentuated poverty in the Third World is the lack of modern
outlook in the people wherein they go on producing children. The primary
task, therefore, should be to control population by persuasion, if we can,
and by coercion, if it comes to that. (However, this runs contrary to our
principle that “no change should be forced but implemented”). It is also the
time to build a political consensus all over the world on population control.
Making education free and compulsory will also help in changing the
outlook of the people, which in turn is necessary for control over
population.

“Family planning”??????

“Family welfare” ???????

It means having children by choice. This makes it possible not to have
children when parents do not want them. The need of the hour is to
transform any population program into a gigantic people’s movement.

In this great task, the following have to play an important role:

The corporate sector

The unions / workers

Incentives and disincentives

Women’s organizations

NGOs / voluntary organizations

Cooperatives and

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IEC (information education communication) - mass media, population
education committees and inter-personal communication committees.

An effective family welfare program

The program content

(a) Maternal and child health care:

Through FW centers: medical checkup of pregnant mothers, treatment
facilities, labor care, child care clinics and immunization.

Counseling: motivational work, clinical consultations, home visits,
education and awareness.

(b) Sterilization services

Methods adopted

a) vasectomy – urban FW planning centers, overall trend
declining ;

b) tubectomy – field “camps”, examinations and follow-ups.

(c) Methodology for motivation towards planned family norms: these are:
“extension approach”, mobile vans, field services, special motivational and
population education programs, the media, work done by national and
international NGOs, “street plays”, doorstep delivery of services, monetary
incentives, literacy programs, emancipation of women, participation of
local leaders and voluntary workers, dance/drama, charts / hoardings /
banners / population theme songs, sex education, counseling, research and
training / therapy , “outreach” to employed youth (taxi drivers, railstation
workers ) through picture lectures and peer counseling.

“In the past twenty years…man has demonstrated his skill at enabling large
numbers of people to survive, who would not have survived in the past –

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but to survive in poverty, in ignorance, in sickness, often in degradation.
This is at heart what the population problem is about, not about numbers
but about the quality of human life throughout the world.”

- Anonymous

In clarifying the interrelationships between population and many facets of
social and economic conditions, it has been recognized that the private
sector has an important role in social development and can be a very useful
channel for the delivery of reproductive health care / family planning
services and the provision of education and information relevant to
population and development programs.

Let us explore innovative approaches to strengthen the partnership between
governments, international and non-governmental organizations and the
corporate sector with the aim of increasing the overall impact of population
and development activities through corporate consultative meetings
including business sessions and field visits. A corporate sector entity can
achieve so much in promoting social development. The role and potential
of the corporate sector in reproductive health and family planning does not
need any elaboration, keeping in view the fact that it employs millions of
people in every country. When the most intelligent and the top brass of
corporate giants decide to take initiatives at the national level as partners in
national action plans with government, international agencies and NGOs
for launching innovative approaches in harmony with local social and
economic needs, any venture is bound to succeed.

A corporate enterprise has certain social responsibilities (good corporate
citizenship) to its customers, shareholders, employees and the communities
within which it functions.

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Social investments can result in human happiness. Programs for population
and family planning are no more a social responsibility undertaken on a
voluntary basis by the corporate sector, but a social imperative. Social
factors are as important as, and as integral to economic growth as economic
factors. In order to promote sustainable development, both social and
economic issues should be taken together and not compartmentalized. Well
devised family planning programs, reproductive and sexual health, literacy
and education for both boys and girls, women’s empowerment and
development, population, youth concerns and employment, for instance,
come to my mind.

ii) Education: –

“If you are thinking one year ahead, plant rice,

If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant trees, and

If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate people.”

- A Chinese proverb

“I will sign myself.... the joy of learning”

“The unbearable, wretched condition of the poor worldwide can only be
relieved through education. Education will arouse in them self-
consciousness, making them aware of their helpless conditions and instill in
them self-help and perseverance. Education is the only vehicle that
establishes communication between man and the outer world where he
looks upon himself as a living entity. Consciousness is the true identity of
man and it is stimulated only through education.”(Anonymous)

Programs on literacy have been going on for quite sometime. The degree of
success is dependent on several factors, one of the important ones being the

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methodology adopted. We can promote free distance learning programs for
the poor. We can have a common room with a television set, where
education can be imparted in the vernacular. Literacy programs for women
need a different approach and strategy. A normal program would firstly
have to face shyness in adults. It would require that women devote time
exclusively for classes. Such standard approach is unlikely to be successful
for the simple reason that for the illiterate rural woman, her domestic duties
and chores are of greater importance than studies. A more pertinent
strategy would be the implementation of the program in such a way that
studies mix with her normal work, which makes it adaptable. We could
motivate literate girls or boys to select 2-3 women each from their related
families and friends. They could be sitting together whenever convenient
for both sides i.e. children and women e.g. while cooking, cleaning around
the house etc. this can generate a lot of interest. However, this model needs
to be implemented on a “pilot” basis in some villages before large-scale
implementation.

iii) The Lifeline Express: - the unique health mission with a healing
touch…: -

A different mission is the “lifeline express”. Is it asking for the moon to
have a “Lifeline Express” in every Third World country?

Alternatively, why not have helicopters to reach inaccessible places!!

Over and above this, we should also encourage more and more ‘heal the
world’ medical relief teams.

Let us hope medical science wipes out disease from the face of this planet,
and the benefits of medical science be taken to the poor. (An example,

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based on the same philosophy, is the work being done by the “Center for
Disease Control and Prevention” in the United States).

Now, about the “Lifeline Express”: far away from most of us in many
villages of rural India, where our farmers reap harvest after harvest for us,
modern medicine is yet to find a foothold, and for some time, this distance
had yet an indelible but preventable scar, that of physical disability:
however, many of them have cause for hope, because with regard to health,
crisscrossing across the country is the “Life-Line Express” – a fully staffed
hospital on wheels with a unique mobile medical mission which seeks to
bridge India’s remote rural areas with modern medical practices. This step
epitomises an international initiative which began over 15 years ago in
England, to prevent and cure avoidable disablement. In 1983, the UNDP,
UNICEF, WHO and governments of participating countries formalized this
movement to create an international organization called “Impact”. India
was chosen as the site for the global launch of this initiative. The project
began with a journey to Khelari in the coal belt of Eastern India in July -
August 1991.

It is important for the corporate sector to intervene in the health sector, as a
part of its social responsibility. It could fund research into ‘tropical
disease’, like tropical sprue, dengue, malaria, filaria, cholera, Hepatitis - B
etc. the corporate sector in coalition with NGOs and governments could
also fund inoculation and vaccination projects. The world’s big companies
in vaccines and antibiotics (e.g. Smithkline Beecham inc.) can contribute in
a large way to eradicating the diseases that devastate the developing world.
It need not be over emphasized that the health care industry has to play an
important role – 14.5 million people die every year from malaria, 10
million from the effects of tapeworm. Billions can be invested in new

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medicines. It is essential that the health industry should be involved in
tackling the health issues that so fundamentally affect development.

iv) Corporate Partnership: -

The primary aim of creating jobs in developing countries is important, but
influencing attitudes to private enterprise is equally vital. Companies
should develop closer partnership with international agencies and NGOs.
Key issues are – economic efficiency, social development, and
environment protection. The issue of child labor in Asia (and elsewhere)
should be tackled. Almost a billion adults (30% of the world’s adult
population) are illiterate. More effective results can be achieved by making
literacy more relevant, through a focus on rural appraisal and development.
The private sector should collaborate to scale up these small-scale pilot
programs and make a real impact. The private sector could work with
NGOs, agencies, partners, governments and local communities in
promoting improved literacy standards.

Business can assist, for example, by providing IT facilities. In Tilonia
(Rajasthan, India), for example, rural women using solar-powered
computers have spent time inputting and analyzing vital health data, such
that these women could train children attending night school.
Unfortunately, there is a real danger that business and development
agencies undermine the self-sufficiency of rural (and urban) communities.

The multi - pronged principles of development are as follows:

• to de-professionalize development by helping ordinary people meet
their needs (sustainable development) ;

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• to use an integrated approach in meeting social and environmental
needs, emphasizing basic education and appropriate technology such as
solar power, pumps and machinery which villages could maintain
themselves.

v) Creating employment: –

Certain kinds of economic activities do not create sustainable jobs, in the
light of poverty alleviation. To this group belong all large industries, using
a lot of capital or requiring import of machinery, components and raw
materials. As such, small and cottage industries and agriculture in
neglected areas, as employment generating sources, now need to be
identified, and credit and tax incentives need to be channelized more
intensely to these areas.

VI) Distributive justice :–

The problem of poverty is a problem of distribution. Atleast, the
International Court of Justice at The Hague, should intervene in such a
manner that laws in developing countries are so enacted and implemented
that the rich do not escape the paying of taxes.

VII) Man-land ownership :–

While land is limited, productivity can be increased to a large extent by the
usage of high technology. Even small holdings can be made profitable by
proper irrigation facilities, use of modern techniques and by diversification.
Land reforms should be undertaken.

VIII) Decentralizing planning and its execution :–

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The village “panchayats” and the municipal councils based on local
resources and the skills of the population (e.g. villagers, slum dwellers),
should necessarily plan programs in rural areas (and those in urban areas).

IX) Affordable housing :–

Yes, the governments of developing countries in coalition with the
corporate sector can provide subsidized housing and electricity to the poor.
Actually, we should look for more integrated solutions to the problem.

The new millennium should be the millennium of the farmer (actually the
poor, how can we ignore the city poor??? ) and the role of the corporate
sector is very important. Farmers may revolt if liberalization (in any
developing country) ignores agriculture. The new millennium should be the
era of ‘people-isation’. For instance, in New Zealand, every dairy is owned
by the farmer. Approximately, 70% of the dairying in the United States is
with co-operatives. These are experiences that are progressively gaining
momentum across the world.

These are the experiences we should learn from…

These are poverty related prescriptions, which can bring the poor closer…

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CHAPTER 17A
Following the Great Depression, shantytowns, “Hoovervilles”, sprang up in
the great cities of the United States, as unemployed and homeless families
struggled for their very survival.

- from Eleanor Roosevelt by David Winner.

The Missionaries of Charity have inspired a music cassette: ‘Flame in the
Slum’ featuring songs by the Assembly of God Church choir. The lyrics as
well as the music have been composed by Fr. I.C. Jacob, Children’s Aid,
Calcutta, India.

“And, Eleanor (Roosevelt) would be going into the hovels alongside
‘Scotts Run’, one of the worst slums in the US at that time!”

As it is, men, women and children in the Third World are no better off than
“guinea pigs” (they are facing the brunt of poverty, illiteracy and disease).
Can we not try out innovative experiments on them? Let us strengthen local
innovation, create opportunities for the poor to learn of successful practices
in other parts of the world, promote their replication and foster new forms
of social experimentation, which may lead to social changes on a wider
scale.

The flight of people from the country to the cities in search of work is a
problem in most developing countries. Families leave their homes and
farms in a desperate attempt to find food and work, and often can find
neither. The result is that cities become overcrowded and the new arrivals
have to build their homes where they can, out of whatever they can find.
Poor living conditions in the “big” cities of the world lead inevitably to

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extremely bad health, poverty, crowded housing, poor sanitation, crime,
and other social problems... and much suffering....

“Locally rooted development programs in slums can encourage the
inhabitants’ commitment to improving the quality of life....’-

To city dwellers, slums are embarrassing and most people show resignation
in their approach. Slums or ‘unintended cities’ have always been neglected,
despite so much environmental degradation...

Marked by poor sanitation, clogged drains, and encroachments, garbage
(litter) and during the rainy season, hellish conditions... also, poverty,
illiteracy, unemployment, sometimes high infant mortality... lack of
hygiene, of clean water, and alcoholism is a major problem...

Only education can improve the lot of the slum-dwellers (including social
and health education)... Let us collect funds from the public and start
primary schools in slum areas.... But large numbers of children still do not
attend school even today.... Let us build organizations of women from
among the poor, train them for income generation and help give voice to
their concerns.... Common courtyards surrounded by hutments can be
turned into classrooms and voluntary help can be enlisted... Adult literacy
classes should be started... Illiterate women have been known to take up
cooking and cleaning jobs to support their children through school... Other
women are engaged in labor-intensive work or at odd jobs like making
paper bags, toys, etc. Let us form an inter-household community network
to raise (some) finance and form ‘co-operative(s)’ or ‘societies’...

Given the acute nature of social and economic problems of slums, the only
hope for a sustainable long-term solution lies in a dweller-led movement....

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A locally rooted, systematically undertaken community development
program is what is needed.”

- Source: Piloted Towards New Horizons, The Telegraph, India, 26 Mar,’
98.

Migration from rural to urban areas, from small towns to larger ones, has
pushed up the rate of urbanization in cities and towns throughout the
world... Solutions to such questions may require some constitutional
changes in the context of accountability on the part of public servants...
Science and technology need to be rationally applied by town planners.
Already an improved communication system has played a great role in
dispersed urban developments in developed countries...

There is an unequal distribution of resources and services between
rural and urban areas... Some kind of equity is to be brought about in
the standards of living in rural and urban areas (through the provision
of basics like fair-price shops, education, health care and clean
drinking water)... Only a strong commitment to development would
solve unplanned urbanization.

- A former Chief town planner, West Bengal, India.

Slums are the areas of poverty and decadence, described by Nehru as the
areas of “the utmost form of human degradation, characterized by
starvation, malnutrition, disease, neglect, exploitation, abuse, torture,
crime, vice and delinquency, illiteracy and depression. The worst slums of
the world are devoid of food, sanitation, passage, water, electricity, light,
ventilation, privacy, protection against disease, health, medical care, and
above all, hope. Mostly rural migrants inhabit these areas. They are either

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in the middle of or at the periphery of a big city and are filled with filth. In
one or a couple of rooms, over a dozen human beings live and cook,
cohabitate and breed....

Growth of slums, overcrowding and pollution are some of the “gifts” of our
modern civilization and can be attributed to factors like

a) migration of rural masses

b) low income

c) high cost of living in cities

d) shortages of houses

e) unplanned growth

f) illiteracy and unbridled breeding

g) exploitation and

h) lack of political will....

The slum environment is conducive to the spread of several ailments viz.
communicable diseases, malnutrition, mental and physical retardation and
behavioral problems and is a slow poisoning process and it does not cause
ripples in political circles....

An expert committee of the UN included nine factors in living-health,
nutrition, housing, education, employment and working conditions,
clothing, social security, recreation and human rights and most of these are
inadequate in slums...

“Community-based distribution” (CBD) of services, and nutrition
education can be of great help....

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The ICDS or “Integrated Child Development Services” involve an
“Anganwadi” - literally, the “courtyard” - which is given or cheaply rented
as a center for information and help with childcare. When the scheme does
finally reach all the poor families of India, it will still cost less than one
percent of the nation’s GDP (James Grant, “The State of the World’s
Children”, 1987)

What can we do? To improve the health and welfare of slum dwellers, the
state, voluntary agencies (e.g. rotary clubs) and community workers need to
commit themselves. An “Integrated Minimum Needs Program”, to ensure
atleast two square meals a day, clothing, sanitary housing, clean water and
latrines, free vaccines and doorstep medical treatment, family planning,
iron and vitamin tablets and health education, needs to be formulated....

Let us realize that slum dwellers can become a resource rather than a
nuisance or an encroachment on beautiful cities of our “beloved” planet!

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CHAPTER 17B

THE POOR ARE CLOSER TO YOU THAN
YOU THINK
“To know the problem of poverty intellectually is not to understand it. It is
not by reading, taking a walk in the slums, admiring and regretting that we
come to understand it and to discover what it has of bad and good. We have
to dive into it, live it, share it.”

– Mother Teresa

(Source of the following extract: an article by a Reader at the LSE,
England)

All around us is the grim face of urban poverty. Yet, developing countries
across the world tend to associate poverty with rural areas. Therefore, there
is a need to analyze ways of understanding and responding to urban
poverty.

Globally, patterns of poverty are changing. In 1980, there were twice as
many poor rural households as poor urban ones, but in the new millennium,
more than half the absolute poor are living in urban areas. The burden of
poverty is being borne increasingly by the world’s cities, particularly those
of developing countries. Cities and towns are blatantly ill equipped to deal
with the impact of rapid urbanization. This makes cities dysfunction and it
puts at risk the stability of urban populations.

It is now acknowledged that the extent and depth of urban poverty is on the
increase. It is also being increasingly recognized that urban poverty has

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very particular characteristics, forms and consequences. And yet, for many,
poverty is still seen as a rural problem.

The development of sustainable responses to urban poverty depends on a
deeper understanding, not only of the extent of urban poverty, but of the
processes by which it is created, perpetuated as also ways in which it may
be ameliorated. Urban poverty alleviation should remain firmly on the
policy agenda.

Proximity of the urban poor to hospitals and clinics, in no way guarantees
their admission to care, or alters the fact that they are intimidated by the
alien environment and often haughty or hostile treatment they receive while
waiting for attention. For instance, it came out in the newspapers in India
that a slum-woman was thrown out of a city hospital when she was in
labor, simply because she could not furnish her husband’s name. She was
not literate enough.

“Urban Participatory Appraisal” (I have spoken of it much earlier, in
chapter 2) will prove to be an effective means of understanding poverty
through the perceptions of the poor themselves. People in urban low-
income communities and slums emphasize not only material deprivation
but also exposure to risk, vulnerability and insecurity. Ill health may be a
major fear, while death of a breadwinner is the factor that most commonly
may propel people into poverty. We are able also to focus attention on the
particular interests and needs of different groups amongst the urban poor,
such as the single-headed households, women-maintained families, the
elderly, children in difficult circumstances, and those that are vulnerable in
the face of violence and issues of public safety, such as young women and
youth.

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Rural poverty is more widespread and intense. But simply to conclude, that
in urban areas, the poor have greater material and human resources, income
earning opportunities and life chances than their counterparts in the
countryside, can lead to policy outcomes which penalize the urban poor for
their very resourcefulness, while ignoring the particular problems they face.
Probably the worst off are children in difficult circumstances, like street-
children.

Urban poverty has particular causes, characteristics and consequences,
which need to be understood in their own right. The increasing
concentration of poverty in cities derives from both demographic and
economic factors, including the fact that the negative impact of economic
reform measures has fallen on the urban poor.

Economic factors are obviously important in understanding urban poverty.
However, a focus on income and consumption provides only half the
picture. It is important also to be alert to other sources of deprivation and
vulnerability. The urban poor are subject to additional stress factors such as
insecurity of tenure or residence, physical danger and violence, harassment
by urban mafia, officialdom and the police.

Social status: – the urban poor also suffer by overcrowding, lack of privacy
and health hazards. And are the first in line as victims of environmental
degradation. Their social status as “unnotified” slum dwellers or as
linguistic, ethnic or religious minority groups, can increase their
vulnerability, particularly in cities that are violently contested political
terrains. Ironically, the big sprawling slums have deplorable social and
ecological conditions but exercise voting power through their numbers.
Smaller settlements and slums located in the vicinity of upper and middle-

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income neighborhoods are of little interest to politicians and of great
aggravation to more powerful citizens.

Urban poverty is heterogeneous: – it is important to understand the
heterogeneity of urban poverty, not only from the region of city to another,
but within cities, neighborhoods and even households themselves.

The focus on the urban household, while an important step forward makes
invisible the contribution to household well-being of different household
members.

The primary focus has been on women. This is partly because of the
success of the “women in development” lobby in keeping gender issues
alive and in focus, and partly because of a growing recognition that the
individual, household and collective survival strategies of women, have
been vital for the sustainability of poor urban households and communities
in times of economic and social stress. Women and more particularly
women-headed households, have also been identified as being among the
poorest of the poor, and have become important targets for compensatory
measures and poverty alleviation programs.

Age is also an important variable in understanding urban poverty processes.
Cities are facing the problem of aging populations while at the same time
becoming increasingly youthful: – greater attention is being paid to
problems faced by street children, children in difficult circumstances and
more recently urban youth, but our understanding of the particular
experiences of the elderly poor in urban areas is extremely limited.

Social conflict: – before we discuss social conflict in the cities, let us
observe a minute of silence: –

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!! Om shanti!!

!! A salutation to peace!!

Social conflict in cities derives from poverty. Here we can equally refer to
domestic violence in households when frustrated unemployed males resort
to alcohol; to outbreaks of communal or inter-ethnic conflict under
conditions of competition for scarce resources within overcrowded
neighborhoods; to violence associated with the influx of refugees or rural
migrants; or to organized violence stemming from authoritarian regimes,
poorly trained police forces, private armies, urban warlords and the mafia.
In all such cases, the poor suffer the brunt of conflict, experienced
differently on the basis of sex, age and status, and poverty seems to feed
such differences.

Urban poverty and public action: – the last decade has seen the
international donor community deliver a “new urban agenda” which
derives from demographic and environmental concerns about urban areas,
and an acceptance of the crucial economic and political role of cities in
national development. Poverty alleviation is considered a priority area for
action. A key opportunity is presented by the “new urban agenda” to focus
on poverty at the level of the city and to fostering an integrated approach to
urban poverty reduction (In fact, my view on a “holistic” approach should
be “eradication”).

Actions to address urban poverty have been consistently constrained by the
inadequacy of resources both at the national and the metro level, by fears of
alienating the urban elite and by poor management of poverty alleviation
programs and projects, leading to frequent failures to reach the targeted
poor.

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Globally, the balance of responsibility for urban areas has started shifting
among the public, private and community sectors. Current thinking has
accepted that the public sector alone cannot meet the needs and aspirations
of urban populations and that new forms of cooperation and partnership
have to muster a broad complement of material and human resources to
address urban problems.

What the corporate sector can do:

With most third-world companies situated in urban areas, there isn’t too far
in order to find out how one can be useful. management skills and
resources, which the corporate sector is so thoroughly equipped with, could
be applied for urban poverty management – in collaboration with the
government, NGOs or even individually.

The term “community development” connotes the process by which the
efforts of the people themselves are united with those of government
authorities, NGOs and companies to improve the economic and social
conditions of slum communities. The philosophy behind the urban
community development project is, that any neighborhood, no matter how
poor, can do something to improve itself by its own efforts, and that any
approach for outside help should be resorted to, only after it has exhausted
its own resources fully. The aim and objective of these projects is to change
the attitudes and motivation of the people and community rather than to
affect social welfare. The object is not so much to take social service to the
underprivileged as to evoke in them a desire for self-reliance. Also,
achievements in the field of organization of physical improvement, health
and sanitation, education and economic programs would be beneficial.
Here again, the corporate sector would be helpful.

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I do not remember who had said this, but it is worthwhile noting the basic
theme:

“The problem is not merely of old slums but of the creation of new slums.
It is obvious that we shall never solve it unless we stop completely the
formation of slums.”

Before we do that, we have to think of the slum dwellers and those without
a home. The worst off are children in difficult circumstances like street
children.

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CHAPTER 18A
“Loafers” and “Wasters”, were bored, often delinquent boys who roamed
the streets smoking and getting into trouble.... But it was not the fault of the
boys - they were going wrong, only for want of hands to guide them the
right way towards being useful.

- from Robert Baden - Powell by Julia Courtney.

1. ‘I was 12 years old when I ran away from home and reached New Delhi
railway station. It was strange and frightening. People were using
needles on each other and older boys were sodomising the younger
ones. It was so open....’

This is the voice of a child huddled in the shadows of the Indian Capital’s
railway stations next to the glitz and glitter of Connaught Place (the
market)... Such children stumble through their childhood and adolescence
scratching out a living at the stations, sitting on the grimy tracks… Chasing
heroin, raping and sodomising the young and the vulnerable among
themselves.

They spend violent nights month after month, year after year, on the
platforms, in the dingy hovels next to the tracks.

Pallab Das’s documentary film “The Unseen” made for the UNICEF
uncovers the dark underbelly of the Indian Capital - the hidden violence
that devastates hundreds of street children, trapping them in a dungeon of
drugs, sex and AIDS....

And so they say, these are ‘platforms of plundered innocence....’

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from “Time” Magazine - Jan 15, 2001:

“I’d rather stay down here than at the shelter. No one pays attention to me
there. I’ll stay here with my friend until my baby comes.”

-Altanchimeg, 17 and eight months pregnant.

“My father cannot work so I dropped out of school and carry heavy sacks
of flour at the train station to pay for food.”

- Enkhmunkh, 12.

“Kids at the mines collect the coal dropped by the bulldozers. What they
don’t need to keep themselves warm, they sell them.”

- Oyun, UNICEF project officer in Ulan Bator, Cambodia.

When the temperature plummets to - 30 °c, the warmest place in Ulan
Bator is the sewer. For the nearly 4,000 homeless children in the Capital of
Mongolia, it is a choice between going underground and ‘death’. Kids
sleep, cook and play beneath the manhole covers.... Families in post
Communist Mongolia suffer economic despair, alcoholism, domestic
violence and sexual abuse, driving a large number of children to the streets.
And after a severe drought and the loss of cattle to exposure last year,
Mongolia is going through yet another difficult winter... Local shelters
offer day schooling and day meals, but during the nights, the children go
into the tunnels, staying close to the hot-water pipes for warmth.... During
warmer times, these street-kids do odd jobs: portering at the train station,
gathering loose coal at the mines or scrap metal at the dump.... for food....

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And, so Ulan Bator’s army of homeless children struggles to survive
another frigid winter. By begging, stealing, scavenging and seeking warmth
in the sewers....

From The Telegraph, 26 Feb., 2001: villages of health and hope:
Irishwoman plans twin centers for street-children to grow amid security,
love and a family atmosphere: “she is the locality’s universal ‘mom’
providing education, shelter, healthcare and protection to street children
near Triangular Park, for well over a decade now. But Edith Wilkins, born
in Cork, Ireland (yes, she deserves attention!)...wants to “give Calcutta
more”.

Edith…now wants to fulfil her ultimate dream, in Calcutta - setting up twin
villages for kids, to give them, a total family atmosphere with surrogate
parents.

The ‘health village’ and ‘Asha’ will cost around £400,000 each. The health
village will have a mini-hospital for street children, a hospice ...a special
unit for malnourished children and a child - orientation center.

Edith feels children are on the streets for various reasons - dysfunctional
families, poverty, alcoholism, abuse.... and our aim is to give them security,
love and a family atmosphere.”

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CHAPTER 18B

WE GROW UP ON THE STREETS
To children: –

“The direction that society will take tomorrow depends mainly on the
minds and hearts of today’s children. You are called to build up human
society. As children, you have at your disposal, abundant means that you
must learn to know and appreciate fully.”

– Mother Teresa

To society: –

“Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without leaving better
and happier. Be a living expression of God’s kindness, kindness in your
face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness to your warm
greeting. To children, to the poor, to all who suffer and are lonely, give
always a happy smile. Give them not only your care, but also your heart.”

-Anonymous

“Street-children’, as they call themselves, are children in difficult
circumstances, are children who have run away from home, the slums,
often from violence, and become part of a vast community of ragpickers,
shoe-shine boys, hawkers and ‘odd jobbers’, living a rough life on city
streets. They live in a complex world of sorrows and joys. They have their
visions of life and work in the streets.”

As they grow up on the streets, street children become increasingly
vulnerable to drug peddlers, alcoholism and crime. Further, these children
are exploited as child labor. Child labor and child abuse are very common

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in developing countries. It has also been estimated that a vast majority of
“juvenile delinquents” are homeless, urban children, who eventually land
up on the streets.

Despite hectic planning, welfare programs, legislation and administrative
action in the developing countries, a majority of third world children
continue to remain in distress and turmoil. In most cases, parents neglect
them and employers sexually abuse them. Millions of children from among
the urban poor are compelled by economic considerations to join the labor
force. India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of the
world’s working children. (One-fourth of the world’s child labor force).

The major cause of child abuse is “adaptational failure” or maladjustment
in the environment (both in the family and in the work place) mostly on the
part of the adult perpetrators (parents, employers) but to some extent on the
part of adults responsible for family socialization as well. The types of
abuse on children are physical, sexual and emotional. Bolton and Bolton
(1987) have identified eight possible effects of abuse on children, namely,
self-evaluation (the loss of self-esteem), dependency, mistrust,
revictimization, withdrawal from people, emotional trauma, deviant
behavior, and inter-personal problems.

One beautiful overture

Street children in one part of India are now an organized group, thanks to
sensitive intervention by SPARC, the NSDF, and the Mahila Milan
(women’s group). These children now interact with city officials but
manage their own lives and make their own decisions. They voice their
concerns and articulate their problems and needs. The “night shelter” is one
such initiative that developed through this interaction. The children

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themselves manage the shelters with support from the tri-NGO alliance and
the only decisions left to professionals are those that concern health and
safety issues. Let us have “sponsored townships” with caretakers for all
unfortunate children.

We shall now devote a prayer to a highly deprived category called
“beggars”.

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CHAPTER 19A
We do not know just how many people die alone on the streets. How many
wash, eat, live and die on the road-sides of major cities of the world. Just
how many line the gateways to temples, shrines, etc., begging for alms?

Let us pursue projects that can rebuild communities e.g. street repairs... and
public works like cleanliness and sanitation... to tackle poverty and
unemployment.... High time we begun....

The benefits of globalization are not being fully realized for all our people,
especially in the developing world where income distribution has become
more unequal. Globalization must help the poor (by creating more jobs for
“the poor”, for instance, in a restaurant or hotel, replacing dishwashers with
human hands, although it may not actually be a very practicable solution).

“Until she (Mother Teresa) could accommodate her lepers in proper
settlements.... they would still go out to beg in the streets of Calcutta if they
wanted to ... If she happened to see them when they had come back, she
would ask them how they had done.”

- Malcolm Muggeridge, from “Something Beautiful for God”.

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CHAPTER 19B

I MAKE MY LIVING BY BEGGING
“When I pick up a hungry person from the street, I give him a plate of rice,
a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted,
unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society – that
spiritual poverty is much harder to overcome.”

– Anonymous

“Charity begins today,

Today somebody is suffering,

To day somebody is in the street,

Today somebody is hungry

Our work is for today, yesterday has gone,

Tomorrow has not yet come, we have only today to make

Jesus known, loved, served,

Fed, clothed, sheltered.

Do not wait for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will not have them

If we do not feed them today.”

– Anonymous

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“None of us, I am sure knows what is the pain of hunger, but one day, I
learned it from a little child. I found the child in the street and I saw in her
face that terrible hunger that I have seen in many eyes.”

– Mother Teresa

The personality of the beggar is one of complete dependence and constant
expectation. It is well said that by begging, a person lets loose from his self
five of his presiding deities: shame, lustre, confidence, intelligence and
self-esteem. Such demoralized persons do not hesitate to lie, impersonate,
adopt any trick or even take to crime. Rehabilitation of beggars can take
place if there are well-managed beggar homes. But in India, these are few
and far between. There are still thousands of beggars roaming in the streets
and lining approaches to temples and shrines. Although officials are
sympathetic, the rehabilitation of beggars is a daunting task ahead of all of
us.

As per a particular press report in India, although a few beggars are
relatively well off, the conditions of a majority of the dying, the destitute,
the lonely, the homeless and the elderly remain pathetic.

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CHAPTER 20A
I believe that the best way

To serve

The poor and the underprivileged

Is to

Walk hand in hand with them

And allow God to show you the way.

People all over the world could identify with Charles Spencer Chaplin
(Charlie Chaplin)... who looked forlorn and lonely in his films - one of
life’s losers. But, despite life’s difficulties, he always won in the end -
somehow becoming a symbol to the poor, the failures and the losers of the
world.

- Source: David Robinson: Chaplin: His Life and Art.

Poverty gave Charlie Chaplin a passionate desire to see the underdog
succeed and to fight against the injustices of the world. His courage gave a
lot of people hope and laughter in the face of their own problems.

Do we have “homes” for the people who wash, clean, eat, live and perish
on the roadsides of India??? And for that matter, (of) the world???

Let us start our work by picking up one dying person from the street... to
Mother Teresa, the important thing was that each person died with the
feeling of being loved.

“In these twenty years of work amongst the people, I have come more and
more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any

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human being can ever experience. Nowadays we have found medicine for
leprosy and lepers can be cured.... For all kinds of diseases there are
medicines and cures. But for being unwanted, except that there are willing
hands to serve and there’s a loving heart to love, I don’t think this terrible
disease can ever be cured.”

- Mother Teresa.

Loneliness is a disease, a “poverty” worse than lack of food, warmth or
shelter... whether in London or in New York: people relegated to “cold”
rooms or boxes in the street, by a wealthy society...

To combat destitution, let us set up welfare systems to protect the weakest
members of society....

‘.... We reached a cluster of huts.... The well outside was filled over with
sand and inside we found Sabhayi, 80 plus, nearly blind and all alone. Her
sons and their families had all left due to dearth of food. She (Sabhayi) did
not have the energy to travel with them. So, they left her alone. She had no
time to be asked questions about what she ate and how she would survive...
this poor, elderly woman was trapped in solitude...’

- ‘Sands of Solitude’, The Telegraph, India, April 2000.

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CHAPTER 20B

LET US CARE FOR THE DYING, THE
DESTITUTE, THE LONELY, THE
HOMELESS, THE ELDERLY AND THE
INFIRM

“Where is God? He has made himself the hungry one, the naked one, the
homeless one, the lonely one and he says:

“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me.”

– Mother Teresa

“He who serves the poor serves God.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

“In our home for the dying,

It is so beautiful to see,

People who are joyful,

People who are lovable,

People who are at peace,

In spite of terrible suffering.”

– Mother Teresa

“Pray, who will look after the senior citizens of the world. They have raised
the present generation. They deserve company.”

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– Anonymous

”There are about 100 million homeless in the world, of whom 3 million are
in America.”

“Help age world: the less privileged elderly need your love, care and
compassion.”

– Anonymous

“Help age world: let us build more old-age homes, let us donate in charity
to old age homes.”

– Anonymous

“We have homes for the sick and dying,

Destitutes,

And it is so beautiful to see how these people,

Who have lived such difficult lives,

Die with such contentment,

With such peace –

It really is unbelievable.

We picked one of them out of a drain once,

And brought him to the home for the dying,

I remember him saying:

‘I have lived like an animal in the street,

But I am going to die like an angel-loved and cared for…’

He had no fear,

We fear only when our conscience is not clear,

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When we are afraid to face ourselves.

That is why so many people are afraid of death –

They are afraid of facing reality,

Of facing self,

By looking at God.

A pure heart sees God,

And I think the poor people,

Live very much in the presence of God,

That is why they have no fear,

That is why they meet death with happiness,

I find that our people in the homes for the dying,

Our lepers and so on,

Their happiness at death,

Is not due to their being released from suffering,

It is because they are truly at peace – a peace which shines through in their
faces,

Although thousands of people die in our homes each year,

I have never yet seen anybody die in distress,

Or in despair,

Or restless...

They simply go home to God.”

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– Mother Teresa

God has given a special kind of suffering to refugees and indigenous
peoples.

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CHAPTER 21A
Day by day, by building big dams, by destroying forests and foliage, by
building big missiles, big bombs - we are breaking ourselves.

In a speech given before the 29th annual meeting of the Central Board of
Irrigation and Power (17th Nov’, 58) Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (Ex. PM,
India) said, “For some time past, however, I have been beginning to think
that we are suffering from what we may call ‘the disease of gigantism’. We
want to show that we can build big dams and do big things. This is a
dangerous outlook developing in India... the idea of big - having big
undertakings and doing big things for the sake of showing that we can do
big things (the country plans a space launch while innocent people are
starving???) - is not a good outlook at all. And ... it is... the small irrigation
projects, the small industries and the small plants for electric power, which
will change the face of the country for more than half a dozen big projects
in half a dozen places.”

Dams provide irrigation and also power for domestic use and
manufacturing industry... and yet.... most of these dams displace people
....and the cost in terms of human lives is enormous....

.... A large number of indigenous groups all over the world are adversely
affected by government projects in the name of development in the form of
‘displacement’ with low rehabilitation... The tribals’ illiteracy, ignorance,
gullibility and lack of knowledge make them prone to suffering ...and
democracy stands defeated.

Already many displaced people are awaiting rehabilitation... Can the
government show how land is available in actual for resettlement of all

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these displaced persons?? ...The tribals are looted to the core and
rehabilitation lies in the lifeless official machinery papers....

Is the government not disturbing habitats and later harassing the tribals
over development and meager rehabilitation measures?

Call it, “pinching the child in the cradle and rocking the cradle when it
cries...???”

People everywhere, often without realization, have been influenced by the
cultures of indigenous peoples through the foods on our tables, the words in
our languages and our daily medicines.

Many of the world’s staple foods, such as potatoes, lentils, peas, sugar
cane, garlic and tomatoes, were first cultivated by indigenous peoples.
Indigenous languages of the Americas are the source of familiar words like
canoe, barbecue, squash and moccasin. Truly, indigenous peoples have
made a long-lasting contribution to modern civilization.

Indigenous peoples are descendants of the original inhabitants of many
lands. They are of a variety of cultures, religions, societies and economic
organization. Some are hunters and gatherers, while others live in cities.
But common to all is a strong sense of their distinct cultures, the most
salient feature being a special relationship to the land.

Millions of the world’s indigenous peoples live across more than 70
countries. Among them are the Indians of the Americas, the Inuit and the
Aleutians of the Poles, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of
Australia and the Maori of New Zealand. There are also large numbers of
indigenous people in Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, China, India and Myanmar
(Burma).

Indigenous peoples are some of the most disadvantaged groups on earth.

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• most of India’s tribal people live below the poverty line;

• the life expectancy of indigenous Northern Russians is much less than
the national average;

• unemployment among Australia’s Aborigines is five times the
national average;

• those indigenous people who are integrated into a national society
have to face discrimination and exploitation in housing, education,
language as well as religion. Those living in their natural (traditional)
territories have to put up with disruption of their cultures and forced
displacement as their lands and natural resources are claimed in the
name of national development. I am not exaggerating when I am
saying that some indigenous peoples actually live under the threat of
extinction.

So, just what is the status of indigenous peoples?

The growing awareness about human rights in the post-war era has not
been matched by parallel progress in enhancing the rights of
indigenous groups.

• in 1979, the Parliament of Denmark granted self-government to
Greenland and jurisdiction over education, health care, social welfare
and economic development;

• Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico have adopted far-reaching
laws on the rights of indigenous people;

• the government of New Zealand and the National Maori Congress
have been engaged in a number of constructive dialogues;

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• in Canada, indigenous groups have enhanced their visibility to create
greater protection of their lands and carve out new social and
economic gains.

Despite their successes, indigenous peoples continue to lose their
lands, resources and identities.

Among the issues that concern indigenous peoples are:

• land and resources;

• human rights;

• internal colonization;

• self-government;

• self-development;

• environment;

• discrimination;

• health;

• education;

• language;

• cultural survival;

• intellectual property rights;

• social and economic conditions.

Indigenous peoples consider control over local economy, social planning,
land use and their natural resources essential to their existence. They are
seeking greater degrees of autonomy and self-rule.

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The lives of the millions of indigenous people who inhabit the world’s
tropical rainforests are threatened by deforestation. It is true that indigenous
people are finding their environments being degraded, but it is also true that
they have a vital role to play in environmental protection. For centuries,
they have engaged in sustainable land management and land use in the
areas in which they live.

Indigenous artwork and cultural artifacts are of high quality, and in great
demand, but very often, they are sold illegally. Thus, indigenous peoples
are looking to secure the right to their cultural property.

They (indigenous peoples) are keen on maintaining their distinct cultures
and transmitting their cultural heritage to subsequent generations.

These peoples have been demanding justice from the international
community for many years. They are now active locally, regionally,
nationally and internationally, seeking respect for their cultures, ways of
life and full participation in decisions affecting them.

The indigenous people everywhere, spread over some 70 countries - have
been suffering inhumanities in the process of industrialization and
colonialism.... But today, they are no longer crying for charities and
sympathy, but are claiming their rights to their own lands and forests, to
conduct their own affairs, form their own councils, to gain full jurisdiction
over such natural resources as minerals and forests, to run their own local
or regional administration, shape their own justice and education systems,
and to administer much of the national funds that would continue to flow to
them.

When, oh! When, would, justice, for so long denied, be restored to them
that they may have the opportunity to shape their own destiny?

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Dams and mines operated in the tribal region contribute to the
establishment of industries in these areas - dams to supply water and
hydroelectricity. As major projects begin and expand, and many subsidiary
industries emerge to support them, the tribals get evacuated away from
industrial areas to abject poverty and gross neglect into the outskirts.

Will those who are evacuated from the project areas receive priority in
employment with the industries established?

Development at whose cost? - the irony of the development process in
India is that the inhabitants of the areas where industries, mines and dams
are undertaken, have never been consulted about them, nor are the benefits
of these projects shared with them.

Private businessmen or entrepreneurs are not really the cause of the misery,
distress, environmental deterioration or uprooting of a people from their
social and moral milieu. More often than not, most planners and engineers,
rooted in urban areas of India, are far removed from realities. Hence the
lack of sensitivity to the distress of the displaced.

The rapid economic and industrial development of the country has made
“internal refugees” of the tribals in their own homeland. The weaker
sections are not only dispossessed of their traditional lands, they are also
almost always deprived of the benefits of the development process-the
irrigated land, electricity and the products and profits of factories. The
development technology that independent India adopted from the West
continues to serve the interests of the rich who want luxury goods, whereas
the poor and their means of sustenance are looked upon only as cheap labor
and raw material for industrial production, for the rich to enjoy all the
benefits. The worst affected are the tribal people of this country.

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What we need today is a people’s solution: it becomes imperative to
incorporate development schemes into the tribal ethos. The traditional
social structures of indigenous society need to be strengthened; traditional
leadership needs to be respected; lands and forests earlier belonging to
tribal communities, should be restored and placed under the management of
tribal communities. And people encouraged to come up with plans for their
own development.

1993 - A landmark for human rights struggle: In 1982, the Human Rights
Commission had constituted a working group on the Universal Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous People, which, in October 1992 had stated:

“Indigenous people have collective and individual right to own, control and
use the lands and the territories they have traditionally occupied or
otherwise used. This includes the right to full recognition of their own laws
and customs, land tenure systems and institutions for the management of
resources, and the right to effective measures by states to prevent any
interference with or encroachment of these rights.”

- quoted from Worldwatch, Dec. 1992, Washington D.C., USA.

A .T. Durning in “Guardians of the Land, Indigenous People and the Health
of the Earth” stated: “it is important to note that virtually all the nuclear
weapon tests ever conducted.... have been on the ancestral lands of the
indigenous people” (Durning 1992). Tribals and tribal cultures have been
disappearing at unprecedented rates in the Twentieth Century. Brazil, for
example, has lost over 85 tribes. One-third of North American and two-
thirds of Australian tribal languages have disappeared. It is estimated that
there are about 6000 cultures in the world and many, many distinct
languages. About 4000 to 5000 are tribal languages. Out of these, 3000 will

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soon disappear because they are not passed on to sufficient number of
children.

Talking about our tribals: even after so many years of independence, they
are “overwhelmingly illiterate, abjectly poor and depressingly
malnourished and unhealthy” (1987, “The Myth of the Healthy Tribal”,
Social Change). “The tribals are, in a way, born in debt, live in debt and
their children are born in debt...”

An average tribal lives in nearly sub-human and unhygienic physical
conditions. He lives in a small mud-house room; alongwith his cattle and
domestic pets, and cooks in the corner of the room which has no
ventilation. He bathes in a dirty pond, and drinks water from a well infested
with shrubs and dirt... he is addicted to drinking “Haria”, a liquor made in
his home from rice. The children are not immunized. Tribals are very low
on the health, nutrition and education indices....

The powerful minority elite is playing the “development game” against the
powerless majority of the poor of which the tribals constitute the largest
ethnic group. Many of our development projects, despite huge investments
and displacement of large numbers of people... have dismally failed to
achieve their targets... The poor tribals have lost their land, and the nation
has gained nothing....

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CHAPTER 21B

WE, THE INDUSTRIAL REFUGEES AND
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

ARE CONSTANTLY SUFFERING
“The tide of human suffering grows even greater especially in the case of
refugees. Theirs is a special kind of suffering. Not only are they forced to
suffer famine, persecution, war and natural disaster, but also the horrific
plight of being forced to keep on the move. They have nowhere which they
can call home and often no one is prepared to listen to their cry for help.”

- Anonymous

“All works of love are works of peace. We do not need bombs and guns to
bring peace, we need love and compassion. But we also need that deep
union with God, prayer.”

- Anonymous

Serious situations of unrest are developing in many of the areas selected for
the location of super-thermal power projects, chemical and industrial
undertakings and large dams. All these projects result in the displacement
or uprooting of thousands of families who live in the forest-areas chosen
for the location of such projects. Thousands who are uprooted not only lose
their ancestral lands, but also their very means of livelihood and the
identity that they had in their traditional geographical locations. Their tribal
culture and personality are virtually extinguished, and they are thrown into
a society with an eco and legal system with which they are unfamiliar.

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They do not receive adequate compensation or secured homestead sites or
employment. The same displaced families face successive waves of
displacement when land is allotted for new ventures in the same region.
They are thus turned into permanent refugees in the name of development.

Financial compensation should be backed with the provision of skills and
resources so that the compensation can be converted into a base for the
acquisition of a new means of livelihood. Every scheme that involves
displacement of large numbers of people must provide full and effective
financial and supportive compensation through the allotment of land,
homestead sites, programs of training in new skills, and employment in the
new industries with full access to the legal rights of permanent employees,
and opportunities for mobility to ancillaries that can develop around them.

Ethnic conflict and indigenous peoples: there has been a rise in the number
of ethnic conflicts. The situation of indigenous peoples all over the world is
precarious, especially in circumstances where their habitat is threatened by
regional economic development programs. Many NGOs are working for
the protection of the rights of indigenous people. “Survival International”
(note the name of the organization) is an example of such a group.

The rights of indigenous peoples: what is the plight of the indigenous tribal
people in the forests and hills? Their rights and livelihood in the face of
seriously encroaching large development projects? The issue is one, which
has come to the fore of international attention on the part of aid agencies
and environmentally sensitive NGOs. Most issues involve conflicting
interests between tribal people and broader national development
objectives, including those of special commercial interests. Too often, the
rights of local people have been ignored. They need to be part of the
decision for programs affecting them. And their right to sustained

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livelihood should be protected. At the same time, there are often broader
interests in development and environment protection, which also must be
considered. It is a question of appropriate due process and balance.

“The forest is our home, our laboratory, our hospital, our university. It is
the source of the knowledge we need to survive.”

Jose Gonzalvez, Coordinator, Federation of Indigenous People of the State
of Bolivar, Venezuela.

Much of South American country is swathed in tropical rainforests e.g. the
Amazon rainforests. The Imataca forest reserve of Venezuela is home to
five Indian tribes and a huge variety of wildlife. For over 30 years, in
recognition of its fragility and environmental importance, Imataca has been
a protected reserve.

But once upon a time, Imataca was under threat (including the indigenous
people who live there) from the very government that had been charged
with protecting it for future generations.

The forest, and all the life that depended upon it, was about to be sacrificed
for the potential wealth that lay below the ground-enormous reserves of
gold and diamonds.

That is when Earth Action, a global network for the environment, peace
and social justice intervened to create a vast global action on Imataca. I do
not know the results of such intervention, yet we can safely assert that
global action is very often futile, when natural factors intervene.

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CHAPTER 22A
Let us gift mattresses and blankets, for orphans in Bangladesh (following
“natural” emergencies), provide eye care for kids in India, especially
during emergencies (e.g. floods, cyclones, earthquakes etc).

P. Sainath in “Everybody Loves a Good Drought”, showed how droughts
serve vested interests. The floods in Malda and Midnapore districts of West
Bengal, India, take a heavy toll every year, and yet, a callous
administration chooses to look the other way. Scores are now refugees in
their own land.

Districts remain inundated for months, communication gets totally cut off
as roads and highways get submerged. Corpses have to be cleared away.
Towns go without electricity, clean drinking water and cooking gas.
Thousands of people are affected and many perish due to enteric diseases
caused by stagnant water....

The loss in terms of agriculture is great.... Normal medical services at
government hospitals collapse and doctors and health officials remain
scarce. Hospitals become trash dumps, and quacks fleece the vulnerable
poor population....

Proper preventive measures should be taken. Breaches in river
embankments could weaken by mud from their walls; therefore, upkeep of
embankments is necessary. Spurs should be erected and dredging or river
reclamation carried out. Flood management becomes essential. Solid and
permanent work should be done on various sections of the river bank.
Relief work is very important.

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At the release of the “Human Development Report 2000” by the UNDP,
Dr. Brenda Gael Mc Sweeney, UNDP’s Resident Representative in India
(during the Social Summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry, CII,
Jamshedpur, India, Dec 2000, I had the opportunity to speak to her
informally) had said that a decent standard of living, adequate nutrition,
health care, education, proper work and protection against calamities were
not just development goals, they were human rights as well....

High time we all listened to her.

‘.... Recounting the horrors, day by day.... of the Gujarat (India) quake.....
and after....’ (Source: “The Telegraph”, Jan/Feb 2001)

26 Jan. 2001: the quake first strikes....

28 Jan : “the death toll in what is seen as the worst-ever quake to hit the
country since independence has been put at ‘around 10,000’.... the number
of seriously injured persons has been placed at 15,380.... Officials said that
the devastation, which was centered near Bhuj, could be much more than
the current estimates as thousands of bodies were still buried under the
debris.... especially in the Kutch region which has borne the brunt of the
catastrophe....”

29 Jan.: ‘.... the toll could be 20,000. but the task of estimating the number
of dead paled into insignificance as strong after-shocks sent fresh waves of
panic crashing into tens of thousands of hungry and thirsty people....
Villagers injured in the quake were trekking or piling on to whatever
vehicles they could find to get to cities in search of medical help. Some
died on the way.... hospitals were overflowing with the dead and the barely
living....’

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30 Jan.: ‘.... Mother Nature has played a cruel joke on us but we have
people from our region looting us in an inhuman way.’

31 Jan.: ‘.... that three-hour-long journey will haunt me forever... Anjar
seemed to have been wiped out, flattened by a demonic blow: we made our
way through the devastation, with the air filled with screams of despair....
At night, we reached Gandhidham.... We spent the night on the streets,
wounded and weary, without food or warm clothes. But we were all alive,
and that’s all that mattered....’

2 Feb.: Urban Development Minister Jagmohan is trying to bring in a law
making it mandatory for all urban constructions to be planned and certified
by structural engineers. The engineers would have to ensure that houses
have been built according to earthquake safety norms.

3 Feb.: out of work and hungry, but not eligible for aid: the forgotten
victims: ‘but they don’t give up hope, this band of urban poor, digging
deeper into the debris, often fighting with each other over the ownership of
even the humblest of the catch.... These are the earthquake’s unofficial
victims, those whose houses have been spared, but not their source of
livelihood.... Unlike the upscale multistorey apartments that came crashing
down, the earthquake did not raze any shanty. With construction work
grinding to a halt in the past one week, most of Ahmedabad’s slum-
dwellers and migrant labourers are finding it hard to eke out even a measly
daily existence. Kishore Walji cannot sleep these days, because of hunger.
He is too old to fight for the ‘treasure’ worth Rs. 3 per kg at the scrap
dealer’s a few hundred yards away....’

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4 Feb.: The Centre decides to set up a permanent national disaster
management committee comprising experts to manage natural calamities as
well as a national committee of political parties....

5 Feb.: ‘amidst decomposed bodies, rubbles and overpowering stench of
rotting flesh, politicking and bureaucratic wrangles throw relief operations
(even in Bhuj and fringe areas) out of fear.... post-quake fear psychosis
grips Ahmedabad with several people developing tremor phobia. They fear
that the Earth will split wide open any moment and the killer quake will
strike them once again.... Many have witnessed the deaths of their parents,
sibling, relatives, friends and neighbours....

This is a moment of grief and mourning for the whole nation. This
devastating quake has left behind a trail of death and destruction. The worst
sufferers are children, seriously injured, lost and even perhaps orphaned.
These are our children and they need help....’

Halt for a moment!

It came out recently in the newspapers that somewhere in India, children at
an orphanage were being exploited. Shocking! How can the world progress
if children continue to be exploited?

– Drought in Orissa (news item dated 6 Feb 2001): ‘more than 3,200
villages in the three districts of Bolangir, Bargarh and Nuapara (Orissa)
have been declared drought - hit by the government last month. While
Bolangir has 1,772 villages affected by drought, Bargarh has 1,052
drought - hit villages. The spectre of a famine also looms large there
owing to crop failure.... The villagers in Bargarh have demanded more
tubewells to meet the drinking water crisis....’

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– Scientists say the rising number of deaths from earthquakes around the
world in recent years is the direct consequence of the “population
explosion”. More and more people are moving into quake zones that
are often near coasts. The next 25 years might see a few “megacities”
hit hard, with 3 million lives lost, they warn. Experts say that as more
people inhabit cities near coasts and quake belts, they become
increasingly vulnerable to both earthquakes and hurricanes.

- Courtesy: The Telegraph, The Times of India.

– Quake in El Salvador: 15, 16 and 17 Jan., 2001: 15 Jan. - more than
234 people were confirmed dead and hundreds were missing in El
Salvador and Guatemala on the 14 Jan., 2001, the day after an
earthquake rocked Central America and Southern Mexico. The Red
Cross said that 200 people were injured and 1,200 were missing in El
Salvador alone. There were other scattered deaths throughout the
country. A bus was buried in a landslide and about a dozen (passengers)
was killed.... The US Geological Survey said that the quake’s epicenter
was about 105 km southeast of San Salvador, off the Pacific Coast. The
quake occurred on the 13 Jan. 2001, and was felt across El Salvador,
Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras and as far as Mexico City. A
national emergency was declared. Just days before, Candido Antonio
Salinas (60), and his neighbors had lost a lawsuit to halt deforestation
caused by construction activity on the hill above the quake area. Look
at the consequences.... (Source: “The Telegraph”, early 2001)

The rising tide of disasters

According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, the main causes of deaths from natural disasters during 1967-91

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were droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and floods. A “disaster” may be
defined as an event that has killed at least 10 people, or affected at least
100.

Population growth is forcing people to live in more marginal and dangerous
places-like low-lying flood-prone land or regions within close proximity of
active volcanoes, or quake-prone regions. Population growth, deforestation
and over-grazing have increased the number of droughts and floods.

It is the poor who finally suffer. It is they who occupy steep hillsides,
fragile delta islands and poorly-built slum buildings.

There are many variations internationally. Droughts or floods in Africa do
much more damage than those in North America do. The obvious reason is
that poor nations are less equipped to cope with natural emergencies.

The figures for economic damage have been rising. Although most
developing countries have plans of coping with natural disasters (for
instance, Bangladesh has an elaborate warning system for cyclones arriving
in the Bay of Bengal), responses are slow and inadequate, and those
particularly vulnerable die before any help can arrive.

We must realize that disasters are often a combination of nature and man-
made factors. Look at what happened in El Salvador in Jan. 2001. Some
say it was caused by deforestation in turn caused by construction activity,
which led to a serious quake killing over 600 people and injuring many
others.

Disasters in developing countries are an integral part of their poverty cycle.
Poverty causes disasters. And disasters exacerbate poverty. Only
“sustainable human development”- which increases the security of human

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beings and of the planet we inhabit - can reduce the frequency and impact
of natural disasters.

- [Source: Human Development Report, 1994, UNDP].

Nothing in nature should be left to chance. From the frightening sight of an
erupting volcano... to the giant Tsunami, nature’s erratic behavior startle us
all…

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CHAPTER 22B

WHEN NATURE HAS THE LAST SAY
“Man cannot defeat nature,

The Earth sometimes betrays our trust,

No matter what we do,

Nature has the last say.”

1) It has been reported that due to global warming, Himalayan glaciers
have melted into natural lakes, threatening the habitat of indigenous
peoples.

Entire communities are at risk from natural forces. We shall mention a
few. Relief work becomes difficult under the circumstances.

2) On one fateful morning in 1997, the slope of the French Alps
collapsed. One member in a team of five expeditioners was killed.

3) In Switzerland and Austria, houses and villages in the heart of the
mountains fall victim to snowslides and avalanches. House after house
gets buried, homes destroyed and loved ones gone. To scientifically
combat avalanches, the Swiss have designed defenses. I understand
that there is an institute for such research.

4) In 1999, the state of Orissa in India was hit by a devastating cyclone.
Thousands of poor families (who would ordinarily have survived if at
all in deprivation and degradation) were killed!

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5) A landslide can be terrifying. They strike when soil is loosened by
rain, often in rock form. In California, there are hundreds of them
every year. Coastal highways are particularly vulnerable. In
November 1997, there was a big landslide in which hundreds of
people were killed.

6) Torrential rainfall creates mudslides. In one particular year, in
California, people were rendered homeless and 120 died.

7) In July 1997, in Australia, hills were eroded by ground water.

8) In Latur in the state of Maharashtra in India, there was a massive
earthquake in one particular year. And if I remember correct, it was
1993.

9) In another year, an earthquake ravaged the state of Himachal Pradesh
in India.

10) Earthquakes constantly ravage Japan.

11) Bangladesh is constantly ravaged by floods.

There is a lot of unrest in the earth’s crust.

Similarly, there is a lot of unrest in man’s mind. Terrorism, espionage,
sabotages (including hijackings) and youth unrest exemplifies this.

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CHAPTER 23A

We have lost our ability to think for ourselves - there cannot be a greater
disaster.

Teach the young people

how to think,

not what to think.

- Sidney Sugarman

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CHAPTER 23B

A LOT OF UNREST IN MAN’S MIND
“When you want peace to pervade your life,

Say, God is here.

Castes and creeds mean nothing,

It does not matter that they are not of my faith.”

- Anonymous

“We do not need guns and bombs to bring peace, we need love and
compassion. Let us radiate the peace of God and so light his light and
extinguish all hatred and love of power in the world and in the hearts of all
men.”

- Anonymous

With regard to the recent attack on America (on the World Trade Center,
the Pentagon and others, 11 September 2001) my deepest condolences are
with the American people. Let us pray for the attacks’ victims. Om shanti!
Peace, peace and only peace! But is warring the answer?

Youth unrest and agitations:

The stereotyped image of the youth is that they are militant, rebellious,
revolutionary, irrational and immature. True, the youth tend to become
angry when they notice the widening chasm between what the leaders
preach and what they practice. Disappointed and disillusioned by this, the
frustrated youth start some agitation to lodge a social protest. Some

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politicians start taking an interest in these agitations, and in some cases,
they use the help of anti-social elements to keep these agitations alive.
When these anti-social elements indulge in loot and arson, it is the youth
that come to be blamed for these destructive activities. The frustrated
youth, thus, become more frustrated and the unrest among them further
increases.

Agitations are to bring grievance and injustice to the notice of people in
power. It is to shake up, to move, to stir-up, to cause anxiety and to disturb
the power-holders. The various forms of youth agitation are
demonstrations, slogan shouting, strikes, hunger strikes, roadblocks and
boycott of examinations.

The militants’ agitation for an independent Kashmir in Jammu and
Kashmir state of India and the tribals’ demand for a Jharkhand state in
Bihar in India have also to be explained in terms of the frustration of the
youth in the concerned states. The Jharkhand party has just come to power
(Nov 2000), and a separate Jharkhand state has been formed in India.

Terrorism:

Terrorism, which is an organized system of intimidation, is more serious
and more intense. Today, terrorism is perceived as a problem capable of
destabilizing not only national but also international politics. Terrorism in
recent times has affected both the developed and the developing countries.
What has made terrorism a significant instrument for achieving desired
goals and ends are factors like conviction in the purity of the “cause “,
fanatical loyalty, desire for self-sacrifice, a sense of absolutism and
financial and material support from abroad.

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The terms terrorism, insurgency, civil war, revolution, guerrilla war,
intimidation and extremism are most often interchanged and used very
loosely. What is common to all is “violence”…

Terrorism appears in many forms: from planting a crude, home-made
bomb, hand grenade or other explosive in a shopping center, a railway
station, a bus-stand and a bus, to kidnapping and hijacking of planes, to
assassination of important personalities. The main aim of terrorists is to
wreak vengeance on those individuals or on those systems that they regard
as obstacles or enemies or oppressors to their “fanatical” viewpoints.

The goals of terrorists may vary from movement to movement but the main
objectives are the same in all such movements. The overall objectives of
terrorism are

1) to gain popular support (usually, from some strata of the society).
Now, this is important in combating terrorism. The best thing to do is
to hold talks with the terrorists, counsel them because they crave for
attention. Most of them come from deprived backgrounds. There are
exceptions though. Talk to them, discover their weaknesses. Because
the terrorists will always have a faith (a firm conviction). We must try
to balance their demands with the general interests. this method may
work,

2) to disrupt and destroy the military and psychological strength of the
regime, and

3) to break internal stability.

The main reasons for terrorism lie in the very nature of modern civilization
itself and are inherent in the modern industrial system.

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Support base:

The success of terrorism depends to a large extent upon its support base,
which includes not only the political and social support but also support by
money, weapons and training. Terrorists obtain money from different
sources like “donations and taxes” from people, through bank robberies, by
smuggling and selling drugs and collecting ransom for hostages and
hijacked planes. Weapons are often looted from people or snatched from
police stations or purchased from abroad.

International terrorism:

Terrorist activities have been found in different parts of the world. For
example, terroristic activities of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) sought
termination of English control in Ireland and establishment of Ireland’s
unification and peoples’ right to national self- determination (In 1994, the
governments of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England
began negotiations to resolve the conflict). Similarly, we have found
terrorism in Sri Lanka, Israel, Spain, Germany, Japan, the Philippines,
Canada, Argentina, France, Italy, Portugal and Latin America. Some of the
important terrorist groups are the LTTE in Sri Lanka, the Red Army in
Japan, Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda, the Baque in Spain, the Red Bridge
in Italy, the Kurds in Iraq, the Black Septemberists in Jordan, the Moros in
the Philippines, the Baadermeinhof in Germany, the Quebecois in Canada.

Of late, international terrorism has gained currency. The support to
terrorists of one country can come from individuals and groups sympathetic
to their cause, or it can come from other state governments.

Combating terrorism:

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Terrorism is too serious a problem to be left to politicians alone. General
awareness among the masses and pressures on people are the only way out.
The one thing we have to understand is that terrorism is like a common
cold. It runs its own course and there is need for patience. As I have already
said, holding face-to-face talks with them may result in their moral
improvement.

Their bases may be eliminated. The U.S. has global economic interests and
is vulnerable to terrorism. The most potent weapon of America to fight
terrorism has been its economic clout like cutting off trade and technology
export. This method was adopted for Cuba in 1962 and for Libya in 1986,
when its leader Col. Gaddafi supported terrorist movements like those of
the IRA of Northern Ireland, or the terrorist gangs in Latin America.
America adopted the same method when it invaded Cambodia for giving
shelter to Vietnam during the Vietnam War…

Very often, the terrorist menace cannot be eliminated either through
elimination of bases or invasion. Besides the police and the military
measures, the socio-political issues have to be tackled. Also, cutting off
financing to terrorists may help.

Nevertheless, mechanisms have to be created to prevent acts of terror.
Terrorism and political violence have become the bane of modern society
today. It is time that the prevalent frustration and a sense of deprivation
amongst the people, particularly the youth, be checked. On the one hand,
the government has to deal with terrorists with a very firm hand and on the
other, the minorities have to be protected and the right atmosphere created
for the functioning of a genuine democracy.

(Source: a book on social problems by an Indian author)

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Another related aspect we need to throw light on is crime. Let us examine
crime as a separate issue.

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CHAPTER 24A
Jails and prisons

Are the complement of schools;

So many less as you

Have of the latter,

So many more you

Must have of the former.

-Horace Mann

All the men and women I have faced at that final moment convince me that
in what I have done I have not prevented a single murder.

- executioner Albert Pierrepoint, criticizing capital crime

The gallows is not only a machine of death but a symbol.... of terror,
cruelty.... the common denominator of primitive savagery...

- Arthur koestler, Hungarian-born author

All forms of crime, ordinary violence and brutality against women are
encouraged on screen and replicated in real life. India is perhaps the only
country where life imitates debased art. (“The Degeneration of India”)

- Mr. T.N. Seshan, former Chief Election-Commissioner of India

Conditions were often harsh for Mandela and the hundreds of other
political prisoners locked up on the island of Robben (which can be seen

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from the table mountain in Cape Town, South Africa)... At the end of the
working day, he (Mandela) had to undergo searching of the body (I am not
sure as to what extent this is correct)... They were made to.... sit on the
ground and repair old canvas mailbags.

- from Nelson Mandela by Benjamin Pogrund

Let us perform health check-ups for prison inmates (for cancer, HIV,
leprosy etc.), counsel convicts, take vocational training classes.... and
more.... This should be an alternative to a prison....

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CHAPTER 24B

FORGIVE US OUR SIN
“Do not talk of the wickedness of the world and all its sins. Weep that you
are bound to see wickedness yet. Weep that you are bound to see sin
everywhere; and if you are bound to help the world, do not condemn it. Do
not weaken it more. For what is sin, and what is misery, and what are all
these but the results of weakness? The world is made weaker and weaker
every day by such teachings.”

-Swami Vivekananda

“Ye are the children of god, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect
beings. Ye divinities on Earth-sinners? It is a sin to call a man so., it is a
standing libel on human nature.”

-Swami Vivekananda

I remember having watched a film “The Accused” in which the leading
actress played by Jodie Foster was sexually assaulted in a bar while
bystanders cheered. Similarly, there was quite some amount of sexual
violence in the film “Bandit queen”. Was there a need to show sexual
violence against women? Why does cinema show violence, smuggling,
drugs, extortion or sexual violence? Cinema is entertainment. How can
sexual violation (rape) or drugs be entertainment? Granted, no animal is
harmed or no tree is felled in the making of a film. But the effect is
important. They do show animals being harmed and trees being felled.
What I am trying to say is that watching crime encourages crime. And that
the effect of one’s environment on crime is very important because if

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cinema can encourage crime, so can one’s environment. Glorification of
violence and crimes in films and TV definitely accounts for our high crime
rate and lawlessness.

In India, in one hour about 175 cognizable crimes under the IPC (Indian
Penal Code) and 435 crimes under local and special laws are committed.
The rising waves of crime might cause alarm among the public but our
police and politicians remain unruffled about the deteriorating law and
order situation.

Sociologists and criminologists have been broadly concerned with locating
the causes of crime and analyzing the effectiveness of the criminal justice
system.

It is maintained that a balanced policy of liberalization and strictness
regarding the inmates in prisons should be adopted for punishing / treating
the offenders through imprisonment. Knowing that there is no connection
between the severity of prison conditions and incidence of crime, to
prevent future crime, why should we not try to devise programs, which
may induce prisoners to turn over a new leaf? Let us pursue more humane
treatment of prisoners, what we need today is an alternative to a prison.
Teaching yoga and meditation to the prisoners would be helpful.

Why does man commit crime? The desire to commit crime may be an
inherited trait. Man may commit crime for pleasure. He may commit crime
when he faces stigma in society. Man may commit crime when he feels
biologically inferior. A defective personality may commit crime.
Associations with and social influences of criminalistic norms may result in
crime. Economic conditions like poverty and richness are important factors.
Crime may be the consequence of application by others of rules and

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sanctions to an “offender”. Geographical factors like climate, temperature,
and humidity etc influence the crime rate. A very important factor is
rejection of dominant values and development of delinquent values. A
criminal may also develop out of a man who has an unfavorable self-
concept.

The idea is to point out the weakening of motives for conformity to social
norms and the disruption of social relationships and social bonds. The
unrest is increasing almost in all sections of every society. This unrest
increases frustrations and strains, which lead to the violation of legal and
social norms. It is, thus, the organization and the functioning of the existing
sub-systems and structures in our society that are more responsible for the
increase in crime. (Source: a book on social problems by an Indian author)

It is conceivable that with adequate and valid methods, much of the crime
rate may change. Change can lead to human happiness. A policy of charity
in every aspect of our lives can bring about some change. Let us take a
fresh look.

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CHAPTER 25A
Get all you can,

without hurting your soul,

your body, or your neighbor.

Save all you can,

cutting off every needless expense.

Give all you can.

- John Wesley

Let us learn from the group “Doctors without Borders” (under Morten
Rostrup) who provided free medical care to war survivors in Bosnia and
Kosovo... Their humanitarian work brought them the Nobel Prize.

Some novel ideas in fundraising - projects on St. Valentine’s day raising
funds for community children, hot-air balloon festivals for community
charities, donating a cricket bat signed by celebrity cricketers, the bat gets
auctioned and proceeds go to victims of war or disease, auction of works of
art, increasing awareness of local hunger, holding meals (e.g. luncheons,
dinners) for community people - proceeds going to charity, airline
sponsorship.

- Courtesy “The Rotarian”, Dec.,’99.

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CHAPTER 25B

LET US GO FUND-RAISING FOR A BETTER
WORLD
“We are here today because in the possibility of realizing... a better world,
we are returning to the basic building blocks of our society – the energy
which wells up from the grass roots. We are realizing that in civil society –
people and their deep capacity to associate and work together for the
betterment of themselves, their families and their communities – that will
be the engine to propel us into the future.”

– Anonymous

Let us hold innovative fund-raising events, which will offer local bands,
games and rides…and more…

Fundraisers should be an adventure, not a chore. Some of the most popular
fund-raisers include auctions, festivals, sporting events, gala dinners,
benefit concerts, lotteries and sale of various items (e.g. Art work).

The UK – based “International Fundraising Group (IFRG)” was founded in
1981 to establish a forum for fundraisers to meet together, exchange ideas
and learn from each other. The result was the first ever international
fundraising workshop held in the Netherlands in October 1981.

TAP, a program of the Carter Center, was created by former President of
the U.S. Jimmy Carter in October 1991 to help Atlanta’s communities gain
access to the resources they need to solve the problems that are tearing
apart families, teenage pregnancy, kid dropouts (school), juvenile

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delinquency, crime and violence, homelessness, drug abuse and
unemployment.

The “Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum (PWBLF)” is a business-
funded educational charity registered in the UK and founded in 1990. The
forum’s mission is to promote good corporate citizenship and sustainable
development internationally, as a natural part of its general business
practice specifically on the emerging economies of Eastern and Central
Europe, Asia-Pacific, India, Southern Africa and Latin America.

“Community Links” is an East London charity founded by local volunteers
in 1977, and now, running a range of local and national projects with
children, teenagers, parents, pensioners and disabled and elderly people.
More than 320 volunteers currently work on projects in more than 40
locations to tackle the problems of inner cities in the UK. It works with
adults, young people, with the nation.

SAGA – Southern African Grant –Makers’ Association, is an association of
organizations, a charity involved in funding development. It is independent
and aims primarily, though not necessarily, to serve grant-makers in
Southern Africa.

Let us learn from charity – raising and promote charity music, charity
fashion, charity auctions etc. indigenous (largely, tribal) talent in music and
dance coupled with modern technology can raise funds.

Let us take charity – fashion for e.g. Take for instance, a small tribal village
in India. If a group of Dutch visitors to that village promoted a fashion
show or a dance in Holland (or in India) of the tribals in tribal costume, and

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the funds generated were poured into development of the tribal community,
then the tribals would benefit.

Let the leading musicians of the world come together, or the leading
singers of the world come together and promote charity music.

Let schools and colleges practice charity. By raising funds from themselves
and from local citizens, they can fulfil their objectives…

Let charity auctions of celebrity clothing, celebrity gears or otherwise be
carried out.

Let us practice charity in every aspect of our lives. Charity will bring us
closer to those in need.

It is time we examined in brief the major problems the world is facing. We
are again beginning with the year 2000. Time to take a fresh look at our
goals.

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CHAPTER 26A

Let us lead the battle, against hunger and malnutrition, for literacy, for the
promotion of science and technology in backward nations. Let us deploy
energy practically and reap the advantages of the information age for
“those in need”.

1. In our country, more than half the population lives below the poverty
line and there is so much social and economic backwardness, the poor
are starving and innocent children are being abused, and yet, the
country is spending so much on space research, and there is so much
(unnecessary) expenditure on cricket, entertainment (particularly,
cinema) and beauty pageants?

2. I think that while talking of a country’s economy the word “social” is
very important. Because all decisions have to be taken in the context
of a particular society. People are important and every economic
decision has to take into account the welfare of society and its people,
particularly the marginalized.

3. From guidelines to goals for India: In the growth of any country, there
is a need for introspection as to whether all segments of society are
gaining... in an effort to achieve a better quality of life....

Now, this is a very special moment for India, a new government is
now in place, and all eyes are on the Indian economic and social
environment.... The corporate sector seems optimistic.... Industrial
output has increased... However, we are painting too “rosy” a picture,
... Orissa has experienced a cyclone.... And we find a bleak picture of
agriculture.... There is a need to increase foreign direct investment and

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infuse foreign technology into agriculture.... Rising “debt” and an
unsustainable scenario.... Pressing social needs have to be met; about
350 million people are under the poverty line.... We need a full-blown
education effort especially primary education, basic literacy skills, and
public health and sanitation efforts.... A “burgeoning” population, all
this and more - challenges, difficulties, uncertainties and obstacles lie
ahead....

4. From “Hunger in a World of Plenty”, The Telegraph, India, 30 Nov.
2000: making education about poverty part of the school curriculum:
World Food Day is celebrated every year on Oct. 16. It aims to
heighten public awareness of the plight of the world’s hungry and
malnourished and to encourage people to take action against hunger...
The curriculum includes lessons for three levels: elementary, middle
and high school. In the future, lessons will be translated into atleast
four languages and taught to students around the globe. Topics
covered would be: What is hunger and malnutrition and who are the
hungry? Why are people hungry and malnourished? What can we do
to help end hunger?

As the World Development Report 2000 / 2001 has pointed out, the
world has deep poverty amidst plenty... Of the world’s 6 billion
people, 2.8 billion, almost half, live on less than two dollars a day, and
1.2 billion - a fifth, live on less than one dollar a day, with 44 percent
living in South Asia....

In rich countries, fewer than one child in 100 does not reach its fifth
birthday, while in the poorest countries, as many as a fifth of children
do not. And while in rich countries, fewer than 5 percent of all

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children under five are malnourished, in poor countries, as many as 50
percent are. There is obviously a need for tackling the problem on a
war footing....

It is the responsibility of civilization to feed hungry mouths and to
pull out malnourished people from a subhuman existence. As Klaus
Von Grebmer pointed out “The world is a global village. If some
houses in that village are hungry, it is a problem for the village as a
whole.” and that is why the children of today should imbibe this idea
that fighting against poverty is not charity but a solemn
responsibility....

The global market (except the segment dealing with arms) cannot
grow to its fullest potential and capacity unless hunger and absolute
deprivation are wiped out.... these factors have the potential to foment
unrest everywhere.

.... Destitution persists even though human conditions have improved
more in the past century than in the rest of history - global wealth,
global connections and technological capabilities have never been
greater. But the distribution of these global gains is extra-ordinarily
unequal....

Inequality in income distribution, infant mortality and life expectancy
are all indicators closely related to hunger and malnutrition....

In Latin America, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, the numbers
of poor people have been rising. In the countries of Europe and
Central Asia in transition to market economies, the number of people
living on less than one dollar a day rose more than twentyfold.

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There are success stories as well. In the most advanced state of India,
Kerala, life expectancy is greater than in other places with many times
the level of income. Yet in countries at the center of the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, in Africa, such as Botswana and Zimbabwe, one in four
adults is infected. AIDS orphans will soon wipe out all the gains in
life expectancy since the middle of the 20th Century... Infant mortality
rates across the world vary-Sub-Saharan Africa’s is fifteen times that
of high income countries.

Experiences are also vastly different for ethnic minorities and women.
Different regions in countries benefit to very differing extents from
growth.... Women continue to be more disadvantaged than men are. In
South Asia, women have only about half, as many years of education
as men, and female enrolment rates at the secondary level are only
2/3rds the male rates.

“The children sitting in schools around the world today are the future
Presidents and PM’s of the world’s tomorrow. Today there is more
than enough food to feed everyone, the cost of food is at its lowest
price for years, and yet millions of people go hungry. So, it is a
question of global leadership. By teaching today’s children about
hunger we hope to build a generation of future world leaders
committed to ensuring that no one goes hungry in their world.” So
said Lynn Brown, rural technical specialist at the World Bank. One
inevitable conclusion is that the distribution of food or income with
which one is to buy food is seriously flawed....

The problem can be solved. “Feeding minds, fighting hunger” will
sensitize children to the problems of poverty, hunger and

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malnourishment, and motivate them to get involved... Food for
thought, ah!

5. A report from the People’s Health Assembly: ‘The Telegraph’, 27
Dec. 2000: The money spent by African countries on servicing debt is
now four times the amount they spend on health and education.

H. Mahler, former Director of WHO, a major architect of the ‘Alma
Ata Declaration’ (1978) suggests that strong community participation
in healthcare instead of over- dependence on costly specialists and
technologized medical care to save children and mothers, should be
the strategy, health systems should be kept away from the vagaries of
markets....

The UN Human Development Report of 1999 stated that the size of
the income accruing to the top 20% of the world’s population living in
the rich countries and that of the bottom 20% living in the Third
World had widened from a ratio of 30 in 1960 to 60 in 1990 and
further to 74 in 1997.

That is why despite the unprecedented advances in medical
technology and wealth, more than 800 million people in the world
lack access to any form of basic healthcare...

“It is obscene that better-off children in some countries are 10 times
more likely to be immunized than poor children in that same country.
Poor women die of childbirth at rates more than 100 times that of
better-off women. In the golden land of America 43 million
Americans have no access to health insurance. What else is
obscenity?” said James Obrinski of ‘Medecins sans Frontieres’
fame....

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Much of the borrowed money in most developing countries goes
towards buying arms or is siphoned off to overseas bank accounts.

There are resources, but not for development. Merely an outlay of one
percent of the GNP will be adequate to send all children to school in
South Asia. This is less than what is spent on cosmetics in the U.S. or
on ice cream in Europe annually. The problem, says Obrinski, is that
we have been too passive for too long. We have to actively demand
health as our birth-right...

6. From “Facts for Life”, UNICEF, WHO and UNESCO (Jan 1990):
Every week, a quarter of a million children die in the developing
world. Many millions more live on with ill-health and poor growth. A
major cause is poverty. Another major cause is that today’s
information about protecting the health and growth of children has not
yet been put at the majority’s disposal. If all families were informed,
the health of children in the developing world could dramatically
improve....

- Timing births: the health of both women and children can be
significantly improved by spacing births at least two years apart,
by avoiding pregnancies before the age of 18, and by limiting the
total number of pregnancies to three or less. “Family Planning”
helps couples plan the number of children and give them the care
they need. Safe motherhood: all pregnant women
should go to a health worker for pre-natal care and a trained person
should assist at every birth. Women and girls should be well-fed
and taken good care of.

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- Breast feeding: for the first few months of a baby’s life, breastmilk
alone is the best possible food and drink. Breastfeeding reduces the
chances of illness and malnutrition.

7. Malnutrition and infection hold back the physical and mental
development of millions of children.... Hunger may result from
drought, famine, war or poverty. Land reform and investments in food
production by and for the poor can solve this problem.

Child growth: children under 3 need to eat five or six times a day and
mashed vegetables and small amounts of fats or oils should be added
to their diets. All children need foods rich in Vitamin A. After an
illness, a child needs extra meals. Children from birth to 3 years
should be weighed regularly, and any lack of gain in weight reported.
Talking, playing and showing love are essential for a child’s physical,
mental and emotional growth.

Immunization: protects against several diseases like TB, diphtheria,
whooping cough, tetanus, measles, and polio. Children should be
vaccinated. But even when the service is available, many infants are
not fully vaccinated due to lack of knowledge. All immunizations
should be completed in the first year of life and a booster given at one
and a half years. Every woman between 15 and 44 should be
immunized against tetanus.

Diarrhoea: causes dehydration, which kills approximately 1 million
(10 lakh) children every year in India. It is also a major cause of child
malnutrition. The main causes of diarrhoea are poor hygiene and lack
of clean drinking water. It is essential to give a dehydrated child
plenty of liquids to drink e.g. breastmilk, buttermilk, lemon strong,
rice water, coconut water, weak tea, etc. or a special drink called “oral

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rehydration salts (ORS)”. Diarrhoea can be prevented by
breastfeeding, by immunizing all children against measles, by using
latrines, by keeping food and water clean, by washing hands before
touching food, and by pest-control.

Egypt’s example: as of mid-1985, over 4,000 clinics throughout Egypt
had started ort centers to teach mothers how to use the new therapy. In
Jan. 1983, the Egyptian government became one of the firsts in the
world to pick up the ORT weapon on a national scale. With a grant of
$ 26 m from USAID, the health ministry launched a program worth $
50 m. ORT courses have now been introduced in medical schools and
hospitals. In the Alexandria trials, TV commercials for ORT had been
broadcast every night for a month at peak viewing times. What a
beautiful experience!

Coughs and colds: can become pneumonia (can be prevented by low
cost drugs), which kills approximately 600,000 children each year in
India. A child with a cough or cold should be kept warm –

Hygiene: many illnesses can be caused by the entry of germs into the
mouth. The community should be encouraged to use latrines, and to
wash hands with soap and water. Thereafter, to keep food and water
clean, to boil drinking water which is not from a safe piped supply.
And to burn or bury household refuse.

Malaria: there are about 10 million cases each year in India, most of
which can be prevented by community action and government
support. Young children should be protected from mosquito bites,
especially at night.

Communities should destroy mosquito larvae and prevent mosquitoes
from breeding.

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AIDS: “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”, is a new global
problem. It kills by damaging the body’s defenses against other
diseases. Increasing numbers of babies are being born with the virus
and many millions of children have been orphaned by it. The most
effective weapon against its spread is public education. AIDS can be
passed on by sexual intercourse, by infected blood, and by infected
mothers to their unborn and newborn children. Couples should use a
condom. Any injection with an unsterilized needle or syringe is
dangerous. By telling our children, we can stop the AIDS virus from
spreading to the new generation.

Tuberculosis: the cause of TB is a germ which can spread through the
air when patients cough, spit or breathe close to other people. BCG
immunization protects against it. Serious manifestations of TB in
children include TB of the brain (meningitis), which may lead to
death, or mental handicap if the child survives, and TB of the lungs,
bones and glands. TB can be cured.

Leprosy: is more common in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and
West Bengal states in India. Leprosy is curable and the disabled
should be given vocational training. Patients must not be kept in
isolation but supported by their families and communities.

Immunization, breast-feeding, oral rehydration and simple measures
can prevent a bulk of child disabilities, communicable and non-
communicable diseases and deaths.

India’s goal for the year 2000 A.D., included

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a) halving infant deaths

b) an average of two children per family

c) halving the number of women who die in childbirth

d) significantly reducing the incidence of low birth weight and
malnutrition

e) primary education for all children and

f) safe drinking water for all and basic sanitation for 50% in urban
areas and 25% in rural areas.

The mother has to assume the role of a frontline health worker; whether the
issue involved is any of the above or preventing childhood disability or
enabling children attain their full mental faculties. A child’s well being is
closely related to the health (including factors like nutrition) and socio-
economic-educational development of women. There is a need to harness
potential female energy. The problems of population, food, agriculture and
the environment are closely related to the status of women. The world
cannot afford to neglect half the “resources of humanity”. Six killer
diseases - measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, TB, poliomyelitis or
infantile paralysis and tetanus or lockjaw devastate poor countries like
India. Major difficulties are in the paucity of 6 ‘M’s - manpower (trained),
material, money, management, mobility and motivation, and the storage
and distribution of vaccines, plus ignorance, illiteracy and poverty.

Malnutrition silently “kills”. Undernutrition and infection make a lethal
combination. forms include kwashiorkor and marasmus, pellagra,
avitaminosis A (Dr. Alfred Sommer said, “... increasing Vitamin A intake
may ...be the most practical means for improving child survival in the

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developing world.” A large-scale field study in Indonesia proved this),
beriberi, scurvy, rickets, anemia, endemic goiter and xerophthalmia.

Respiratory infections (including pneumonias) like common cold, sore
throat or acute pharyngitis, tonsillitis and bronchiolitis, severe measles, TB
and anemia also impair the development of “little lives”.

Some other ailments include sexually - transmitted diseases, congenital and
genetic diseases, Guineaworm, intestinal parasites (periodic mass
deworming was found to be effective by a research team in Kenya),
accidents and burns, allergies, mumps, dental caries, chicken-pox, typhoid
fever, vomiting, convulsions, heat exhaustion (in the tropics), Kala-azar,
skin, eye and ear problems, mental retardation, hepatitis, dengue, endocrine
and growth problems and dog bites and rabies.

Disabilities in children include physical, mental retardation, visual
disability, hearing and speech problems, etc.

In light of the above, “marketing child survival” becomes very important.
Technologies and information on ORS, vaccines, low-cost life-saving
drugs, pregnancy, breast-feeding, weaning, child spacing, etc. can empower
parents, particularly women, to protect the lives and the health of their
children…

Behind the blaring headlines of the world’s many conflicts and
emergencies, lies a silent crisis - of underdevelopment, of global poverty,
of population pressures, of degradation of the environment. This crisis will
not respond to emergency relief. It requires a long process of sustainable
human development....

“Sustainable Human Development” may be defined as development that
generates economic growth as well as distributes its benefits equitably; that

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regenerates the environment and that empowers people rather than
marginalizing them. It is development that gives priority to the poor,
enlarging their choices and opportunities and providing for their
participation in decisions that affect their lives. It is pro-people, pro-nature,
pro-jobs and pro-women....

Without people-centered development, our key objectives-peace, human
rights, democratization, environmental protection, better health care,
reduced population growth, social integration and poverty alleviation-
cannot be met....

It is cheaper and far more human to act early to address the root causes of
human insecurity rather than its tragic consequences....

The peace agenda and the development agenda must finally be integrated.
Without peace, there may not be any development. Without development,
peace lies threatened.

The world can never be at peace unless people have security in their daily
lives. Future conflicts may often be within nations rather than between
them - due to growing social and economic deprivation and disparities. The
search for human security lies in development, not in arms. It is easy to
lose perspective in today’s global uncertainty. As one crisis succeeds
another, policy agenda often focus on immediate issues-not the important
ones....

It is time for humanity to restore its perspective and redesign its agenda....

(The following article is based on a United Nations Report)

A new concept of human security: for too long, the concept of human
security has been confined to conflict between states and threats to a

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country’s borders, and countries have resorted to arms to protect
themselves.

For a large number of people today, insecurity arises from worries about
daily life. Do they have the time to worry about world “security” problems?
Jobs, income, health, environment, international migration, poverty, social
conflict, political repression, drugs, crime and homelessness are concerns
dogging most people...

As far back as June 1945, the U.S. Secretary of State reported the following
to his government on the results of the San Francisco Conference:

‘The battle of peace has to be fought on two fronts. The first is the security
front where victory spells freedom from fear. The second is the economic
and social front where victory means freedom from want. Only victory on
both fronts can assure the world of an enduring peace....’

Let us redefine security:

• Human security is relevant to people everywhere, in rich nations
and in poor. The threats may vary - hunger, ignorance, illiteracy
and disease in poor nations, and drugs, pornography and crime in
rich nations - some are common threats like unemployment and
environmental disasters - but all these are real and growing....

• Famines, ethnic conflicts, social disintegration, terrorism,
pollution, drug trafficking and cyber-pornography are affecting the
entire globe....

• It is less costly and more humane to act early. Short-term
humanitarian assistance can never replace long-term development
support....

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An essential part of preventive diplomacy and preventive development is to
formulate a set of human security indicators, and an early warning system
to identify some countries already in a state of crisis - thereby helping them
avoid reaching a crisis point. To address common global threats, a “global
human security fund” should be set up. For example, by levying fees on
polluting emissions.

A new design of development cooperation: what is needed today is a more
positive relationship between nations.

First, foreign assistance must be linked to commonly agreed policy goals -
poverty reduction, productive employment and sustainable human
development;

Second, a certain proportion of foreign assistance (say, a part of donor
countries’ GNP) should be channeled to the poorest nations as a “global
social safety net”, to be earmarked for basics (basic education, primary
health care, etc.);

Third, all flows - trade, investment, technology and labor flows should be
included;

Fourth, the rich nations should pay the poor nations for certain services
rendered - instituting environmental controls, regulating narcotics
production and trafficking, controlling communicable diseases, destroying
nuclear weapons;

Fifth, we should search for more international funding and global taxation
may become imperative;

Finally, now that we have entered the 21st Century, a new form of global
governance is needed....

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Developing countries have considerable scope for changing their budget
priorities:

i) by reducing their military spending

ii) by privatizing their loss-making public enterprises and

iii) by giving up some low-priority development projects.

It may be safely asserted that human development is the most powerful
contraceptive and human development models the most non-polluting
development paradigms.

Poor nations should not try to imitate the production and consumption
patterns of rich nations. They may not be entirely possible despite advances
in technology or entirely desirable.... Because they would require much
more consumption of fossil fuels and mineral wealth, and requirements
would grow again as the world population doubles....

The lifestyles of the north will clearly have to change. It (the north) has
roughly one-fifth of the global population and four-fifths of its income, and
it consumes 70% of the world’s energy, 75% of its metals and 85% of its
wood. If the eco-sphere were fully priced, not free, such consumption
patterns could not continue.

.... Sustainable Human Development puts a price on natural resources,
which are scarce today and tomorrow, thereby framing a policy of scarce
asset management...

One important area of asset management is non-renewable energy, proper
pricing of which can lead to the adoption of new technologies and patterns
of production which can greatly help in reducing energy input per unit of
output and in curtailing environmentally damaging emissions…

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Sustainable development is not that the present level and pattern of
development should be sustained for future generations, the inequities of
today being so great that if the above is done, similar inequities would be
perpetuated in future. Sustainable human development puts people at the
center of development. It means that everyone should have equal access to
development opportunities now and in the future.

Individuals’ capabilities depend on many circumstances beyond their
control. For instance, a child who is not sent to school, is not taught any
skills or is not given much support - might find that the cards are heavily
stacked against him.

A girl who faces discrimination early in life (either as low nutrition, lack of
schooling or physical abuse) may suffer lifelong scars, which may also
affect her offspring. A similar fate awaits the life claims of a black child in
the slums of the United States or South Africa.

This is where public policy and community organizations gain importance.
Unfortunately, some states may choose to spend more on soldiers than on
teachers, on costly urban hospitals rather than on primary health care, on
elitist groups rather than on the marginalised poor. Public policies are often
skewed unfavorably towards the more fortunate....

Our changing world

• infant mortality rates have declined - from 107 per 1,000 live births
in 1970 to 60 in 1995;

• about 60 percent of the poor live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan
Africa, which together account for 39 percent of the developing
world’s people but only 14% of its aggregate GDP;

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• Poverty is partly about failing to invest in people. In developing
countries nearly 1 in 3 adults is illiterate. In South Asia, 256
million, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 87 million women are
illiterate. Better-educated people tend to be healthier, and the
neglect of education takes its toll on human life. Of every 1,000
newborn babies in developing countries, 88 will not reach their 5th
birthday;

• energy efficiency rises with income;

• of the world’s 130 million sq. kilometers of land, a mere 10 percent
is used for crops, pastures, and gardens;

• most low-income countries remain predominantly agricultural. but
East Asia’s rapidly growing economies have experienced a
dramatic fall in their share of labor force in agriculture - Malaysia
from 54 to 27 percent, Korea from 49 to 18 percent;

• the world economy is rapidly integrating and many developing
countries are leading the way;

• developing economies are now important markets for the industrial
countries;

• many developing countries have succeeded in reducing poverty, a
few by as much as 50 percent (World Bank 1990);

• And yet, infant mortality remains above 90 per 1,000 live births in
Sub-Saharan Africa and 70 in South Asia, compared with 40 for
East Asia. And more than 1.3 billion people are living on less than
$ 1 a day, and another 2 billion are only slightly better off. Painful

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disparities exist across regions and countries... and the picture
indeed appears bleak....

- Source: Human Development 1997 indicators

• Why does human capital matter? It matters because the poor’s most
important asset is their labor. The challenge lies in creating an
enabling environment and to mobilize resources for human capital
investments. Human capital increase can raise the living standards
of the poor. Health care and good nutrition reduces illness and
deaths and improves productivity of labor. Literacy and numeracy
widen horizons, making it easier to learn new work skills, and
ensuring full participation in social and economic life. Education
can stimulate growth, open economic opportunities to more people,
thereby helping reduce income inequalities....

Better education and health enable more effective family planning
and better health of the mother and her child.

The poor benefit most from basic education-rates of return are
higher for primary education than for secondary. Governments
spend little on instructional materials, even though they have a
positive effect on student achievement in developing countries.

Because most students in post-primary education come from better-
off families, more should be spent on primary education to increase
the access of the poor to education. It has been observed that
despite increased expenditures on education in recent years,
enrolment rates are still low in many countries. This also has
gender dimensions, reflecting mainly social norms.... One

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important result of this imbalance is that almost two-thirds of the
world’s illiterate adults - 565 million - are women.

Girls’ education matters, as social returns to investments in female
education are much greater than for males....

• Ten developing countries with two-thirds of the world’s poor
(Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam) 1989/92:

– Total poor (in millions) – 855

– Poor in these countries as a % of total world poor – 65.9

• (i) Balance sheet of human development - developing countries :-

Progress Deprivation
Life expectancy
Average is now 63 years-17 years • 14 million children die every year
more than in 1960.In 26 developing before they reach the age of five.
countries, it is above 70 years.
• Health •

• Two-thirds of the people have • Nearly 1.5 billion people lack
ready access to health services. access to health services.
• Access to safe water has increased • 1.3 billion people still lack access
in the past 20 years by more than to safe water.
two-thirds.
• Public expenditure on health as a • 2.3 billion people lack access to
proportion of GNP increased by sanitation.
nearly 50% in the past 30 years.

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• In Sub-Saharan Africa, one adult
in 40 is HIV-infected.
• Food and nutrition
• Daily calorie supply is now about • Over 100 million people were
110% of the overall requirement. affected by famine in 1990.
• • More than a quarter of the
world’s people does not get
enough food, and nearly one
billion go hungry.
Education
. Adult literacy has increased by • Over 300 million children are out
more than one-third since 1970. of primary and secondary school.
• Nearly three-quarters of children • Nearly one billion adults are
are enrolled in school. illiterate, nearly 600 million of
them women.
Income
• More than 2% of GDP is spent on • 1.2 billion people still barely
social security benefits. survive - in absolute poverty.
• Employee earnings grew some 3% • About half the people in Sub-
annually in the 1980s, greater than Saharan Africa are below the
that in industrial countries. poverty line.
Children
• The mortality rate of young • Nearly one million children in
children has been halved in the Sub-Saharan Africa are infected
past 30 years. with HIV.

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• The immunization rate for one- • 180 million young children are
year-old children has increased still malnourished.
from one-quarter to more than • Infant mortality figures in the
three-quarters during the past 10 poorest nations are 115 per 1000
years. live births.
Women
• The male female gaps in primary • Female representation in
education have decreased by half parliament is only 14% that of
in the past 20 to 30 years, and in males.
literacy by one-third in the past 20 • Females receive on average only
years. half the higher education of
males.
• (ii) Balance sheet of human development-industrial countries:-

Life expectancy and health
• Average life expectancy is 75 • One in three adults smokes.
years.
• There is one doctor for every • Nearly five people in every 1,000 are
460 people. seriously injured in road accidents.

• Two-thirds of the people are • The cost of in-patient care has
eligible for public health increased by two-thirds since 1980.
insurance and nearly three
quarters of the health bills are
paid by public insurance.

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• • Some 300,000 cases of AIDS have
been reported to date.

Education

• The proportion of the • One-third of adults has not completed
population going on to secondary education.
university has increased from
less than one-quarter in 1965
to more than one-third today.

• There are more than 80 • For every 100 teachers, there are 97
scientists and technicians for soldiers.
every 1,000 people.

Income and employment

• Average income has increased • The rate of unemployment among
three and a half times in the youth is 13% and rising.
past 30 years.

• Social security benefits • The wealthiest 20% of the people
average nearly 11% of GDP, receive on average seven times the
and 1.3% of GDP is spent on income of the poorest 20%.
labor market programs.

• More than one-quarter of the
labor force is unionized.

Women

• At the secondary level, female • Women’s wages are still on average

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school enrolment is higher only two-thirds those of men, and
than male. At the tertiary level, their unemployment rate is
it is about equal. consistently higher.

• Women’s participation in the • Each year, one woman in 2,000 is
labor force is 78% of men’s. reported raped.

Social fabric

• Nearly one person in two has a • One in every 500 people is in jail.
TV, one in three reads a
newspaper and eight in ten
visit a museum at least once a
year.

• The average homicide rate is four per
100,000.

• The annual divorce rate for people
over 25 is nearly 5%.

Environment

• Since 1965, production has • The greenhouse index is four times
become six times less energy- that of the developing world.
intensive.

• Some 60% of people are • 42 kilograms of air pollutants are
served by
emitted annually per 100 people.
water-treatment facilities.

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• Industrial and other countries • Nearly 10 metric tons of hazardous
have agreed to phase out major and special waste is generated
CFCS (Chlorofluorocarbons) annually per sq. kilometer.
by the year 2000.

- Source: World Development Indicators, 1997

• Figures across the globe

a) Population:

Population aged
Total
60 and above
millions
% of total
1995 2010 1995 2010
Algeria 28 36 6 7
Argentina 35 40 13 14
Australia 18 20 15 18
Austria 8 8 20 24
Bangladesh 120 150 5 6
Brazil 159 190 7 9
Cameroon 13 20 5 5
Canada 30 32 16 20
China 1200 1347 10 12
Denmark 5 5 19 23
Ethiopia 56 86 4 4
France 58 60 20 23

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Population aged
Total
60 and above
millions
% of total
1995 2010 1995 2010
Ghana 17 25 5 5
Hong Kong 6 6 14 19
*India 929 1127 8 9
Japan 125 128 20 29
Kenya 27 37 4 4
Netherlands 15 16 18 23
Pakistan 130 190 5 5
South Africa 41 55 7 8
Sweden 9 9 22 25
United Kingdom 59 60 21 23
United States 263 297 16 19
Zambia 9 12 4 3
Zimbabwe 11 14 4 5
b) Poverty:
International poverty
National poverty line
line
Population
Survey
Survey year National % below $ 1 a
year
day %
Algeria 1998 1.6
Argentina 1991 25.5
Australia

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line
Population
Survey
year
day %
Austria
Bangladesh 1991-92 47.5
Brazil 1990 17.4 1989 28.7
Cameroon 1984 40.0
Canada
China 1990 8.6 1993 29.4
Denmark
Ethiopia 1981-82 33.8
France
Ghana 1992 31.4
Hong Kong
*India 1992 52.5
Japan
Kenya 1992 42.0 1992 50.2
Netherlands
Pakistan 1991 34.0 1991 11.6
South Africa 1993 23.7
Sweden
UK
US
Zambia 1993 86.0 1993 84.6

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line
Population
Survey
year
day %
Zimbabwe 1990-91 25.5 1990-91 41.0
c) Education:
Primary Expected
Duration of Primary school
school years of
primary pupil-teacher
starting schooling
education ratio Pupils:
age 1992
(years) teacher 1993
(years) M F
Algeria 6 6 27 11 9
Argentina 6 7 16 13 14
Australia 6 6 17 13 14
Austria 6 4 12 15 14
Bangladesh 6 5 63
Brazil 7 8 23
Cameroon 6 6 48
Canada 6 6 16 17 18
China 7 5 22
Denmark 7 6 10 15 15
Ethiopia 7 6 30
France 6 5 19 14 15
Ghana 6 6 28
Hong Kong 6 6 27

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Primary Expected
Duration of Primary school
school years of
primary pupil-teacher
starting schooling
education ratio Pupils:
age 1992
(years) teacher 1993
(years) M F
*India 6 5 64
Japan 6 6 19
Kenya 6 8 31
Netherlands 6 6 16 16 15
Pakistan 5 5 45
South Africa 6 7 27 12 12
Sweden 7 6 10 14 14
UK 5 6 20 15 15
US 6 6 14 16 16
Zambia 7 7 44
Zimbabwe 7 7

d) Health:

i) Strengthening public health programs: Public health programs
typically serve needs that cannot be met by private or market-based
activities. Their objective is to prevent disease or injury and to provide
information on self-cure and the significance of seeking care.

Governments face difficult choices in the use of public money devoted
to health. Six particularly cost-effective public health activities
include: providing population - based services, for instance,
immunization and mass screening for widespread diseases; improving

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diet and nutrition; providing family planning and maternal health care;
reducing the abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs; improving
housing and external environments, including mitigating occupational
hazards; and preventing AIDS.

Government action in many areas of public health has already paid off
in developing countries. Immunization saves an estimated 3 million
lives a year and diarrhoea control more than 1 million. Contraceptive
use has helped women space or avoid pregnancies. But governments
need to expand their efforts, especially in public health initiatives,
such as child malnutrition, tobacco use, and AIDS. The last two are
high-risk factors in developing countries and are expected to be among
the main causes of death and disability in the next few decades.

Child malnutrition: either directly or in association with such diseases
as measles, diarrhoea, or respiratory diseases, malnutrition accounts
for about one-fourth of deaths among children under age 5. WHO
estimates that about one-third of children in developing countries are
malnourished. Chronic malnutrition is mainly a consequence of
poverty, therefore governments should ensure food distribution,
especially during periods of seasonal variability, and control infectious
diseases. There is also a need to encourage healthier eating by
providing information on diet - improvement.

ii) Cost-effectiveness of public health interventions and essential clinical
services in low-income economies, 1990:

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Total global
Annual cost per
disease burden
Program capita
averted
$
%

• care for sick children 14 1.6

• immunization 6 0.5

• prenatal and delivery care 4 3.8

• family planning 3 0.9

• AIDS prevention 2 1.7

• treatment of sexually 1 0.2
transmitted diseases

• short-course chemotherapy for 1 0.6
TB

• school health 0.1 0.3

• discouraging tobacco and 0.1 0.3
alcohol use

- Source: World Bank 1993

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iii) Prevalence of child malnutrition, 1985, 1990, and 1995 percentage of
children under 5:

Region 1985 1990 1995

• Asia 41.7 36.8 37.3

• Latin America and the 10.5 9.3 7.7
Caribbean

• Middle East and North Africa 14.2 12.1 12.4

• Sub-Saharan Africa 29.2 29.7 31.2

- Source: WHO estimates; data refer to 93 countries

iv) AIDS: has killed about 6 million people and infected 28 million
(WHO 1996). More than 80 percent of those infected in 1990 lived in
developing countries; by 2000 this share is expected to increase to 95
percent. AIDS is the largest cause of death in many African cities, and
it is likely to become a major cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa
and in India and other Asian countries unless action is taken now. A
combination of strategies is required to check the spread of AIDS,
most important being the provision of information on how to avoid
infection and promotion of condom use, which has proved successful
in Uganda and Zaire (World Bank 1993).

- Source: World Development indicators, 1997

v) Reproductive risk: a worldwide assessment of women’s sexual and
maternal health: 1995 report on progress towards world stabilization:
Population Action International:

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a) Trends in women’s health: around the world, women’s overall
health is improving. More and more women are educating
themselves, marrying later, and using contraception and having
smaller families, thereby enjoying better reproductive health. And
yet, about 1.3 million women still die each year of reproductive-
health related causes.

Many biological, social and cultural factors tell upon women’s
health, particularly, the low status of women in many societies,
female genital mutilation in Africa, child marriage in Asia and
Africa, and food taboos in many countries contributing to poor
nutrition of women in pregnancy....

STDs and women’s health: each year, an estimated 250 million
men and women contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD)
apart from HIV/AIDS. STDs are more common in poor than in
rich countries, and rates of infection highest in Africa. STD is
most prevalent among sex workers and others with multiple sex
partners... Hepatitis, syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia are other
STDs. Cervical cancer may be linked to a sexually transmitted
virus. STDs account for a significant share of death and disease in
poor countries. The economic impact may range from the direct
costs of medical care and the indirect costs of lost productivity due
to illness...

b) Reproductive risk indicators:

Early childrearing: in both rich and poor countries, early teenage
girls are physically immature to reproduce. Early child bearing can
jeopardize their educational and employment futures;

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Use of family planning: Many Asian and Latin American
countries have made significant strides in expanding access to
family planning;

Abortion policies: abortion is “safe” when properly performed by
trained health personnel. Yet, in many countries, abortion remains
legally restricted, leading to unsafe abortion, a major cause of
maternal deaths, injuries and sickness globally;

Nutritional anemia in pregnancy: is common where malnutrition is
widespread. Anemia may lead to death by hemorrhage but can be
easily treated with oral iron supplements. We need improvements
in nutritional status; diets and access to prenatal care;

Access to health care in pregnancy and childbirth: is essential. In
most industrialized countries, most pregnant women receive
prenatal care and give birth in the presence of skilled medical
personnel;

HIV/AIDS among women: is a major threat to women particularly
in Sub-Saharan Africa. In most other regions, HIV primarily
affects homosexual men, sex workers, drug users, etc. women may
contract AIDS from “irresponsible” partners;

Infertility: is a stigma in many societies and women in these
societies may be abandoned;

Risk of death in childbearing: half a million women die each year
from pregnancy-related complications, most in developing
countries.

c) Reproductive health in the former Soviet Republics: the health
status of women is mixed. Political changes have led to economic

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problems, thereby undermining the quality and coverage of health
services. Food shortages and economic difficulties (reflecting
malnutrition) have been leading to the prevalence of anemia.

d) Female genital mutilation: a harmful tradition in Africa: FGM (or,
female circumcision) is practiced primarily in Africa, for beliefs
such as preservation of virginity and enhancement of beauty. It
also often celebrates the attainment of womanhood. Circumcision
may lead to bleeding, infection, shock, and even death. In the long
run, effects such as scarring, childbirth complications, infection,
infertility, psychological trauma and painful menstruation and
intercourse may result.

In many poor countries, limited financial resources, health
facilities and trained personnel will render provision of health
services difficult. Countries with limited resources should identify
and support a minimum package of services, based on priority
needs and potential health impact.

vi) Three main determinants of health status are:

• public sanitation, climate and the availability of medical
facilities;

• knowledge and understanding of hygiene and nutrition by the
common people;

• people’s purchasing power.

vii) Community involvement: is defined as “a process whereby
individuals, families and communities assume responsibility for

377

their own health and welfare and develop the capacity to
contribute to the community’s development.”

Preventive measures and information - about birth spacing, safe
motherhood, newborn care, breast-feeding, child growth and
development, immunization, hygiene and disease can enable
most families improve their health.

Nutrition literacy for health: the nutritional status of a nation is closely
related to food adequacy and distribution, poverty levels, status of women,
rate of population and access to health, education, (safe) drinking water,
environmental and social sanitation and hygiene and other social services...
The poor suffer not only from malnutrition of calories but also that of
proteins and micronutrients such as iron, iodine, Vitamin A, and other
minerals and vitamins...

A typical community development program should include nutrition
education through school gardens, kitchen gardens, backyard poultry etc. to
create awareness among the community as to

i) how to achieve adequate nutrition with available means; and

ii) to inform the poor of existing nutrition services.

Nutrition education can be imparted through live demonstrations, lectures
and discussions, films, slides and exhibitions. An ideal package should
include

i. significance of nutrition;`

ii. improvement of diet within a low cost;

iii. some facts about food;

iv. needs of different age groups;

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v. nutrition of mothers and breastfeeding as well as other aspects of
child care;

vi. preparation of infant foods;

vii. nutrition of young children;

viii.diarrhoea management;

ix. significance of immunization;

x. a package on hygiene and sanitation;

xi. conserving nutrients;

xii. food preservation; and

xiii.existing services.

Special nutrition programs and school mid-day meals can be adopted.

In this lesson, grassroots workers and NGOs have to play a vital role.

The draft of the “Platform for Action”, a blueprint for women’s
advancement in countries around the world identifies 11 (eleven) “critical
areas of concern” for the world’s women, namely,

i. the burden of poverty;

ii. educational opportunities;

iii. healthcare services;

iv. violence against women;

v. effects of conflict;

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vi. participation in economic structures and policies and the
productive process;

vii. power sharing and decision-making;

viii.advancement of women;

ix. women’s human rights;

x. mass media to promote women’s contribution; and

xi. women’s contribution in managing natural resources and the
environment.

‘.... Being a father benefits a man - a man can rear himself as he rears his
children; he can understand and, if necessary, forgive his parents as he
becomes one; and he can pass on what he has learned about being a man
among his peers and an equal partner to a woman.... moving beyond the
men’s movement towards a new definition of masculinity.’

- from “Man Enough - Fathers, Sons, and the Search for Masculinity”

- Frank Pittman, M.D.

Albert Einstein once predicted “We shall require a substantially new
manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.” From his prediction, it seems
to me that we need a transition in thinking - from nuclear security to human
security.

For most people, insecurity arises more from worries about daily life than
from the fear of a cataclysmic world event. Will there be enough to eat?
Will they remain employed? Will they be secure against crime? Will they

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be discriminated against by reason of their gender, religion or ethnic
origin?

Finally, “Human Security” is a child who did not die, a disease that did not
spread, an ethnic tension that did not explode in violence, a dissident who
was not silenced. Human Security is now no longer a concern with
weapons - it is a concern with human life and dignity.

What we must remember is that

• Human security is a “universal” concern. there are many threats that
are relevant to all people-unemployment, drugs, crime, pollution and
human rights violations, although their intensity may vary from place
to place;

• The components of human security are “interdependent” i.e.
consequences of events such as famine, disease, pollution, drug
trafficking, terrorism and ethnic disputes spread to other nations;

• Human security is easier to ensure through early prevention
(upstream) than later intervention (down-stream). For instance, even a
few billion dollars invested in primary health care and family planning
education could have helped contain the spread of HIV/AIDS when its
costs were about $ 240 billion during the 1980s;

• Human security is “people-centered”. It is concerned with people, like
how much access people have to market and social opportunities.

Human security can be lost through a slow, silent process, or through
an abrupt, loud emergency. the loss can be man made - due to wrong
policy choices, or arising from the forces of nature, or can be a

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combination of both - as when environmental degradation causes a
natural disaster, followed by human insecurity.

“Human security” is not the same as “human development” - which is
a process of widening the range of people’s choices. On the other
hand, human security means that choices can be exercised safely and
freely, and that today’s opportunities are not lost tomorrow.

When human development fails, a backlog of human deprivation can
arise - poverty, hunger, disease, and disparities (or, when people see
the basis of their livelihood erode - such as their access to water)
which can lead to violence and conflict.

How do people see human security?

• Shoe-mender in Thailand - “when we have enough for the children to
eat, we are happy and we feel secure.”

• Fourth-grade schoolgirl in Ghana - “I shall feel secure when I know I
can walk the streets at night without being raped.”

• Public Administrator in Cameroon - “security for me means that my
job and position are safe and I can continue to provide for the needs of
my family and also have something for investment and friends.”

• Woman in Paraguay - “I feel secure because I feel fulfilled and have
confidence in myself. I also feel secure because God is great and
watches over me.”

• Man in Ecuador - “what makes you feel insecure above all is violence
and delinquency - as well as insecurity with respect to the police.
Basic services are also an important part of security.”

- Source: UNDP, 1994

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Security to people in rich nations means security from crime and drugs,
HIV/AIDS, soil degradation, pollution, while to people in poor nations, it
means freedom from hunger, disease and poverty as well as the problems
confronting industrial countries.

Security from physical violence is perhaps the most vital. Physical violence
can take various forms:

• threats from the state (physical torture);

• threats from other states (war);

• threats from other groups of people (ethnic tension);

• threats from individuals or gangs against other gangs (crime, street
violence);

• crimes against women (rape, dowry, domestic violence);

• threats against children who are both vulnerable and dependent (child
abuse);

• threats to self (suicide, drug abuse).

In many societies, the risks are now greater than ever before.

Women are, in no society, treated at par with men. They are the last to eat
at home, the last to be educated, are often the least-paid on work, and
throughout their lives, the victims of (“sexist”) gender-stereotyping and
abuse.

Children, who should be the most protected in any society, are always
being abused. In developing countries, many children are compelled by
poverty to undertake heavy work at a young age - jeopardizing their health

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and education. In Brazil, more than 200,000 children (as of 1994-95) grow
up on the streets. The combined number of child prostitutes (?) in Thailand,
Sri Lanka and the Philippines would be something like 500,000 (1994-95).

The United Nations declared 1993 the “Year of Indigenous People(s)” to
show just how vulnerable aboriginal people are. During the 1970s drought,
the one million Tuareg Saharan nomads found it difficult to move their
herds to distant water holes, and as many as 125,000 people starved to
death. And violence is something indigenous people have always to put up
with. In Canada, an indigenous person is six times more likely to be
murdered than other Canadians.

So, what did Rigoberta Menchu, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize,
have to say? ‘.... We believe in the wisdom of our ancestors and wise
people who passed on to us their strength and taught us the art of language
- enabling us to reaffirm the validity of our thousand-year-old history and
the justice of our struggle.

My cause was not born out of something good, it was born out of
wretchedness and bitterness. It has been radicalized by the poverty in
which my people live. It has been radicalized by the malnutrition which I,
as an Indian, have seen and experienced. And by the exploitation and
discrimination which I have felt in the flesh. And by the oppression
which.... shows no respect for our way of life, the way we are....

The International Year of Indigenous People enabled us to... bear witness
to the emptiness and the painful situation of misery, marginalization and
humiliation in which we continue to live....

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The International Decade for Indigenous People is one more step towards
building new relationships between states and indigenous peoples on the
basis of mutual respect....’

When human security is under threat anywhere, it can affect people
everywhere. National borders can no longer hold famines, ethnic conflicts,
social disintegration, terrorism, pollution, unchecked population growth,
drug trafficking and economic disparities and one person can carry a deadly
disease - such as HIV/AIDS - to any corner of the world. Can a nation
isolate itself from the rest of the world?

The best thing to do, from the point of view of human security, is to
undertake preventive action. Soldiers trying to fight crisis cannot replace
early socio-economic reform. Short-term humanitarian assistance cannot
replace long-term development support.

Some useful indicators of national insecurity would be food insecurity, job
and income insecurity, human rights violations, ethnic or religious
conflicts, inequity and military spending. Combining national and global
indicators would highlight the coincidence of national and global
insecurities as with high unemployment and heavy international migration.

We must recognize that the reasons for conflict and war today are often
rooted in poverty, social injustice and degradation of the environment. The
need of the hour is to adopt innovative development initiatives, like credit
for the poor. This would go a long way in preventing insecurity.

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CHAPTER 26B

FROM GUIDELINES TO GOALS
The following goals provide major elements for a common strategy for the
entire world.

Poverty: – more than one billion people in developing countries are living
in conditions of absolute poverty (with a per capita income less than US$
370 per year). The goal is - in Sub-Saharan Africa, to hold the number of
poor at the present level until population growth can be brought under
control; – elsewhere, to reduce the number of poor by four hundred million
–

Population: – reduction of the global fertility rate so that the world’s
population will not exceed the UN median projections. (By the year 2025, a
total population of 8.5 billion rather than the high level projection of 9.4
billion)

– By the year 2000, an increase in contraception prevalence in
developing countries, so as to reach at least 56 percent of women of
reproductive age (i.e., from 326 million user couples to 535 million
user couples).

The environment: – The Rio Conference succeeded in formulating
principles and implementation measures for the big environment problem.
The Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, the Forest Principles and the Bio
Diversity Convention embody general principles for action to protect the
environment and lay the basis for specific goals and plans of action. Only
the Convention on Climate Change sets out a specific goal: the reduction of
greenhouse gases to “earlier levels” by the year 2000. In addition, through

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UNICEF and WHO, two specific goals have been established, universal
access to safe drinking water, and to sanitary means of excreta disposal.

Health: – By the year 2000, within the broad goal of universal access to
primary health care, specific goals include: to reduce infant mortality rate
by one-third (or atleast to 50 per thousand); and to reduce mortality rate of
children under five by one-third (or atleast to 70 per thousand).

Nutrition: – The International Conference on Nutrition (Rome, Dec’ 92)
adopted a World Declaration and Plan of Action. Three goals for
achievement by the year 2000 were set: –

– To end famine and famine – related deaths;

– To end starvation and nutritional deficiency diseases in
communities affected by natural or man-made disasters;

– To eliminate iodine and Vitamin A deficiencies.

Education: – The long-term goal adopted at the World Conference on
Education for All (1990) is to meet the basic learning needs of all. The
intermediate goals include the universal access to, and completion of
primary education by the year 2000.

Development: The big game; peace, security and development: – The
savage conflicts erupting across the face of the globe today cannot be
attributed solely to social and economic inequity but poverty and its
attendant ills do provide fertile ground for violence. Painful disparities in
how people live, among and within nations generate plenty of fissionable
material. International peace and security rest as much on human well-
being as on law and order. This could happen only if there is a radical
change in the international political climate, which would release and

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redirect enormous energy and resources. On that day, the goals of security
and the goals of development would converge into one.

The status of women: – The underlying goal is a major increase in
women’s participation in development. More specific goals, to be reached
by the year 2000, are: –

– to reduce maternal mortality by 50 percent,

– to reduce adult illiteracy, especially among women, by 50 percent
, and

– to ensure universal access by girls to primary education.

After all, how can we neglect the female species? Aren’t they the creators
of society?

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CHAPTER 27A
-‘We are focusing on a model.... which reduces living women into wombs,
ovaries, hormones to be managed, into a machine - like mechanism,
dissecting body from mind and spirit, focusing on fertility as a biological
bodily process only, separating living women from life with men, from life
in poverty, from life with its multiple social relations and power
dynamics....

The strong opposition from fundamentalists against women’s self
determination in matters of procreation and sexuality stems from deep
seated woman-hatred, but is mostly disguised in arguments expressing
concern about family values and foetal life...’

-Loes Keysers and Judith Richter, date or event not specified

-“Veiled times’ are coming to an end.... things are changing at a rapid
pace... Women in Iran are somewhat in a better position... you may be
surprised to know that in Iran 55 percent of college and university students
are women.... In my film... the story is of a Muslim child befriending the
Christian padre and comforting him in his deathbed... In the villages and
cities of Iran, Jews, Zoroastrians, Christians, and Muslims live in striking
harmony. Our film talks of Mary or Maryam. She is omnipresent.
Irrespective of culture and religion she towers as a mother figure
transcending all apparent divides.”

-Fereshteh Taerpoor, noted lady film producer from Iran.

-‘We settled into a happy, crowded family.... Nelson liked doing the family
shopping and I was more than happy for him to do so. He enjoyed bathing

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the babies in the evenings and there were occasions when he took over the
cooking from us women.’

- Evelyn, Nelson Mandela’s first wife

-‘Even the Declaration’s opening sentence “All men are created equal”,
caused problems. The delegate from India pointed out that women should
also be included and another UN committee lobbied for the word “people”
to be used instead of “men”. The final compromise was “human beings”...’

- From J. William T. Youngs, “Eleanor Roosevelt: A Personal and Public
Life”

-Eleanor (Roosevelt) received criticism for particular stands... her highly
publicized travels drew out critics who were disturbed by the spectacle of a
woman making a mark in the world... ‘If you would stay home and make a
home for your husband, it would be OK... Keep Franklin company (as a
real good woman should do) and tend to your knitting...’

- From J. William T. Youngs, “Eleanor Roosevelt: A Personal and Public
Life”

-Rape is not just a crime, it is a slur on the face (name) of humanity, and it
arises from the system itself, is that not shocking?

-Before World War I, suffragettes campaigned for women to have the right
to vote.... At that time no woman expected either to work or to vote and
never to play a full role in society.

- Anonymous

-If they are not carrying the Y chromosome, filmmakers can forget a career
in directing action films (Mimi Leder has, however, already made a

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breakthrough). Action cinema with female leads are, however, coming
forth: Lara Croft; Charlie’s Angels; V.I. Warshawski; Buffy, the vampire
slayer; Cynthia Rothrock; Cynthia Khan; Barbwire (starring Pamela
Anderson); Angelina Jolie; Drew Barrymore/Lucy Liu/Cameron Diaz;
Kathleen Turner; Michelle Yeoh; Supergirl; Catwoman; Batgirl, (comic
strips); “Bad Girls”; Sheena; etc.

-The media has reported that in some of the poorest villages of Orissa,
India, the position of women is such that their husbands do not give them
anything to eat. I do not know how much of this is true but if it is true, it is
very shocking to note that this is how some parts of India work.

-What is the 21st Century woman? What are we talking about? Are we
talking about those lean, thin women who are dieting for the upcoming
beauty pageant, or, are we talking about those lean, thin women who know
not a word of numeracy or literacy and who have to walk miles and miles
in parched heat to fetch drinking water?

-Rise, ye women folk, “bobbitise” (after Laurena Bobbit) every potential
molester, or build up your muscles, or learn self-defense and/or carry arms
(if it comes to that), but fight!

-We have seen a gradual erosion of human values in the system. Our moral
fiber has weakened. The heaviest burden has fallen on women (especially,
younger women) and children, in terms of sexuality, reproductive rights
and security. Women and children are particularly vulnerable on issues
such as rape and sexual abuse (in particular, child abuse). Let us not feel
vulnerable, let us look into ourselves (introspect) and find out ways and
means of solving issues, particularly, security. Let us not feel helpless.
Together, we can promote (heavy) sport (for women and girl children),

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self-defense (martial art), work to cleanse cinema, ban pornography, guide
delinquents and antisocials, and work to erase stereotyped images of
women as projected by the media. I am not saying there is anything wrong
with participating in a beauty pageant or walking down a ramp, but excess
of anything is bad, as is happening all over the world. And there may be a
need to sacrifice initially for a period of time, during which we would be
trying to cleanse the system. In the end, we have to realize that a man’s
body is as provocative as that of a woman, and that, by talking of morality
and values, women are being injudiciously targeted (punished?)

-O! Ye! Women folk, remember Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in
a “Battle of the Sexes” match in tennis, say, all for unisexual sport!!!

-Women are giving birth in poverty, can there be a greater disaster than
this?

-‘Fight as a man doth, fight like a man’ - from (bent on revenge for her
slain father) ‘Cat Ballou’ starring Jane Fonda (from Wild West cinema).

-In unequal power structures like Indian society, men still hold the key to
social equality.... Educating them (men)... would mean being able to....
among other things, curb delinquent behavior (example-sex crime)...

-‘Food for thought’ for the ‘new man’- theoretically, given the right
hormonal treatment, men could be capable of producing breast milk and
suckling their young. What about 9 months for men??

- From ‘Why Corner’, the Telegraph, India, 13th Nov., ’2000.

-A ‘plan of action’ to nab ‘potential’ eve-teasers and rapists: a secret
mission: Young, smart women take strolls down a lonely stretch or thumb a
lift from strangers to attract attention (from Road Romeos). And in the

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process, nearly a dozen of them (Romeos) land behind bars. These women
are not ordinary women, but experts in martial arts, yoga, etc., ‘undercover
cops’, members of teams of female police operatives. They roam alone, or
in twos. A jeep (or, a convertible) follows from a safe distance. These
women do not protest or reveal their identities. This method has already
been adopted in the city of Calcutta in India.

-‘Baby girls are not welcome, but used for procreation’: ‘in her home the
woman is the least privileged when she is born. There is no rejoicing. She
is considered an economic liability. Whereas the birth of one girl may be
considered as bad luck, a second one means disaster and a third girl is seen
as a catastrophe. As a rural child she is neglected, undernourished and
overworked. She grows up to bear and care for children.’

-Dr. Sadiqua N. Jafarey, from National Health, Pakistan, Oct.-Dec., ’94.

At this moment, things may be changing in Pakistan.

-Women in Algeria live in terror: a (lady) student, properly attired in
appropriate dress, who wished to attend an evening lecture on campus...
was whipped brutally with a leather belt. ...also, forbidding women to wear
unconventional clothing....

Angeline Achterberg, an anthropologist, who lived in Algeria for eight
years, was and probably is still working for the Netherlands Centre for
Indigenous Peoples. We hope, that, at this moment, things have changed in
Algeria.

-On the women’s movement, “as working women, we belong to a broader
movement. Our profile combines women’s issues with class issues, which
we consider basic to cast a movement that also includes social justice as a
goal.”

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- Graciela Retamoso, feminist and trade unionist, honoring Maria Abella
(1863-1926), writer, teacher and pioneer feminist (Uruguay)

-‘There are no data, no trials have been performed in Pakistan.’

- From Depo Provera introduced in Pakistan, National Health Report,
Pakistan, date not specified.

-‘In order for pregnancy to stop being a threat to women’s lives,
motherhood must be voluntary.... society must take responsibility.... for
providing social support....’

- Martha Rosenberg

-Family planning in itself is not enough, especially when women have
walked ten miles to a clinic to find that they cannot be treated for various
reproductive problems (e.g. tract infections).

-Can we have more women on the roads - (lady) civilians, lady cops, lady
cab drivers, lady bus conductors, ladies working at the gas stations etc?
Believe me… there is always safety in numbers... from violence etc.

-When men start giving birth (i.e. if they do), issues pertaining to women’s
reproductive and sexual rights will probably drop into oblivion!

-At a very crucial period in their lives... women (particularly, working or
poor Third World women) get bogged down with conception, pregnancy,
breastfeeding and parental responsibility... and worse still, later... with
menopause....

-For us coming from the Third World, reproductive rights don’t form the
central issue in the lives of millions of women in our countries... the
burning issues are social and economic problems....

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- A member of the Third World Network

-She argued that the pattern of sex roles was imposed by society and not
due to any inborn or biological factors.... and she became one of the
inspirations of the feminist movement.

- From Margaret Mead - Michael Pollard

-As a young woman strongly concerned with the safety and security of
women, young girls and girl (and for that matter, boy) children, I cannot
tolerate a system in which we face the perils of being abused, mutilated
(with acid, for instance), molested or raped every single day, every single
minute and for that matter, every single second? Let us plunge into action
to work to erase such enormous hatred of the “XX” species and to ensure
full security and respectability to it.... Enough is enough…

-Let us have a hospital on wheels (train) devoted exclusively to women
(particularly, rural women) - menses, women’s problems, pain-alleviation
or pain relief in labor – acupuncture, acupressure (I am not much aware of
the role of epidurals and semi- epidurals) manned (womanned!) by women.

-“Today has seen ‘the celebration of a victory for feminism’. If a woman is
allowed to teach advanced studies to both sexes, where afterwards will be
the pretended superiority of man? I tell you, the time is near when women
will become human beings.”

- “Le Journal”, on Marie Curie’s first lecture at the Sorbonne, Paris,
06/11/1906.

She would have been pleased to see women scientists now working
alongside men and accepted on an equal footing.

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“.... Marie’s story is not just one of brilliant scientific achievement. It is
also the very human story of her passionate conviction that an individual’s
work can help mankind...”

- Margaret Thatcher

-In the world as a whole, women do most of the agricultural work, although
they earn only one-tenth of the income. Many cultures assume that women
will do the most back-breaking work and receive poor pay for it. Margaret
Mead’s questioning of assumptions like this and assumptions about the
roles of men and women in the western world - was an influence in
extending the scope of women’s education and the part played by men in
child rearing and child care.

-Religious congregations across the world are still largely male-dominated.
Hindu priests are by and large male. From a survey of the literature on this
subject, I have noted with interest some facts about women and worship.
Basic questions as to why should women be kept from entering places of
worship (as during their menses) remain unanswered still now. I mean,
God has not created these barriers. Men have made them. Look at the
Catholic - Protestant, whatever going on in Ireland. Rape and abortion are
serious issues and the papacy is opposed to family planning, in an age in
which birth figures across the world are likely to soar and many millions of
children are likely to remain hungry, deformed or undernourished?

-Important questions confronting us:

If we went back to the dark ages, would the laws of the jungle (or, laws of
nature) govern inter-sexual behavior?

So, I can burn my brassiere, but can I move about on the street?

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So, I can move about with men, but will I be accepted as an entity in my
own right?

So, will I be allowed to pray during my menses?

So, I am a modern woman, has my sexuality been freed?

So, I am working full-time. But will he help me wash, clean and cook?

So, I do want to dart to an age in which I can wear what I want to. But am I
not at a greater risk of crime?

So, I have nine mouths to feed-my husband, my seven daughters and
myself. He wants a son. I can’t take it any more. I am exhausted. I am
prepared to adopt birth control methods. I have never heard of men using
these methods. Can you help me?

I am a sex worker. So, will the government do anything to educate my
children, or give me an alternative means of living?

So, can you answer my questions?

What did other women tell me?

They said, girl, women are powerless, because they can get pregnant.
Women are powerless because they can conceive. It is a beautiful gift of
God; this ability to conceive and give birth, it is a right given to women
only. But in a highly perverted society, in a society in which there is an
inequitable social structure, in a society in a state of transition, many other
issues come to the forefront and power relations between men and women
remain lopsided. In such a society, deep perversions arise and members of
the species get the right to harm or exploit each other.

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My mother said labor is a very painful process, and I understand that I gave
her much pain (I should say “trauma”) when I was born. I have often felt
guilty about this. But it is not your fault, she said. The labor of love brought
you into the world. I loved your father and you were born. With time, I
grew up. I watched “The Blue Lagoon” with her. When I got my first
menses, I was not scared. However, I still did not feel like the complete
woman. I wanted to self-actualize…

I concluded that there is something called “sex”, and that this thing is
largely responsible for much of the imbalance in the gender power
structure…

Actually, the sexuality that has been freed is male sexuality. Men are still
controlling the world. Sex, reproduction, crime (e.g. rape) and hunger are
very important issues and most of these issues affect women across the
globe. We live in a perverted society and power relations between men and
women are still lopsided. A society can progress only if its women progress
and lopsided progress across the globe can have serious repercussions…

The human race has been gifted the ability to speak and express itself.
Trees cannot. Dogs and cats cannot. Both constructive and destructive
behaviors are in the hands of men and women. Promoting a more equitable
power structure (and this goes for all castes, creeds and faiths) will help
restore harmony to the world, allow for more constructive behavior and
greatly reduce or even alleviate destructive behavior…

Is the English dictionary to blame? It may seem so. Most of our current
thinking on these issues largely conforms to our stereotyped notions of
“masculine” and “feminine”. “Food for thought” really?

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Examining another perspective, the male ego: is something with which
practically every woman has to cope. It started with God himself. Tracing
the history of mankind, we come to the garden of Aden. Recent research
tells us that Eve preceded Adam. Both Adam and Eve tasted the
“Forbidden Apple”, but Eve was punished for the “sin” she had committed.
And, now, women all over the world are suffering-as victims of a
traditional or conservative or sexist society. Different parts of the world are
in different stages of progress, but in no part of the world have women been
truly liberated. And it seems God created mankind. As if, there are no
powerful (female) goddesses, Ma Durga, Ma Kali (Hindu religion) and the
Virgin Mother? Many societies still remain prudish, despite huge faith in a
female power. The Goddess Durga (Hindu deity) is an embodiment of
female power. She represents the victory of good over evil. No man could
defeat the mighty “Asuras” (‘dark’ beings of ancient Indian mythology). It
was a lady who prevailed over the ‘darker’ forces of nature.

I often wonder how we women come into the world at all. Female
foeticide, sex-selection and lack of adequate nourishment take away large
numbers of girl-children every year. God created mankind (man and his
kind).

Women fall out of the blue skies.

-According to me, “sexism” represents that “they” (men) do not expect-
“us” (women) to be able to do the same as them, what with our female
genitalia in a female body, and consequent discrimination.

-Women belonging to the nomadic Sansi community in Rajasthan (India)
…are subjected to …crude virginity tests…The centuries-old custom of
“Kukari Ki Rasam”(thread ritual) is not just used to torture

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women…Impure brides are beaten to reveal the names of their
“lovers”…Virginity tests are not covered under the Indian Penal Code
(IPC) and as such cannot be considered a crime…Although Indian women
have made enormous inroads in a range of fields…violence against them is
not uncommon…Other tests (of virginity) are the “Paani Ki Dheej” (purity
by water) or Agnipariksha (trial by fire)…A victim…proved her virginity
by holding her breath under water…as part of the trial by fire, a bride is
made to walk with a piece of red-hot iron in her hands…Women whose
palms get burnt are considered impure…But, the government says it is
powerless since few Sansi women dare go public with the
problem…shocking!!!

- From ‘The Telegraph’ (India), Sunday, 17 December 2000

-There is frightening evidence that some women today might as well be
living three hundred years ago. In 1987, there was information that women
in Mozambique were being tried as witches and executed. In some
countries, women can still be stoned for committing adultery.

-“Have girls in Africa been given less of a chance than boys to profit from
educational progress? Yes. Women in Africa have always suffered from
male supremacist attitudes and customs; and they have continued to suffer
from them since independence…gross inequalities between men and
women have generally persisted. But some progress has been made against
them, and continues to be made. not only have girls and young women
found new educational opportunities: adult women have also joined in the
drive for education, attending literacy classes and various forms of
vocational training, while a wider range of jobs has become available for
women in towns. Beyond this, too, women have begun to join together in
self-defence so as to claim, and sometimes get, a better status in society.”

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0

- From “Modern Africa”, 2nd Edn, Basil Davidson, 1989

-In the remote villages of North Bihar (India), women are now working in a
largely male bastion, as “share-croppers” in the fields. They do all the
strenuous work-from sowing, watering to transplanting rice and other food
crops and (themselves) supervising the work…Most share-croppers are
either landless laborers or small peasants taking care of the farming
business of the better-off farmers…(These) women share-croppers are
however, exploited. They get a meager wage of Rs.30-40/- per day…

However, the very fact that women have stepped out of their houses and
are working in the fields, supervising their own work is a major step
forward…Only a decade or two earlier, involving women would have been
impossible…

Call it “a giant leap towards feminization of poverty”.

-From ‘The Telegraph’, India, 22 Feb, 1999: “9 months for men”
(London): Advances in medical technology mean men could now bear
children, said one of Britain’s fertility experts.

Lord Winston, head of a leading fertility clinic, said modern techniques can
be used to implant an embryo in a man’s abdomen, allowing him to carry it
to full term and give birth by caesarean section. He said there is a risk of
bleeding from the placenta and hormone treatment could leave the man
with larger breasts.

-‘ It is only when women and girls gain their place as strong and equal
members of society that violence against them will be viewed as a shocking
aberration, rather than as an invisible norm…’

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-Prof. Charlotte Bunch, Director of the Center for Women’s Global
Leadership, Rutgers University, United States-

-“…Women already have work.

They already grow most of the developing world’s food, market most of its
crops, fetch most of its water, collect most of its fuel, feed most of its
animals, weed most of its fields.

And when their work outside the home is done, they light the Third
World’s fires, cook its meals, clean its compounds, wash its clothes, shop
for its needs, and look after its old and its ill.

And they bear and care for its children.

The multiple burdens of womanhood are too many.

…the time has come, in all countries, for men to share more fully in that
most difficult and important of all tasks – protecting the lives and the health
and the growth of their children.”

-from “Facts for Life”, UNICEF, WHO and UNESCO, India, Jan 1990.

Who are we waiting for?

-Reports from a recent SAARC People’s Summit:

Unbridled globalization, according to some people, is eroding people’s
livelihood, driving the marginalized across the borders of one nation to
another.

There may be a “critical connection” between food security and trafficking
in women and children. Lack of the former makes women and children
vulnerable.

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According to UBINIG, a Bangladeshi NGO, “the use to which the
trafficked persons are put depends on the exploitative global trading system
and its supply and demand trends.”

The speakers said the lure of profit could lie in the sale to brothels,
adoption homes, camel jockeys, forced marriage and domestic and bonded
labor.

Now, that the poor and the marginalized have been thrown on the sidelines
of the economy, there are no easy solutions…but should we concede
defeat?

-from “Fraulein Fighters, Achtung!”, The Telegraph, 3 Jan, 2001:

In a landmark move, the German military today opened its ranks for
women wanting to join the combat forces. Female volunteers will no longer
be confined to the German military's medical and musical units.

-Countries that have made remarkable social progress have done so
primarily through the empowerment of women, and this in turn has had
tremendous impact in terms of literacy, health and economic well being of
families.

-“It is justice …that is wanting in the world”, wrote Mary Wollstonecraft,
the pioneering feminist, in “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”,
published in 1792. In the same year, Thomas Paine published the second
part of the “Rights of Man”. Both were concerned with giving every man
and every woman–power over their lives and opportunities to live
according to their own values and aspirations.

-In a place called Khunti in Jharkhand region of India, women have got
together to protect thousands of acres of forests from being destroyed, as
the lives of tribals depend on forests, water and land. The women

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belonging to this region started work in 1993, and by the year 2000, these
women had brought greenery to about 630 acres of land. Neither forest
officials nor local villagers are allowed to cut down trees, and any
infringement is subject to fine, the amount of which goes into the women’s
fund. After the rains, the forests are cleaned and leaves, bushes etc.,
distributed among the villagers.

-Illiterate “Mallah” women belonging to Muzzaffarpur district (Bihar,
India) got together to solve the problem of unemployment in the
community. With the help of a self-help group, these women got a 350-acre
pond cleaned, took a license for fish rearing from the district administration
and trained in pisciculture, besides availing themselves of a loan from the
National Fund for Women. The menfolk, who had left for other states in
search of employment, came back. The womenfolk gave them work.
Today, these families are smiling… a unique model, ah!

-In a historic verdict given by Justice Vasudev Panigrahi in a case relating
to divorcee Mrs. Shakeela Parveen, the Calcutta (India) high court ruled
that a divorced Muslim lady is entitled to a “living allowance” upto her
second marriage. Hope for divorcee Muslim women!

-From a simple, middle-class Muslim family in Allahabad, UP, India,
Maria Zubairi has risen to the position of India’s first Muslim lady pilot.
She was trained at the Indira Gandhi National Flying Academy in Rai
Bareilly, UP, India. Call it, flying away to a place where one’s dreams can
play!

-The Supreme Court (in India) has ruled that if a widowed daughter has no
means of living, then she can ask for a “living allowance” from her parents.

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-Sweden has passed a new law, which makes “sex trade” a punishable
offence. Persons visiting sex workers will be punished, not the women
sexworkers ‘per se’. Women’s organizations have welcomed this law.

-AIDS and women: the National Aids Control Organization and UNAIDS
recently published a report on HIV+ve women. According to the report,
one out of every hundred persons in India is HIV+ve. Most new patients
are below twenty-five years of age, of which approximately half are
women, most of whom are of child bearing age. Women are highly
vulnerable to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Major reasons
are poverty, illiteracy, sex exploitation and rape. Many men have multiple
sex relations. This can affect women. It is sad that even today, women in
India have to sell their bodies to feed their families. Apart from unsafe sex,
the HIV virus may spread through blood transfusions. Approximately 87.6
percent pregnant women suffer from anaemia and need blood. If a pregnant
woman carried the AIDS virus, her baby could be born with AIDS. Not
only this, HIV infected women are left to fight death alone. Societies,
doctors and families shun them. To remove ignorance and misconceptions
about the disease, the government should start spreading information in
schools, colleges, slum areas and remote rural and tribal hamlets…

-A recent UNICEF report raises concern about the sad situation of children
in India. Called “World’s Children’s”, this report links child mortality to
female illiteracy. Out of 85.5 Crore world illiterate, two thirds are women.
India’s position is 45th on the world child mortality scale and 2nd on the
South Asia scale (after Nepal). India spends only 3.7 percent of its gross
domestic product (GDP) on education as compared to the 6.1 percent that is
actually to be spent. The report says that 1/3 rd illiterate are in India alone,

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and if nothing is done to redress the situation, then by the end of the next
decade, India will be the world’s most illiterate nation.

-In the first week of May 2000, a delegation of about 50 to 60 Pakistani
women made a “Solidarity Visit” to India. This delegation included
Sayeda, Sadiya Hassan Bukhari – human rights workers, Mahwish
Hussain-journalist, Farzana Parveen-Professor at Islamabad University,
Aaliya Mallick, Ambreen Rehman and Rubina Shahil, lawyers. Most of
them reiterated that although the two countries are separate, women
belonging to them have common problems, and that a lot of work on
women is being done in Pakistan…

(What follow are extracts from a book on Community Development,
‘Outreach’, Dec 1998)

“Recall a typical village situation in any of the states in northern or central
India. The woman is in an advanced stage of pregnancy. She is going to be
a mother for the fourth time in nine years and her youngest child is just a
year old. In fact, she did not want this pregnancy and did not know how to
avoid it. She is pale and tires easily, yet she works at home and continues to
help out in the fields to supplement her husband’s meager income as a
landless agricultural worker. There is no one to help her. But once she is in
labor, the people around call in the Dai (traditional birth attendant). The
woman starts bleeding but the Dai is unable to cope with the situation. The
woman needs to be taken where maternity care is available. This happens
to be the district headquarters about 40 kilometers away. The health sub-
center is nearer but does not have the necessary facility. Neighbors are
ready to accompany her but transportation is difficult and the roads are bad.
Along with the unborn child, the mother faces grave risks…”

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In developing countries, maternal mortality accounts for the largest or near
largest proportion of deaths among women in their prime years.

- Major health interventions:

For women:

Iron folic acid tablets for controlling anaemia among adolescent girls and
women in reproductive age

Registration of all pregnancies and three pre-natal and three post-natal
checkups by public health centres (PHCs)

Reference to PHC/community health centre for complicated pregnancies
/deliveries

Vaccine against tetanus for pregnant women

Promotion of institutional deliveries or at least by trained birth attendants

Availability of contraceptives and facilities for permanent methods

Control of reproductive tract infection (RTI)/sexually transmitted infection
(STI).

For children:

Immunization of children for six vaccine preventable diseases

Iron and vitamin a to children for preventing anaemia and blindness

Promoting oral rehydration therapy (ORT) to prevent deaths due to
dehydration caused by diarrhoea

Promoting treatment of acute respiratory infections among children

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Provision of supplies and services (child health) uniformly all over the
country

Eradication of neo-natal tetanus and reduction of measles

Essential obstetric care at all PHCs and emergency obstetric care for
attending to complicated pregnancies

Clinics for control of RTI/STI

Facilities for medical termination of pregnancy at all PHCs

Strengthening of child health services in urban slums and in rural and tribal
areas

Intensifying of information, education and communication (IEC) activities

Training of child health service providers and managers.

-Indian mythology is full of references to “women power”. There is Kali,
the Goddess of time, and Durga, the Goddess of battle power. There have
been rulers like Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and Razia Sultana who have led
the country fearlessly in battle. But they hardly reflect the Indian reality.
The Indian woman, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, is primarily
restricted to her role as nurturer. And although practices like “Sati” have
stopped, there is still an alarming tendency to sweep up on a pedestal the
woman who sacrifices herself for her husband. But like anywhere else in
the world, the idea of woman as the second sex is changing in India as well.
As age-old conventions redefine traditions of the Twentieth Century, as
women’s literacy curves up gently but firmly, as the rate of female
infanticide dips lower each year; women of India find a new footing in the
country of Kali and Sati. India is a patriarchal society, in which, the girl
child (in rural areas) has never been the apple of the parents’ eyes. They

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have been denied the pleasures of their childhood, burdened with
household chores and more often than not married off at the earliest
opportunity. As values change and more women pick up careers, the
ground reality shifts as well. For except in certain pockets of the vast
country, where matriarchal and matrilineal societies lend self-respect to
women, women’s emancipation is a tough task. Not just because of denial
of opportunities, but because of the clamps of fossilized values. Given the
right education and opportunities, Indian women have sparkled with
brilliance - whether as creative souls, diligent workers or politicians. And
now, there is a shift in perception, from the much-acclaimed charisma of a
few exceptions to the enormous will power of a larger mass of women.
Today, India is not just the country that was led by a lady premier for
decades, it is a country where more than 30% of its elected representatives
at the village level are women. Mother India is finally taking full control of
her life.

- Anonymous

-To women about their body: “For God’s sake can’t you forget that you are
a girl or a boy and try to become a human being?”

What attitude should a girl take towards her monthly periods?

: The attitude you take towards something quite natural and unavoidable.
give it as little importance as possible and go on with your usual life,
without changing anything because of it... It is a simple natural
phenomenon.... It is not a disease and cannot be the cause of any weakness
or real discomfort.

Should a girl participate in her normal program of physical education
during her periods?

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: Certainly if she is accustomed to physical exercise, she must not stop
because of that. If one keeps the habit of leading one’s normal life always,
very soon one does not even notice the presence of the menses.

Do you think there should be different types of exercises for boys and
girls? Will a girl bring harm on her genital organs by practicing the so-
called manly sports?

: In all cases, as well for boys as for girls, the exercises must be graded
according to the strength and the capacity of each one. If a weak student
tries at once to do hard and heavy exercises, he may suffer.... but with a
wise and progressive training, girls as well as boys can participate in all
kinds of sports, and thus increase their strength and health.

To become strong and healthy can never bring harm to a body, even if it is
a woman’s body!

Will a girl’s appearance change and become muscular like a muscular
man’s and make her look ugly if she practices vigorous exercises?

: Weakness and fragility may look attractive in the view of a perverted
mind, but it is not the truth of nature nor the truth of the spirit.

If you have ever looked at the photos of the women gymnasts you will
know what perfectly beautiful bodies they have; and nobody can deny that
they are muscular!

Will the practice of vigorous types of exercises bring difficulties in child
birth if the girls want to marry and have children afterwards? On the
contrary, women who trained to strong exercises and have a muscular body
go through the ordeal of child-formation and child-birth much more easily
and painlessly...

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What roles should man and woman play in our new way of life? What shall
be the relation between them?

: Why make at all a distinction between them? They are all equally human
beings, trying to become fit instruments for the divine work, above sex,
caste, creed and nationality, all children of the same infinite mother and
aspirants to the one eternal godhead.

- The Mother, Pondicherry, India

411

CHAPTER 27B

WOMAN IS THE CREATOR OF SOCIETY
This section is dedicated to the memory of those 14 women engineering
students who were gunned down by a man for being “Feminists”, in the
Montréal (Canada) massacre (Dec 9, 1989) and to the International
Women’s Day (March 8)…

“There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of
women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.”

– Swami Vivekananda

“Women must be in a position to solve their own problems in their own
way. No one can or ought to do this for them.”


“I know that the race that produced Sita (of Ramayana, the epic) – even if it
only dreamt of her – has a reverence for woman that is unmatched on
earth.”


The modern water babies: –to deliver or not to deliver under water is the
dilemma: – the controversy is erupting again in the western world. Should
modern mothers deliver babies under water or go back to the safety and
security of the delivery-bed in the conventional maternity ward? Let us
examine the question in the light of one such experience.

Eia was born at the Black Sea. No, not at a Black Sea resort. She was born
in the sea. Yes, in the sea. When she was born, she was affectionately
blanketed by the warm waves of the sea from head to foot, just like a

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mother would wrap her baby in the warmth and motherhood of her own
pulsating body.

Eia’s mother was Katya Bagryansky and her father Vladimir Bagryansky.
They had decided to have their baby born at sea when the entire Western
world was swept by the wave of modern water babies, children born under
water.

The baby was sound asleep all night. Only she was not in her cot, she was
in the sea, the Black Sea. It was just the very beginning. Sleeping in the
warm lap of the black sea the few hours old Eia awoke. And as the baby
awoke, the entire family Katya, Vladimir and Eia herself, took their first
swim together in the Black Sea.

Eia is today over twelve years old, alive and kicking and literally a born
swimmer. She has had to suffer very few conventional children’s maladies,
diseases and infections. She is also part of the history of the dear departed
Soviet Union, which broke up into several new democratic republics after
Eia was born. The year Eia was born as many as 700 other babies were
born under water in the then Soviet Union, both at sea and at home.
Mothers who went for water–baby deliveries, delivered little boys and girls
at sea, the rivers, swimming pools or specially created “delivery tubs”.
Why can’t we have water–births in the Third World? We have ample
water– bodies in the villages. As for slum-women (for all women)
“delivery – tubs” could be created in the hospitals. Special technicians
could be brought in from the Soviet Union (now the CIS) or the UK.

Soviet Union was not the first country in the world to launch the campaign
for “water – babies”. Thousands of babies had been born at several other
seas, rivers and lakes in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and

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Scandinavia. Later reports showed that the cult of water babies spread to
several other countries too, advocated, supported and supervised by several
avant garde gynaecologists. Babies are still being born under water,
delivered by modern mothers, by choice.

The argument of the water baby crowd is that underwater birth procedures
enable women to avoid birth injuries and great pain. They also point out
that it helps the baby change over naturally and easily from an intrauterine,
aquatic existence to life as a land dweller.

The chances of birth injuries to a baby in an underwater delivery are much
less than the bed-delivery on land.

As far back as 1969, several specialists around the world had begun to
advocate the concept of birth under water for human beings on the
following premises:

– from weightlessness it passes to weightlessness, where it does not have
to resist enormous loads and where the conditions of life are three or
four times more economical for an infant –

– it is pointed out that water – birth children begin to sit, stand, and walk
much sooner than their land-born brothers and sisters and of course,
they are fine swimmers –

– birth in water takes the baby from the customary aquatic environment
of his mother’s womb to an identical aquatic environment.

Meg Southern in her discussion of labor as a sexual event and in her role as
a student midwife has written (and this is very important, because most
deliveries in the rural and slum areas take place with the help of midwives,
most have no access to hospitals): –

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“Since I was a student midwife, I have assumed that labor is a sexual event,
but recently I have been discussing, usually in the context of the debate
about male midwives, and it has become evident that others do not see
labor in this way. So I have begun to question what I really mean when I
make this assertion.

My first experience of birth was of hearing my mother tell me how I was
born. Her story was of pain; humiliation and a final need for surgery. Then
I saw a number of television programs about birth. This was in the mid
1970s. I found these images of birth exciting and moving, but it was the
emergence of the baby, which touched me. So I had no preconception of
labor as a sexual act when I came to witness my first birth as a student
midwife.

It was an entirely typical hospital birth of the time-the woman, disinhibited
by Pethidine, lay in the lithotomy position, pubis completely shaved, being
enthusiastically exhorted to push with every contraction. In between
contractions, she begged for her legs to be taken down from the stirrups
(they were not, it was unthinkable). As the baby came closer to delivery her
cries became more intense, and, after the birth, changed with dramatic
speed to gasping, relieved acceptance as she repeated, ‘Oh baby, oh my
baby’. The rhythm of her response to the contractions and the sudden
release and change seemed orgasmic to me, though I accept that they may
not have felt like that to the woman. But some women have reported
feeling sexual arousal in labor, and Ina May Gaskin famously encourages
women and their partners to ‘smooch’ to augment labor, advice reiterated
by Caroline Flint. I have personal experience as midwife to a woman who,
late in second stage, was begging the student midwife to masturbate her.

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Previous sexual experiences of a woman (any woman) are very important.
Because if labor does not directly evoke sexual feeling in the woman, the
process of child-bearing must surely indirectly evoke sex. How are babies
conceived? And how are they born? The reproductive organs are sexual
organs and I do not believe that women can expose themselves and open up
to give birth without making this connection.

The hormones of child birth are sex hormones. Oxytocin, which we know
is produced in response to nipple stimulation, causes the uterus to contract
in orgasm as well as in labor and later in after pains.

The impact that this inevitable evocation of the sexual will have for women
in labor will vary depending on her personal sexual experience. Some
women’s experience of sex will have been invasive and traumatic as a
result of sexual violation, incest or some other sexual abuse.

In general, women’s relationship with their sexuality is more complex than
that of men for a combination of reasons – physical, psychological and
social – it is comparatively common for women not to experience orgasm
during sexual activity. Women’s experience of sexuality is influenced by a
male dominated society through social norms which inhibit women, for
instance, by encouraging girls to be quiet and passive, and allowing images
which exploit the female body to sell products.

Women’s experiences in labor often further underline this distancing from
their bodies. They are expected to give birth away from their own territory
and surrounded by people, who, however caring, remain strangers. For a
sensitized woman, the whole of labor, and particularly procedures such as
vaginal examination, application of foetal monitor requiring immobility,
and the sensations of birth, will evoke pain and trauma. Therefore, any
woman would need safety and privacy.” it was heard at a feminist

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convention: ‘I do not have to give birth to a child from my uterus to love it.
Do I? There are so many children around. What’s stopping me from loving
them?’

But giving birth is not the same as having a smear test. It is the beginning
of what is probably the strongest relationship in any society – that of
mother and child.

I remember having watched a beautiful television series: ‘Dr. Quinn,
Medicine Woman’: a lady doctor in a rural environment (played by Jane
Seymour) in which there is this very touching image of a lady doctor
attending a cow giving birth. Male attendants aided the doctor. The
emergence of the calf touched me. Such is the close, ‘touching’ bond
between a mother and her child that it crosses all barriers, including time.

So, what is a mother like? A famous Primatologist has offered the
definition of a mother: –

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy of the University of California at Davis writes:
‘Everybody knows what a good mother is. She is a lot like apple pie: firm
on the outside, but soft, sweet, warm and bland within. A good mother gets
pleasure from the comfort and pleasure of others. A good mother gets
pleasure from being sliced, diced and eaten alive.

Yet, while everybody knows what a good mother is, and everybody wants
one, nobody seems to know where to find her – and with reason. That good
mother gives infinitely and unstintingly.’

If we examine the relationship between nonhuman mothers across phyla,
we find such complexity, beauty and ferocity in the bond between a mother
and her young. It is a bond between two individuals who need each other

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and are closely related, but who are not clones and so do not always see eye
to eye, or breast to mouth for that matter (Hrdy).

Hrdy has examined the bond from a Darwinian perspective. She talks about
the extraordinary demands of human mothering. ‘Most primate mothers
can rear their infants on their own, but human mothers cannot. they need
help, and throughout history and prehistory they have gotten it forever and
however and from whomever they can-from mothers, grand mothers,
brothers, aunts, cousins, from one man, or more than one man.’

“New research,” Hrdy says, “has revealed the prevalence of a practice
called ‘Partible Paternity’ – the idea that a baby is a patchwork quilt of the
various men a woman sleeps with during pregnancy. Found among the
traditional peoples of Lowland Amazonia, Eastern and Southern Africa,
New Guinea and elsewhere, ‘Partible Paternity’ and customs like it turn out
to be of advantage to women and their offspring. If a woman’s primary
husband dies or deserts her; the other second – tier mates are expected to
help protect and provide for her children. As one young Zambian woman is
quoted as saying; ‘why put all your eggs in one basket?”

There is also a brutal side to human motherhood. A woman must be a true
political animal. She must be calculating, sometimes ruthlessly so. Hrdy
delves into the subject of infanticide (and this is very important) revealing
the practice to be a sorry staple of humanity’s efforts to plan and manage
their families.
If a baby is born feeble, or handicapped, or the wrong sex, or too soon after
the last child, the parents may choose to kill, abandon or neglect it, rather
than struggle to rear it against all odds and thus put their other children’s
futures at risk. Sometimes they drop the child in a river. Many cultures
postpone until several days or weeks after an infant’s birth official rituals

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like baptism, circumcision and naming ceremonies, perhaps in recognition
that not every newborn is destined to be reared.

It has also been proved that the female animal is an active player rather
than a passive one in evolution. As Hrdy sees it, “a woman’s career
ambition is not a thing apart from her nurturing, maternal feelings, or an
expression of ‘masculinity’, or the delusional products of contemporary
feminism, as some have suggested. Instead, ambitiousness can be a
reflection of the fact that among many species, the more powerful and
politically dominant the individual, the greater is her or his reproductive
success.” Hrdy cites the example of Flo, the famous chimp studied by Dr.
Jane Goodall.

“Today,’ she says, ‘many women don’t know what to do with their zeal to
succeed. On the one hand, they no longer need men to support them, nor
will they necessarily manage to achieve high status and its trappings on
their partner’s salary alone. Moreover, many women have noticed that a
reliance on male income can leave them and their children impoverished.
And so, human mothers today may wish for standing, accomplishment and
clout of their own, which is easier fantasized than realized.”

‘It seems to me that the circumstances of modern life put women in a bind,
because jobs, status and resource defense occur in separate domains from
child-rearing. The conflict is not between maternal feelings and
ambitiousness, but between the needs of a human infant for constant,
attentive, extended care; and the fact that a woman’s ambitions must be
played out in workplaces with no tolerance for children.

An infant’s needs can be met in day care, but that surrogate care must be
far better than what we have managed, on average, to offer. what we need
in our day care centers are well-paid and highly respected “as-if” mothers,

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who can be either male or female, so long as they are stable, conscientious
and treat the children like their closest kin.’

“We are worrying about global warming, the destruction of the rain forest,
the ozone layer. But nobody is worrying about the future of Homo sapiens
in terms of women, children and day care issues. We really should. If we
care about the future of the human race, and the future of the planet, this is
the place to start,” Hrdy says.

As always, mother knows best.

Now, let us alleviate some problems of the would-be mother. Pregnant
women enjoy Reiki treatments, because they help to alleviate some of the
minor and major complaints of pregnancy such as morning sickness in the
first trimester, and later, lower back pain. Reiki (a Japanese concept of a
universal life force appropriate to healing, an all-enveloping energy of
body, soul and spirit) also helps to soothe women as the emotions begin to
fluctuate due to the large amount of hormones being released in the system.
The infant itself appears to enjoy Reiki. The authoress writes ‘during the
time my sister was pregnant, the treatments seemed to energize her body,
as the infant’s feet would start to kick and little elbows would poke out.
Also, the baby would tend to change positions more often during
treatments, while there was still enough free space to move. We used Reiki
on my sister during the entire birth process, and treated my niece directly
after birth’.

The following body / mind therapies will help women: Reiki,
bioenergetics, acupressure, magnetic yoga, meditation and awareness
methods like Zen, mind control and relaxation response, massage, free
movement, and above all, martial arts, sports, yoga and eurythmics.

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Talking of martial arts, women should learn self-defence (we are talking of
women who have the opportunity and the resources), and act as a team
when it comes to protecting themselves in public. As for women who do
not have the resources, arrangements should be made. Also, let us vouch
for “unisexual sport” which can make a vast difference to inter-sexual
behavior and to the rate of sex-related crime.

A word on Louise Hay’s Affirmations. Louise Hay is an American lady
who explained every illness (cancer, depression, period pain, abdominal
cramps, accidents, drug addictions, ageing problems, alcoholism, animal
bites, respiration, infections, vertigo, fat, suicide, in fact, everything), and
the mental and physical causes for all illness and the metaphysical way to
overcome them.

Miss Hay tells us that female problems (fibroid tumors, leucorrhea, menses
pain, pregnancy ailments) result from ‘denial of the self-rejecting
femininity, rejection of the feminine principle’. A new thought pattern
would be:

‘I rejoice in my femaleness.

I love being a woman.

I love my body.

I feel powerful.’

The word ‘powerful’ reminds me that women outlaws who team up with
men, inspite of their claims to be hapless, emerge as tough-minded and
smart. However, when both men and women kill, the latter are seen as
martyrs to love (like Bonnie Parker of Bonnie & Clyde fame).

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Actually, women have fought for decades to make it clear that they are
rational, independent decision – makers. As cultural mores shift, women’s
involvement in public affairs will shift as well.

So who’s not afraid of the new womanpower?

We are seeing the global emergence of the new woman power. It is not
important as to who was the first but it is important that Indira Gandhi in
India, Margaret Thatcher in Britain, Golda Meir in Israel, Gro Harlem
Brundtland in Norway and Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka all made
distinct impact on the country and the society they lived in. Sri Lanka, an
island nation, is also the first country in the world to have, through
elections, a woman prime minister and a woman president. This is also a
first in the political history of the world and the history of woman power. In
Bangladesh, the leaders of both the ruling and the opposition parties are
women, Khaleda Zia and Hasina Wajid. In Myanmar (Burma), we saw the
emergence of the valiant Aung San Suu Kyi. In Pakistan, ex Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto also emerged as a powerful leader. Ironically, the United
States has never had a woman leader. Women are probably seen as
incompetent to run a country as powerful and as vast as America. How
unfortunate a fact this is.

We are seeing the emerging scenario of womanpower and women in
politics. While some political analysts are disturbed at the emergence of
“economic colonialism”, “information imperialism” (and in this age!) and
“market morality” in the last few years, there are also those who are
dismayed at the “anti – feminism” even in the major political parties
throughout the world. Can they escape the verdict of the feminist votes at
the polls?

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There is now talk of Feminisation of the forests. Mostafa Tolba, former
Director, UNEP has said: ‘If there must be a war, let the weapons be your
healing hands, the hands of the world’s women in defense of the
environment. Let your call to battle be a song for the Earth.’

Almost one-third of poor women are directly or indirectly involved in
forestry or forestry-related work in the unorganized sector of our economy.
And yet, forestry remains mainly a male domain. It seems to me that almost
entirely the forestry sector should be reverted to the unorganized women
through their cooperatives or groups.

As a follow up to the Earth Summit in 1992, a special group was
constituted to invite and promote a global commission on forests. The
efforts of the groups were fruitful and in 1994 an independent World
Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development was established. Dr.
M. S. Swaminathan and Dr. Kamla Chowdhary served as its members from
India. (I am not sure as to whether they still continue).

In many parts of Africa, women are more closely tied to the resources in
their environment than men are. Yet, this link has not often been noted,
even by environmentalists that women use the environment. In many parts
of Africa, it is their traditional role to collect firewood. They also have
knowledge about medicinal plants and building materials. Women in many
countries of the world do the major share of agricultural work. To highlight
this link between gender and environment, a workshop was held in
Kampala, Uganda in the year 1999. The workshop recognized the vital role
that women play in the conservation of the environment and affirmed the
need for full participation of women at all levels of policy-making and
implementation.

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Actually, in an area in which there is widespread poverty, illiteracy and
poor social infrastructure, efforts should be made to link women, water and
work. Organizations should involve those women as its members, who can
be actively reached through income generation, dairying, the artisan
support program, salt farming and social security programs and any
program should try to build on local skills and resources. Such programs
will regenerate both local economy and ecology. Such activities will offer
women opportunities to generate an income on sustainable basis, to
empower themselves, to revive and recover local eco-assets and to benefit
from special services and development programs of the government. Also,
women have assured income, food and social security i.e. full employment,
and self reliance i.e. individually and collectively, economically, and in
terms of making their own decisions.

Banaskantha, in the north of Gujarat state of India, is known for its deserts
and poverty. It ranks highest in the rate of illiteracy and poor social
infrastructure. Since 1988, “Self – Employed Women’s Association”
(SEWA) has been working in 90 villages. Women, water and work have
been linked successfully. This is a beautiful experience.

All I have to say is “why should the government get involved in planting
trees? Forestry, at least nursery and plantation must be handed-over to rural
women. The government must only place an order and make part-payment
in advance to women’s groups and co-operatives.”

Let us shift our focus to women in the slums. As an Indian, it is my moral
duty to bring this to the attention of policy-makers. That, despite the
cacophony the government and the media make about the high profile life
and status of women in our country, the conditions of the women living in
the slums of the major cities remain miserable and pathetic. While

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magazines and newspapers are full of success stories of women who made
their way to the top in political and social life, the murky story of women
who fight for food, shelter and better living conditions, is often neglected.

Women have a natural urge to do creative work, which can be nurtured by
education and good upbringing from childhood. But there are women who
are uneducated and staying in slums, working for their livelihood and the
only earning member of the family.

The conditions in which the people in the slums live are shocking. There is
overcrowding. Water is scarce. You can find empty utensils everywhere
near the taps. The worst is the narrow path leading inside and outside the
slum settlements. There is no second way to come out. If a fire catches the
huts, all the people living in the settlements would be burnt and there
would be no way to escape. The so-called schools have one room. A
teacher comes everyday but only for an hour. This is the general condition
of the people living in the slums. But the condition of women living in the
slums is more miserable. Generally, it is seen that the men work outside
and their wives, mothers or sisters take care of the house. But here the case
is different. The men play cards and very often beat their wives.

The majority of women from the slums work to run their families. They
feed their kids, look after their houses and get liquor for their husbands out
of compulsion. Some of the women work at building construction sites,
some are maids in the nearby houses and a few of them are rag pickers.
They can’t afford to buy clothes for themselves.

Resettlement colonies will really help the slum people. Non-formal
education for slum children should be started and proper schools should be
opened. Water should be made available to slum areas. For the homeless,
“night shelters” should be provided at potential sites for providing facilities

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for night stay along with provisions for blankets, jute mattresses and cotton
carpets. Training programs for skill upgradation should be organized in
night shelters.

The strategy should be to provide:

- minimum basic essential civic amenities in slums for environmental
improvement –

- shelter to the shelterless-

- housing and developed plots to economically weaker sections on
affordable prices-

- infrastructure of low cost productive, durable, and income generating
assets for stable source of income to slum dwellers and economically
weaker sections –

Besides, the prevailing conditions in the slums need to be improved.

Is the society or organization that always talks about improving the
conditions of the poor, not responsible for the prevailing state of women?
(Source: an article on the subject, in a magazine)

Talking about the conditions of women worldwide, let us recognize that
women greatly contribute to the well being of society by means of
productive, reproductive and community work. Not in vain,

Women provide one-third of the official work force

Two-thirds of the total number of work hours in the world

And produce 44% of food….

And yet,

Believe it or not,

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Earn only one-tenth of total worldwide income.

The work and determination of feminist researchers and organizations to
make this reality visible has begun bearing its fruit.

Women are needed because they manage and guarantee survival, a
predicament in which a growing segment of the population find
themselves.

What I have to say is that there is a need to place people at the center of
development; but the policy-making processes of international financial
institutions are actually going on in the opposite direction. Instead of a
development model based on addressing needs and creating internally
balanced societies, as well as in relation with nature, the trend is towards
imposed multiplication of needs and unlimited growth of monetary
economy.

Talking of money, women from all over the world are “imported”. Women
in some parts of India are offered as “Devadasis” (maids to God) to
temples. In one particular village, village women have to offer themselves
to male members of the village after puberty. In Nepal, until recently,
parents or rich people who could purchase them from very poor and
socially disadvantaged families offered young girls to the temples. The
practice is very similar to the tradition of offering animals such as bulls or
goats to temples in the name of religion. These temple girls would grow up
with the temple animals, and eventually become prostitutes.

In certain parts of Nepal, the accepted profession of the Badi caste group is
prostitution. Whole new generations of “fatherless children” in that caste
group continue the profession. Both these practices are now illegal; the

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former is declining fast, whereas the latter is being adapted to modern
forms of urban prostitution.

A large majority of foreign women forced to work as prostitutes in Japan
are Thai and Filipino. The rest are from other neighboring countries, and
some come from Latin America, Africa and Northern countries.

The Asian Women’s Shelter ‘Help’ based in Tokyo offers some relief to
the women who manage to escape the sex trade, often possessing nothing
but the clothes they wear. Help offers translation services, and often is
successful in helping women return to their home country.

Sex workers: empowering or exploitative? Women doing sex work in
brothels are often referred to as a “vulnerable population”. It is not,
however, that the women themselves are vulnerable, but their working
conditions leave them unprotected from exploitation and abuse. The
realities of their lives are such that they are not able to choose when to eat,
bathe, sleep or work. They cannot choose to whom they wish to sell sex or
where they will go when they are ill. The brothel owners make these
decisions; along with decisions regarding their health care, wages, hours
and methods they use for prevention of pregnancy and STDs.

Women are still suffering, for instance, Talibs in Afghanistan had imposed
severe restrictions on women: – “Talibs” in Afghanistan (Islamic teachers
and their students) used to control large parts of the country including four
or five provinces.

While many people may have felt safe and at peace with the Talibs in
power, others had feared the country would be controlled by a severe
regime with little respect for women’s rights. In the areas controlled by the
Talibs, girls were banned from school, female teachers were fired, and

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school directors were being advised to restyle the curricula in order to re-
establish the “Madrassahs”, religious colleges. The Talibs were canceling
all training for midwives, contending that women should not work.
Furthermore, they would urge male doctors to deny any treatment to their
female patients; in a city like Kandahar, extremely severe restrictions
would be imposed on women.

Other restrictions imposed on women included sanctions on going out
alone; they were to be accompanied by a man, and even then, they were
required to be veiled. Women, who challenged these restrictions, have been
known to be tortured by fanatic Talibs.

The restrictions for women’s going out were relaxed: provided they would
wear a “Burga” or “Burkha”, they would be allowed to walk on the streets
again. Also, nurses and midwives would be allowed to work again in the
hospitals.

On the one hand, Talibs were imposing restrictions on their women; on the
other hand, there is growing public concern in many countries about the
potential adverse and disastrous effects of genetic engineering. This was
discussed at an international conference on “Redefining the Life Sciences”
held at Penang, Malaysia and organized by the Third World Network. The
sale of genetically engineered foods points the way to widespread
commercialization and rapid expansion of genetic engineering in
agriculture. This will result in the creation of a large number of alien
organisms with great potential for unexpected and harmful consequences.

“We have to appeal to the scientific community, health professionals and
workers, religious leaders, environmentalists, public interest groups, trade
unions, political leaders, and people everywhere to join the movement. We

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must ensure the right of present and future generations to a natural and
healthy environment.”

Generations are going on, and there are many gender lessons to be learned.
In Africa for instance, gender-–prescribed behaviors have been devastating
for the sexual and reproductive health of girls and women. Sexuality has
become a dangerous – rather than empowering terrain for girls and women.

Violence: gender-based violence affects female health through direct
infringements on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, and
by undermining their ability to exercise these rights in the long run. A
young woman participating in a Kenyan youth program stated that “sexual
assault” and child abuse have almost become accepted as a normal part of
life. Until there are strong and action–oriented responses by schools, other
social institutions and government, such incidents are implicitly
encouraged, will continue to happen, and will continue to undermine the
benefits of education for African girls and women. The male species has
not guaranteed protection to its female counterparts. The female of every
other species protects itself, so, why can’t the female of the human species
fight by itself?

Birth control and reproductive rights: men’s attitudes and objections are
often cited by women as the primary reason for not using, or terminating
use of, contraceptives. In almost all African countries, this lack of
reproductive control is compounded by restrictive legislation on abortion
and a lack of family planning services for young or unmarried women.
Because girls and women are unable to control the circumstances under
which they have sex, sexual encounters often result in unwanted pregnancy
and unsafe abortion. Many Kenyan girls drop out of school each year due

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to pregnancy. Higher proportions of teenagers, compared to adults have
been found among abortion cases in Kenyan hospitals.

Sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV: a large number of women in
Africa are infected with HIV. Still, most African men refuse to wear
condoms consistently or at all. Social endorsement of male sexual
aggression also places women (who are often monogamous) at risk of their
partner’s sexual risk-taking. Younger and younger girls are targeted for sex
by older men, who believe young girls are free of, or cure, infection. In one
Nigerian clinic, 21% of female clients were under the age of 15. In these
difficult economic times, many schoolgirls are forced to exchange sex with
‘sugar daddies’ to pay for school fees, uniforms and books.

Harmful practices: in many cultures, women’s bodies are viewed as dirty or
polluting, and female sexuality is perceived as threatening and requiring
societal control. These notions about women’s bodies are associated with
specific physical practices that are harmful to women. Worldwide,
approximately 6000 girls each day undergo genital mutilation. Most of
them are in Africa. In West and Southern Africa, many women are taught
as girls to remove all discharge from their vaginas to make themselves “dry
and clean” – to enhance male sexual pleasure. These practices endanger
women’s health, and compromise women’s sexual pleasure and control.

Assumed heterosexuality: in Africa, the dominant assumption of
heterosexuality has played a key role in restricting women’s sexuality, by
limiting its expression to the realm of reproduction.

It has been suggested that African women should break the silence, and
challenge the assumptions surrounding their sexuality.

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We must work with our own governments, relevant regional and
international agencies, non-governmental and community organizations
and with each other to create and implement a broad agenda for women’s
sexual and reproductive health and rights including

– engaging women and men, and adolescents in their sexual and
reproductive decision making and responsibilities;

– developing alliances across regions, sectors, communities and
individual beliefs, to strengthen our movement and ensure respect for
both diversity and basic international standards on human rights and
social development.

Finally, in all our struggles and negotiations, we must never forget that
sexuality can and should be an intensely pleasurable and empowering part
of human life. Making this the reality for all women should be our goal.

This goal has to some extent been achieved in Bangladesh, one of the
poorest countries of the world. The land is rich. Its natural abundance is
described in the national anthem “My Bengal of Gold”, as follows:

“In spring, oh mother mine, the fragrance from your mango groves make
me wild with joy-ah, what a thrill! In autumn, oh mother mine, in the
heavily – laden paddy fields, I have seen spread all over – sweet smiles!
Ah, what beauty, what shades, what affection and what tenderness! What a
quilt you have spread at the feet of the banyan trees and along the banks of
rivers! ”

The impoverished country’s number one problem is the population
problem. The country has failed to provide the basic human needs
including food, clothes, shelter, medical care and education to the
constantly increasing population.

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The population began to rapidly grow in the 1950s. Such sharp population
increase was too heavy for the new country that got independent after the
“War of Liberation” fought in 1971. The government “attached priority to
population control equal to that given to food production” in the First Five
Year Plan (1973-78) and called for “the necessity of immediate adoption of
drastic steps to slow down the population growth”. Looking back at those
days, the then Executive Director of the FPAB (the Family Planning
Association of Bangladesh) wrote, “nowhere in the world has desired
fertility reduction been achieved with high illiteracy, high incidence of
infant and child mortality, women secluded with no empowerment,
endemic hunger (poverty), religiosity with rigid culture and almost
stagnating socio-economic development as in Bangladesh.”

One of the major factors for the steady economic development is women’s
empowerment, for e.g., through the improvement in educational level. The
contraceptive prevalence rate has gone up. The total fertility rate has
dropped to quite a low level. More and more developing countries are
expected to follow Bangladesh as a model.

In the past, Bangladesh has also emerged as donor. Together with other
successful developing countries, Bangladesh has formed the “Partners in
Population and Development”, an organization which aims at promoting
cooperation in the field of family planning. This (donors’ experience and
technologies) will greatly help reduce the number of mothers in many
developing countries who are dying of unplanned pregnancy and child-
birth, to say nothing of those suffering from diseases resulting from them.

All this has happened because a silent women’s revolution has taken place
in Bangladesh. Because women are not weak. They are strong enough to
liberate the world.

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Bhagwan Shri Sai Baba (Indian spiritual leader) has written on
womanhood: “instruct the women of the village in the basic principles of
child health, child care and child training. Do not consider any act of
service as demeaning…”

“When women are true, brave, kind and compassionate, the world can have
an era of peace and joy!” Time now to do away with negative stereotypes
projected by the media and instead focus on positive images of women.

“Woman is not meant to surpass man nor to be trampled under his feet. She
should stand as his equal.”

“People call women weak. Do not believe it. Mothers should foster in their
children, love for truth, righteousness and tell them stories about the lives
of greatmen and women.”

Women are not weak at all in terms of strength or ability. Women give
birth; sometimes to as many as ten or more children, breast-feed them. This
saps their strength in a major way. In good nourishment lies the answer.
What about Third World women? And what are men bragging about? Their
“strength”? We have innumerable examples of the strength displayed by
women in the world. As against the three potencies attributed to men,
women are said to have seven potencies according to the Gita! I am quoting
Indian mythology: can you call as weak Savithri who made the Lord of
death restore life to her husband? Can Anasuya who transformed the
Divine Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, into three babies and played
with them, be called weak? Sumithra was a great lady who stopped the sun
from rising; her husband was predestined to die the next morning. Could
she be termed as weak?

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There are many such heroic women in recorded history. Joan of Arc (the
brave French peasant girl) and Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi in India come to
my mind. Though physically women may appear weak, in reality, they are
full of strength. As the embodiment of the three “Gunas” (virtues), women
are endowed with exceptional strength. Even in the spiritual field, women
display their boundless capacity.

We are talking about the species called woman. I am dismayed at the
alarming rise in violence against this species. Our liberal attitudes are to
blame. We have become preoccupied with sex and violence. Poverty and
unemployment may also frustrate males to the point of committing sex-
related crime. It hurts me to think that this is happening all over the planet
(a little girl of six was sexually harassed after participating in a beauty
contest for children. This happened in America).

Men do not guarantee us (women) protection. We have to make secure
women all over the world. To achieve full security, ‘women of the world’ –
yes, women from each continent have to come together.

I dream of a day when an equivalent of ‘official knighthood’ will be
conferred on women, with titles such as Madam, Madame or
Mademoiselle. This may seem ridiculous to you, but only women can
liberate the planet – men, other women, children, flora and fauna and
insects and animals. It upsets me that both men and women are becoming
preoccupied with sex, and are neglecting problems of the planet. Women
give birth – and only women are powerful enough to liberate the planet.

Rape (sexual assault) is a virtual impossibility, and no man can ever
physically or emotionally overpower a woman against her consent. Yes, let

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us believe that way, and sexual assault (rape) will be erased from the face
of this planet.

In India, sexual violation (rape) is worse than murder. Victims have to live
like a living corpse. Victims have to face tremendous social stigma. Some
women are reported to have been thrown out of hospitals when in labor
because they could not sign their names. A top (international) super model
from Somalia had to go through the rituals of infibulation.

At times, the word ‘sex’ with its different connotations disgusts me. Sex is
not a sin. But a dirty word. Love is better, a touch can convey more than a
thousand words. But touch has been abused. It has come out in the form of
rape (sexual violation), child sexual abuse, male rape (breaking the last
taboo), virginity (a big issue), voyeurism, bestiality, sex work, pornography
(crude, including animals), nudity (which is pure by itself), abortion (a big
issue), strip joints, provocative dressing and so on.

Religion, sex and women are big issues – abortion, family planning,
women’s rights and women’s freedom. Well, babies do come from heaven-
couples conceive when the mother of Lord Jesus blesses them. What upsets
me is that women all over the world have been suppressed for centuries. It
begun with Adam and Eve, Eve ate the Forbidden Apple – and God
punished woman. The war is not yet over – and there are other issues
(which largely affect women) waiting to be solved – poverty,
contraception, literacy and so on.

Let us work to inspire women, (especially slum and rural women), to work
as a chain and to fight violence as a team. Women who travel in cars do not
need survival strategies on the road – and money and education are

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powerful. “Well, I, with my education and cars, prefer to walk across the
street storing my survival strategies in my pocket” (anonymous).

“Anyway, the point is, everything has got commercialized, commodified,
sensationalized. bodies, sex, everything is selling, and believe me – the
economies of scale are operating in the case of food (hunger, Third World
malnutrition), health (fertility, religion, disease, maternal and child
mortality) and sex (porn mags / porn cinema, beauty contests, cosmetic
surgery, silicon breast implants, eating disorders and even ‘unwanted
hair’). I know of someone whose breasts had to be removed. Is that not
pain enough for a woman?”

Let us discuss some other issues. Let us start with lovely Diana, Lady
Diana, our beloved princess who is no more. God takes away those he
loves or treats as special. And she was special to us. Women all over the
world wept for Diana. She did not deserve the kind of death she got. The
media chased her and well, the rest is “spiritual”. Because death took her to
God. God takes away special people because they (Lady Diana, Karen
Carpenter) deserve God and not men and women. It was lovely seeing
Diana come to Calcutta to meet Mother Teresa, work with the Red Cross in
Africa. There was so much “spiritual” beauty in her. She kept smiling
despite everything. She protects us from the heavens. There will not be
another Karen Carpenter. At a very young age, she succumbed to anorexia
nervosa. The media has glamorized every little thing-brute aggression like
rape, (ideal) bodies, mania, private lives, wealth, power, abuse of power.

Starting with Adam and Eve, women have been suppressed for centuries.
They were, are and will however, knit for their tiny tots, out of affection.
And men should start knitting as well – out of affection, yes, tiny tots come
when papa loves mama.

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When love is not present, the term used would be rape. Well, society is our
biggest drawback. So an HIV + “victim” cannot express himself (or
herself) freely, a rape victim can not express himself / herself freely. Going
to rape, we could make a video on “reverse-rape”, make a black and white
video in which a group of black men were shown violating a white woman,
and a group of white women violating a black man and he would be shown
not enjoying his experience and the video would be silent. We could study
racism, sexism, ‘reverse – racism’, redefine rape as “forced sex” defeating
the concept that men are more powerful compared to women, prove that the
male body is as provocative as the female body.

Did you know that women in India (largely) do not pray during their
menses? Or, for that matter cook? Anyway, that is a separate issue. What
we must know is that Indian women are still suffering. from the
suffragettes to the modern day, they suffer through the joint family system,
Sati, Lausa, Purdah, religion, also through poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition,
hunger, Devadasi temple culture, brothels, domestic roles, pressure of job;
etc. how far have we progressed on the issue of sharing of domestic roles?
On the issue of women being confined to the kitchen?

“Sex is power”, said actress Raquel Welch. But, missionaries deny
themselves. Nuns, Jesuits, monks, priests and priestesses (the purest species
on earth) abstain.

Believe me, when God created men and women, he thought of creation. “It
is evident that every emission of semen in such a way that generation
cannot follow, is contrary to the good of men, and if this is done
deliberately, it must be a sin”, said Thomas Aquinas. All decisions come
from God. So as to say, pregnancy, contraception, sexual violation, sexual

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abuse, sex itself, abortion, breast-feeding, raising children, everything
comes from God.

Nuns are getting sexually violated in India, why? Is it because they are
Christian or is it because they are women? I feel so happy that some nuns
are learning self-defense. (Come to think of it, no one will touch a woman
who is in a Hejab or try to lift it)

Now, we are coming to issues – that clothing is not a big issue. A word for
all women, believe me, clothe yourself sufficiently so that you are able to
protect yourself from violation, unwanted pregnancy and abortion. Wear
your attitude, clothing that suits your temperament, climate, makes you feel
comfortable, and in which you (refers to all women) can fight and protect
yourself. All women need complete sex education, including “survival
strategies”. Someone trained in self-defense will never say that a woman is
vulnerable. The female body has been commercialized to such an extent
that excessive dependence on beauty (the beauty industry) will kill women
in terms of increased violence, etc.

In spiritual terms, love connotations should be used. Biological
connotations should be avoided. Together, we (refers to a man and a
woman) will create. Every creation is beautiful – a shy orchid, a child, a
flower, a plant, a cat, the seas, the fish. No creation of God should be
abused.

What is life without pain, any woman would say. Birth itself is painful.
When I gave pain to my mother when I was born, why cannot I, another
woman, withstand pain?

Marriage carries a social connotation, and divorce? When parents divorce,
what will happen to the “little” (nee next) generation?

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How do you think poor Third World women (Indian, Bangladeshi, African
women) cope with heavy work like having to lift bricks, walk for miles
during their menses? (Largely) through natural therapy (like herbs, barks of
trees). And because of exercise, believe me, rural Third World women
would probably be in labor for just about an hour or so. It, therefore,
becomes important to train girl children in self – defense, good sport and
games right from birth.

About rural Third World women and labor, a good place to give birth
would be a “natural” environment, in the vicinity of a temple or church,
close to a tree (for privacy), using a positive or comfortable posture (squat),
or change, but enjoying their pain. In the Third World, God blesses rural
women. They are powerful sexually, as in a typical rural environment, men
are not expected to cooperate or participate in the birth process. Ideally, for
rural women, there could be an attendant. The setting would be a village
atmosphere (the countryside), with sounds of water, and if a water baby
specialist were present, or other pain-relief methods were applied (reiki,
acupressure, acupuncture), then it would be a perfect birth. Believe me,
music, color, a natural environment – pink roses, the blue sky, the sounds
of water, the sounds of nature would help release of your love (love of your
would be creation), would help you release, push further until you have
released your creation, an innocent flower who knows not what lies ahead
of him/her.

The talk of birth reminds me that an international Feminist (name withheld)
was right when she said that the “whole woman” does not exist. In my
opinion, women would cease to exist if it were not for the continuation of
the species. Sex becomes important only for the purpose of creation, and
we know that many women look for companionships in other women.

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Human beings operate on the principle of Hedonism, and in circumstances
under which sex is not possible, stroking and massage can provide
pleasure. In contemporary Third World societies, much of (marital) sex is
forced, and highly sexual village and slum women operate under the “time
– clock birth machine” syndrome imposed by a patriarchal society.

No society is truly liberated, not even Western society, and more attention
should be given to the male child in terms of “real education” – sex
education becomes important for women, and moral education or real
education for men (to prevent delinquent behavior). Because the power-
structure is still inequitable, it should be difficult to get inside a man, and
promoting greater interaction between the sexes may help us analyze inter
– sexual behavior.

My question is: are stereotyped beauty pageants and cosmetic surgery
social ills? These contests create stereotyped images of women, as young
girls across the globe get busy not eating properly, leading to eating
disorders. We should promote “fat” contests or “short” contests (in a lighter
perspective).

A leading Indian lady advocate has said that rape (sexual violation) is a
near – impossibility. And so it is. No man can ever physically overpower a
woman; she can always defend herself. Knowledge of martial art helps.
The English dictionary is to blame for having created images in our minds
of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’. The media should encourage positive
images of women: women in (positive) power, women in action (e.g.
combat), women in humane and compassionate forms and women in
traditional male occupations (like bus and truck drivers, workers at gas
stations). We have to fight child and adult sexual abuse as a team, fight
against sexism in the media, sexist advertising and sexism in public.

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Stereotypes are forcing women to become weaker and weaker, and men
stronger and stronger and physical disparities are increasing.

Much of what is going on in any country is because of conservative
attitudes and a patriarchal society, and when women are refusing to
conform, families are breaking down.

Only women have common sense enough to prevent such things from
happening. Because women are powerful. Ideally, women are less corrupt
(or less likely to be), are more humane and compassionate, and for once,
their inhibitions prevent them from causing damage to the human race.
Women will never cause damage to the human race. However, there is
danger that the female race in India may be wiped out.

Yes, will our women be a threatened species in the new century?

“People insist on regarding history as a river flowing peaceably through flat
countryside, racing wildly in hilly terrain and here and there tumbling over
a waterfall. And what if its bed was not hollowed out in advance? And
what if it is unable to reach the sea and loses itself in the desert?”

- Amin Maalouf, The First Century After Beatrice

“There is no time like the future for discussing the past, and since times
past and present are all said to coexist in the future, the year 2000 could be
an ideal year taking a stock of things – demographically.

A frightening fact stands out as we scan the records: in 1901 women
numbered 997 to every 1000 men in India. Today we are down to 929
women per 1000 men. There are parts of India, moreover, where women
number less than 800 to 1000 males. By the time the results of the 2001
census are declared, the ratio of females to males will have gone down
alarmingly further. And so, it cannot be treated merely as a phenomenon.

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Nature has decreed that an equal number of both sexes are around, and
since the female child is congenitally hardier, a marginally higher number
of male children shall be born to maintain a balance in numbers.

Likewise, demographic figures the world over show that the number of
female survivors is higher. Our country is a notable exception to this
natural law.

Research has revealed that the reason behind this glaring deficiency in the
number of females lies, not in fewer of them being born in India, but in a
systematic neglect of women and the girl child as worthless human beings.

Ironically, the focus is more on preventing births than helping girls survive.
A great deal of fuss is made over the fact that we have touched the billion
heads’ mark, and several of our leaders display a Malthusian paranoia.

The trend is alarming enough for one to apprehend the imposition of a one
child per family, China – fashion. If that does happen, one may be sure the
son – hungry Indian society will turn even more eagerly towards
‘scientific’ sex – determination tests in order to abort the unwanted female
foetus. And the government, which now bans such selective abortions, may
choose to lift the ban, or simply look the other way. Logic would be, if
fewer girls meant small families it was better to let people have their way.
If a number of abortions meant a family settling for a single boy child, it
was infinitely better than a woman going in for multiple pregnancies for
that coveted male heir.”

-The Telegraph, regret date not noted

I fear that if these trends are not reversed, they could unleash fearsome
social upheavals in the foreseeable future, which would lead to an
unprecedented rise in crimes against women and self – destructive war

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mongering by men. Women and population increase are, therefore, very
important issues. Another important issue is feeding the growing world
population.

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CHAPTER 28A
“While it is true that human history has always known poverty and
famines, we have never before experienced the massive doubling and
redoubling of our numbers which has occurred during our lifetime. It took
all of human history to reach a global population of one billion in 1804. It
took only 12 years to go from 5 billion to the 6 billion mark. If fertility
stays at its present level, the human population will exceed 50 billion by
the next century - if the Earth could possibly support that many people.

We should realize that our exploration and exploitation of the world’s
natural wealth has already located and consumed those resources easiest to
recover and utilize. For the last few years, the amount of arable agricultural
lands have declined due to desertification and erosion. There is no denying
that we are running out of natural resources. How will we manage when
there are twice as many people?

There is still enough time to attain world population stability through
means that respect human freedom and dignity.”

- Carl R. Gilmore, Rotarian, Illinois, USA (Dec’,99)

So, what are we waiting for?

“If the governments cannot agree to feed the world, they cannot agree
about anything.”

- Boyd Orr

As population increases, so does materialism.

And it becomes all the more, that the poor and the wretched of the Earth

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find it difficult to survive.

(In this vast ocean of materialism)

‘Increasing population growth in the world is the result of past economic
and social policies that caused poverty, ignorance and unemployment. It is
not the poor who are provoking the global population problem.’

- Anonymous

It is not true that there is insufficient food to go round. The grain produced,
if properly distributed, would give every human being ample protein and
more than 3000 calories a day. But a third of the grain produced is fed to
animals...

- John Ferguson, from “Not Them But Us”

Again, man’s materialism (probably fattening for meat?)

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CHAPTER 28B
Can we feed the future world population?

“One man’s freedom from hunger and want is neither a true nor a secular
freedom until all men are free from hunger and want.”

- Dr. Binay R. Sen (Former Director General of the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO)).

Food supply will escalate as the total world population climbs past 6
billion. One particularly notable report examines whether the world’s
farmers will be able to keep pace.

Authors Dr. William Bender and Dr. Margaret Smith report that
agricultural production has grown at an extraordinary pace over the last few
decades, which allowed per capita food supply to increase despite
unprecedented population growth. But Dr. Bender, a food security expert
and Dr. Smith, an agronomist, also state that producing enough food for the
future population will require concerted efforts by both the public and the
private sectors to increase agricultural yields while avoiding damage to the
environment.

Poverty is the major cause of hunger throughout the world:

Food is not distributed equally throughout the world, within countries, or
even within households. The unequal distribution of food within and
among countries means that 840 million people worldwide, including 200
million children, will go hungry today. Poverty, natural disasters, political
violence, and geopolitical factors prevent at least one-seventh of the world
from getting enough to eat. Although the number and the share of people

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suffering from malnourishment have fallen over the past few decades, the
task of ending world hunger remains formidable.

Earth produces enough food for nearly all the people alive today:

In fact, if everyone adopted a vegetarian diet and no food were wasted,
current production would theoretically feed 10 billion people, more than
the projected population for the year 2050.

Food and population are out of balance:

Many low-income countries do not grow enough food to feed their
residents, and cannot afford to import enough food to make up the
difference. Some 43% of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa and 22% of
the population in South Asia are malnourished, according to the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Millions more consume the minimum
number of calories, but fail to get the necessary protein and essential
vitamins and minerals to lead a healthy life.

Increased food production and rising incomes have reduced the incidence
of malnutrition worldwide:

In 1969-70, more than one-third of the developing-world population-about
918 million people - were classified as “food-energy deficient”. By 1990,
the number had fallen to 840 million or one in five people in the
developing world. However, both the absolute number and percentage of
people suffering from severe malnutrition increased in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prospects for meeting future food needs:

Population growth is the single largest determinant of future food needs.
The projected populations of countries and regions make specific forecasts
of food demand uncertain. However, it is clear that the world’s poorest
regions will need to produce enough food to feed double the current

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population by the middle of the 21st Century. Whether this will be possible
depends in part on the following factors:

Increasing yields:

Biotechnology holds promise for increasing yields, but may not be
available to poor regions because of the expense of developing new plant
breeds. Agronomists have estimated maximum potential rice yields to be
twice that of recent record-high yields.

Combating land degradation:

Factors such as desertification, deforestation and the like are potential
threats to the livelihoods of rural populations and to the future food supply.

Slowing erosion:

Erosion can have devastating impacts on the environment and agricultural
productivity, and can cost farmers a lot of money. The US Soil
Conservation Service estimates that almost half of U.S. arable land is
excessively eroded.

Maintaining adequate irrigation:

Factors such as population growth, industrialization, water pollution and
the like will all reduce the amount of water available for agriculture. By
2020, 35 countries are expected to be classified as “water-scarce” – up
from 20 in the mid – 1990s.

Improving fertilizer use:

As of 1993, developing countries (excluding China) were using about 37
million tons of fertilizers a year; a four-fold increase over the amount used
about 20 years ago. Fertilizers will play a crucial role in increasing future

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food supplies, but barriers to their use and the environmental impact of
their misuse must be addressed.

Funding research:

Much of the needed food increase is expected to come from agricultural
research and new technology. Private and public support will be crucial for
continued expansion of the world’s food supply.

Enacting progressive agricultural policies:

Government policy can affect agricultural production and the food supply
through price subsidies, trade policy and investments in agricultural
research.

“The lives of half of the world’s population are directly affected by
agriculture”, say Dr. Bender and Dr. Smith. “They will profit or lose
depending upon the actions adopted by governments and national and
international agencies to further agricultural development.”

Talking about national and international agencies (NGOs), they have a vital
role to play in sustainable development.

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CHAPTER 29A
Few professions can be as satisfying and as abundant as “development”.
However, there are many ways in which each one of us can get involved.
But nothing compares with actually jumping into the thick of working for
humankind.

Development is an attitude that should come from within, and minds have
to be opened before funds are allocated, bridges built and check dams are
constructed.

Development is

- bringing a smile to a child’s face;

- teaching the village woman to read and write;

- helping the farmer use technical equipment in the field;

- And so much more.

For a development plan to sustain, it must belong to the people.

NGOs and women: NGOs have a vital role to play in enhancing the status
of women. They can always provide marketing skills, enterprise
development, and leadership and management skills to women.

NGOs are at various stages of growth and development. In the 1st category,
are NGOs with effective programs but need help in achieving
sustainability, and strengthening institutional growth and development. In
category 2, are those NGOs who have some experience but need assistance
to increase their efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability. In category 3,
are NGOs in infant stage who need the capacity to plan, manage, and
implement programs. Thus, NGOs need different kinds of assistance to

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increase their capacity to play a leadership role, manage their activities
efficiently and effectively, improve their accountability and plan to achieve
sustainability over a period of time in consonance with their mission.

It is very important to enhance the capacities of voluntary organizations for
women, which operate at national and grassroots levels, and are concerned
with poverty alleviation (poverty’s woman?), health (centuries of
neglect??), population (time-clock birth machines imposed by patriarchal
societies???) and women in development (do women really have a say????)

The Vietnamese economy has been opened up and restructured (“Doi
Moi”, the “process of renovation”) and now, more than ever before, there
are so many possibilities for women to come forward in the task of nation -
building. The market economy has created many job-opportunities for
women. Under these circumstances, the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU)
has assumed the role of a national mass movement for Vietnamese women.
Its structure represents a powerful network extending from the central to
the grassroots level. Good for their women!

Women in Cambodia have been isolated for decades altogether. NGOs
have to intensify their work in credit and small business, primary health
care, water management, irrigation, social science research and others.

The challenge for women NGOs is to develop self-reliance, restoring
confidence in women, and mobilizing community resources and
participation.

There are quite a few NGOs in Nepal working on women’s issues such as
women’s rights, equality, education, health, nutrition, economic
empowerment, etc. Many of these programs are, however, small, micro-
level, and limited efforts. There is a need to have a forum on women. It is

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important that we link efforts among various organizations at different
levels, particularly, between grassroots experiences and policy/advocacy
groups. A very crucial issue is to mobilize women and to encourage them
to be self-reliant using their own resources and those of the government.

The political commitment of Indonesia in integrating women in national
development is clearly stated in its state policy, the “Pancasila” and its
1945 constitution. Law and developing policies have also supported gender
equality. There are hardly any formal barriers to obstruct Indonesian
women from taking part in the social, cultural, political, technological
sectors. There are many women’s and voluntary organizations in Indonesia.
The spirit of voluntarism is very strong in Indonesia, and this should be
capitalized on. Conditions have to be created for volunteers to have life-
long careers with NGOs.

In the Philippines, social development NGOs started off in the 1950s and,
grew in the 1980s particularly after the people’s power revolution of 1986.

The passing of gender-equality provisions in the new constitution (1986)
marked a turning point in the growth of the Filipino women’s movement,
when women from different political and class origins could unite. Gender
advocacy has now moved beyond the center.

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CHAPTER 29B

NGOS-ROLE TO PLAY-A TYPICAL
APPROACH
NGO Vision:

“A society, where the communities are able to self determine their choices
and translate them into a set of self-reliant and sustainable activities with
their survival needs, aspirations and dignity.”

NGO Mission:

“To excel as an enabling institution for the development of the deprived so
as to improve the quality of their life through participatory action, research
initiatives, training programs and to enhance the capacities of the people
ensuring sustainability.”

NGO Values:

Conscience: the set of organizational conscientious standards for common
action, shared interpretation and uniform behavior.

Culture – based development: designing and implementing changes and
approaches which have roots in indigenous culture and manifest its respect
for intuitive knowledge and wisdom of its program people (beneficiaries);
and are, therefore, more likely to be readily accepted and sustained.

Self – Reliance:

Working for change, with a view to enhancing capacities and competencies
of its program- people (beneficiaries) such that they will later initiate and
bring about changes to further improve quality of their own lives without
reliance on it (the NGO).

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Sustainability:

Fostering improvement, for its project – people, which will continue in the
long term, independent of the NGO and be ecologically compatible.

Learning:

Consolidating and enhancing organizational learning based on experiences
of its own people, from its own activities and programs and making such
learning as a major source for sustained organizational dynamism.

Participation of program people:

Active participation of program – people in all stages of programs: problem
identification, program design, implementation and evaluation.

Effectiveness:

Producing the desired result.

“For non-governmental organizations, their priorities and work involve
organizing the poor and the marginalized groups to counter systematic
exploitation and injustice, uniting them to fight for their rights, sensitizing
the ‘system’ to the harm being inflicted on the natural environment, and
demonstrating environment – friendly, people focused, resource-conserving
and culturally rooted alternatives through different projects. The
operational base could be a village, a tribal belt or a city and the principal
area of focus could be poverty, the environment, women, slums,
employment, health, education or community organization. For those
concerned with the suffering of the poor and the destructive side effects of
‘development’, there are very pressing problems of survival and
development crying for attention.

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Consider the situation in India: The population planning program is in
disarray; over 300 million people live below the poverty line and the
poverty alleviation effort founders on many fronts: the stagnant economy
refuses to budge despite doses of reforms; priorities in investing in human
resource development are so absurd that, there are secessionist threats in
Kashmir and elsewhere, also “Satis (bride burning)” in Rajasthan, dowry
deaths in Gujarat, recurrent atrocities on Harijans (‘Children of God’), on
going dispossession of tribals and sustained destruction of the environment.

For the small number of urban NGOs, working in slums and in other low-
income settlements, issues of urban violence and conflict are pressing, as is
the intimidating reality of the city’s vulnerability. Working in slums, they
have seen the ugly face of urbanization, the dehumanizing living and
working conditions for a great majority of citizens. NGOs have been forced
to see their work with the poor in a different perspective. They will have to
place their welfare efforts in the broader context of the city’s overall well-
being.

New questions have been thrown up: is there a relationship between the
settlement pattern and nature of violence? Are there lessons to be learnt on
the nature of the social mix in our urban settlements? What are the lessons
for urban planners and city administrators? NGOs have a major role to play
as watch dogs.

But they are few in number and limited in strength. The issues they have
attempted to address and the challenges they have tried to meet have
always been formidable. It appears that, at least in the short run, an even
rougher time is ahead of them.”

- Anonymous

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While NGOs have a tough time ahead of them, “voices” are crying out.

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CHAPTER 30A
From the book “The Degeneration of India” by T.N. Seshan, former Chief
Election Commissioner of India: “Our granaries are overflowing with
surplus wheat and rice but millions of our countrymen and women still go
to bed hungry every night. Our nation is home to the poorest and the most
wretched people on earth, and, at the same time, the most venal and
wealthy. Our rivers are full of water and marine life but they are being
destroyed by overuse and pollution. Our mineral and energy resources are
vast but we lack the basic ability to harness them adequately or distribute
them equitably. Our traditional textiles are world-renowned for their
excellence but are neglected by industry which sees more profit in the
export of cotton and domestic sales of clothes made from imported
chemicals, as a result, the traditions are dying, while most Indians still
make do with a single set of clothes. Our population is growing at a pace
that destroys all efforts at industrial and agricultural development, social
change and economic transformation. Our nation is now home to the
largest population of illiterates in the world.”

Added to these, there is an increasing tendency among the rural poor to
migrate to urban industries in search of jobs and livelihood. Basic civic
needs like piped water is still a pipe-dream for millions. Women carrying
water from miles away, especially in Rajasthan state, present a pathetic
picture. There is discrimination between men and women who lack equal
opportunity for education and employment.

Only 1 out of every 100 girls makes it to the XII Std. The onslaught of
industries and the resultant urbanization has claimed the forest cover

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disturbing the natural balance in ecology. The benefits of the marvels of
medical science have yet to reach the millions. Nuns are getting molested, a
mosque was demolished, and missionaries have been burnt alive. The
picture indeed presents a “paradox”. And this demands periodic re-
orientation of national plans and programs to meet the changing exigencies.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost

No matter how widely you have traveled, you haven’t seen (or heard) the
world

if you have failed to look into the human hearts that inhabit it.

- Donald C. Peattie

We know just how many cricket matches we’ve won against Pakistan
(relations with our neighbor?), but the Government of India (actually, we
the people) does not have a figure for the number of people who are facing
the brunt of poverty and social backwardness.

“We remain convinced that a living grass-roots democracy is indispensable
to progress. We are just as much convinced that this democracy can be
promoted and protected only by the force of mass participation... And this,
I emphasize, has to mean one or other form of “people’s power”: of the
active and voluntary participation of ordinary people in the control of their
society…”

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- Olivio Pires of Cape Verde, a highly experienced nationalist of the
younger African generation of the 1980s.

These ideas have moved around Africa with interesting results. They have
appeared in one form or another in a number of countries, for example, in
Madagascar, with its experiments in “Fokolona”, self-governing rural
communities; in Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) until the murder of
its leading figure, Thomas Sankara, in 1987; and, very successfully, in
Cape Verde....

Has this trend to “people’s power” pointed to the road to Africa’s escape
from military dictatorship, and various miseries of bad government? What
would the last ten years of the Twentieth Century have to say about this?

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CHAPTER 30B

VOICES FROM THE GRASSROOTS
The Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development stated:

(And we are using India as the baseline):

“The elimination of hunger and malnutrition, the provision of food
security, education, employment and livelihood, primary health care
services including reproductive health care, safe drinking water and
sanitation and adequate shelter, and participation in social and cultural
life.”

In 1995, the governments of the world committed themselves solemnly and
publicly, to eradicate poverty and to achieve equality between women and
men. Now it is no longer acceptable as a fact of life that half of humanity is
denied the full enjoyment of their rights because of its gender or that one
out of five human beings is condemned to a life of deprivation.

Thousands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) accredited to the
World Summit on Social Development (Copenhagen) and the Fourth
World Conference of Women (Beijing) brought to the international
negotiating process the voices of the citizens and communities that the
world leaders were already hearing from at home.

From Bangladesh we heard the voice of the Finance Minister: ‘throughout
the term of our government, we focused topmost priority to the alleviation
of poverty. Poverty constitutes the denial of a basic human right, the right
to realize one’s true worth and potential. Poverty is not only of hunger, but

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of health, of nutrition, of knowledge, and of opportunities. Our enhanced
investments on education, health, family welfare and other social services
are directed towards the alleviation of poverty in the broadest sense.’

Some representatives of the poor also shared some concerns. Mohammed
Sohel of Mohakhali, Dhaka (Bangladesh) said: “the children in Bangladesh
are the most unfortunate. They cannot go up. Nearly half of the Dhaka
dwellers are poor. They do not have shelter, clothes and medical facilities.
The government wants us to save. But how can we do this? The poor can
hardly meet these needs. We do not have our representatives and the
representatives of the rich will not speak for us. We want to surprise the
urban elite by bringing forward the wretched of the Earth from rural areas
and slums and making them speak one after another on the rostrum without
any hesitation about their rights and dreams.”

Citizens in Brazil have their dreams, yet Brazil remains one of the more
impoverished nations. The “Citizens ‘Action against Hunger” (better
known as the “Hunger campaign”) said: “We want to make visible an
agenda for the eradication of poverty in an extremely unfavorable context.”
The characteristic feature of “Citizens’ Action” is essentially the political
treatment of poverty and hunger. Its greatest contribution has been to call
attention to the problems of poverty and make these issues visible on the
national political agenda.

Even now, poverty remains high on the agenda of Brazilian citizens.

The most common question is: what do you think of first when you think of
Brazil? The common answer is: hunger and poverty. Yet this visibility has
not carried over, into each of the fields of national public policies.

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To measure poverty, a “poverty clock” must be installed that each minute
tells us how many more persons get added to the number of the world’s
poor.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries of the world. Here, a particular
strategy called the “Agricultural Development Led Industrialization
(ADLI)” has been adopted. This strategy uses agriculture as a springboard
for the development of other sections. Poverty eradication has been made
central to this plan. The core of the strategy is to reduce the vulnerability of
the rural population to famine: it has been stated thus “the objective is to
ensure food and income security, enhance and re-orient social sector
spending to favor the poor, and rehabilitate the country’s infrastructure.”

Talking of rehabilitation, a report has been brought out on social exclusion
and poverty in the European Union, which talks about elderly people,
people with disability, women and migrants and ethnic minorities. It says:
“some older people remain relatively neglected by the existing welfare
systems. The aging of the elderly population has an important consequence;
increasing numbers of old people requiring long-term social care, which in
many countries is underdeveloped. People with disabilities are at
considerable risk of becoming excluded. In general, schemes for them
appear to be ineffective. Women are a population group at considerable
risk of being on low incomes. Migrant workers and ethnic minorities within
the EU countries also suffer from a lack of rights – depending primarily
upon their nationality.”

In the case of Ghana, poorer households said: “The money costs of
schooling are not trivial, and these costs dissuade us from sending our
children to school. At- least two-thirds of private expenditures related to
school attendance (e.g. labour, materials to construct school buildings) are

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devoted to items besides school contribution, textbooks and school
supplies. These expenses are not trivial for us.”

The specialist Rosemary Thorp made an assessment of socio-economic
reform in Peru: “There are some problems, with a dependence on external
agencies. Policy-making may become passive and dependent on the
recommendations of foreign agencies. However, there is a limit as to how
far or how much it is desirable for Peru to increase its level of external
indebtedness with loans for social development.”

Social development is an ongoing process and poverty is a curse. Poverty
in Sub-Saharan Africa is a well-recorded phenomenon. Uganda is no
exception to its ravages. However, Uganda’s own past history complicates
the situation. As Brett aptly described “By 1986, twenty-five years of
political repression and economic mismanagement had turned Uganda from
a relatively prosperous and well-administered country to the land of
darkness and death” (Brett, 1993). It has been further stated (Oct 16, 1995)
that “Uganda be transformed from peasant to an entrepreneurial society:
the two main elements in this process are the complete liberalization of the
economy and the introduction of universal and compulsory education.”

Generally, in Zambia, very few children have access to various levels of
education. Data compiled by UNICEF in the past depicts the situation as
follows “While Zambia once achieved universal primary education, now
(1995-96), only 56% of 7-13 year olds are in primary school. Nearly
700,000 children are not, and only 44% of primary school aged children
actually complete grade seven. As is to be expected, adult illiteracy rates
are high and rising. One third of the adults are illiterate and two-thirds of
these (66%) are women.” (Source: “Social Watch”, 1997-98)

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It is true that there are different countries, different problems, different
peoples and different languages. But it is also true that there is only one
sun, one moon, one tide, one Mother Earth and above all, one religion: the
religion of universal peace and harmony.

So, let us all pray, talk, dream and breathe the religion of universal peace.

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CHAPTER 31A
“Love is the greatest

Force in the world

And the word of God

The most powerful truth on Earth!”

The development of a kind heart (a feeling of closeness for all human
beings)... is for anyone who considers himself or herself, above all, a
member of the human family and who sees things from this larger and
longer perspective.

- The Dalai Lama, from “A Human Approach to World Peace”

The religion of the future

Will be a cosmic religion.

It should transcend a personal God

And avoid dogmas and theology.

It should be based on a

Religious sense arising from

The experience of all things

Natural and spiritual as a

Meaningful unity.

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- Albert Einstein

Let us cultivate a tolerance for other religions, tolerance for different views
within a religion, tolerance for people with no religion, so long as all have a
“good heart”.

- The Dalai Lama, addressing children from both the Catholic and
Protestant communities of Northern Ireland, date not specified.

One of the most important things is compassion. You cannot buy it in one
of New York’s big shops. You cannot produce it by machine. But by inner
development, yes.

- Anonymous

Today we so interdependent.... that without an understanding and belief
that we really are part of one big human family, we cannot hope to
overcome the dangers to our very existence - let alone bring about peace
and happiness.

- From “A Human Approach to World Peace”

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CHAPTER 31B

MESSAGE OF PEACE COMING FROM
RELIGION
“In the past 20 years, man has demonstrated his skill at enabling large
numbers of people to survive who would not have survived in the past –
but to survive in poverty, in ignorance, in sickness, often in degradation
(quality of life). Together we have survived as one human family.”

- Anonymous

“We all know that unity can solve difficulties which it is impossible to
solve otherwise. It does not behove any of us, therefore, that we should
refuse ourselves the blessings of unity.”

“Friends, by God’s grace, you are now educated; and it is time you cleared
your hearts of all hatreds, and advanced in mutual love; it is wise that
unkindness gave way to sympathy.”

“At present, when passions of hatred between communities are leading to
violence and serious problems, there is a vital need for disseminating the
ideas of peace and unity and for acting upon them.”

Message of peace

“My God Almighty! My Guide Beloved! Guide us into the path by which
thy truthful and sincere servants find thee, and save us from the ways of
those who seek only to gratify their passions of revenge or hatred, or their
greed for the things of the world!”

“And now, friends, notwithstanding hundreds of differences, let us believe
in God as the creator and master of the world. Moreover, our cause is

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common not only because we are all human beings, but also because, we
are inhabitants of one and the same world, therefore, we are related as
neighbours, to one another. It is but proper, therefore, that we should live as
true and sincere friends, and sympathize and act as though we were parts of
one whole, and limbs of one body.”

Broad sympathy

“That religion is no religion which does not inculcate broad sympathy, nor
does that man deserve to be called man who does not have a sympathetic
soul within him. God has not withheld his bounty from any people. The
powers and faculties which he bestowed on the ancient peoples of India
have also been bestowed on the Arabs, the Persians, the Syrians, the
Chinese, the Japanese, the Europeans and the Americans. For all, the Earth
of God serves as a floor, and for the sake of all, the sun, the moon, and the
stars give their light, and perform such other functions as God has charged
them with. All of them derive benefit from the air, water, fire, earth, and
other things created by God. And all of them use the produce of the Earth,
its corn, its herbs, its flowers and its fruits. These liberal ways of God teach
us that we also should do good to all mankind and should not have a
cramped outlook, or a confined sympathy.”

Excessive exclusiveness

“God has not ignored any people or country from the distribution of his
spiritual bounty. For, just as almighty God has been providing for the
physical necessities of every country, so also has he been provident for the
spiritual sustenance of every country.”

Peace is needed

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“Let us talk peace at a time when peace is urgently needed. Disaster after
disaster has come into the world. We have had earthquakes and famines
and the plague has not yet left us. Almighty god has decided that if the
world does not repent of its evil ways and does not forsake them all,
disasters, yet more terrible shall visit our globe, and one disaster will not
have left before another will have appeared, and at length mankind, out of
helplessness, will begin to ask what is going to happen.”

This is not a prophecy or an astrological prediction. This is a gut feeling, as
I look at the cloudy skies, the mammoth mountains and the turbulent sea-
waves…This is what I see when I close my eyes, I feel the touch of the
Lord, like something stretching my soul!!!

Beware, therefore, my dear friends and take care before the time arrives.

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CHAPTER 32A

To play great music (vision),

You must keep your eyes

On a distant star (mission).

- Yehudi Menuhin

Kudos! A La genome!!!

The human genetic code has been mapped successfully. This means new
medicines and cures for currently fatal diseases, most of which largely
devastate the Third World.

‘Science is a search for knowledge, a search for truth. Let it also become a
search for justice....’

I do not regret

Having braved public opinion,

When I knew it was wrong

And was sure

It would be merciless

- Horace Greely

Keep up the fighting spirit!!!

Act, before a meteorite wrecks the Earth!!!

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Once space travel becomes common, we can deal with the growing
population of the Earth and also deadly epidemics as well as massive world
starvation.

- Anonymous

Let us intensify research on agriculture, forests, ocean sciences, planetary,
meteorological and seismological sciences, and all this for the future of our
“beloved” planet!

Modern information technology should be harnessed to create awareness
about population growth.

The internet and peace and poverty... “net-aid”... helps in bringing people
(human capital) together through voice and video... connecting people with
technology.... discussion of world issues.... Ultimately, not internet, but
people, civil society, government and business.... are to play a major
role…..The internet can be applied to health and immunization, education,
food security and debt-relief…2/3 poor in Asia…How many have access to
the internet? Out of 800 million in Africa, only about 2 .6 million??

“Operations Research” (OR) is now recognized as an effective mechanism
to improve program effectiveness and quality of care. What or does, is, as
in PERT/CPM, it provides strategic options, thus making available a
selection of strategies with the potential for high performance.

Or can be applied to human resources management, delivery of services,
optimum time utilization, management information system (MIS) and
upscaling of innovations to programs.

“Kaizen” is a very interesting concept that comes to us from Japan. The
term means “incremental improvement”. For example, an achievement has
been made, that is, some slum children are already going to school.

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Thereafter, we stabilize and hold the gain and go to the next step. Analyze
the causes of success or failure (school dropouts). We “plan, develop,
collect and analyze” (PDCA cycle). The problem could be local, national or
international. For instance, if teaching children is the problem, we make an
action plan, analyze the data, i.e. how much improvement has been made,
are some children improving, or coming to school regularly? Everything
can be improved by the “Kaizen” method. In Japanese industry, they
make small “Kaizens” of work schedule and... Watch ... Is this not a
wonderful concept?

Implanting silicon chips inside the human body, linking technology to
human intelligence? Putting robots to work in developing countries? (Yes,
and no, unemployment) Androids with emotions? Futuristic?

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CHAPTER 32B

SAVE OUR WORLD, YOU AND I ARE NOT
POWERLESS
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break
free...”

– Emma Lazatrus, “The New Colossus”

I mentioned Carl Sagan (late astronomer and founder of Planetary Society)
in the 1st Chapter. This is what he had to say about the future: “…We are
likely to receive our first messages from the drummers of the neighboring
galactic valleys – from civilizations only somewhat in our future…”

His words bring certain questions to mind:

In the future, will we,

– Live on mars?

– Discover another universe?

– Travel to the stars?

– Find ourselves distributed between (say) Mars and Earth?

– Meet the Extra-Terrestrial (ET)?

– Will we take vacations in space?

– Be crushed by an asteroid???

This represents an almost frightful proposition. The first step should be to
intensify planetary (volcanoes, earthquakes, cyclones) and environmental
research.

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Let us act before a meteorite wrecks the earth. As we move into the 21st
Century and beyond, our first priority should be to save our planet from
ultimate destruction.

Our next priority should be to work on the problems the inhabitants of this
planet-men, women, children (children particularly, because which class is
suffering, our children (our future)), animals, flora and fauna; etc, face.

A dire future is predicted for the year 2025: 8.3 billion people, increased
carbon emissions, mega-cities in the developing world with energy, food
and water shortages. These trends demand a comprehensive global
approach... not band–aid strategies!

God has not made you and me powerless: Divine Providence links us to
sustainable development.

Therefore, let us build up, in course of time, a global society for human
rights and sustainable development – for greater thrust towards basic food
security, self reliance, economic growth, bringing information technology
closer to humanity, health, education and employment for all in developing
countries.

Let us go towards optimum taxing of the rich and exemption of the poor.

Let us give incentives for population control; build up a social consensus
against current patterns (trends, alarming!) of material consumption.

Let us build new cities for the poor and the underprivileged, by building
new towns, somewhat removed from the central cities (but without causing
any destruction to the immediate environment). This way, planners
redistribute population and preserve the center of the main city as the place
of economic activities. We must keep space between houses, because of its

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effect on the quality of life. Lack of space may diminish the benefits of
prosperity (e.g. morality) in many countries.

The corporate sector should be brought closer to humanity, (for instance,
by sponsoring the education of the people of nearby villages and slums).
Let us hope we are able to bring all sectors of the economy close to
humanity.

Because human needs of the countries of the world have never been more
urgent.

At the same time, we have to address such global problems as migration
and refugees, narcotics, AIDS, trade in arms and terrorism. These are
problems which affect the security and well being of citizens of all nations,
and which are linked to problems of under – development.

The question of sustaining the Earth arises-governments of developing
countries agree that the ultimate problem is poverty and a degraded way of
life, and that the Earth must be developed and natural systems may suffer –
“until the minimum essentials for a healthy life are provided.”

We have also to tackle (the causes of) environmental degradation on a
world scale.

Earlier, they all agreed that among all the global risks, the prevention of
full nuclear war deserved maximum attention. Happily, that risk has
receded. Today, the threat of (possible) global climate warming has been
seen by many groups as of overshadowing importance to the world
community.

Others argue that of far greater significance are the relentless rapid pace of
population growth in low-income countries and the voracious appetite for
material consumption in high-income, and for that matter (with

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liberalization coming in), in some low-income countries. The likely
consequences of world population growth from the present 5.5 billion to
perhaps 10 billion in 2040, and of estimates of the effects of continuing
poverty are matters for serious consideration. Also, there have been
predictions that the very existence of the Earth is at stake.

These confrontations and debates on what is at risk and how they should be
handled are far from resolved.

The 1992 Rio Conference (Earth Summit) defined the reciprocal nature of
environment and development with the objectives and agenda for
sustainability in the future. it is clear that we must all redouble our efforts
to come to terms with problems posed by growth in numbers and
consumption appetites, for the Earth is the one world home for one human
(and other species) family.

In the millions of years of the Earth’s evolutionary process, we have some
lessons to learn, from the methods in the nature’s way. Those gigantic
animals like the dinosaur and a host of other species did not survive and in
course of time succumbed to nature’s way of extinction. But thousands of
insects and countless tiny creatures have withstood the test of time.
Propelled by their instincts, they have lived together, gathered food
collectively and fought enemies in flocks. Thereby, we see-that, the secret
of survival lies in collective strength and inherent ability to adapt to
changing conditions.

Among the living, through a long process of trial and error, and ups and
downs, man has evolved to incredible heights, leaving the entire animal
kingdom far behind him and has become the “Monarch of the Planet–
Earth”. And “development–a continuous quest for human (and other
species) happiness” has come to assume a much greater significance than

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ever before, widening its sphere to encompass every aspect of our lives, not
only confined to a nation or a country but influencing the entire world.
Development has gradually become the subject of concern for people all
over the world.

Development has become a major concern for all governments. People are
required to contribute to this exercise by the system of taxes and the
exchequer earned by the government is employed to initiate and fund the
various developmental programs for continued and sustained benefit to its
people.

All developmental programs center on the main objective of creating
wealth to remove poverty and its ills. To achieve this, the available
resources of men, machines and materials are to be utilized with optimum
results. In an interdependent world, mutual trust and goodwill flow
automatically.

What, then, is good development?

Remember, we can (collectively) act before a meteorite wrecks the Earth,
you and I are not powerless, together, you and I can make a difference.

1) A good developmental program must address itself to all sections of
the society and seek to reduce and remove the chasm of discrimination
or social imbalance that may exist between rich and poor, weak and
strong, men and women, over consumerism and under consumerism
and so on. Let us help shift development attention away from
economic growth as the main index of progress, to look more closely
to what is happening to the poor in terms of equity and income-

2) All programs must be guided by vision and foresight and have a
scientific temper and be realistic –

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3) The results of development must radiate in all directions –

4) The entire humankind must have access to scientific invention and
discovery to derive benefit from their applications –

5) In a world dramatically shrunken by improved communication, all
nations must exchange ideas and views for their common good.
Problems of any nation are to be shared by other nations. And there
should be global synergy in all our social and economic exercises-

6) To be amenable to change is yet another pre-requisite for development
–

7) From time to time all developmental plans must be examined in the
light of the results and reoriented to suit changing times and social and
economic conditions –

8) And, finally, for developmental plans to sustain, they must belong to
the people and every citizen must work in a participating spirit.

I would like to reproduce the most oft-quoted poem of Gurudev
Rabindranath Tagore that seeks to convey the very essence of human
development:

Where the mind is without fear

And the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up

Into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

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Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason

Has not lost its way into dreary

Desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action;

Into that heaven of freedom, my father,

Let my country awake.

Countries of the world will awake,

When the sun rises as usual the next day (21st Century and beyond),

But the next day should be a better day,

We know that scientific investigation in the form of agriculture (food),
health (disease) and hunger, education and literacy (poverty) will have
more impact on the future of the globe than anything else.

((Here’s hoping scientific research and investigation on disease,
agriculture, nature or the environment and application (of such research)
get intensified))

The sun must shine on a happier world;

And our mission should begin,

Act now!!!

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A first momentous beginning had been made, when

• on Jan1,1863, some one called Abraham Lincoln signed the
“Emancipation Proclamation” thereby abolishing the curse of slavery in
his country;

• someone called Agnes (or Mother Teresa) carrying what might be called
“the gene separating man and god”, touched a leprosy patient;

• someone called Samuel “Maverick”(non-conformist) refused to brand
his calves;

• someone called Martin Luther King, America’s great non-violent leader
(I am reminded of our own Mahatma Gandhi), started a struggle for
Black rights;

• someone called Nelson Mandela started opposing the hated system of
Apartheid in South Africa, which has, after him, seen surprising
goodwill between black and white, a will to forget and to rebuild;

• someone called Robert Baden-Powell gave young people a chance to
succeed, where, in those days, they were dismissed as nuisances;

• someone called Louis Pasteur began a medical investigation which led
to the cure of highly infectious illness, most (or all) of which were
neither preventable nor curable upto that time;

• someone called Louis Braille (the blind French boy) felt that someone
had to find a way for blind people to read and write. This led to the
invention of Braille, named after its inventor;

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• someone called Helen Keller, a deaf and blind lady, conquered her own
disabilities and devoted her life to the rights of people with special
needs;

• someone called Charles Spencer Chaplin (a poor boy of Victorian
London), fired by anger against injustice and pity for the under dog,
started putting laughter and cry into his “silent” films;

• someone called Clara Barton started some pioneering work in the field
of disaster relief;

• someone called Margaret Mead started working to help people all over
the world understand and respect each others’ cultures;

• someone called Tenzing Gyatso (The Dalai Lama of Tibet) started
working patiently for world peace despite a period of exile;

• someone called Eleanor Roosevelt started devoting herself to
humanitarian causes including work for the poor. She pioneered the
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”.

……from unsung heroes and unsung heroines….

……..…from human to humane…..

……..…….from vision to mission….

……………....the journey has (already) begun……

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THE END OF INEQUALITY

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