IT is more than a year since the Delhi High
Court ruled that it isn’t a crime to be gay. The court struck down Section 377 of the
Indian Penal Code, a relic of the British Raj. But has a change of legal status made a difference
to the way gay people live their lives?
What happens when they want to get married,
rent an apartment, open bank accounts,
apply for passports or adopt children? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A proposed amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act envisages benefit-sharing with people in forests who are displaced by mining. It has been suggested that mining companies give 26 per cent of their equity or their profits to communities. The proposed law is revolutionary in its implications. Never before in India have the rights of communities over minerals been accepted. Benefit-sharing has all along been a grey area with evicted people being fobbed off with some kind of compensation. Often they end up getting nothing at all. But so poor is the groundwork for the new law that there are serious doubts about whether its provisions can actually be implemented. No one is quite sure what 26 per cent of equity or profit really m.eans. The mining sector is plagued by illegal operations and small fly-by-night companies. Mining companies routinely stray into areas for which they have no permission. Despite an elaborate government mechanism at both the local and national levels there is virtually no regulation. The result is that perhaps two-thirds of the mining industry is not accountable. How then will benefit-sharing be implemented? It is also not known how forest communities will engage with industry. How will they figure out a company's profits? What will they do with shareholding? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
In the past few months, India has been hit by a deluge of financial and administrative scams. As the nation seethes in anger at the government's sluggish response, prominent civil society personalities are planning to unleash a concerted people's movement against corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and judges. The activists point out that an anti-corruption body envisaged under a draft government Bill that is currently before Parliament will bring the bureaucracy and judiciary within its purview. They have therefore recommended an alternative legal structure that would have jurisdiction over all arms of governance and be vested with power to punish those caught with their hands in the till, no matter how high and mighty. The first salvo has already been fired. On 30 January, the day of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, thousands of people under the banner of a social movement called ‘India Against Corruption', will take to the streets of the national capital and march from Ramlila Grounds to Jantar Mantar. Their demand: enactment of a law to set up an effective anti-corruption mechanism. The nationwide movement has brought together religious leaders, civil society activists, legal eagles, former bureaucrats, writers, sportspersons and artists, besides ordinary citizens. India Against
Corruption was formally launched at a press conference in Delhi on 1 December. It was attended by, among many others, retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi, former CBI director BR Lall, social activist Swami Agnivesh and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare.
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orissa's first community radio station, Radio Namaskar, is making its voice heard, loud and clear. This feisty radio station launched from Konark in Puri district seven months ago, has become a real life hero for villages living in its 10 km radius. NA Shah Ansari, the young founder of Radio Namaskar, says like the famous actor, Amitabh Bachchan, he too was turned down by All India Radio. And he too has gone on to make waves. “As a youth volunteer it was my ambition to work for a radio station. But the station director of All India Radio not only rejected me but made an insensitive comment about my abilities during the audition,” recalls Ansari. He then started writing for local vernacular dailies. Ansari says whenever he filed a story on injustice, his piece would get spiked. The indifference of the editors to stories of peoples' struggles egged him to do something different. In a short span of seven months, Radio Namaskar has already become a brand name. The station became famous in Orissa for making 15 villages in Gop and Kakatpur blocks of Puri district, ‘No Dropout' villages through their Chala School Ku Jiba (Let's go to school) programme. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FROM time to time we become very agitated over corruption in our economy. It is the rich and middle-class who complain loudly and then when they have spent their anger and the dust has settled on some scam or the other everyone goes silent. After that it is business as usual till the next scam. In the latest season of concern, there are marches and demonstrations. Some prominent individuals, among them bankers, industrialists, exbureaucrats and ex-judges, have also issued a statement asking the political class to take measures to check corruption and bridge the governance deficit in the country. These are valid demands with which no one can disagree. Corruption is rampant and comes in the way of us realising our true potential. It is a fact that our governments do not perform. But if petitions could solve the problem of corruption and put governments to work we would have done so a long time ago. Clearly the answer lies in going beyond mere displays of our concern. It has to be found in a continuing commitment. There is a need is to engage from one day to the next and not petition from a distance. A major source of corruption in India is the cosy relationship ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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As populations grow older, the task of dealing with dementia becomes more intricate. This is especially so in the developing world where health-care infrastructure is already under stress. Dr Sumer Verma, MD, has spent four decades as a geriatric psychiatrist studying end-of-life care. He has a deep interest in care for people with dementia and whether care at home is a better alternative to being admitted to a hospital or institution. Dr Verma graduated from medical college in Amritsar in 1963 and trained in internal medicine at the Post Graduate Institute in Chandigarh. He studied psychiatry in the United States and has, since then, lived and worked there. He is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Boston University Medical School and has lectured on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the Alzheimer's Program Medical Director at Briarwood Healthcare and Rehab Center in Needham, Massachusetts. He spoke to Civil Society on recent medical developments with regard to dementia and the challenges in dealing with the condition in India. You've been involved with treating the elderly for more than four decades. Where do we stand now as far as research in dementia is concerned? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rikin Gandhi has great faith in the power of good story telling. Dressed in scruffy jeans and sneakers with a distinct American accent, Gandhi, 29, doesn't look as if he could connect in any way with rustic Indian farmers. But surprise, surprise, he is the founder of Digital Green, an agricultural non-profit which makes videos to get information to small farmers. Around 850 videos have been produced since he started his outfit in 2007. The films tell farmers about agro-related programmes ranging from government subsidies, pesticide use to innovative water harvesting techniques. Over 30,000 farmers across Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Orissa have benefited from watching or filming Digital Green's videos. His non-profit trains local people in the 450 villages it works in to use simple hand-held camera recorders and basic editing software to make local videos. “These videos are of the farmers, by the farmers and for the farmers,” says Gandhi, who last year was one of three Indians chosen by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Technology Review magazine as a top global innovator below 35. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
It is UID times. And that gets you thinking again about identity in the context of a city. Who for instance qualifies to be a Bangalorean or a Mumbaikar or a Delhiite? Is there a Unique City Identity (UCD) that exists and what chance of it being recast in an FMCG brand manner to reflect some core values that uniquely define and differentiate one city from another? Being a researcher, I set out seeking answers by asking around in my city, Bangalore, with the hope that many of the issues addressed would be reflective of any city. The first port of call was a geeky 14- year-old who had relocated from the US a few months ago. I asked him: “Are you a Bangalorean?” “I am not one,” he said. “Why?” I asked. “I don't litter” was his prompt reply as if there was a bad behaviour criteria to qualify! Lesson One – what one does (or does not) makes a ‘cityzen' and so maybe we have good and bad ‘cityzens.' Next call was our maid originally of Andhra stock. She was emphatic that she was a Bangalorean since she was born here, lived here all her life and spoke Kannada. And, for good measure she ruled me out as a Bangalorean since I don't speak the local language! So our wise maid ended up raising more questions starting with birth place entitling ‘cityzen' qualifications. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
There is a peculiar challenge that goes beyond my understanding. Maybe as a discerning reader, you have a solution. Life in the city would not be possible without some very basic elements – electricity, water, gas, phones and public transport. These contribute significantly to a good quality of life in any urban environment. The rise of the middle-class and their drift to the big city from the small town has phenomenally boosted the demand for phones, buses, trains, energy and water. But only the last two utilities have languished without enough attention being paid to their economics. Remember the days you paid Rs 150 for your phone in the early 1980s? Today you pay anywhere from Rs 400 to Rs 5,000 and you don't even grumble. We prize water and energy. We know these are two absolutely vital resources that we simply cannot do without. Yet we refuse to understand or are unwilling to pay more for them. Every time there is an attempt by the utilities to bring their problem to the Government and ask for a tariff hike, or to appeal to consumers, there is a hue and cry. The ministers for energy or water get defensive and pull back. The situation is even worse when it hurts that ‘holy cow' of the electorate – the farmer. The festering problem of endemic revenue deficits in the budgets of agencies responsible for water, energy and waste management are brushed under the carpet. The government finds more money to subsidize their operations. Today every energy or water utility in the country spends about six to ten times more to ‘create' and ‘sell' these two ‘commodities'. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
You have no doubt read about the scams and scandals associated with the infamous iron ore mines of Bellary district in Karnataka and Ananthapura district in Andhra Pradesh. Now you can see the film. Titled Blood and Iron it is a documentary of two and a half hours which will leave you angry and dismayed. This is a dark and chilling film which explores the nexus between business, crime and politics. Bellary is a microcosmic example of how mines are operated illegally in forests and the ramifications this has for people who live in those areas and the nation as a whole. Blood and Iron is what good journalism is about. It tells the story as it is seen and heard by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and his team. Thakurta has 30 years behind him as a reporter, editor and a TV anchor. He is also a visiting lecturer at institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad. Bellary has been written and filmed by journalists earlier. This film is different because of its investigative quality. It doggedly tracks all actors involved in the scandal and presents a picture which leaves an impression. ”I saw my role as a person who is documenting what is happening. My intention was to make people think, move the issue forward,” says Thakurta. The film is in three parts: New Republic of Bellary, Red Gold and Red Earth. Bellary/Ananthapura was once green with forests, a flowing river and wildlife. The camera shows you what it is today – a dusty desert with a large deep hole in the ground where everything is tinged with red – earth, water and air. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | ©2007 Civil Society....................................... .Webmaster Vishwanathan ( vishu4@rediffmail.com ) |
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