May 2007 Edition
Battles over land get bigger, more bitter
Civil Society News
New Delhi
ACROSS India word of the Congress-led UPA government's Special Economic
Zone (SEZ) policy has spread like wildfire. Rural folk in Punjab,
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and West
Bengal are worried about the taking over of agricultural land and coastal areas
for industrial enclaves. Nandigram, in West Bengal, where women and children
died to keep out a chemical hub, is fresh in the popular mind. There are
intimations of similar confrontations elsewhere in the country.
The SEZ policy was framed in discussion with industry and pushed through as an Act. There was no attempt at wider consultation. The Congress now finds it has on its hands a political hot potato, which it can neither hold nor chuck. At election time the Congress pledged itself to economic reforms with concern for the aam aadmi or common man.
Civil Society News
New Delhi
YOHEI Sasakawa has never really had a problem making money. He inherited a lot and built on it with dedication till he was in his forties. But what worries him a great deal is how money should be spent. How it should be put to its best possible use. It won’t do to just give it away and there is no point leaving money behind when one dies. So, spending money for him is a key managerial challenge. There is a need to define the dynamics of trusteeship. Students of the Harvard Business School go to him to learn just this so that when they graduate to the world of big business they can reinvent bottom lines. Sasakawa has cut his own path. As a relentless champion of the rights of people with leprosy, he has straddled the world working particularly in India to put an end to the needless stigma associated with a wholly curable disease.
Dr J K Banerjee
SOCIAL prosperity of the common man, good health and education facilities should be the criteria for the economic growth of the nation. Pats on our back by the World Bank or the IMF should be thrown into the gutter. We have to redefine our own norms of economic growth. Western cultural slavery has made our people greedy and individualistic. Unless we hark back to Gandhian philosophy and economics, our country is doomed to remain ‘developing’. Gandhian philosophy is not against industrial or modern scientific growth. It is against the greed associated with this growth. The Alternate Nobel Prize instituted by Sweden has for its theme the Mahatma`s saying: “In this world there is enough for everybody’s need but not for everybody’s greed”. The Association of Rural Surgeons of India (ARSI) was formed in 1992 to take definite steps in this direction voluntarily. The founder members included stalwarts like Dr Balu Sankaran, Dr NH Antia and rural surgeons like Dr RD Prabhu of Shimoga in Karnataka, Dr RR Tongaonkar of Dondaicha in Maharashtra and Dr Sitanath De of Jhargram in West Bengal. These surgeons were determined to bring about a change.
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Samita Rathor
New Delhi
I consider myself a Buddhist. Interdependence is
one of the salient components of Buddhist philosophy
and it has greatly influenced my life. I cannot
function in this world without other people. If there
are no seekers, there will be no providers. I am thankful
to all those who have given me an opportunity to
provide.”
These are words spoken with compassion and
humility by Tenzin Chogyal (TC to everyone), a
Tibetan Buddhist working monk.
TC is a successful entrepreneur. He has been part of
movies with Brad Pitt and worked with Jean-Jacques
Annaud, Heinrich Harrer and Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
TC is also an expert in the architectural construction of sand mandalas and a producer of shows on Buddhism and philosophical issues for German and Swiss TV. He organises exclusive chartered flights for people coming from the US, Europe, Sri Lanka to see Dharamsala. TC runs spiritual Buddhist tours for his international and domestic patrons. He is also a restaurateur. At five feet TC stands tall with his extraordinary awareness of surroundings. Just back from a Buddhist pilgrimage with a group of 20 Europeans, Tenzin smiles and in a reflective manner speaks in one breath: “We went to Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Sarnath, Ajanta and Ellora caves, Nagarjunakonda and Nagarjuna Sagar, Amravati, Tibetan monasteries, Kushinagar, Vaisali, Lumbini and Sravasti.
Vidya Viswanathan
New Delhi
SUBHI and Hilmi Quraishi are brothers who run an e-learning company
called ZMQ Software. Named after the initials of their father, the company
has a 27-member team and had a turnover of about Rs 7 crore this year. The
Quraishis can now afford new offices at Manesar, a city on the Delhi-Jaipur
Highway. They are busy moving their offices from Pitampura in Delhi to
Manesar. Meanwhile, all meetings are being held in cafes. The Quraishis arrive
at the United Coffee House in Connaught Place and Hilmi, the chief learning
technology officer, is sporting a fine bead badge. It is white and has a red ribbon.
The bead ribbon was made in Kibera, a slum with a population of three million
in Nairobi where he has just spent three days. Around 75 per cent of
Nairobi lives in slums. Nearly 60 per cent are infected with HIV. ZMQ has built a football game and a quiz into which are woven messages about HIV/AIDS. “We tested our games there. When they first played the game, they had vague knowledge. At the end of three days, after playing the game repeatedly, 40 per cent of the people had got 80 per cent of the message,” says Hilmi. Hilmi and Subhi have spent three years experimenting with the dissemination of social messages through gaming. The company’s business is producing e-learning material and 80 per cent of their turnover comes from this source.
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Severine Fumoux
Damniyamgama (Kalutara dist), Sri Lanka
IN 2004, in the aftermath of the tsunami, Sarvodaya, a well-known NGO in the island, started reconstruction rushing to the rescue of survivors. It carefully managed its flow of funds and focused on reinforcing partnerships with the government and external agencies. The NGO was keen to carry out a longterm development plan. For nearly 50 years, Sarvodaya has worked for community development including economic and social self-reliance. Their programmes are based on their values: hard work, peace and non-violence. This Buddhist-Gandhian philosophy has granted them international recognition.
The Lagoswatta village in Kalutara, on the south-west coast of Sri Lanka, is one such model of participatory development. Damniyamgama is an eco-friendly village born out of Sarvodaya’s grassroots expertise. According to the NGO’s philosophy, houses should be built after the personalities and awareness of their residents is developed. Sarvodaya links house building to rebuilding connections with nature and living in harmony with the environment.