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Professor R Raj Rao and Dibyajyoti Sarma talk about their book,
Whistling in the Dark. Through 21 searing interviews the authors uncover the lives queer men are forced to live.
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Subhash Bhatnagar's Unlocking E-Government Potential is a practical guide on implementing e-government initiatives.
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Inclusive Education Across Cultures: Activists and researchers present their experiences of how every child can gain from quality education.
Edited by Mithu Alur and Vianne Timmons.
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Winning the battle against anaemia
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CURRENT EDITION
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Scientists help small farmers boost demand, triple profits
Shree Padre
Bangalore
THE long-neglected and lowly jackfruit is finally finding its rightful place in the market - and on dining tables. Until recently, yield far outstripped demand. Growers of the fruit would watch it rot for want of takers, but not anymore.
In May, for the first time ever, Machaan Malad, a three-star restaurant in Mumbai, held a jackfruit food festival. "We ran it for nearly a month. Customer response was very good. But we had to end it abruptly. We couldn't get enough jackfruit," says Sunil Pawar, the restaurant's manager.
In Mysore, Bangalore and Mumbai, you might have to pay Rs 100 for a single jackfruit. But in Ratnagiri or Kerala, it costs next to nothing. In Kerala, farmers used to hang a board on their jackfruit tree saying, "Anybody can pluck jackfruit from this tree."
Jackfruit growers still face social discrimination. "Carry a jackfruit plant in a bus and everyone teases you," says KR Jayan of Irinjalkuda, Kerala . "Couldn't you have got a mango or a banana plant, they ask."
A two-hour drive from Bangalore will take you to Toobugere hobli, in Doddaballapur district of Karnataka. Toobugere's jackfruit is famous for its succulence. Middlemen come here from afar to buy the fruit. Farmers would once sell at a flat rate. Entire trees would be given for a song to contractors for harvesting.
Also read : Jack goes global
Special jackfruit recipes
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Saibal Chatterjee
New Delhi
BENGAL's intellectuals, among them celebrated actors and stars, are rooting for change. For decades they were in thrall of the ideals of the CPM-led Left Front, which has ruled the state without a break for 32 years. But now they are increasingly adding their voice to the chorus of popular dissent against the Marxist government's continuing "misuse of power".
Keshpur, Nandigram, Singur, Lalgarh... numerous flashpoints have driven filmmaker-actor Aparna Sen, theatre persons Bibhas Chakraborty, Kaushik Sen and Saonli Mitra and poet Joy Goswami, among many others, to pick up cudgels against a decaying political culture that has thrived on a combination of social exploitation, administrative sloth and a crisis of leadership.
"Support for the Left from the artistes' community isn't just eroding. It has already eroded," asserts veteran filmmaker and Rajya Sabha member Shyam Benegal who, in 1982, made Aarohan, a West Bengal government-funded feature film that highlighted the plight of a 1960s farmer (Om Puri) who fights in vain to wrest ownership of his land from a zamindar (Victor Banerjee) aided by a slew of feudal reforms.
"The land reforms initiated by the Left Front after it came to power did make a difference to the lives of one-time sharecroppers," says Benegal. "But the government did precious little after that, and no progress worth the name was made in the agrarian sector."
Read more...
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Saurabh Yadav
Vijaypura (Rajasthan)
VIJAYPURA has ensured its place in history. It is here that the right to information movement led by the Mazdoor Kissan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) was born in Rajasthan. A Dalit is the sarpanch of the village. The rural jobs scheme is also vigorously implemented here.
Now there is another first to Vijaypura's name. It has played host to a Rozgar Guarantee Mela: a unique celebration to mark the empowerment of the poor in asking for employment and transparency in the disbursement of public funds.
Thousands of villagers converged on Vijaypura on 25 June to learn all about the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Stalls displayed the provisions of the scheme, an ideal NREGA worksite, 10 rights of NREGA workers, redesigned implements and how complaints can be lodged.
Songs about NREGA filled the air. Information about the scheme was put to music. Pappu, a supervisor under NREGA, had personally composed the songs.
"NREGA has been successful only where it goes hand in hand with the RTI. Without this transparency, the bulk of funds under NREGA will go into the pockets of middlemen and we're talking about crores of public money here," explained Nikhil Dey of the MKSS.
The mela was organized by the Vijaypura Panchayat, and the Deogarh Panchayat Samiti along with the MKSS, School for Democracy and the State and Central Governments.
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Shreyasi Singh
New Delhi
DEVELOPMENT Alternatives (DA), a non- profit in New Delhi, recently organised a three-day Capacity Building Training on "Building for Future: Green and eco-friendly". Attended by students, architects and civil engineers from across India, the training programme aimed at creating awareness about sustainable building practices and green buildings.
Development Alternatives, which helps to create sustainable livelihoods, believes it is critical that construction industry professionals learn to optimize resources because around 40 per cent of the world's materials and energy and 16 per cent of annual available fresh water is consumed by this sector.
India is witnessing a green building movement, led by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The council would like 1,000 green buildings to be registered by 2010 and one billion sq ft of green building to be registered for certification by 2012. It is aiming to train 5,000 IGBC accredited green building professionals by 2010.
DA's capacity building workshop is important in achieving these ambitious goals. With the help of interactive discussions, site visits, case studies and experiential learning, the course's key objective was to give participants an overview of the parameters of green buildings, establish the decision-making criteria for the design and construction of green buildings, and to gain an exposure of alternative building materials and technology.
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Umesh Anand
TALK of boosting the farm sector mostly remains just talk. It is because the government doesn't do enough for creating opportunity in villages. We are too narrowly focussed and don't know how to read our amazing biodiversity for the economic prosperity that it can provide. Jackfruit growers have shown that big leaps are possible if we let interests converge, don't live in denial of the market and reach out to the rest of the world.
The rather glum-looking jackfruit is normally passed over for not being worth too much. You will find it mainly in middle-class markets. In culinary terms it has been seen as being good for a curry but not much else.
But take the jackfruit and process it to make chips, jams and squashes and suddenly vistas open up. It can bring good returns to farmers and become the source of much needed additional income to them. For rural demand to strengthen, the basket of opportunities has to be much bigger. Farm and non-farm activities have to grow and diversify so as to satisfy changing aspirations. The jackfruit is one example of how this can be achieved.
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Civil Society News
New Delhi
SEVEN years ago, Varun Mehta looked around him in India and thought that environment management was the right business to be in. He could see water running out and pollution growing. Laws had become stricter, but compliance was lacking. Companies were getting a bad name for what they were putting into rivers or the air or just pumping back into the ground. The lives of ordinary people were being affected and health concerns were mounting.
Green Systems was set up in the belief that a small business with a clear mission could deliver honest advice, make a difference and be satisfying to run. It was a model different from most. It saw environmental problems both as a concern and an opportunity.
A lean and spirited company with expertise could help corporations with mega footprints clean up their act. The result would be a serious reduction in the environmental costs that get passed on to society. A small effort could have big results. A limited investment could deliver substantial social returns.
The company set out to offer a range of services in water usage, advice on carbon trading and assessment of environment impact. But it is in rain water harvesting that it has great stories to tell.
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Bharat Dogra and Reshma Bharti
THE protection of forests and rivers is at the heart of protecting the ecology of the Himalayas. But any long-term, sustainable effort must include the concerns of people living near forests and rivers. The welfare of people must be linked to efforts to save forests and rivers. Only deeply motivated people can provide the wide base for social action to protect rivers and forests from the onslaught of exploiters. At the same time, is equally true that only the protection of forests and rivers can provide the foundation for sustainable development of hill-villages, not just from a narrow economic perspective but from a social-cultural viewpoint.
The strength of the Himalayi Paryavaran Shikshaa Sansthaan (HPSS) is that its work is rooted in an understanding of the links between the protection of rivers and forests and the sustainable welfare of the people. Deeply committed to the protection of rivers and forests, the HPSS does not talk of this issue in isolation but relates it to the aspirations of the people for sustainable livelihoods and the welfare of their villages. The HPSS gets enormous strength from the strong feelings of hill women for protecting their villages and livelihoods, which is, in turn, closely related to the protection of rivers and forests.
One of the most important movements for forest protection in the Himalayan region in the post- Chipko phase was the Raksha Sutra Andolan (Protective Thread Movement). While people, particularly women from several villages, near and far, took part in the movement at various stages, the HPSS and its president, Suresh Bhai, played a key role in nurturing and sustaining the movement.
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Subir Roy
Bangalore
THIS is the age of the city. Jeb Brugmann, a barefoot chronicler and theoretician of the urban revolution, explains how cities can be used to take people forward.
As incomes rise, the world is witnessing an unprecedented burst of urbanisation. Alongside, the imperatives of technology and breakdown of trade barriers have created the phenomenon of globalisation. The result is a decline in the importance of the nation-state and the rise of the city. The trend is that cities and networks of cities are beginning to matter more than country specific realities. We are firmly in the age of the city.
Every era produces its chroniclers and some go further, arranging facts into a theoretical framework so that they make sense and help us decide how we wish to shape our future. Jeb Brugmann straddles both. He has walked city streets across the globe for 20 years and come up with a theory of what the city means in our lives today. His recent book, Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities Are Changing the World, puts it across powerfully - an urban revolution is on and it is cities which are changing the world.
This has greater significance for India than most other countries. Urbanisation goes hand in hand with rapid economic growth and India is in the throes of both. What is more, the urban revolution that it has witnessed till now will be dwarfed by what is coming. By 2020, India's urban population will go up by a hundred million.
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Susheela Nair
Jorhat (Assam)
TEA tourism is the most happening thing in Assam. Intrepid tourists are making their way to verdant tea estates to savour gracious living in the lap of nature.
Foreigners arrive to trace their roots. They want to see where their forefathers spent their lives and experience the sylvan environs of tea plantations. A few days stay is like a journey down memory lane. There are others who have heard stories from their fathers and grandfathers about tea estates and are keen to experience the life of the aristocratic planter. Then, there are foreigners who come to visit old British cemeteries spread across the northeast. They prefer to stay in the tea gardens.
A stay in a heritage bungalow with a visit to a tea garden in Jorhat, the tea capital of the northeast, is an enriching experience. One can observe tea leaves being plucked, talk to the local people and learn about the fascinating bush to cup story. The visit can culminate in witnessing tea tasting sessions.
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