Food Security Bill

In one of its recent meetings, the Indian government has approved the National Food Security Bill, a bill against hunger and malnutrition in India.

The scheme aims at providing 5 kg grain per person per month to 67 per cent of the country's population at the rate between Re 1 and Rs 3 per kg. (1 rupee= 0.013 euro) as well as free meals to pregnant women, nursing mothers , children between six months and 14 years old, malnourished children and homeless.

The program, which must be approved by the Indian Parliament , is likely to benefit 800 million people people and the total cost will be about $ 22 billion, making it the biggest food security programme in the world. 

The project, which some say is too expensive for the country, is seen by observers as a compromise between what Congress president Sonia Gandhi wanted and what the Manmohan Singh government was willing to deliver.

Rajnath Singh, president of the main opposition party BJP, criticized the delay with which the measure was taken, but he said that his party will not oppose the project, but which will propose some amendments.

One of the weaknesses of the initiative seems to be lack of clarity on the criteria for identification of beneficiaries. The intention is to make that choice based on the results of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census, expected to be available by October.

The observers judged the measure is very important in a country where, according to government data, 43% of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Indeed, the Global Hunger Index of the International Food Policy Research Institute places India in 15th position out of 67 countries afflicted by chronic hunger and famine, a situation that is "alarming".

Many also highlight the need for the project to be protected from the corruption that turns out to be the biggest threat to its implementation. 

Several studies have shown that, in recent years, between 35 and 55 per cent of the resources from food programs were taken and sold on the free market.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rajnath-Singh-says-BJP-wont-oppose-Food-Security-Bill-in-Parliament/articleshow/20943081.cms


http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/food-for-politics/article4885672.ece?homepage=true


http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Food-is-a-right-Christian-entrepreneur-says,-but-warns-laws-must-protect-against-corruption-28385.html

Ikea in India

Soon in a house of Varanasi or Pune, in a hut of Bihar or in an apartment in Mumbai will never find a charpai or four-poster beds, simple wooden shelves, mirrors framed with bamboo canes and teak  or mango wood tables. We will find the library Billy and  armchair Karlstad, bed Malm and the coffee table Lack.

Well, yes. The Indian government has finally allowed Ikea to open ten stores in India over the next ten years and fifteen more in subsequent years. The first phase of the investment is worth almost $ 2 billion.

Laws to protect the small shops that have so far hindered the realization of large retail supermarkets and attempt to land as the American Walmart were not used to lock the Swedish giant. The Indian law in fact permits foreigners to carry out retail chains if the products are monobrand, as in the case of Ikea that  sells only products under its own brand, while the multi-brand sales (i.e. supermarkets) have restrictions.

And because the Indians should not have what we have, cheap furniture? Maybe, but this homogenization saddens me and scares me.

I do not want to bore you, but I have to mention one more time that Mahatma Gandhi was convinced that India had a mission to accomplish in the world and should be for all other nations a beacon to indicate a  peaceful and different from that Western pattern of life.

Gandhi in Young India on 11 August 1927 wrote:

"Wisdom is no monopoly of one continent or one race. My resistance to Western civilisation is really a resistance to its indiscriminate and thoughtless imitation based on the assumption that Asiatics are fit only to copy everything that comes from the West. I do believe, that if India has patience enough to go through the fire of suffering and to resist any unlawful encroachment upon its own civilisation which, imperfect though it undoubtedly is, has hitherto stood the ravages of time, she can make a lasting contribution to the peace and solid progress of the world."

Prohibited born female

Indian children

We don’t know her name, though she had never had a name, the baby-girl newborn in the district of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, has died of starvation a few days after birth. She had a fault, a serious fault in some areas of India and especially in Rajasthan, she was a little girl. 

The last Indian census (Census 2011) shows that in that Indian State live 883 girls under the age of six every 1,000 males of the same age. A decade earlier the ratio was 909 to 1.000. 

I have spoken and spoken again, but I are forced to return to this topic. 

In addition to abortions and feticides targeted against girls in that State, the local authorities refer even infanticides. In practice, the parents abandon newborn babies who die of hunger in a few days. 

Just in June deaths of five babies have been reported. One of them was born perfectly healthy, but she died after a few days. The body had obvious signs of malnutrition. 

Of the other four girls the bodies were not found and authorities are investigating, the villagers reported that their tradition is to leave in the woods the corpses of children who died before reaching six months of life. In fact, the tradition provides for the bodies of infants the burial and the police are certain that in these cases of infanticide the body is somehow removed also thanks to chemicals that accelerate the decomposition. 

Authorities are trying to react. In one case - pending the results of the autopsy - the father of one of the girls died was arrested, while the police are tracking down the parents of another baby dead who have fled to escape justice. 

The situation is terrible, if you think that only in Rajasthan in recent years has an average of 2,500 a day feticides and female infanticides: I’m not mistaken, 2,500 a day!

The world before her

Twenty beautiful Indian girls are being trained to Mumbai to look even more beautiful and glamour, sensual and elegant. Other Indian girls are being trained in the camp of Durga Vahini to learn the doctrine of Hindutva and fight those who want to colonize and destroy the Indian religion, civilization and traditions.

Miss India and a paramilitary training camp, two worlds that could not be more distant, but well summarize the current historical moment of the Indian continent.

Truly a beautiful documentary that screened in Florence in the first edition of the 'Tribeca Florence', the Italian branch of the famous film festival in New York. And at the Tribeca New York 'The world before her', the title of the documentary, won the World Documentary Award.

The filmmaker Nisha Pahuja was not limited to interview the protagonists of these two worlds, but she entered into their homes, she did talk about the family, has shown the social and cultural context in which these very different girls, misses and the Hindu fighters, live. She has showed their diverse ideals, their aspirations and their dreams.

One thing unites all these girls, they are all equally determined to reach the goal: the crown of Miss and a career in show business on the one hand and the fight, armed fight if necessary, to defend  Indian traditions on the other.

A clever document not only on the condition of women in India, but also on the two extreme choices that India today appears to be pursuing: Western consumerism and Hindu fundamentalism, without the possibility of a mediation or a third way that, in my opinion, only India could give to the world.

India more and more armed

India confirms its leadership in the purchase of armaments. It was reported thatlast year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India had become the largest purchaser of arms in the world.

Between 2006 and 2010, 9% of the arms sold in the world had been purchased by India  overtaking China and getting first place in this particular ranking.

Well, a few days ago we known that the Republic of India will buy 126 fighter jets Rafale from France for about eleven billion dollars and a nuclear submarine from Russia for about a billion dollars. But on-board weaponry, technology transfers, maintenance, warranties and other costs are expected to almost double the price. India also will build its first aircraft carrier on its own.

The Indian budget for the years 2011-2012 includes costs of approximately 1.5trillion rupees (about $ 33 billion), up 40% more then in the previous two years: 70%  for arms.

India wants to become undisputed power and a landmark in the south-east Asia, wants to protect itself from China (with whom India has still some open border disputes), and from all neighboring countries (Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) funded by China. India wants maintain dominance over the Indian Ocean ,which India always considered something of a 'mare nostrum', challenged by the increased influence and activism of Beijing considered by Indian authorities as "aggressive raids".

To find out more clik here and here.

Children malnutrition: "national shame”

Child in Agra - India

42 percent of Indian children under five are malnourished and 59 percent of them suffer from a stoppage or slowdown in growth. Those are two of the data that emerge from research called Hungama - Hunger and malnutrition, and conducted by the National Foundation Naandi in 112 districts (click here to read the full report).

The survey notes that the prevalence of malnutrition is significantly higher among children from low-income families. It found that children from Muslim or SC/ST households generally had worse nutrition indicators, but malnutrition is very important also in families in the medium and even high-income.

The vast majority of underweight children had a birth weight less than the minimum specified by the international standards of  health and it due tothat because of malnutrition of the mothers during pregnancy.

The report also showed that - even in poor families - child malnutrition is lower if the mother's education level is higher. 11 per cent mothers said they used soap to wash hands before a meal and 19 per cent do so after a visit to the toilet.

The fact that the percentage of malnourished children since the last survey (2004) has been reduced from 53 to 42 percent is not very positive in a country  knowing as "Shining India"  with an incredible annual GDP PIN increase and in a country where is the most important (and expensive) program in the world for the development of children, however, it is undermined by corruption and inefficiency. In fact the findings were described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a “national shame”. Despite impressive growth in India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in recent years, the level of under-nutrition is unacceptably high, he said. As if Mr. Singh came down from Mars, actually he is ruling this country for years and determines the choices of economic policy and resource allocation as the first Minister of Economy and now as Prime Minister.

To learn more click here and here. 

A thought of Arundhati Roy

Indian shop

In a recent issue of "D of the Republic" (italian magazine) there was an interview with Arundhati Roy. They asked her opinion on how India is seen from outside. This is her answer:

"It's funny, because when the so-called "Arab Spring broke" has been followed anywhere. In Kashmir 100 thousand people took to the streets over the past three years, facing tanks, police. There were lots of dead and no one has talked about "spring of Kashmir." Kashmir is under military occupation of the densest in the world: 700 thousand soldiers in the little valley. The U.S. has sent 165 thousand soldiers to attack Iraq! But nobody talks about. Of course, India is the ideal of international finance and then you have to write the growth rate, not the fact that there are 800 million people living on less than 30 cents a day! Or the fact that there are poorer than the 7 poorest states of the Africa combined. We speak about the spiritual life of India, not about a country very violent with women and children and that the middle class ishungry for blood. "

The Indian economic 'miracle'

Let me point out an article, long but very interesting, Siddhartha Deb on the 'miracle' of Indian economic published on Guernica magazine. This is only a brief excerpt, to read the entire article click  here



Workers in Cochin



"The changes that have been wrought in India in the past two decades have not been kind to the poor. Even as the number of millionaires and billionaires has increased, followed by the aspirers from the middle classes, the poor have seen either little or no improvement at all, depending on which economists and policy makers one chooses to believe. The data collected by the Indian government, which has been subject to some controversy for its tendency to downplay the number of poor people and the extent of their destitution, is nevertheless stark. In 2004-2005, the last year for which data was available, the total number of people in India consuming less than twenty rupees (or fifty cents) a day was 836 million—or 77 percent of the population. The people in this group belong overwhelmingly to what policy makers refer to as the “unorganized” or “informal” sector of the economy, which means that the work they do is irregular, carried out in harsh conditions and offers no security or upward mobility."

"A nation greater then the sum of its parts"

Sanskrit

Sometimes we don’t realize that India is a very big country, a subcontinent with cultural, religious, ethnic, social, ethical, difference often very considerable. Therefore, it’s impossible to say that "it does so in India" or "in India it is believed that ...". Our desire for simplification collides with a variety non-existent in Europe and with a nation that defies every classification. So someone has written provocatively that "India does not exist."
It is not exclusively a population, in India there are currently about one billion and 200 million inhabitants, or of land and climate.
Hinduism, for instance, is not an unitary religion, it’s a term with which we try to encompass practices, customs, beliefs, faiths practiced in India. But in the Hinduist tradition there are also philosophical atheist, devoutly revered deities in certain areas are not even known in other areas.
And then, in addition to the Hindu tradition there are many other religions, not secondary in terms of 'quantity', if you think that India with its 150 million Muslims is the second largest Islamic nation in the world.
In India the feeding varies for different places, people follow multiple calendars and dress in various ways.
Think about the language. Indian law recognizes 18 official languages, but schools teach 50 different languages ​​and movies are produced in 15 languages, while there are newspapers in over 90 languages ​​and radio programs in at least 70 different languages.
And mind you that those aren’t languages similar to each other, some are totally different. Some languages ​​are in fact derived from the Indo-European, such as Sanskrit and Hindi, as other languages have Dravidian source like Tamil and Malayalam, but others are derived from the Mon-Khmer branch and others from Sinotibetano branch.
Malayalam is spoken in Kerala, in Maharashtra Mahara, the Kannada in Karnataka, the Mithila in Bihar, the Konkali in Goa, Hindi is the official language of twelve Indian states, Assam and the Bodo and speaking the Assamese in Andra Pradesh and in Pondhicherry we talk instead Telegu, and then there are the tribal languages ​​like Gondi and Bhil.
The result of all this diversity is that India does not really exist? It does, it does, but as Amartya Sen says in his book The argumentative indian, "the only possible idea of ​​India is that of a nation greater than the sum of its parts."

Formula 1 Gran Prix in India. Absurd!

The plantation in Tamil Nadu (India)

What could it happen if the farmers of Greater Noida in India peacefully invaded the Formula 1 circuit constructed on the outskirts of New Delhi. What could it happen if the first Grand Prix of Formula 1 in India, scheduled for next Sunday, could not play because a multitude of angry farmers without violence and peacefully went beyond the security cordons of the thousands of police officers called to defend the 'circus'.
I wish someone shout out loud that there is a different way to spend the money and that there is a model of development that India already has at home and that is the only hope to avoid the risk of being colonized by the West. Risk that there is much more now than it was during the British rule.
Yes, I would really like that - Gandhian-style - without violence and silently these dispossessed farmers for a few rupees present themselves to the gates of the circuit and did you beat up a lathi blows from policemen.
Some numbers.
The Buddh International Circuit (yes, they have just named in honor of Buddha!) was built by the Jaypee Group on a plot of approximately 2500 acres (more than a thousand hectares).
The circuit was built about 40 km from New Delhi and is part of the Jaypee Sports City which, in addition to the track, can boast a cricket stadium, a field hockey, golf course to eighteen holes and a sports school .
The circuit can accommodate about 120,000 spectators and tickets range from 2,500 (about 36 euros) to 35,000 rupees (500 euros).
During the Grand Prix will consume 15,000 liters of fuel.
The total funding amounted to 1,960 crore rupees (about 300 million euros), the land was expropriated and 'paid' to over a thousand family farmers 800 rupees (about 12 euros) per square meter. The farmers claim that was improperly applied the law of 1894, the Land Acquisition Act, to carry out the expropriations and even the Indian Supreme Court has challenged the organizers to have illegally benefited from tax exemptions and attachment orders, asking for explanations on 25% of the proceeds of 'event.
The land provided three crops a year and represented the only source of livelihood for these farmers. In addition, the entire work has closed one of the main roads in the area forcing the children of the village of Atta Gujran to walk more than nine miles to reach their school as the crow flies is no more than a kilometer.
Of course, the multimillionaires of Jaypee Group and politicians argue that the whole operation has brought foreign capital in India, gave work and is an engine for development.
The farmers have not noticed it.

Arundhati Roy opinion about Anna Hazare

The international press gave ample space to Indian activist Anna Hazare protests, 74, who, referring explicitly to the Gandhian methods, began an indefinite hunger strike, a fast, to protest against a proposed anti-corruption law submitted by the Government of India Hazare found to be too bland.It seems to me very interesting and, as usual, non-trivialand intelligent, the essay published by Arundhati Roy on The Hindu dated 21 August and which give a reduction.

(…) While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare's demands are certainly not. Contrary to Gandhiji's ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official. The Lokpal will have the powers of investigation, surveillance, and prosecution. Except for the fact that it won't have its own prisons, it will function as an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one.

Whether it works or not depends on how we view corruption. Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an egregiously unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority? Imagine, for example, a city of shopping malls, on whose streets hawking has been banned. A hawker pays the local beat cop and the man from the municipality a small bribe to break the law and sell her wares to those who cannot afford the prices in the malls. Is that such a terrible thing? In future will she have to pay the Lokpal representative too? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure that people will have to defer to?

(...) ‘The Fast' of course doesn't mean Irom Sharmila's fast that has lasted for more than ten years (she's being force fed now) against the AFSPA, which allows soldiers in Manipur to kill merely on suspicion. It does not mean the relay hunger fast that is going on right now by ten thousand villagers in Koodankulam protesting against the nuclear power plant. ‘The People' does not mean the Manipuris who support Irom Sharmila's fast. Nor does it mean the thousands who are facing down armed policemen and mining mafias in Jagatsinghpur, or Kalinganagar, or Niyamgiri, or Bastar, or Jaitapur. Nor do we mean the victims of the Bhopal gas leak, or the people displaced by dams in the Narmada Valley. Nor do we mean the farmers in NOIDA, or Pune or Haryana or elsewhere in the country, resisting the takeover of the land.

‘The People' only means the audience that has gathered to watch the spectacle of a 74-year-old man threatening to starve himself to death if his Jan Lokpal Bill is not tabled and passed by Parliament. ‘The People' are the tens of thousands who have been miraculously multiplied into millions by our TV channels, like Christ multiplied the fishes and loaves to feed the hungry. “A billion voices have spoken,” we're told. “India is Anna.”

Anna Hazare

Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People? Oddly enough we've heard him say nothing about things of urgent concern. Nothing about the farmer's suicides in his neighbourhood, or about Operation Green Hunt further away. Nothing about Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, nothing about Posco, about farmer's agitations or the blight of SEZs. He doesn't seem to have a view about the Government's plans to deploy the Indian Army in the forests of Central India.

He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and has praised the ‘development model' of Gujarat's Chief Minister who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims. (Anna withdrew that statement after a public outcry, but presumably not his admiration.)

Despite the din, sober journalists have gone about doing what journalists do. We now have the back-story about Anna's old relationship with the RSS.

(…) Remember the campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill gathered steam around the same time as embarrassing revelations by Wikileaks and a series of scams, including the 2G spectrum scam, broke, in which major corporations, senior journalists, and government ministers and politicians from the Congress as well as the BJP seem to have colluded in various ways as hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were being siphoned off from the public exchequer. For the first time in years, journalist-lobbyists were disgraced and it seemed as if some major Captains of Corporate India could actually end up in prison. Perfect timing for a people's anti-corruption agitation. Or was it?

At a time when the State is withdrawing from its traditional duties and Corporations and NGOs are taking over government functions (water supply, electricity, transport, telecommunication, mining, health, education); at a time when the terrifying power and reach of the corporate owned media is trying to control the public imagination, one would think that these institutions — the corporations, the media, and NGOs — would be included in the jurisdiction of a Lokpal bill. Instead, the proposed bill leaves them out completely.

Now, by shouting louder than everyone else, by pushing a campaign that is hammering away at the theme of evil politicians and government corruption, they have very cleverly let themselves off the hook. Worse, by demonising only the Government they have built themselves a pulpit from which to call for the further withdrawal of the State from the public sphere and for a second round of reforms — more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources. It may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee.

Will the 830 million people living on Rs.20 a day really benefit from the strengthening of a set of policies that is impoverishing them and driving this country to civil war?

This awful crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people. Do not be fooled by the flag waving. We're watching India being carved up in war for suzerainty that is as deadly as any battle being waged by the warlords of Afghanistan, only with much, much more at stake.

To read the full essay.

Why is Bombay in a hurry to forget its dead?

Interesting article on Times of India of CP Surendran who criticizes how easily the Bombayites forget the attaks that periodically hit the city.

"Less than 24 hours later, most of the 65 lakh commuters, who fuel the much mythified entrepreneurial fire of the city, are back to work".

"I remember well - Surendran writes - the 1993 serial blasts when the floor shook beneath my feet. Then, too, the day after the blasts that killed over 200 people, Bombayites were back to work much to the praises of the media at large. Since then the myth of the Spirit of Bombay has come in for periodic backslapping and thankgiving in the context of terrorist violence."

"If bombs go off a city and kill people, the survivors should be taking a break from their killing routine, pay tribute to the dead... and perhaps a minute's observation of silence in public places. They should be discussing in their cooperative societies and other communities how pressure the rather passive state government."

"That - Surendran concludes - is showing real respect to the dead and to the living."

To read the article

The death of Swami Nigamananda against Ganges pollution

Ganges - Varanasi

It's been four months that he was fasting. Swami Nigamananda died June 13 at the age of 34 years to the hospital in Dehradun.
Nigamananda was fasting to protest against rampant corruption in India, against plans to uncontrolled exploitation of the ground in Uttarakhand and especially against the pollution of the Ganges, whose sources are located in this state in northern India.
Nigamananda had left home in 1995 to become a sannyasa, renouncer,  and engage in search of self. He lived at the ashram of Matra Sadan and was a recognized throughout India guru.
He had started his non-violent form of protest the February 19 against   illegal and systematic exploitation of mines in the Ganges.
This is an illegal system that produces huge profits and live thanks to collusion, connivance and corruption of all state apparatuses: the government, ministers, the forester, the police. Opponents will be deleted.
Political parties accuse each other and try to exploit the great amount of publicity that the event has had in India. The Congress Party accuses the BJP, the Hindu fundamentalist party in government in that state, which contends that the projects against which Nigamananda struggled existed during the administration of the Congress Party.
On the death of the spiritual leader has also opened a judicial inquiry as some say that the guru was even poisoned while others argue that he has not been properly cared for during the hospitalization.
Swami Nigamananda, whose karmic residue was exhausted and therefore did not need to be burned on the funeral pyre, was buried in the position of the padma asana, as the gurus who have made the moksha in this life that is stopping the samsara or cycle of of rebirth.

To go into

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/swami-nigamananda-dies-fasting-to-save-ganga-from-pollution/articleshow/8848525.cms

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2104810.ece

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article2109755.ece

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ne020711COVERSTORY.asp

I don't like this India



Coffee

I don’t like this India.
It was, perhaps still is, the only important nation in the world who could have (or could) teach all people a different model of development and a different conception of the economy. But when - amidst the approval of the Western world attracted by huge profits with little cost - the Republic of India has opened up to capitalism, foreign investment and wild liberism, when in fact what is significantly called "westossification” took over, India is more and more towards a development model that favors a few riches and creates a mass poors of  that is unparalleled in the world, destroying territories, cultures, traditions, human beings.
It’s a few days ago yet another violent reaction of the police and army against farmers of Jagatsinghpu in the state of Orissa, where the locals were protesting peacefully against the project of South Korean Posco of a steelmaker huge plant, expropriating thousands of hectares of land belonging to farmers for a few rupees, destroying forty farms and putting an end to an important forest ecosystem.
Obviously, the Indian Ministry of Environment has given its approval for investment of about twelve billion dollars under the guise of development and creation of jobs. Were not using to anything the popular protests which began in 2005 and the results of independent studies underlining the environmental damage of that project.
But that of the Posco is just one of mega-projects which requires forced expropriation of land for farmers.Expropriations in Uttar Pradesh where the Jaypee Infratechin plans to build a new railway line, in Jaitapur where French Areva wants to build the world's largest nuclear plant, still in Uttar Pradesh where Jiaprakash Associates has acquired about 2,400 hectares of land to build residential areas and sports facilities, including a race track for Formula One and a railway line of 165 km, with the acquisition of the territory of 1,225 villages.
By outdated and unfair law, the price of expropriation is negligible, about  300 rupees per square meter (less than 5 €), but after the expropriation those lands are to 600 thousand rupees per square meter.International companies, Indian state governments, foreign governments, business organizations like the IMF are racing to invest in and encourage investment, wild mining, logging, factories and plants, intensive crops for biofuels, roads, dams and railways. The important thing is to get money. In reality in this way is fed into the corruption and the greed of international companies and governments with no advantage for India and Indians.
And the future does not bode well if the government set the objective of 85% of the urbanized population of India, it maintains the second largest army in the world and continues to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in military nuclear program.
It does not matter if the farmers are committing suicide for the debts incurred to buy GM seeds and patented by multinational companies, that the much acclaimed IT boom employs only 0.2% of the workforce while the survival of 65% of the population still depends on cultivation of land, 830 million people live on less than 20 rupees a day, 2 million children die annually before reaching the fifth year of life.
Think: the wealth generated by India, if properly used would allow, would be sufficient  to eliminate poverty and malnutrition, illiteracy and disease and underdevelopment.
Gandhi advocated the large India of the villages with a standard of living "simple, but dignified,"  an India that developed country houses, living in peace with the world. Swadeshi and Swaraj, self-sufficiency and self-government, "an India new and strong, not bellicose, not cowardly imitating the West in all its hatefulness," an India that "becomes the hope not only of Asia and Africa, but the entire world suffers. "
with a standard of living "simple, but dignified," developed an India that his country houses, living in peace with the world. Swadeshi and Swaraj, self-sufficiency and self-government, "an India new and strong, not bellicose, not cowardly imitating the West in all its hatefulness," an India that "becomes the hope not only of Asia and Africa, but of the entire world suffers. "

To go into

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2095863.ece

http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2010/09/india-land-police-government

http://www.asianews.it/notizie-it/E'-guerra-per-la-terra-tra-agricoltori-e-governi-statali-21803.html

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws020511BUSINESSII.asp

Non-peacefull India

According to the Global Peace Index 2011, reached its fifth edition, India is one of the least peaceful or, if you will, one of the most vioent country in the world.

To be precise, India is ranked at 135 in the Index calculated over 153 countries worldwide.

The ranking is calculated by adding many factors appropriately proportionate to the number of inhabitants of each country including the level of peace within its borders, as against foreign states, the percentage of murders, violent crimes, of prisoners, acts of terrorism, law enforcement officals.

It's very interesting to examine to the indexes (here), I trascribe a few of them:



Taj Mahal



Level of perceived criminality in society 4/5

Level of disrespect of human rights 4/5

Level of violent crimes 4/5

Number of homicides 4/5

Life expectancy 63,72

Infant mortality per 1,000 live births 50,3

Women in parliament 10,8%

Freedom of the press 38,75%

Current education spending 3,18%

Adult literacy rate 66,02%

Unemployment 10,8%

Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi (by Saptarshigosh)

India on Saturday 21 paid homage to former prime minister  Rajiv Gandhi on his 20th death anniversary.
President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the departed leader's widow and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi  were among the first to pay floral tribute to the late leader at 'Veer Bhumi', the memorial of Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra also paid floral tributes to their father who was assassinated on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu during a poll campaign.
Vice President Hamid Ansari, home minister P Chidambaram, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit also paid homage to Gandhi. Priyanka's husband Robert Vadra was present on the occasion.
School children waving national flags were also present at the memorial.
May 21 is also observed as Anti-Terrorism Day with an objective to keep youth away from terror activities.

From Times of India

Femal discrimination again

Indian children - Chennai

A man is accused of beating to death his wife, six months pregnant, after learning that the fetus was a girl. The crime occurred in Andhra Pradesh. Prakash Chari, this man's name, he ordered his wife to abort. But the woman refused, and during the discussion, on May 10 last, he physically assaulted. Neighbors rushed to stop him, and immediately led the woman to a nearby hospital seriously wounded, but in vain. It 'died of wounds the following day.

The couple had two children, and after the scans revealed that the woman was wearing her lap in a third woman's husband has beaten to death.




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Kerala: danger endosulfan

Rice plantation in Kerala (India)

Kasargod, at the northern end of Kerala, has the largest cashew plantation belt that covers 5,600 acres in 11 village panchayats. The plantations have been aerially sprayed with endosulfan since 1976, three times a year regularly till 2000, to check the menace of the tea mosquito bug. Aerial spraying of the highly toxic organochlorine pesticide polluted water bodies, soil and vegetation. The after-effects of the indiscriminate use of endosulfan haunt Kasargod. Kerala’s health department identified 4,600 victims in 11 village panchayats and issued health cards entitling patients to free medical care. In 1979, the local community noticed stunted growth and deformed limbs among newborn calves.

By 1990, the health disorders were noticed among humans. Mothers started delivering children with congenital anomalies, mental retardation, physical deformities, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and hydrocephalus.

The National Institute of Occupational Health, a wing of the Indian Council of Medical Research, conducted a study in the affected areas and identified aerial spraying of endosulfan as the reason behind the complex health problems in the region. But it was not enough to convince the agriculture ministry to order a ban on the chemical.

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Millions of unborn girls

India's sex ratio, among children aged 0-6 years, is alarming. The ratio has declined from 976 females (for every 1000 males) in 1961 to 914 in 2011. Every national census has documented a decline in the ratio, signalling a ubiquitous trend. Preliminary data from the 2011 Census have recorded many districts with sex ratios of less than 850. The ratio in urban areas is significantly lower than those in rural parts of the country. Reports suggest evidence of violence and trafficking of poor women and forced polyandry in some regions with markedly skewed ratios. The overall steep and consistent decline in the ratio mandates serious review.

Medical technology (like amniocentesis and ultrasonography), employed in the prenatal period to diagnose genetic abnormalities, are being misused in India for detecting the sex of the unborn child and subsequently for sex-selection. Female foetuses, thus identified, are aborted.

Many studies have concluded that prenatal sex determination, followed by abortion of female foetuses, is the most plausible explanation for the low sex ratio at birth in India.

Girls of Cochin



The steady decline in the sex ratio suggests that marked improvements in the economy and literacy rates do not seem to have had any impact on this index. In fact, the availability of new technology and its easy access for the urban, wealthy and the educated have worsened the trend and harmed the status of women in Indian society.

The social system of patriarchy, with males as the primary authority figures, is central to the organisation of much of Indian society. The system upholds the institutions of male rule and privilege and mandates female subordination. Patriarchy manifests itself in social, religious, legal, political and economic organisation of society. It continues to strongly influence Indian society, despite the Constitution's attempt to bring about an egalitarian social order.

Patriarchal societies in most parts of India have translated their prejudice and bigotry into a compulsive preference for boys and discrimination against the girl child. They have also spawned practices such as female infanticide, dowry, bride-burning and sati. They have led to the neglect of nutrition, health care, education, and employment for girls. Women's work is also socially devalued with limited autonomy in decision-making. The intersections of caste, class and gender worsen the situation. Despite its social construction, patriarchal culture, reinforced by the major religions in the country, maintains its stranglehold on gender inequality. The prevalent patriarchal framework places an ideological bar on the discussion of alternative approaches to achieve gender justice.

The declining sex ratio cannot be simply viewed as a medical or legal issue. It is embedded within the social construction of patriarchy and is reinforced by tradition, culture and religion. Female foeticide and infanticide are just the tip of the iceberg; there is a whole set of subtle and blatant discriminatory practices against girls and women under various pretexts. It is this large base of discrimination against women that supports the declining sex ratio.

While women are guaranteed equality under the Constitution, legal protection has little effect in the face of the prevailing patriarchal culture. India needs to confront its gender bias openly. It would appear that nothing short of a social revolution would bring about an improvement in the health and status of women in the country. Irony and hypocrisy are the two words that come to mind when patriarchal societies talk about justice for their women. Surely, the disappearance of millions of girls in India is reason enough to question the acceptance of patriarchy and search for an egalitarian social order.

(Professor K.S. Jacob, Faculty of the Christian Medical College, Vellore)

Read full text of the essay on The Hindu