final 40 page jan 2012.qxd

`50VOL. 13 NO. 2 DECEMBER 2015 www.civilsocietyonline.com .com/civilsocietyonline

cOmpanies lack leaders

single-teacHer scHOOls

Oldest natiOnal park

Pages 22-23

Page 27

Pages 32-33

Hall Of fame evening

mOdel cOde fOr ngOs

sHelters fOr HOmeless

Pages 6-7

Pages 8-9

Pages 14-15

WHY OdisHa’s farmers are

taking tHeir lives

SPECIAL FOCUS

Pages 10-11

Exciting fiction on offer

A scene from ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’

THE NEWWOMANIN INDIANCINEMA





CONTeNTS

cOver stOrY

In a growing trend, films are being made by independent

directors in Mumbai on the woman’s point of view. The stories

they tell are humorous, rebellious and sometimes tragic.

tHe neW WOman in indian cinema

We have been reporting on new trends in Indian cinema and thismonth’s cover story is in keeping with the interest we haveshown in the past. It is good to be first with coverage of directors

and films — especially because those which are new and different tend to gounnoticed in the beginning. We like to be the first to latch on. It is the thrilla publication fishes for. But that is not the only reason. Another reason forus is that films mirror society. Those that come from the fringes of theindustry tend to explore less-understood realities. They deal with emergingconcerns and identities. The women in the films we have written about areasserting themselves — both in the characters in the stories and through themaking of the films. The emergence of women in post-liberalisation Indiaisn’t adequately studied and understood. Nor is the decline of patriarchy. Butit is clear that there is an emerging shift in equations. We at Civil Societynotice it all the time — in big cities of course and, more significantly, whenwe travel out to the smaller places. These films are built around fictional sto-ries. They aren’t documentaries. Fiction is their strength since it is oftenmore nuanced and revealing than cold fact.

From Odisha we bring you a story of agricultural distress. Farmers havebeen taking their own lives, plunged as they are in debt in the midst of a fail-ing rural economy. It is at great peril that we continue to ignore the needs ofthe farm sector. The message from Odisha is the same as from elsewhere inthe country. Lack of irrigation, overuse of pesticides and fertilisers, absenceof a cold chain, poor market access, no jobs for the young, missing linkagesbetween rural and urban, banks that won’t lend in time — it is the same listof issues. What is needed is clearly a mission-oriented approach to find solu-tions and improve processes quickly. Farmers big and small need the sameattention nationally that the government gives industry.

We have two interesting interviews in this issue. Mathew Cherian hasrecently taken over as the chairperson of VANI or the Voluntary ActionNetwork of India. Mathew will be working to build bridges between thegovernment and the voluntary sector. There is need to promote betterunderstanding of the creative role that the voluntary sector plays. It is equal-ly important for voluntary organisations to be transparent and accountable.

On sustainability and the corporate sector we spoke to Bimal Arora ofthe Centre for Responsible Business. He has been working for long withcompanies in this space. The interview coincides with a conference inNew Delhi on the subject. At the core of sustainability is self-regulationand reporting. The Indian corporate sector has a long way to go. Rightnow it is stuck on CSR, which is not the same as sustainability. What islacking —advocacy, regulation, leadership? For all their global connectiv-ity, Indian companies, by and large, don’t seem to be able to learn fromothers and leapfrog.

18

R E A D U S. W E R E A D Y O U.

Cash-free farming

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Fire sets back Goonj

Talking to the patient’s family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Schools for the tribal child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-26Splitting up in Bengaluru

Norms go from pre to post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Theatre to fight stigma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-30

‘Time for a new forest service’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34A green bazaar

films as a mirror

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5CIVIL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 2015

VOICeS

nutrition for the poor

Your November issue carried aninteresting story titled, ‘Nutrition forthe very poor.’ The initiative taken byDr Samir Chaudhuri is exemplaryand deserves to be replicated else-where in the country. I would like tocompliment you and your team fortaking up such issues and highlight-ing them in your magazine.

Anil Swarup

We appreciate the efforts of CINI tocombat malnutrition by inventing alow-cost health food. We need a rangeof nutritious foods that are easy tocook for children. These could be easi-ly made available through ration shopsfor those who would like to buy them.

Ritika and Gyanendra Singh

Hall of fame

The Hall of Fame is such an inspira-tional, hopeful and reassuring event.

My congratulations to all who wererecognised and to you for making thispossible. Anupamji was at his best andso was Arunaji. It was just wonderful.

Kabir Vajpayee

artocarpus

We enjoyed reading Shree Padre’sstory, ‘Jackfruit finds a factory’, inyour November issue. Kerala needsmany more such companies to avoidthe criminal wastage of jackfruit.When jackfruit is not in season, otherfruits can be processed. Since jack-fruit is a low glycemic food it shouldbe in high demand in India, especial-ly in Kerala which has become thediabetic capital of the country.

Jissy George

This enterprise can help thousands oftribal people in Odisha. In our localforests a lot of jackfruit is just allowedto rot. Instead, Artocarpus can buyjackfruit from tribals and help themearn a good income. If required, weare ready to extend our support andcooperation to Subhash Koroth.

Mangaraj Panda

I would like to thank Shree Padre forhis detailed article on SubhashKoroth setting up Artocarpus, thefirst jackfruit manufacturing compa-ny in India. I salute Koroth forinvesting his money into makingjackfruit products. Nobody elsewould have dared to take this step. Imet Subhash in Trivandrum and tooka few samples of his products. I have

started creating awareness about themedicinal value of jackfruit in semi-nars and I am now marketing jack-fruit products.

C.K. Asari

I am very happy to know that SubhashKoroth, an electrical engineer, is man-ufacturing jackfruit products. I wouldalso like to thank Shree Padre for histireless efforts in campaigning for thishumble and long ignored fruit. Weneed to put our heads together andfind sustainable ways of feeding ourpopulation which does not increasepressure on land.

Udaya Kumar

grassroots leader

The tragic news from Baran districtof Rajasthan is that Motilal, the secre-tary and founding-member ofSankalp, died in the middle of all hiswork very suddenly on September 23.

Sankalp played a leading role infighting against hunger and bondedlabour in Baran district of Rajasthan.It enormously helped the Sahariyatribals of the region.

Till his last moments Motilal wasengrossed in work relating to the wel-fare of the Sahariyas which was dear-est to his heart. He was closelyinvolved in drought-relief work andfood security. He campaigned tireless-ly for land and forest rights of tribals.Motilal was involved in initiatives toimprove media coverage of grassrootsnews in remote villages. As director ofthe ‘Doosra Dashak’ project in Barandistrict, he made an immense contri-bution to education too.

Bharat Dogra

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NeWS

6

HALL OF FAME

An engaged audience from different walks of life

Indraani singh speaking on literacy India’s work puli raju from Telengana spoke of rural distress

Archana Godbole and jayant sarnaik receiving their citations Dr sudha sinha on setting up a children’s cancer facility

THe Civil Society Hall of Fame 2015 recog-nition ceremony was a memorable evening

of inspiring stories and great music at theAmphitheatre of the India Habitat Centre inNew Delhi on October 30.

The annual ceremony draws a packed house andthis year was no exception. It was also once againan engaged and receptive audience that applaudedthe new entrants to the Civil Society Hall of Fameas they recounted their various journeys.

It has become a hallmark of the ceremony thatit draws people from diverse walks of life. Therewere activists, executives, government servants,police officers, politicians, small businessmen,code writers from software companies, home-makers, journalists and students. It was an audi-ence representative of Civil Society magazine’sdiverse readership.

entering the Civil Society Hall of Fame this yearwere Sudha Sinha, an oncologist; ArchanaGodbole and Jayant Sarnaik, conservationists;Puli Raju, a teacher who has been recording sui-cides by farmers in Telangana; Sumoni Jhodia,tribal leader from Odisha; Indraani Singh and theLiteracy India team for educating poor childrenand promoting livelihoods and Dr Sitanath De, arural surgeon from Jhargram in West Bengal.

Anupam Mishra of the Gandhi PeaceFoundation delivered the keynote address. Heemphasised the need for tolerance and pluralismin a multicultural India. In his customary style,he was both insightful and humorous, and deliv-ered a powerful message on the need for harmo-ny and inclusion for taking India forward.

Aruna Roy, the veteran activist and leader ofthe Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, presidedand gave away the citations.

The recognition ceremony was followed by theeveryone Is Someone Concert. The iconic band,Indian Ocean, played as they have in previousyears, defining the occasion in ways only theycan with their original and socially meaningfulmusic and lyrics.

an eveningto remember


NeWSHALL OF FAME

PICTURES By AJIT KRISHNA

Anupam mishra delivering a hugely applauded keynote address Aruna roy addressing the gathering

puli raju from Telengana spoke of rural distress

Dr sudha sinha on setting up a children’s cancer facility Indian ocean performed brilliantly

sumoni jhodia, a tribal leader from odisha, gave a stirring speech Dr sitanath De’s citation being received by prof. p.k. Dutta


NeWSINTERVIEW

Civil Society News

New Delhi

THe voluntary sector’s complaintsagainst the Union governmenthave been growing — beginning

with the Manmohan Singh-led UnitedProgressive Alliance (UPA) and now theNarendra Modi-led National DemocraticAlliance (NDA). It is felt that activists andNGOs are being unfairly hounded andregulations on taxation and foreign con-tributions are being used to settle scoresin situations where the government iscriticised and its policies are opposed.

As the differences grow, MathewCherian, CeO of Helpage India, hastaken over the additional role ofHonorary Chairperson of the VoluntaryAction Network of India (VANI).

Cherian’s mission is to find commonground and restore the image of volun-tary groups as a source of positive energywith a constructive role to play in thedevelopment process.

Cherian is well-placed to restore bal-ance. A fair-minded man, who measureshis words, Cherian has credibility both ingovernment and the social sector. But hehas his work cut out for him. As much asthe criticism against the government isjustified, it is also true that many a volun-tary organisation has to learn to live up tohigher standards of transparency andaccountability.

VANI is a network of around 400 grass-roots NGOs. Most of them work in the poorest statesof India — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar —and provide assistance in drinking water, sanitation,watershed management, education, infant and mater-nal mortality, which are critical areas of concern.

What are your priorities as the new HonoraryChairperson of VANI?We are trying to see how we can correct the image ofthe voluntary sector. I have always maintained that wehave contributed hugely to society, whether it be theRight to Information law, drinking water, leprosyeradication, joint forest management… these havebeen done by various NGOs and become official poli-cies of the Government of India.

Yet, when it comes to giving us a level playingfield with the corporate sector, we are always at thereceiving end. The government always backs thecorporate sector, thinking it can solve all the prob-lems of this country. But here is a sector that hasperformed time and again with meagre resourcesand changed the policies of the government. Andwhat they give us is the stick.

In a democratic society, civil society is absolutelynecessary. We are one of the pillars of society. If

there is no civil society, there is no democracy.Many people acknowledge that the voluntary sectordoes a lot of work but the media writes negative sto-ries about us.

Why do you think the NGO sector has a bad image?The NGO sector is a very vast sector. We cannot con-trol everybody. There are people who have not stoodup to the levels of accountability we would expectthem to. There have been some agencies that have notperformed well. They have created personal assets. Soall this has given us a bad name. But usually the medialikes bad stories. The good stories don’t get written.The bad stories overwhelm the good stories.

So what can be done to improve this image? VANI will be drafting a model code of conduct thatwe will make all our members accept. We are sayingthere is no getting away from transparency andaccountability. Membership in VANI will hinge onsigning this code of conduct. Your accounts anddetails of your organisation will be posted on yourwebsite. So whenever the tax authorities and theForeign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)department hounds us, we can say we follow this

model code of conduct.

Has the time come for the voluntary sector toaccept regulation?Though the sector has been talking about self-regu-lation, we already have regulation through taxation,the FCRA and the Societies Act, which is weak butexists. The other way to get into regulation is to geta new Societies Act where we can all register again.That can be like the new Companies Act.

You could then register all development NGOsunder the new Societies Act.No, there might be some NGOs in the field of art,culture, or heritage conservation like INTACH. Butwe can avoid the clubs, and other societies mas-querading as NGOs. The word ‘development’ mightbe difficult to define. The tax laws define our workquite clearly — relief of the poor, education of vul-nerable people, healthcare and environmental con-servation. A recent addition is yoga.

What is the effect this scrutiny is having on theNGOs?Many NGOs have intelligence officers visiting them.

‘VANI drafting model code of conduct for NGOs’

‘We are trying to see how we can correct theimage of the voluntary sector. I have maintainedthat we have contributed hugely to society.’

mathew Cherian: ‘In a democratic society, civil society is absolutely necessary’

AJIT KRISHNA


NeWSINTERVIEW

One NGO, Give India, received a 30-page question-naire from the FCRA office. Quite a few NGOs havereceived scrutiny notices. All this is creating a moodthat the NGO sector is under watch. Of course, thebig foreign NGOs like Greenpeace and Hivos can’treceive foreign funds and that instruction has goneto the banks also. Those agencies are on the watchlist. Besides, we get tax notices.

But the impression that has gained ground, as inthe Mahan controversy involving Greenpeace, isthat NGOs are harming India’s economic interests. In the Mahan coalmine agitation, the companyinvolved is essar, a British company. The sharehold-ing is in London. Vedanta Resources plc’s sharehold-ing is also in London. They are listed on the LondonStock exchange so they are not Indian companies.

You can always question the receipt of foreignmoney. But there are many NGOs fighting withlocal funds. In Odisha, the agitation against POSCOis being financed locally. NGOs are using localresources. If you try to promote companies at the costof the people, somebody will agitate.

Will you be encouraging members of VANI to getrated? VANI is a network so we cannot rate ourselves. Weare promoting various mechanisms for transparencyand accountability. Rating is just one of them. It couldbe accreditation or some other system.

Like what?Being online, having a website, is one of them. Theother is posting your accounts in the public domain.According to Indian and foreign law, your tax returnsare a private document. But many US non-profits puttheir tax returns on their websites which is like saying,this is what I have submitted to the government, thisis my status. So I feel you should be able to put yourtax returns on your website. Showing what I get andwhat I pay is very transparent.

The problem appears to be one of perception.Would you agree?Yes, but there is also a communication problem. Weneed to go out and tell the world the value we areadding. In my organisation (Helpage), we are treat-ing one million elderly. But the rest of the worlddoes not know. We need to communicate not just toour donors and well-wishers but to the unconvert-

ed. Many NGOs do not like to communicate andthey don’t even use social media. They see it as awaste of time. They don’t even have a proper web-site. We are trying to get Digital empowermentFoundation (DeF) to create simple websites for ourmembers in the .ngo domain.

Do you think the NGO sector needs to create neu-tral space where they can function regardless ofwhich government comes to power?Yes, we do need neutral space and a level playing field.We did discuss a model law for the voluntary sectorwith Syeda Hameed (former member, PlanningCommission) during the last government.

The UPA government wanted to move us to the

Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). They said wehave passed a model law for companies and theMCA has all the experience in the world to create anew law for you guys. We refused. We said, create aseparate department for us if you like. Finally, thatlaw never saw the light of day but we have drafted itand given it to the government. It is lying with theMinistry of Legal Affairs.

What does the draft model law for the voluntarysector say? The draft ensured that there is a mechanism ofreporting to the government on a regular basis.Currently, the Societies Registration Act is veryweak on that. Then, there is the name of the NGO.

Today, you can register another society with thesame name as your NGO’s. In a company you can’tdo that because there is a name procedure. We hadintroduced a similar procedure in our draft lawbecause otherwise you can have 10 NGOs calledPrayas.

We think one of the main areas NGOs fail in isgovernance. They appoint a set of governors whocontinue for life with no rotation. As a result, eventhe best guys become either autocratic or dysfunc-tional over time. We recommended three terms forthree years with one-third retiring every threeyears. Nobody can go beyond nine years. TheCompanies Act has got other provisions like direc-tor identification, filing your PAN, etc. We haveinserted those too.

Perhaps the successful entry of NGOs into poli-tics has made political parties and governmentswary. Should NGOs be in politics directly? There is a level of congruence between civil societyactions and political areas of action. This hasn’tarisen today. It was there during the freedom move-ment. Mahatma Gandhi himself formed many soci-eties during the struggle for independence. Thistradition continued. When Indira Gandhi foundmany NGOs involved in political agitations againsther emergency, she clamped the FCRA. So that isthe origin of this law. When you take up rights-based work then that borderline (between politicaland non-political work) is being crossed.

The FCRA clearly says: If organisations areinvolved in political activity — without definingwhat political activity is — then their FCRA can becancelled. Anil Choudhury of Peace has gone to theSupreme Court over this. He says if he protestsagainst the World Bank chief coming to India, thatis not political action. But the Home Ministry saysit is. The Supreme Court will take a decision.

That is the legal point of view. But we are alwaysmoving into the political space. When you build awell in the Dalit locality of a village and the uppercastes protest, you are doing politics.

But joining party political work and forming aparty will not be approved by VANI. We will notapprove jumping into politics or standing for elec-tions. Using charitable money for political purposesis not correct. Neither can you translate goodwillacquired because of the work of your NGO, intopolitical capital.

by sAmITA rAThorSAmitA’S WoRLD

‘We need tocommunicate notjust to our donorsand well-wishers butto the unconverted.Many NGOs do notlike to communicateand they don’t evenuse social media.’


NeWS

10

AGRICULTURE

Biswajit Padhi

Bhubaneswar

LAxMAN Goud, a 35-year-old farmer inThakurpalli village in Komna block ofNuapada district of Odisha, used to lead a

very simple life. He was a devoted follower ofMahima Dharma, a subaltern religion practised byunderprivileged castes in Odisha. One morning, hetook his life in desperation. He couldn’t repay`19,000 he had borrowed from a local moneylenderat 36 per cent interest.

Goud had invested the money in growing paddyon his field of 1.77 acres and on another two acreshe had taken on a sharecropping basis. Lack of rainturned his fields to dust. All that he was able to har-vest was 13 kg of paddy.

His wife, Kunti, said that he had been very wor-ried. His mother, Ila, was too grief-stricken tospeak. His 13-year-old son, Khileswar’s future isuncertain. He will probably drop out of school andgo to work.

Odisha has been in the news recently for farmersuicides. There isn’t an exact tally of how manyfarmers have died but the local media estimates it tobe between 50 and 80. The BJP, the main oppositionparty in the state, alleges it is higher.

“As many as 93 farmers took their lives in the pastthree months,” claims Jadumani Panigrahi, GeneralSecretary of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha.

Reimati Majhi, a 28-year-old woman fromDhamanapada village in Nuapada district, will godown in history. She is perhaps the first womanfarmer to kill herself. Her husband had gone toSurat to work as a labourer but returned penniless.Reimati’s crop on her three-acre paddy field shriv-elled and died. A loan from a local moneylender,which she could not repay, was the last straw on herback.

Most suicides are being reported from westernOdisha, which doesn’t have much irrigation, butthey are occurring in irrigated areas as well.

Odisha, despite being a mineral-rich state, con-tinues to be an agrarian economy.Almost 70 per cent of the popula-tion depends on agriculture andallied activities. Yet the agriculturesector’s contribution to the state’sGDP is declining. It fell from 13.7per cent in 2013-14 to 12.33 percent in 2014-15.

A sign of things to come isJharsuguda district with its manyindustries. It has recorded thehighest per capita income in thestate. And the services sector nowcontributes more than 50 per centof the state’s GDP.

“It is ironical that the state hasbeen able to address unpredictabledisasters like cyclones, but fails to

address seasons of drought which are quite pre-dictable and many times man-made,” remarksPradeep Mohanty, a local journalist.

Odisha has about 64.09 hectares of farmland andaround 41.16 per cent of this land is under cultiva-tion. Most of it (40.17 lakh hectares) is acidic. Asmaller percentage of land suffers from flooding,salinity or water-logging.

The state has as many as 10 different agro-climat-ic zones with rainfall that varies from region to

region. Western Odisha gets 1,200to 1,400 mm of rain in 30 to 40days whereas the coastal districtsget heavy rain in 60 to 70 days.

Farmers in coastal areas strug-gle with waterlogging while west-ern Odisha fights frequentdrought. North Odisha battlesfloods and in the hilly south trib-als continue to practise shiftingcultivation.

“In such a diverse agro-climaticregion, one policy or programmecan’t meet the needs of the peo-ple,” says Pradip Dutta, Director ofRadio Kisan, a community radiothat popularises agriculture.

Yet, successive governments

have been unable to design strategies that wouldmeet the diverse needs of farmers in differentregions of the state. even agricultural scientists havefailed. A premier institute like the Central RiceResearch Institute (CRRI) in Cuttack has erred in itsresearch.

CRRI has invented more than 60 varieties ofpaddy. “Yet more than 80 per cent of its inventionsare for irrigated areas in a state where 70 to 80 percent of farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture,”says Professor J.K. Ray, an eminent agricultural sci-entist who too has invented a paddy variety for irri-gated areas.

Farming practices continue to be traditional. Lowseed replacement, low fertiliser consumption andlow level of mechanisation are some of the majorreasons why farmers in Odisha earn so little andend up spending so much.

Around 83 per cent of farmers are small and mar-ginal, with the average land holding being just 1.25hectares. “The increasing cost of production andfrequent labour rate revisions have been pushingfarmers to the brink of pauperism,” says BirendraPradhan, a farmer in Nuapada district.

Rising consumerism puts pressure on farmers tospend on marriages and family functions. In theabsence of good government schools and health-care, they send their children to private schools and

WHY OdisHa’s farmers aretaking tHeir lives

most suicide cases are being reported from western odisha which lacks sufficient irrigation

Reimati Majhi, a 28-year-old woman fromDhamanapada village in Nuapada district, will godown tragically in history. She is perhaps the firstwoman farmer to kill herself. Reimati’s crop on herthree-acre paddy field had dried up due to lack of rain.

jadumani panigrahi


NeWSAGRICULTURE

use private hospitals, adding to their cost of living. Farmers are also beginning to use high-yielding

varieties of seeds, fertilisers and insecticides that areadding to input costs. There is no certainty that themoney the farmer invests will fetch him lucrativereturns. Meanwhile, commercial farming is yet topick up.

These are the reasons why farmers even in irrigat-ed areas where they are assured of returns on theircrops, are committing suicide, says LingarajPradhan, a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, whois from Bargarh district of western Odisha.

The state has an attractive agricultural policy buton paper, allege critics. “The problem is there is noconvergence with other programmes to maximisebenefits to farmers,” says Panigrahi.

In western Odisha ponds on cultivable land are anecessity. Yet these were badly dug under MGNRe-GA. A scheme that subsidised sinking of borewellsand provision of free electricity has come a cropper.

Farmers say they don’t get regular power supply sothey can’t pump water from the borewell for theirfields.

Farmers who were promised compensation fordestruction of their crops caused by CyclonePhailin two years ago are yet to receive money.

Despite an active credit policy, institutional cred-it to farmers is still a mirage. AV Swamy, a RajyaSabha MP, has been advocating that all farmersshould be able to get credit at just 2 per cent inter-est since agriculture provides the maximumemployment.

Currently, sharecroppers are left out of institu-tional credit schemes. But it is sharecroppers whomostly get into debt with local moneylenders.

The Odisha government claims that credit flowfor agriculture rose to `10,454 crore in 2012-13from `1,316 crore in 2003-04. But it isn’t vulnerablefarmers who are accessing this money.

The share of irrigation for farmers such as ponds,

canals and lift irrigation schemes has been steadilydwindling. According to government estimatesaround 51 per cent of land (33.12 lakh hectares) iscovered by irrigation during the kharif season and25 per cent (16.19 lakh hectares) is provided irriga-tion during the rabi season.

In fact, irrigation cover could be less than officialestimates, says Arun Mishra, a local political leader,because of improper management of canals and liftirrigation points.

“The present system of irrigation through majorand minor projects and lift irrigation will never beable to cover all the cultivable land in the state,” saysJagadish Pradhan of Sahabhagi Vikash Abhiyan, anNGO working with farmers for two decades.

Pradhan advocates open wells dug every fiveacres at a cost of `22,000 crore. He feels it is possi-

ble to build such a network of ponds in five yearswith MGNReGA money.

Another serious issue is lack of crop diversifica-tion and promotion of cash crops. Rice is stillOdisha’s major crop, grown on 80 per cent of farm-land followed by pulses at 10 per cent.

As a result, the state is perennially short of vegeta-bles and fruits. Take potatoes. The state needs nineto 10 lakh metric tonnes of potatoes annually. Butless than one per cent of cultivable land is devotedto growing potatoes. So potatoes are imported fromWest Bengal.

Districts in western Odisha like Bolangir,Kalahandi and Nuapada produce huge quantities ofonions. But due to lack of storage facilities theonions sell at very low prices and end up benefittingmiddlemen who export them to other parts of thecountry. Horticulture too continues to lag behind.

With its huge coastline, Odisha could have beenan exporter of fish. Instead, it imports fish as wellas poultry from Andhra Pradesh.

The tribal-dominated Nabrangpur district is oneof the biggest producers of maize. But it doesn’thave any processing unit so gullible farmers getexploited by traders.

The government announced compensation of`2,720 per acre to drought-affected farmers. This isinadequate, say activists. “The input costs alone are`15,000 per acre,” claims Amitabh Patra, an activist.

Ashok Sahu, former Director-General of Policeand a BJP leader, has been recommending freeseeds and crop insurance for farmers with the gov-ernment picking up 50 per cent of the cost.

A crisis over the survival of farmers and shortageof food is staring India in the face. Unless agricul-ture is given a new lease of life, food prices will con-tinue to rise and India will pay more and more forimported food.

Odisha could have beenan exporter of fish.Instead, it imports fishand poultry from Andhra.Nabrangpur district isone of the biggestproducers of maize. Butit doesn’t have anyprocessing unit.

Destruction of crops due to drought is the obvious reason for farmer suicides. But the reality is more complex

In jatla village in Bargarh district an elderly farmer goes back to work after his son committed suicide


NeWS

12

AGRICULTURE

Bharat Dogra & Baba mayaram

Bhopal

IN Dharaav village in Hoshangabad dis-trict of Madhya Pradesh (MP), tribalfarmers practise a system of mixed cul-

tivation that they call utera. Several cereals,millets and legumes are grown together inJune. Ganpat, a 60-year-old farmer, saysthat they don’t need to spend any money atall to practise utera farming.

These farmers save seeds from the previ-ous year’s crops. Farm animals fertilise thefields with manure while crop residuescompletely free of chemical poisons, pro-vide nutritious food for bullocks, cows andother farm animals. Mixed farming ofgrains and legumes ensures that soil fertili-ty is maintained. If one crop fails due to some rea-son, other crops enable farmers to survive despitesome loss.

Yet the predominant attitude of agriculture offi-cials towards tribal communities is to try to con-vince them to give up their ‘backward’ agriculturalpractices and adopt more ‘modern’ and ‘high pro-ductivity’ ones. Often, no attempt is made to try tounderstand the traditional agricultural systems andpractices of tribal communities. It is taken forgranted that tribal agriculture is backward andneeds to be replaced by readymade ‘modern’ solu-tions available with officials.

This is not the reality. What we see in tribal villagesis an agriculture system in harmony with nature andthe nutritional needs of the people. Tribal agricultureis a risk-minimising system which can provide atleast some food even in adverse weather conditions.The relevance of this eco-friendly, zero-fossil fuelfarming system has increased further in times of cli-

mate change and erratic weather.In Dindori district of MP, Baiga tribals practise

benvar agriculture. Gothiya, a farmer of Kandabanivillage, explains that during early summer smallbushes, branches and fallen leaves are set on fire.Mixed seeds are scattered into this thin layer of ash.After about three years the site of farming changes.After letting the land remain fallow, tribal farmersreturn to it after nine years.

About 16 crops are routinely grown in this mixedfarming system. These, further, have about 56 vari-eties. Various crops support each other. The biggerplant growth of maize protects the kulthi crop fromstrong winds. Nitrogen, absorbed by cereals, isreplenished by legume crops.

This benvar system does not require the land to beploughed. This system is rooted in the belief thatploughing hurts Mother earth. Forget tractors, evenploughing by bullocks is avoided. This, in turn, helpswomen farmers to be very self-reliant. Ploughing in

most farming systems is handled by men.Naresh Vishwas, who has written a book

on the benvar system, says, “This systemhelps baiga tribal farmers cope with manyadverse situations. There were some disrup-tions but then traditional seeds could becollected and this system could resume inmany villages.”

Vishwambharnath Tripathi, anotherresearcher, has catalogued 26 types of cere-als, 28 roots and tubers, 40 vegetables, 45fruits and 21 mushrooms used in varioustribal villages practising biodiversity-richagriculture. Tribals also collect many foodsfrom forests on the basis of their knowledgeabout the plant and tree diversity of forests.

A study titled “Forests as Food ProducingHabitats” conducted in Rayagada andSundargarh districts of Odisha by Debal Deband others recently recorded 121 differentkinds of uncultivated foods being harvestedby villagers, mainly tribals. Ninety-eight dif-ferent kinds of uncultivated foods were usedto prepare cooked foods. The study foundthat forest foods could be playing a vital rolein terms of micro-nutrients. Particularly intimes of stress, uncultivated foods form acritical source of nutrition. If the forest is wellmaintained there is year-long supply of suchfood. This food is completely free and henceaccessible to the poorest.

Many problems among tribals arise notfrom any lack of traditional wisdom but dueto exploitation and disturbances (includingdisplacement) they have to face due to out-side forces. For example, their entire systemcollapses when they are pushed out of sanc-tuaries and park areas, or to make way fordams and industries.

Debjeet Sarangi, a social activist whoworks with tribal farmers in Odisha, says:“We found that several tribal farmers wereroutinely growing 55 to 60 crops on two-acre farms, and the mixed farming systemwas rooted in sound agronomic and nutri-tion logic. These tribals had excellentknowledge about very diverse uncultivatedfood they could obtain from forests. Wecontacted senior researchers who told usthat as long as these traditional systemswere well-preserved, tribal communities

did not need outside help or employment worksduring bad drought years. Unfortunately, the spreadof monoculture crops and plantations under thegarb of ‘development’ as well as other destructiveprojects implemented thoughtlessly without under-standing the value of tribal farming harmed theself-reliance of tribal communities. While tribalslooked upon their land as their mother, outsiderssaw only the minerals they could extract as quicklyas possible.”

Sarangi adds, “experiences of our organisation,Living Farms, show that any food security systemproposed by the government should take into con-sideration the ability of traditional farming tribalsystems to provide a very diverse and balanced mixof nutrients in the form of several millets, legumes,cereals, fruits, vegetables and herbs. The food secu-rity proposed by the state should support thisstrength and self-reliance of traditional food sys-tems instead of harming them.”

casH-free farmingA field in Dharaav village

Tribal agriculture is low-cost and risk minimising


NeWSAGRICULTURE

Bharat mansata

Kolkata

BHASKAR Save was the acclaimed ‘Gandhi ofNatural Farming’, who inspired and mentoredthree generations of organic farmers.

Masanobu Fukuoka, the legendary Japanese naturalfarmer, visited his farm in 1997 and described it as “thebest in the world, even better than my own farm!”

When he passed away at the age of 93 on 24October, he left behind a 14-acre orchard farm,Kalpavruksha. It is located on the Coastal Highwaynear Dehri village, district Valsad, in coastalGujarat. The nearest railway station is Umergam onthe Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.

Kalpavruksha is a food-forest natural farm. It hastrees, crops, weeds and rich soil, and is a net suppli-er of water, energy and fertility to the local ecosys-tem rather than a net consumer. It is an outstandingexample of natural farming.

Over the years, Kalpavruksha has become asacred university for many, as every Saturday(Visitors’ Day) brings numerous people. Theyinclude farmers from all over India, agricultural sci-entists, students, senior government officials, cityfolk, and occasional travellers from distant lands,who have read or heard of Save’s work.

If you asked this farmer where he learnt hismethod of natural farming, he would say humbly:“My university is my farm.”

About 10 acres of the farm are under a mixed nat-ural orchard of mainly coconut and chikoo (sapota)with fewer numbers of other species. About twoacres are under seasonal field crops cultivatedorganically in traditional rotation.Another two acres are a nursery forraising coconut saplings that are ingreat demand. The farm yield is superior to anyfarm using chemicals, while costs are minimal andexternal inputs almost zero.

cOOperatiOn is all About 20 steps inside the gate of Save’s farm is a signthat says: ‘Cooperation is the fundamental Law ofNature’ — a simple and concise introduction to thephilosophy and practice of natural farming. Fartherinside the farm are numerous signs that attractattention with brief, thought-provoking sutras oraphorisms. These pithy sayings contain all the dis-tilled wisdom on nature, farming, health, cultureand spirituality that Save gathered over the years.

Save followed four principles of natural farming. “The first is that all living creatures have an equal

right to live. So farming must be non-violent,” hewould say. “The second is that everything in natureis useful and serves a purpose in the web of life. Thethird is that farming is a dharma, a sacred path ofserving nature and fellow creatures. It must notdegenerate into a money-oriented business. Fourthis the principle of perennial fertility regeneration.We humans have a right to only the fruits and seedsof the crops we grow. The balance, the biomass, thecrop residue must go back to the soil.”

Kalpavruksha’s high yield out-performs any mod-ern farm using chemicals. The number of coconuts

per tree is perhaps the highest in the country. A fewof the palms yield over 400 coconuts each year, whilethe average is closer to 350. The crop of chikoo,planted nearly 50 years ago, provides about 300 kg ofdelicious fruit per tree each year.

Also growing in the orchard are numerous trees ofbananas, papayas and areca nuts, and a few of dates,drumsticks, mangoes, jackfruit, toddy palms, cus-

tard apples, jambul, guavas, pomegran-ates, limes, mahua, tamarind and neemapart from bamboo and shrubs like

kadipatta (curry leaves) and tulsi, and vines like pep-per, betel leaf and passion fruit. Nawabi Kolam, a tall, delicious and high-yielding

native variety of rice, several kinds of pulses, winterwheat and some vegetables and tubers too aregrown in seasonal rotation on about two acres.These provided enough for this self-sustainedfarmer’s immediate family and occasional guests.Most years, there was some surplus rice, which wasgifted to relatives or friends, who appreciated itssuperior flavour and quality.

Rarely can one spot even a small patch of bare soilexposed to the direct impact of the sun, wind orrain. The deeply shaded areas under the chikoo treeshave a spongy carpet of leaf litter covering the soil,while various weeds spring up wherever some sun-light penetrates.

The thick ground cover is an excellent moderatorof the soil’s micro-climate, which is of utmostimportance in agriculture. “On a hot summer day,the shade from the plants or the mulch (leaf litter)keeps the surface of the soil cool and slightly damp.During cold winter nights, the ground cover is likea blanket, conserving the warmth gained during theday. Humidity too is higher under the canopy ofdense vegetation, and evaporation is greatlyreduced. Consequently, irrigation needs are verylow. The many little insect friends and micro-

organisms of the soil thrive under these conditions,”he would explain.

This ingenious farmer relied on earthworms,weeds and mulching for regenerating soil and keep-ing it rich with nutrients. He was a great friend ofthe insect world.

Save used to say: “A farmer who aids the naturalregeneration of earthworms and soil-dwellingorganisms on his farm is firmly back on the road toprosperity.”

ease Of WOrk “When a tree sapling planted by a farmer is stillyoung and tender, it needs some attention. But as itmatures, it can look after itself, and then it looksafter the farmer,” the gentle Save used to explain.

The physical work on a natural farm is much lessthan on a modern farm. But regular, mindful atten-tion is a must. In the case of trees, this is especiallyimportant in the first few years. Gradually, as the treesgrow up, the work of the farmer is reduced — until,ultimately, nothing needs to be done except harvest-ing. In the case of coconuts, Save had even dispensedwith harvesting. He would wait for the coconuts toripen and fall on their own, and then collect them.

For growing field crops like rice, wheat, pulses,vegetables and so on, some seasonal attention, yearafter year, is unavoidable. This is why Save would callhis kind of farming, ‘do-nothing natural farming’.even with field crops, farmers were advised to dovery little. Leave it to the superior wisdom of nature,was the advice of India’s most eminent farmer.

Since 2014, a residential Natural FarmingLearning Centre has been offering six-day intro-ductory courses in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati andenglish at Save’s farm.

Adapted from The Vision of Natural Farming by Bharat Mansata, Earthcare Books. Website: www.earthcarebooks.com

To join Bhaskar Save’s natural farming learning course, log on to:www.bhaskarsavenftc.in

gandhi of natural farming

Bhaskar save: India’s most famous organic farmer demonstrated that natural farming was futuristic farming

obituary


NeWS

14

CITIES

Ajit Krishna

New Delhi

PANKAJ is a food vendor. He is physically chal-lenged and has lived on New Delhi’s streets for10 years now, ever since he turned up from his

village in Bihar. each night he wraps up his stall forthe day and goes to a rain basera or shelter home,where he sleeps in one of two rooms set aside forpeople with disabilities like him. As winter sets in heis getting his blanket ready. The government givesout blankets at shelter homes. Pankaj, however,prefers his own blanket because it is cleaner.

Life on the streets in New Delhi has its own prob-lems and solutions. Winter is especially a difficulttime. But shelter homes, funded by the governmentand managed by NGOs, provide welcome relief tostreet-dwellers. The arrangements are very basic, butsystems do exist. For instance, able-bodied peoplecan’t enter the rooms meant for the handicapped.“We feel safe,” says Pankaj. “There are fewer inci-dents of stealing in our rooms. We aren’t harassedfor money and threatened.” The shelters provide fil-tered drinking water and there are bathrooms.

Various surveys put the number of homeless inNew Delhi between 25,000 and 250,000. There is noagreement on a number, it seems. There are alwaysdeaths from exposure in winter — 341 last year. Theshelters are much better managed these days thanthey used to be, thanks to the persistence of outfitslike Shahri Adhikar Manch and Ashray AdhikarAbhiyan. They have made governments sensitive tothe needs of homeless people. The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) government has been particularly forthcom-ing and flexible.

Indu Prakash Singh of the Shahri Adhikar Manchsays the AAP government helped reverse an earliersituation in which a tender process had allowedsecurity agencies to manage shelters. It is onlyNGOs who do so now, he says. “Managing sheltersis a complex task that requires an understanding ofthe needs of the homeless. It can’t be done by secu-rity agencies.”

Yet the shelters are just 201 in number and canaccommodate only 16,173 individuals — mostlymen. There are just a handful of shelters for womenand families. It is far from adequate. These are peoplewho have street-level occupations and have smallassets they need to secure.

Some homeless people find they are better off notusing the shelters. They have shaped a life for them-selves out in the open both during the day andnight. It is easier this way to take care of their mea-gre assets.

Shankar and Mohammad Sharif are rickshaw-pullers. They agree that the shelters have facilitieslike drinking water and bathrooms and a place tosleep. But both men say they prefer to stay out in theopen. It has been like this for them for years.

Their rickshaws are of utmost value to them.Going to a shelter would mean leaving their rick-shaws unattended and running the risk of havingthem stolen or impounded by the police. It is a riskthey would rather not take.

It is late into the evening when we speak to them.

Both men have been drinking and, as we speak, achillum (clay pipe) of tobacco is being lit. Instead ofgoing to a shelter, they sleep in their rickshaws wellcovered. “What if someone stole our rickshaws andmoney at a shelter? Here in the open we feel safer,”they say.

It is much the same for Jantri. He has been herefor the past 16 years having left his home in a villagein Bihar. Jantri pulls a handcart to make a living. Hesleeps on the handcart at night. “We start early inthe morning and work till late at night. There is nopoint in going somewhere else to sleep where thebeds are on first come first serve basis.”

Sitting with Jantri is another handcart puller. Herefuses to disclose his name but is ready to elaborateon what Jantri says. “If the government wants to

help us, it should just give us blankets. That wouldbe enough. All of us handcart pullers work togetherand live together. We feel secure sleeping nearby toeach other. We can’t leave this place,” he says.

Raju runs a small restaurant — a hole in the wallkind of place. He used to rent a room to live in andspend the night. But after a dip in his earnings hefound the room unaffordable. He now sleeps on thepavement near his roadside restaurant. “ I am a sim-ple man. I know everyone who sleeps in this areaworks and earns a living like I do, whether he is arickshaw-puller or a worker in a shop. But I don’tknow about people in shelters and never go to them.I sleep here only because it is safe. I invariably havemy day’s earnings with me and I don’t want to riskit being stolen in a shelter,” he says.

Winter cHOices Of delHi’s HOmeless

night shelter run by an nGo in the old quarters of the city

homeless people and poor patients sleep outside the All India Institute of medical sciences

A safe place for homeless women at night


NeWSCITIES

Winter cHOices Of delHi’s HOmeless

Civil Society News

New Delhi

CLOTHeS, blankets and household items, which would have reached 20,000needy families across the country, were destroyed in a Diwali night fire that

engulfed Goonj’s main storage centre in southwest New Delhi.Goonj collects discards from the middle class and well-off in cities and sup-

plies them to the less fortunate in remote areas. It was recently awarded theMagsaysay for its unique efforts in redistributing such surpluses. Goonj also hasvast experience of working in calamity zones. It has campaigned for providingonly “useful relief ” to communities struck by natural disasters.

The NGO works in cycles the year round to collect and process items. The fireon Diwali night destroyed nine months of work, which began in February inpreparation for the onset of winter.

“Among the materials destroyed were three truckloads that were ready to rollout after Diwali and would have reached 1,000 families,” says Anshu Gupta,founder-director of Goonj.

These were just the items that had been prepared for shipment against lists offamilies. In addition there were vast quantities of other, unsorted items thatwere being prepared for distribution. The storage space is 3,000 sq. ft. and 18 to20 feet high.

everything was destroyed in the fire that was caused by misdirected crackers.The fire lasted for seven hours and the fire brigade could not bring it under con-trol.

The months and weeks preceding Diwali are important for Goonj’s collectiondrives because of the spring cleaning that invariably takes place in homes andoffices. It is the time that donations peak and materials pour in. The fire took itall. In addition, furniture and props used by Goonj for its events and washingmachines were destroyed.

Materials that would have gone to Bihar were held back because of the elec-tions in the state. The code of conduct during elections does not allow govern-ment departments and officials to collaborate with Goonj when the electionprocess is on.

The other states where the materials would have gone are Odisha, MadhyaPradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

This is not the first time that Goonj has had to contend with a disaster. “In2011 our Mumbai operations were affected when drains got blocked and the citywas flooded. Our storage centre was under five feet of water and everything wasdestroyed,” says Gupta.

Goonj is still trying to assess the financial loss caused by the fire. It is a diffi-cult calculation to make because the NGO deals in discards and recyclables. Itis not a business in the ordinary sense of the term. Its own office equipment,however, can be valued.

efforts in the past to insure Goonj’s stocked materials have foundered on thequestion of valuation. “We have asked insurance companies to fix any valuethey choose. They in turn ask us to come up with a value. We have gone backand forth and not been able to take out a policy,” says Gupta.

Fire sets back Goonj

A safe place for homeless women at night

Anshu Gupta surveys the destruction caused by a fire on Diwali

A rickshaw-puller sleeps on his precious vehicle

raju runs a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant and sleeps next to it

PICTURES By AJIT KRISHNA

AJIT KRISHNA


NeWSHEALTHCARE

mary-Rose Abraham

Bengaluru

WHeN a patient is in hospital in India, heis likely to be accompanied by a numberof people — parents, siblings, children,

may be even a neighbour. Yet, in most healthcaresystems — in India and abroad — these people justwait around while the patient undergoes surgery orconvalesces. But what if they could play a moreactive role as caregivers?

That is the mission of Noora Health, a non-prof-it which equips frontline hospital staff, usually nurs-es, to educate patients’ relatives in everything fromhand-washing and basic hygiene to checking for apulse and dressing a wound. That empowers thefamily to care for the patient not just in the hospitalbut during convalescence at home, reducing repeatvisits and dependence on doctors and significantlylowering the cost of healthcare.

“Families have been less formally involved in theloved one’s care during the hospital stay because it’sassumed that they will add a burden to the system,”explains edith elliott, CeO and one of Noora’s co-founders. “The interesting thing is, by engagingfamilies and training them in groups, we are able tosave the nurses and the healthcare system time andmoney.”

Three years ago, Noora began as a project atStanford University’s ‘Design for extremeAffordability’ class. elliott, a 31-year-old interna-tional development graduate, teamed with an engi-neer and two doctors in the interdisciplinary class.They initially thought of tackling patient flow inhospitals. But, on the ground in India — a countrywhich none of the four had visited before — theyquickly learned through talking to doctors, nursesand even security guards that the real issue was therole of the patient’s family.

As their work progressed, the four found them-selves transitioning from students to social entre-preneurs. The team partnered with Dr. Devi Shettyand now offers its ‘Care Companion’ programme in16 Narayana Hospitals.

Noora Health was named after themother of one of its first patients, a childundergoing heart surgery in Bengaluru.The programme not only trains hospitalstaff but also offers instructional videosin Hindi and five regional languages, aswell as brochures and infographics forfamilies to take home. Underlying all ofits work is one of its core values: empathy.

“We want to make people feel sup-ported and loved and not simplybrought in and out of the system,” sayselliott. “Deep compassion is the for-ward-facing sentiment of the pro-gramme. It’s easy to put yourself in thepatient’s shoes.”

She speaks from experience. In theirsmall town in Colorado, US, her motherwas diagnosed with a brain tumourwhen elliott was a teenager. She becameher mother’s primary caregiver and

helped her to re-learn nearly everything, includingwalking, eating and writing. That experience and thedeath from complications owing to HIV/AIDS of aclose family friend spurred her interest in health-care. She spent five years at two large non-profitsand worked in sub-Saharan Africa and easterneurope before the Stanford class altered her path.

Noora Health has found early success. It was cho-sen as one of a handful of social ventures for theprestigious Y-Combinator, a start-up accelerator

based in California. And this year, elliott was elect-ed to the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship, in recogni-tion of her passion for transforming healthcarethrough a new solution which also has the capabili-ty to be replicated anywhere in the world.

In addition to Narayana Hospitals, Noora has alsopartnered with Sutter Health, a private hospital chainin California. This revenue-generating US tie-uphelps to fund the India operations. The long-termvision is for every hospital in the world to engage fam-

ily members in a formal programmelike Noora Health, leading to a funda-mental shift in healthcare systems.

“We hope to prove the value of thefamily caregiver,” says elliott. “In thelong run, we would like to see thismodel become a part of the globalhealth toolkit and the standard ofcare.”

As elliott and her colleagues atNoora work toward that goal, she saysthey must not only retain focus onpatients and families but continue to“delight them”.

“The users came up with the idea andhelped us develop the programme,”explains elliott. “We might have put thepuzzle pieces together, but the patients,hospitals and families provided thosepieces.”

Mary-Rose Abraham is Communications Consultant atAshoka India

Talking to the patient’s family

Noora empowers the family to care for the patient notjust in the hospital but during convalescence at home,reducing repeat visits and dependence on doctors.

The noora health team: shahed Alam, katy Ashe, edith elliott and jessie liu

A patient looks at literature given by noora health

COVeR

18 CIVIL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 2015

Saibal Chatterjee

New Delhi

GeNDeR sensitivity has never been Hindi cinema’s strength. The main-stream Mumbai movie industry has always been notoriously male-dom-inated. It accords little meaningful space to women, be it before the cam-

era or behind it.But away from this undeniable reality, a small but steadily growing tribe of

independent Mumbai directors is scripting a significant shift. They are turningthe spotlight back on stories that look at the world from the point of view ofwomen.

It is of course no coincidence that several of these directors are themselveswomen. But by no means are these norm-defying films being made only byfemale directors.

Films such as Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan, which won two awards in the UnCertain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival before being commer-cially released in Indian multiplexes, and Kanu Behl’s Titli, which played in thesame segment in Cannes in 2014 and was recently released in India, have real,believable female characters — not Bollywood-style avenging angels or singingand dancing divas — who hold their own in a man’s world.

At least two recent major global cinema events — the 72nd Venice FilmFestival and the 40th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), both held inSeptember — took note of this change and showcased an exciting slate of fictionfilms from India that could serve to correct the gender imbalance perpetuatedby the dominant Bollywood narrative.

In Venice, FTII alumnus Ruchika Oberoi’s debut film, Island City, which fea-tured in the festival’s Venice Days section, won the FeDORA Prize for the BestYoung Director from a jury of european critics.

The film, which deals with the debilitating struggles of ordinary individualsseeking elusive happiness inMumbai, is made up ofthree loosely linked shortcomedies.

The first, Fun Committee,features Vinay Pathak as alistless middle-aged manwho is chosen by his officemanagers to participate infun activities aimed atbrightening up the mood ofthe employees.

In the second, The Ghostin the Machine, the domi-neering patriarch is on lifesupport in a hospital and hisfamily makes the most of hisabsence — television isbanned in the house by him.They watch a popular soapopera every night.

The third, Contact, hasTannishtha Chatterjee, an

actress who seems to be the link between several of these films, in the role of aslumdweller whose dreary life gets a fillip when she begins to receive mysteriousletters.

“Island City is an outstanding film that has the potential to travel across theworld,” says Chatterjee.

Less than 10 days after Island City was feted in Venice, Pan Nalin’s AngryIndian Goddesses registered a singular triumph in Toronto. Pitched as India’sfirst all-out ‘female buddy’ film, it was voted the second most popular film of thefestival by the audience.

The film then went on to win the Audience Award at the Rome InternationalFilm Festival, besides being picked up for distribution across several marketsaround the world. Angry Indian Goddesses was one of two strongly feminist Indian films in TIFF

Exciting fiction correctsgender imbalance

A small, growing tribe ofindependent directorsin Mumbai is turning thespotlight back on storiesthat look at thewoman’s point of view.

meghna Gulzar, director of Talvar

tHe neW WOmanin indian cinema

this year, the other being Leena Yadav’s provocative Parched. Both push the gen-der envelope much further than mainstream Indian cinema is usually known todo.

Markedly different from each other in texture and approach, the two titleshave pretty much the same thematic trajectory – imagining a society wherewomen call the shots against all odds and are none the worse for it.

In TIFF’s official catalogue, the festival’s artistic director, Cameron Bailey,wrote: “This year has seen a cultural shift that puts more women at the activecentre of Indian films. At the vanguard of this trend stands Parched.”

In his director’s note, Nalin puts his intent in a broad perspective: “As a film-maker who loves women and everything feminine, I have been witnessing anoutcry from Indian women for gender equality, respect and dignity. I was com-pelled to use their fury as my fuel to fire up the film.”

Anger and defiance underpin Leena Yadav’s Parched, too. The film is set in adesert village of Rajasthan. In contrast, the drama in Angry Indian Goddessesunfolds in salubrious Goa.

But the two groups of women – one rural, the other city-bred — are inevitablyup against identical challenges as they navigate a hostile world where the rulesare set and enforced almost entirely by men.

In Parched, three ordinary village women — the widowed Rani (TannishthaChatterjee), the effervescent Lajjo (Radhika Apte) and dancing girl Bijli(Surveen Chawla) — form a rebellious sorority. They go all out to subvert theage-old traditions that condemn them to servility.

Parched uses a dazzlingcolour palette, captured in allits intensity and radiance byOscar-winning cinematogra-pher Russell Carpenter(Titanic), to reflect the rawbeauty of the setting. It goeswell with the rousing, defi-antly irreverent tale of longoppressed women seekingsocial and sexual liberationin what is the unlikeliest ofcircumstances by Hindimovie standards.

There is brutality, openand subterranean, all aroundin this universe. All thewomen in the story, includ-ing Rani’s young daughter-in-law (played by formerchild actor Lehar Khan), arevictims of domestic abuse.

When the trio decides totake matters into their ownhands, all hell breaks loose,cuss words fly thick and fast,and the women fall back onevery trick in the book, fairand foul, to further theirfight for liberation.

The characters and theirstories, says director Yadav,emerged from conversationsand encounters that she andlead actress Chatterjee hadbefore and during a two-week tour of Kutch, an areawhere two of the latter’s ear-lier films, Road Movie andJal, were shot. The actresshad, during the shoot, inter-acted with many womenwho shared their innermostfeelings with her.

“We decided to make thetrip,” says Yadav, “becausewe felt that ours was anurban perspective and that

we might, therefore, get it all wrong. But when we met and spoke to the womenof Kutch, I was shocked to learn that I wasn’t off the mark.”

But Yadav is quick to point out that child marriage and domestic violence areby no means solely a rural phenomenon. “When I shared the script with friends,many said they personally knew victims of these social ills,” she says.

She also adds: “City women tend to have inhibitions that village women do not.The latter might not talk about their suppressed sexual urges in public, but they arevery outspoken when they open up.” And that is exactly what Parched portrays.

It is an angry film, but it is uproariously funny too, in parts. It is disturbing,but its moments of tenderness are filled with warmth.

Chatterjee plays the role of a 30-something widow, Rani, who still nurturesthoughts of escaping the drudgery of her life. Her domestic world revolvesaround her troubled pubescent son, who she pushes into an early marriage in the


COVeR

In Parched threeordinary village womenform a rebellioussorority. They go all outto subvert age-oldtraditions.

leena yadav, director of parched


COVeR

hope of curbing his waywardness.Outside the home, Rani has a special bonding with

Lajjo, the childless wife of an abusive man, and Bijli, apopular dancer in an itinerant troupe of entertainersthat frequently pitches its tent outside the village.

Yadav decided to shift the setting of her story toRajasthan (from Kutch) because of logistical reasons,but it wasn’t smooth sailing at the new location either,especially to begin with. “The men of the village thatwe originally chose for the shoot refused to let us filmthere. They felt that our presence would plant wrongideas in the heads of their women,” reveals Yadav.

Yadav, who previously made Shabd (2005), starringSanjay Dutt and Aishwarya Rai, and Teen Patti (2010),with Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kingsley, had goneoff the radar for several years in the wake of the filmstanking at the box-office.

“Shabd,” she says, “was marketed as a love story,while Teen Patti was pushed as a heist film. I felt frus-trated. I thought I’d never be able to make a film.” WithParched, Yadav is back into her own.

The director avers that Parched isn’t directed againstmen. “I am not suggesting that the onus of bringingabout change is on men alone. Women, too, need tochange.”

“Parched is meant to spark a dialogue, not initiate ablame game,” she adds. While Parched is incendiary inparts, it is also playful in the way it takes potshots atmisguided masculinity.

Urban Uprising Nalin, too, asserts that his Angry Indian Goddesses “isnot an exercise in male-bashing just as all convention-al male buddy films aren’t about female-bashing”.

In the film, six female friends congregate in an oldGoa home for an upcoming wedding. It is also aboutwomen striking back with a vengeance at a world bent upon painting them intoa corner.

Nalin’s film addresses multiple themes — gender assertion, violence againstwomen, gay rights, forcible land acquisition, insensitive policing and legal systemtardiness — but does so in a manner that blends a light touch with solemn purpose.

Nalin describes Angry Indian Goddesses as “my most commercial film to date”and hopes it will strike a chord with moviegoers in India.

The angry goddesses of the title have to contend with their own demons whilebattling to ward off threats that their social environment poses. The choices that theymake — what they wear, how they conduct themselves, where they are headed —are all questioned, but these girls think nothing of throwing caution to the wind.

Like Parched, Angry Indian Goddesses is invigorated by a clutch of bold, ener-getic performances. And like Parched, it has Chatterjee in a pivotal on-screen role.

Nalin, who divides his time between Paris and Mumbai, says the idea for thefilm was born about six years ago. “Some women friends in the Mumbai filmindustry told me that my films have strong women characters and so I should bemaking more films about women.”

There were, however, no takers initially for the concept. “We shopped aroundfor funds for four years. Almost everybody suggested that the idea would be moreviable if we were to add at least one strong male character to the story,” says Nalin.

Then the commercial success of Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani (2012) and VikasBahl’s Queen (2014), both women-centric films made within the Bollywoodmainstream, boosted interest in the genre.

So, despite failing in his attempts to find financial backing, Nalin, co-writerand casting director Dilip Shankar and co-producer Gaurav Dhingra decided togo ahead with the project.

Recent Mumbai cinema history is replete with successful male bonding filmssuch as Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara. Butnobody in the industry has ever given the genre a shot with women taking cen-trestage.

The Angry Indian Goddesses storyline, jaunty and full of surprises, allows theactresses — Chatterjee, Sarah Jane Dias, Anushka Manchanda, Sandhya Mridul,Rajshri Deshpande, Amrit Maghera and Pavleen Gujral — to improvise all theway through. “The cast underwent a month-long workshop before the shoot gotunderway,” Nalin reveals.

inside male territOrYThe TIFF lineup this year had another Indian filmand this, too, was made by a woman — MeghnaGulzar’s Talvar. The director’s first film in eightyears, it is a fictionalised reconstruction of theinvestigation into the Aarushi Talwar murder case.On its release on October 2, the film turned out tobe a commercial success.

Scripted and co-produced by Vishal Bhardwaj,Talvar juxtaposes the past and the present andpresents conflicting perceptions to piece togethermultiple scenarios that may have led to the 2008double murder in a Noida neighbourhood.Talvar is marked by a measured approach to the

sensational theme and is aided by fine perform-ances from the principal cast, led by Irrfan Khanand Konkona Sensharma.

The screenplay, structured like a straight policeprocedural, turns the spotlight on the workings ofIndia’s law enforcement and investigating agencies, outfits hobbled by callous inep-titude, internal contradictions and archaic methods of functioning.

“It was traumatic,” Gulzar says of the experience of bringing a shocking truestory to the screen. “Trying to maintain objectivity without compromising thetruth was difficult.” Talvar is an unusual film in so much as it is helmed by awoman director — whodunits are male territory.

Gulzar admits to facing a degree of scepticism at the outset. She was comingout of a hiatus and all eyes were on her to see how she would fare. “The naysay-ers suggested that I had chosen a sensational real story for my comeback filmbecause it would get me instant publicity,” she says. Talvar has achieved muchmore than just pre-release media play.

The challenge before a filmmaker like Gulzar is that she is not an independentdirector in the strictest sense of the term, but neither is her sensibility wedded tothe predilections of the Bollywood dream factory. “No matter what I do as a film-maker, I have to remain true to my moorings,’’ she says. The balancing act isn’t easy.

Six female friends congregate in an oldGoa home for an upcoming wedding. It is also about women striking back with a vengeance ...

A scene from parched

pan nalin

kanu Behl

COVeR


Mercifully, in the multiplexes of the country,audiences are increasingly warming to films thatdefy the conventional rules of the movie industry.Films like Masaan and Titli may not have beenblockbusters — they were never intended to be —but they did not go unnoticed either.

The strong female characters in Masaan and Titliare not of the kind that audiences saw in Kahaaniand Queen, both essentially commercial Hindifilms with somewhat unconventional storylines.

They are neither like the vengeful Vidya Bagchiof Kahaani who returns to Kolkata from London insearch of the killer of her husband, or the diffidentRani Mehra of Queen, who sings an old Hindi film

song and dances to its tune in the course of a solo honeymoon in europe thathelps her understand better what she wants from life.

mOdern minds“Small town, small minds,” the female protagonist of Masaan, Devi Pathak(played by Richa Chadda), mutters to herself in one scene of the criticallyacclaimed film. The girl is wracked by a sense of guilt and loss after a clandes-tine sexual adventure in a seedy Varanasi hotel goes awry and ends in tragedy.Her quandary is worsened because the incident lands her ageing father,Vidyadhar Pathak (Sanjay Mishra), into the clutches of a blackmailing cop.

The minds of the men and women in Masaan, caught as they all are in the tus-sle between tradition and modernity, are anything but petty. Devi feels hopeless-ly cornered, but she remains defiant. She seeks escape from societal confines, butwants her freedom to come strictly on her own terms.

The Masaan gallery of characters has another equally spirited woman: Shaalu

Gupta (Shweta Tripathi), a poetry-loving college-going girl who catches the eyeof the film’s male protagonist, final-year civil engineering student DeepakKumar (Vicky Kaushal).

On learning that her boyfriend belongs to a lower caste, Shaalu makes light ofthe revelation. “Bhaag ke jaana hoga na, toh bhaag bhi lenge (if need be, we willelope),” she assures Deepak. She is clearly unlike standard Bollywood womentrapped in a conservative construct in which the right to defy the establishedorder is not unfettered.Titli, which presents a stark and disturbing portrait of a rarely seen side of

Delhi, is the story of a criminal gang of three male siblings who rob cars for aliving. They are part of a dysfunctional family whose inter-personal connectionsare awry.

The eldest brother, Vikram, is short-tempered and foul-mouthed. The factthat there is no woman in the family shows in everything the boys do — the waythey talk, the way they live and the way they deal with the world borders on astate of dehumanisation.

In one scene, Vikram claims that “we respect women”. But there is no evidenceto suggest that he actually knows what respect really means. His mother is dead.His wife has walked out on him with their daughter.

The youngest of the siblings, Titli (Shashank Arora), wants to escape his crim-inal family, but Vikram will have none of it. The middle brother suggests thatthey look for a bride for Titli, hoping that marriage would calm him down,besides adding a lady to the gang and improving its strike rate.

The girl that they find for Titli, Neelu (debutante Shivani Raghuvanshi), turnsout to be more than a match for the brothers despite her apparent vulnerability.She comes into the family with her own twisted dreams, which push Titli’s hopesof freedom in another direction.

Titli needs money for his proposed car parking business; Neelu is in love witha married builder and is waiting for the latter’s divorce to come through. Thetwo strike a deal: Titli promises to help Neelu get the man she wants in returnfor money.

In this hopelessly benighted world, Neelu is the only figure who represents astreak of positivity. She retains her grace and composure under tremendouspressure and takes both the constant threat of violence and her own aspirationfor a better life with equanimity.

The improving climate for cinema of this uncompromising kind is also indi-cated by the fact that Madhureeta Anand’s Kajarya, a hard-hitting film whichaddresses the theme of female foeticide, is set for release in early December. Kajarya views the barbaric practice of killing girls in the womb through the

eyes of two women — a young Delhi newspaper journalist (Riddhima Sud)chasing a scoop and a Haryana village woman (Meenu Hooda), forced toembody Goddess Kali in a counterfeit religious ceremony with hideous ramifi-cations.

The film had its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival in2013, where it was well-received and reviewed. It has taken Kajarya a while tofind takers on the Indian circuit — but the fact that it has augurs well for Indianfilms that dare to buck the trend and give women their due.

Titli is the story of acriminal gang of threemale siblings who robcars for a living. Theyare part of adysfunctional family. Island City is about the struggles of ordinary people to find happiness

Angry Indian Goddesses is about female bonding

neeraj Ghaywan

ruchika oberoi, director of Island City

Civil Society News

New Delhi

COMPANIeS that choose voluntary compli-ance and report thoroughly on their ownsustainability build trust among stakehold-

ers. They also strengthen their internal processesand stand a better chance of being globally compet-itive. How do Indian companies fare? Do they seereporting on themselves as an opportunity or amere formality? Is sustainability seen across therange of engagements with society? Or is it limitedto a handful of factory floor practices? Is it wronglyconfused with Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR)?

To find out, Civil Society spoke to Dr. BimalArora, chairperson of the Centre for ResponsibleBusiness (CRB). Dr. Arora has been interacting withIndian and global companies on questions of sus-tainability for more two decades. He has been a keenobserver of corporate behaviour. In November, CRBorganised a conference in New Delhi on ‘India andSustainability Standards’ to encourage Indian com-panies to learn and introspect.

What is the state of reporting by companies inIndia. It is, after all, five years since the voluntaryreporting guidelines were framed.I would say reporting in India is growing. I know

GRI (the Global Reporting Initiative) has beenaround for a while in India. We have the CarbonDisclosure Project. We have the Water DisclosureProject. We now have the BRR or BusinessResponsibility Reporting. So, the whole momentumaround reporting has been growing the past fiveyears or so.

But when you say growing, what exactly do youmean? What is the quality of the reporting?It is getting serious in the leadership companies.The bigger ones like the Tatas and Birlas have beenengaging with the reporting process. The way itworks is that the initial five years is the learningphase. During this time a company is only tickingboxes and is not using reporting as a tool for sus-

tainability. It goes on like this for five or six yearsbefore the realisation comes that there are moreadvantages to be got from reporting. So, in compa-nies that have been doing it for 10 years you will seethat the quality of reporting improves.

Why should it take so long for Indian companies,which are otherwise globally so well-integrated? Global companies also take that long. It is not justIndian companies.

But we have examples to learn from. We knowhow the rest of the world has gone. Why does ithave to take us so long, especially when the prob-lems of sustainability are rampant in India?I can cite you studies from the US in the 70s, whichsaid that it takes five years for responsible businessto get internalised and institutionalised. It hasn’tchanged a bit till date. every organisation has itsown reasons and dynamic, and its own politics ofcourse. So, learning depends on the levers. At this


enTerprIse Csr ICT Green TeCh

BUSINESS

AJIT KRISHNA

‘companies lack leadership’

Bimal Arora, chairperson of the Centre for responsible Business, at the conference on ‘India and sustainability standards’

Reporting inIndia is growingbut what is thequality?

‘It takes five years for responsible business to getinternalised and institutionalised. It hasn’t changed abit till date. Every organisation has its own reasonsand dynamic, and its own politics of course.’


BUSINeSS

point of time reporting is for the levers we have andnot sustainability.

So what you are saying is that at present forIndian companies reporting is more of an obliga-tion. They don’t realise that there are implica-tions way beyond just ticking the boxes.Yes.

What is lacking? Is it an adequate regulatoryframework? Is it the absence of advocacy, evan-gelism, corporate leadership, education?It is clearly a case of lack of leadership. I don’t see aproblem with the regulatory provisions. Globallythere is a sustainability movement on. Globally thereis broader awareness on issues and themes. It is justlack of leadership. I am not just talking about the topleadership, but leadership across the organisationbecause everyone can be a leader in his own right.

Has this got something to do with the kind ofmanagement education that is imparted? Youknow, there is some attempt at creating socialawareness, but it is finance and so on that peoplego for. It is these guys who then run companiesthat impact the lives of millions.That definitely is a factor. Not just in India but acrossthe globe. europe is better. North America is betteras far as education is concerned. India is still...

Take, for instance, your conference on sustain-ability. I don’t see educational institutions like theIIMs involved.There is the University of Manchester doing aroundtable. I have been in touch with OxfordUniversity. Michigan University has shown a keeninterest and would like to be involved in our nextconference...

But where is IIM Ahmedabad or ISB?They have got lost in the CSR law. At this point oftime everyone has got lost in the procedural aspectof the CSR law. They are more interested how thislaw will work or not work.

So there is no vision for sustainability?No.

There is a growing sense that CSR has become theequivalent of the EIA. You need it and you go outand get it by any means. Is that correct?In my own view this law is very interesting. When

leadership is lacking (in companies) you need com-pliance. You need the ticking of boxes.

But CSR is not sustainability.The beautiful thing with the CSR law is that it hasbrought the subject to the board level.

Do most people handling CSR lack knowledgeand specialisation?It will take time for companies to internalise whatthe law is really about. You begin with compliancebut when you have people handling things, theyevolve. Companies have gone from rural develop-ment and population control to more sophisticatedinitiatives in meeting their social commitments. Iwas away from the country from 2002 to 2010 andwhen I returned I was pleasantly surprised that CIIhad the ITC Centre for Sustainable Development

and their language was very different. It was inter-esting that an industry body had taken a leadershiprole. FICCI was not far behind. So the five-to-sevenyear period that I referred to with regard to compa-nies also applies to a country.

But industry bodies aren’t convincing. Coca-Cola, for instance, has played a key role in CII’swater forums. Yet Coca-Cola has been chasedaway from locations by communities because itsplans to draw on water sources were unsustain-able.The experience of beverage companies in India hasled them to rethink globally about their policies on

water. It has been a process of learning, a journey.The leadership in big companies has realised thatthey can’t do without dealing with civil society.These are the people who sit in meetings of theWorld economic Forum — so you can’t have yourbackyard dirty.

In India there is a growing mistrust of industry.Take the example of Volkswagen and emissions.All those ads about German engineering andquality. Who will believe what companies reportabout themselves?You can’t avoid that. There will always be compa-nies who will fudge.

So there will be question marks over what Indiancompanies claim they do?No, I don’t agree. There will always be companieswho find ways to do different kinds of things. Butthat doesn’t mean that overall everyone is wrong.

What do you think government needs to do moreto get companies to be sustainable?Government in my view is making it easier for busi-nesses to do business. Political will is not an issueanymore. The challenge is administrative. When Imeet secretaries in the Government of India, andmany of them are involved with the conference weare holding, I perceive a huge change in their atti-tude. It is very heartening. Companies need to seizethis opportunity through better reporting and self-regulation.

When it comes to ‘Make in India’ what is the sus-tainability challenge before the country. Make in India needs standards.

But companies will come here if they can pollute,exploit natural resources and so on. India lacksregulatory expertise. We have a dysfunctionalenvironment ministry. Pollution control boardsdon’t have qualified staff.We don’t live in a world in which the government isthe only institutional actor doing everything. InIndia now the shaming and naming of companieshas begun by Indian activists in a style not dissimi-lar from the West.

How ready are Indian companies for the UN’ssustainable development goals?We are stuck with the broader issues right now. Thenitty-gritty is not known.

Civil society is going places...Kutch, Porbandar, Chamoli, Bhavnagar, Ahwa, Tiswadi, Amritsar, Sabarkantha, Valsad,

Sirsa, Hamirpur, Aizwal, Kinnaur, Dhanbad, Dumka, Palamu, Chamarajanagar, Haveri,

Madikeri, Malappuram, Jhabua, Amravati, Kolhapur, Osmanabad, Bishnupur, Dimapur,

Rajsamand, Mokokchung, Mayurbhanj, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Jhalawar,

Auraiya, Farrukhabad, Lakhimpur Kheri, Pratapgarh,

Burdwan, Murshidabad, Pauri Garhwal, Cuddalore,

Sivaganga, Kancheepuram, Varanasi, Bellare, Erode,

Ramanathapuram, Kanyakummari, Perambalur,

Pudukkotai, Shahdol, Tiruvannamalai, New York,

Fontenay le Fleury, London, Chicago, Cambridge.... R E A D U S . W E R E A D Y O U .

Whereare Webeingread?

‘Government in my viewis making it easier forbusinesses to dobusiness. Political will isnot an issue anymore.The challenge isadministrative....Companies need to seize this opportunitythrough better reportingand self-regulation.’

BUSINeSS


Subir Roy

Jamshedpur

THIS is a story of two schools. Both are in thesame area, embedded in the same commu-nity. But there are key differences which

offer an insight into how the process of main-streaming poor tribal children happens in stages,with both the formal and non-formal support struc-tures being equally important.

It is customary to visit a school during the day butwe go to the informal school at Ghagiasahi, a tribalhamlet around a kilometre from the Sukindachromite mines of Tata Steel in Odisha’s Jajpur dis-trict, after dark. Once we get there we know why.There is a festive mood with tribal dancers anddrummers performing with gusto.

In fact, the place properly comes alive routinelyonly in the afternoon when the children arrive andfirst tend to the vegetable garden and floweringplants. Then, with sundown, there is a prayer meet-ing followed by study and teaching, mostly in theform of help in coping with what has been taught atthe government school earlier in the day.

Finally, there is dinner. The food is important asit is an incentive for the children to come. And theystay on until well into the evening because the areais not free from the typical power cuts that plaguerural India and if they were to be nearer home therewould in all probability be darkness and learningpossible only by kerosene lamp.

Tata Steel employees’ involvement with the villageand its children goes back two decades to 1994when two of its young employees, Sri KrishnaMohanty and Gokulananda Tarai, while passingthrough on their bicycles, saw something bothuplifting and saddening. In the gathering gloom agroup of young boys and girls was busy with studiesin a cowshed around a kerosene lamp.

This prompted them to come regularly after workto teach the children. More children came for helpwith their studies. As the centre grew, other TataSteel employees joined in and the shed expanded in1998 into the Swami Chidananda Cultural Centre.It was dedicated to not just educating tribal childrenbut also linking them to their roots.

The secular, cultural and religious come togetherin three ways at the centre. Republic Day is celebrat-ed by holding the annual sports meet. Birsa MundaJayanti is celebrated to remember the tribal leader,freedom fighter and folk hero, and PanditRaghunath Murmu Jayanti is celebrated to remem-ber the founder of the Aichiki script. And the annu-al religious event on the calendar is an “Ashta PraharNama Yagna” round the clock on the full moon dayof the month of Kartik on the Indian calendar.

The welcome dance for the visitors over, every-body settles down to the main event of the evening— a programme of song and dance by the young-sters which reflects both the traditional and currentinfluences on them. All are in tribal attire but theboys wear colourful sports shoes while the girls arebarefoot.

Dance and response to rhythm is in their blood.The choreography, by someone who looks like their

cultural leader, is a mixture of tribal and popularmusic video, and the music and songs are mostlyOriya folk and bhajan, again filtered through popu-lar mediums.

Among those present is a star — MotilalMohanta, 23, a local boy and a past student of thiscentre. He holds an engineering diploma, workswith a contractor in a nearby chromite mine, andcomes in the evenings to help out with the teaching.

So does Binod Mohanta, 22, who is now a final-yearBA student who began at this centre. BhimHembram, 14, is a crossover. He is both a studentand a teacher here, as the need arises.

I ask Suman Ho his age in Hindi and he replies inclearly articulated english, “I am 12 years,” and goeson with little prompting, “I am sixth, in KaliapaniHigh School, will become engineer when I willgrow up. I have two brothers, I am oldest son.” Hisflow of english leaves me speechless.

The pride of the centre is Tripathy Murmu, whowas among the first batch of students. He is now alecturer in political science at SKCG AutonomousGovernment College, Paralakhemundi, after com-pleting his postgraduate studies in philosophy fromOdisha’s leading liberal arts institution, RavenshawUniversity in Cuttack.

Not far from Ghagiasahi, in another hamlet,Rangamati, is another school, also powered by TataSteel employees in their personal capacity — the SriAurobindo Centre of Integral education. A wing ofthe Sri Aurobindo Karmabhumi Trust, it owes itsorigins to the late Sisir Kumar Behera, a pharmacistworking with Tata Steel at Sukinda. He started ameditation camp or study circle inside the Tata Steelcampus in 1993 and in 1996 brought it toRangamati, a poor tribal area which was thendensely forested. He located it next to a horticultur-al rarity — two trees, a sal and a mahua, growntogether.

The group started a school in 2001. To date thereare no private schools there and the nearest govern-ment school is over two km away. The school nowhas 114 students, 73 boys and 41 girls, with nearlyhalf being tribals. It is partly residential with 58boarders. It is both like any other governmentrecognised school of its kind, teaching in the state’sOriya medium, and also different in as much as, inkeeping with the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and theMother, it tries to impart purnanga education cov-ering the mental, physical and spiritual.

Pankaj Kumar Satija, general manager, opera-tions, ferro alloys and minerals, Tata Steel, Sukinda,explains how for the employees involved, the serv-ice sort of “drags you in” and you keep looking foropportunities to mainstream the children. He thendraws a significant distinction between the employ-ees’ involvement in the two schools. “In theRangamati school the involvement is more profes-sional, in the Ghagiasahi school it is more emotion-al and involves giving a lot of one’s time.”

The difference between a group aerobics show atRangamati and the spontaneous song and dancenumbers at Ghagiasahi bears this out.

schools for the tribal child

Children performing at the rangamati school

‘In the Rangamati schoolthe involvement is moreprofessional, in theGhagiasahi school it ismore emotional andinvolves personal time.’

PRASANTA BISWAS


opInIon AnAlysIs reseArCh IDeAs

INSIghtS

splitting up in bengaluru

AGAINST the backdrop of the per-ceived failure of the objectives oftrifurcating the Delhi MunicipalCorporation, it is worthwhilechecking out a similar exercise

involving multiple municipal corporations that isunderway in Bengaluru. In late 2014, the KarnatakaChief Minister announced a decision to split theBruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) andsetting up of a three-member expert Committee toadvise the government on it. The Committee feltthe prime need was to reimagine the city’s gover-nance and administration. The ‘patient’ was ‘dis-

eased’ and splitting it into multiple parts withoutfixing the underlying problems was unlikely toimprove the quality of living in Bengaluru. The gov-ernment concurred and the mandate of theCommittee was changed to ‘restructuring BBMP’.

From November 2014 to June 2015, theCommittee worked on multiple fronts — study ofglobal best practices in city-region management,similar exercises (including the Delhi trifurcation),stakeholder meetings (over 1,000), online sugges-tions and collation of Bengaluru data sets (includ-ing detailed spatial mapping) to help make the finalrecommendations. The Committee’s report can beaccessed at www.bbmprestructuring.org.

The chart sets out the suggested three-tier gover-

nance and administration structure for Bengaluru. Inessence, the key elements of the Committee’s sugges-tions were strengthening ward governance throughgreater clarity on ward composition (proportionalrepresentation with citizen involvement) and wardfunctioning (what can be done at the ward levelshould be done there); five municipal corporations atmid-tier (with two zones per corporation); an apexbody called the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA)for integration across the corporations and multiplegovernment parastatal agencies; a city FinanceCommission to decide on fiscal transfers and anOmbudsman for addressing citizens’ grievances.

While there was criticism of the solutions suggest-

V. RAVICHANDAR

CitYLiFE

There are plans to divide the Bengaluru municipal Corporation

In our view, the Delhi trifurcation was rushed throughwithout adequate thought on the overarchinggovernance structure and ensuring basic financialsustainability for each corporation.

KASHIF MASOOD

Continued on page 26


INSIGHTS

26

ed, most conceded that the Committee had identi-fied the infirmities of the current system — weakgovernance and administration structure with hugestate interference, titular one-year mayor, dysfunc-tional standing committees, negligible citizen par-ticipation, trust deficit between citizen and govern-ment due to leakages in civic contracts, speed moneyfor permissions and overlooking of violations, lackof accountability and no outcome orientation due tomultiple agencies operating in silos, low humancapacity in government, financial mismanagementcompounded by opaque reporting practices, disdainfor planners and poor implementation leading todeteriorating quality of life in the city.

big debateThe multiple corporations suggestion was bothliked and disliked. The critics repeatedly pointed tothe failed Delhi example and stressed the Bengalurubrand would be diluted by splitting the corporation.

In our view, the Delhi trifurcation was rushedthrough without adequate thought on the overarch-ing governance structure and ensuring basic finan-cial sustainability for each corporation. An apexbody like the proposed GBA is essential to ensureinter-corporation coordination as well as to bring theindependent civic government agencies such as thoserelating to water, transport, energy and so on under acommon leadership. A city Finance Commission isnecessary for an impartial examination of corpora-tion finances and recommending apex-level andinter-corporation fiscal transfers. A detailed spatialmapping and study of ward characteristics is neces-sary before embarking on fixing the boundaries ofthe multiple corporations’ jurisdiction.

One of the arguments against splitting the BBMPwas the fear of loss of the Bengaluru brand. Thisimplicitly assumes brand Bengaluru is dependenton the alphabet soup, BBMP, remaining a singleunit forever.

This is not the case. A city’s brand is shaped by itspeople, ethos, culture, vibrancy and promise,among a host of other factors. BBMP can by noyardstick be considered the signpost of brandBengaluru and it is extremely unlikely that thefounder of Bengaluru visualised a future-day BBMPas the flagbearer of the city. The recommendation todivide it into multiple units is driven by a desire tomake the city more manageable and more liveable.London has 33 boroughs but its brand is one of thebest in the world.

A review of best practise in city-region manage-ment clearly shows that top mega-cities followmulti-municipal structures (think London, Paris,Sao Paulo, Tokyo) and that decentralisation and

devolution of powers is felt to be useful as citiesgrow. Finding optimal scale and size of governanceis an iterative process and the number of corpora-tions is based on balancing power, economy andaccountability.

To those who still insist that a single corporationwould do the job, this has been my reply. We havemultiple skeletons in our single civic body. Can thisskeleton be better ‘hidden’ in a 30,000-sq-foot man-sion or a 1,000-sq-foot tenement? The smaller theset-up, the greater the chance of detection andsomething being done about it. Smaller units ofgovernance and administration are certainly betterto fix our woes, more so given the spiralling popu-lation growth and urban sprawl. Devolution anddecentralisation are the way forward.

state & citYAnother major criticism related to having the chiefminister in charge of the GBA over the next five-10years before handing over to a directly electedmayor. Many of us have cried ourselves hoarse overthe years about the undue (stranglehold?) influenceof the state over city matters.

Has it changed anything? If anything, it has gotworse over the years as successive state govern-ments have recognised the ‘promising’ characteris-tics of large, growing cities in the country. Theyhave used multiple mechanisms to control the citythrough administrative measures, legislative pow-ers, withholding grants, notification/de-notificationand then some more. This is akin to back-seat driv-ing, power without accountability. One wouldrather have them occupy the visible front seat, withclear bottomline accountability for their actions.

We also have a legacy problem. This state controlhas strengthened over time. For instance, we todayhave parastatals like the BWSSB (Bangalore WaterSupply and Sewerage Board), BangaloreDevelopment Authority (BDA), BangaloreMetropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC),Bangalore electric Supply Company (BeSCOM)and so on which operate in silos, taking theirinstructions and cues from the state. Putting thisgenie back in the box is not a task for mere mortals,even directly elected metropolitan mayors. On theprinciple of ‘You broke it, you fix it’, the state(through the office of the CM) has a responsibilityto set it right for a future-day city leadership to takeover the reins. In our current system, no one elsehas a remote chance of getting our parastatals to fallin line. Hence the suggestion of handing over thereins to the CM for a limited period.

Delhi has been a boon and bane for other cities.Whether it is the bus rapid transport (BRT) system,the trifurcation or alternative governance experi-ments, citizens elsewhere look hopefully to the cap-ital city for future pointers — only to have theirhopes dashed. It ends up derailing and delayingsimilar exercises elsewhere.

As urbanisation increases, our cities badly need acomplete overhaul of flawed structures and systems.We talk of smart cities but it is unlikely to work inour dysfunctional governance and administrationarrangements. It is akin to placing a 2015 new ageprocessor on a 1980s-era PC-xT motherboard. Itwill stall. One hopes that local state leadershipexhibits the necessary political will and vision totruly empower our cities as engines of growth.

V. Ravichandar is a member of the Expert Committee tasked with reimaginingBengaluru’s governance and administration

Whether it is the BusRapid Transit system,trifurcation oralternative governanceexperiments, citizenselsewhere look hopefullyto the capital city forfuture pointers — only tohave their hopes dashed.


INSIGHTS

He is one of the best gov-ernment teachers in thatblock, situated in thebeautiful foothills of theHimalaya. His school is

situated in a remote place (about 30 km of windingdifficult road from the block headquarters) and afterreaching a point, it took us a good 15 minutes of adifficult walk down the hill to get to the school. Theclimb down is dangerous even for a fit person.However, that is the only way the villagers, childrenand the teacher can reach the school and the villagebeyond it. You can imagine the plight of these peoplewhen it rains or snows.

The school has just 16 children in Classes 6, 7 and8 and over 60 per cent of them are girls. The rela-tionship between the lone teacher and the childrenhas to be seen to be believed. And the same is truefor the energy, understanding and keenness of thechildren. This teacher had singlehandedly succeed-ed in developing a desire among the children tolearn and discuss a lot of things on their own.

Inside the school, a group of girls was practisingdance all by themselves (one of the girls was playingthe dholak) for the upcoming festival performance.The small midday meal room was neat and clean,and the woman cook was a sincere and methodicalperson.

The teacher has exemplary ownership of every-thing that happens in the school. One of the issues heis struggling with is how to manage the school whenhe is away from it for official reasons. He has tem-porarily addressed the issue by accepting the volun-tary services of a 21-year-old girl from the same vil-lage, who is very keen to teach and help. Though onemore teacher was approved for the school, theappointment has not been made for over two years.

We were wondering what would happen to theschool if the girl gets selected for a job in the HomeGuards or the police where she has applied.

This is not a unique scenario of this particularschool. everyone, from the Block education Officer tothe District education Officer, is aware of this problembut cannot do anything. Across the country, close to20 per cent of schools are single-teacher. In one of thedistricts where we actively work with the government,the single-teacher schools are 44 per cent.

When I was talking to a Block education Officerabout how he managed with so many single-teacherschools, he promptly said, “Forget the single-teacher schools, I have 127 schools in my block withno teachers.” Though I am quite well acquaintedwith the reality, it still shocked me. In many states,new teachers have not been appointed for over fiveyears — shrinking the teacher strength drastically.

The same situation prevails in many academic

institutions in the states. The approved number ofCluster Resource Coordinators and Block ResourcePersons is not appointed. The District Institutes ofeducation Training (DIeT) — an important institu-tion to provide support for professional teacherdevelopment — are largely in disarray with severalissues plaguing them. Approved funds are not dis-bursed until the end of the year. In some cases, theyare not disbursed at all. Buildings are dilapidated dueto lack of funds, on an average only 50 per cent of theapproved strength of faculty members are appointed.That too an inappropriate mix of subject matterresource persons. The total facilities available in mostDIeTs are not at all conducive to quality professionaldevelopment of the teachers in that district.

What is appalling is the attitude of some of thesenior bureaucrats towards DIeTs. When I raisedthe issue of the current status of DIeTs in the coun-try with a very senior (and committed) bureaucratin Delhi, she asked, What is the issue? I cited non-availability of approved strengths of faculty mem-bers. She vehemently replied, “We should notappoint more people in the DIeTs.” Surprised, Iasked why. Her reply was, “Because they don’twork.” I found it bizarre. I said, “In that case, weshould abolish the institutions and provide alterna-tives.” The discussion did not go anywhere.

every committed Chief of a State educationDepartment laments the lack of quality people in allthese institutions, but nobody shows the initiativeof starting a process to create such quality peopleover a period of time.

Practically all politicians and senior bureaucratsknow that the budget for the midday meal is inade-quate to provide the nutrition prescribed in the

scheme. Most people know that in many places theallotted food grains don’t reach the schools inentirety. But there is no move to raise the budgets orto ensure that every grain of ration supplied formidday meals reaches the children.

everyone appreciates that the quality of ourteacher education is poor but it has taken decades toeven decide to upgrade the B.ed. programme to twoyears from the existing 10 months.

The Centre’s proportion of the budget in manyimportant programmes such as the Integrated ChildDevelopment Scheme, the midday meal scheme, theSarv Shiksha Abhiyan (such as for in-service profes-sional teacher development) and so on have beenreduced from a 75:25 ratio to 60:40. I shudder tothink how these expenses will be met, especially bythose states that have very little income or very littledesire to achieve quality education.

We do have a large number of committed peoplein the education system. It is the apathy of our polit-ical and bureaucratic system towards some of themost ‘critical to quality’ issues that is proving to bethe nemesis of quality education in governmentschools. Whenever one tries to discuss the issuesrelated to implementation of committed actionseven under the current policy and programmes,there is an unwillingness to address them.

education policies and curricular frameworkscan keep being revised but if we don’t create basicenabling conditions on the ground to benefit thenext generations, they will remain just on paper. Weowe this to the more than 70 per cent of the popu-lation whose children are solely dependent on theperformance of the government school system.

Dileep Ranjekar is CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation.

DILEEP RANJEKAR

the single-teacher plight

BACK toSChooL

AJIT KRISHNA

Everyone appreciates that the quality of our teachereducation is poor but it has taken decades to evendecide to upgrade the B.Ed. programme to two years.


INSIGHTS

28

IN the past year and a half, the Union Ministryof environment, Forests and Climate Change(MoeFCC) has been tackling environment

issues in three ways.First, regulatory procedures have been modified to

allow for speedy approval and execution of industri-al and infrastructure projects. exemptions from pub-lic hearings, limiting the appraisal processes, andhighlighting the number of pending projects receiv-ing green approvals were all part of the MoeFCC’sachievements earlier this year.

Second is the ministry’s focus on the ‘develop-ment without destruction’ narrative — the positiveincentives to project authorities against causing pol-lution and creating space for heavy penalties in caseof violations of the law and instances of pollution.

Third is bringing the conflict resolution mecha-nisms back within the executive, and far removedfrom the powers of a ‘proactive’ judiciary.

With this done, the onus of protecting the envi-ronment lies heavily on controlling an act of pollu-tion once a project is set up and not necessarily on aprecautionary approach of holding back the settingup of potentially damaging projects.

The T.S.R. Subramanian Committee reportreleased in November last year amidst controversyhad recommended heavy fines, penalties andimprisonment for non-compliance. It had also pro-posed the setting up of a first appellate authoritywithin the regulatory system, prior to the interven-tion of special judicial mechanisms like theNational Green Tribunal (NGT).

The Draft environment Laws (Amendment) Bill,2015, opened for public comment for 15 days inearly October, was an attempt by the ministry to takeforward the Subramanian Committee suggestions.

The Bill seeks to achieve three objectives: cate-gorisation of damage, violations and acts of negli-gence into minor, non-substantial and substantial;providing for penal provisions and introducing theconcept of monetary penalty; and creating an adju-dication mechanism for identifying damages andlevying penalties. This would be done primarilythrough amendments to the environmentProtection Act (ePA), 1986 and one correspondingchange in the provisions of the NGT Act, 2010.

sOrting OUt damages A key element of the changes proposed is the cate-gorisation of damage to the environment. Theamendments upfront recognise three kinds of viola-tions and related damages: “minor violation”, whichis ‘mere’ failure to comply with the law, which led toa particular damage. Non-substantial damage isdefined as the release of pollutants, hazardous sub-stances or anything by which the environment is

affected or is likely to be adversely affected or dam-age due to non-compliance with an environmentalobligation, whether accidentally or otherwise. Thisincludes damage caused, likely to be caused or dam-age as a result of legal violation or negligence.

A major problem with this approach is that theBill only sets the upper limit of damage but does notestablish the minimum damage we are willing tobear. This is critical as minor violations are to besubject to only “onthe spot penalty” of`1,000-10,000 and`5,000 per day forcontinuing viola-tion. Given theexperience of moni-toring non-compli-ance with environ-ment laws in India,it is likely that sever-al violations will betermed ‘minor’ and‘sorted out’ with on-the-spot penalties.

The Bill also estab-lishes a set of “fac-tors” to be consid-ered by the adjudica-tion process to deter-mine damage andtherefore quantumof penalty. Thoughthere is mention ofpublic health amongthe factors, loss of livelihood is missing.

With livelihood not recognised as an element ofsubstantial damage, the need to compensate forsuch a loss and to restore it would never arise. Themost profound social impact of environmentaldamage is on the livelihoods of large communitiessuch as pastoralists, farmers, fishermen and collec-tors of forest produce. For instance, in the Vapiindustrial cluster in Gujarat, over two decades ofindiscriminate dumping of effluents in the Kolakriver has rendered the once thriving fishing econo-my unprofitable with the fish from the estuaryregarded as poisonous.

adjUdicatiOn aUtHOrities The amendments also propose an “adjudicatingauthority” within the administrative framework ofregulating the environment. This can either be anew authority created by the central government, orone of the existing authorities created under Section3 (3) or any other authority that is already in placeto adjudicate and impose penalties for violations ofthe ePA. It is to inquire into the cases of substantialand non-substantial damage.

The efficacy of such a mechanism needs to be root-ed in upfront investigation of the history of suchauthorities within the regulatory system for the envi-ronment. Prior to the setting up of the NGT in 2010,where cases of environmental damage are currentlyheard, there existed a National environmentAppellate Authority (NeAA). People could appeal to

the NeAA against the grant of environmental clear-ances. The NeAA, which was set up in 1997, func-tioned understaffed for all of its existence. In 13 yearsit dealt with a handful of cases; it began to see anupswing a couple of years before it closed shop withthe advent of the NGT. The National Tribunal Act of1995, which had clear adjudication functions as beingproposed, was never implemented after being enact-ed. This too ceased to exist in 2010.

Administrativeadjudication, as thefirst avenue ofappeal, would makesense only if theexecutive is able todraw the faith of theaffected people.With one arm of theenvironment min-istry curtailing pub-lic participation andorganising “ease ofbusiness” conclaves,there is genuinedoubt that the otherarm will be able todisassociate itselffrom the objectiveof smooth function-ing of industrial andinfrastructure proj-ects despite repeat-ed violations.

fUnds and cOmpliance According to the proposed amendments, there is norole for the complainant or appellant in determin-ing if the penalties have been paid in full and if theorder of the adjudicating authority is upheld andused for the stated purposes such as restoration ofthe environment and preventing further damage.Without these measures, these funds, proposed tobe created from penalties, could remain unrealisedand unutilised in a timely and effective manner.

The Bill also proposes that the funds collectedthrough penalties will be “used for remediation andreclamation of polluted sites and improvement ofenvironment”, which is limited. The range of damagein environmental cases almost always includes loss oflivelihood, health impacts for people and livestock,and other such difficulties faced by the project-affected. If these are not compensated for and reme-died with the funds generated through penalties, thisstated social responsibility would not be fulfilled.

The experience with earlier administrative appealmechanisms, unhindered non-compliance and theemphasis on increasing investment in industrialand infrastructure projects has raised several ques-tions around the proposed amendments.Precautions and not payments by polluters areneeded to address the environment and socialimpacts, or else the fundamental right to life will bereduced to a tedious road to appeal.

Kanchi Kohli is a researcher and writer.

Email: [email protected]

norms go from pre to post

KANCHI KOHLI

With livelihood not recognisedas an element of substantialdamage, the need tocompensate for such a lossand to restore it would never arise.


tanushree Gangopadhyay

Ahmedabad

SHYAMALI begs the police to stop beating herhusband, Budhan. He is innocent, she pleads.“Please leave him alone. He has not stolen

anything.” “Oh, the wife is also a thief,” sniggers the police-

man. Give him an electric shock, says the police officer,

he will own up.The policeman does as ordered and then shrieks,

“He is now dead.” The police officer coolly replies: “No, no, he com-

mitted suicide with his gamcha.” “You have killed him,” shouts Shyamali. “Budhan

did not possess a gamcha.” Budhan stands up and addresses the audience.

“Why would we steal? Look at my plight. My son isnow an orphan and my wife a widow, all because webelong to a denotified tribe.”

The actors rhythmically recite: “This is mourning for the dead This is the bazaar of corpsesCut the jungle

Sell the landSell the riverSell the country.”

The audience, comprising fresh-faced students,listens in silence. The play, Budhan Bolta Hai, hastouched them. It is being staged by the BudhanTheatre group at the exuberant Udaan festival of theInstitute of Rural Management in Anand, Gujarat.But the mood here is sombre.

Who are denotified tribes, ask the curious stu-dents.

Atish Indrekar, who acted as Budhan, explainsthat denotifed tribes (DNTs) are communities whowere branded criminal tribes by the British underthe Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. They were actual-ly just nomadic communities going from village tovillage and providing services, including entertain-ment. To stop them from moving from place toplace, the British branded them criminals.

In 1952, after India gained independence, theCriminal Tribes Act was denotified. But discrimi-nation against them continues. Today, there areseven crore DNTs in India, explains Indrekar, whobelongs to the Chhara community, a Sansi DNT.

“No auto-rickshaw will take you to Chharanagar,

a suburb in north Ahmedabad where we live. Weare still treated as thieves. But we refuse to live withstigma. We are performers,” he says.

“There are innumerable cases of police tortureagainst us, which we have portrayed in our plays.No one is born a thief.”

Budhan Theatre began in 1998 under the shad-ow of the gruesome murder of Budhan Sabar whobelonged to the Kheria Sabar tribe in Purulia. Hewas picked up by the police on mere suspicionand tortured to death. The police wrote off hisdeath as suicide, claiming he had hanged himselfwith his gamcha. eyewitnesses contradicted thepolice version.

Sabar’s murder shocked human rights activists. Itcaused deep anguish to writer Mahasweta Devi. Sheapproached the courts for justice.

Subsequently, Justice Ruma Pal of Calcutta HighCourt rejected the story put out by the police andordered the state to pay compensation to Sabar’swife as well as punish the policemen who mur-dered him.

The same year, Mahasweta Devi travelled toVadodara to deliver the Verrier elwin lecture.Along with Prof. Ganesh Devy, a noted linguist and

Books eCo-TourIsm FIlm TheATre AyurveDA

lIvINg

Dakxin Bajrange and the Budhantroupe before staging a play

theatre to fight stigma

Continued on page 30


LIVING

30

founder of the Bhasha Research and PublicationCentre, and formed the Denotified and NomadicTribes Rights Action Group (DNT-RAG).

Prof. Devy set up a community library inChharanagar which soon became a hub for Chharayouth. They would gather there to speak their mind.Prof. Devy inspired them to take up theatre toprotest against the discrimination they faced and totell people who they really were.

The Chharas were familiar with theatre. In the1980s, theatre director Prem Prakash had come totheir colony, looking for actors to play the role ofslaves in Badal Sircar’s play, Spartacus. They recalledthe rousing reception the play received when it wasstaged in Ahmedabad.

So they were receptive to Prof. Devy’s idea andBudhan Theatre was born. It is a new kind ofprotest theatre combining activism, acting andangst with assertion of rights. The actors reachedout to people on the street with impassioned storiesof injustice.

Prof. Devy recalls Budhan Theatre’s performanceof Bulldozer, a play about the Ahmedabad Municipal

Corporation’s (AMC) eviction of the Bahuroopias, aDNT community from their colony. The group actedeven as they sat on hunger strike outside the office ofthe AMC. They eventually approached the courtagainst the eviction and won the case.

The Chharas who are part of Budhan Theatre aremostly young, educated and socially conscious.Dakxin Bajrange was 22 when he became BudhanTheatre’s first director. He wrote the group’s signa-ture play, Budhan Bolta Hai.

The play became hugely popular and was stagedacross India and abroad. Bajrange went on to studytheatre at Leeds University on a Ford Foundation fel-lowship. He has made several award-winning films,documentaries and TV programmes and also pennedhis autobiography, Kahani Meri Tumhari, which hasbeen translated into several Indian languages. Mostscripts enacted by Budhan Theatre are by him.

Many of their plays are translations of the work ofeuropean writers. For instance, they translated TheAccidental Death of an Anarchist by Nobel laureateDario Fo. The play is about fake encounters. Theyalso translated French writer Jean Genet’s play, The

Balcony, a story of exploitative kings prior to theFrench Revolution. They adapted Henri A.Schwarz’s play, Acting Like a Thief.

Budhan Theatre’s first Gujarati play, performed atthe police academy in Gandhinagar, was Paata,written by Kanjibhai Patel. The group went on toenact plays like Pinare Kaleki Maut, Encounter andMazab Hamwe Nahin Sikhata Aapas Mein BairRakhna, after the Gujarat riots of 2002.

Alok Gagdekar and Vivek Ghamande, bothChharas, graduated from the National School ofDrama (NSD) and entered the world of films.Kalpana Gagdekar, another Chhara, recently pre-sented her play, Kasturba, in the US. The play, acomplex portrayal of Kasturba, Mahatma Gandhi’swife, has been well-received in India and abroad.

Gagdekar herself played the lead role of Kasturba.“I enjoyed that role,” she says. “Like her, I am notvery well-educated. I don’t have any formal trainingin theatre.”

Yet, despite international recognition, not manypeople even in Ahmedabad are aware of BudhanTheatre. The gentle criticism of their work is thatthey don’t perform plays written by local writersalthough many of the latter’s themes are close toBudhan Theatre. “They are certainly wonderfulactors. But if they do not mingle with local theatregroups, they may get marginalised,” fears theatreactivist Hiren Gandhi, a well-wisher.

Prof. Devy feels that people are more interested inentertainment and not in the kind of tragic eventsthat are portrayed by the Budhan group. But theyhave gone from strength to strength. After 15 years,Budhan Theatre takes pride in being India’s firstand only theatre group of DNTs.

“We plan to train many more Budhan Theatregroups,” says Indrekar. “We want DNTs to emergefrom the cloud of stigma that surrounds them andlive with their heads held high, without fear.”

The Chharas who are partof Budhan Theatre aremostly young, educatedand socially conscious.Dakxin Bajrange was 22when he became Budhan Theatre’s firstdirector. He wrote,Budhan Bolta Hai.

A scene from Budhan Bolta hai staged at IrmA

Dakxin Bajrange directing his actors

Civil Society News

New Delhi

VALMIK Thapar’s recent book, Saving WildIndia, is a blueprint for radically changingthe way we govern our forests and wildlife.

A conservationist and naturalist, Thapar has spent40 years of his life trying to protect India’s junglesand animals. He has served on 150 committees ofthe government at state and central level only torealise that they were mere ‘paper tigers’. He hasalso been a member of the Central empoweredCommittee (CeC), respected by environmentalactivists for its honest functioning. The CeC was setup by the Supreme Court to monitor and ensurecompliance with its orders on forests and wildlife.

Thapar’s frustration and irritation with the vastbureaucracy that administers forests and its myriadrules and laws is apparent. Instead of incrementalchange, he feels revolutionary changes are needed.

His book is full of such ideas. He recommendsthat the Ministry of environment and Forests besplit into two: one would be in charge of forests,wildlife and climate change and the other woulddeal with air and water pollution and the environ-mental fallouts of urbanisation. He also suggeststhat the All India Forest Service should be turnedinto a state forest service and employ local talent. Athink-tank of non-government and governmentexperts would assist state forest services.

Included in the book are several ideas on usingCAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation FundManagement and Plantation Authority) funds,streamlining environmental laws and encouragingprivate nature reserves.

Thapar’s suggestions aren’t wild ideas. He hasbeen implementing some of them. He is a memberof Rajasthan’s Board of Wildlife and hisRanthambore Foundation is workingwith the state government to imple-ment the Van Dhan Yojana, a forestconservation programme, inRajasthan.

Your book comes across as an angrybook. Are you angry? Yes, it is an angry book. I served India’sforests and wildlife for 40 years. Butgood ideas and reform were blocked bya bureaucracy that was not onlyobstructive but also uninterested in thedynamics of change. It was thereforeessential for me to put down an alter-native plan of green governance. At least this couldbe a starting point for good governance for ayounger generation of conservationists to pursue.

You have suggested a complete overhaul in theway we manage our forests and wildlife. What hasbeen the reaction to your suggestions? Would yoube open to wider public debate?I am always open to a larger debate. That is the waywe learn and evolve. But there are very few aroundboth in the written and electronic media who con-sider this a priority issue. Very few realise what will

happen to India as forests vanish. The impact of thedegradation of our forests due to poor governancewill create the biggest obstacles not just to quality oflife but to the all-round progress of India. But deafears meet this very vital issue.

Wildlife is under pressure, but from time to timewe get indications that perhaps things are not sobad. The tiger count is stable, Gir has many lions,

there is a profusion of blackbuck andso on. Should these be seen as success-es and to whom should they be attrib-uted? Indian wildlife successes are like bounc-ing a yoyo…it keeps going up whengood individuals manage areas and rap-idly declines when good persons getreplaced by poor ones. For 40 years Ihave watched this happen and seen theweakest of institutions in play. The suc-cesses you mention can be matched byenormous failures like the extinction oftigers in Sariska, Panna and Buxa

because of poor and negligent governance. Untilthere is induction of non-government experts intoforest management and into decision-making littlewill change and we will keep bouncing up and downand go nowhere.

The idea of encouraging private forests is inter-esting. But do we have a clear definition of what isa forest? India always had private forests and the whole worldhas them. The time has come to encourage commu-nity forests and private wilderness. The forest

department must engage in public-private partner-ships (PPPs) in order to evolve in creative ways. Civilsociety must be a partner in this process. Never for-get that the forest departments are only custodiansfor the people of India. Now new custodians mustengage in constructive ways. It is the only way if wewant to move forward. New definitions of forest willresult but only when non-government experts arewelcomed into the forest fold. Clarity on this issue

will come when core policy changes.

You have asked for a state-based forest servicethat would employ local talent to administerwildlife and forests. What role would you assignto local communities? A prestigious state service is the need of the day. Wedo not need this colonial-thinking all-India service.It has no purpose. Local communities are vital inthis process and some forest tracts must be given tothem to manage. This factor is elaborated in mybook but all stakeholders must have a role to play inthe day-to-day governance of these areas.

Many forest officers agree with my ideas. Much ofcivil society thinks that such changes are essentialbut there are others who prefer the status quo anddetest change so it will be a battle to bring in posi-tive change in this vital sector. I pursue my ideasthrough the State Board of Wildlife in Rajasthan. Iam working closely with the chief minister of thestate. We have started some new models like theVan Dhan Yojana and others are taking shape. Sowhat I have discussed in this book is possible prac-tically. There is, therefore, hope in this sector that isgetting totally demoralised and neglected as itrefuses to change course.


LIVING

Valmik ThaparAleph ` 499

‘time for a new forest service’

valmik Thapar: ‘Forests and wildlife are not a priority issue’

LIVING


Susheela Nair

Kuala Lumpur

TO get to Bako wildlife park, we took a pleas-ant drive from Kuching, the capital ofSarawak, to the nondescript village of

Kampung Bako. The only way to reach the parkheadquarters is by boat so we started our wildlifesojourn by donning life jackets and hopping aboarda boat. en route along the picturesque Santubongriver (the last part of the boat ride was through theSouth China Sea), we passed several scenic stretch-es of sandy bays. Steep cliffs and rocky headlandsstood like sentinels, affording us a welcome.

All the beaches are lined with limestone andsandstone cliffs. Wave erosion at the base of thecliffs has carved many of the rocky headlands intobrilliantly-shaped arches and stacks with colouredpatterns formed by iron deposition. We saw someof these rock formations on entering the TelukAssam Beach, which fronts the park.

established in 1957, Bako has several claims to itscredit. It is the oldest and smallest national park inSarawak, in eastern Malaysia, on Borneo Island.Spanning an area of 27.27 square km at the mouthof the Bako and Kuching rivers, the visit to Bako

Smallest, oldest national park

25 vegetationtypes in 15ecosystems

Trekking through Bako’s dense forest

shelf help

Indian Economy in Transitionedited by S. Janakarajan, L.Venkatachalam and R. Maria SalethSage`995

THIS volume has been published to honour C.T.Kurien, a Professor of economics at the MadrasChristian College and subsequently at the MadrasInstitute of Developmental Studies, who has con-tributed enormously to economic research and pol-icy in the country.

The book is a collection of essays by leading econ-omists and suggests ways and means of makingIndia’s economic growth more inclusive. The essaystackle critical issues such as food inflation, agricul-ture, labour markets, social infrastructure, climatechange, governance and poverty. The choice of top-ics is eclectic but all the essays are worth readingbecause they dwell on subjects that dominate thedevelopment discourse today.

Abhirup Sarkar analyses why food inflation ishigh during a period of high economic growth inIndia. He says economic growth might have raiseddemand for foodgrain but agricultural productionhas not kept pace with population growth.

Venkatesh Athreya discusses agriculture in TamilNadu, using aggregate and village-level data.Although food production has risen in the state,there is agricultural distress due to reduction offarm subsidies. The area devoted to farming hasshrunk. There is a rise in non-farm employment butAthreya questions whether this has resulted in thewell-being of people. A.Narayanamoorthy calcu-lates whether farming is profitable for six crops inIndia and concludes that farmers are suffering loss-es despite a rise in productivity, post the 1990s.Brinda Viswanathan and Padmini Desikachar writeabout labour market insecurity, especially for ruralwomen. S. Chandrasekhar and M.H. Suryanarayanain their chapter on education highlight the impor-tance of school life expectancy. How long a childstays in school depends on gender, poverty and howfar the school is from the child’s home.

S. Irudaya Rajan writes about ageing in India andJanakarajan brings out the impact of urbanisation onnatural resources and people’s livelihoods in the peri-urban areas of Chennai. Also included in this volumeis a chapter on the effects of household pollution onwomen and children in rural areas. There is a chap-ter on water governance and another on the direimpact of social discrimination on development.

Revisiting Nuclear IndiaStrategic Culture and (In) SecurityImaginaryRuna DasSage`1,195

RUNA Das explores an interesting idea in her book:how does culture influence the way India thinksabout its strategic and military options? How haveIndia’s diverse identities, and its political and cultur-

al struggles shaped its strategic thinking andnuclear policy choices?

The thinking so far has been that India’s strategicculture has been passive because of the Hindu con-cept of time and the ‘emotional’ Hindu view of life.There is also a lack of rigour in India’s strategicmindset, say analysts, because it has taken time forthe nation to evolve and express its thoughts. Policyis cloaked in secrecy which prevents the influx ofnew ideas. “A combination of real politics and dhar-ma has influenced India’s strategic cultural mind-set,” writes Das.

Her book takes the reader on a historical journeyfrom Vedic days to present times. Nehru’s politicalidealism which shaped India’s policy of non-align-ment was gradually overturned by subsequentprime ministers. Das explores the shift to nuclearaggressiveness and the waning of non-alignmentunder Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and RajivGandhi, its crossing of the nuclear threshold underAtal Behari Vajpayee and its final shift to neoliber-alism and a pro-US orientation.

Although Das has chosen a good subject, heranalysis is not thought-provoking. Her book is com-pletely unreadable. It is thick with academic jargonand written in a cumbersome style that is utterlyboring and exasperating. Perhaps anotherresearcher will take up this subject.

Achieving Universal Energy Accessin IndiaP.C. MaithaniDeepak GuptaSage`900

AFTeR decades of Independence, 45 per cent ofIndia’s rura l population continues to live withoutelectricity. Over 85 per cent of people in villagesdepend on biomass for cooking. In this book, P.C.Maithani and Deepak Gupta explain why villagesneed access to energy, the problems encountered inconnecting villages to the grid, different policiesand schemes that have been tried with limited suc-cess and possible solutions.

The authors spell out the dire effects of living in thedark in detail. They explain India’s current electricitystatus and conclude that it will be extremely difficultto connect all of India to the grid using conventionalenergy. We will have to rely on renewable energy.Several villages in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand,Assam, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and the northeast-ern states don’t have access to electricity.

The turning point is probably the electricity Actof 2003 that freed generation of electricity, its trans-mission and distribution from the clutches ofimpoverished state entities and opened it to entre-preneurs. The authors examine efforts at generatingrenewable energy, including recent successfulefforts by entrepreneurs. The book also has a chap-ter on access to cooking energy for rural womenand another on subsidies and funding.

This is a timely and well-researched book and canbe read by anyone interested in understanding ruralelectrification.

A quick selection from the many books that turn up for review


LIVING

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encompasses a broad canvas — over 100 species ofbirds, a profusion of other wildlife, particularlymonkeys, a panoramic rocky shoreline, bizarre rockformations, jungle streams and waterfalls, coastalcliffs, dramatic sweeps of beach and sea stacks, andscenery ranging from rolling hills to peaks.

The wide range of attractions and activities in acompact area has made Bako one of the most pop-ular parks in Sarawak. One can explore the parkthrough several trails, bridges and boardwalks. Thewell-maintained network of nature trails — rangingfrom easy forest strolls to full-day jungle treks —allows visitors to get the most out of this uniqueenvironment.

A distinctive feature of Bako is that, despite itssmall size, 25 distinct types of vegetation formseven complete eco-systems: beach vegetation, cliffvegetation, kerangas or heath forest, mangrove for-est, mixed dipterocarp forest, padang or grasslandvegetation and peat swamp forest. Bako’s main drawis this incredible variety of plant species and vegeta-tion types. At Bako one can see almost every type ofvegetation found in Borneo.

It is easy to explore these eco-systems via the jun-gle trails. The plant life includes mangroves, stran-gling figs, wild orchids, carnivorous pitcher plantsand symbiotic ant plants. All the trails have a greatvariety of vegetation, from mighty 80-metre dipte-rocarps to dense mangrove forest.

One need not venture very far into the forest tosee the different vegetation types, they are foundclose to the park headquarters at Teluk Assam. Thearea around the headquarters is an amazing site forseeing wildlife. Long-tailed macaques, silvered lan-gurs or leaf-monkeys, common water monitors,plantain squirrels, wild boar and mouse deer are allfound here. One of the macaques scampered into thecanteen as we tucked into our food. Another onedug into a packet of biscuits and sipped from a canof Coke. In contrast to the unruly macaques, the sil-vered leaf-monkey or silvered langur is a docile andattractive creature. We found the resident Borneanbearded pig (said to be Bako’s largest mammal),

rummaging for food around the park headquarters.With prominent bristles on either side of its snout, itlooks different from other wild pigs.

Bako is also home to a number of snakes, most ofwhich are harmless. They are well-camouflaged, andusually slither off into the undergrowth at the firstsign of human arrival. We spent some time gazing inawe at a Wagler’s pit viper enjoying a siesta after aheavy meal. Our guide informed us that it had beenresting on the same tree for the past two days.

As we followed the trails, we spotted silvered lan-gurs, ever-playful long-tailed macaques, wild boar,squirrels and monitor lizards. Birds of every shape,size and colour dot the landscape. Teluk Assam, inthe area around the park headquarters, is one of thebest places for birdwatching: over 150 species havebeen recorded in the park, including pied and blackhornbills. Large numbers of migratory birds come toBako between September and November. Rock poolsand mangroves are ideal places to sight small animalssuch as mudskippers and crabs, especially sky-bluefiddler crabs and shell-dwelling hermit crabs.

Our guide informed us that the other delightfulcreatures to watch in Bako are the two species ofotters — the oriental small-clawed otter and thehairy-nosed otter which spend most of their time inthe water, feeding on fish, frogs and other smallaquatic animals. The largest of Bako’s many lizard

species is the common water monitor,olive green in colour and reaching alength of two metres. Young monitorsare green with yellow spots and there-fore easier to spot. We found themnear the accommodation area, scav-enging for scraps.

But the highlight of our trip wassighting the elusive proboscis mon-key. We heard a strange gruntingsound and the crash of leaves longbefore we actually sighted a proboscismonkey high up in the forest canopy.It was ripping leaves off the branchesand stuffing them into its mouth.“These rare proboscis monkeys arefound only in Borneo. The male is a

bizarre-looking creature, with a huge pendulousnose and a large pot-belly, weighing in excess of 20kg. They are mostly arboreal (tree-dwelling), mov-ing about the forest or mangroves in small groupsand feeding on young leaves, shoots, sour fruits andseeds. The mangroves at Teluk Assam are also agood place for viewing proboscis monkeys,”explained Cornellius, our ebullient guide. We leftBako Island with a fervent prayer to save the endan-gered proboscis monkeys when we heard of theirdwindling population due to the massive clearanceof forests for palm oil plantations.

fact file Getting there: take a bus or taxi from Kuching town toBako Kampung and hire a boat from there to Bakoisland.

Accommodation: Designated camp sites, lodges andchalets are available.

Contact: [email protected]

Smallest, oldest national park

Bako’s famous resident, the proboscis monkey

The Bornean bearded pig

A Wagler’s pit viper enjoying a siesta

The park has steep cliffs and rocky headlands

SUSHEELA NAIRSUSHEELA NAIR

SUSHEELA NAIR

SUSHEELA NAIR

SUSHEELA NAIR


LIVING

SHOPPERS were spoilt for choice at Dilli Haat’s10-day mela of organic products held in Delhi.

Organised by the Ministry of Women and ChildDevelopment, the fair, called Women in India, was abusy jumble of stalls selling ethnic foods, pickles,preserves, spices, personal care products, house-hold items, clothes and fabric.

There were companies like Amira, famous for amyriad varieties of basmati rice, sharing space withsmall farmers hawking freshly harvested foods andspices. Women entrepreneurs promoted bottles offragrant oils and soaps. And a bunch of elderlywomen talked young shoppers into buying theirkitchen remedies.

Ratni Devi and her husband, Som KrishnaGautam, were selling packets of rice, maize andwheat fresh off their farm in Himachal Pradesh.Gautam says they switched to organic farming threeyears ago after he learnt to be an organic farmer atthe Bhai Kaka Krishi Kendra in Anand, Gujarat. Theygrow a variety of fruits, vegetables and cereals on

their 20-bigha farm and they say they earnmore now than earlier.

Sharmila Mishra and Vijay Prakash runNative Roots, a social enterprise, deep in thetribal region of Chhendipada in Odisha. Theybuy forest produce collected by tribals in sixvillages and turn it into products for daily use.There were bottles of aromatic neem seed oilsmelling like it had just been taken off a neemtree. “Knocks off mosquitoes and keeps yourhome insect-free,” said Sharmila.

They were also selling roasted ragi powder,rich in nutrients and East Indian Arrowroot, a

“weaning food for babies and a specialty ofOdisha”, explained Prakash. There were nicelydesigned clay utensils that attracted buyers: fryingpans, tawas and karhais.

Anupama Malhotra’s stall was full of aromaticcosmetics for women and men. She branched outon her own after working for 10 years in the corpo-rate sector to start Verte, a company that manufac-tures personal care products which brim with good-ness.

There were handmade soaps, redolent of flowersand herbs, body scrubs of saffron, milk and orange,moisturisers and oils, plus shampoos to tame allkinds of hair, and more. “I see skin products asfood for the skin. What is best for you, shouldalso be best for Mother Earth,” said Anupama.

All of Verte’s products are paraffin-free,vegetarian and not tested on animals.

Vasundhara Singh, an undergraduate stu-dent of political science at Delhi University,is part of the Tejaswini Foundation whichworks with villages in Jhajjar and Rohtakdistricts of Haryana. “We are promotingthe lost ethnic culture of Haryanviwomen,” she said. Vasundhara was sellingmedicinal plants, crafts and foods.

Sutra, run by Alka Bhutani, had a range ofpure Ayurveda oils: sweet almond, coldpressed coconut, rose and sandalwood,and a lavender massage oil.

The organic movement in India hasfinally come of age. From fields, farmsand factories it has found its way intobazaars, malls and homes.

A green bazaar

Vasundhara SinghTejaswini Foundation:

Phone: 9654538144

Facebook: vasundhara singh 372

Sharmila mishraNative Roots, Village Koshala,

Chhendipara, District Angul, Odisha.

Corporate Office: BD-143, 2nd Floor,

Janakpuri, New Delhi-110058;

Mobile: 9810516400;

Email: infonativerootsindia.com

Anupama malhotra,

Ratni Devi & Som GautamAshish Gupta

Muskaan Jaivik SHG

Mobile: 9810348193

Alka Bhutani

Sutra, Namhoh

Shiva International,

Email: namhohshi-

[email protected]

Phone: 811297834,

01129552774

Verte, Select City Walk,

Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

Phone: 08130135991; Email:

[email protected];

Website: www.verthpc.com

PICTURES By LAKSHMAN ANAND

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