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DownToEarth
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT FORTNIGHTLY
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India's most credible annual
statement on state of
environment backed by more
than three decades of experience
in research and reportage
Pages 210
Covers
EDITORS
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Down To Earth
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT FORTNIGHTLY
ON THE WEB
WHAT'S HOT
Anil Agarwal
Sunita Narain
MANAGING EDITOR Richard Mahapatra
FOUNDER EDITOR
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
SPECIAL COVERAGE
World Health
Day 2015
With food safety as the focus this
year, WHO has recommended
measures to make food safe for
consumption. But these measures
would fail to achieve the desired
results in India if local factors like
unregulated use of pesticides,
increasing dependence on
antibiotics and easily available and
ultra-processed junk food are not
factored in
DESIGN TEAM
SPECIAL FEATURE
BLOG
Rajasthan's camel
law is not enough to
save its camels as
it doesn't provide
economic incentives
to their keepers, says
WEB TEAM
Kiran Pandey
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in team
Ilse Khler-Rollefson
CONSULTING EDITORS
POPULAR
Jyoti Ghosh
jghosh@cseindia.org
FOR SUBSCRIPTION CONTACT
K C R Raja
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COVER DESIGN Ajit Bajaj
COVER PHOTOGRAPH Vikas Choudhary
4 DOWN TO EARTH
On web
Don't get dazzled by these
stars
On Facebook
Cross hairs: Junk food
and Delhi High Court ban
On Twitter
Srinagar's lost saviours
VIDEO
www.downtoearth.org.in
letters
REUTERS
MUKTIPADA DAS
Study Keoladeo
This is with reference to
"Vanishing Eden" (February
16-28, 2015). I visited Keoladeo
National Park two years ago
for a study under the UNESCO
World Heritage Programme.
I noticed that droughts and
increasing numbers of invasive
species, both terrestrial
and aquatic, have affected
the wetland's ecosystem.
Though several measures
were planned to revive the
wetland, including bringing
water from the Govardhan
dam and the Chambal drinking
water project, these are yet to
produce results. A study needs
to be done on why Keoladeo is
deteriorating despite receiving
proper funds and being
managed properly.
SE JUTI SARKAR DE
letters
SORIT / CSE
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MAHENDRA SHERKHANE
6 DOWN TO EARTH
air pollution.
DENNIS JARVIS
Punish plagiarism
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contents
16
Cold shoulder
Private parties form a forest
certification body even as
government gives event a miss
COVER STORY
Frequency not
matching
20 years after it was decided
that radio waves were the
property of the people, the
reality on the ground has
not changed much
28
11
THE FORTNIGHT
Agricultural growth
would be zero per
cent this year after
unseasonal rains
damaged the rabi crop
22
Vetted by the
people
Nepal frames its climate
change adaptation
plan according to the
demands of its poorest
communities
NEW BUSINESS
Time for a
change
Awaiting
justice
Five months
after the mass
sterilisation deaths
in Chhattisgarh, the
guilty have still not
been punished
18
Genuine
intent or
tomfoolery?
Telangana plans
to drain, clean and
refill Hyderabad's
Hussainsagar lake. But it
is a deeply flawed idea,
warn experts
20
Devolution, really?
26
14
8 DOWN TO EARTH
42
TECHNOLOGY
Just a second
Nations debate the
practice of adding an
extra second to keep
pace with the slowing
Earth
The AAP 58
tangle
50
The wait is
over
Delhi finally gets a
policy adopting open
source software
CLASSROOM
Fatal farming
46
FOOD
A healthy, nutritious
tuber
54
52
SCIENCE
Bone weakener
39
Lending a helping
hand
44
REVIEW
GOOD NEWS
On
Chhattisgarh
What the state is, and what
it could have been
56
WILDLIFE
Toothy troubles
HEALTH
Ancient
remains,
modern
knowledge
40
48
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FORTNIGHT
CROSS HAIRS
THE
POINT
70%
www.downtoearth.org.in 11
FORTNIGHT
UTTAM SAIKIA
P OAC H I N G
THE
12 DOWN TO EARTH
Green Tribunal
(NGT) has refused to lift the interim
ban on mining in Meghalaya. In April
last year, it had issued an interim
order to stop rat-hole coal mining
across the state and warned against
illegal transportation of the mineral.
NGT, however, has provided partial
relief to coal miners by permitting
them to pay royalty on the extracted
coal within 21 days and allowed
THE NATIONAL
THE
I N FO C U S
California faces
worst ever drought
launched its
fourth navigation satellite, IRNSS-1D, from
Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. This is part
of the constellation of seven satellites to be
put in place to roll out India's counterpart to
the US-operated Global Positioning System
(GPS). India's aim is to start its own satellite
navigation system. According to scientists
from the Time and Frequency Division
I N D I A S U C C E S S F U L LY
a great
affiliation to gravity. It defines
their growth and ways of
survival. But can they survive
without gravity? Researchers
with the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency will
repeat their earlier Plant
Gravity Sensing study at the
International Space Station to
understand how plants sense
16-30 APRIL 2015
V E R B AT I M
FORTNIGHT
member, NITI
Aayog
PA N C H AYAT I
RAJ
`60 crore
for 250,000
panchayats
The Centre's decision to reduce Panchayati
Raj Ministry's budget and transfer its
schemes to states has left the ministry
bewildered about its job and caught states
unprepared for devolution of power
JITENDRA | new delhi
SORIT / CSE
14 DOWN TO EARTH
PA N C H AYAT I
Devolution of fund
What states will receive as per 14th
Finance Commission's suggestions
Funds recommended for local bodies
has increased by over three times
than last year ( `crore)
10th
11th
12th
13th
4,380
8,000
20,000
63,051
2,00,212
14th
21,017
MP
13,555
Maharastra
15,035
Rajasthan
13,633
Uttar Pradesh
35,775
West Bengal 14,191
Bihar
RAJ
FORESTS
Centre ignores
certifying agency
Private players set up forest certification body even
as the ministry, which manages 90 per cent of the
forests, gives it a cold shoulder
KUMAR SAMBHAV SHRIVASTAVA | new delhi
of
forest-based industries, nonprofits working on forestry,
auditors and state forest department officials gathered at the swanky Ashoka
Hotel in New Delhi. Amid much fanfare and
media presence, they launched the Network
for Certification & Conservation of Forests
(nccf ), a national body that will set standards and govern the process for certifying
Indias forests and their products on sustainable forest management. The participants,
including representatives of international
forestry agencies, hailed the move.
However, the Union Ministry of
Environment, Forests and Climate Change
(moef&cc), which is the custodian of more
than 90 per cent of the forests in the country,
gave the event a miss.
Forest certification is a market-based
tool that is voluntarily accepted by more than
120 countries. It ensures that manufacturers
of forest products conform to existing laws
and other ecological, economic and social
best practices, such as protection of
biodiversity, maintaining sustainable harvest
levels and respecting land tenure rights of
tribals. Globally, two forest certification
schemes are prevalentForest Stewardship
Council (fsc) and Programme for the
Endorsement of Forest Certification (pefc).
While fsc provides centralised certification
against its unified standards across the world,
pefc endorses national certification bodies
with country-specific certification standards.
16 DOWN TO EARTH
Hiding mismanagement
Forest
certification is
a market-based
tool which
ensures that
manufacturers
of forest
products
conform to
existing laws
and other
ecological,
economic and
social best
practices
standards for certification and invite unnecessary criticism, says a senior forest official.
According to the Forest Survey of India
(fsi) reports, forest cover in the country has
increased by 3.3 million ha between 1999 and
2013. However, Down To Earths State of
Environment Report 2015 highlights that
this increase in green cover is basically due
to private plantations outside natural forests.
In the same period, India has also lost
9.4 million ha forest cover, which suggests
massive deforestation in the governmentowned forests.
The other argument forest officials give
against forest certification is that it is a
market requirement; the country hardly
produces or exports timber from government
forests. The reason given for this is the low
STERILISATION
DEATHS
REUTERS
JYOTSNA SINGH
| new delhi
the deaths have not occurred due to any poison, let alone rat poison,says B L Chaudhary,
forensic expert at Lady Hardinge Medical
College, Delhi. All postmortem reports suggest that the deaths occurred due to infection,
caused by unhygienic conditions and medical practices at the camp, he adds.
Test results of drugs used at the camp
Ciprocin 500 (contains antibiotic ciprofloxacin) by Mahawar Paharma and Ibuprofen
400 mg (contains anti-inflammatory
ibuprofen) by Technical Labs and Pharma
further expose the callous attitude of the state
government.
Soon after the incident, drug samples
from the spot were sent to four laboratoriesgovernment and private-to determine cause
of deaths and illness. The list includes the
Central Drugs Laboratory (cdl), Kolkata,
the National Institute of Immunology, Delhi,
Sriram Institute of Industrial Research
(siir), Delhi, and Qualichem Laboratories,
Nagpur. All four laboratories reports, which
are with Down To Earth, state that the medicines used in the operations were substandard. A tablet is defined as substandard when
it contains less than 80 per cent of what is
STERILISATION
DEATHS
Lack of seriousness
State harassment
The only serious step taken by the state government so far is to set up a one-person
Bilaspur District Sterilisation Camp Judicial
Inquiry Commission headed by retired judge
Anita Jha. But deposing before the commission has been an ordeal for victims and their
families. They had to travel long distances at
their own expense. Ramanuj Sahu, for instance, had to travel 50 km twice to submit
affidavit on behalf of his wife. The commission did issue letters urging women to file af-
C O N S E R VAT I O N
Dry cleaning
Hussainsagar
Telangana plans to first
empty Hyderabad's
great lake and
then refill it with
rainwater. Experts
say it is nothing but a
harebrained plan
SUSHMITA SENGUPTA
| new delhi
20 DOWN TO EARTH
Lakes
Urban
C O N S E R VAT I O N
Kukatpally drain
Dying lake
Hussainsagar has
shrunk by 40% over
last 30 years. Instead of
runoff water, it is now
mostly fed by drains
Yousufguda drain
Picket drain
Osmania University
Jubilee Hills
Hussainsagar
Banjara Hills
Banjara dr
ain
Secretariat
Musi river
TELANGANA
Hyderabad
Musi river
of
water needs to be pumped out.
For this, water has to be removed
round-the-clock for 50 days using
pumps of 1,800 HP capacity
of continuous
rainfall in the monsoon can
refill the lake. This is less
likely as the region has lately
faced rainfall deficit, drought
CLIMATE
CHANGE
People's cure to
climate woes
Ecologically vulnerable
Nepal has framed
its climate change
adaptation plan with the
help of communities
VINEET KUMAR | kathmandu
22 DOWN TO EARTH
poor countries of the world have suggested ways to mitigate the problems they face due to climate change.
Nepal, which is going through a political
transition and drafting a Constitution, has
made the most vulnerable sections of its population a part of climate change adaptation
planning.
High poverty rates and fragile ecology
make Nepal extremely susceptible to climate
change impacts. As per assessments done by
the government, the mid-western and farwestern regions, where small-scale
agriculture is the main occupation, are highly
prone to drought, landslides and changing
rain patterns (see Precariously balanced).
Compared to the rest of the country, the
adaptation capability of these regions is also
quite low. But despite the turmoil it is going
through, Nepal became the first country in
CLIMATE
Key solutions
Adaptation activities indicated by
communities in Local Adaptation Plans
of Action in 14 districts of Nepal
43%
Agriculture, food
security, livelihoods,
forest, biodiversity
70 Local
Adaptation
Plans for Action
are being
implemented
in 14 of Nepal's
poorest and
vulnerable
districts
Infrastructure
development
9%
Capacity
development*
Water
resources,
alternative
energy
12%
Climateinduced
hazards,
disasters
Teething troubles
Precariously balanced
Humla
Mugu
Bajura
Achham
Jumla
Kalikot
Jajarkot
Rukum
Rolpa
Kailali
Dolpa
Bardiya
Dailekh
9%
27%
Dang
Combined vulnerability
Very low
Low
Moderate
High
Very high
CHANGE
Gauging success
TOBACCO
WA R N I N G
Don't
ignore the
deadly sign
Tobacco trail
The debate over pictorial warning on
tobacco products continues 20 years
after it was first proposed
1975 Government of India passes
legislation restricting production, supply
and distribution of cigarettes. Introduces
first text warning, `cigarette smoking is
injurious to health', for all cigarette packets
and cigarette advertisements
1995 Parliamentary Committee on
Subordinate Legislation of the 10th Lok
Sabha suggests strongly worded statutory
warnings through pictorial depiction.
Recommends such warnings in regional
languages as well
1996-2002 Delhi, Goa, West Bengal,
Assam and Tamil Nadu enact state
legislation prohibiting smoking in
public places
Research in India shows that large pictorial health warnings on tobacco products inhibit regular tobacco
users, while preventing adolescents and children from initiation
NEW
BUSINESS
High on nectar
Demand for neera, the fresh sap
of young coconut flowers, is rising
with advances in food preservation
technologies. It's time Kerala stopped
classifying it as country liquor
M SUCHITRA | kozhikode , kerala
26 DOWN TO EARTH
NEW
The spadix of
coconut flower
has to be
tapped carefully
to ensure high
yield of neera
low GI foods, and can be used by people suffering from diabetes and high cholesterol.
With the global demand for low GI
sugar rising, neera sugar and jaggery can fill
this gap, says Sreekumar Pothuval, processing engineer at cdb Institute of Technology
in Ernakulam district. Given the market
potential of neera, they can enhance farmers
income, create employment and revive
Keralas rural economy, Jose says.
The change is already visible on the
ground. Of the 19 coconut farmer-producer
companies in Kerala, Palakkad Coconut
Producer Company (cpc) and Kaipuzha
Coconut Producer Company have launched
their neera brands in the market. Our objective is to replace unhealthy aerated drinks
with fresh and healthy neera, says Joji M
Thakkadi, chief executive officer of Palakkad
cpc, which produces 500 litres of neera a day.
It sells its product through 20 outlets and
charges `25 for 200 ml. It also sells palm sugar at `350 a kilogram. Kaipuzha cpc sells
neera through vending machines and charges `25 per 200 ml; bottled neera costs `30 per
200 ml. Kaipuzha cpc has a daily turnover of
`10,000 and has set up a plant with a capacity to process 10,000 litres of neera a day at an
expense of `1 crore.
Coconut farmers are happy about the revival of neera at a time when they are facing
price fluctuations and monopoly by copra-
Neera products are nutritious and have low GI value, which makes them suitable for diabetic patients
BUSINESS
COVER
STORY
ON WRONG
H
T
G
N
E
L
E
V
A
W
Twenty years after the Supreme Court
asserted that people have a right over
radio waves, community radio continues
to struggle. Instead of supporting the
stations, the Centre now plans to carry out
a listenership survey to gauge its impact
and decide its future
ANUPAM CHAKRAVARTTY
STORY
COVER
COVER
STORY
Flawed focus
Out of range
More than two-thirds of the community
radio stations in the country are run
by educational institutions and not by
the community
is the number of
states that do
not have a single
grassroots
station
Andhra Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Delhi
Gujarat
Chandigarh
5
4
Kerala
Puducherry
Maharashtra
5
4
Odisha
Punjab
Uttar Pradesh
Tamil Nadu
4
4
Rajasthan
Uttarakhand
1
1
Stations operated by
agricultural institution
Telengana
4
4
Madhya Pradesh
Karnataka
Stations operated by
educational institution
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jharkhand
12
Stations operated
by NGO/community
30 DOWN TO EARTH
Chhattisgarh
103
61
2
21
12
West Bengal
COVER
STORY
www.downtoearth.org.in 31
C O V E R
STORY
India's
experiment
with radio
The country got its
first community-run
radio station more
than 60 years after
Independence
Low on budget
COVER
broadcasting in India. In his
report, Chanda says AIR should be
made autonomous and its rural
stations should be more
participatory
January 1965 | AIR makes rural
service an integral component of
all its stations. Farm and home
units established in 10 AIR
stations to provide technical
support to farmers
October 1967 | The Centre allows
commercial advertising in the
Bombay-Pune-Nagpur chain of
STORY
COVER
STORY
Ban on news
COVER
No respite in sight
STORY
COVER
STORY
Nepal
UK and Ireland
In the UK, many community radios broadcast
for minority immigrant communities such as
the Afro-Caribbean and the Asian
communities. Ireland encompasses stations
serving a geographic community or a
community of interest such as campus
stations and Irish-language stations
Taiwan
Till 2004, Taiwan
had more illegal
radio stations
(200) than legal
ones (170)
because media
houses influence
the government
to not issue new
licences
Africa
Community radio
emerged under
diverse political
conditions and was
severely affected not
only by dictators but also by
democratic governments. For example,
in Guinea-Bissau, the change in power
from the absolute reign of Nino Viera
to democracy did not favour conditions
for media in the nation
Australia
Unlike India, community radio here is
defined by the audience and not by the
geographical location. As a result, there are
community radio channels catering to
indigenous and ethnic groups, people with
print disability and the elderly
Advertisement
COVER
S T O R systems
Y
`Simplify
licensing
for community radio'
SCIENCE
BYTES
ECOLOGY
Decreased resilience
be resistant to
changing climatic conditions. But their
resistance is lowered when they face natural
or anthropogenic disturbances such as fires or
insect outbreaks. A study on seven shrublands
in Europe found them to be quite resistant to
moderate experimental warming and drought.
Plants are particularly sensitive to changes
in the early stages of their life and even small
climatic changes can result in vegetation
shifts when ecosystems are disturbed. The
understanding will help predict the response
of ecosystems to climate change. Nature
Communications, March 24
ECOSYSTEMS CAN
JJ HARRISON
BIOLOGY
On way out
swift parrot is
undergoing a population collapse and could
be extinct in 16 years. The parrot is a major
pollinator of blue and black gum trees which
are crucial to the forestry industry. Ironically,
its habitat is being destroyed by the industry.
A five-year study which tracked movement
and breeding habits of the parrot predicts that
their numbers would halve
every year and there is a 94.7 per cent chance
of its extinction. Biological Conservation,
March 25 (online)
THE TASMANIAN
C L I M AT E
www.downtoearth.org.in 39
HEALTH
Students excavate human remains buried in the post-medieval churchyard at Badia Pozzeveri in Tuscany, Italy
Scientists are
turning to ancient
grave sites to
unravel the
mysteries of
human ailments
APRAJITA SINGH
| new delhi
40 DOWN TO EARTH
A unique science
Students clean
remains found
in the Badia
Pozzeveri
churchyard
TECHNOLOGY
42 DOWN TO EARTH
Watch out
COLUMN
H E D G E H O G TA L E S
RAKESH KALSHIAN
44 DOWN TO EARTH
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MORNING
DELHI
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Every Wednesday, at 9 AM
A CSE and Radio One initiative to inform, involve and engage
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Tune in and
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nurturing Nature
http://csestore.cse.org.in
FOOD
Yamilicious!
The Baiga tribe prefers to eat the purple inner skin of ratal kanda
without condiments as it is considered healthy
RECIPE
wood-fuelled cook stove. The thin, outer skin is then delicately peeled, and the
flesh, along with the purple inner skin, is
eaten without condiments. This has a
gritty texture as if fine grains of sand
were sticking to the flesh. We do not
mind the grit because the coloured part
is healthy, Deoria says, handing me
several chunks on a leaf.
Research, though sparse, corroborates tribal wisdom. A 2009 paper by
S Misra of the M S Swaminathan Research
Foundation, published in the Food and
Agriculture Organizations Plant Genetic
Resources Newsletter, confirms the medicinal values of yams. According to
this paper, not only do yams ensure food
security for tribal people during winter, but
are also useful as stimulants, expectorants,
carminatives and tonics.
These beliefs are prevalent in Indore city,
too. During my visit, I was trudging through
a vegetable market with a bad cold. Have
a plateful of hot, fried garadu and you will
be better tomorrow, said Yam seller Ram
Manohar Pugalia, offering me the delicacy.
Feisty Indoris are not a big fan of boiled
yams. Indore is a city that likes its food fried.
My friend, Saroj Misra, an Indore-based
textile researcher who taught me to prepare fried garadu, sums it up accurately:
In Indore, samosa and kachori are part of
peoples daily diet and namkeen is a prominent
part of meals. No one could care less about
the nutrients lost when the yams inner skin
red or purple when uncookedis peeled
off. The catchword is taste, which comes
from oil-soaked crispness and a generous
sprinkle of mouth-burning jeeralu masala.
Having tasted both the versions of
purple yam, I am hard put to choose.
My urban taste buds lean a little towards the Indore style. But years of experiments with central Indias tribal food
and low-spice cooking from my ancestral land of Chittagong in Bangladesh has
reformed my idea of food, and the Baiga
version would win my vote. But then, what is
cooking without variety? Indore has the right
if it wants its yams fried.
Fried garadu
(Indore style)
INGREDIENTS
WILDLIFE
Gujarat's burgeoning
crocodilopolis
Vadodara plans a
park for crocodiles to
keep their numbers
and attacks on
humans in check
RAJAT GHAI | vadodara
RAIF KAYSER
residents of
the industrial city of Vadodara
face a strange problem. As the
rains swell the Vishwamitri river, which passes through the heart of the
city, crocodiles pop up at the most unlikely placesroads, rail tracks and parks.
Travelling through the sewer line, baby
crocodiles have sometimes even appeared
in bathrooms.
Vadodara is an island of crocodiles, says
B C Choudhury, conservationist and former
URING MONSOONS,
Officials set up
a signboard
warning about
the presence
of crocodiles
in a pond
near Laxmi
Vilas Palace in
Vadodara
RAKESH D VADHWANA
GUJARAT
Vadodara
Riverfront
development area
V A D O D A R A
Rising threat
Vishwamitri
river
Vadodara municipal corporation boundary
COLUMN
PAT E N T LY A B S U R D
L AT H A J I S H N U
50 DOWN TO EARTH
csestore
http://csestore.cse.org.in
GOOD NEWS
TARUN CHOUDHARY
52 DOWN TO EARTH
schooling,
getting into a college was an
uphill task for 29-year-old Sandeep
Mehto. His family, hailing from
Kesla tribal block in Pathrota village, Madhya
Pradesh, did not have enough money to support his higher education. But Mehto was
determined. He borrowed from a moneylender to get enrolled in the Samrat Ashok
Technological Institute in the state and
sought an education loan to get into the Tata
Institute of Social Sciences (tiss), Mumbai,
in 2009. While he made it to the prestigious
institute, Mehto knew that far too many
children gave up on their dreams of a higher
education either because they did not have the
CLASSROOM
Mayhem
in
March
Oh, it's
raining again!
Help! Help!
Climate change!
Western
disturbance!
by
by
After three hundred years of colonial plunder and a
series of famines, India started its journey as a free
nation with 0.1% growth rate in agriculture.
Greenion
lut
Revo
...advocated by
the aid agencies
of the West.
54 DOWN TO EARTH
We opted for
the Green
Revolution.
...develop
agriculture!
Well, lack of
political will,
economic
strength...
...anyway, the
Green Revolution
transformed India
into a food-sufficient
country...
Ind
ig
modenous
el
But at present, those very Western nations advocate removal of the subsidies and
other social securities in the name of economic reforms. When the state support or
subsidies were removed, agriculture collapsed like...
...groundwater levels
dipped, water and soil were
polluted due to high use
of pesticides.
The model
advocated by
Western nations
was also heavily
dependent on
subsidies.
...a house
of cards.
Flood of
subsidised
imported
food grains.
Huge
debt
burden.
Now, our friend
the farmer is left
with a piece of
land poisoned
with pesticides
along with...
We can't carry on
with the existing
model. It's too costly
and unreliable.
Price volatility
in global
food grain
market.
On road to city...
Quit agriculture.
Let's go to the cities.
We will work as a
labourer. I've heard
there are plenty of
jobs.
We are victim of
agrarian distress and
are migrating to cities.
I am an urban worker,
who is a victim of
global economic
slowdown.
CITY
ge
Villa
I'm
migrating
to my village
Let's move
to the
next world.
www.downtoearth.org.in 55
REVIEW
INSIDE CHHATTISGARH-A
POLITICAL MEMOIR Ilina Sen
Penguin Books | 300 pages | `320
ON SHELF
moved to Tilda where Binayak worked for a missionary hospital.
Inspired by the work of R H Richharia, they began to experiment
with organic farming using indigenous seeds. From that time
onwards, they collected and learnt about different seed varieties.The
author notes, Chhattisgarh is one of the last places on earth to have
a remembered history of an enormous diversity of food resources.
In 1994, the couple set up their own organisation, Rupantar, to
work with tribal communities in maang gaons or villages demanded
by the people in forests south of Raipur. These were unauthorised
villages set up by the people in the late 1940s after dams on the
Mahanadi river submerged their villages. They did not exist in
the official records, and even in the 1990s, lacked schools, health
services, electricity and hand pumps for portable drinking water.
Rupantar grew organically with the needs and demands of the
maang gaons, and expanded its field of action always in collaboration
with the tribal people. Malaria was endemic in the area; this was in
part due to the delay in diagnosis as blood samples had to be sent far
away for analysis. Binayak set up a microscope in the health centre
with one lab technician who could read the samples and trained
all the health workers in taking blood samples. This significantly
reduced cases of malaria in the area.
The last part of the memoir talks about the creation of the state
of Chhattisgarh, its challenges and contradictions. In the beginning
Binayak and Ilina were invited by the new state to draft studies
and participate in setting up social programmes such as Mitanin,
inspired by their community health workers. Mitanin became a
model for the Centres Accredited Social Health Activist (asha)
programmes. They however became aware of discrepancies in the
way these programmes were being set up, and it became evident
that criticism from local stakeholders was not welcome in a state
committed to industrial development.
Going back to her question about what had changed in the
state, Ilina makes an interesting analysis of the rhetoric that
surrounded the creation of the state and its actions thereafter. She
brings to light the top to bottom approach to development, which
consistently ignores local stakeholders. She also critically analyses
the way the state divided up the land between various industrial
corporations disregarding local claims to the land. Saffronisation
of the state happened after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the
2003 state elections which further threatened the local culture.
These contradictions which could be read as warning signs leading
to Binayaks arrest, culminated in Salwa Judum, the tribal youths
armed by the state to resist Maoists operating in the economically
backward but mineral-rich district of Bastar.
The book is a necessary account of the recent history of
Chhattisgarh. It raises many questions on how to guarantee
human rights and civil liberties in a state committed to industrial
development at all costs. She comes to the conclusion that reason
and sanity will never be restored unless peace and democracy are
restored in Chhattisgarh. Obviously, the road to achieving this is
tortuous and will necessitate serious undoing of the sins of omission
and commission. n
Kate Chaillat is a freelance writer and filmmaker in Mumbai
LAST WORD
CIVIL LINES
R I C H A R D M A H A PAT R A
N THE past one month, the Aam Admi Party (aap) has
grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons. For a party that emerged out of a public protest against corruption and assumed power twice in the capital, these developments have large ramifications. For the
impatient middle class, with hardly mature political
perspective, aap represents an alternative politics. But as
the intra-party squabbling suggests, there is not much difference between a mainstream party and the supposed
champion of public cause.
Here, I will limit the debate to the problems that aap
outlined and the solutions it promised. The failure of the
party to address pressing concerns of everyday life could
crumble the democratic structure. At least, without any alternative to the current system of governance, it is most
likely to reduce peoples faith in it.
Let us look at some issues that aap capitalised on during the election campaign. The party promised clean water, access to energy, better public transport and an overall
transparent government setup that reflects public concerns. In the first month of its governance, aap leaders definitely retained the focus on these issues. But their solutions, as outlined by aap, are no different from other
political parties.This is a bad sign given that other parties,
in the past, have miserably failed in keeping their word.
aap is focusing too much on cheap electricity and
58 DOWN TO EARTH
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In 18th century, bison skins smeared with body fluid
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The homely
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