People Parties Places

30th wedding anniversary

Torrential monsoonal rains cause havoc in the Hindu holy town of Kedarnath in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

The death toll caused by flash floods, cloudbursts and landslides continues to rise and and more than 1,000 pilgrims bound for Himalayan shrines remain stranded

‘India must focus on jobs for growth’

India must make employment a key driver of its growth strategy as higher economic growth by itself does not create more jobs, according to a leading US research organisation advocating sustainable development.

“Indian policymakers cannot assume that higher economic growth will automatically lead to more jobs,” Sabina Dewan, founder and director of Just Jobs at the Washington based Centre for American Progress (CAP) said in an e-mail interview.

Currently headed by Indian-American policy expert Neera Tanden, who has served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations as well as presidential campaigns and think tanks, CAP was founded in 2003 by John Podesta, who served as President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff.

Despite high levels of economic growth, India’s economy created 60 million jobs between 2000 and 2005, but only 2 million between 2005 and 2010, she pointed out citing data from the Institute of Manpower Research.

“The government must prioritise employment as a key driver of their growth strategy,” said Dewan, who currently leads the India operations of Just Jobs programme, “dedicated to creating better livelihoods for more people around the world”.

“This entails moving from more capitalintensive to more labour-intensive growth,” said Dewan whose research examines the nexus between economic opportunity and economic growth, development and stability.

“The government must undertake necessary reforms to improve the quality of education and skills development, streamline regulations, develop infrastructure, and improve access to credit and access to energy.”

In India Just Jobs, which was launched in October 2010, works with partners like the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and Saath.

“Our work in India ranges from research on solutions to India’s jobless growth to examining what works and what doesn’t in preparing India’s youth for a 21st century labour market,” Dewan said.

“My professional and personal goal is to be a part of ensuring that India’s economic trajectory is upward bound, especially through the creation of just jobs toward a growing, strong and stable middle class,” she said.

With partners in countries from South Africa to Norway to India, Just Jobs conducts joint research and advocacy on how to create more and better employment, especially for young people, Dewan said describing it as “one of the most pressing challenges of our time”.

“We believe that good job creation is essential for reducing poverty, and generating more equal, inclusive and sustainable economic growth”.

In addition to the Just Jobs project, CAP is part of the Track II dialogue on energy and global climate change with India.

CAP also engages in dialogues about India’s role in anti-terrorism efforts and maintaining peace and security in the region especially vis-à-vis Afghanistan and Pakistan, Dewan said.

The think tank also recently launched the Just Jobs Index (JJI) that “provides an aggregate measure of one of the most important questions facing global policy makers: are we creating enough just jobs?” she said.

While other global economic indices, such as the World Bank’s Doing Business project or the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report focus on the corporate side of the global economy, JJI also addresses labour and employment.

This would help researchers evaluate the effectiveness of economies in providing just jobs complete with appropriate remuneration, good working conditions, and with room for upward mobility for their citizens along a number of sub-dimensions.

Yet despite the pressing need for such an index, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have yet to respond to the launch of the JJI, she lamented.

They innovate to usher in winds of social change

A school dropout, Jenpu Rongmei, 29, was as disillusioned and angry as many youngsters in Dimapur, Nagaland, till one day he lost his younger brother to a drug overdose. It completely shattered him, but the simmering anger drove him to a mission to reform many disenchanted youth like his brother.

“It is difficult to cope with the loss of a dear one and it took me three years to overcome the grief. That is when I saw there were many youngsters around me who were taking to alcohol and drugs because of fewer opportunities in the city,” Rongmei said.

“These youth needed direction and help and I felt the onus was on me to make, at least, an effort to change their lives,” Rongmei who founded Youngers’ Club in 2010, three years after his brother died, to address the problems youngsters face in the northeastern state.

Twenty-nine-year-old Shariq from Lucknow was very disturbed when he heard and saw how women are harassed while travelling, mostly in auto-rickshaws. He along with his friend Zeeshan founded “Safe Safar” last year and launched an initiative to create awareness among women and some auto-rickshaw drivers on the issue.

“We didn’t know from where to start and how to start. So we did a small survey on our own and found that 98 percent of the women face problems while commuting,” said Shariq, who held workshops with women and auto-rickshaw drivers and told them to raise their voices against the molesters.

Like Rongmei and Shariq, there is a growing tribe of young men and women who are trying to bring about social transformation in society to make it a better place to live.

Motivating and mentoring these young people are NGOs Youth Collective (CYC) and Pravah, which came together and formed Changing Looms-Learning and Leadership Journey (CL-LLJ). This group supports, encourages and recognises independent social initiatives in the country.

So far, they have identified 17 such initiatives that deal with different issues that ail society.

“More than money and funds, it is important to put their ideas into action. They can get a head start in not only leading social change but also being at the forefront of a movement,” said Kanika Sinha, a member of the group.

“We just felicitate these aspirations and provide them better guidance. We are a means and they are the change,” Sinha added.

The group, which met in New Delhi recently to share the ideas of these young entrepreneurs with possible donors for financial aid, also provides skill and capacity building, mentoring and networking opportunities to people aged between 18 and 35.

Making a choice between chasing his dreams and giving up the mundane corporate job as a business consultant was an easy task for Gautam Gauri, 31.

“Listening to your heart is more important than making money. I had this pending dream to do something meaningful. I didn’t know what was the right thing. Then I associated myself with an (ex-IIM) professor who is into social work. I worked with him for a year and realised my true calling was here,” Gauri said.

His Diksha Foundation helps facilitate education and empowers economically and socially underprivileged children in Patna.

Like Gauri, Rongmei is a happy man now and finds solace in his work, which has brought happiness to many lives.

“I am slowly coming to terms with my brother’s death. I am a changed man now. All this was possible because of my work,” Rongmei, who started another programme in 2012 for HIV-affected children called Care and Hope after he saw how such children face discrimination and helped rehabilitate them.

Journalist-turned social worker Gitanjali Babbar, 26, interacted with sex workers and found that they had no social life other than their lives in the brothels.

After many hiccups, she started Kat Katha in G.B. Road, Delhi’s infamous red light district, where the sex workers meet for a few hours and lead a “normal life” as they get a chance to entertain themselves by indulging in activities they enjoy like painting, singing or simply reading books.

“I am not here to earn money. I am happy doing this work. My parents have been very supportive of my work. And I feel that I am bringing some happiness in the lives of these women, who are shunned by society,” Babbar said.

New mental health bill bans electric shocks, gives right to treatment

The right of mentally-ill patients to decide their mode of treatment, decriminalising suicide for them and a ban on electric shock treatment without anaesthesia are some of the progressive provisions of the new mental health bill proposed by the Indian government.

“The bill was passed by the union cabinet last week,” said Health Secretary K. Desiraju recently in New Delhi.

Once passed by parliament, the bill will repeal the Mental Health Act, 1987.

If passed, it will make access to mental healthcare a right for all. Also, such services would be affordable, of good quality and available without discrimination.

An estimated 10-12 million or one to two per cent of the population suffers from severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and nearly 50 million or five percent from common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, yielding an overall estimate of 6.5 percent of the population.

Keeping in mind the rising number of people suffering from mental ailments, the new bill aims at introducing progressive and far-sighted steps for patients, a senior health official said.

“If a person has given an advance directive to the state that he or she should not be admitted to a facility without consent, it will be heeded to,” the official said.

This was proposed keeping in mind that a person can be branded mentally ill by family members in property or marital disputes.

The official said the 1987 Act had vested extraordinary powers in treating psychiatrists. The bill now states that an individual can himself or herself take a call on the treatment.

Psychiatrists, however, feel that by giving powers to a mentally-ill patient to decide on the course of treatment would put him at risk.

“A patient in a psychotic phase or a mentally-ill person doesn’t have the judgemental capacity to decide what is good or bad for him or her. So trusting that person to make the correct choice in such circumstances might be risky,” said Samir Malhotra, head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Max hospitals.

He further said that the bill would significantly reduce the powers of the doctors in deciding the patients’ well-being.

The bill also provides the right to confidentiality and protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in addition to the right to live in a community. Legal aid will also be extended to them.

It bans the electric-convulsive therapy or the electric shock treatment without anaesthesia and restricts psychosurgery.

Under the provisions of the bill, the government has an obligation to provide halfway homes, community caring centres and other shelters for mentally-ill people. Halfway homes, common in the western world, are for those patients who have recovered but need 24-hour monitoring and rehabilitation.

It also envisages a mental health review commission, which will review all admissions in mental health institutions beyond 30 days.

The commission would be a quasi-judicial body to oversee the functioning of mental health facilities and protect the rights of persons with mental illness in these facilities.

The bill also proposes to provide free care to all homeless, destitute and poor people suffering from mental disorders.

Trying to address the needs of the families, caregivers and those of homeless mentally ill people, the new legislation provides for setting up central and state mental health authorities, which would act as administrative bodies.

The bill decriminalises suicide for mentally ill patients.

Reacting to this provision, Malhotra said: “In certain circumstances it can help, as police action is sometimes cumbersome, but it can also not be denied that criminalising suicide had acted as a deterrent in some cases”.

Under the Indian Penal Code, suicide is a criminal act and a person can be jailed for at least one to three years. The Indian government had launched the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) in 1982, keeping in view the heavy burden of mental illness in the community, and the absolute inadequacy of mental health care infrastructure in the country to deal with it. According to eminent psychologist Aruna Broota, many Indian mental facilities and institutions are in a pathetic state and need to show a sympathetic attitude towards these people.

“The situation is slightly better in south India than in north India, but generally the condition of these facilities is very bad,” she said.

“One can have as many fancy bills and laws you want. But ultimately, it is us the society that has to accept that mental disorder is like any disease and we need to accept this,” she added.

India-born Amol Rajan is editor of London’s

The Independent Indian-born Amol Rajan has been appointed editor of the London morning daily The Independent, making him Fleet Street’s first non-white editor, the newspaper reported recently.

Rajan, 29, was previously the daily’s comment editor.

Oliver Duff, who was executive editor and news editor of The Independent, has been named editor of sister title, i, while another executive editor, Lisa Markwell, has been named editor of The Independent on Sunday.

This means two women and two men will serve as editors of the four titles owned by Evgeny Lebedev.

Sarah Sands is the editor of the group’s fourth title, the Evening Standard

“Our businesses are at a critical stage and a bold approach is needed for our industry,” Lebedev was quoted as saying in a statement after the new appointments.

“Today I am continuing this approach by appointing as editors two highly talented young journalists. Their energy, creativity and resourcefulness will invigorate both The Independent and i.”

He added that the group’s goal “is to develop a pioneering and integrated newsroom for the 21st century, providing print, digital and television output 24/7”.

According to the Huffington Post, Rajan, who is a columnist for the Evening Standard, has long been seen as a potential future editor.

He had previously served as deputy comment editor and sports and news correspondent in the newspaper.

According to the Post report, he is also a keen cricket fan, and has authored a book on cricket’s best spin bowlers.

Rajan, who was born in Calcutta, as Kolkata was then called, moved to Britain when he was three and studied at a state school.

‘Harassed fathers’ demand gender neutral family law

The Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), a Bangalore-based NGO fighting for shared parenting in case of divorce or separation, on Father’s Day June 16, demanded reforms in family laws - to make them gender neutral.

“The anti-father mindset unfortunately persists in our society. In divorce and separation cases, one of the parents, out of revenge, deprives the child of the love, affection and care of the other parent,” CRISP founder and president Kumar V. Jahgirdar stated.

He said people like him, who were seeking parenting rights and joint custody of the child, find they have no relevance on International Father’s Day, celebrated on June 16 this year.

“This (single parenting) is one of the worst forms of child abuse,” he said.

CRISP, with more than 2,500 members across the country, said shared parenting and joint custody of children should be implemented as a rule in divorce or separation cases.

“We demand a separate union ministry for children and we demand that the new ministry be de-linked from the present women and child development ministry. Since both have different objectives and child rights are being ignored when clubbed with the women development ministry, such a mechanism would work better,” he said.

The NGO also urged the Supreme Court to define what constitutes the welfare of a child and lay down guidelines to avoid the confusion that prevails in family courts.

Delhi-based child counsellor Ekta Singh, also a CRISP member, said there is need for making it mandatory that documents pertaining to child welfare like passport and school admission forms should always have the consent of both biological parents, in case of separation.

Another member, Manpreet Bhandari, a software engineer in Bangalore, involved in a divorce case, said the custodian parent, who intentionally and consistently violates the court orders of child visitation, should be declared unfit to be a guardian.

“The custody should be give to the other parent,” he said.

CRISP, with its regional chapters in Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Lucknow, has been fighting to set up special courts to deal with child custody cases.

According to the data available with CRISP, more than 20,000 divorce cases are pending in family courts in Bangalore alone. The figure was collected from family courts. IANS