CORRESPONDENCE

PBD Sydney : An opportunity lost

It is heartening to know that the Indian Government has a separate ministry for overseas Indians and also make.5 an enormous effort co recognise the contriburion of the overseas Indians co their motherland India, by conducting Pravasi Bharatiya D iwas (PBD) every year. The regional meet of PBD held in Sydney on 10, 11 and 12 November presented a great opportunity to address some of the major problems facing people of Indian origin living in Australia.

We always talk about three Cs which bind Australia and India: Cnrry, Cricket and Commonwealth, but most recently anod1er C bas been added which i s comme rce. Yes, the PBD p latform is used co promote commerce between India and ocher countries which have beneficed from l ncl ian migration li ke Australia Most of che Indian migration, especially to western nations inclurung Australia is through skilled migration, bringing doctors, engineers, IT p rofessionals, accountants and business brains. Australians of Indian bad:ground are generally well educated and belong to the cop economic strata of society and hence they are not only able to look after themselves but also look after and help rusadvamaged people in their community.

The d isadvantaged people in our community are chose people w ith Indian passports who travel to dus country like the senior citizens who come co live with d1eir children, lnruan international studems, and Indian workers on short term work visas who work in farms etc. These disadvantaged people are doing it tough and they need the help of the Indian High Commission/Consulates in major cities like Sydney, Me lbourne, Bi:isbane, Adelaide and Perth However, such heJp can be delivered onJy with d1e help of the host i.e., State and Federal Governments of Australia. It is in tl1is context that tl1e A L1stralian citizens of Indian heritage can p lay the ro le of ambassadors of India in Australia and have the power to lobby with politicians to make those policy changes necessary co make the life of Indian seniors/ smdents/workers a bit easier and happier.

PBD Srdney presemed a perfect oppormniry to make those points with d1e policy makers because they had the ears and eyes of the highest o ffice in States, d1e Premiers and some of tbe highest offi ces at the Federal Jevel like the Immigratio n and Trade ministers. U n fortunately no such attempt seems to have been made co lobby for change in policies whicb affect Indian seniors/ smdems/ wo.rkers

For example, the Ioruan seniors do not have Medicare cover, travel concessions or seniors' card facilitie.5, which results in a huge drain on chose yo ung immigrants who are trying to find their feet I nd ian internation al students are being used as cash cows. Indian workers who are on work visas are being exploited by their employers in farms and facmries What d id PBD, Sydney do to address these problems? I am afraid nothing, unless I am proved wrong.

While there were some lughlighrs like NSW & SA

Premi ers' and Immigration & Trade Ministers' speeches, Steve Waugh's address and the Pa!Lwi Sharada imervie,v, 1 think the following shortcomings were too many ro ignore:

• To start with the high registration fee d iscouraged many interested non- resideor lnruans to participate

• The registration fee could have been waived for Indian seniors, students and workers to ensure their participation, thus providing an opportunity to tell their stories and seek so lntions co their prob lems.

• Publicity was totally lacking an d 90'1/,, of the non- resident Indians in Srdney, I spoke to were completely una,vare of PB D Sydney.

• J\Jthoug h there were man y eminent speakers, it was evident that merit was not the criteria for selection of most speakers. le was apparent that personal preferences and favo urs played a part in the selection.

• T found very li ttle scope for interaction between the Indian Government delegates, including d1e l'vfiniscer for Overseas Indians, who mostly kept to themselves an d the participating n on- resident Indian delegates, wid1 exception of a privil eged few.

• PBD Sydney was a good idea bm poorly executed.

Raj Natarajan

Oz/11dTV Sydney

Disappointi ng turnout

I think the program o utline and d1e calibre o f speakers at the Sydney PBD were fantastic, especially at the breakout sessions Pt Shiv Kumar Sharn-ia's santoor recital and me exhibition on Indian m igration m Australia were m y personal h ighlights, and also the fact that I met a loc of people for d1e first time - peo ple I bad previous ly only heard of or known of, but had never met in person. It was disappointing to see the low turnout though - the large venue seemed to swallow up tbe sruall- ish audience quite easil)c Also, having attended the PBD at Kocbi in January d1is year, I had e>.7Jecced the RPBD m have a much stronger focus on local community concerns, people's issues and diaspora matters d1an ic did - tl1e Sydney convention seemed to focus more o n business instead. That said, perhaps the objective of holding tl1e RPBD was not cleacly understood by mo st of the attendees, and only the organisers can tell us if they were able to achieve what they set o u t co. All in all though, icwas a good expe rience and a great networking opportunity for those who accended.

Manpreet K Singh

Ei::emtiue P rotfucer Punjab i Program

SBSRadio

828,

not P2P

Afte r months of preparation, pooling of eno r mous resources and publicity hype, o ne was expecting PBD to be a hnge celebration of people of lodian origin in the Oceanic region. As it mrned out it did attract some politicians, a few businesses, the education sector and large Indian delegations exploring business opportunities with Australia. 1 ,000 delegates were expected ro attend d1e PBD at the prestigious location of Darling Harbour Convention. Centre, but only 500 plus enrolled, om of which ove r l /3 were speake rs or i nvitees. The plenary sessions were attended by not more than 250 people at any given rime in a ball that had around 3,000 capacity The show went on but d1e auruence was nussing. It was a well organised event but lacked lustre. AIBC was heavily involved in the planning and execu tion of the event along with the Indian High Commission and dominated most of d1e sessions.

This makes one wonde r as to what was the objective of this whole exercise? If the pmpose of the PED was co promote B2B business and b i.lateral relationships between governments, then yes, it did achieve d1at objective ly to some extent. But if it was about peopJe coming together m ce lebrate d1e ir common heritage, share experiences and bring to focus their curreor problems, issues and h ighlight the needs of me Pravasi community at large, it fell short of delivering d1ar..

There was hardly any P2P, or people to people contact. So why did it fail co attract me community? Was it the high cost of $350 [early bird discoumJ for a 3 -day event fair?

Or because it was scheduled o n working days? Perhaps tbe programme Jacked lustre an d failed to attract interest an1ongst the community at large. Maybe it was a combination of all the ab ove.

Why wete there no popular events s cheduled, open co tl1e public free of cost? If the Government of NSW could host AR Rehman in a free concert for the lnruan community, why can't the Government of lndia do die same for its pra11C1sis?

Renowned artists like Pandit Sh iv Kumar Sharma and Meeta Panrut were invited co PBD but d1e concert was open only to the delegates and they performed to an almost empty hall.

L1 fact Meeta Pandit commented, ''W here is the audience - is there a cricket match taking place)"

Some important sectors like medicine and health, tourism and sports were missing from d1e 3-day agenda.

As for the round table discussion on Power of Media in the Asian Century,' wluch was well chaired by Sustti Das of The Age, which I was invited co be a panellist on, we had a robust ruscussion on:

• Role of media in both countries in reporting Violence ag;unst Indian Students in 2010 and lessons learnt from it.

• W ill tl1e Indian med ia pl ay a dominate role in shaping the world opinion o n the global stage like the west did in the last century with the power of its economy and the magneti sm of its culture? Will we see an As ian Ruperr Murdoch emerge?

• Thirdly, in the next 20, 30, 40 years, where are we likely to turn for authoritative, accurate and balanced n ews coverage? The .influence and u ses of new merua - whether it's the social media such as Twitter, Facebook etc. or on.line news, analysis and b logging, as well as on.line TV /radio.

• The n.eed to have an NRl TV channel which connects the Indian diaspora globally and focuses more on issues and concerns for non- resident Indian and 2"" and 3"1 generation Indians. (Minis tet Ravi who also attended the sess ions agreed to offer supp() r t co any such initiative).

• A critique of t he local print media which has predomi nantly become an advertisement directory (The fact that no local prim media was invited co be on the panel was poin ted out as they could not contribute to the discussion).

• While we enjoyed meeting and exchanging ideas with many interesting people from od1er cities and countries, we missed the local participatio n.

In his concl uding remarks CGI Mr Anm Goel commented chat d1e two useful recommendation that emerged from the PBD deliberations were:

• Need to have O ld Age Care facilities for ageing Pmvasis.

• Need to have a NRI TV channel co connect the Indian diaspora globally.

Saba Z-aidiAbdi Managing mrector Nuvera Medin.