Help Adelaide scientists provide safe water in Rajasthan

The University of Adelaide is currently crowdfunding to produce simple low-cost, self-assembly water puri cation kits approximately 25 people by producing up to 10 litres per day of safe drinking water, the research team hopes to help a big chunk of the state currently sustaining on poor quality water.

BY TARINI PURI

Water-starved parts of Rajasthan back in India could soon have easier access to potable water, thanks to the work of researchers at the University of Adelaide.

The scientists intend to localise for Rajasthan, a simple water purification kit, already used effectively in Papua New Guinea. It uses the most basic materials - a glass tube, metalised plastic and sunlight - to turn dirty river water, stagnant rainwater and ground water into pathogen-free drinkable water.

“These kits use sunlight to kill pathogens, making the water safe to drink,” said project leader Dr Cristian Birzer, Senior Lecturer in the University’s School of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Humanitarian and Development Solutions Initiative at the University.

The researchers claim this simple device can reduce harmful E.coli from 1 million units to below 1, besides removing other pathogenic contaminants.

With each kit expected to benefit

Dr Birzer added, “In India, the water also contains heavy-metal contaminants and we need to do some onsite assessments for pathogen, heavy metal and other toxins to be able to modify the kits for Rajasthan.”

For instance, the local Indian plant Moringa can be used to remove arsenic from contaminated water and could be mixed into a sand filter as a simple addition to the system.

“Once we’ve designed the kits, they will be produced in Rajasthan and distributed to the community through local partners,” Dr Birzer revealed.

Further, the researchers will provide the blueprints and technical know-how to continue production and manufacturing for the local market.

The university is currently crowd-funding to raise a sum of $30,000, needed to produce 1000 kits. The fund raiser, active on the university’s website, has managed to garner much support from the Indian as well as mainstream community. More than one quarter of the required funds has already been raised by the research team and it will conclude the initiative on 28 November.

The University hopes to send a team to Rajasthan shortly to assess the water quality in specific regions and at specific times of year. The research team headed by Dr Birzer includes Dr Georgina Drew who has over twelve years of experience working on the relationship between culture and water resource management in various parts of India including Rajasthan, and microbiologist Dr Stephen Kidd who specialises in identifying and characterising harmful bacteria that persist in environments.

The team will engage with communities and conduct assessments on local water quality, manufacturing capabilities, and supply-chain limitations to develop and implement a customised solution to tackle the high concentrations of fluoride and arsenic in the water, which come from the aquifers themselves, plus a range of pathogens found in storage systems.

With their experience in water reform, management, conservation and re-use, the South Australian public and private sectors are already working closely with Rajasthan - which enjoys a Sister State relation with South Australia - to develop options to improve water management and allocation.

Dr Birzer told Indian Link, “We are in touch with officials in Rajasthan and really want this to go through. The public support here for the project has been positive, and we are hoping to raise the required money. Our team is getting ready to travel to Rajasthan early next year to get this rolling.”

> All donations over $2 are income tax deductible (in Australia)

> WHAT A $30 DONATION (MINIMUM) CAN DO:

> Provide one water puri cation kit to a family in Rajasthan

> Help convert up to 10 litres of contaminated water into potable water/ hours

>

About Rajasthan

> Has a population of 79.79 million (5% of total Indian population)

> Comprises approximately ten percent of India’s land mass

> Has access to just one per cent of the country’s water resources

> Over two-thirds area is classi ed as a desert

> Still remains a major producer of agricultural crops

Source: University of Adelaide report

Facts and Figures

> 680 million people around the world do not have access to fresh drinking water

> Approximately 1.5 million people, mostly children, die from drinking contaminated water each year

Source: AusAid, 2012

To contribute, go to: https://universityofadelaide. pozible.com/project/world- rstwater- ltration-system

Twisted interpretation of history: Challenging times for artists, lmmakers

At the root of the controversy over the release of the Hindi feature film Padmavati is, first, the saffron brotherhood’s interpretation of history with a pronounced anti-Muslim bias and, secondly, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s overt and covert attempts to whittle down institutional autonomy.

Even if the BJP’s seemingly political use of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is a continuation of the practice of its predecessor which made the Supreme Court call the CBI a “caged parrot”, the party can be said to have broken new ground by letting vandals of the Hindu Right vent their anger against Padmavati and, thereby, undermining the authority of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

In this case, too, there are precedents as when the Congress objected to the film Indu Sarkar, because of its focus on Indira Gandhi. But the saffron offensive against Padmavati is making a greater impact because of the clout which the Sangh Parivar affiliates enjoy in view of their proximity to power.

It is obvious that if they are not checked, not only will the authority of the CBFC be diminished, but also the board will be wary in future of clearing films dealing with history or issues which are close to the Parivar’s heart. Politics will, therefore, virtually take over the board’s functioning. What is more, the filmmakers themselves will be dissuaded from touching subjects which may be deemed sensitive and deal instead with safe, insipid topics. Such a state of affairs will be unfortunate at a time when Bollywood has been breaking away from the earlier productions with their song-anddance routine and predictable storylines which were far removed from reality, except in a few exceptional cases which came to be known as the parallel cinema.

Not long ago, it was expected that the directors and producers will be able to breathe easily after the previous censor board chief, Pahlaj Nihalani, was unceremoniously removed so that he could no longer run amok with his scissors in accordance with his saffron whims, as in the case of reducing the duration of a kiss in a

James Bond film or ordering 89 cuts in Udta Punjab or not clearing Lipstick Under My Burkha at all.

But any hope that the new board will be allowed to exercise its judgement in peace with the support of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has been belied if only because the opponents of the idea of letting the artistes pursue their craft unhindered are far too influential politically.

The decision about what the audience will be allowed to see is being taken not only by the self-appointed guardians of culture but also the ministry which has banned two films - S Durga and Nude - from an international festival in Goa apparently because the letter “S” in S Durga stands for “sexy”, which is too strong a word for bureaucratic ears, and Nude is out for obvious reasons.

While the rewriting of history books is proceeding apace with Rana Pratap winning the battle of Haldighati against Akbar on the pages of the textbooks printed in Rajasthan, the Hindutva storm-troopers are laying down the rules on how historical events are to be shown on the screen.

India has already seen the exiling of a reputed painter, M.F. Husain, who was hounded out of the country by saffron vigilantes who were displeased with his depiction of Hindu deities.

It will be a sad day if filmmakers, too, have to leave the country or shoot their films elsewhere, as in the case of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, which was shot in Sri Lanka.

The standard explanation for demanding cuts in the films is to ensure that the sentiments of the people are not hurt.

It was for this very same reason that Galileo had to disavow his thesis about the earth moving round the sun since such an assertion offended the feelings of the church and the laity in medieval Europe.

It took the church 350 years to apologise. There is unlikely to be anyone in the ruling dispensation or even in the opposition who will be courageous enough to say that the question of whether religious or cultural sensibilities are being hurt cannot be settled on the streets but should be left to the institutions to decide or, as a last resort, to the judiciary to determine with the assistance of scholars.

The saffron ire against Padmavati is apparently over the belief that the film will be unable to do justice to the heroic reputation of the queen of Mewar, a legendary beauty, who killed herself rather than be captured by the invading army of Alauddin Khalji.

Although no one, except the censors, has seen the film, the Hindu Right is patently unwilling to take the chance of an erroneous presentation. So the group has donned battle armour to save the fabled queen (real or fictional) 700 years after her death - this time from filmmakers - and is issuing blood-curdling threats against the director and the leading actress.

If accurately presented, the turbulent period of early 14th century Rajasthan can be the subject of a rivetting drama. But whether cinema-goers will be able to see the film is still uncertain.

World Court: Indian judge Dalveer Bhandari re-elected as Britain withdraws candidate

India lauded Britain for its decision to withdraw its candidate, which led to the reelection of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“The UK decided to withdraw its candidate after a closely fought electoral process,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. “We appreciate the UK decision.”

The statement thanked “all those governments who supported India in this election”.

Justice Bhandari was re-elected to the ICJ after the UN General Assembly rallied behind him in a show of strength that made Britain bow to the majority and withdraw its candidate Christopher Greenwood.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Bhandari saying: “His reelection is a proud moment for us.”

Following Bhandari’s election, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted: “Vande Mataram - India wins election.” She added: “Huge efforts by Team MEA.” She specifically complimented India’s Permanent Representative in the UN, Syed Akbaruddin.

Bhandari will start his term from February 2018.

Welcoming Justice Dalveer’s re-election to fill the fifth vacancy for the 2018-2027 term, the External Affairs Ministry statement mentioned that the Indian candidate received all 15 votes in the UN Security Council and 183 out of the 193 votes in the UN General Assembly.

“The extraordinary support from the UN membership is reflective of the respect for strong constitutional integrity of the Indian polity and the independence of the judiciary in India,” the statement said.

“It may be recalled that the Indian National Group to the Permanent Court of Arbitration had renominated Judge Dalveer Bhandari as India’s national candidate in June 2017. The government of India has been supporting the campaign of Judge Bhandari through diplomatic efforts at different fora.”

Bhandari’s election upsets what has become a traditional balance in the ICJ. Besides a permanent member going unrepresented, four Asian countries will be represented on the ICJ bench instead of the usual three.

Three incumbent judges of the ICJPresident Ronny Abraham of France, Vice President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of Somalia and Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade of Brazil - were elected in the first four rounds of voting on 9 November.

Bhandari’s election was a dramatic facesaving turn of fortunes for India as he lost the Asian seat on the ICJ to Lebanese lawyer-turned-diplomat Nawaf Salam, who had been campaigning for two years and had the backing of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation with 55 UN members.

He got a second chance only because an unpopular Britain could not get an Assembly majority for a remaining judgeship requiring a runoff where the two chambers of the UN split in their voting.

Indian American elected New Jersey town Mayor despite anti-Sikh propaganda

Two Indian American candidates have overcome bigoted propaganda to win local elections in New Jersey - one of them as the Mayor of Hoboken.

< A kurta-clad Ed Sheeran performs at Mumbai on 19 November 2017, as part of his ‘Divide’ world tour Photo: AP

Ravi Bhalla was elected as the first Sikh Mayor of the town that is a suburb of New York City.

A lawyer, who was a member of the city council, Bhalla was the target of an antiSikh campaign pamphlet that said “Don’t let TERRORISM take over our town!” next to a picture of the turbaned candidate.

Falguni Patel was elected to the Edison Township School Board. She and a Chinese American candidate, Jerry Shi, were targeted in mailings that said that they should both be deported and that “Chinese and Indians are taking over our town”.

Bhalla and Patel were born in the United States.

The candidates received wide support and their election rivals condemned bigoted pamphlets.

The pamphlets against Bhalla were sent in the name of a rival candidate, who denied any involvement in it and called for a criminal investigation.

The postcards targeting Patel and Shi were sent anonymously.

“We won’t let hate win,” Bhalla tweeted after the pamphlets were circulated.

Many New Jersey Indian Americans are active in politics and have emerged as an influential voting bloc sought after by candidates.

The winner in the governor’s race, Democrat Phil Murphy, was a favourite of Indian Americans who held a rally for him on Monday in Edison. He will succeed Chris Christie, a Republican close to President Donald Trump who could not run for re-election as governors are limited to two terms in the state.

Several Indian American candidates ran for local offices like school board, local council and borough councils, which are the springboard for higher positions, and many of them won.

The state has only one Indian American in the State Assembly, Raj Mukherji, who was elected in 2014 from Jersey City. Transwomen turn teachers for Dalit children in Bengal

Motherhood transcends gender.

Unconditional love knows no caste barriers. Defying norms, in a rundown neighbourhood in Malda in West Bengal, transwoman Arindam Saha Kundu (now known as Priyanka) and her fellow transgender friends (Abhijit Nag and Bapon Jemadar) are busy imparting education to more than 40 children belonging to the Dalit community that is largely engaged in manual scavenging.

Known for its juicy mangoes, Malda district has a high percentage of children not attending school, as documented in the book Dalits and Tribes of India (a compilation of Papers presented at a three-day National Seminar on “Agenda for Emancipation and Empowerment of Dalits and Tribes”). Children from the scheduled communities are even less likely to do so. The railway colony in Malda town harbours the Dalit community.

Choosing to look beyond their own share of problems (discriminated for their gender), Priyanka and the rest, hailing from the town itself, decided to be a ray of hope to the marginalised kids, who lose much of their childhood to manual scavenging, gambling and drugs.

> Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar of India, with rst runner-up Miss Mexico Alma Andrea Meza Carmona (L) and second runner-up Miss England Stephanie Jayne Hill (R) at the Miss World 2017 contest in Sanya, Hainan province, China, 18 Nov 2017

“Although it is 2017, people still treat the Dalit community as untouchables. The children suffer as the impoverished families are not able to afford education and often take their wards along while doing manual scavenging, cleaning tasks, etc. We wanted to do something for them,” Priyanka told IANS from Malda.

She also wanted to give in to her maternal instincts.

“By soul we are women and so there is a deep yearning to be a mother. Since we can’t do that, this is the closest possible; we can be with children and help them find their way,” said Priyanka, a commerce graduate.

So in June, Sapno Ki Udaan under the Gour Bangla Sanghati Samiti took wings in a room of a local club.

Ranging from the primary to middle school levels, the children, mostly dropouts, have only had snatches of education.

“Some children know the alphabet, some don’t. So the challenge was to customise the lessons. We are providing them lessons in basic science, maths, English, etc. The idea is to get them up to scratch so they can go back to schools,” Priyanka explained.

The beginning was shaky.

“The children were friendly with us. So we didn’t have much issues with them, but their parents were reluctant. It was not just that we were transgender, it was also the fact that they didn’t feel educating their children would be of much help,” Priyanka explained.

The idea was galvanised into action with the help of Bapon, a transgender from the Dalit community. He helped convince the parents to let the children come each evening to the school.

“In addition, we wanted to break stereotypes. There are taboos associated with our community and we wanted to show the other side.”

Salaries are supported through crowdfunding.

“There is no fixed salary. Whatever comes, we are fine with that. If we do any social work for some gain, then it’s not social work. We want funding to run the school,” said Priyanka.

According to Abhay Kumar Roy, a lecturer in Malda College’s department of English, who also supports the group in academic ways, the fact that the transgender community members chose to look beyond their own problems and work for the disadvantaged speaks a lot about what can be achieved if alternative gender identities are recognised.

“In ancient India, there were 20 to 25 gender identities which are not explored today. The transgenders have to accept themselves and have to rise up to the occasion and we have to support them in that for an inclusive society,” Roy, who researches on pluralistic interpretation of mythology, told IANS.

Haryana’s women achievers are rescripting the state’s reputation for sexual discrimination

Can Haryana’s women achievers help wash off ‘girl killer’ tag?

Success as in the movies, international sporting medals, scaling Mt. Everest and now bagging the coveted Miss World title. Women achievers from Haryana - which has lived with the tag of being a “girl killer” with the worst sex-ratio among Indian states - are rewriting the script of the state’s infamy.

The crowning of Manushi Chhillar, 21, who was born in Rohtak town and whose family hails from the dominant and conservative Jat community, as Miss World 2017 on Saturday, has again brought the focus back on women from the state making it big at the international level.

The odds that women in Haryana face are all too well known.

Till last year, Haryana had the dubious distinction of being the worst among all states in terms of sex ratio - a dismal 850 girls for every 1,000 men. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state, led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, now claims to have arrested the rot with the sex ratio improving to around 930.

Yet, earlier this year, an official magazine of the government showed a rural woman in a ghoonghat (veil), sparking off angry reactions from women achievers and organisations that the state was still trying to project women in an outdated way.

Manushi’s achievement lies not only in winning the Miss World, or earlier this year the Femina Miss India, title. She is pursuing her MBBS degree from a government medical college in a rural part of Sonepat district and aims to be a cardiac surgeon.

That’s not all. Manushi is a poet, painter and also a dancer, besides her keen interest in fashion and beauty. And she has joined a long list of women achievers from Haryana.

The story and struggles of wrestler sisters Geeta and Babita Phogat - who bagged medals for the country at the international level - was well depicted in Aamir Khan’s superhit movie Dangal. The film not only did roaring business in India but also overseas, including in Hong Kong and China.

Another woman wrestler from the state, Sakshi Malik, brought glory to the country by winning a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Mountaineer Santosh Yadav became the first Indian woman to scale the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest, twice. She was also the first woman to scale the peak from the tougher Kangshung Face.

The Indian women’s hockey team has been dominated by players from Haryana, particularly from a hockey nursery in Shahbad Markanda town, about 60 km from here. Be it captain Mamta Kharab or players like Suman Bala, Jasjeet Kaur, Surinder Kaur, Pritam Rani and Sita Gussain -- all hail from Haryana.

Former Miss India and Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla, actresses Parineeti Chopra and Mallika Sherawat have been born in Haryana, a state where killing the unborn girl child in the womb has been a common practice.

Ace international badminton player Saina Nehwal too has her family roots in Haryana.

In 1997, Haryana-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla took the state to unprecedented heights when she went on a NASA space mission. She went on another mission in 2003 and met with a tragic end when the spacecraft disintegrated on its return journey.

On the political front, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who has made her mark in international affairs in recent years, is from Ambala.

The achievements of these women is guiding hundreds of other women in the state to break long-established conservative barriers and make a mark in various fields. IANS