Indian couple wins Alternative Nobel Prize

October 1, 2008 by Shahidul Islam
Source:
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=Krishnammal%20Jagannathan%2C%2082&gbv=2&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw

Krishnammal Jagannathan, 82, and her husband, Sankaralingam, 95, have spent a lifetime fighting for the rights of the deprived, especially the Dalits, the former untouchables, who form the lowest rung of India’s ancient caste ladder.

The couple - named Wednesday among the recipients of the 2008 Right Livelihood Awards, often called the Alternative Nobel Prizes -have ensured over decades that thousands of acres of land were distributed to landless Dalit labourers in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The Jagannathans and their organization, Land for the Tillers’ Freedom, were cited by the awards jury for “realizing in practice the Gandhian vision of social justice and sustainable human development.”

Krishnammal Jagannathan comes from a landless Dalit family and managed to get a university education in spite of her family’s poverty.

“I took a vow in my childhood that I must liberate Dalits, specially women, from the clutches of the landowner,” she said while remembering the troubles of her mother, left a widow at 32 with 12 children.

“Six of them died, but she made every effort to see that the rest of us were brought up with some dignity, and she was poor and not educated,” Krishnammal Jagannathan said.

Despite India’s affirmative action policy, the Dalits are still among the country’s poorest, and a majority of them remain landless labourers and manual scavengers.

Krishnammal Jagannathan said she would use the award money to build “beautiful houses” for the Dalit women who work hard in paddy fields by day and then return to do housework and often are beaten by drunken husbands at night.

“I have succeeded in getting land for 13,000 women,” said the prize winner, who with her husband is to share the 2-million-kronor (300,000-dollar) prize with the three other award recipients. “Now I want for them beautiful homes. The award money will help.”

“The award is a gift for my hard work over a long period,” she added. And a very long period indeed, spanning more than 60 years.

Krishnammal Jagannathan met her husband when she joined Gandhi’s social reform movement in the 1920s. Sankaralingam Jagannathan was born into a wealthy family but left his studies in college to join India’s freedom movement led by Gandhi, of which the social reform element was an intrinsic part.

Gandhi’s philosophy of sarvodaya - which encompasses dignity of labour, an equitable distribution of wealth, communal self-sufficiency and individual freedom - inspired the couple to take up the cause of the rural poor, especially the landless Dalits.

After India gained independence from British rule, the couple joined another Gandhian leader, Vinoba Bhave, in his bhoodan (gift land) movement where the activists walked the roads trying to persuade landlords to give one-sixth of their land to the landless.

The Jagannathans started their work on land reform in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district in 1968 after the Kilvelmani massacre, in which 42 Dalits, mostly women and children, were burned alive in a remote village in the district by a landlord’s hired goons over a wage dispute.

Land for the Tillers’ Freedom was an outcome of the Jagannathans’ decades-long struggle for the landless. It was founded in 1981 with the aim of bringing the landless and the landlord to the negotiating table and to obtain government and bank concessions for loans so the landless could buy land at reasonable prices.

The organization, which is committed to raising the social status and acceptability of the Dalits, also helps the tillers farm collectively and repay loans through cooperative efforts.

And now the group is helping Dalit labourers and farmers build livable houses, one more step in the Jagannathans’ efforts for a better life for Dalits.

While Krishnammal Jagannathan is still active in the organization- she was on a bus travelling between two towns for it when called for this story - her husband is more frail and can no longer move around as before.

But the couple’s efforts continue to receive recognition, including one of the country’s highest civilian awards, the Padmashri.

Life Moves on : The Video

Here is the video for my previous post.

Life moves on: 24 Hours after the under construction bridge collapsed at Lucknow.

Life moves on: 24 Hours after the under construction bridge collapsed at Lucknow

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Here are some shots of the site of the under construction bridge which collapsed in Lucknow. Some are still photos and one video shot on my Nokia 2110C cellphone. An amateur work done to find out the situation at the site of the accident 24 hours after the accident happened on 30 September 2008. These visuals are taken on 01 October 1, 2008 at around 5:45 PM. I am writing this post after returning from the site at around 8:30 PM. Let me add that my house is within walking distance from the site of the accident.

The traffic movement on this National Highway No. 24 was moving as usual. Be it known that it is a very important road which connects Lucknow with a good number of districts in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Some of the districts being Barabanki, Faizabad, Devaria, Behraich, Gonda, Gorakhnpur, Basti etc. This is the road connecting to Bihar and even Nepal. The problem of people and the administration was further aggravated as the accident happened almost at the entrance of the city (municipal) limits of Lucknow (read capital of Uttar Pradesh).

The hustle and bustle is back. Vehicles are moving past the beam which fell yesterday, as they would have done even if the beam would not have fallen. The only thing different today was that every passer by was curiously looking at the fallen structure of concrete. A large number of people still stopped and tried to retrace what would have happened yesterday.

Some Police personals were posted at the site. They were driving people away, who were stopping by to have a look at the fallen beam. As their stopping by was making the road congested. They repeated the exercise of chasing people away at regular intervals. No TV camera, no Reporters and no rescue teams and above all no Politicians. All of them were back to their routines. No crying relatives of people injured or dead. All of them were absent. As expected.

Yes, the people who were otherwise conspicuously missing were the people from the construction crew of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) who were away from this site possibly fearing a public backlash. Only the signage of HCC was there. On any ordinary day this signage would have signified the emerging strength of an economically liberalized India. The progressing India, the India growth story and the infrastructure boom etc. etc. But, today it signified gloom – a dark side of the ‘India growth stories’ which I have read in every newspaper and magazine. For a moment I too felt a La-Mamta Banerjee kind of feeling.

But, this is not the end. Today the traffic has returned to normal and tomorrow or may be some days after, the work at the site shall also begin. Leaving us with the reminiscences of what happened as an ‘unfortunate accident.’

The life moves on. So we have seen and so we shall see.

Under construction Bridge collapses in Lucknow: India or Canada!

On 30 September 2008, as news of an under construction bridge collapsing in Lucknow spread on television news channel I rushed on to the internet to search for the news feed being made available. A search on Google revealed that an under construction bridge has collapsed in Lucknow. As I was getting impatient to read the news I followed the very first link made available, not realizing that it was of CTV. As I read the first few lines I realized that the contents of the news are similar to what I knew but something was there which was not fitting into the real picture। And the later lines in the news item made it clear that I was reading a piece from CANADA and not INDIA. This incident happened in Lucknow (some place in Ontario, Canada) on Sunday, Nov. 11 2007. The search was made on Google with the words lucknow bridge collapses and all the results on page one of the search except second last one from INDIA TODAY did not talk about the bridge collapse I was looking for। What a co-incidence? That a place with similar name exists in Canada and there too an under construction bridge had collapsed as a 'concrete block crumbled' while workers were trying to move it. Six people were reported dead there too and that it was also 'a brand new bridge', as revealed by the news report. Sounds similar and familiar to what happened here in Lucknow at India। But what was not similar was that; there the victims were 'airlifted to hospital' and the 'search for more people under debris was on।' The Ministry of Labour was inquiring in Ontario and in Lucknow our Ministers, sensing good chance to gain political mileage, were doing (shifting) the blame upon each other. There the bridge was in news and INFORMATION WAS OBTAINED BY THE CANDAIN PRESS as it was 'ten weeks behind schedule' and here who cares even if the bridge was five years behind schedule or fifty years behind schedule. Just a comparison for all of us to think upon.

Plagiarism Peril Prevails

The peril of plagiarism prevails and the most shocking fact is that it is prevalent in the class considered to be 'intellectual' and 'knowledgeable' by the society. Plagiarism is the act of passing someone else's work (generally intellectual work like research material, data, lifting from book, work of art or music etc.) as one's own and original creation without acknowledging the original author or inventor. It is an intellectual theft having moral, social and financial implications. On a legal level it also a violation of intellectual property rights of the original inventor or author. Although cases of such copying and theft have been reported in industry (where such theft could have large financial implications), large part of this discreditable works are registered in the name of the academic and research fraternity. In these professions it is largely an issue involving moral turpitude committed for seeking recognition amongst fellow workers. Some are motivated to do it for capturing chances of upliftments in career. Various forms and facets of plagiarism are reported by people from the academic community spanning different parts of the world. From the developed world to the third world countries to the socialist China (the emerging superpower), all have witnessed there share of this evil. Reports of such acts have been repeatedly springing up in media and when such issues are made public there is a huge outcry against the persons named in it. But, the fact remains that there is a need for a strengthened mechanism to handle cases of plagiarism on permanent basis. While such systems and agencies exist in USA, in India, we are devoid of any such institutional mechanism. With all major international findings indicating a dominant position of our country in the new emerging world economic order such system is much needed to preserve the credit and integrity of our academic and research institutions. (Visuals courtesy www.chemistry.berea.edu and www.sociology.camden.rutgers.edu revealed through Google Image Search)

Real homage to the other face of a Police Officer

Television News channels on 20 September 2008 were busy flashing the live telecast of the funeral of Late Mohan Chand Sharma, the braveheart Police Inspector of Delhi Police who died the day before, 'leading from front' his team of police personnel in a frontal battle with the terrorists in Jamia Nagar location of Delhi. The wounds Sharma received proved fatal and finally 'Delhi Police lost an experienced and brave officer' who was also a 'specialist in handling terrorism related cases.' News reports further reported that the funeral was attended by leading politicians like Sonia Gandhi and Lal Krishna Advanavi, senior police officers, even officers from the Information Bureau (IB) and a large number of commoners who were shouting slogans at the top of their voices in reminiscence of their beloved Shaheed Police Wala. Someone, who even did not caring for his son being treated in a hospital continued to be on duty and met a martyr's fate. So far, so good. For once, this incident is in stark contrast to the known public image of police in this country. All and sundry reports of police atrocities in police stations, lock-ups, and fake encounters (which human rights activists and the civil society keeps protesting) came to this mind. And, the thought that – look here was a police officer so different from his fellows. He, who was known for his real good work. At least that's what is revealed from the boisterous public presence. The senior police officers were busy recalling the virtues of their departed colleague and were also liberal in showering words of honor on Sharma. The politicians, from their very presence made clear their solidarity with the family members of the departed soul. Now a question: When was the last time when we witnessed such a show? Some of us may and some of us may not, recall any incident immediately, but the truth is that this not the first time when such a police, public, politician or a defense, public, neta conglomeration had occurred and gathered wide spread media attention. Many did get similar honors while departing. They were even promised largesse from the system they worked with, alongwith the usual political hyperbole in front of the press that such and such assistance would be given to the family of our brave fighter. And yet, after say a year or two the same media channel would come up with a story on how the grieved family members are running from pillar to post. Their files & applications for seeking legal dues & relief (leave aside the largesse and hyperbole) would be gathering dust in some office before some nondescript clerk or worst would 'not be traceable.' Then, the Officers who were at one time, eager to make big announcements in front of the people would either 'not be available' or like to make 'no comment' or would 'feign ignorance' of any such application / file pending in their offices. Then they would not have time to talk about the issue as they would be getting late to go for some important meeting. The politicians would snug away their responsibility on the officers & the system and even may not refrain from promising again to 'see that the rightful dues are made available.' And, the people who were shouting slogans before the camera would be busy with their lives. Leaving the family to fend for itself and find out its own ways of survival in the meanderings of administration and officialdom. We have seen this happen in past and as the levels of apathy increase by the day we may see it again. The best homage from all of us would be to see that such a situation does not arise and the dues are paid to the dependants without hassle and unnecessary running around from one office to the other. That's also important to our men in the forces who would feel motivated. Or else we may not find many takers for loud claims made to catch public attention. Satya Mev Jayate!! (Photo of Mohan Chand Sharma from www.telegraphindia.com)

The Fall of Lehman Brothers : Opportunities in Bloodbath

Hi!

The post may seem unusual but the fact of the matter is the the fall of 164 old year old Lehman Brothers, a dominant investment banker of the USA brings turmoil to financial markets worldwide. Stocks and indicies have moved southward and may continue to do so for some more time, till the dust settles completely. No doubt that the financial markets are in troubled times. The wide fluctuations and exit of large players or fence sitting is a testimony in itself.

But, there's silver lining too. And they are not only one. In fact many.

Looking at the international outlook the foreign rating agencies may be skeptical of India's rating. Liquidity in our markets may continue to be strained for some more time as the FII may like to pull out money to buy assets in their home countries. After all, they understand their own country, their companies and the associated risks better than they would ever like to know our's. When asset prices in their own (foreign / western) countries are at record lows any surplus money they have may be used to buy them at bargain prices. Even government's there would like them to pitch in financial resources to prevent further bad shaping-up of the entire economy. A damage control kind of thing may be attempted - to the extent possible.

In Indian markets, this can result in a further fall in security prices in days to come. For liquidity getting sucked out by FIIs may also be met by a poorer support from domestic buyers. Markets have been witnessing such turbulence before. In the recent past, say even post liberalization, the Harshad Mehta scam, the Ketan Parekh imbroglio, the technology bust and Pokharan blast had been events which brought markets down - and even down to historic lows. Such are the times which bring the best opportunity to buy quality stocks and bargain prices.

There are companies in our markets which are fundamentally very strong and have a long term business model in place. One should scout for such opportunities and enrich their portfolios. Though times never last, but though people do. And people who make tough financial decisions are sure to reap the best of the investing in security markets.

This mayhem has brought a good number of our stocks at unreasonably and unjustifiable low prices. The situation may not continue to be the same for long. The moment stability returns, our markets could show a dramatic recovery and then we may only lament remembering that we could have bought at 'those' lower prices.

Another side of the story is that so long as we have growth left in our economy which is higher than the growth available in western countries there is no reason the foreign funds to withdraw on a permanent basis. After all, what will they do with so much cash? Invest back in markets, is the only logical answer, for it is also their principal business.

So, find out that dream stock you always wanted to buy when the SENSEX was at 21000 points. Why not make the most of this opportunity from the bloodbath on the street and get rich.

Sachin Agarwal

Myth: Small towns have lower cost of living

Hi!

This is Sachin Agarwal venturing into the blog space. I am employed in Purvanchal University, Jaunpur, a State Government University at Uttar Pradsh in India. I am still experimenting with my novice level skills in the blog space. I hosted this blog to share views and ideas with people on a larger platform.

To start with I will like to hammer hard on the myth that the smaller towns have a lower cost of living. Based on personal experiences and real life instances this issue will be discussed.

Details to follow soon.

Sachin Agarwal