P A G E
Wednesday, July 15, 1998
today's calendar
|
E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Wednesday, July 15, 1998 |
||
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
|
|||
|
Parliament
defied
Clinton's
China visit |
 |
"Internal"
jogging" |
|
Parliament defied The time has come for all good persons to rise as one man to protect the sacred institution of parliamentary democracy from the kind of assault it was subjected to on Monday. Bedlam is too mild an expression to describe the ugly scenes witnessed in the Lok Sabha just to prevent the government from moving the Women’s Reservation Bill. There was a time when it was an honour and a privilege to be elected for voicing the concerns of the people through debate and discussion in the highest legislative forum of the country. December 6, 1992, will forever remain an ugly scar on the face of India inflicted by those whose political philosophy is dangerous and divisive. On Monday July 13, 1998, an equally serious injury was caused by those who only believe in the political philosophy of strengthening their vote bank. When the Bharatiya Janata Party held up the proceedings of the Lok Sabha for several days to force the government of the day to come clean on the Sukh Ram issue the joke doing the rounds was that mothers stopped their children from watching the live television coverage of the proceedings of the House. But after what was witnessed in the Lok Sabha on Monday television channels should seriously consider the proposal to carry a mandatory warning that “watching the live coverage of the proceedings by children should not be allowed without parental consent”. After “Sholay” Gabbar Singh became a potent symbol for instilling the feeling of fear among naughty children. The disturbance in the Lok Sabha threw up another symbol of revulsion who answers to the name of Suresh Yadav and represents the Rashtriya Janata Dal as an elected representative from Bihar. If he could dare to walk up to the podium and pick a few papers from the table of the Speaker and thereafter snatch the copy of the Bill from the hands of the Union Law Minister and tear it in full view of the entire House, he can evidently do much worse to those who cross his path outside the hallowed precincts of Parliament. The role of a former Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, and former Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in instigating members to disrupt the proceedings was equally despicable. But for the intervention of some sensible leaders like former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, who prevented the Opposition and ruling party members from coming to blows, the Lok Sabha may have earned the dubious distinction of seeing a repeat performance of the acts of violence in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly during the trust vote in the Kalyan Singh government. All this while the Speaker, Mr G.M.C. Balayogi, could do no better than stop the proceedings five times before finally adjourning it for the day. He should have been more firm in dealing with the chaos and even named such members as refused to comply with the directions of the Chair. If necessary, the marshal should have been asked to remove the members named by him so that the House could have taken up the business on the agenda for the day without further disturbance. At least one member deserved to be expelled for making the House look like any infamous den. But the larger issue of stemming the rot in the institution of parliamentary democracy, after Monday’s episode, deserves the urgent attention of all honest and sincere people who care for the country. They must realise that the freedom movement was not sustained by such elements as have entered the sacred portals of politics today, only to defile it. It was guided by men of high intellectual calibre who sacrificed their careers and personal comforts to win freedom. The former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Mr P.A. Sangma, had suggested during the golden jubilee celebrations of the country’s Independence that a second freedom struggle should be launched for freeing India from the stranglehold of the arrogant. History has witnessed on innumerable occasions just one dedicated man launching a movement. India is waiting impatiently for one such face to emerge from the crowd to lead the people towards the promised tomorrow.  |
|||||
| Japan's twin crises Economic crises have sparked radical political changes in the worst affected countries in South-East and East Asia. Japan joined this dismaying league on Monday when Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto bowed out owning responsibility for the crushing defeat in the election to the Upper House of Parliament. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost more than 25 per cent of the seats, retaining only 44 out of the 61 it held earlier. Such was the depth of anger, frustration and loss of confidence of the electorate that more people — 58.84 per cent compared to 44.52 per cent last time — turned up to vote.Two-thirds of the population lives in the urban areas and it is here that the middle class faces an uncertain future and it is here that the fate of the ruling party was decided. Unemployment has soared to 4.1 per cent, which is unimaginable in a country that has had a record run of economic growth. Scandals have convulsed the system, marked by the arrest of three top officials of the Finance Ministry and the suicide of over 170 senior executives. Business houses, considered infallible giants until early this year, have sunk without trace. Banks are fighting for breath burdened with a total bad debt of over $ 525 billion, yes, billion, a sum not many Indians can even comprehend. Japan is sitting on a huge foreign exchange reserve, thanks to high levels of sustained trade surplus; yet there is no fresh investment and consumer spending has hit rock bottom. Mr Hashimoto’s recipe which included a heavy dose of tax cut to put more money in the hands of the people to compensate them for the steep hike in sales tax, had failed to take off. Nor did he have any plan to help out the struggling banks. All this makes for a massive chargesheet of economic failure and the Prime Minister had to pay a high price, which he did on Monday. Mr Hashimoto’s resignation, inevitable in the circumstances, does not solve the problems of either the economy or his own party. If anything it may exacerbate them. None of his prospective successors inspires confidence, provoking one analyst to comment wryly that if Mr Hashimoto plodded his way through, the new Prime Minister may well blunder his way through. The LDP will have difficulties in choosing the next leader, which involves the delicate task of balancing warring factions. And the nature of Japan’s economic crisis defies an easy solution. As the second largest economy in the world, it carries the responsibility of leading the region out of the present phase of negative growth and, at the same time, help the West avert a recession. To fulfil the role, the country has to import more, and it is here that it is under relentless pressure. But with domestic demand shrinking and fresh investment remaining shy, the scope for increasing imports is extremely limited. Ceaseless talk of the ailing economy and endless telecasting of the movement of share prices in the market and an occasional loss of job with the bankruptcy of yet another big company, have magnified the problems and intensified the sense of gloom. Unfortunately for the country, there is no tall leader in sight who can reverse this psychological trend and restore popular confidence. |
| Delayed
expose There has been a strange dichotomy in India's Kashmir policy. On the one hand, it raises the issue with whosoever happens to visit the country, sometimes to the extent of making it embarrassing for the visitor. Nothing wrong in that perhaps, except that at the same time, it also tends to follow an ostrich-like approach when it comes to exposing the mischief of Pakistan in the trouble-torn state. Never has a serious attempt been made to unveil the full extent of the proxy war being waged there by Islamabad. So high has been India's fear of internationalising the issue that when Kashmiri Pandits sought permission to present their case before the United Nations some years ago, they were not allowed to do so. Well, all that caution has come to naught following the nuclear explosions. The Kashmir issue has hit the fan, like it or not. Now that the horses have bolted, the government has woken up to the need for locking the stable door. One step in this direction is to hold an exhibition of the arms and ammunition captured from Pakistan-trained militants. And it is a formidable arsenal by every count, including everything from shoulder-fired missiles to anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft guns. How far the exhibition will succeed in making the rest of the world wake up to the problems that India is facing is doubtful because Pakistan has more or less admitted that it has been supporting the "freedom struggle" of the Kashmiris and will continue to do so. It is true that it has not directly admitted running militant training centres (there are actually 89 such camps) but the whole world knows about it. In fact, it would have been better if the focus was on exposing how even mercenaries — from countries like Afghanistan and Sudan — were sent to Kashmir. It is perhaps too late in the day for India to mount a strong case that actually it is the aggrieved party. Secrecy has become the hallmark of whatever the government does. But this policy does not really work in international diplomacy. India has tended to give the impression that it has something to hide. As a result, many half-truths have been hawked as gospel facts. It is a fact that the western media has very little knowledge about the real situation in Kashmir. Pakistan has been all along manipulating the situation dexterously to its advantage. That is how many of the reports in European newspapers have been critical of India's stand. Only the other day, senior Army officers rued the fact that totally false or highly exaggerated reports about excesses by the India Army regularly appeared in the western media. It is one thing to lament this kind of bias. But it is quite another to neutralise it and rather use journalistic ignorance to one's own advantage. The country has to learn to do everything in the glare of the video cameras. That will not let the bias go away but at least total lies will not get into print. This is the time to counter all propaganda, not by closing all doors but by being media savvy. Yesterday's recipes just won't do for today's problems.  |
| Clinton's China visit Towards 'strategic partnership' by Kashi Ram Sharma The recently concluded nine-day visit of US President Bill Clinton to China has attracted worldwide attention. This is in spite of the fact that summits in the post-Cold War-period have lost their shine. Reflecting coolly on the Sino-American relations and the rising curve of their mutual intimacy and euphoria on both sides, one is inclined to argue that Mr Clinton’s “pilgrimage” to China was a mixed bag, a part success and a part failure. In the wake of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989 the Sino-US relations hit a plateau. President Jiang Zemin’s visit to America in 1997 tried to inject a momentum of upswing in that mutual relationship. Mr Bill Clinton’s visit to China was meant to impart a further impetus to those mutual feelings. Within six months of the establishment of diplomatic relations (January, 1979) between China and the USA the two countries had signed the Agreement on Trade Relations. Since then the trade between the two nations entered a period of fast growth. The trade value at $2.45 billion in 1979 had crossed $50 billion plus in 1997 and is slated to touch $60 billion in 1998. China is mainly exporting labour-intensive consumer items to the USA such as shoes, travel bags, leather goods, readymade clothes, toys and household electrical appliances. America’s exports to China consist of wheat, chemical fertilisers, electronic equipment, aeroplanes and jets, power generating equipment and select items of “dual use” technology such as super computers. The balance of trade is in China’s favour which has piled up a huge export surplus of $55-60 billion vis-a-vis the USA. America is also emerging a significant investor in China. Of the total $170 billion FDI in China in the last 18 years, America’s share stands at $ 47 billion. The US trade deficit with China at present is one of the major sources of tension in their trade relations. China has built up this trade surplus deliberately with an eye on buying high-technology items from the USA. China is keen to buy American technology and equipment to build the Qin Shan nuclear power plant (300,000 KW) and the Daya Bay nuclear power plant (900,000 KW). In fact, way back in 1985 the USA had promised to help China construct its nuclear power plants, but the 1989 Tiananmen massacre forced the USA to impose “select” sanctions, and the deal was called off. Mr Bill Clinton’s China visit has resulted in the revival of the 1985 agreement, and it has been agreed upon that towards the end of the current year a high-level expert team from China will visit the USA to concretise the deal. During Mr Bill Clinton’s visit to China, Americans were hoping that an export deal worth $10 billion might come through. These high hopes have been belied. Eleven agreements have been signed in toto and China has agreed to import goods from America only worth $3.3 billion. Most of the items contracted (160 million contract to export two 600 MW steam turbines, 10 Boeing 737 jetliners worth $800 million, 2 million tonnes of chemical fertilisers worth $400 million and a $1.7 billion contract for the exploration of methane gas — actually only $60 million to be spent in the coming three years after Mr Clinton’s visit) are a repackage of Mr Jiang Zemin’s commitment made while he visited the USA in 1997. Mr Clinton has given two cheers to China for maintaining the financial stability in Asia by not devaluing its currency. On this count too, China may disappoint America soon. After all, it was only in 1995 that China substantially devalued its yuan. The East Asian financial crisis triggered on account of this. The China Economic Times comment that the Chinese “yuan is going to replace the yen as the key currency in Asia” is an unadulterated nonsense. Japan’s economy, though in bad shape, is five times as big as that of China. Lastly, on the cardinal question of China’s entry into the WTO, Mr Bill Clinton has disappointed Beijing. Mr Clinton’s “promise” given to Mr Jiang Zemin in 1997 to “help” China join the WTO without “bending” the rules is still a promise only. Mr Clinton plainly told his host that unless China opened its economy further and substantially lowered its import tariff regime, it could not hope to be a member of the WTO. Thus China shall have to seek the US benevolence from year to year for the MFN status. The two countries have again reiterated that the nature of their bilateral relations can be aptly described as “strategic partnership” — that is, strategically speaking, China is important to the USA, and the latter is equally important to the former. This “entente” has all the potentials to be very consequential. The USA has convinced itself that it would “tame” and even “domesticate” the dragon. Mr Clinton has repeatedly announced that China is playing and will continue to play the roles of a strategically significant nation. Mr Clinton made pointed references, several times, that China’s strength was a stabilising factor in the Asia-Pacific area and South Asia. The “stabilising factor” implied not only the financial stability of China but its political strength too. What is worrying the South Asian countries — India, in particular — is the fact that the USA is encouraging China to play an active role in this region. It is an outlandish proposition that China should mediate and/or play a supervisory role in resolving Indo-Pak differences over Kashmir and on the question of capping the future nuclear weaponisation of India and Pakistan. What is it that makes the USA feel so, and China believes that it has a “pre-eminent” status in South Asia? Whether it is the Kashmir tangle or the problem of nuclearisation of South Asia, China is the “rogue” state and the main destabiliser. China, on its part, would like to imagine itself as the “peer” to the USA. It has been demanding a global role for itself. China has a resolute will, without having the commensurate wherewithals so far, to be a super power. So what if today it is only a second-rate power? Nothing prevents it from dreaming of a super power role in the future. I am not one of those who are given to believe that China’s road to the super power status, economically and militarily, is a smooth one. Far from being so, it has many a soft belly. In fact, the USA, which is a big hegemon, would prefer China to emerge as another hegemon in Asia. It is a different matter that the days of hegemony are over. One can expect that during the remaining period of Mr Clinton’s presidency, the USA would be more accommodative of China’s hegemonistic ambitions, and it may take more time to realise that beyond a point it is neither possible nor desirable to placate China. One is not very sure that Mr Clinton’s fatherly advice to China that on the germane question of democracy — or the lack of it in China — it was “on the wrong side of history”, was meant for his Chinese audience or his constituency at home. In both cases, he was cleansing his own conscience. It is a symbolic consolation to the USA that China has de-targeted its intercontinental missiles from America’s 13 cities. In this age of electronics revolution, it takes less than 60 seconds for the missiles to get retargeted. Insofar as China’s security environment is concerned, in its last 150 years’ history — from the days of opium wars since the 1840s — there has been no real and perceived threat to it. The “revisionist” and “social imperialist” Soviet Union has vanished and the “Imperialist United States” has become “beautiful” America. Therefore, China needs to explain to the world about the need for its 300-400 atomic bombs which it has accumulated in its hangars and its intercontinental missiles. For a poor and developing country like China, there is apparently no need to spend a whopping amount of $26-30 billion annually on defence. China’s passion for emerging as the hegemon alone can justify its nuclear weaponisation drive. Finally, one should not conclude that the Sino-US “strategic partnership” has attained a collusion-like axis. There is strong public opinion in America — both in the US Congress and the media — against China’s abuse of human rights, its repressive policies in Tibet, its practising of internal colonialism towards its 100 million minorities and the larger question of religious persecutions. The American Congressional Committee is still investigating the fact of the US export of satellite communications systems to Beijing resulting in a possible compromise with American security. It is an irony that China, which is a repressive and dictatorial regime with a proven record of nuclear proliferation, has emerged as the darling of the USA. On the contrary, India, the largest democracy in the world with no record of nuclear proliferation, is the target of US blows. This irony partly results from the American mindset of intransigence and foolhardy and partly from the failure of Indian diplomacy. The author is a professor in the Department of Chinese and Japanese Studies, Delhi University. |
| "Internal" jogging by D.D. Jyoti Humour “as a person’s state of mind is the quality of being amusing or comic,” leading to spontaneous laughter. It cannot be outrageous since such a negative attitude will frustrate its principal quality of making people laugh and laugh lustily. Humour cannot be cribbed, cabined and confined within the narrow walls of a learned definition. These days when the range of comforts is more varied and wider than the one available to our ancestors, there is no escape from the spreading pressure of work-a-day world with increased anxiety and strain. The gift of laughter now is doubly precious and doubly blessed. An apt maxim says that humour is life’s greatest lubricant that encourages a playful attitude towards all. Some have called laughter “internal” jogging. Laugh and make others laugh. Humour should not degenerate into ridicule or revulsion; its legitimate field is mirth, fun, frolic and joy. It should result in laughter which, they say, is the best medicine. Now follows a true story: A septuagenarian Mr X is known by person close to him as one who is mostly serious, without being grim, who most of the time keeps his own company without being indifferent to others and who is considerate to all, without being overbearing. He is not lonely when all alone. He enjoys companionship of books and has developed a keen insight into men and matters through his observant eye and hypersensitive mind. One day in a retrospective moment, Mr X shared his unforgettable experience with his intimate friend thus: At the time of his successful job interview with the Selection Commission, the chairman asked him a question: “In the slot meant for hobbies you have written ‘long walks’ but all alone. Your reasons, please?” Mr X vividly remembered his reply: “This helps me to ponder over the eternal question — wherefrom have I come and whereto am I to go?” That happened nearly four decades ago. His friend asked a question off pat: Are you now in a position to identify the beginning and the end of your sojourn on earth? Mr X didn’t have to wait and collect his thoughts for the answer and said, “Yes, from God and back to God: One has to live a purposeful life with the sole ambition of serving mankind. This has silenced the clamour within”. Only a fortnight after that the same friend dropped in and found Mr X bursting into a side-splitting guffaw while holding his own photograph in his hand. His wife stood beside him amazed. On regaining his quiet, he said that he had been laughing at himself almost boisterously and that he had realised laughing as a pleasant exercise for removing one’s tension. However, its regular practice can be a source of great help in freeing him of daily stress and strain, the two dangers eating into one’s vitals. What made him laugh at himself? While rummaging in old papers, he sighted a dusty album containing his family photographs. He could lay his hands on his photograph when he was 30 or so; with his chin up, a smartly dressed handsome young man exhibiting a distinct sign of quite confidence and resolute will. He looked in the mirror hanging against a wall and then intently gazed at his old photograph and started laughing at himself saying, “changed looks, some fading marks of resemblance between then and now, self-confidence and resolute will dilapidated and time-ravaged, but without any sign of his transformed mind and transmuted spirit”. He laughed and laughed and laughed again. In India’s metropolitan towns, laughing clubs have taken root; Chandigarh cannot be far behind in giving a signal: “Learn to laugh at yourself; then laugh at and with others”. Practitioners of the art of laughter are of the view that the laughing technique coupled with meditation can help man in his quest for the peace of mind. Let joggers experience it and declare to the nuclear-hungry nations not to smother the spirit of laughter by spreading hatred and the destruction of the human race. |
| Population education and quality of
life by R.K. Behl In view of the cultural diversities and different target groups, it is not easy to give one definition of population education which may be universally acceptable. The definition would also differ in the specific behavioural outcomes which they specify. The assertion that a small family is a happy family is not universally true, because there are many instances of bigger families being happy families. The pursuit of such an objective may have psychological implications for children who come from larger families. The concept and scope of population education differs from one target group to another. Although opinions may differ with regard to the nature and concept of population education for the children, there is little difference of opinion so far as the population education programme for youth and adults is concerned. The information on family life is of immediate relevance to the group. As regards the conceptualisation of population education, it is rather a question of emphasis rooted in complex cultures. The situation is not going to be static. There are already signs of change in the concept and scope of population education in some countries. Although there are countries which do not openly accept any kind of sea education or family planning education in schools, they do realise the need for including some content related to these areas in the population education curriculum. A number of surveys recently conducted in certain countries in Asia vouch for this change in the perception and their acceptance includes sex education-related contents in the framework of population education. The programme of population education helps learners to understand the inter-relationship of population dynamics and other factors concerning the quality of life, and to make informed and rational decisions with regard to population-related behaviours with the purpose of improving the quality of life of a person, his family, community and nation and the world at large. Likewise, population education can also be defined as “an educational programme which provides for the study of population on situations in the family, the community, the nation and the world with the purpose of developing among students a rational and responsible attitude. From these two definitions one can get an idea of the change in thrust and nature of population education over the past few decades. The first definition aims at understanding the interrelationship among the various factors concerning the quality of life and making rational decisions for its improvement. Population dynamics is one of the factors in the whole process of improvement of the quality of life. The second definition, however, focuses on the development of attitudes and behaviours towards the population situation- the main objective being population control. The concept of population education as given in the first definition has it that the main goal of it is to improve the quality of life of the people at the micro and macro levels. The factors that affect the achievement of the desired quality of life include population dynamics, the socio-political system, the process of development, the availability of resources and the existing levels of living of the people. It may be observed that population dynamics is one factor of the quality of life which affects other factors. This means that controlling population growth does not automatically results in the improvement in the quality of life. In fact, the quality of life is a very complex concept and is perceived and interpreted differently by different people depending upon their socio-cultural and religious background, personal preferences and their philosophy of life. Perceived qualities of life depend on culture and internalised values, and vary like other human requirements. In terms of the criteria which can be applied to assess the standard of living or the quality of life, it may be the degree to which a society is stable or can live in harmony with nature without endangering itself or the environment for an indefinite period. One could identify four principal conditions of a stable society, a society that, for all intents and purposes, can be sustained indefinitely while giving the optimum satisfaction to its members. These are (i) the population in which the enhancement equals the loss; (ii) the minimum disruption of the ecological process; (iii) the maximum conservation of material and energy; and (iv) a social system in which the individual can enjoy life instead of being restricted by the former factors. The writer is a former Director, State Institute of Education, Chandigarh. |
| Attracting youth to the Army y Jatinder Singh Bedi Shimla-based Army Training Command (ARTRAC) has prepared a new ‘Army training note’ to attract youth to the Army. It aims at highlighting bravery and valour of the ‘decorated and veterans’ to orient the minds of kids towards a career in the Army. But in the absence of satisfactory monetary compensation to the disturbed Army life, there is little scope for it to catch their fancy. Also termed as the human resource development doctrine (HRDD), the note expects of the education system to emphasise Indian ‘heritage and values.’ It advocates that the role of the war heroes, if projected properly, can leave a lasting impression on the psyche of the students towards joining the Army. While calling upon all the ‘organs of the state’ to get involved in this aspect of the national security, HRDD suggests amendment to the school curriculum and text books. The doctrine also identifies the need for improved advertising displaying the ‘glamour’ attached to the profession. Compiled into a ‘doctrine’, it is not that these points have been sifted for the first time. Various defence agencies have been practising these from time to time. Army representatives lecture in educational institutions highlighting its ‘positives’. Publicity material is distributed countrywide. Spot recruitment and commissioning is
done at the engineering and other technical institutions.
Of late the Army has been opened up with the media to get
its achievements highlighted. Despite all this the Army
is short of over 13,000 officers, 82 per cent of whom are
in the rank of Major and below.Banking on the HRDD will, hence be wishful thinking on part of the ARTRAC ‘thinktank’. Highlighting the ‘positives’ is indisputable, but a consistent effort to eradicate ‘negatives’ of the Army as a career is more important. Today’s career-minded youth is well aware of these ‘negatives’ and ‘positives’ of Army career. The values that HRDD intends projecting have changed. The world around today’s youngster has been transformed. His attitude towards selection of profession has changed. He leads a modernised life amidst comforts and high technology. He is exposed to the satellite channels where he finds around him, a neat glamorous world. It kindles in him a desire and becomes his ‘role model’. For him to achieve it, money is the answer and not the Army. With economic prosperity, the civilian jobs offering huge perks and pay have become more attractive. According to Lt Col Rachpal Singh Mann, “Army salaries are too meagre to run one’s family, not to speak of comparison with private-sector salary.” In such a situation the only things left for the Army to offer are ‘glamour and adventure’. Snappy salutes, glittering messes and impressive uniforms did influence society earlier. Army ranked second best after the civil services during the British era. In fact, as officers in the British Army, the Indian youth ensured stability of their colonies besides being watchmen to the British interests. All this, to include the Army’s affinity to the British, sophisiticated lifestyle and prestige, added glamour to this profession. As the officers holding British legacy retired, this much-hyped glamour gradually faded. The Army today is a mere tool to safeguard borders and fight insurgency. Disciplined Army has little scope to protest against continued degradation at the hands of the bureaucracy. No chief ever protested against the gradual degradation of the rank of Chief of Army Staff. Today he stands twelfth in the Warrant of Precedence —still unprotesting. The same has happened to the rank structure within the Army. The Army does infuse refinement in its members. It carves a gentleman out of the raw cadet that it intakes. But what the Army offers does not fit in the contemporary definition of glamour. “Children can imbibe such values and qualities out of good schooling which is affordable,” says Mr Hardev Singh, an electrical engineer. If such facilities are available at cost, then why send a child into a profession that involves nomadic transportation for a minimum of 20 years, he argues. What the Army calls adventure, the society today terms it as a disturbed, unsettled life — moving place to place on postings, courses or temporary duties. It does encompass exciting activities. The movement is tolerable if it is for vacationing or adventure trips. It ceases to be adventure, once it becomes life long routine. Brigadier Sant Singh, MVC Bar, opines that the disturbed family life is a bigger factor in dissuading the youth than the scanty salaries. In a nutshell, these ‘negatives’ besides many others need improvement. The HRDD also aims at ‘exercising greater influence and projecting positive attributes of Army life’ at the ‘designated feeder agencies’ like RIMC, sainik schools, Army schools and Indian Military Academy. But these institutions are already being run on very high standards. The doctrine can affect to the extent of retaining those who have already joined there. To attract enough cadets the work culture within the forces also requires re-examination. Individuals imbibe a very high degree of qualities at these institutions. But these mostly start fading after a few years of service. Unadjusted in the prevailing work culture, hardly any officer motivates his son to join the Army. Unlike in the past, bureaucrats, politicians and the rich and influential are averse to propping up their wards to join the Army. It is, as if the sacrifice for the nation is the sole prerogative of soldiers only. Over 1200 Indian soldiers were killed in Sri Lanka, about 1292 died in Jammu and Kashmir between 1991-97 and till date 2475 soldiers have been killed in CI operations within the country. Siachen is another man-eater. The names of those killed there are written on a 20’x20’ monument at the base camp. So high is the death toll there that the monument has no more space left on it. Still there is no national debate on these deaths. No bureaucrat or politician is expected to lay down his life for the country. How many of them from these categories are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the country? HRDD is silent on compulsory conscription. It alone shall solve the Army’s manpower, budgetary and pension problems besides making the citizens more disciplined. |
| Informed choices for rural women By Chen Ya When she agreed to try a new form of contraception back in 1992, Luo Shuxia, an ordinary villager in north China’s Hebei province, did not realise that she was among the pioneers of a new practice of planned parenthood. She just hoped that it would not fail as the loop, an intrauterine device (IUD), had done earlier — twice. t was in April, 1992, that Luo became the first woman in her village to take the plunge and have a subdermal contraceptive transplant, like Norplant. She had two daughters, within the limits acceptable under China’s family planning policy, but had conceived again, despite the IUD. The failure of the method, coupled with the fact that her health was not fit enough for an oviduct ligation operation — whereby the fallopian tubes are “tied” — prompted Luo to be “adventurous” and try a method which she and other village women knew nothing about. “I began to think that contraception wasn’t safe at all — and I didn’t want to have any more abortions”, recalls Luo Shuxia. But after enjoying six years of effective birth control, she feels that the subdermal implant is safe. In April, 1992, the government introduced the subdermal implant and the IUD copper-T contraceptive methods in the village. After full consultation with doctors and local family planners and a comprehensive physical check, Luo chose the subdermal implant. “I wasn’t being brave in trying something new, I was just frustrated at the failure and inconvenience of other methods. I’m very glad I was given more choices”, says Luo. “I haven’t got pregnant in six years and consequently my husband and I are now free from family planning worries and able to run a successful restaurant”. After Luo, another 30 women in her village opted for the subdermal implant between 1992 and 1997. Since 1992, 20,000 rural women in Hebei and Shangdong provinces have opted for either the implant or the copper-T. What brought more contraceptive options to rural China was a five-year-long (1992-1997) Sino-US project to introduce new contraceptives to Chinese rural women. Sponsored by China’s State Family Planning Commission (SFPC) and the Rockefeller Foundation of the USA, the project, known as “Informed Choices”, has covered 16 experimental townships in Hebei and Shandong provinces and benefited 75,000 women of child-bearing age. “The project didn’t mean abandoning the availability of previous methods; it meant giving women more choices and backup services”, says Dr Tu Ping, a chief researcher on the project. Due to technical problems, China could only produce one type of intrauterine device (the metal ring, also called the loop) before 1995. Hence rural mothers in need of long-term contraception were limited to two choices: metal rings or oviduct ligation surgery. According to SFPC’s 1988 statistics, among Chinese women who opted for long-term contraceptives, 41 per cent chose the loop, while 38 per cent had oviduct ligation operations. The rest used pills or other methods, many of them traditional methods. These two methods both have disadvantages. “The loop has a reputation for failing — the models available don’t suit all women. Sterilisation, while being completely safe, worries some couples — it’s so final,” says Tu Ping who is a leading population expert. As the world’s most populous country, China adopted a family planning policy at the end of the 1970s. “Since the 1990s, the nation’s family planning programme has gone beyond mere control of the birth rate — it now strives to improve women’s health and living standards, especially in rural areas”, says Tu. To this end, the SFPC launched the experimental project in Hebei and Shandong. A task force was formed, comprising SFPC officials, population experts and doctors. The Rockefeller Foundation provided financial support for introducing contraceptives and sponsoring the input of foreign experts. Counties where the experiment was being conducted contributed finances to install medical apparatus and instruments. The task force spent the first six months of 1992 in conducting surveys and setting up a complete registration system of records on the women’s reproductive and contraceptive history. All technical personnel received training on providing advice, conducting operations and making follow-up visits. To make rural women aware of the range of contraceptive methods available, pamphlets were distributed, talks were aired on radio and cable TV, and consultation classes organised. “The detailed preparatory work dispelled rural women’s doubts and shyness, and helped them fully appreciate, short of actually trying them out, the differences between the various contraceptives”, says Tu Ping. In the five years between 1992-1996, 14 per cent of the total number who sought long-term contraception during that period opted for the subdermal implant operations, while 65 per cent chose the copper-T. What registered a dramatic decline was the terminal method. With diverse means of contraception available, the sterilisation operation fell out of favour among rural women. “The success of the project points to what rural women really want from the country’s family planning policy — high quality services, more contraceptive information and freedom of choice”, says Tu Ping. — Women’s Feature Service |
 75 YEARS AGO Lahore Traders’ Union From the General Secretary: A deputation of eight gentlemen on behalf of the Lahore Traders’ Union, a Central representative organisation of all the various traders of Lahore, waited on Mr Gaskel, the Inland Revenue Member of the Government of India, to represent before him the chief grievances which affected particularly the tradesmen and have made the position so serious as to call for an immediate remedy. After introducing the eight gentlemen forming the deputation, Pt K.N. Agnihotri, the General Secretary of the union, thanked Mr Gaskel for allowing the deputation to express its views with regard to the operation of income tax assessment in Lahore. Although specific instances of merchants were quoted in support of the statement made by the deputation, regarding the most defective method of income tax assessment now in vogue, the deputation, leaving aside individual cases, dealt with the important points one by one and suggested certain remedies which could be profitably utilised by the department for its own good and in the interest of justice and fair play towards the merchants. |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | Chandigarh | | Editorial | Opinion | Business | Stocks | Sports | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | Email | |
