Indiatogether Feb II 2005
India Together
15 February 2005 Newsletter
http://www.indiatogether.org/
The news that matters

Editors: Subramaniam Vincent, Ashwin Mahesh

Dear Reader:

The February 15, 2005 newsletter from India Together includes an Editorial
and
articles in the following regular sections: Agriculture, Economy, Education,
Environment, Health, Interviews, Laws, Media, Opinions, Peace, and Women. In
addition, all previous India Together articles are archived and freely
available
online. Several Interact conversations are also open.

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IN THIS ISSUE 15 FEB
2005
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Editorial
~~~~~~~~~

A poor imitation : We continuously embrace the capital-forming ideas of the
West
without examination of the sometimes invisible support systems behind them,
or
ideas of citizenship in those nations. As a result, our grand ideas for
development often produce grotesque results. The India Together editorial.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/edt-imitation.htm


Agriculture
~~~~~~~~~~~

P Sainath continues his series on the agrarian crisis in Wayanad, Kerala.

Coffee sails globally, sinks locally : This is coffee territory, yet you
cannot
get the local brew in any restaurant here. Drop in at the Coffee Board in
Kalpetta to enquire why this is so - and they offer you a cup of tea.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/psa-coffee.htm

Spice of life carries whiff of death : Imports of pepper from Sri Lanka,
including large quantities that are simply routed through that country but
not
actually produced there, have devastated farmers in Wayanad, home of the
world's
best pepper.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/psa-pepper.htm

Full series on Wayanad agrarian crisis
http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/psainath/waycrisis.htm


Economy
~~~~~~~

Tsunami-hit saltmakers suffer government silence : 45 km south of
Nagapattinam,
the 26 December tsunamis washed away thousands of tonnes of stock salt at
the
Vedaraniam salt pans, filled them with debris and black silt. With
government
relief coverage withdrawn and the start of the season missed, manufacturers
are
in despair. Krithika Ramalingam reports.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/eco-saltpans.htm


Education
~~~~~~~~~

Hopscotch and skipping school : The Chingrajpara slum in Bilaspur,
Chhatisgarh
is the city's largest of nearly 50 slums. Why are the children not in
school?
Why is a schooling cost of Rs 318 per year per child a tall figure for poor
parents? Ashima Sood chronicles the lived experience of poverty from her
visits
of 2002 and 2003.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/edu-chingpara.htm

Divided by - and in - class : What is education for, and what is the State's
obligation to support it financially? As the Central Advisory Board of
Education
reviews the legislation introduced in Parliament by the NDA government,
Satlaj
Dighe provides a snapshot of the direction of public education policy today.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/edu-newbill.htm


Environment
~~~~~~~~~~~

A breach in the interlinking plans : Forced by the Supreme Court to make its
research public, the agency that claimed to have conducted feasibility
studies
on interlinking rivers puts out an incomplete document. Sudhirendar Sharma
notes, however, that the politics of this mega-project will keep it alive,
despite such incompetence and disregard for regulations.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/eco-whatstudy.htm


Health
~~~~~~

Rural Health Mission has promising goals : Rural public health care is
choked
nationwide for a number of reasons. To name two, provisioning of services is
very top heavy and many major programmes continue to be conceived and run
uncoordinatedly. But Abhijit Das finds promising prospects in the formation
of
the National Rural Health Mission.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/hlt-nrhmissn.htm


Interviews
~~~~~~~~~~

'The second freedom struggle' : Noted anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare
says
that enforcing a new central RTI law is not going to be a cakewalk. "The
rulers
regard themselves as owners, dictators - especially the bureaucrats", says
Hazare in this interview. But he warned that a national agitation may leave
New Delhi no choice.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/rti-hazare.htm


Laws
~~~~

Food safety bill may hurt hawkers : The central government has proposed the
Food
Safety and Standards Act as part of a series of steps to 'harmonize'
existing
food laws. Devinder Sharma agrees the old exploitative laws must go, but
says
the new bill may deliver unfair advantage to the food industry over dhabas
and
hawkers.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/dsh-safefood.htm


Media
~~~~~

Gender, media and tsunamis : Can there possibly be a gender angle to the
tsunami
story? Certainly, says Ammu Joseph, pointing out that women from
economically
and socially deprived communities usually bear the brunt of disasters,
thanks to
the gender dimension of social inequality and inequity.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/ajo-genmedia.htm


Opinion
~~~~~~~

Cut-off by the date : Not least because affordable rental housing in Bombay
is
an urban myth, the jobs we invite our fellow Indians to fill so that we can
have
all those good things of a booming economy, are filled by people who have
little
choice but to live in slums. And then we raze those slum homes. Cavalier,
says
Dilip D'Souza.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/ddz-demolish.htm

The unbearable lightness of seeing : The elite wants a society geared to
deal
with rare disasters but shows no urgency at all when it comes to the
destruction
of the livelihoods of millions by policy and human agency. P Sainath turns
our
consciences towards Mumbai's demolitions of tens of thousands of the homes
of
slum-dwellers.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/psa-seeing.htm

Not that simple : The search for a viable national alternative to the
Congress
goes back more than fifty years, But India is too large, and too unwieldy,
to be
represented by two parties alone, or even, as it now seems, by two
coalitions
each dominated by a single party, says Ramachandra Guha.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/rgh-twoparty.htm


Peace
~~~~~

Peacing Assam together: Dr Indira Goswami, Assamese writer and Bharatiya
Jnanpith Award-winner, has recently taken up a new role - that of a
peacemaker
in Assam. Nava Thakuria reports that the initiative has been welcomed by
students, politicians, and cultural figures in the state.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/wom-assam.htm

The business route to normalcy : A delegation of entrepreneurs from Pakistan
decided to spend Id in India, exploring opportunities for their businesses
and
forging friendly ties at the same time. Surekha Sule reports that there are
many
areas where the strengths of the two nations in global trade can be mutually
beneficial.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/feb/pce-paktrade.htm


Women
~~~~~

The beauty obsession : Since the economy opened to foreign investment, the
influx of European and American images of beauty have deeply impacted the
notion
of what it is. Susan Runkle notes how over the last decade, international
standards for fair and lovely have taken firm hold.
http://www.indiatogether.org/manushi/issue145/lovely.htm


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Interact on India Together - a conversation space for you
================================================================================

Your reactions to the Tsunami disaster
http://indiatogether.org/interact/2005/itr-000035.html

AIDS: Compromising values?
http://www.indiatogether.org/interact/2004/itr-000029.html

One person, one vote?
http://www.indiatogether.org/interact/2004/itr-000028.html

A common school system?
http://www.indiatogether.org/interact/2004/itr-000023.html


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India Together http://www.indiatogether.org/

India Together is a broad-spectrum public-interest publication of Civil
Society Information Exchange Pvt Ltd, Bangalore. Every day, readers get
in-depth information and news on the issues that matter covering 15 major
topics and over 20 states. Leaders, experts, practitioners, scholars and
artists take their ideas, insights and concerns expeditiously to our
interested global audience. This newsletter may be freely redistributed.

Editors: Subramaniam Vincent, Ashwin Mahesh
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