Much to everyone’s surprise, street- children and beggars no Longer sneak into traffic when it comes to a halt at red signals. Nobody now, insist you there to purchase newspapers ,magazines and flowers . Nobody ask you to take pity and give alms on the very road meant for driving .The changes are clearly visible as Delhi’s traffic and civil administration manage to get rid of once seemingly difficult and embracing problem .The sprawling vagrant community in Delhi is out of sight these days as the city finds itself in the midst of hosting commonwealth games.
Though this is a positive development and clearly in line with standardized operational procedure to host the game, my mind dwells upon the fate of those marginalized people who, just a few days back, used to scramble for merely feeding themselves in this highly economic prosperous city .Now driven forcibly out of this city the destitute might have made their ways into some other cities where conditions for them would be no better. Everywhere, these people heavily rely on sympathy and pity of some passers-by for their subsistence .They are no better than animals who spend their entire life with no permanent roofs on their heads and stand vunralable to various kinds of exploitations and abuses. Nature’s fury hit them hard as they lack in even basic requirements of life .The most vunralable among them are women and children who are criminally abused and thrown for begging ,prostitution , street-selling and some other anti-social activities. The number of such poverty stricken people are increasing at an alarming rate. They can be easily traced on railway platform, bus-stand ,road-side and any other public places. Their ubiquitous presence causes lots of inconvenience to people and is blot on socio-economic picture of India, which the world looks at to be a near future superpower. The shocking growth of such phenomenon manifests our collective failure in addressing the pressing needs of unprivileged and weaker section of society.
As there is no dearth of legislation and experience has proved them to be only partially effective, we need to mull over some other ways to give a death blow to this ominous shadow .This should be our collective responsibility though the government with its mammoth resources can provide leadership to the cause on a sustained basis. Some ministers could come forward to take up the cause of these people and strive to ameliorate their condition significantly during their tenure .Some other may choose the cause of their interest and work on them as mission. This is exactly what some British parliamentarians are reported to be doing these days .The noble practice will provide the necessary political voice and support to these penurious community, in the absence of which they are bound to lead a reprehensible and shameful life.
In a world we are living today, we cannot expect all the people to devote themselves fully to social causes. Thinking so is impractical and it amounts to only emotional treatment of the problem. The pragmatic approach would be to evolve such course of actions which can be easily undertaken by individuals and institution without overlooking their own priorities and pursuits. What I seek to suggest here is to develop a structure which could effortlessly solicit peoples involvement in social works and they can readily respond positively to such calls .This will happen when people need not have to go extra mile for serving the community and they may contribute towards the cause while doing their own work. This way individualism will not become obstacle in the way of community development and fraternity. Though this work is not easy and calls for a greater degree of administrative acumen along with indefatigable effort on the part of the government and its machineries, this will prove once adopted to be a panacea for all social malaise.
The gist of the matter is that the continuing preoccupation of Indian people with fixing their own priorities is translating into a lack of meaningful engagement with the so called unprivileged community .This has caused a social hazard and it can be tackled successfully only by striking a right chord between material progress and altruistic endeavor .
Since awareness precedes any change, media has an important role to play in this regard .It can also help to bring about changes in social and administrative attitude towards drifters. Some NGOs and corporate houses are already doing their bit, they can now encompass left outs and vertically launch the programs so as to dent on the problem. Educational institutions should be infused with a culture of sensitivity and sympathy through various participatory programs so that the coming generations may not show callousness towards poor people.
As the signal flashes green, my mind is filled with a palpable fear of these communities haunting back to the city once the mega event is over . Though my small piece of work ends here with a note of fear and pessimism, your grand work should begin here with a hope and optimism to weed out this social stigma and implant in society an aesthetic cultural amalgamation forever.
VASHISTHA RAY.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Marriage is an institution of love and promises.It is an institution of responsibility and understanding.It is all about caring and sharing and it is based on mutual trust and respect.The very institution starts showing signs of crack in case any one of the building blocks of the institution withers away.In the context of indian society,the institution of marriage forms the basis of social development and it commands an unique place in transmitting family,social and cultural values from one generation to another.The matrimonial arrangements in india,thus,witness the involvement of lots of people from families concerned and close relation.Utmost care is taken to make the relationship a successful one.Failed relationship carries social stigma and becomes center of discussion for long.
It is not that the catastrophic divorce did not stuck this pious and fragile relationship in the past as it takes it tolls today but with the spate in cases of divorce over the past few years,we seek to establish the reason for increased cases of divorce so that we can understand the changing values of indian society.In this pursuit,unfortunetly,women are made scapegoat and blamed for broken marriages.They are supposed to carry on even with embittered relationship bearing all the troubles and hardships and even a hiss on their part put them guilty of not shouldering responsibility attached with marriage.This is the truth of indian families where hardly grooms are held responsible for the debacle.
We just tend to perpetuate our long-drawn habit of putting blame on fairer -sex when we attribute women empowerment as the reason for increased cases of divorce these days.It seems as if we have found a new weapon to attack them in this regard.Not just 10 or 15 years back,visibility of indian women in public places were relatively thinner and they were not as empowered (socially and economically) as todays generations.Still there were cases of strained relationship and pathetic walks-away.We still had cases of divorce and acrimonious legal follow-ups.Then what was it which caused trouble those days?
In fact, any relationship in any time period is doomed to failure if it lacks love,compassion and respect to each other.It will not work if respective responsibilities are shirked and hatred,torture along with disrespect become affair of the day.If we cases of divorce in the past,it was only because there was a systematic cruelty in the name of dowry and kul-khandan,If we have more cases of divorce today,it is only because we have grown more intolerant than before in spite of society getting more educated and enlightened.It has absolutely nothing to do with women getting empowered.On the contrary,empowerment of women can give a new positive direction to society by educating and salvaging the very families thy are part of.
In course of analyzing the impact of women empowerment on society,it has wrongly been inferred that their economic freedom is the cause of all the troubles leading to degradation of family-structure.But there is no proved correlation between them and the accusation seems to be desperation of patriarchal attitude which still rule the roost in indian society.We should not forget that the same mentality once opposed the idea of girls education when some reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Ray and Vidyasagar sought to establish schools for girls in some part of india.The same happened to the causes of widow-remarriage,sati-pratha and other reforms aimed at ameliorating the condition of women .Those who opposed reforms had a sinister plan to confine womenfolk behind four walls in the name of preserving family and social sanctity.The ongoing opposition against working women seems more or less ridden with same regressive motives.But the situation will improve more in coming days as is seen in case of girls education,which was unthinkable just a century back.
The confusion has been compounded even because things are not placed in true perspective.It should be noted that its not the economic freedom of women rather awerness about their rights and demand for equal treatment without subjugation,violence and bias which lead to feud and tension.Most of the indian families,unfortunetly,do not guarantee these basic promises to girls and hence,confrontation ensues.If we are really interested in protecting our families from ruining ,we should shed some orthodox behavior and start giving due respect and freedom to our womenfolk.This is the fundamental change we must strive to bring about in social front.Apart from that, it requires deep thinking and continuous effort on our part to mould some cynical social norms so that it can fulfill dreams and desires of women without being unnecessary harassed.So far as the question of rearing a child in the familily is concerned,both the husband and the wife should take a harder look at their roles and find new ways to harmonize relationship so that nobody suffers.
There is no denying the fact that the education of girls over a period of decades has contributed immense in several ways.Empowerment of women in india can also script a new success story in the advancement of society,civilization and economy.Need of the time is to restructure our thoughts,and values as per the requirement of changing times.Equally important is the manifestation of unconditional love,care and respect towards each and everyone in the family.This way only we can reap the benefits of women empowerment even without compromising with our deep-rooted family values.
VASHISTHA RAY
It is not that the catastrophic divorce did not stuck this pious and fragile relationship in the past as it takes it tolls today but with the spate in cases of divorce over the past few years,we seek to establish the reason for increased cases of divorce so that we can understand the changing values of indian society.In this pursuit,unfortunetly,women are made scapegoat and blamed for broken marriages.They are supposed to carry on even with embittered relationship bearing all the troubles and hardships and even a hiss on their part put them guilty of not shouldering responsibility attached with marriage.This is the truth of indian families where hardly grooms are held responsible for the debacle.
We just tend to perpetuate our long-drawn habit of putting blame on fairer -sex when we attribute women empowerment as the reason for increased cases of divorce these days.It seems as if we have found a new weapon to attack them in this regard.Not just 10 or 15 years back,visibility of indian women in public places were relatively thinner and they were not as empowered (socially and economically) as todays generations.Still there were cases of strained relationship and pathetic walks-away.We still had cases of divorce and acrimonious legal follow-ups.Then what was it which caused trouble those days?
In fact, any relationship in any time period is doomed to failure if it lacks love,compassion and respect to each other.It will not work if respective responsibilities are shirked and hatred,torture along with disrespect become affair of the day.If we cases of divorce in the past,it was only because there was a systematic cruelty in the name of dowry and kul-khandan,If we have more cases of divorce today,it is only because we have grown more intolerant than before in spite of society getting more educated and enlightened.It has absolutely nothing to do with women getting empowered.On the contrary,empowerment of women can give a new positive direction to society by educating and salvaging the very families thy are part of.
In course of analyzing the impact of women empowerment on society,it has wrongly been inferred that their economic freedom is the cause of all the troubles leading to degradation of family-structure.But there is no proved correlation between them and the accusation seems to be desperation of patriarchal attitude which still rule the roost in indian society.We should not forget that the same mentality once opposed the idea of girls education when some reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Ray and Vidyasagar sought to establish schools for girls in some part of india.The same happened to the causes of widow-remarriage,sati-pratha and other reforms aimed at ameliorating the condition of women .Those who opposed reforms had a sinister plan to confine womenfolk behind four walls in the name of preserving family and social sanctity.The ongoing opposition against working women seems more or less ridden with same regressive motives.But the situation will improve more in coming days as is seen in case of girls education,which was unthinkable just a century back.
The confusion has been compounded even because things are not placed in true perspective.It should be noted that its not the economic freedom of women rather awerness about their rights and demand for equal treatment without subjugation,violence and bias which lead to feud and tension.Most of the indian families,unfortunetly,do not guarantee these basic promises to girls and hence,confrontation ensues.If we are really interested in protecting our families from ruining ,we should shed some orthodox behavior and start giving due respect and freedom to our womenfolk.This is the fundamental change we must strive to bring about in social front.Apart from that, it requires deep thinking and continuous effort on our part to mould some cynical social norms so that it can fulfill dreams and desires of women without being unnecessary harassed.So far as the question of rearing a child in the familily is concerned,both the husband and the wife should take a harder look at their roles and find new ways to harmonize relationship so that nobody suffers.
There is no denying the fact that the education of girls over a period of decades has contributed immense in several ways.Empowerment of women in india can also script a new success story in the advancement of society,civilization and economy.Need of the time is to restructure our thoughts,and values as per the requirement of changing times.Equally important is the manifestation of unconditional love,care and respect towards each and everyone in the family.This way only we can reap the benefits of women empowerment even without compromising with our deep-rooted family values.
VASHISTHA RAY
Monday, September 27, 2010
PLEASURE OF GAMES AMIDST PANGS OF CORRUPTION
Some days back, it was all- pervasive dust in delhi which had settled the question of poor state of preparedness for CWG.Now,with incessant rain in delhi for a couple of weeks ,glob of mud everywhere confirms this sorry state of affairs.Deadlines for some works are over ,though plethora of them remain to be finished.Stadia are incomplete,traffic woes to be removed,danger of dengue still looms large over the capital and people are yet to be sensitized about Do,s and Dont do,s during the event.The arrangement for heavy influx of people are said to be pathetically short of requirement.Delhi is indeed under prepared for this mega event.
Added to these, a slew of media report about the mismanagement and corruption has diluted the spirit of the forthcoming festival-like event.
Whatever the conditions,delhi would wear a new makeover in just a few days to go.With various colours of the skin from all across the world ramping on Delhi's dilapidated roads,the city would indeed look like a cosmopolitan one.This would be a pride moment for all of us.All of a sudden, we would forget about the present hurdles , inconvenience and worries.The focus would dramatically shift towards day-to-day events of the game. we would vicariously derive pleasure or pain at the victory or defeat of our endearing players.The event is bound to hog limelight with newspapers coming out with full of events news.Electronic media may have well-thought plan for 24 hours news and discussion.Not to be surprised, if it rant about some trivial aspects of events and players.Chances are that even if you are not sport-loving person,you would fall prey to this hype. Patriotism may also come into play for you to whisper prayers for victory of indian players.The mega event will have the potential to throw the entire nations into a similar kind of frenzy.
This is supposed to happen and there is no wrong at all if the feaver of sports rises abnormally.In this world of constant friction and multitudes of social ,economic ,political and cultural differences,sports come with a massage of peace,brotherhood and amenity.It teaches us to respect pluralism ,accept own weaknesses and applause opponents strength and victory.There is no harm if such a virtue like sports promising steals the limelight.
The sad thing would be that in this episode our attention would be diverted from the controversy of corruption in CWG.During the event the media would discuss numbers of medal each country and particularly india has chance to win.After the event we would introspect and analysis our strength and weaknesses.we would discuss why some countries won more medals than us and what needs to be done to improve the situation.Charges of corruption alleged against some politicians and agency would go into oblivion.We would ,as usual, set for our offices and schools and carry an attitude game over everything over.But should not we raise our voice against all the malpractices and irregularities which has come about during preparation of CWG?
CORRUPTION IN CWG.shows mismanagement of financial matters at highest level.we are blaze towards financial prudence which needs to be kept at center while undertaking any administrative and developmental projects.Sadly,we shed money like water and call the project a success.but this is not prudence in view of scare resources at our disposal which comes in as tax of hard money earned by people.No matter how india perform in forthcoming mega event, we must perform our duty well by asking for account of every penny the govt.has spent in the name.this will go a long way in ensuring accountability and transparency in governance.And never think corruption never hits you.money going into the pockets of corrupt politicians and officials could have been spent for the pupose of more employment opportunities and creation of more economic or social overheads like school ,colleges,roads bridges etc.This would have sufficiently reduced inconveniences which common people face in everyday life.COming generations would also be benefited with the availability of more infrastructure.
By reminding you of all the unpleasant things i dont want to dampen the zeal and spirit of commonwealth game. but my consciousness never allow me to keep a big SHUT-UP till ALL IS WELL.
VASHISTHA RAY
Added to these, a slew of media report about the mismanagement and corruption has diluted the spirit of the forthcoming festival-like event.
Whatever the conditions,delhi would wear a new makeover in just a few days to go.With various colours of the skin from all across the world ramping on Delhi's dilapidated roads,the city would indeed look like a cosmopolitan one.This would be a pride moment for all of us.All of a sudden, we would forget about the present hurdles , inconvenience and worries.The focus would dramatically shift towards day-to-day events of the game. we would vicariously derive pleasure or pain at the victory or defeat of our endearing players.The event is bound to hog limelight with newspapers coming out with full of events news.Electronic media may have well-thought plan for 24 hours news and discussion.Not to be surprised, if it rant about some trivial aspects of events and players.Chances are that even if you are not sport-loving person,you would fall prey to this hype. Patriotism may also come into play for you to whisper prayers for victory of indian players.The mega event will have the potential to throw the entire nations into a similar kind of frenzy.
This is supposed to happen and there is no wrong at all if the feaver of sports rises abnormally.In this world of constant friction and multitudes of social ,economic ,political and cultural differences,sports come with a massage of peace,brotherhood and amenity.It teaches us to respect pluralism ,accept own weaknesses and applause opponents strength and victory.There is no harm if such a virtue like sports promising steals the limelight.
The sad thing would be that in this episode our attention would be diverted from the controversy of corruption in CWG.During the event the media would discuss numbers of medal each country and particularly india has chance to win.After the event we would introspect and analysis our strength and weaknesses.we would discuss why some countries won more medals than us and what needs to be done to improve the situation.Charges of corruption alleged against some politicians and agency would go into oblivion.We would ,as usual, set for our offices and schools and carry an attitude game over everything over.But should not we raise our voice against all the malpractices and irregularities which has come about during preparation of CWG?
CORRUPTION IN CWG.shows mismanagement of financial matters at highest level.we are blaze towards financial prudence which needs to be kept at center while undertaking any administrative and developmental projects.Sadly,we shed money like water and call the project a success.but this is not prudence in view of scare resources at our disposal which comes in as tax of hard money earned by people.No matter how india perform in forthcoming mega event, we must perform our duty well by asking for account of every penny the govt.has spent in the name.this will go a long way in ensuring accountability and transparency in governance.And never think corruption never hits you.money going into the pockets of corrupt politicians and officials could have been spent for the pupose of more employment opportunities and creation of more economic or social overheads like school ,colleges,roads bridges etc.This would have sufficiently reduced inconveniences which common people face in everyday life.COming generations would also be benefited with the availability of more infrastructure.
By reminding you of all the unpleasant things i dont want to dampen the zeal and spirit of commonwealth game. but my consciousness never allow me to keep a big SHUT-UP till ALL IS WELL.
VASHISTHA RAY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)