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Showing posts from July, 2013

Gujarat’s gharib kalyan melas failed to reduce poverty: Planning Commission

By Rajiv Shah  The Planning Commission of India’s new report put out in July 2013, “Poverty Estimates 2011-12”, which based on the National Sample Survey’s “Key Indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India, 2011-12”, published in spring 2013, has gone a long way to disprove state government propaganda that Gujarat’s gharib kalyan melas, held last year ahead of the state assembly elections, suggested a “model for other states to follow for reducing poverty”. A counterview.org analysis of comparison between 20 major states suggests that things have not been as rosy in Gujarat, as has been suggested. There is no doubt that, as data suggest, after 2004-05, there has been acceleration in the rate of poverty reduction. But this is true of the entire country, and not special to Gujarat. In fact, an analysis of poverty line data of different states over the years suggests that the rate of poverty reduction in Gujarat between 2004-05 and 2011-12 was 15.2 per cent. This was worse than as m

“Posh” Ahmedabad is still not free from manual scavenging: Manav Garima survey

A manual scavenger at work in “posh” Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad By Jitendra Rathod* Despite strong denials from the Gujarat government, the heinous practice of manual scavenging remains prevalent in Ahmedabad city, the business capital of the state. Manual scavenging is manual removal of excreta (night soil) from “dry toilets”, which are toilets without modern flush system or adequate water supply. A just-completed survey by Manav Garima, a community-based organization, fighting for the rights of the scavenging community, Valmikis, in Ahmedabad, has found that there are 126 spots where manual scavenging is practiced under the aegis of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). More, the survey suggests, 188 dry latrines still continue to operate in the city. The practice continues in violation of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, which provides for punishment to those employing manual scavengers or those who order construct

Promise of basic infrastructure facilities after protest by Naroda Patiya IDPs

Protest against administrative apathy towards IDP colony in Vatwa By Hofeza Ujjaini and K Mohan Krishna* The communal carnage in Gujarat, which took place in 2002, not only saw the death of nearly 2,000 persons, mainly Muslims, but it also forced thousands of people to flee from their residence, whether it was an urban township or a village. They fled in search of security and safety. The Gujarat government did set up 102 relief camps to cater to the immediate need of the security and shelter of those who were forced to flee. By the first week of April 2002, an estimated 1,13,697 people from the minority community were living in these camps. All these persons fitted well into the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), which say that IDPs are “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situ

Poor performance in teaching children a major roadblock in Gujarat: DISE data

By Rajiv Shah  Latest data released by the Government of India’s District Information System for Education (DISE), which claims to be the basis for assessing the progress under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the status of implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, suggest that primary education remains an area of much concern in Gujarat, despite wide-scale efforts made by the Gujarat government through its Kanya Kelavni school enrolment drive. Provisional flash statistics published in the just-released book, “Elementary Education in India: Progress towards Universal Elementary Education (UEE)”, go to show that Gujarat is strong in education-related infrastructure and can claim to doing much better than most states on this score, but when it comes to human resource development, which is the primary aim of education, it is one of the worst performers. Indeed, whether it is number of classrooms, number of kitchen sheds for midday meal scheme, number of computers in schools, drin

Need for policy intervention for conflict-induced internally displaced persons

A new study, “Homeless in Homeland: A Study on Internally Displaced Persons in India”, prepared by the Centre for Social Justice, Ahmedabad, has identified the urgent need for a major policy intervention to take care of the internally displaced persons (IPDs) who are forced to leave their habitat because of violent conflicts. Based on a survey of five states, it wants a law to protect the IDPs and calls for action to protect them in the intervening period. A report: *** While conflict-induced internally displaced persons (IDPs) are increasingly being recognized internationally as an important category who need urgent attention in the countries where such displacement takes place due to violence, pitifully, in India, so far, no police framework, let alone a legal framework, exists which can take care of them. The UN Guiding Principles on IDPs describes IDPS as “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence,

Average per capita expenditure on education much lower in Gujarat: NSSO

By Rajiv Shah  The latest National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) report, “Key Indicators of Household Consumer Expenditure in India” , released in June 2013 and based on sample survey in 2011 and 2012, does not just suggest that the average Gujarati both in rural and urban areas is forced to spend a higher proportion on food items compared to non-food items, which include anything ranging from paan and tobacco to clothing, footwear, fuel and light, transportation, education, health and entertainment . The NSSO data also suggest that while the average Gujarati would like to “save” on education and healthcare, thereby spending a relatively smaller amount than most other states on the items under the two categories, he diverts his attention towards spending a much higher sum on edible oil, milk and milk products and paan, tobacco and intoxicants. At the same time, the survey finds out that the average Gujarati spends less on cereals, a major source of nutrition in a state where consum

Economic discrimination of lower castes remains intact: CEPT varsity study

By Rajiv Shah  The latest Gujarat government-sponsored and CEPT University-prepared study, “Impact of Caste Discrimination and Distinctions on Equal Opportunities: A Study of Gujarat” — whose declared effort is to “review” the 2010 report prepared by the John F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and Navsarjan Trust, “Understanding Untouchability” — may have undermined untouchability as some kind of a “perception” issue. However, its second effort, to “prove” how scheduled castes (SCs) have improved their economic status over the years falls flat the moment one scans through the main part of the report, which consists of a plethora of data collected by scholars on economic profile of SCs, other backward classes (OBCs) and other castes and communities (OCCs). In fact, of the nearly 230 pages of the functional part of the study, the scholars, led by Prof R Parthasarathy, devote nearly 200 pages on economic profile, educational, health and other facilities, and how the three group

Gujarat govt-sponsored study justifies caste discrimination an issue of perceptions

By Rajiv Shah  A Gujarat government-sponsored study, “Impact of Caste Discrimination and Distinctions on Equal Opportunities”, put out in May 2013, has sought to give the impression that issues of caste discrimination in Gujarat “are largely related to perceptions”, suggesting these should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt. At best, it underlines, caste discrimination is an issue related with “past practices involving a historically determined context”. Carried out by a team of experts led by Prof R Parthasarathy of the CEPT University, Ahmedabad, one of its declared purposes was to “review” a report, “Understanding Untouchability”, one of the most comprehensive surveys on untouchability carried out ever in India, involving 1,589 Gujarat villages and 5,462 respondents. The Gujarat government decided to sponsor the review of “Understanding Untouchability” following widespread unease in the state corridors of power following three news stories in the “Times of India” on untouchabil