Exclusive Snaps of Hyderabad

Exclusive Snaps of Hyderabad

The Recession’s New Wine Bar

Despite its sleek interior, the Beta Lounge caters to the budget conscious.

There’s nothing quite so conducive to friendly interaction as opening a bottle of lovingly nurtured grape juice and sharing it with one’s fellow bipeds. It’s even better when good food and a convivial setting — a tapas bar, a sidewalk cafe — enter the equation. Despite its 21st-century proto-IKEA design, Berkeley’s new Beta Lounge belongs to the tradition of the cozy pub and the neighborly taverna where noshes are nibbled and vino is quaffed and there’s plenty of ho-paaa! to go around.

Opened in March by Sonoma natives Gabriel Duran and Elon Khelif, the sleek downtown wine bar boasts a clean loft atmosphere, with concrete walls, exposed piping, and a silvery-gray color scheme. The minimal design accents include a Siamese fighting fish (aka — aha! — the betta fish) slumbering in a bowl on the bar, which also features a large and attractive wine rack crafted at San Rafael’s IK Design, a woodworks owned by Khelif’s father. There are frosted windows draped in burgundy velvet, a lounge with red leather sofas and ottomans tucked away at one end of the room, and a hip indie-electronica sound design soft enough to encourage conversation.

Be warned, though: For a wine bar, the vino selection here is pretty minimal. This isn’t the sort of place where you plow through a hundred pages of rare and perfunctory vintages in search of that perfect Pinot. Instead there are just seventeen wines on the premises, six white, eleven red, each priced at $8 per glass and $30 per bottle, with a couple of sparklers at $32 and $40 per bottle each. While this sort of setup restricts one’s imbibing options considerably, it also simplifies things a great deal. The owners’ desire is to serve what they know and like as inexpensively and unpretentiously as possible, and their selections — primarily midlevel wine-country vintages with the odd organic and import thrown in — fill the need.

The venue offers several other alcoholic possibilities as well. Beers include draft Lagunitas and Pyramid Hefeweizen, plus bottled Newcastle, Red Stripe, and Guinness. There’s sake by the carafe and bottle in several variations, from the crisp and dry to the sweet, milky, and unfiltered. And an extensive menu of cocktails crafted from sake and soju include a few that are nearly as good as the real thing. Among those that weren’t was a pallid margarita — you really need honest-to-God tequila when it comes to margaritas — and the mojito, which tasted like a tall glass of overly lime-y seltzer without its depth charge of rum. But the Cosmopolitan’s underpinning of pomegranate juice complemented the high-octane soju in a pleasant and refreshing way, and the Cloud 9, a Beta Lounge original, mixed up lychee-flavored sake and creamy unfiltered nigori to excellent effect. (A blueberry-limned variation, the Blue Moon, wasn’t quite as satisfying.) One night, the bartender, an affable sort, also served up complimentary shots of cocktails still in the planning stages: the Pink Pearl, a refreshing draught of champagne barely sweetened with grenadine; and the Beta Sunset, a concoction of pineapple juice, grenadine, and agave wine not unlike a mild tequila sunrise.

To complement the libations there’s a menu of snack items and light meals that’s as easygoing as the wine list. The hummus plate was simply constructed of whole-wheat pita wedges, kalamata olives, and a unique house-made hummus that was rich and hearty without being too citric or garlicky. Another platter featured a soft, aromatic triple-cream brie, a mildly nutty sheep’s-milk cheese, and a wonderfully smoky and buttery aged Gruyère with a selection of crackers, grapes, and olives — the perfect wine-country snack. The spinach salad was bountiful with artichoke hearts, red onions, candied walnuts, and a marvelous spinach-Dijon dressing. And a couple of two-handed sandwiches — tomato-avocado and turkey-tomato-pesto — served on freshly baked rolls were delectable.

Some of the selections are a little too easygoing. The bread sticks turned out to be your basic focaccia with olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the side. The Beta Pizza was tasty enough — parmesan, mozzarella, tomato sauce, and your choice of pepperoni or roasted peppers and eggplant on a ciabatta roll — but it’s the sort of thing you can whip up in the kitchen in ten minutes. The limpid guacamole wasn’t particularly spicy or even avocado-y, relying on an overabundance of lime and cilantro for its flavor. But the spring rolls burst with the crisp, spiky flavors of fresh mint, sprouts, bell pepper, and richly seasoned tofu, and were especially yummy dunked in an earthy, creamy peanut-coconut dipping sauce.

Dessert is simplicity itself: sizable scoops of Ciao Bella’s incomparable gelato in three flavors. If it had been up to me I’d have opted for at least one dark chocolate option as well as something in the seasonal-sorbetto arena; instead, there’s a perfectly creamy vanilla, an irresistibly oomphy espresso flecked with bits of coffee bean, and a green tea complemented with big luscious chunks of white chocolate that offset the gelato’s medicinal-herbaceous taste.

Vegetarians will find plenty to nibble on between all that quaffing and tippling. Flesh-free options include steamed and salted edamame, the “bread sticks” with oil and vinegar, the chips and guac, the tofu spring rolls, a mixed green salad in addition to the spinach varietal, the hummus, the cheese platter, the avocado sandwich plus another sandwich stuffed with roasted vegetables, and the plain cheese and the roasted vegetable pizzas.

In keeping with recessionary 2009’s resurgent obsession with happy hour, the Beta Lounge offers $3 beers and $5 glasses of wine and sake every night from 4 to 7 p.m. alongside the house salad at $4, the hummus platter at $6, and the pizzas at $5 to $7 apiece. Cocktails are $5 all night Monday, bottles of wine are $20 all night Wednesday, and on Sunday nights sake bombs are $3.50, with large carafes half off. In addition, the staff is relaxed yet attentive, hip yet friendly (did we mention the free champagne shots?). This is an attractive and welcoming place to schmooze, snack, and sip.

Flower Poaching is rampant in Rockridge

By Sarah Williams

In Rockridge, a Rarefied Crime: Flower Poaching – Unprosecuted because it’s not a high priority, the crime can nonetheless be fatal.
Spring has sprung in Oakland’s beautiful Rockridge district, and the front-yard gardens that are the pride of so many homeowners there are in full bloom. But the seasonal bounty comes with a price in this affluent neighborhood. For here a rarefied criminal act goes underreported: flower poaching.

For decades, Rockridge residents have awoken to evidence that nighttime flower poachers have raided their street-side gardens for fragrant lilacs, roses, and hydrangeas. Whole bushes have been ripped from the ground in the wee hours. The poachers don’t stop there, clipping entire branches from Japanese maples and — most sought-after at this time of year — the regionally scarce dogwood blooms that last just a few weeks. The trees are often left mutilated. Some have even been taken up by the roots and carried away whole.

Victims guess flower poaching is a black-market enterprise for small-time crooks looking to make a quick dollar. Much like stolen iPods and cell phones, which fetch a decent resale value on the black market, the plants have supposedly been recognized at local retailers and among curbside merchants’ sundries. While community members say they’ve made crime reports to the Oakland Police Department for years, local cops have yet to nab a single poacher.

Despite a flurry of complaints that crop up on community-run Internet message boards as regularly as hay fever, each spring the issue is pushed aside for Oakland’s more serious crime concerns. Even in Rockridge, stolen flowers don’t stand up to budget crises, grand theft, and gun violence. So the crime goes mostly unreported — and the criminals unfettered in their illicit trade.

Nora, a fourteen-year resident of lower Rockridge, has a glorious Kentucky dogwood in the front yard of her home, along with a couple of young Japanese maples and a large, healthy hydrangea bush that blooms each summer. Dogwood species flourish on the East Coast and in the South, but trees like Nora’s are relatively rare in this climate, making its brief springtime bloom the pride of her small garden, where her two children play. Neighbors re-route their daily strolls this time of year just to catch a glimpse of its bright, white clustered flowers.

But Nora, a perennial flower-poaching victim, derives no such joy from her tree. “Every time I look at the tree in bloom it breaks my heart because I know it’s going to be poached,” she said, standing in the dappled light beneath her dogwood’s full-blossomed splendor on a recent Saturday morning. She caressed the tree’s scars, some years old now but still visible to the naked eye. “It’s just a really ugly shape,” she said with a sigh.

Nora, who asked not to be identified with her last name so that she would not increase her risk of theft, remembers well the first morning she walked outside to find the telltale signs of a violent poach. Dogwood blossoms were scattered across the grass; gaping and seemingly random wounds dotted the trunk. Since that morning more than a decade ago, “we’re just hoping it will grow back,” she said. Hacked dogwood limbs damage a tree severely, and blooming branches can take years to regenerate. While many dogwood owners might clip a small branch or two each season to adorn their dining room table, Nora never does, for this very reason. She recently refused a request from her own mother for just a slight trimming.

After filing several police reports over the years, Nora and her husband decided to take matters into their own hands, installing a trip-wire along the narrow entry to the yard. Each night, they suspend a metal wire between two short posts at a height of about six inches. Awaking some mornings to find nearby tulips “scrunched” and the wire unlatched — but no dogwood blossoms scattered — the couple believe their poacher-preventative measure has been successful. And this year, the tree has yet to be molested, she reports.

Others haven’t been so lucky. During the week of April 13, two separate Rockridge dogwoods were poached. One of those — a six-foot dogwood — was stripped of 80 percent of its blooming branches, according to a neighbor. The tree, which belongs to homeowners who were out of town during the poach, will likely die.

This story is common around lower Rockridge, where foot traffic is heavy and front yards are typically less than fifteen feet deep off the sidewalk. West of College Avenue, it’s hard to find a solid block of houses without poaching tales that go back decades. Research for this story — door-to-door interviews and solicitations on popular local message boards — returned dozens of similar accounts from area residents. Poacher booty reportedly runs the gamut of all the fragrant and beautiful blooms the Bay Area climate can sustain. East of College, in upper Rockridge, no fewer than five separate dogwoods have been continually poached throughout the years. One attack on a baby tree proved fatal.

Residents have dreamed up preventive methods including installing security cameras, painting branches bright colors to dissuade reselling, leaving visible lamps and overhead lighting on all night, contracting with private security companies, and installing wireless sensors set to activate sprinklers. Some have requested more frequent police patrols at night.

While Nora would like to see law enforcement crack down on this crime, she knows Oakland police have bigger fish to fry, with higher-value burglaries and robberies a constant problem in the neighborhood. Just a few weeks ago, Nora’s fourteen-year-old son was held up for his cell phone at gunpoint, not three blocks from the family’s home. So the flowers become less of a concern.

“What can you do?” Nora asked. “It’s city living.”

Officer Patrick Gerrans has served the Rockridge district as its problem-solving officer for the past year and a half. As PSO, Gerrans acts as a liaison between the police department and area residents, attending monthly Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council meetings, where residents voice their concerns over area crime.

With that résumé, Gerrans should be something of an expert on flower poaching. But before receiving an interview request for this story, he had not heard of a single instance of this crime. Flower poaching has yet to be made a priority at NCPC meetings, longtime community activists report.

Gerrans said the regular community concerns are thefts, robberies, and burglaries on and around College Avenue. He guessed he hadn’t been briefed on reports of flower poaching because they get lost in the mix of the hundreds of similar minor theft reports the department receives from Rockridge. “In any nice neighborhood you tend to see more robberies and burglaries than in other parts of the city,” Gerrans said.

According to statistics obtained from the police department, during a recent seven-day period just one vehicle theft, one burglary, and one act of vandalism were reported in the half-mile scrim around the Rockridge BART station. From mid-March to mid-April, twelve thefts, seven burglaries, and nine vehicle thefts were reported in the same area, along with several cases each of assault and vandalism, and one of arson.

Gerrans said that a “crime of opportunity” like flower poaching is difficult to fight. “It’s hard to plan out where a guy’s going to be and where he’s going to commit his crime,” he said. Enforcement challenges only multiply during spring and summer’s clement climes, when foot, car, and bicycle traffic increases significantly around the commercial stretch of College and minor thefts tend to spike. And since flower poachers work at night, the police’s capacity to dissuade them through increased presence is reduced.

In the local shops where the stolen flowers might end up there’s no evidence of poaching, and a strong ethic against it. Julia Lojo owns Market Hall’s Bloomies flower shop, where she has worked for more than 22 years.

“I feel quite strongly about this,” an apron-clad Lojo said, adding a few last young blooms to a blown-glass vase, with a dogwood branch providing the centerpiece for the arrangement. A home gardener herself, Lojo said she abhors the act of poaching. “It’s just devastating to come out and see everything stripped.”

As long as she has been in the neighborhood, Lojo has listened to customers’ poaching horror stories. She said she buys her dogwood trimmings in bundles of five small (two- to three-foot long) branches, which cost her anywhere between $12.50 and $17 wholesale. With the rare blooms coming at that premium price, one can imagine flower shop owners might jump at dogwood bargains — maybe even be willing to turn a blind eye to a dubious source. “People with bad habits” have approached her in the past, offering small batches of magnolias and other flowers for sale out of their cars for a quick $20. But Lojo said she won’t do business with them.

Instead, she buys exclusively from San Francisco Wholesale Flower Mart, a consortium of about fifty growers and buyers, all of whom own their businesses, carry business licenses, and can tell you with confidence where it comes from, she said. And while she most prefers to buy locally grown materials, Lojo’s dogwoods currently come from Oregon, and her hydrangeas (a summer bloom in the Bay Area) from Colombia.

With not a single arrest on the books for flower poaching, the profile of the criminal perpetrating these strange acts is elusive. Are Rockridge’s poachers expert small-time crooks, dialed into some complex black-market commerce that subverts the checks and balances of resale law? Or are they fine-flower hoarders, stealing all the blooms they can for some personal use? Simple vandals? Is this flower laundering, or outright flower marauding?

Victims claim to have recognized their garden growths for sale at BART stations, and in nearby restaurant displays, but there’s no evidence of widespread reuse in Rockridge, where relations between local residents and retailers tend to be civil. The crime scenes indicate the acts of poaching are committed by flower amateurs, with no calm, and in the dead of night. Often flowers are inexpertly cut or, in the case of Nora’s dogwood, left in such poor condition the knowledgeable criminal would have little hope for next year’s score.

Flower Poaching is rampant in Rockridge

By Sarah Williams

In Rockridge, a Rarefied Crime: Flower Poaching – Unprosecuted because it’s not a high priority, the crime can nonetheless be fatal.
Spring has sprung in Oakland’s beautiful Rockridge district, and the front-yard gardens that are the pride of so many homeowners there are in full bloom. But the seasonal bounty comes with a price in this affluent neighborhood. For here a rarefied criminal act goes underreported: flower poaching.

For decades, Rockridge residents have awoken to evidence that nighttime flower poachers have raided their street-side gardens for fragrant lilacs, roses, and hydrangeas. Whole bushes have been ripped from the ground in the wee hours. The poachers don’t stop there, clipping entire branches from Japanese maples and — most sought-after at this time of year — the regionally scarce dogwood blooms that last just a few weeks. The trees are often left mutilated. Some have even been taken up by the roots and carried away whole.

Victims guess flower poaching is a black-market enterprise for small-time crooks looking to make a quick dollar. Much like stolen iPods and cell phones, which fetch a decent resale value on the black market, the plants have supposedly been recognized at local retailers and among curbside merchants’ sundries. While community members say they’ve made crime reports to the Oakland Police Department for years, local cops have yet to nab a single poacher.

Despite a flurry of complaints that crop up on community-run Internet message boards as regularly as hay fever, each spring the issue is pushed aside for Oakland’s more serious crime concerns. Even in Rockridge, stolen flowers don’t stand up to budget crises, grand theft, and gun violence. So the crime goes mostly unreported — and the criminals unfettered in their illicit trade.

Nora, a fourteen-year resident of lower Rockridge, has a glorious Kentucky dogwood in the front yard of her home, along with a couple of young Japanese maples and a large, healthy hydrangea bush that blooms each summer. Dogwood species flourish on the East Coast and in the South, but trees like Nora’s are relatively rare in this climate, making its brief springtime bloom the pride of her small garden, where her two children play. Neighbors re-route their daily strolls this time of year just to catch a glimpse of its bright, white clustered flowers.

But Nora, a perennial flower-poaching victim, derives no such joy from her tree. “Every time I look at the tree in bloom it breaks my heart because I know it’s going to be poached,” she said, standing in the dappled light beneath her dogwood’s full-blossomed splendor on a recent Saturday morning. She caressed the tree’s scars, some years old now but still visible to the naked eye. “It’s just a really ugly shape,” she said with a sigh.

Nora, who asked not to be identified with her last name so that she would not increase her risk of theft, remembers well the first morning she walked outside to find the telltale signs of a violent poach. Dogwood blossoms were scattered across the grass; gaping and seemingly random wounds dotted the trunk. Since that morning more than a decade ago, “we’re just hoping it will grow back,” she said. Hacked dogwood limbs damage a tree severely, and blooming branches can take years to regenerate. While many dogwood owners might clip a small branch or two each season to adorn their dining room table, Nora never does, for this very reason. She recently refused a request from her own mother for just a slight trimming.

After filing several police reports over the years, Nora and her husband decided to take matters into their own hands, installing a trip-wire along the narrow entry to the yard. Each night, they suspend a metal wire between two short posts at a height of about six inches. Awaking some mornings to find nearby tulips “scrunched” and the wire unlatched — but no dogwood blossoms scattered — the couple believe their poacher-preventative measure has been successful. And this year, the tree has yet to be molested, she reports.

Others haven’t been so lucky. During the week of April 13, two separate Rockridge dogwoods were poached. One of those — a six-foot dogwood — was stripped of 80 percent of its blooming branches, according to a neighbor. The tree, which belongs to homeowners who were out of town during the poach, will likely die.

This story is common around lower Rockridge, where foot traffic is heavy and front yards are typically less than fifteen feet deep off the sidewalk. West of College Avenue, it’s hard to find a solid block of houses without poaching tales that go back decades. Research for this story — door-to-door interviews and solicitations on popular local message boards — returned dozens of similar accounts from area residents. Poacher booty reportedly runs the gamut of all the fragrant and beautiful blooms the Bay Area climate can sustain. East of College, in upper Rockridge, no fewer than five separate dogwoods have been continually poached throughout the years. One attack on a baby tree proved fatal.

Residents have dreamed up preventive methods including installing security cameras, painting branches bright colors to dissuade reselling, leaving visible lamps and overhead lighting on all night, contracting with private security companies, and installing wireless sensors set to activate sprinklers. Some have requested more frequent police patrols at night.

While Nora would like to see law enforcement crack down on this crime, she knows Oakland police have bigger fish to fry, with higher-value burglaries and robberies a constant problem in the neighborhood. Just a few weeks ago, Nora’s fourteen-year-old son was held up for his cell phone at gunpoint, not three blocks from the family’s home. So the flowers become less of a concern.

“What can you do?” Nora asked. “It’s city living.”

Officer Patrick Gerrans has served the Rockridge district as its problem-solving officer for the past year and a half. As PSO, Gerrans acts as a liaison between the police department and area residents, attending monthly Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council meetings, where residents voice their concerns over area crime.

With that résumé, Gerrans should be something of an expert on flower poaching. But before receiving an interview request for this story, he had not heard of a single instance of this crime. Flower poaching has yet to be made a priority at NCPC meetings, longtime community activists report.

Gerrans said the regular community concerns are thefts, robberies, and burglaries on and around College Avenue. He guessed he hadn’t been briefed on reports of flower poaching because they get lost in the mix of the hundreds of similar minor theft reports the department receives from Rockridge. “In any nice neighborhood you tend to see more robberies and burglaries than in other parts of the city,” Gerrans said.

According to statistics obtained from the police department, during a recent seven-day period just one vehicle theft, one burglary, and one act of vandalism were reported in the half-mile scrim around the Rockridge BART station. From mid-March to mid-April, twelve thefts, seven burglaries, and nine vehicle thefts were reported in the same area, along with several cases each of assault and vandalism, and one of arson.

Gerrans said that a “crime of opportunity” like flower poaching is difficult to fight. “It’s hard to plan out where a guy’s going to be and where he’s going to commit his crime,” he said. Enforcement challenges only multiply during spring and summer’s clement climes, when foot, car, and bicycle traffic increases significantly around the commercial stretch of College and minor thefts tend to spike. And since flower poachers work at night, the police’s capacity to dissuade them through increased presence is reduced.

In the local shops where the stolen flowers might end up there’s no evidence of poaching, and a strong ethic against it. Julia Lojo owns Market Hall’s Bloomies flower shop, where she has worked for more than 22 years.

“I feel quite strongly about this,” an apron-clad Lojo said, adding a few last young blooms to a blown-glass vase, with a dogwood branch providing the centerpiece for the arrangement. A home gardener herself, Lojo said she abhors the act of poaching. “It’s just devastating to come out and see everything stripped.”

As long as she has been in the neighborhood, Lojo has listened to customers’ poaching horror stories. She said she buys her dogwood trimmings in bundles of five small (two- to three-foot long) branches, which cost her anywhere between $12.50 and $17 wholesale. With the rare blooms coming at that premium price, one can imagine flower shop owners might jump at dogwood bargains — maybe even be willing to turn a blind eye to a dubious source. “People with bad habits” have approached her in the past, offering small batches of magnolias and other flowers for sale out of their cars for a quick $20. But Lojo said she won’t do business with them.

Instead, she buys exclusively from San Francisco Wholesale Flower Mart, a consortium of about fifty growers and buyers, all of whom own their businesses, carry business licenses, and can tell you with confidence where it comes from, she said. And while she most prefers to buy locally grown materials, Lojo’s dogwoods currently come from Oregon, and her hydrangeas (a summer bloom in the Bay Area) from Colombia.

With not a single arrest on the books for flower poaching, the profile of the criminal perpetrating these strange acts is elusive. Are Rockridge’s poachers expert small-time crooks, dialed into some complex black-market commerce that subverts the checks and balances of resale law? Or are they fine-flower hoarders, stealing all the blooms they can for some personal use? Simple vandals? Is this flower laundering, or outright flower marauding?

Victims claim to have recognized their garden growths for sale at BART stations, and in nearby restaurant displays, but there’s no evidence of widespread reuse in Rockridge, where relations between local residents and retailers tend to be civil. The crime scenes indicate the acts of poaching are committed by flower amateurs, with no calm, and in the dead of night. Often flowers are inexpertly cut or, in the case of Nora’s dogwood, left in such poor condition the knowledgeable criminal would have little hope for next year’s score.

Organics: Are They Worth It?

By M H Ahssan

Warning: Consuming organic foods could be hazardous to your health.
That, I recently discovered, is the startling message being promoted by a nonprofit group that calls itself the Center for Consumer Freedom. A report featured on CCF’s website warns that manure, which organic farmers use instead of synthetic chemicals to fertilize crops, could prove deadly. Sure manure’s natural; but it’s also a “luscious breeding ground for all kinds of nasty microbes,” according to the report—including the dreaded bacteria E. coli. The natural pesticides used by organic farmers, the report even warns, may be more dangerous than synthetic chemicals.

The debate over “organic” versus “conventional” has always been contentious. Lately, it’s turned almost surreal. In a kind of Alice in Wonderland world where nothing is quite what it seems, proponents say organic farming protects the environment. Critics insist it’s so inefficient that most of the remaining forests would have to be felled to feed the planet organically. Organic advocates say pesticides can kill. Critics say organically grown plants have to produce their own natural defenses against insects, substances which could be many times more toxic than pesticides. Both sides accuse the other of fear-mongering—and then turn around and sow more fears.

When I read that warning from CCF—a group funded in part by agricultural chemical companies and fast-food giants—I laughed in disbelief. Then I got angry.

We shouldn’t have to fret about every bite we eat. Yet maddeningly, that’s exactly what has resulted as vested interests from global agribusiness to increasingly powerful organic trade associations have turned what should be an honest and open discussion into a frenzy of skewed information.

Caught in the middle are those of us whose only vested interest is putting a healthy meal on the table for our families—who simply want to shield our children from toxins, and do our small part to protect the environment and perhaps support a local farmer. All we’re asking, really, are a few simple questions. Is organic produce safer? Is it more nutritious? Is it friendlier to the environment than conventional agriculture? Is it worth spending more for organically grown food?

A few months ago I decided to try to look for answers. I knew at the outset they weren’t likely to be as easy as yes or no. The controversies run far too deep for that. Still, I set out in hopes of finding at least a small patch of common ground. What I discovered often surprised me. There are good reasons to buy organic—but also a few compelling ones to favor conventional.

Is organic produce safer?
Most people choose organic produce for one simple reason: to avoid consuming pesticides. Organic farmers are prohibited from using virtually all synthetic chemicals, either to kill weeds or pests or to fertilize plants. Conventional farmers in this country can use around 200 approved synthetic chemicals—fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides.

No one disputes the fact that at least some of those chemicals end up on the fruits and vegetables we take home from the market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture regularly tests hundreds of samples of fresh and processed foods for pesticide residues and posts the results on its website (www.ams.usda.gov). The samples are gathered from a variety of markets around the country and represent a cross-section of what’s available to consumers, including both organic and conventional produce. According to the latest results, which included 13,208 samples, 76 percent of fresh fruit and vegetables and 40 percent of processed fruits and vegetables had detectable residues. All of the milk tested, both organic and conventional, showed residues. Overall, about 30 percent of the samples were pesticide-free, 30 percent contained one pesticide and 40 percent had traces of more than one chemical. To be sure, the detected levels were very low in most samples, measured in a few parts per billion. According to the USDA, only 0.2 percent of the contaminated samples exceeded tolerance levels set by the federal government.

Even organic produce isn’t necessarily pesticide-free. Synthetic chemicals can drift over from nearby fields or leach into groundwater. All the same, organic produce is consistently lower in residues. In the USDA’s samples, for instance, 76 percent of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables had detectable pesticide levels, compared to only 23 percent of organically grown produce. California does its own testing, independent of the USDA, I discovered. Its analysis found residues in 31 percent of conventionally grown samples and only 6.5 percent of organics.

How dangerous are those residues likely to be? To find out, I put in a call to Chensheng Lu, a food scientist at Emory University. “Almost everybody has some pesticide in their body, which can be measured in urine samples,” Lu told me. As it happens, while studying a group of preschool kids a few years ago, he and some colleagues found an exception to that rule: a child who had no detectable levels of a class of common pesticides called organophosphates. When the scientists followed up, they discovered that the parents served almost nothing but organic food at home.

That unexpected finding inspired the research team to undertake an ingenious experiment. They followed 23 children who were eating mostly conventionally grown foods. For a period of five consecutive days they switched the children to organic foods—including organic fresh fruits, vegetables, juices, processed fruit or vegetables, pasta, dairy, cereal and even chips. The study concentrated on preschool kids because if pesticides on foods do pose a danger, young children are likely to be the most vulnerable. Because they are growing, they consume more food per pound of body weight than adults, which means higher exposure to pesticide residues. And since many modern pesticides are neurotoxins, designed to kill bugs by interfering with their nervous systems, even low levels could be potentially dangerous in children, whose brains are developing.

The results were clear cut. “While the kids were on conventional diets, it was easy to measure the presence of organophosphate pesticides in their urine,” Lu told me. “But within 24 hours after switching to organic diets, the metabolites for organophosphates fell to nondetectable levels. And as soon as the kids switched back to conventional diets, the levels rose again.”

If there was ever an emotionally compelling reason for choosing organic, this would seem to be it. But for scientists, one more crucial question needs to be resolved. Are the miniscule levels of pesticide residues found in our bodies enough to cause any harm?

The more I asked that question, the more elusive a reliable answer seemed to be. “The exposure levels are so low they’re not worth worrying about,” Robert Hollingworth, a toxicologist and former director of Michigan State University’s National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, told me. “I’d be more concerned about food additives than pesticide residues.” As a measure of his confidence, he said, “I don’t have any concerns about my grandchildren eating conventionally grown produce.”

Manfred Kroger, an expert in toxicology at Pennsylvania State University, agreed. “The levels of pesticide residue are insignificant. Not eating plenty of fruits and vegetables poses a far greater threat than any danger of chemicals in food.”

But Aaron Blair, an epidemiologist who studies links between pesticides and cancer risk at the National Cancer Institute, was more cautious. Of the 100 main pesticides used in agriculture, he told me, only two or three have been shown to cause cancer in animal studies—and then only when they are delivered at doses far higher than anyone eating conventionally grown fruits and vegetables could possibly be exposed to. Still, a few epidemiologic studies have found some evidence of an association between pesticide use and health problems in agricultural workers—lymphoma, prostate cancer and Parkinson’s, for instance. Those findings amount to “hints and leads,” according to Blair, not definitive evidence of risk. Still, he thinks it’s reasonable to be cautious. “After all, these are chemicals that were designed to cause harm,” he told me. “Let me put it this way. If you had a choice, you wouldn’t add them to food at the table.”

Does that mean he chooses organic over conventional when he goes shopping? “Not religiously, I have to admit,” he said. But then he added the crucial caveat. “Except when my grandchildren are visiting. Then I definitely do.”

Two grandfathers. Two experts. Two very different assessments of the risk. How can that be? The simple answer is that no one really knows because the data aren’t there. Short-term exposure may not be hazardous at all. But what are the consequences of being chronically exposed to a little every day, month after month, year after year? “That’s what we don’t know,” Lu told me, “and it’s a very hard thing to find out, because it means studying one group of people for a very long time.”

For now he offered what seemed like the best guidance in the face of so much uncertainty. “Since we know these chemicals are neurotoxins, the less you’re exposed to, it seems to me, the better.”

What about those natural toxins produced by organically grown plants? Is it possible, as the Center for Consumer Freedom warns, that they, too, could pose a risk? The researchers I talked to were skeptical. For starters, there’s no evidence that organic crops are consistently higher in natural plant toxins than conventional. Organic farmers may not use synthetic pesticides, after all, but they do use a wide variety of natural strategies to ward off bad bugs; their plants don’t have to defend themselves entirely on their own. What’s more, at least some of the substances that plants use for defense, including antioxidants, are precisely the ones that have been associated with better health.

As for microbes swarming in manure: It’s true that manure can harbor disease-causing bacteria. But when food scientists at the University of Georgia compared 54 samples each of organic and conventional salad greens, the organically grown greens were actually a little less likely to be contaminated with E. coli than conventional. And the best way to avoid problems, the study showed, was simply to wash the greens, no matter how they’re grown.

Is organic more nutritious?
For years, organic activists have insisted that foods grown organically are more nutritious. But that claim, I discovered, is more an article of faith than a scientific fact. Scientists have only recently begun to compare organic and conventional head to head, as it were. Leading that research is Alyson Mitchell, a crop scientist at the University of California, Davis. In 2003, she and her team compared food grown in two adjacent test farms—one organic, one conventional. Their findings showed that marionberries (a type of blackberry), strawberries and corn grown organically had consistently higher levels of antioxidants, including vitamin C. More recently, organically grown tomatoes were found to have more flavonoids, a class of plant-based compounds that are believed to protect against heart disease and possibly cancer.

So naturally when I reached Mitchell in her office, I expected her to wax rhapsodic over the nutritional benefits of organically grown produce. But while she agreed that her findings were “provocative” and “exciting,” she was also quick to say that it’s far too early to know if every organic tomato or peach is likely to have a nutritional edge. Many variables affect the nutrient content of a pepper or a pear, she pointed out—soil quality, sunlight, rainfall, even which pests happen to invade a field. Specific food crops may also be more or less influenced by different farming methods. While the UC Davis studies have shown that organic tomatoes are generally higher in flavonoids, for example, bell peppers appear to be nutritionally identical whether grown organically or conventionally.

And even where there is a nutritional advantage, it may not be enough to matter—at least in terms of public health. Let’s say organic tomatoes are a little higher in flavonoids. In most markets they’re also a lot higher in price. Given the price tags at my local market, for instance, I could eat twice as many conventional tomatoes, dollar for dollar, as organic ones. Having affordable conventionally grown tomatoes available means more people will be able to buy them, which in turn is likely to have a much bigger payoff than the little extra flavonoids an organic tomato might contain.

Is organic friendlier to the environment?
By choosing organic, I’ve always assumed I’m doing my small part to reduce the amount of pesticides percolating into the soil and flowing into streams and rivers. I’m not alone. Health may be the number one reason most people buy organic produce but environmental concerns run a close second, surveys show.

To my surprise, several of the toxicologists I spoke to downplayed concerns about agricultural chemicals in the environment. “The experience with DDT taught us how disastrous toxins in the environment can be,” the NCI’s Blair explained. “But DDT was especially dangerous because it has a long half-life, which means it persists for a long time in the environment. Almost all of us, for that reason, have DDT in our bodies. In fact, the newer pesticides are much more toxic than DDT, but they have very short lives, measured in days instead of years. Any chemical that persists in the environment would never be allowed to be used these days.”

Some chemicals banned in the U.S. are still used in other countries—including even DDT (although for mosquito control, not agriculture). And in countries where government oversight is lax, overuse and misuse of pesticides may pose a risk both to the environment and to workers who have to handle these toxic chemicals. For that reason, choosing organic may be especially important when you’re buying imported produce from places where environmental regulations may not be strictly enforced. Imported organic produce is required by the USDA to meet the same federal standards as organic produce grown in the U.S.

Here at home, though, the real environmental advantage of organic is as basic as dirt. “Conventional farmers feed their plants. Organic farmers feed the soil,” John Reganold, Regents professor of soil science at Washington State University, told me when I reached him by phone. Synthetic fertilizers may create rapid growth, but they don’t replenish the soil nearly as much as organic fertilizers do.

“Open any introductory textbook on soil and it will tell you that if you add organic material to soil, you’ll have healthier soil,” Reganold said. Because organic farming uses compost and other natural fertilizers, the soil typically teems with abundant microbial life, which helps nourish and sustain plants. “And that’s good for the environment in many ways,” Reganold said. “Organic farming results in less pollution of groundwater. By creating better soil, it increases water holding capacity, which reduces erosion. When you look at the research comparing organic and conventional farming systems, on every environmental measure, organic farming comes out ahead.”

For years, though, critics have argued that organic farming may be great for supplying the kitchens of high-end restaurants and well-to-do consumers, but it can’t produce enough food, at low cost, to feed the world. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers, after all, allowed modern agriculture to keep pace with the world’s rapidly growing population. If the world depended on organic methods, critics say, most of the world’s remaining forests would have to be chopped down to create fields and pastureland.

When I mentioned that criticism to Reganold, he leaped on it the way a gardener might snatch a particularly noxious weed. “That’s a bogus issue,” he told me. “At the moment, we’re not asking organic farmers to feed the world. We’re only saying that increasing the amount of acreage farmed organically would be a good thing.”

In truth, organic farming may not be as efficient, acre for acre, as conventional large-scale farming. A 2002 study by Paul Mäder and his colleagues at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Switzerland found that crop yields were about 20 percent lower in organic systems. But his study also found that, in some cases, organic farming methods used less than half the fertilizer and energy of conventional methods. Thus, organic farming methods may ultimately be more sustainable than chemical-intensive farming.

“Most research in the past 30 years has been on conventional farming,” Reganold pointed out. “The leading crop varieties have been chosen because they’re suited to conventional farming. The organic movement is growing, and its yields are increasing as we learn more about the science of organic farming. Some of our own studies have shown that organic apple orchards in the Pacific Northwest can get the same yield as conventional orchards.”

Is conventional ever a better choice than organic?
Imagine, for a moment, that your local market is offering both organic and conventionally grown apples. Both look delicious. And wonder of wonders, both are $1.99 a pound. Is there ever any reason to buy the conventional variety?

I would have thought the answer was obvious—until I called Michelle Miller, who coordinates the Pesticide Use and Risk Reduction Project at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. “Have you ever eaten an heirloom variety of apple called an orange pippin?” she asked me.

I hadn’t, though the name alone made me want to.

“They’re my absolute favorite. They’re delicious. And the problem here in Wisconsin is that they’re almost impossible to grow economically without using at least some pesticides.” When Miller was a kid, Wisconsin’s apple orchards were going strong, producing a wide range of varieties, including local heirlooms. But as consumer demand for organic apples grew, local orchards began to struggle. “It’s fairly easy to grow apples organically in the Pacific Northwest because of the climate. But in Wisconsin, with our summer heat and humidity, apples—including some heirloom varieties, like orange pippins—are susceptible to many more pests.”

If the good people of Wisconsin wanted to have locally grown apples available, she came to understand—and if they also wanted to support local family farms and preserve heirloom varieties that were in danger of disappearing—they might have to live with apples that contained some pesticide residues.

Miller’s mission, working with local farmers, is to make sure the residue levels are as low as possible. The approach, called integrated pest management, or IPM, tries to take full advantage of the effective methods of organic farming but also allows farmers the option of using some pesticides when necessary. “Farmers don’t want to use toxic chemicals,” Miller told me. “Everyone hears stories about farmers with cancer or Parkinson’s disease, and even if you can’t say synthetic pesticides are to blame, you worry. And synthetic pesticides are expensive. If farmers can cut down the number of sprays, they’ll actually save money.”

Over the past two years, farmers in Miller’s program have been able to reduce what she calls “pesticide risk”—a measure that takes into account both the amount of pesticides used and their particular toxicity—by 58 percent. Some farmers have cut their operating costs too. All of them can assure customers that their fruit is being grown locally with a minimal use of pesticides.

Similar groups are promoting sustainable agriculture and pesticide reduction around the country. A group called Red Tomato is gaining ground in the Northeast. Another, Protected Harvest, focuses on reducing pesticide use on farms that grow peaches, potatoes, carrots, green beans, wine grapes and other crops. Some of these groups have created their own eco-labels, offering consumers choices that go beyond organic versus conventional. (For more information, check out eco-labels.org.)

“Organic farming is a great thing,” explained Scott Exo, who heads up Food Alliance, an Oregon-based group that has created its own alternative certification program for farmers committed to sustainable agricultural practices. “Organic farmers are making a huge contribution. But organic isn’t everything. Organic certification is a series of prohibitions—a long list of chemicals that can’t be used. Certified-organic farmers often use organically derived pesticides like sulfur. But in some regions, it’s almost impossible to grow certain crops without synthetic pesticides.” What’s more, he pointed out, an organic label doesn’t tell you whether the food was grown locally or flown halfway around the world. It doesn’t tell you if workers on a farm are paid fairly or given decent living conditions. It doesn’t tell you whether animals are treated humanely, or whether a farm or ranch is doing anything to protect wildlife habitat or conserve soil and water.

To be sure, many small organic farmers do all those things. They’ve led the revolution in sustainable agriculture, after all. But even organic farmers worry that big players moving into the organic market may be living up to the letter of the regulations but betraying the spirit—thus diluting a more essential meaning of organic. As an example, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group called the Cornucopia Institute reported in April that at least some organic milk sold by a major nationwide brand comes from industrial-style dairy farms with thousands of cows who are kept confined rather than being allowed to graze. Wal-Mart, meanwhile, recently announced that it will double its organic produce offerings—sparking new worries that the original notion of organic farming as small and local has been lost to big business.

Most Food Alliance-certified farms, in contrast, aren’t organic. The group bans 13 of the most toxic chemicals but allows the use of others if organic approaches aren’t working. Certified farms also commit themselves to fair treatment of farmworkers, humane treatment of animals and stewardship of the land. More and more farms and ranches on the West Coast and in the Midwest are signing on, Exo told me.

To find out why, I spoke to Connie and Doc Hatfield, founding members of the Food Alliance, who live outside of Bend, Oregon. The Hatfields are ranchers, not farmers. Their “Country Natural Beef” is sold in many markets that feature organic produce. The cattle are raised without growth hormones or antibiotics. They’re free to roam the range. But they’re not strictly organic.

When I asked Doc Hatfield, a veterinarian by training, why not, he said, “We’ve got 14,000 acres of our own, but our cattle also range over land maintained by the Bureau of Land Management, and the BLM sometimes uses pesticides to clear weeds away from the roadside.” For that reason, his cattle can’t qualify as organic. But the Hatfields have come to believe that letting the animals roam over as much land as possible is more important to their health—and contentment—than restricting them to organic acreage.

Connie Hatfield put it this way: “I could park a cow here in our living room and feed it only organic feed. That cow would be organic. But it wouldn’t be very happy.”

What really matters?
After talking with Exo and the Hatfields, I began to realize that the choice isn’t nearly as simple as conventional versus organic. There are issues that go beyond those handy categories. And there are far more questions to weigh. Is it local? How far has it come to reach my table? Who grew it? How was it grown? In the case of milk or meat, were the animals treated humanely?

I know, I know. Not many of us have the time or inclination to interrogate grocery managers about every basket of blueberries or brisket of beef. But in my conversations with farmers and ranchers and scientists, I began to understand that by learning just a little more about the food I’m putting on the table, I could use my food dollars to cast a small but meaningful vote not only for the health of my family but for the kind of world I want to preserve.

I’m lucky to live in Sonoma County, California, where I can jump on my bike and, in five minutes, be riding through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world, a patchwork of dairylands, vineyards and small vegetable farms. Because I want to protect that open space and the economic vitality of local farming, I’ve begun to see that it’s important to support locally produced foods—sometimes more important than being a stickler for organic. Agricultural diversity also matters. I discovered that firsthand when I saw and tasted heirloom tomatoes at the local farmers’ market—Cherokee Purples, Green Zebras and Nebraska Weddings. Now I go out of my way to support small farmers who grow these heirloom varieties, even if they aren’t certified organic.

I’ve also come to understand that organic isn’t always hands-down the best choice for the planet—a fact brought home to me the last time I went shopping for dinner. Our local market was featuring gorgeous organic red peppers. A quick glance at the label revealed that they’d been shipped halfway around the world—from greenhouses in Holland to California. Fresh from the garden they weren’t. And whatever pesticides were spared in growing them were more than made up for by the petrochemicals used to get them here.

I settled for some fresh locally grown green bells.

Of course abundant local produce isn’t available all-year-round in most places, as my sister in Minnesota is quick to remind me (“You Californians,” she says, and I can almost see her rolling her eyes). Not everyone can choose between organic and conventional. But many places in the country do have bustling farmers’ markets in the summer—and there’s no better place to meet the people who are growing your food and preserving local agriculture. Some grow organically. Others may integrate organic and conventional techniques. Ask them and they’ll tell you exactly how they farm—and why.

Among the farmers I talked to was Kristie Knoll, whose small farm east of San Francisco supplies greens and other produce to Chez Panisse, the world-famous restaurant in Berkeley. Knoll also sells her produce at San Francisco’s farmers’ market on Saturdays, where I caught up with her on a drizzly morning. She offered me a sample of arugula and a bitter green I’d never tasted before, called puntarella. She also insisted that I try an arugula blossom—the small cream-colored flower that appears long after most arugula has been harvested. It was superb—sweet and peppery and beautiful to behold.

Knoll’s produce isn’t certified organic. “When the feds got into organic, we got out,” she told me, explaining that she didn’t want some bureaucrat telling her how to farm. Even so, everything she and her husband produce is grown entirely without chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Their farm goes beyond organic in its commitment to sustainable agriculture. “Sometimes that means losing something to bugs,” she said with a shrug, “but it’s the risk you take.”

Risky or not, she loves her work. All morning she dashed around answering customers’ questions, identifying unusual vegetables—puntarella, cardoons, broccoli rabe—and suggesting ways to prepare them, even passing out printed recipes. Before I said goodbye, I bought a generous bag full of arugula and a bunch of puntarella.

Back in my own kitchen, I chopped the puntarella into thin ribbons and mixed it with olive oil, finely chopped green garlic and anchovies to create a savory spread—a traditional Italian recipe that Knoll had given me. Maybe it was knowing how the greens were raised. Maybe it was the fact that they’d been picked fresh that morning. Maybe it was simply the memory of Kristie Knoll’s almost manic passion for everything she grows. Whatever the reason, it was absolutely delicious.

Where to put your money
Organic produce often costs 50 percent more than conventional produce and that can add up on your grocery bill. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, pored over the results of more than 100,000 USDA and FDA tests for pesticides on 46 popular produce items. The list below is ranked from most to least commonly contaminated produce to help you decide which fruits and vegetables to buy or not buy organic.

Organics: Are They Worth It?

By M H Ahssan

Warning: Consuming organic foods could be hazardous to your health.
That, I recently discovered, is the startling message being promoted by a nonprofit group that calls itself the Center for Consumer Freedom. A report featured on CCF’s website warns that manure, which organic farmers use instead of synthetic chemicals to fertilize crops, could prove deadly. Sure manure’s natural; but it’s also a “luscious breeding ground for all kinds of nasty microbes,” according to the report—including the dreaded bacteria E. coli. The natural pesticides used by organic farmers, the report even warns, may be more dangerous than synthetic chemicals.

The debate over “organic” versus “conventional” has always been contentious. Lately, it’s turned almost surreal. In a kind of Alice in Wonderland world where nothing is quite what it seems, proponents say organic farming protects the environment. Critics insist it’s so inefficient that most of the remaining forests would have to be felled to feed the planet organically. Organic advocates say pesticides can kill. Critics say organically grown plants have to produce their own natural defenses against insects, substances which could be many times more toxic than pesticides. Both sides accuse the other of fear-mongering—and then turn around and sow more fears.

When I read that warning from CCF—a group funded in part by agricultural chemical companies and fast-food giants—I laughed in disbelief. Then I got angry.

We shouldn’t have to fret about every bite we eat. Yet maddeningly, that’s exactly what has resulted as vested interests from global agribusiness to increasingly powerful organic trade associations have turned what should be an honest and open discussion into a frenzy of skewed information.

Caught in the middle are those of us whose only vested interest is putting a healthy meal on the table for our families—who simply want to shield our children from toxins, and do our small part to protect the environment and perhaps support a local farmer. All we’re asking, really, are a few simple questions. Is organic produce safer? Is it more nutritious? Is it friendlier to the environment than conventional agriculture? Is it worth spending more for organically grown food?

A few months ago I decided to try to look for answers. I knew at the outset they weren’t likely to be as easy as yes or no. The controversies run far too deep for that. Still, I set out in hopes of finding at least a small patch of common ground. What I discovered often surprised me. There are good reasons to buy organic—but also a few compelling ones to favor conventional.

Is organic produce safer?
Most people choose organic produce for one simple reason: to avoid consuming pesticides. Organic farmers are prohibited from using virtually all synthetic chemicals, either to kill weeds or pests or to fertilize plants. Conventional farmers in this country can use around 200 approved synthetic chemicals—fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides.

No one disputes the fact that at least some of those chemicals end up on the fruits and vegetables we take home from the market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture regularly tests hundreds of samples of fresh and processed foods for pesticide residues and posts the results on its website (www.ams.usda.gov). The samples are gathered from a variety of markets around the country and represent a cross-section of what’s available to consumers, including both organic and conventional produce. According to the latest results, which included 13,208 samples, 76 percent of fresh fruit and vegetables and 40 percent of processed fruits and vegetables had detectable residues. All of the milk tested, both organic and conventional, showed residues. Overall, about 30 percent of the samples were pesticide-free, 30 percent contained one pesticide and 40 percent had traces of more than one chemical. To be sure, the detected levels were very low in most samples, measured in a few parts per billion. According to the USDA, only 0.2 percent of the contaminated samples exceeded tolerance levels set by the federal government.

Even organic produce isn’t necessarily pesticide-free. Synthetic chemicals can drift over from nearby fields or leach into groundwater. All the same, organic produce is consistently lower in residues. In the USDA’s samples, for instance, 76 percent of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables had detectable pesticide levels, compared to only 23 percent of organically grown produce. California does its own testing, independent of the USDA, I discovered. Its analysis found residues in 31 percent of conventionally grown samples and only 6.5 percent of organics.

How dangerous are those residues likely to be? To find out, I put in a call to Chensheng Lu, a food scientist at Emory University. “Almost everybody has some pesticide in their body, which can be measured in urine samples,” Lu told me. As it happens, while studying a group of preschool kids a few years ago, he and some colleagues found an exception to that rule: a child who had no detectable levels of a class of common pesticides called organophosphates. When the scientists followed up, they discovered that the parents served almost nothing but organic food at home.

That unexpected finding inspired the research team to undertake an ingenious experiment. They followed 23 children who were eating mostly conventionally grown foods. For a period of five consecutive days they switched the children to organic foods—including organic fresh fruits, vegetables, juices, processed fruit or vegetables, pasta, dairy, cereal and even chips. The study concentrated on preschool kids because if pesticides on foods do pose a danger, young children are likely to be the most vulnerable. Because they are growing, they consume more food per pound of body weight than adults, which means higher exposure to pesticide residues. And since many modern pesticides are neurotoxins, designed to kill bugs by interfering with their nervous systems, even low levels could be potentially dangerous in children, whose brains are developing.

The results were clear cut. “While the kids were on conventional diets, it was easy to measure the presence of organophosphate pesticides in their urine,” Lu told me. “But within 24 hours after switching to organic diets, the metabolites for organophosphates fell to nondetectable levels. And as soon as the kids switched back to conventional diets, the levels rose again.”

If there was ever an emotionally compelling reason for choosing organic, this would seem to be it. But for scientists, one more crucial question needs to be resolved. Are the miniscule levels of pesticide residues found in our bodies enough to cause any harm?

The more I asked that question, the more elusive a reliable answer seemed to be. “The exposure levels are so low they’re not worth worrying about,” Robert Hollingworth, a toxicologist and former director of Michigan State University’s National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, told me. “I’d be more concerned about food additives than pesticide residues.” As a measure of his confidence, he said, “I don’t have any concerns about my grandchildren eating conventionally grown produce.”

Manfred Kroger, an expert in toxicology at Pennsylvania State University, agreed. “The levels of pesticide residue are insignificant. Not eating plenty of fruits and vegetables poses a far greater threat than any danger of chemicals in food.”

But Aaron Blair, an epidemiologist who studies links between pesticides and cancer risk at the National Cancer Institute, was more cautious. Of the 100 main pesticides used in agriculture, he told me, only two or three have been shown to cause cancer in animal studies—and then only when they are delivered at doses far higher than anyone eating conventionally grown fruits and vegetables could possibly be exposed to. Still, a few epidemiologic studies have found some evidence of an association between pesticide use and health problems in agricultural workers—lymphoma, prostate cancer and Parkinson’s, for instance. Those findings amount to “hints and leads,” according to Blair, not definitive evidence of risk. Still, he thinks it’s reasonable to be cautious. “After all, these are chemicals that were designed to cause harm,” he told me. “Let me put it this way. If you had a choice, you wouldn’t add them to food at the table.”

Does that mean he chooses organic over conventional when he goes shopping? “Not religiously, I have to admit,” he said. But then he added the crucial caveat. “Except when my grandchildren are visiting. Then I definitely do.”

Two grandfathers. Two experts. Two very different assessments of the risk. How can that be? The simple answer is that no one really knows because the data aren’t there. Short-term exposure may not be hazardous at all. But what are the consequences of being chronically exposed to a little every day, month after month, year after year? “That’s what we don’t know,” Lu told me, “and it’s a very hard thing to find out, because it means studying one group of people for a very long time.”

For now he offered what seemed like the best guidance in the face of so much uncertainty. “Since we know these chemicals are neurotoxins, the less you’re exposed to, it seems to me, the better.”

What about those natural toxins produced by organically grown plants? Is it possible, as the Center for Consumer Freedom warns, that they, too, could pose a risk? The researchers I talked to were skeptical. For starters, there’s no evidence that organic crops are consistently higher in natural plant toxins than conventional. Organic farmers may not use synthetic pesticides, after all, but they do use a wide variety of natural strategies to ward off bad bugs; their plants don’t have to defend themselves entirely on their own. What’s more, at least some of the substances that plants use for defense, including antioxidants, are precisely the ones that have been associated with better health.

As for microbes swarming in manure: It’s true that manure can harbor disease-causing bacteria. But when food scientists at the University of Georgia compared 54 samples each of organic and conventional salad greens, the organically grown greens were actually a little less likely to be contaminated with E. coli than conventional. And the best way to avoid problems, the study showed, was simply to wash the greens, no matter how they’re grown.

Is organic more nutritious?
For years, organic activists have insisted that foods grown organically are more nutritious. But that claim, I discovered, is more an article of faith than a scientific fact. Scientists have only recently begun to compare organic and conventional head to head, as it were. Leading that research is Alyson Mitchell, a crop scientist at the University of California, Davis. In 2003, she and her team compared food grown in two adjacent test farms—one organic, one conventional. Their findings showed that marionberries (a type of blackberry), strawberries and corn grown organically had consistently higher levels of antioxidants, including vitamin C. More recently, organically grown tomatoes were found to have more flavonoids, a class of plant-based compounds that are believed to protect against heart disease and possibly cancer.

So naturally when I reached Mitchell in her office, I expected her to wax rhapsodic over the nutritional benefits of organically grown produce. But while she agreed that her findings were “provocative” and “exciting,” she was also quick to say that it’s far too early to know if every organic tomato or peach is likely to have a nutritional edge. Many variables affect the nutrient content of a pepper or a pear, she pointed out—soil quality, sunlight, rainfall, even which pests happen to invade a field. Specific food crops may also be more or less influenced by different farming methods. While the UC Davis studies have shown that organic tomatoes are generally higher in flavonoids, for example, bell peppers appear to be nutritionally identical whether grown organically or conventionally.

And even where there is a nutritional advantage, it may not be enough to matter—at least in terms of public health. Let’s say organic tomatoes are a little higher in flavonoids. In most markets they’re also a lot higher in price. Given the price tags at my local market, for instance, I could eat twice as many conventional tomatoes, dollar for dollar, as organic ones. Having affordable conventionally grown tomatoes available means more people will be able to buy them, which in turn is likely to have a much bigger payoff than the little extra flavonoids an organic tomato might contain.

Is organic friendlier to the environment?
By choosing organic, I’ve always assumed I’m doing my small part to reduce the amount of pesticides percolating into the soil and flowing into streams and rivers. I’m not alone. Health may be the number one reason most people buy organic produce but environmental concerns run a close second, surveys show.

To my surprise, several of the toxicologists I spoke to downplayed concerns about agricultural chemicals in the environment. “The experience with DDT taught us how disastrous toxins in the environment can be,” the NCI’s Blair explained. “But DDT was especially dangerous because it has a long half-life, which means it persists for a long time in the environment. Almost all of us, for that reason, have DDT in our bodies. In fact, the newer pesticides are much more toxic than DDT, but they have very short lives, measured in days instead of years. Any chemical that persists in the environment would never be allowed to be used these days.”

Some chemicals banned in the U.S. are still used in other countries—including even DDT (although for mosquito control, not agriculture). And in countries where government oversight is lax, overuse and misuse of pesticides may pose a risk both to the environment and to workers who have to handle these toxic chemicals. For that reason, choosing organic may be especially important when you’re buying imported produce from places where environmental regulations may not be strictly enforced. Imported organic produce is required by the USDA to meet the same federal standards as organic produce grown in the U.S.

Here at home, though, the real environmental advantage of organic is as basic as dirt. “Conventional farmers feed their plants. Organic farmers feed the soil,” John Reganold, Regents professor of soil science at Washington State University, told me when I reached him by phone. Synthetic fertilizers may create rapid growth, but they don’t replenish the soil nearly as much as organic fertilizers do.

“Open any introductory textbook on soil and it will tell you that if you add organic material to soil, you’ll have healthier soil,” Reganold said. Because organic farming uses compost and other natural fertilizers, the soil typically teems with abundant microbial life, which helps nourish and sustain plants. “And that’s good for the environment in many ways,” Reganold said. “Organic farming results in less pollution of groundwater. By creating better soil, it increases water holding capacity, which reduces erosion. When you look at the research comparing organic and conventional farming systems, on every environmental measure, organic farming comes out ahead.”

For years, though, critics have argued that organic farming may be great for supplying the kitchens of high-end restaurants and well-to-do consumers, but it can’t produce enough food, at low cost, to feed the world. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers, after all, allowed modern agriculture to keep pace with the world’s rapidly growing population. If the world depended on organic methods, critics say, most of the world’s remaining forests would have to be chopped down to create fields and pastureland.

When I mentioned that criticism to Reganold, he leaped on it the way a gardener might snatch a particularly noxious weed. “That’s a bogus issue,” he told me. “At the moment, we’re not asking organic farmers to feed the world. We’re only saying that increasing the amount of acreage farmed organically would be a good thing.”

In truth, organic farming may not be as efficient, acre for acre, as conventional large-scale farming. A 2002 study by Paul Mäder and his colleagues at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Switzerland found that crop yields were about 20 percent lower in organic systems. But his study also found that, in some cases, organic farming methods used less than half the fertilizer and energy of conventional methods. Thus, organic farming methods may ultimately be more sustainable than chemical-intensive farming.

“Most research in the past 30 years has been on conventional farming,” Reganold pointed out. “The leading crop varieties have been chosen because they’re suited to conventional farming. The organic movement is growing, and its yields are increasing as we learn more about the science of organic farming. Some of our own studies have shown that organic apple orchards in the Pacific Northwest can get the same yield as conventional orchards.”

Is conventional ever a better choice than organic?
Imagine, for a moment, that your local market is offering both organic and conventionally grown apples. Both look delicious. And wonder of wonders, both are $1.99 a pound. Is there ever any reason to buy the conventional variety?

I would have thought the answer was obvious—until I called Michelle Miller, who coordinates the Pesticide Use and Risk Reduction Project at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. “Have you ever eaten an heirloom variety of apple called an orange pippin?” she asked me.

I hadn’t, though the name alone made me want to.

“They’re my absolute favorite. They’re delicious. And the problem here in Wisconsin is that they’re almost impossible to grow economically without using at least some pesticides.” When Miller was a kid, Wisconsin’s apple orchards were going strong, producing a wide range of varieties, including local heirlooms. But as consumer demand for organic apples grew, local orchards began to struggle. “It’s fairly easy to grow apples organically in the Pacific Northwest because of the climate. But in Wisconsin, with our summer heat and humidity, apples—including some heirloom varieties, like orange pippins—are susceptible to many more pests.”

If the good people of Wisconsin wanted to have locally grown apples available, she came to understand—and if they also wanted to support local family farms and preserve heirloom varieties that were in danger of disappearing—they might have to live with apples that contained some pesticide residues.

Miller’s mission, working with local farmers, is to make sure the residue levels are as low as possible. The approach, called integrated pest management, or IPM, tries to take full advantage of the effective methods of organic farming but also allows farmers the option of using some pesticides when necessary. “Farmers don’t want to use toxic chemicals,” Miller told me. “Everyone hears stories about farmers with cancer or Parkinson’s disease, and even if you can’t say synthetic pesticides are to blame, you worry. And synthetic pesticides are expensive. If farmers can cut down the number of sprays, they’ll actually save money.”

Over the past two years, farmers in Miller’s program have been able to reduce what she calls “pesticide risk”—a measure that takes into account both the amount of pesticides used and their particular toxicity—by 58 percent. Some farmers have cut their operating costs too. All of them can assure customers that their fruit is being grown locally with a minimal use of pesticides.

Similar groups are promoting sustainable agriculture and pesticide reduction around the country. A group called Red Tomato is gaining ground in the Northeast. Another, Protected Harvest, focuses on reducing pesticide use on farms that grow peaches, potatoes, carrots, green beans, wine grapes and other crops. Some of these groups have created their own eco-labels, offering consumers choices that go beyond organic versus conventional. (For more information, check out eco-labels.org.)

“Organic farming is a great thing,” explained Scott Exo, who heads up Food Alliance, an Oregon-based group that has created its own alternative certification program for farmers committed to sustainable agricultural practices. “Organic farmers are making a huge contribution. But organic isn’t everything. Organic certification is a series of prohibitions—a long list of chemicals that can’t be used. Certified-organic farmers often use organically derived pesticides like sulfur. But in some regions, it’s almost impossible to grow certain crops without synthetic pesticides.” What’s more, he pointed out, an organic label doesn’t tell you whether the food was grown locally or flown halfway around the world. It doesn’t tell you if workers on a farm are paid fairly or given decent living conditions. It doesn’t tell you whether animals are treated humanely, or whether a farm or ranch is doing anything to protect wildlife habitat or conserve soil and water.

To be sure, many small organic farmers do all those things. They’ve led the revolution in sustainable agriculture, after all. But even organic farmers worry that big players moving into the organic market may be living up to the letter of the regulations but betraying the spirit—thus diluting a more essential meaning of organic. As an example, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group called the Cornucopia Institute reported in April that at least some organic milk sold by a major nationwide brand comes from industrial-style dairy farms with thousands of cows who are kept confined rather than being allowed to graze. Wal-Mart, meanwhile, recently announced that it will double its organic produce offerings—sparking new worries that the original notion of organic farming as small and local has been lost to big business.

Most Food Alliance-certified farms, in contrast, aren’t organic. The group bans 13 of the most toxic chemicals but allows the use of others if organic approaches aren’t working. Certified farms also commit themselves to fair treatment of farmworkers, humane treatment of animals and stewardship of the land. More and more farms and ranches on the West Coast and in the Midwest are signing on, Exo told me.

To find out why, I spoke to Connie and Doc Hatfield, founding members of the Food Alliance, who live outside of Bend, Oregon. The Hatfields are ranchers, not farmers. Their “Country Natural Beef” is sold in many markets that feature organic produce. The cattle are raised without growth hormones or antibiotics. They’re free to roam the range. But they’re not strictly organic.

When I asked Doc Hatfield, a veterinarian by training, why not, he said, “We’ve got 14,000 acres of our own, but our cattle also range over land maintained by the Bureau of Land Management, and the BLM sometimes uses pesticides to clear weeds away from the roadside.” For that reason, his cattle can’t qualify as organic. But the Hatfields have come to believe that letting the animals roam over as much land as possible is more important to their health—and contentment—than restricting them to organic acreage.

Connie Hatfield put it this way: “I could park a cow here in our living room and feed it only organic feed. That cow would be organic. But it wouldn’t be very happy.”

What really matters?
After talking with Exo and the Hatfields, I began to realize that the choice isn’t nearly as simple as conventional versus organic. There are issues that go beyond those handy categories. And there are far more questions to weigh. Is it local? How far has it come to reach my table? Who grew it? How was it grown? In the case of milk or meat, were the animals treated humanely?

I know, I know. Not many of us have the time or inclination to interrogate grocery managers about every basket of blueberries or brisket of beef. But in my conversations with farmers and ranchers and scientists, I began to understand that by learning just a little more about the food I’m putting on the table, I could use my food dollars to cast a small but meaningful vote not only for the health of my family but for the kind of world I want to preserve.

I’m lucky to live in Sonoma County, California, where I can jump on my bike and, in five minutes, be riding through some of the most beautiful countryside in the world, a patchwork of dairylands, vineyards and small vegetable farms. Because I want to protect that open space and the economic vitality of local farming, I’ve begun to see that it’s important to support locally produced foods—sometimes more important than being a stickler for organic. Agricultural diversity also matters. I discovered that firsthand when I saw and tasted heirloom tomatoes at the local farmers’ market—Cherokee Purples, Green Zebras and Nebraska Weddings. Now I go out of my way to support small farmers who grow these heirloom varieties, even if they aren’t certified organic.

I’ve also come to understand that organic isn’t always hands-down the best choice for the planet—a fact brought home to me the last time I went shopping for dinner. Our local market was featuring gorgeous organic red peppers. A quick glance at the label revealed that they’d been shipped halfway around the world—from greenhouses in Holland to California. Fresh from the garden they weren’t. And whatever pesticides were spared in growing them were more than made up for by the petrochemicals used to get them here.

I settled for some fresh locally grown green bells.

Of course abundant local produce isn’t available all-year-round in most places, as my sister in Minnesota is quick to remind me (“You Californians,” she says, and I can almost see her rolling her eyes). Not everyone can choose between organic and conventional. But many places in the country do have bustling farmers’ markets in the summer—and there’s no better place to meet the people who are growing your food and preserving local agriculture. Some grow organically. Others may integrate organic and conventional techniques. Ask them and they’ll tell you exactly how they farm—and why.

Among the farmers I talked to was Kristie Knoll, whose small farm east of San Francisco supplies greens and other produce to Chez Panisse, the world-famous restaurant in Berkeley. Knoll also sells her produce at San Francisco’s farmers’ market on Saturdays, where I caught up with her on a drizzly morning. She offered me a sample of arugula and a bitter green I’d never tasted before, called puntarella. She also insisted that I try an arugula blossom—the small cream-colored flower that appears long after most arugula has been harvested. It was superb—sweet and peppery and beautiful to behold.

Knoll’s produce isn’t certified organic. “When the feds got into organic, we got out,” she told me, explaining that she didn’t want some bureaucrat telling her how to farm. Even so, everything she and her husband produce is grown entirely without chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Their farm goes beyond organic in its commitment to sustainable agriculture. “Sometimes that means losing something to bugs,” she said with a shrug, “but it’s the risk you take.”

Risky or not, she loves her work. All morning she dashed around answering customers’ questions, identifying unusual vegetables—puntarella, cardoons, broccoli rabe—and suggesting ways to prepare them, even passing out printed recipes. Before I said goodbye, I bought a generous bag full of arugula and a bunch of puntarella.

Back in my own kitchen, I chopped the puntarella into thin ribbons and mixed it with olive oil, finely chopped green garlic and anchovies to create a savory spread—a traditional Italian recipe that Knoll had given me. Maybe it was knowing how the greens were raised. Maybe it was the fact that they’d been picked fresh that morning. Maybe it was simply the memory of Kristie Knoll’s almost manic passion for everything she grows. Whatever the reason, it was absolutely delicious.

Where to put your money
Organic produce often costs 50 percent more than conventional produce and that can add up on your grocery bill. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, pored over the results of more than 100,000 USDA and FDA tests for pesticides on 46 popular produce items. The list below is ranked from most to least commonly contaminated produce to help you decide which fruits and vegetables to buy or not buy organic.

The myth of Talibanistan

By M H Ahssan & Syed Saleem Shehzad

Apocalypse Now. Run for cover. The turbans are coming. This is the state of Pakistan today, according to the current hysteria disseminated by the Barack Obama administration and United States corporate media – from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to The New York Times. Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said on the record that Pakistani Talibanistan is a threat to the security of Britain.

But unlike St Petersburg in 1917 or Tehran in late 1978, Islamabad won’t fall tomorrow to a turban revolution.

Pakistan is not an ungovernable Somalia. The numbers tell the story. At least 55% of Pakistan’s 170 million-strong population are Punjabis. There’s no evidence they are about to embrace Talibanistan; they are essentially Shi’ites, Sufis or a mix of both. Around 50 million are Sindhis – faithful followers of the late Benazir Bhutto and her husband, now President Asif Ali Zardari’s centrist and overwhelmingly secular Pakistan People’s Party. Talibanistan fanatics in these two provinces – amounting to 85% of Pakistan’s population, with a heavy concentration of the urban middle class – are an infinitesimal minority.

The Pakistan-based Taliban – subdivided in roughly three major groups, amounting to less than 10,000 fighters with no air force, no Predator drones, no tanks and no heavily weaponized vehicles – are concentrated in the Pashtun tribal areas, in some districts of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and some very localized, small parts of Punjab.

To believe this rag-tag band could rout the well-equipped, very professional 550,000-strong Pakistani army, the sixth-largest military in the world, which has already met the Indian colossus in battle, is a ludicrous proposition.

Moreover, there’s no evidence the Taliban, in Afghanistan or in Pakistan, have any capability to hit a target outside of “Af-Pak”(Afghanistan and Pakistan). That’s mythical al-Qaeda’s privileged territory. As for the nuclear hysteria of the Taliban being able to crack the Pakistani army codes for the country’s nuclear arsenal (most of the Taliban, by the way, are semi-literate), even Obama, at his 100-day news conference, stressed the nuclear arsenal was safe.

Of course, there’s a smatter of junior Pashtun army officers who sympathize with the Taliban – as well as significant sections of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency. But the military institution itself is backed by none other than the American army – with which it has been closely intertwined since the 1970s. Zardari would be a fool to unleash a mass killing of Pakistani Pashtuns; on the contrary, Pashtuns can be very useful for Islamabad’s own designs.

Zardari’s government this week had to send in troops and the air force to deal with the Buner problem, in the Malakand district of NWFP, which shares a border with Kunar province in Afghanistan and thus is relatively close to US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops. They are fighting less than 500 members of the Tehrik-e Taliban-e Pakistan (TTP). But for the Pakistani army, the possibility of the area joining Talibanistan is a great asset – because this skyrockets Pakistani control of Pashtun southern Afghanistan, ever in accordance to the eternal “strategic depth” doctrine prevailing in Islamabad.

So if Islamabad is not burning tomorrow, why the hysteria? There are several reasons. To start with, what Washington – now under Obama’s “Af-Pak” strategy – simply cannot stomach is real democracy and a true civilian government in Islamabad; these would be much more than a threat to “US interests” than the Taliban, whom the Bill Clinton administration was happily wining and dining in the late 1990s.

What Washington may certainly relish is yet another military coup – and sources tell Asia Times Online that former dictator General Pervez Musharraf (Busharraf as he was derisively referred to) is active behind the hysteria scene.

It’s crucial to remember that every military coup in Pakistan has been conducted by the army chief of staff. So the man of the hour – and the next few hours, days and months – is discreet General Ashfaq Kiani, Benazir’s former army secretary. He is very cozy with US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, and definitely not a Taliban-hugger.

Moreover, there are canyons of the Pakistani military/security bureaucracy who would love nothing better than to extract even more US dollars from Washington to fight the Pashtun neo-Taliban that they are simultaneously arming to fight the Americans and NATO. It works. Washington is now under a counter-insurgency craze, with the Pentagon eager to teach such tactics to every Pakistani officer in sight.

What is never mentioned by US corporate media is the tremendous social problems Pakistan has to deal with because of the mess in the tribal areas. Islamabad believes that between the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and NWFP, at least 1 million people are now displaced (not to mention badly in need of food aid). FATA’s population is around 3.5 million – overwhelmingly poor Pashtun peasants. And obviously war in FATA translates into insecurity and paranoia in the fabled capital of NWFP, Peshawar.

The myth of Talibanistan anyway is just a diversion, a cog in the slow-moving regional big wheel – which in itself is part of the new great game in Eurasia.

During a first stage – let’s call it the branding of evil – Washington think-tanks and corporate media hammered non-stop on the “threat of al-Qaeda” to Pakistan and the US. FATA was branded as terrorist central – the most dangerous place in the world where “the terrorists” and an army of suicide bombers were trained and unleashed into Afghanistan to kill the “liberators” of US/NATO.

In the second stage, the new Obama administration accelerated the Predator “hell from above” drone war over Pashtun peasants. Now comes the stage where the soon over 100,000-strong US/NATO troops are depicted as the true liberators of the poor in Af-Pak (and not the “evil” Taliban) – an essential ploy in the new narrative to legitimize Obama’s Af-Pak surge.

For all pieces to fall into place, a new uber-bogeyman is needed. And he is TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud, who, curiously, had never been hit by even a fake US drone until, in early March, he made official his allegiance to historic Taliban leader Mullah Omar, “The Shadow” himself, who is said to live undisturbed somewhere around Quetta, in Pakistani Balochistan.

Now there’s a US$5 million price on Baitullah’s head. The Predators have duly hit the Mehsud family’s South Waziristan bases. But – curioser and curioser – not once but twice, the ISI forwarded a detailed dossier of Baitullah’s location directly to its cousin, the Central Intelligence Agency. But there was no drone hit.

And maybe there won’t be – especially now that a bewildered Zardari government is starting to consider that the previous uber-bogeyman, a certain Osama bin Laden, is no more than a ghost. Drones can incinerate any single Pashtun wedding in sight. But international bogeymen of mystery – Osama, Baitullah, Mullah Omar – star players in the new OCO (overseas contingency operations), formerly GWOT (“global war on terror”), of course deserve star treatment.

The myth of Talibanistan

By M H Ahssan & Syed Saleem Shehzad

Apocalypse Now. Run for cover. The turbans are coming. This is the state of Pakistan today, according to the current hysteria disseminated by the Barack Obama administration and United States corporate media – from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to The New York Times. Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said on the record that Pakistani Talibanistan is a threat to the security of Britain.

But unlike St Petersburg in 1917 or Tehran in late 1978, Islamabad won’t fall tomorrow to a turban revolution.

Pakistan is not an ungovernable Somalia. The numbers tell the story. At least 55% of Pakistan’s 170 million-strong population are Punjabis. There’s no evidence they are about to embrace Talibanistan; they are essentially Shi’ites, Sufis or a mix of both. Around 50 million are Sindhis – faithful followers of the late Benazir Bhutto and her husband, now President Asif Ali Zardari’s centrist and overwhelmingly secular Pakistan People’s Party. Talibanistan fanatics in these two provinces – amounting to 85% of Pakistan’s population, with a heavy concentration of the urban middle class – are an infinitesimal minority.

The Pakistan-based Taliban – subdivided in roughly three major groups, amounting to less than 10,000 fighters with no air force, no Predator drones, no tanks and no heavily weaponized vehicles – are concentrated in the Pashtun tribal areas, in some districts of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and some very localized, small parts of Punjab.

To believe this rag-tag band could rout the well-equipped, very professional 550,000-strong Pakistani army, the sixth-largest military in the world, which has already met the Indian colossus in battle, is a ludicrous proposition.

Moreover, there’s no evidence the Taliban, in Afghanistan or in Pakistan, have any capability to hit a target outside of “Af-Pak”(Afghanistan and Pakistan). That’s mythical al-Qaeda’s privileged territory. As for the nuclear hysteria of the Taliban being able to crack the Pakistani army codes for the country’s nuclear arsenal (most of the Taliban, by the way, are semi-literate), even Obama, at his 100-day news conference, stressed the nuclear arsenal was safe.

Of course, there’s a smatter of junior Pashtun army officers who sympathize with the Taliban – as well as significant sections of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency. But the military institution itself is backed by none other than the American army – with which it has been closely intertwined since the 1970s. Zardari would be a fool to unleash a mass killing of Pakistani Pashtuns; on the contrary, Pashtuns can be very useful for Islamabad’s own designs.

Zardari’s government this week had to send in troops and the air force to deal with the Buner problem, in the Malakand district of NWFP, which shares a border with Kunar province in Afghanistan and thus is relatively close to US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops. They are fighting less than 500 members of the Tehrik-e Taliban-e Pakistan (TTP). But for the Pakistani army, the possibility of the area joining Talibanistan is a great asset – because this skyrockets Pakistani control of Pashtun southern Afghanistan, ever in accordance to the eternal “strategic depth” doctrine prevailing in Islamabad.

So if Islamabad is not burning tomorrow, why the hysteria? There are several reasons. To start with, what Washington – now under Obama’s “Af-Pak” strategy – simply cannot stomach is real democracy and a true civilian government in Islamabad; these would be much more than a threat to “US interests” than the Taliban, whom the Bill Clinton administration was happily wining and dining in the late 1990s.

What Washington may certainly relish is yet another military coup – and sources tell Asia Times Online that former dictator General Pervez Musharraf (Busharraf as he was derisively referred to) is active behind the hysteria scene.

It’s crucial to remember that every military coup in Pakistan has been conducted by the army chief of staff. So the man of the hour – and the next few hours, days and months – is discreet General Ashfaq Kiani, Benazir’s former army secretary. He is very cozy with US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, and definitely not a Taliban-hugger.

Moreover, there are canyons of the Pakistani military/security bureaucracy who would love nothing better than to extract even more US dollars from Washington to fight the Pashtun neo-Taliban that they are simultaneously arming to fight the Americans and NATO. It works. Washington is now under a counter-insurgency craze, with the Pentagon eager to teach such tactics to every Pakistani officer in sight.

What is never mentioned by US corporate media is the tremendous social problems Pakistan has to deal with because of the mess in the tribal areas. Islamabad believes that between the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and NWFP, at least 1 million people are now displaced (not to mention badly in need of food aid). FATA’s population is around 3.5 million – overwhelmingly poor Pashtun peasants. And obviously war in FATA translates into insecurity and paranoia in the fabled capital of NWFP, Peshawar.

The myth of Talibanistan anyway is just a diversion, a cog in the slow-moving regional big wheel – which in itself is part of the new great game in Eurasia.

During a first stage – let’s call it the branding of evil – Washington think-tanks and corporate media hammered non-stop on the “threat of al-Qaeda” to Pakistan and the US. FATA was branded as terrorist central – the most dangerous place in the world where “the terrorists” and an army of suicide bombers were trained and unleashed into Afghanistan to kill the “liberators” of US/NATO.

In the second stage, the new Obama administration accelerated the Predator “hell from above” drone war over Pashtun peasants. Now comes the stage where the soon over 100,000-strong US/NATO troops are depicted as the true liberators of the poor in Af-Pak (and not the “evil” Taliban) – an essential ploy in the new narrative to legitimize Obama’s Af-Pak surge.

For all pieces to fall into place, a new uber-bogeyman is needed. And he is TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud, who, curiously, had never been hit by even a fake US drone until, in early March, he made official his allegiance to historic Taliban leader Mullah Omar, “The Shadow” himself, who is said to live undisturbed somewhere around Quetta, in Pakistani Balochistan.

Now there’s a US$5 million price on Baitullah’s head. The Predators have duly hit the Mehsud family’s South Waziristan bases. But – curioser and curioser – not once but twice, the ISI forwarded a detailed dossier of Baitullah’s location directly to its cousin, the Central Intelligence Agency. But there was no drone hit.

And maybe there won’t be – especially now that a bewildered Zardari government is starting to consider that the previous uber-bogeyman, a certain Osama bin Laden, is no more than a ghost. Drones can incinerate any single Pashtun wedding in sight. But international bogeymen of mystery – Osama, Baitullah, Mullah Omar – star players in the new OCO (overseas contingency operations), formerly GWOT (“global war on terror”), of course deserve star treatment.

So far so good in Indian Elections 2009

By M H Ahssan

As India enters the crucial round three of its month-long, five-phase parliamentary elections on Thursday, the electoral fate of the ruling Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the opposition and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani and 1,565 other candidates will be sealed by over 140 million voters.

While Gandhi looks comfortably positioned in her Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh, a traditional Nehru-Gandhi dynasty stronghold for over five decades, the Hindu nationalist BJP premier hopeful Advani isn’t badly off either in Gandhinagar (Gujarat) where he has trounced his opponents in each election since 1991.

Other prominent political leaders in the fray in this phase include erstwhile prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Sharad Yadav (Madhepura), Shahnawaz Hussein (Bhagalpur), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna) and Yashodhara Raje Scindia (Gwalior).

The third round of the polling will cover a swathe of 107 constituencies across 11 states and two union territories. Ballots will be cast for 26 seats in Gujarat, 16 in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in West Bengal, 11 each in Bihar and Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. This important polling phase will also witness the election of a new 32-member legislature in India’s northeastern border state of Sikkim.

In the wake of this phase, polling will be wrapped up for 372 of the total 543 Lok Sabha (Lower House) seats. Observers point out that by this stage in the 2004 general elections, the National Democratic Alliance combine had bagged 45 seats while the now ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had scooped 30 and the left parties 19.

However, despite the evidence of past arithmetic, poll analysts assert that voter turnout could still swing things either way.

It’s quite another matter though that India’s egregious heat (43 degrees Celsius plus) and an overall disenchantment with the political class have acted as a dampener for much of the electorate this year. As a result, voter turnout has been a modest 55% across the 12 states in the first two phases of the elections. However, there have been a few surprises, like Andhra Pradesh, which has recorded a turnout of over 68%. Analysts feel that Andhra Pradesh, with a population of more than 70 million, may well turn out to be a key determinant in deciding who India’s next ruler could be.

Orissa comes in a notch lower with a 62% turnout. However, the biggest surprise was Amethi (Uttar Pradesh), Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi’s constituency. Despite the Congress machinery being pressed into full service to garner support for him, including his sister Priyanka Vadra’s vigorous canvassing, the area recorded a tepid 40% turnout.

Interestingly, according to poll pundits, the lowest turnout for any Lok Sabha election in India was in 1952 (45.7%), while the highest – 64.1% – was witnessed in 1985. The last elections in 2004 saw 58.1% of the electorate turn up to cast their ballots.

Another unusual trend witnessed in this election has been the relatively better (58%) voter turnout of middle and upper class voters in urban areas. This is in direct contrast to past electoral traditions in India where it is usually the economically weaker sections which come out in droves to vote while the rich register abysmal turnouts of 40% or less.

Over the past four general elections since 1977, the trend has been that the poor have invariably voted in greater numbers than the country’s upper classes with rural areas recording greater turnout than the urban pockets. This trend, concede poll analysts, contrasts starkly with Western nations where political participation – especially one’s franchise – is taken very seriously by the educated and the empowered sections of society.

High turnout or not, election 2009 has also been significant for another reason: an unprecedented level of security with the deployment of over 3 million personnel to keep a strict eye on electoral proceedings. As a result, elections have more or less been peaceful, with only a few sporadic cases of violence. The only major trouble spots have been the Naxalite-affected areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, which witnessed the killing of 19 people across 86 polling stations. Here, Maoists had called for a boycott of the elections and carried out a series of attacks in mid-May.

Be that as it may, all eyes are now focused on May 16, when the poll results will start trickling in after two more rounds of polling. As a single-party government in India looks unlikely in the current scenario – with both the BJP and the Congress likely to fall short of the requisite magic numbers to form a government at the center – at least half a dozen smaller political parties, representing India’s multifarious regions, castes and sub-castes, are set to lobby hard for key government positions. There is even a chance that one of their leaders may become next prime minister. And as is entirely expected, vigorous horse-trading will then commence for candidates who carry maximum political weight.

But significantly, unlike past coalitions, this time political alliances will be cobbled together only after all results have been announced. This will further heighten the uncertainty about what kind of political permutation will rule in Delhi. New alliances will need to be forged, and what cannot be entirely ruled out is a third front – a conglomerate of non-BJP and non-Congress parties – forming the government, leaving the two major national parties wringing their hands.

But more than the power-broking, what will be of most concern to the Indian electorate ultimately is the type of coalition government that will emerge out of the current chaos and alphabetical soup of regional parties. The more delicately poised the coalition, analysts say, the more cumbersome it will be for it to make politically contentious choices.

So far so good in Indian Elections 2009

By M H Ahssan

As India enters the crucial round three of its month-long, five-phase parliamentary elections on Thursday, the electoral fate of the ruling Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the opposition and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani and 1,565 other candidates will be sealed by over 140 million voters.

While Gandhi looks comfortably positioned in her Rae Bareli constituency in Uttar Pradesh, a traditional Nehru-Gandhi dynasty stronghold for over five decades, the Hindu nationalist BJP premier hopeful Advani isn’t badly off either in Gandhinagar (Gujarat) where he has trounced his opponents in each election since 1991.

Other prominent political leaders in the fray in this phase include erstwhile prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Sharad Yadav (Madhepura), Shahnawaz Hussein (Bhagalpur), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna) and Yashodhara Raje Scindia (Gwalior).

The third round of the polling will cover a swathe of 107 constituencies across 11 states and two union territories. Ballots will be cast for 26 seats in Gujarat, 16 in Madhya Pradesh, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in West Bengal, 11 each in Bihar and Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. This important polling phase will also witness the election of a new 32-member legislature in India’s northeastern border state of Sikkim.

In the wake of this phase, polling will be wrapped up for 372 of the total 543 Lok Sabha (Lower House) seats. Observers point out that by this stage in the 2004 general elections, the National Democratic Alliance combine had bagged 45 seats while the now ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had scooped 30 and the left parties 19.

However, despite the evidence of past arithmetic, poll analysts assert that voter turnout could still swing things either way.

It’s quite another matter though that India’s egregious heat (43 degrees Celsius plus) and an overall disenchantment with the political class have acted as a dampener for much of the electorate this year. As a result, voter turnout has been a modest 55% across the 12 states in the first two phases of the elections. However, there have been a few surprises, like Andhra Pradesh, which has recorded a turnout of over 68%. Analysts feel that Andhra Pradesh, with a population of more than 70 million, may well turn out to be a key determinant in deciding who India’s next ruler could be.

Orissa comes in a notch lower with a 62% turnout. However, the biggest surprise was Amethi (Uttar Pradesh), Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi’s constituency. Despite the Congress machinery being pressed into full service to garner support for him, including his sister Priyanka Vadra’s vigorous canvassing, the area recorded a tepid 40% turnout.

Interestingly, according to poll pundits, the lowest turnout for any Lok Sabha election in India was in 1952 (45.7%), while the highest – 64.1% – was witnessed in 1985. The last elections in 2004 saw 58.1% of the electorate turn up to cast their ballots.

Another unusual trend witnessed in this election has been the relatively better (58%) voter turnout of middle and upper class voters in urban areas. This is in direct contrast to past electoral traditions in India where it is usually the economically weaker sections which come out in droves to vote while the rich register abysmal turnouts of 40% or less.

Over the past four general elections since 1977, the trend has been that the poor have invariably voted in greater numbers than the country’s upper classes with rural areas recording greater turnout than the urban pockets. This trend, concede poll analysts, contrasts starkly with Western nations where political participation – especially one’s franchise – is taken very seriously by the educated and the empowered sections of society.

High turnout or not, election 2009 has also been significant for another reason: an unprecedented level of security with the deployment of over 3 million personnel to keep a strict eye on electoral proceedings. As a result, elections have more or less been peaceful, with only a few sporadic cases of violence. The only major trouble spots have been the Naxalite-affected areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, which witnessed the killing of 19 people across 86 polling stations. Here, Maoists had called for a boycott of the elections and carried out a series of attacks in mid-May.

Be that as it may, all eyes are now focused on May 16, when the poll results will start trickling in after two more rounds of polling. As a single-party government in India looks unlikely in the current scenario – with both the BJP and the Congress likely to fall short of the requisite magic numbers to form a government at the center – at least half a dozen smaller political parties, representing India’s multifarious regions, castes and sub-castes, are set to lobby hard for key government positions. There is even a chance that one of their leaders may become next prime minister. And as is entirely expected, vigorous horse-trading will then commence for candidates who carry maximum political weight.

But significantly, unlike past coalitions, this time political alliances will be cobbled together only after all results have been announced. This will further heighten the uncertainty about what kind of political permutation will rule in Delhi. New alliances will need to be forged, and what cannot be entirely ruled out is a third front – a conglomerate of non-BJP and non-Congress parties – forming the government, leaving the two major national parties wringing their hands.

But more than the power-broking, what will be of most concern to the Indian electorate ultimately is the type of coalition government that will emerge out of the current chaos and alphabetical soup of regional parties. The more delicately poised the coalition, analysts say, the more cumbersome it will be for it to make politically contentious choices.

Crucial Lok Sabha battle – A Hung House looms large

By M H Ahssan

By all accounts, Lok Sabha polls 2009 guarantee a totally fractured verdict that would make government-formation a most daunting task. The task will be daunting because the divisive process will then turn into a ruthless, remorseless numbers game.

The 15th Lok Sabha poll will go down in our parliamentary democracy’s annals for the churning – that mythological amrit manthan – by the most divided polity since independence. What kind of visha the churning will produce is difficult to say. There is no Lord Shiva to consume it and save the nation. But this poll guarantees a totally fractured verdict that would make government-formation a most daunting task. The task will be daunting because the divisive process will then turn into a ruthless, remorseless numbers game.

What the country is witnessing in the run-up to the poll, which is most likely to continue post-poll, is amoral politics at its best. The Aya Ram Gaya Ram process that made the late 1960s notorious may well seems like juvenile pranks, what with money power now in full play.

Why is one compelled to draw such a gloomy picture? Not because of the emergence of the regional parties. Also, not because of the rise of the Dalits and those who have been denied their share of power. This twin process has to be accepted and respected.

What is difficult to digest is the approach to politics – of just about everyone demanding a pound of flesh of just every other satrap brazenly trying to be the king or the queen or kingmaker or queenmaker. All norms, all rules are being flouted. All values and virtues are being thrown to the winds as the country prepares to go to the polls.

This has fractured the polity. From a group of national parties, we have moved to two alliances led by national parties with regional allies. There is not even pretence of confidence in reaching out to the entire nation for votes. A party or alliance with nationwide reach and leaders with nationwide appeal is simply missing.

From single parties going to the polls, we are having alliances going to the polls. From two alliances we have witnessed a graduation of sorts to three alliances. And none of the three alliances has the nationwide sweep.

A vast country that once looked a single political entity seems like a conglomerate of states and regions with conflicting interests. People are sought to be divided as per their caste, religion and region. And none is sorry about it – not the players at least.

As the poll process began after the Budget Session of Parliament was completed, the first signs came from three states – Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. In Orissa, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ditched its senior partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), giving a setback not only to the BJP but also to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In Bihar, two of the staunchest constituents of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Prasad and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan, cocked a snook at senior partner Congress. What happened to BJP and NDA in Orissa, happened to the Congress and the UPA in the more populous Bihar.

In West Bengal, the Congress finally decided to confront the Left Front. It struck an alliance with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, giving her double the number of seats and accepting her as the senior partner. The Congress move has two-fold consequence: it has reduced its own prospects of winning more seats in West Bengal and more important, it has made things more difficult for the Left Front. A Congress-Mamata alliance is a formidable one in terms of political support base and could hurt the Left. With only the tiny Tripura as a safe base, the Left cannot hope to repeat its performance of 2004 poll, since it has ruined its own chances in Kerala where in-fighting within the CPM is rampant and suicidal. This reduces chances of a post-poll alliance of the UPA (or whatever that will be left of it) with the Left parties. The Left support to any move to keep the NDA out of power shall remain crucial.

The NDA too loses out on many fronts – the loss of the Orissa bastion, the parting of ways with Mamata Banerjee and with Telugu Desam Party that supported it from outside.

The NDA, reduced from the mighty 24 constituents in 2004 to just ten, can have the consolation prizes like Ajit Singh in Uttar Pradesh and Asom Gana Parishad in Assam. But they could be crucial, provided they win, when each vote will matter after the poll.

As for the Third Front, the ragtag combine midwifed by the Left has been shunned by the likes of Mayawati and Jayalalithaa. For the rest, it remains a loose conglomerate of parties rejected by the electorates in their states and leaders with overarching ambitions.

Whoever said that it is never-saydie in politics must have meant the likes of Om Prakash Chautala and Bhajan Lal and above all, H D Deve Gowda, whose greed for power and love for his sons paved the way for the BJP rule in Karnataka.

The Left is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. It must oppose BJP/NDA ideologically, but must also oppose the Congress/UPA politically. The CPM manifesto promises to undo the defence relations with the US and review the civil nuclear treaty – further reducing its own acceptance at home and in the fast-moving globalised world community. The political travesty, if one may call it, is the statement of CPM leader Prakash Karat that post poll, the Congress can seek support from, or lend support to, the Third Front. This, when even Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu is not sure of its success.

Only the results will show who the dog is and who will wag its tail. If the CPM has to contend with serious infighting between Kerala Chief Minister Achuthanandan and Peenarayi Vijayan, the BJP had anxious moments when Arun Jaitley, assigned to coordinate the entire campaign, sulked and stayed away from meetings to display his unhappiness at the appointment of Sudhanshu Mittal, essentially a moneybag and a fixer, as coconvener for Northeast states. ThatJaitley had to climb down and Mittal did get the charge of the North-east assigned to him indicates that BJP has to contend with its dirty linen being washed in public.

BJP’s woe became acute when Varun Gandhi who it hopes would some day take on cousin Rahul, botched up his electoral chances by making inflammatory speeches. The party had for long contended with the estranged ‘bahu’ of the Gandhi family, Maneka, but had to distance itself from Varun when the Election Commission took a serious view of his utterances.

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav also had to contend with a recalcitrant Mohammed Azam Khan. So much so that Yadav had to publicly say that he would go and meet Khan to assuage his hurt feelings.

People switching sides when denied party nomination is the done thing in Indian politics.

Two of the more glaring examples were Nationalist Congress Party’s Jaisingrao Gaekwad Patil, who joined Shiv Sena and Congress’ Bhavsinh Rathod who joined BJP and got the ticket to contest the Patan seat.

There is a plethora of prime ministerial candidates. Sonia Gandhi has said that Dr Manmohan Singh would be the prime minister after the election. The BJP anointed L K Advani for the post many months ago.

An indication of Lalu Prasad- Paswan alliance was available when Paswan jauntily threw his hat in the prime ministerial ring and Lalu enthusiastically welcomed it. But the Congress, as Paswan later said, never took him seriously. That the two were moving to stall the rise of Mayawati was an open secret. This explains why Mayawati has stuck to her no-pre-poll alliance stand. She rejected overtures from the Third Front leaders like Chandrababu Naidu. This leaves a flicker of hope for Deve Gowda.

Sharad Pawar, the prime ministerial candidate since 1991 (he lost to P V Narasimha Rao) first got his party, NCP, to ‘authorise’ him to work for the top job. This got support from Shiv Sena that demanded a Maharashtrian prime minister. Both were playing up to their rivals: Pawar to the Congress and Bal Thackeray to the BJP. They succeeded in causing turmoil within both UPA and NDA. It was only after BJP stitched up its alliance with the Sena that Pawar changed the tune to say that he was aware of his ‘limitations’ and that anyone with a dozen MPs could not just catapult himself/herself to the prime minister’s gaddi.

Another person with burning ambitions, but aware of her ‘limitations’ without admitting so, is Jayalalithaa. She does not have a single member in the 14th Lok Sabha and did not want to queer the pitch with her allies in her do-or-die fight with rival M. Karunanidhi. After the Third Front decided that it would go to the poll without a prime ministerial candidate, apparently a Left stipulation, Jayalalithaa said that she was not in the race “as of now.”

The only person who has no qualms about being “in the race” is Mayawati who thinks she can do it single-handedly. A good omen for her was the break-down of the Congress-Samajwadi alliance in Uttar Pradesh. Much would depend on how many seats she gets in UP and how many more in other states where she is putting up a large number of candidates. For the moment, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party seems to be the only ‘national’ party ready to take on one and all. There is no sign of dissension and money is not a problem. How the one-woman army handles this battle in a vast terrain remains to be seen. The general perception is that, if not the queen herself, she may end up being the king/queen maker. Even that would give her a position of pre eminence.

Who will be PM, will the government be stable?

By M H Ahssan

Predicting electoral outcomes is a dicey business. Many well known astrologers had ended up with egg on their faces in the past. But that has not deterred them from predicting this time round too. HNN met some well known star-gazers to find out what they say about Lok Sabha 2009 polls.

Politics is as uncertain as the weather is. The political scene in the country is warming up as the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections picks up. Politicians are visiting astrologers to know their electoral future. While four astrologers predicted that the BJP would come to power, three favoured the Congress. If astrology is a science, why is there a divided prediction? We will have to wait till the results are out and the new government is formed to know who is right.

The NDA will form the government with L K Advani the most likely Prime Minister. Using its “Hindutva card”, the BJP would emerge as the largest party followed by the Congress with others trailing behind. This is the prediction by some seasoned astrologers who have made a name in the field. N P Thareja, Dr S S Gola and Shailender Chamoli, all known for their political forecasts. say that Advani would be the Prime Minister. However, Dr Gola says that the new government would be a precariously fledgling which may face “the 100 per cent chances” of mid-term elections. But this may happen after 2010. But Thareja says that after November 2 this year, the new dispensation will enjoy stability.

Chamoli says that Advani would definitely be the Prime Minister, but there would be chances of horse trading on large scale to reach the magic figure of 272 in the government formation. Money is going to play a big role.

Lachchman Das Madan, known for his predictions on incidents the world over, including the 9/11, says the Congress will not come to power on its own and Sonia Gandhi will not become the Prime Minister. He predicts that a dark horse but a younger person could be the Prime Minister. The chuppa rustam could be either Arun Jaitley or Narendra Modi.

Sonia may be “forced” to become PM Panchkula-based astrologer P Khurrana, however, says that the UPA would come back to power, Congress would be the largest party and Sonia would be “forced”

to become the Prime Minister. Agreeing with Khurrana, Delhibased lady astrologer, Ms Bhavna Bhatia, emphatically says that UPA government will come back to power and Manmohan Singh would again be the Prime Minister.

“In Sonia Gandhi’s horoscope Saturn’s mutual aspect with Jupiter indicates a big strength of individuality and recognition. Under the circumstances she may not like her candidature for Primeministership but she will be forced to become the Prime Minister. This will be a period of acid test for Sonia and she may again resist this. However; “Shasht Chandi Yajna” is suggested for Sonia. Manmohan Singh will be the candidate for Prime Minister but his tenure will be short lived. The name of the next PM would start with alphabet ‘S’ or ‘A’,” Khurrana says.

Indian calendar, the New Year Vikrami Samvat 2066 which began on March 27 (Friday), represents Venus, also known as the “king of the year”. Manmohan Singh will again be the Prime Minister with the support of coalition partners, particularly women MPs, says Bhavna Bhatia. Her husband Ashok Bhatia, a researcher in Numerology, says that since No. 6 (Venus) is present in Manmohan Singh’s numeroscope, he will become the PM again with the support of women. Jayalalitha, Mamata and even Mayawati are likely to rally around him, apart from Sonia Gandhi.

However, both Manmohan Singh and Advani share No.8 in their numeroscope. While Manmohan has 2+6=8, Advani has straight 8. No.6 represents Venus, which is missing in Advani’s numeroscope. Manmohan Singh has 2,6,9,3,2 as numbers in his numeroscope, while Advani has 2,7,8 with no presence of No.6. Hence, Advani has no chance of becoming PM, contends Ashok Bhatia.

Stability or Instability
The malefic effect on India’s horoscope shows that the political situation in India will further deteriorate due to some power hungry leaders. A prominent leader whose name starts with alphabet A, M, or S will try to destabilise the government, says Khurrana. This time more women would get elected and they would remain loyal to their parties. Cutting cross the party lines only youth MPs would help make a new government, says Madan.

After October 13, Mr Madan says, things would look better for the new government. The country would take a new turn if a youthful person like Narendra Modi or Arun Jaitley becomes the Prime Minister.

Other contenders like Rahul Gandhi, Deve Gowda, Sharad Pawar, Mayawati or Prakash Karat stand no chance of getting closer to the seat of the Prime Minister, says Madan.

Bhavna says that the new government under the Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh would face ups and down but would somehow sail through for the next five years, providing stability to the government.

On economic front
On the economic slowdown, Khurrana says since Jupiter is in 8th position but deceptively placed, the economic position may not improve on large scale but the country will see major changes on financial front in 2010. Over all it will be a period of growth on international map. India will become ’super power’ in the next decade.

Thareja says that the economic melt-down has been caused due to configuration of Rahu and Jupiter. The Jupiter’s debilitated position since December 2008 would end on account of its moving onward to Kumbh Rashi on December 19 this year. Rahu is also getting apart from it on November 2, 2009. After which there will be an ease in the present state of economy. Further, from May 2010 with the Jupiter entering its own sign Meen Rashi, the world will see an end to the depressive economy and money situation. There will be boost in economy and an era of prosperity will set in.

India’s Political Bazaar Comes Alive

By M H Ahssan

A few weeks ago, Lal Kishan Advani made an impassioned plea for bringing the nearly US $ 1.4 trillion ( Rs 50 lakh crore) that rich and/ or corrupt Indians have stashed away abroad. Indians with tonnes of cash have always kept large chunks of it in Swiss banks and in tax havens in tiny isles across Europe.

So why is the BJP’s prime minister in waiting suddenly raking up the issue? His critics say his main fundraisers have promised much but delivered little, which is not surprising considering that it is a cash crunch season. Coming as it did in the run- up to the elections, major political parties are feeling the pinch.

The normally reliable benefactors — top flight industrialists — are struggling to save their bottom lines and have either disappeared or politely folded their hands and expressed helplessness. The other reliable provider — the real estate sector, where the colour of money is mostly black — is in distress and needs a bailout for itself.

A recent study showed that, apart from expenses run up by the Election Commission, political parties will spend close to Rs 4,000 crore while individual candidates will account for thousands of crore more during the 15th Lok Sabha polls. Under existing rules, companies are forbidden from making political donations in excess of five percent of their profits but politicians had always managed to find a way around and extract money in a way that it was not reflected in the balance sheets.

More than a decade ago, one of India’s most trusted business houses had drawn a corpus from all its group companies and created a trust to give political donations to the major political parties. By that yardstick, the Congress and the BJP would have got about Rs 5 crore from the industrial house.

That sum isn’t enough to run half a campaign in one constituency. In recent times, the more aggressive players in sunshine sectors like telecom, pharma etc also formally entered the field of political funding. I know of at least two such houses which have set aside Rs 2 lakh each for candidates contesting in areas where their business interests lie. For regional leaders like Jayalalithaa, Deve Gowda, Lalu Prasad or Naveen Patnaik whose parties contest a maximum of 30 seats, Rs 60 lakhs amounts to small change. Election Commission rules put a cap of Rs 25 lakh expenditure per candidate but it is no secret that no serious contender would enter the fray without setting aside at least Rs 10 crore for campaign expenses.

Of late, following sustained pressure from the regional leaders, some of the “ new business” leaders have been loosening their purse strings. One of them explained the logic to me thus.

Whoever forms the next government, allies will demand and get key portfolios like telecom, health, civil aviation, forest and environment, company affairs, steel and mines and others. Instead of doling out small amounts to large numbers of candidates of the national parties, it makes good business sense to splash liberally on lesser number of candidates from the smaller parties.

So while the national parties are scraping the bottom of the barrel to keep their campaigns going, smaller outfits have enough money to contest elections and still have some money to even buy an IPL cricket team. Governments may change, but some parties stay permanently in power. No wonder it is the small parties which are getting big money.

India’s Political Bazaar Comes Alive

By M H Ahssan

A few weeks ago, Lal Kishan Advani made an impassioned plea for bringing the nearly US $ 1.4 trillion ( Rs 50 lakh crore) that rich and/ or corrupt Indians have stashed away abroad. Indians with tonnes of cash have always kept large chunks of it in Swiss banks and in tax havens in tiny isles across Europe.

So why is the BJP’s prime minister in waiting suddenly raking up the issue? His critics say his main fundraisers have promised much but delivered little, which is not surprising considering that it is a cash crunch season. Coming as it did in the run- up to the elections, major political parties are feeling the pinch.

The normally reliable benefactors — top flight industrialists — are struggling to save their bottom lines and have either disappeared or politely folded their hands and expressed helplessness. The other reliable provider — the real estate sector, where the colour of money is mostly black — is in distress and needs a bailout for itself.

A recent study showed that, apart from expenses run up by the Election Commission, political parties will spend close to Rs 4,000 crore while individual candidates will account for thousands of crore more during the 15th Lok Sabha polls. Under existing rules, companies are forbidden from making political donations in excess of five percent of their profits but politicians had always managed to find a way around and extract money in a way that it was not reflected in the balance sheets.

More than a decade ago, one of India’s most trusted business houses had drawn a corpus from all its group companies and created a trust to give political donations to the major political parties. By that yardstick, the Congress and the BJP would have got about Rs 5 crore from the industrial house.

That sum isn’t enough to run half a campaign in one constituency. In recent times, the more aggressive players in sunshine sectors like telecom, pharma etc also formally entered the field of political funding. I know of at least two such houses which have set aside Rs 2 lakh each for candidates contesting in areas where their business interests lie. For regional leaders like Jayalalithaa, Deve Gowda, Lalu Prasad or Naveen Patnaik whose parties contest a maximum of 30 seats, Rs 60 lakhs amounts to small change. Election Commission rules put a cap of Rs 25 lakh expenditure per candidate but it is no secret that no serious contender would enter the fray without setting aside at least Rs 10 crore for campaign expenses.

Of late, following sustained pressure from the regional leaders, some of the “ new business” leaders have been loosening their purse strings. One of them explained the logic to me thus.

Whoever forms the next government, allies will demand and get key portfolios like telecom, health, civil aviation, forest and environment, company affairs, steel and mines and others. Instead of doling out small amounts to large numbers of candidates of the national parties, it makes good business sense to splash liberally on lesser number of candidates from the smaller parties.

So while the national parties are scraping the bottom of the barrel to keep their campaigns going, smaller outfits have enough money to contest elections and still have some money to even buy an IPL cricket team. Governments may change, but some parties stay permanently in power. No wonder it is the small parties which are getting big money.

THE GREAT PRIME MINISTER BAZAAR

By M H Ahssan

With the Mood of the Nation Poll predicting a photofinish, regional chieftains are likely to play a key role in the selection of the next prime minister. It could even be one of them.

The complaint is as old as the politics of social justice: the hegemony of urban elite over the wretched and the dispossessed. Votaries of the so-called Other India—the India beyond the sensations of the Sensex and the temptations of the marketplace—never get tired of narrating the conspiracy of the privileged.

Twelve of our 14 prime ministers, they keep reminding us, have been from urban India. Only two, H.D. Deve Gowda and Charan Singh, came from the peasant class, and both were accidental. Now that the politics of cohabitation has made India one of the most crowded—and politically promiscuous—democracies in the world, the sociology of power has become starker.

There are no clear winners in a fragmented verdict but contenders for the top job continue to multiplyThe most obvious trend in the India Today Mood of the Nation poll on the eve of the General Elections is the shrinking bipolarity—or the thriving multiplicity. There are no clear winners as the ruling UPA and the NDA are separated by only 19 votes. The middle is occupied by that amorphous group called Third Front, populated by provincial pachyderms who think their time has come to be the rulers of India. If they can’t, they will decide who will. It may not be the revenge of the regions but it certainly brings out the less-than-national appeal of the national parties.

The only certainty in a fragmented polity is that we have an embarrassment of prime ministerial riches. In the beginning, there was only one, and BJP leader L.K. Advani has been campaigning in true presidential style, that too without an identifiable opponent.

Much belatedly, and less ceremoniously, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said Manmohan Singh would get another term as prime minister if the UPA won the elections. She can only name him, she just can’t make him prime minister. Without the support of regional parties with more than 70 members, either Advani or Manmohan can’t become prime minister. That support can no longer be taken for granted as kingmakers now aspire to be kings.

As Lalu Prasad Yadav, a Sonia worshipper-turned-heartbreaker, said in an interview with the television channel Aaj Tak, “The UPA exists only in Delhi and why can’t we consider Ram Vilas Paswan, a Dalit leader, for prime ministership after the elections?” Then, why just Paswan? Why not Pawar? The NCP has been projecting its leader and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar as a future prime minister for a while.

He will share a platform with CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and Orissa Chief Minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik at a rally in Bhubaneswar on April 13. That is the freedom of being Pawar. His party is fighting the Congress everywhere except his home state of Maharashtra and Goa. The strategy of each regional party is to contest maximum number of seats so that they can improve their tally of 2004. Obviously, both the Congress and BJP are anxious, and they may end up fielding more candidates than they did in 2004.

The poll provides little cheer to the Congress and BJP. Parties which belong to neither of the two alliances are likely to get almost the same number of seats as the others. Leaders like Lalu, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Paswan, Jayalalithaa, Mayawati and the communists are an independent lot. Pawar’s feet may be on the UPA ground but his heart is elsewhere. And each of these satraps is worth 25 to 30 seats, and their combined strength could go up to 180. Still, they are too volatile a group to remain intact. Will Maya and Mulayam ever be compatible? Unlikely. A candidate sponsored by the so-called Third Front led by the Left and others can’t reach 7 Race Course Road without the support of either the Congress or the BJP. In the marketplace of prime ministers, choices are many and the art of bargain alone can ensure a politically profitable deal.
How come we have got so many choices—or so many competing ideas of India in the fray? The UPA has been particularly fertile for prime ministers in waiting. Leaders like Lalu and Pawar have acquired a national profile as star Cabinet performers. They used their power at the Centre to expand their regional base. For the UPA, the vote of confidence was the moment when it realised the true worth of its allies. It survived the vote because partners like SP, RJD and DMK not only kept their flock together but broke the ranks of others.

It gave the allies a new confidence. As the poll illustrates, all those regional leaders seeking national glory enjoy more support in their states than the prime ministerial candidates of both the national parties. Mayawati with 24 per cent votes and Mulayam with 21 per cent are way ahead of both Advani (11) and Manmohan (7) in Uttar Pradesh. For the voters of Bihar, Lalu or Nitish Kumar would make a better prime minister than Advani or Manmohan.

With 120 seats, these two states will play the arbiters after the elections. In Gujarat, Modi is the choice of over 40 per cent of voters: Advani gets only 3 per cent. In Maharashtra, Pawar is the second most popular candidate for the top job. In the South though, Manmohan scores over the likes of Gowda, Jaya, Karunanidhi and Chandrababu Naidu. When Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were in power, there were no regional leaders who could match—or come anywhere near their popularity.

This regional eruption in leadership also means the rise of so many little Indias. Post-election, India is all set to stage a thriller of mathematics and megalomania, of oversized prime ministerial ambitions and total repudiation of political morality.

The Indian Political Business Bazaar

By M H Ahssan

When foreigners say Bangalore is India’s version of Silicon Valley, the high-tech office park called Electronics City is what they’re often thinking of. But however much Californians might hate traffic-clogged Route 101, the main drag though the Valley, it has nothing on Hosur Road. This potholed, four-lane stretch of gritty pavement—the primary access to Electronics City—is pure chaos. Cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, taxis, rickshaws, cows, donkeys, and dogs jostle for every inch of the roadway as horns blare and brakes squeal. Drivers run red lights and jam their vehicles into any available space, paying no mind to pedestrians clustered desperately on median strips like shipwrecked sailors.

Pass through the six-foot-high concrete walls into Electronics City, though, and the loudest sounds you hear are the chirping of birds and the whirr of electric carts that whisk visitors from one steel-and-glass building to the next. Young men and women stroll the manicured pathways that wend their way through the leafy 80-acre spread or coast quietly on bicycles along the smooth asphalt roads.

With virtually no mass transit in Bangalore, Indian technology firm Infosys Technologies Ltd. spends $5 million a year on buses, minivans, and taxis to transport its 18,000 employees to and from Electronics City. And traffic jams mean workers can spend upwards of four hours commuting each day. “India has underinvested in infrastructure for 60 years, and we’re behind what we need by 10 to 12 years,” says T.V. Mohandas Pai, director of human resources for Infosys.

India’s high-tech services industry has set the country’s economic flywheel spinning. Growth is running at 9%-plus this year. The likes of Wal-Mart (WMT ), Vodafone (VOD ), and Citigroup (C ) are placing multibillion-dollar bets on the country, lured by its 300 million-strong middle class. In spite of a recent drop, the Bombay stock exchange’s benchmark Sensex index is still up more than 40% since June. Real estate has shot through the roof, with some prices doubling in the past year.

But this economic boom is being built on the shakiest of foundations. Highways, modern bridges, world-class airports, reliable power, and clean water are in desperately short supply. And what’s already there is literally crumbling under the weight of progress. In December, a bridge in eastern India collapsed, killing 34 passengers in a train rumbling underneath. Economic losses from congestion and poor roads alone are as high as $6 billion a year, says Gajendra Haldea, an adviser to the federal Planning Commission.

For all its importance, the tech services sector employs just 1.6 million people, and it doesn’t rely on good roads and bridges to get its work done. India needs manufacturing to boom if it is to boost exports and create jobs for the 10 million young people who enter the workforce each year. Suddenly, good infrastructure matters a lot more. Yet industry is hobbled by overcrowded highways where speeds average just 20 miles per hour. Some ports rely on armies of laborers to unload cargo from trucks and lug it onto ships. Across the state of Maharashtra, major cities lose power one day a week to relieve pressure on the grid. In Pune, a city of 4.5 million, it’s lights out every Thursday—forcing factories to maintain expensive backup generators. Government officials were shocked last year when Intel Corp. (INTC ) chose Vietnam over India as the site for a new chip assembly plant. Although Intel declined to comment, industry insiders say the reason was largely the lack of reliable power and water in India.

Add up this litany of woes and you understand why India’s exports total less than 1% of global trade, compared with 7% for China. Says Infosys Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy: “If our infrastructure gets delayed, our economic development, job creation, and foreign investment get delayed. Our economic agenda gets delayed—if not derailed.”

The infrastructure deficit is so critical that it could prevent India from achieving the prosperity that finally seems to be within its grasp. Without reliable power and water and a modern transportation network, the chasm between India’s moneyed elite and its 800 million poor will continue to widen, potentially destabilizing the country. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, a professor at Columbia University, figures gross domestic product growth would run two percentage points higher if the country had decent roads, railways, and power. “We’re bursting at the seams,” says Kamal Nath, India’s Commerce & Industry Minister. Without better infrastructure, “we can’t continue with the growth rates we have had.”

The problems are even contributing to overheating in the economy. Inflation spiked in the first week of February to a two-year high of 6.7%, due in part to bottlenecks caused by the country’s lousy transport network. Up to 40% of farm produce is lost because it rots in the fields or spoils en route to consumers, which contributes to rising prices for staples such as lentils and onions.

India today is about where China was a decade ago. Back then, China’s economy was shifting into overdrive, but its roads and power grid weren’t up to the task. So Beijing launched a massive upgrade initiative, building more than 25,000 miles of expressways that now crisscross the country and are as good as the best roads in the U.S. or Europe. India, by contrast, has just 3,700 miles of such highways. It’s no wonder that when foreign companies weigh putting new plants in China vs. India to produce global exports, China more often wins out.

China’s lead in infrastructure is likely to grow, too. Beijing plows about 9% of its GDP into public works, compared with New Delhi’s 4%. And because of its authoritarian government, China gets faster results. “If you have to build a road in China, just a handful of people need to make a decision,” says Daniel Vasella, chief executive of pharmaceutical giant Novartis (NVS ). “If you want to build a road in India, it’ll take 10 years of discussion before you get a decision.”

Blame it partly on India’s revolving-door democracy. Political parties typically hold power for just one five-year term before disgruntled voters, swayed by populist promises from the opposition, kick them out of office. In elections last year in the state of Tamil Nadu, for instance, a new government was voted in after it pledged to give free color TVs to poor families. “In a sanely organized society you can get a lot done. Not here,” says Jayaprakash Narayan, head of Lok Satta, or People Power, a national reform party.

Then there’s “leakage”—India’s euphemism for rampant corruption. Nearly all sectors of officialdom are riddled with graft, from neighborhood cops to district bureaucrats to state ministers. Indian truckers pay about $5 billion a year in bribes, according to the watchdog group Transparency International. Corruption delays infrastructure projects and raises costs for those that move ahead.

Fortunately, after decades of underinvestment and political inertia, India’s political leadership has awakened to the magnitude of the infrastructure crisis. A handful of major projects have been completed; others are moving forward. Work on the Golden Quadrilateral—a $12 billion initiative spanning more than 3,000 miles of four- and six-lane expressways connecting Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai—is due to be completed this year. The first phase of a new subway in New Delhi finished in late 2005 on budget and ahead of schedule. And new airports are under construction in Bangalore and Hyderabad, with more planned elsewhere. “We have to improve the quality of our infrastructure,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a gathering of tech industry leaders in Mumbai on Feb. 9. “It’s a priority of our government.”

Singh, in fact, is promising a Marshall Plan-scale effort. The government estimates public and private organizations will chip in $330 billion to $500 billion over the next five years for highways, power generation, ports, and airports. In addition, leading conglomerates have pledged to overhaul the retailing sector. That will require infrastructure upgrades along the entire food distribution chain, from farm fields to store shelves.

Envisioning a brand-new India is the easy part; paying for it is another matter. By necessity, since the country’s public debt stands at 82% of GDP, the 11th-worst ranking in the world, much of the money for these new projects will have to come from private sources. Yet India captured only $8 billion in foreign direct investment last year, compared with China’s $63 billion. “Having grandiose plans isn’t enough,” says Yale University economics professor T.N. Srinivasan.

Just about every foreign company operating in India has a horror story of the hardships of doing business there. Nokia Corp. (NOK ) saw thousands of its cellular phones ruined last October when a shipment from its factory in Chennai was soaked by rain because there was no room to warehouse the crates of handsets at the local airport. Japan’s Maruti Suzuki says trucking its cars 900 miles from its factory in Gurgaon to the port in Mumbai can take up to 10 days. That’s partly due to delays at the three state borders along the way, where drivers are stalled as officials check their papers. But it’s also because big rigs are barred from India’s congested cities during the day, when they might bring dense traffic to a standstill. Once at the port, the Japanese company’s autos can wait weeks for the next outbound ship because there’s not enough dock space for cargo carriers to load and unload.

India’s summer monsoons wreak havoc, too. Even relatively light rains can choke sewers, flood streets, and paralyze a city, while downpours are devastating. Two years ago, Florida-based contract manufacturer Jabil Circuit Inc. saw shipments of computers and networking gear from its plant near Mumbai delayed for five days after an epic storm. “In our business, five days is a really long time,” says William D. Muir Jr., who oversees Jabil’s Asian operations.

Companies often have no choice but to make the best of a bad situation. Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO ), the American networking equipment giant, has had a research and development office in India since 1999 and already has 2,000 engineers in the country. To supply the country’s fast-growing telecommunications industry, Cisco decided last year to try its hand at making some parts locally. In December it contracted with another company to build Internet phones in the southeastern city of Chennai. Although Cisco says the quality of the workmanship is up to snuff, it has to fly parts in because the ports are so slow—and getting them to the factory right when they’re needed is proving nettlesome. “We believe in manufacturing in India, but we don’t believe in logistics in India—yet,” says Wim Elfrink, Cisco’s chief globalization officer. Elfrink adds that unless the Chennai operation demonstrates it can run as efficiently as Cisco setups elsewhere, it won’t go into full production as planned this summer.

Even the world’s largest maker of infrastructure equipment is constrained by India’s feeble underpinnings. General Electric Co. (GE ) last year sold $1.2 billion worth of gear such as power generators and locomotives in India, more than double what it billed in 2005. To meet that surging demand, it is scrambling to find a location where it can manufacture locomotives in partnership with India Railways. But when GE dispatched three employees to survey a potential site the railway favored in the northern state of Bihar, the trio returned discouraged. It took five hours to drive the 50 miles from the airport to the site, and when they got there they found…nothing. “No roads, no power, no schools, no water, no hospitals, no housing,” says Pratyush Kumar, president of GE Infrastructure in India. “We’d have to create everything from scratch,” including many miles of railroad tracks to get the locomotives out to the main lines.

But there is a silver lining for GE and other international giants: India’s infrastructure deficit could yield huge opportunities. American executives who traveled to India last November on the largest U.S. trade mission ever were tantalized by the possibilities. Jennifer Thompson, director of international planning at Oshkosh Truck Corp. (OSK ), viewed construction projects where swarms of workers carried wet concrete in buckets to be poured. That told her there’s great potential in India for selling Oshkosh’s mixer trucks. “There are infrastructure challenges, but we see a lot of opportunities to help them meet those challenges,” she says.

That explains why so many multinationals are flocking to India. Take hotel construction: In a country with only 25,000 tourist-class hotel rooms (compared with more than 140,000 in Las Vegas alone), companies including Hilton (HLT ), Wyndham (WYN ), and Ramada have plans for 75,000 rooms on their drawing boards. Or consider telecom. Because of deregulation and ferocious demand, India boasts the fastest growth in cell-phone service anywhere, with companies adding some 6 million new customers a month. No wonder Britain’s Vodafone Group PLC (VOD ) just ponied up $11 billion for a controlling interest in Hutchison Essar, India’s No. 4 mobile carrier. U.S. private equity outfits also want in on the action. On Feb. 15, Blackstone Group and Citigroup announced they are teaming up with the Indian government and the Infrastructure Development Finance Corp. to set up a $5 billion fund for infrastructure investments in India.

But while the laws of supply and demand would argue that India’s infrastructure gap can be filled, that logic ignores the corrosive effect of the country’s politics. To gain the favor of voters, Indian politicians have long subsidized electricity and water for farmers, a policy that has discouraged private investment in those areas. That’s what wrecked the now-infamous Dabhol Power plant. In the late 1990s, Enron, GE, and Bechtel spent a total of $2.8 billion building a huge complex near Mumbai capable of producing more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity. But a government power authority set prices so low that it was uneconomical for Dabhol to operate, and the whole deal fell apart. (The plant, taken over by an Indian organization, now runs only fitfully.) A 2001 law was supposed to create a framework to support private investment in power generation. But according to American construction company executives, it’s not working well. “Everybody knows what needs to be done, but they have great difficulty doing it,” says one of the Americans. “If the party in opposition offers subsidized power, the party in power has to give subsidized power to get reelected.”

Politicians who refuse to play the game pay a steep price. N. Chandrababu Naidu, the former chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh, transformed the state capital of Hyderabad from a backwater into a high-tech destination by building new roads, widening others, and aggressively carving out land for factories and office parks. Google (GOOG ), IBM (IBM ), Microsoft (MSFT ), and Motorola (MOT ) have all built R&D facilities there.

His reward? Voters tossed him out of office two years ago. During his decade in power, Naidu didn’t do enough for rural areas, and his challenger promised to channel state funds into irrigation projects and electricity subsidies. “Naidu thought economics were more important than politics. He was wrong,” says V.S. Rao, director of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science in Hyderabad. Naidu, 56, is plotting a comeback in elections two years hence. This time, he’s preaching a new gospel. “You can’t just target growth,” says a chastened Naidu. “You have to create policies that make the wealth trickle down to the common man.”

But even when politicians say they’re beefing up infrastructure, it rarely helps the poorest Indians. Agriculture is stagnant in part because of a lack of the most rudimentary of roads to get to and from fields. N. Tarupthurai, for instance, scratches out a living from a five-acre plot in Jinnuru, a village in northeastern Andhra Pradesh. But his fields are more than a mile from the nearest paved road, so each day the 40-year-old Tarupthurai must carry his tools, seeds, fertilizer, and crops down a dirt path on his back or on his bicycle. “I have asked for a road, and the government says it’s under consideration,” says the mustachioed, curly-haired farmer. Then he shrugs.

One reason little practical help makes it from the seats of power to India’s impoverished villages is that so much money gets siphoned off along the way. With corrupt officials skimming at every step, many public works projects either go over budget or are never completed. “You figure that 25% of the cost goes to corruption,” says Verghese Jacob, head of the Byrraju Foundation, which promotes rural development. “And then they do such a bad job that the road falls apart in one year and has to be patched over again,” Jacob says as he jostles along in a car on a potholed byway outside Hyderabad.

None of the solutions to India’s infrastructure challenges are simple, but business leaders, some enlightened government officials, and even ordinary citizens are chipping in to make things better. The most potent weapon India’s reformers have against corruption is transparency. Last October a new right-to-information law went into effect requiring both central and state governments to divulge information about contracts, hiring, and expenditures to any citizen who requests it. The country is also putting to work its vaunted technology prowess to police the government. Officials in 200 districts are using software from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. to help monitor a government program that offers every rural household a guarantee of 100 days of work per year. Most of this labor goes into public works. To minimize “leakage,” the TCS software tracks every expenditure—and makes all of the information available real-time on a Web site accessible to anyone.

Sometimes frustrated Indians take matters into their own hands. Tired of spending four-plus hours a day in traffic, Aruna Newton last fall helped organize something of a women’s crusade to speed up infrastructure improvements. Nearly 15,000 volunteers now monitor key road projects and meet with state officials to press for action. They even enlisted the state chief minister’s mother, who helped get his attention. “It’s about the collective power of the people,” says Newton, a 40-year-old vice-president for Infosys. “I just wish building a road was as easy as writing a software program.”

Increasingly, companies trying to expand in India have the government as a willing partner rather than a roadblock. The state of Andhra Pradesh rolled out the red carpet last year for MAS Holdings Ltd. of Sri Lanka, South Asia’s largest garment manufacturer. It promised subsidized electricity, new access roads, and even a deepwater port if the company would place a huge industrial park on the southern coast. Now MAS Holdings plans to build a cluster of factories that will eventually employ 30,000 production workers. And it chose India over China. “The government support was absolutely vital,” says John Chiramel, India director for MAS Holdings. “If we can work together, there’s no stopping growth in this country.”

A key to getting massive projects off the drawing boards is forming public-private partnerships where the government and companies share costs, risks, and rewards. In 2005, India passed a groundbreaking law permitting officials to tap such partnerships for infrastructure initiatives. Developers ante up most of the money, collect tolls or other usage fees, and eventually hand the facilities back to the government.

The first project to take advantage of the new law is the $430 million international airport scheduled to open next year in Bangalore. The facility is designed to handle 11.5 million passengers per year—nearly double the capacity of the overburdened existing airport. It will be owned by a private company, which will turn it over to the Karnataka state government after 60 years. Global engineering and equipment giant Siemens (SI ) is helping to build the facility, and Switzerland’s Unique Ltd. will manage it. These companies are also equity investors. The state had to contribute just 18% of the cost. Without such an arrangement, Karnataka wouldn’t be getting a new airport.

A lot of India’s hopes rest on the airport deal’s success. If it proves the viability of public-private partnerships, more such ventures could come pouring in. A visit to the site instills confidence. Project manager Sivaramakrishnan S. Iyer is a crusty veteran of mammoth infrastructure ventures throughout South Asia and the Mideast. Wearing a scuffed hardhat, with a two-day growth of white stubble on his face, he surveys the site from a 2.5-mile-long bed of crushed granite that will be the runway. Work goes on seven days a week, 18 hours a day. Iyer is intent on wrapping up on schedule in April, 2008. “We have the will to do it, and it will be done,” he says.

Will the airport open on time? That’s not within Iyer’s control. Two government authorities are responsible for building the road that leads to the airport, and they’re locked in a dispute over how to do it. Work hasn’t started.

And so it goes in India. Unless the nation shakes off its legacy of bureaucracy, politics, and corruption, its ability to build adequate infrastructure will remain in doubt. So will its economic destiny.

World-Class Rajiv Gandhi (Hyderbad) International Airport

By M H Ahssan

The new Rajiv Gandhi (Hyderabad) International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad, Hyderabad is India’s first Greenfield Airport developed through a public private partnership between GMR Group, Malaysia Airports, the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Airports Authority of India.

The airport with its state-of-the-art facilities, can handle 12 million passengers per annum. The world-class terminal building is equipped with best of passenger comforts. In addition, it provides for easy transit for domestic and international passengers and the firsts of its kind Airport village with a wide array of shopping dinning and leisure facilities.

The new airport will be built in a phase-wise manner. Initial Phase (Phase 1A & 1B) will have capacity of 12 million passengers per annum. Subsequent development will be determined by actual increase in traffic volume at the airport

India’s most advanced and passenger friendly airport
India longest runway (4.26 km)
Code F – A380 Compatible
State-of-the-art Airport Operations and Command Center (AOCC) for centralized airport management
More than 20 Indian and International carriers providing connectivity across India and the globe
Passenger handling capacity: 12 million passengers per annum in phase I
Easy transit for domestic and international passengers
130 check-in counters along 16 self check0in kiosks
46 immigration counters for faster clearance
Highly automated Cargo terminal with 100,000 MT / year capacity
Special facility for bulk cargo and perishable goods
Worlds’ best brands for shopping in wide range of outlets and duty free stores across the airport
Multicuisine eateries with enticing selection of Indian and International flavours
100% barrier free access throughout the airport for physically handicapped and elderly passengers
A 17 bed medicare centre for passenger care
A 25 room lounge with shower and slumber facility and three reserved lounges
Parking area with a capacity of over 3000 cars
City transfers by air-conditioned luxury buses and dedicated radio taxis

GMR-Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) is a joint venture company promoted by GMR Group (63%) with Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB) (11%), Government of Andhra Pradesh (13%) and the Airports Authority of India (13%) as the other consortium partners.

GHIAL won the bid to develop and operate the greenfield international airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad through an international competitive bidding process conducted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of India in 2003.

GHIAL have undertaken to build, finance, operate and maintain the new airport under a public-private partnership initiative. The total investment for the airport construction was be Rs24,780m.

COWI A/S, in association with Aviaplan of Norway and STUP of India, provided consulting services for preparing the master plan, engineering / architectural design and tender documents for the construction of the new airport.

The airport opened on 23 March 2008 (commercial operations beginning at one minute past noon on that day and the first flight landing at 12.25 from Frankfurt). Munich Airport International acted as an aid and consultant in the transfer of operations from the old Begumpet Airport (MAHB are also providing advice on operations).

The inauguration of the airport occurred on 14 March 2008 and was carried out by Sonia Gandhi. YS Rajashekhar Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh chose the name of the new airport to honour one of the Gandhi family, who had been an important political influence in the region.

The airport located in Shamshabad, 22km to the southwest of Hyderabad, is strategically located in India to become a major domestic and international hub. Hyderabad is in the geographic centre of India and is within a two hours flying time to all the major cities in India and three to five hours flying time to all major cities in the Middle East and South East Asia.

Hyderabad has become an important economic centre in India. The number of IT companies with headquarters in Hyderabad has resulted in it being dubbed ‘India’s second Silicon Valley’. The city is also a major centre for biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

Hyderabad has a population of 7.3 million inhabitants and a catchment area extending to 75 million people living within a couple of hours of the city. Currently there are 11 international airlines and nine domestic airlines operating from Hyderabad, flying to over 35 destinations.

The initial phase of the new airport was capable of handling 12 million passengers a year (peak hour passenger capacity 3,200) and more than 100,000t of cargo annually (initially 43,000t). The final capacity of the airport will be over 50 million passengers a year and one million tonnes of cargo.

The airport has a single terminal (with a modular design for easy expansion) which is equipped with 12 contact boarding bridges, 30 remote stands, 62 Common User Terminal Equipment (CUTE) check-in desks and 24 self check-in kiosks, 45 immigration counters and a large business hotel. The runway is compatible with the operation of the new Airbus A380.

The airport is also equipped with the latest IT systems and Airport Operational Database (AODB) technology (the first time this has been deployed in India).

Other buildings include the ATC tower (Air Traffic Control), cargo terminal, MRO (Maintenance and Repair Overhaul), CFR station (Crash, Fire and Rescue) and utilities. These have a combined area of 35,000m².

Following the completion of phase two, the terminal building will have 54 stands for aircraft parking. The LCT will also be expanded to its full capacity of 1.5 million passengers per annum. A second runway will be required before the commencement of construction of terminal two.

An increase in the number of established facilities such as hotels, offices, cargo and maintenance facilities will also be seen. The total built-up area at the end of this phase will be 470,000m² (5,100,000ft²).

In phase two, terminal one will be expanded to an area of 250,000m² to cater to growing passenger numbers.

In the third phase an additional floor area of 430,000m² will be constructed bringing the total built-up area to 900,000m² (9,700,000ft²).

The master plan has been designed to cater to 50 million passengers a year. To achieve this, the present master plan allows freedom of expansion to both airside and landside facilities within the airport site. Further acquisition of land to the north and south will allow construction of a third and fourth runway system.

The main EPC contractors were Larsen & Toubro for airside and landside works, and China State Construction & Engineering (Hong Kong) for the construction of the passenger terminal building and the ATC Tower. Menzies Aviation Plc was chosen for the development and operation of cargo facilities. The in-flight catering contract was awarded to LSG Sky Chef and Sky Gourmet.

Reliance Industries (RIL) was given the contract to operate and maintain India’s first unique open access model in setting up the fuel farm inside the airport (seven-year contract).

Novotel, Accor Group, was awarded the contract to operate and maintain a four-star business hotel to host the transit and business passengers.

Nuance-Shopper’s Stop consortium developed and operates and maintains the duty free and retail facilities for domestic and international passengers.

Plaza Premium Lounge of Hong Kong will maintain and manage the 17,000ft² of premium lounge space in the airport.

As part of the Rs5.18bn ($115m) contract awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) they constructed the runway, taxiway and aprons (137,000m²) capable of accommodating code F aircraft (including the A380 jet). The company also installed the airfield lighting (CAT 1) and aviation hydrant systems and constructed the fire rescue station, airport roadways and cargo terminal.

China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong), as well as constructing the 103,300m² (1,133,000ft²) Passenger Terminal Building (PTB), installed the airport’s baggage handling and examination system (in-line X-ray). They also provided the IT, electrical and mechanical systems for the new terminal under the Rs6.88bn ($153m) contract.

RIL has set up an ‘open access model’ fuel farm consisting of three huge storage tanks with an initial capacity of 13,500Kl of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) and hydrant in the new airport premises for supply of fuel to the aircrafts. The RIL, in turn, operates and maintains the farm, as well as provide ‘into-aircraft’ services.

The open access model means any oil company can supply fuel to airlines as per their agreements. This model is the first of its kind in India and has successfully been deployed in major international airports such as Hong Kong. It has been developed in consultation with internationally reputed companies: Red Mallee, an Australia-based consultant, and Hong Kong Airport Services, Hong Kong.

The storage tanks are connected to the apron through underground pipelines forming the hydrant system. They cater to the fuel needs of all airlines. Anyone who is authorised by the Government of India and has a valid contract with the airline companies, will be allowed to supply fuel through these pipelines.

The basic design of the passenger terminal building is simple so that the sequences of spaces facilitate easy and comfortable movement and orientation. The passenger terminal will cover 105,300m² of floor space and has systems in place to ensure rapid transit between the domestic and international concourses.

The 2,500m² ‘Airport Village’ is a spacious covered area complete with shopping, kiosks and stalls where ‘meeters and greeters’ can interact with passengers. There is also a business hotel near the terminal building.

The major access points to the site are from NH-7 (in the west) and Srisailam SH (in the east) besides the proposed outer ring road. An elevated expressway (11.5km) will also connect passengers from the city to the NH-7 and from there to an expanded four-lane NH road leading to the new airport.

The construction work started in October 2005 when the first concrete was poured. In June 2007, the passenger terminal building was well underway with roofing work 81% completed, and MEP work in progress as well with the façade being 77% complete.

The ATC superstructure was completed late in the summer of 2007 and the runway and taxiways were very nearly complete (work was started on the runways in December 2005). The asphalt runway (09/27) is 4,260m (13,976ft) long and 60m wide with a shoulder of 7.5m.

Funds for the construction of the new airport were provided by the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Andhra Bank and the Vijaya Bank.

Rupee debt of Rs2,000m ($50m) and foreign currency (dollar) external commercial borrowing ECB of Rs5,180m ($128.6m) was used for the development of additional airport facilities, fuel farm and the business hotel. This investment was for the creation of additional facilities, common fuel farm and business hotel in the airport.

The extra amenities being created included more aircraft parking stands, rapid-exit taxiways, full-length parallel taxiway and additional office space for airlines, extra cargo terminal space, additional car parking for passengers and public, extra immigration desks, self-check-in kiosks and bus gate lounges. The money was also be used to finance installing additional security equipment.

The ECB has a repayment moratorium of two years from the date of commencement of the airport operations, and the repayment

Lufthansa Technik is to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Rajiv Gandhi International airport to service airplanes.

The new $20m facility will be a joint effort between Lufthansa Technik (75% owner) and GMR Group. The facility will provide base maintenance services (including C and D-checks) for Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737 aircraft – including 737 Classic and 737 NG (Next-Generation). The facility will begin operations at the end of 2008 with a two-bay hangar.

In addition Indian Airlines are also to set up an MRO facility at Rajiv Gandhi and GHIAL have signed a lease to this effect. GHIAL are to build a connecting taxiway, apron and engine run-up bay for the new facility.

GHIAL also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Sabena Flight Academy to establish a new flight aviation academy at the airport. The joint venture company (investing €80m) will establish a modern aviation academy at the airport by January 2009.

Training will be offered for pilot and cabin crew, engine engineers, technicians and aviation consultants. Facilities will include six full flight simulators, cabin trainers and engineering tooling.

World-Class Rajiv Gandhi (Hyderbad) International Airport

By M H Ahssan

The new Rajiv Gandhi (Hyderabad) International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad, Hyderabad is India’s first Greenfield Airport developed through a public private partnership between GMR Group, Malaysia Airports, the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Airports Authority of India.

The airport with its state-of-the-art facilities, can handle 12 million passengers per annum. The world-class terminal building is equipped with best of passenger comforts. In addition, it provides for easy transit for domestic and international passengers and the firsts of its kind Airport village with a wide array of shopping dinning and leisure facilities.

The new airport will be built in a phase-wise manner. Initial Phase (Phase 1A & 1B) will have capacity of 12 million passengers per annum. Subsequent development will be determined by actual increase in traffic volume at the airport

India’s most advanced and passenger friendly airport
India longest runway (4.26 km)
Code F – A380 Compatible
State-of-the-art Airport Operations and Command Center (AOCC) for centralized airport management
More than 20 Indian and International carriers providing connectivity across India and the globe
Passenger handling capacity: 12 million passengers per annum in phase I
Easy transit for domestic and international passengers
130 check-in counters along 16 self check0in kiosks
46 immigration counters for faster clearance
Highly automated Cargo terminal with 100,000 MT / year capacity
Special facility for bulk cargo and perishable goods
Worlds’ best brands for shopping in wide range of outlets and duty free stores across the airport
Multicuisine eateries with enticing selection of Indian and International flavours
100% barrier free access throughout the airport for physically handicapped and elderly passengers
A 17 bed medicare centre for passenger care
A 25 room lounge with shower and slumber facility and three reserved lounges
Parking area with a capacity of over 3000 cars
City transfers by air-conditioned luxury buses and dedicated radio taxis

GMR-Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) is a joint venture company promoted by GMR Group (63%) with Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB) (11%), Government of Andhra Pradesh (13%) and the Airports Authority of India (13%) as the other consortium partners.

GHIAL won the bid to develop and operate the greenfield international airport at Shamshabad in Hyderabad through an international competitive bidding process conducted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of India in 2003.

GHIAL have undertaken to build, finance, operate and maintain the new airport under a public-private partnership initiative. The total investment for the airport construction was be Rs24,780m.

COWI A/S, in association with Aviaplan of Norway and STUP of India, provided consulting services for preparing the master plan, engineering / architectural design and tender documents for the construction of the new airport.

The airport opened on 23 March 2008 (commercial operations beginning at one minute past noon on that day and the first flight landing at 12.25 from Frankfurt). Munich Airport International acted as an aid and consultant in the transfer of operations from the old Begumpet Airport (MAHB are also providing advice on operations).

The inauguration of the airport occurred on 14 March 2008 and was carried out by Sonia Gandhi. YS Rajashekhar Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh chose the name of the new airport to honour one of the Gandhi family, who had been an important political influence in the region.

The airport located in Shamshabad, 22km to the southwest of Hyderabad, is strategically located in India to become a major domestic and international hub. Hyderabad is in the geographic centre of India and is within a two hours flying time to all the major cities in India and three to five hours flying time to all major cities in the Middle East and South East Asia.

Hyderabad has become an important economic centre in India. The number of IT companies with headquarters in Hyderabad has resulted in it being dubbed ‘India’s second Silicon Valley’. The city is also a major centre for biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

Hyderabad has a population of 7.3 million inhabitants and a catchment area extending to 75 million people living within a couple of hours of the city. Currently there are 11 international airlines and nine domestic airlines operating from Hyderabad, flying to over 35 destinations.

The initial phase of the new airport was capable of handling 12 million passengers a year (peak hour passenger capacity 3,200) and more than 100,000t of cargo annually (initially 43,000t). The final capacity of the airport will be over 50 million passengers a year and one million tonnes of cargo.

The airport has a single terminal (with a modular design for easy expansion) which is equipped with 12 contact boarding bridges, 30 remote stands, 62 Common User Terminal Equipment (CUTE) check-in desks and 24 self check-in kiosks, 45 immigration counters and a large business hotel. The runway is compatible with the operation of the new Airbus A380.

The airport is also equipped with the latest IT systems and Airport Operational Database (AODB) technology (the first time this has been deployed in India).

Other buildings include the ATC tower (Air Traffic Control), cargo terminal, MRO (Maintenance and Repair Overhaul), CFR station (Crash, Fire and Rescue) and utilities. These have a combined area of 35,000m².

Following the completion of phase two, the terminal building will have 54 stands for aircraft parking. The LCT will also be expanded to its full capacity of 1.5 million passengers per annum. A second runway will be required before the commencement of construction of terminal two.

An increase in the number of established facilities such as hotels, offices, cargo and maintenance facilities will also be seen. The total built-up area at the end of this phase will be 470,000m² (5,100,000ft²).

In phase two, terminal one will be expanded to an area of 250,000m² to cater to growing passenger numbers.

In the third phase an additional floor area of 430,000m² will be constructed bringing the total built-up area to 900,000m² (9,700,000ft²).

The master plan has been designed to cater to 50 million passengers a year. To achieve this, the present master plan allows freedom of expansion to both airside and landside facilities within the airport site. Further acquisition of land to the north and south will allow construction of a third and fourth runway system.

The main EPC contractors were Larsen & Toubro for airside and landside works, and China State Construction & Engineering (Hong Kong) for the construction of the passenger terminal building and the ATC Tower. Menzies Aviation Plc was chosen for the development and operation of cargo facilities. The in-flight catering contract was awarded to LSG Sky Chef and Sky Gourmet.

Reliance Industries (RIL) was given the contract to operate and maintain India’s first unique open access model in setting up the fuel farm inside the airport (seven-year contract).

Novotel, Accor Group, was awarded the contract to operate and maintain a four-star business hotel to host the transit and business passengers.

Nuance-Shopper’s Stop consortium developed and operates and maintains the duty free and retail facilities for domestic and international passengers.

Plaza Premium Lounge of Hong Kong will maintain and manage the 17,000ft² of premium lounge space in the airport.

As part of the Rs5.18bn ($115m) contract awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) they constructed the runway, taxiway and aprons (137,000m²) capable of accommodating code F aircraft (including the A380 jet). The company also installed the airfield lighting (CAT 1) and aviation hydrant systems and constructed the fire rescue station, airport roadways and cargo terminal.

China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong), as well as constructing the 103,300m² (1,133,000ft²) Passenger Terminal Building (PTB), installed the airport’s baggage handling and examination system (in-line X-ray). They also provided the IT, electrical and mechanical systems for the new terminal under the Rs6.88bn ($153m) contract.

RIL has set up an ‘open access model’ fuel farm consisting of three huge storage tanks with an initial capacity of 13,500Kl of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) and hydrant in the new airport premises for supply of fuel to the aircrafts. The RIL, in turn, operates and maintains the farm, as well as provide ‘into-aircraft’ services.

The open access model means any oil company can supply fuel to airlines as per their agreements. This model is the first of its kind in India and has successfully been deployed in major international airports such as Hong Kong. It has been developed in consultation with internationally reputed companies: Red Mallee, an Australia-based consultant, and Hong Kong Airport Services, Hong Kong.

The storage tanks are connected to the apron through underground pipelines forming the hydrant system. They cater to the fuel needs of all airlines. Anyone who is authorised by the Government of India and has a valid contract with the airline companies, will be allowed to supply fuel through these pipelines.

The basic design of the passenger terminal building is simple so that the sequences of spaces facilitate easy and comfortable movement and orientation. The passenger terminal will cover 105,300m² of floor space and has systems in place to ensure rapid transit between the domestic and international concourses.

The 2,500m² ‘Airport Village’ is a spacious covered area complete with shopping, kiosks and stalls where ‘meeters and greeters’ can interact with passengers. There is also a business hotel near the terminal building.

The major access points to the site are from NH-7 (in the west) and Srisailam SH (in the east) besides the proposed outer ring road. An elevated expressway (11.5km) will also connect passengers from the city to the NH-7 and from there to an expanded four-lane NH road leading to the new airport.

The construction work started in October 2005 when the first concrete was poured. In June 2007, the passenger terminal building was well underway with roofing work 81% completed, and MEP work in progress as well with the façade being 77% complete.

The ATC superstructure was completed late in the summer of 2007 and the runway and taxiways were very nearly complete (work was started on the runways in December 2005). The asphalt runway (09/27) is 4,260m (13,976ft) long and 60m wide with a shoulder of 7.5m.

Funds for the construction of the new airport were provided by the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Andhra Bank and the Vijaya Bank.

Rupee debt of Rs2,000m ($50m) and foreign currency (dollar) external commercial borrowing ECB of Rs5,180m ($128.6m) was used for the development of additional airport facilities, fuel farm and the business hotel. This investment was for the creation of additional facilities, common fuel farm and business hotel in the airport.

The extra amenities being created included more aircraft parking stands, rapid-exit taxiways, full-length parallel taxiway and additional office space for airlines, extra cargo terminal space, additional car parking for passengers and public, extra immigration desks, self-check-in kiosks and bus gate lounges. The money was also be used to finance installing additional security equipment.

The ECB has a repayment moratorium of two years from the date of commencement of the airport operations, and the repayment

Lufthansa Technik is to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Rajiv Gandhi International airport to service airplanes.

The new $20m facility will be a joint effort between Lufthansa Technik (75% owner) and GMR Group. The facility will provide base maintenance services (including C and D-checks) for Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737 aircraft – including 737 Classic and 737 NG (Next-Generation). The facility will begin operations at the end of 2008 with a two-bay hangar.

In addition Indian Airlines are also to set up an MRO facility at Rajiv Gandhi and GHIAL have signed a lease to this effect. GHIAL are to build a connecting taxiway, apron and engine run-up bay for the new facility.

GHIAL also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Sabena Flight Academy to establish a new flight aviation academy at the airport. The joint venture company (investing €80m) will establish a modern aviation academy at the airport by January 2009.

Training will be offered for pilot and cabin crew, engine engineers, technicians and aviation consultants. Facilities will include six full flight simulators, cabin trainers and engineering tooling.

A royal & powerful cuisine – ‘Hyderabadi Haleem’

By M H Ahssan

Hyderabadi haleem is a distinct variant of Haleem originating in Hyderabad in South India. It is a popular dish during the Muslim festival of Ramadan. This traditional wheat porridge has its roots in Arabia, similar to harees. But this derivative of haleem is different from the rest, with a nice smooth paste of all ingredients well mixed.

In Hyderabad, haleem is the traditional starter at Muslim weddings, and is also commonly eaten at celebrations and other special occasions.

It is a type of stew made from pounded wheat and mutton (or beef). It is in the form of thick paste. It is the mainstay during the Holy month of Ramzan. It is a tradition to break the daily fast (roza) at Iftar with a plateful of haleem.

The ingredients include mutton, cracked wheat, lentils, ginger & garlic paste, turmeric and spices. It is served hot topped with ghee based gravy and lime pieces, coriander and fried onions as garnish.

The chicken variety of haleem is less popular, but is cheaper than the beef/lamb version. There is also a fish variant now.

A vegetarian derivative of haleem, in which dry fruits and vegetables are substituted for the meat, is also prepared during Ramzan, and can be found at some eateries in Hyderabad.

It is slow cooked for at least 10 hours in the bhatti (a cauldron covered with brick & mud kiln) and two men, usually, hit with large wooden sticks all through out the preparation, until it gets to a sticky-smooth consistency, similar to mashed mince.

The cooking of haleem in Hyderabad is mastered to an art form.

Even today meethi (sweet) and khari (salted) haleem variants are served for breakfast in the homes of the Arabs living in the Barkas area of Hyderabad. The salted variety is popularly seen during the month of Moharram and Ramzan. The high-calorie haleem is the perfect way to break the Ramzan fast.

Ingredients:

200gms Wheat (whole)
300gms Boneless mutton
20gms Fresh green chillies
2″ piece Ginger
6-8 flakes Garlic
100gms Cooking oil
3 medium Onions (sliced)
2 medium Lime
1/2tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)
2tsp Garam Masala
– Salt to taste

Method: De-bran the wheat, wash and soak for 2 hours.

Clean and marinate mutton with half of ground paste of ginger, garlic, green chillies and salt for 1 hour.

Pressure cook the soaked wheat and marinated meat for about 45 minutes. Mince and grind to a fine paste.

In a Pan heat oil, add the finely sliced onions, fry till brown, add the spices.

Add the ground paste and keep stirring occasionally. On slow flame, till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Adjust the seasoning. Serve hot, with lime wedges coriander and fried onions as garnish.

A royal & powerful cuisine – ‘Hyderabadi Haleem’

By M H Ahssan

Hyderabadi haleem is a distinct variant of Haleem originating in Hyderabad in South India. It is a popular dish during the Muslim festival of Ramadan. This traditional wheat porridge has its roots in Arabia, similar to harees. But this derivative of haleem is different from the rest, with a nice smooth paste of all ingredients well mixed.

In Hyderabad, haleem is the traditional starter at Muslim weddings, and is also commonly eaten at celebrations and other special occasions.

It is a type of stew made from pounded wheat and mutton (or beef). It is in the form of thick paste. It is the mainstay during the Holy month of Ramzan. It is a tradition to break the daily fast (roza) at Iftar with a plateful of haleem.

The ingredients include mutton, cracked wheat, lentils, ginger & garlic paste, turmeric and spices. It is served hot topped with ghee based gravy and lime pieces, coriander and fried onions as garnish.

The chicken variety of haleem is less popular, but is cheaper than the beef/lamb version. There is also a fish variant now.

A vegetarian derivative of haleem, in which dry fruits and vegetables are substituted for the meat, is also prepared during Ramzan, and can be found at some eateries in Hyderabad.

It is slow cooked for at least 10 hours in the bhatti (a cauldron covered with brick & mud kiln) and two men, usually, hit with large wooden sticks all through out the preparation, until it gets to a sticky-smooth consistency, similar to mashed mince.

The cooking of haleem in Hyderabad is mastered to an art form.

Even today meethi (sweet) and khari (salted) haleem variants are served for breakfast in the homes of the Arabs living in the Barkas area of Hyderabad. The salted variety is popularly seen during the month of Moharram and Ramzan. The high-calorie haleem is the perfect way to break the Ramzan fast.

Ingredients:

200gms Wheat (whole)
300gms Boneless mutton
20gms Fresh green chillies
2″ piece Ginger
6-8 flakes Garlic
100gms Cooking oil
3 medium Onions (sliced)
2 medium Lime
1/2tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)
2tsp Garam Masala
– Salt to taste

Method: De-bran the wheat, wash and soak for 2 hours.

Clean and marinate mutton with half of ground paste of ginger, garlic, green chillies and salt for 1 hour.

Pressure cook the soaked wheat and marinated meat for about 45 minutes. Mince and grind to a fine paste.

In a Pan heat oil, add the finely sliced onions, fry till brown, add the spices.

Add the ground paste and keep stirring occasionally. On slow flame, till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Adjust the seasoning. Serve hot, with lime wedges coriander and fried onions as garnish.

Hyderabadi Cuisines – Unforgettable ‘eating’ experience

By M H Ahssan

The 400 years of Hyderabadi culture also has its origin in Art, Music & Dance, Poetry, and last but not least, the Cuisine.

Hyderabad is never complete without the mention of the “Shahi Dastarkhan”. The Dastarkhan is the Dining place where the food is served and eaten. It is normally a low chowki for the dining table and cotton mattresses for squatting and bolsters for the back rest. The Dastarkhan holds a place of reverence in every household.

The Cuisine of Hyderabad has been influenced by various regional and religious cuisines, both Indian and Foreign, despite which it has been able to create an identity of its own. It has also been able to contribute towards making Indian cuisine popular world wide. The “Biryani” from this cuisine is one such example.

What makes the Hyderabadi Cuisine special is the use of special ingredients, carefully chosen and cooked to the right degree. The addition of a certain Herb, Spice, Condiment, or an Amalgam of these add an unique taste and texture to the dish. The herbs and spices used and the method of preparation gives the dish its name. “Murgh do pyaza” gets its name from the onions that are added twice to the dish in two variations.

The Masalas or the rich blend of herbs, spices and condiments give the dishes a base, or what is popularly known as “Gravy”. Some of these blends are a well-kept secret that pass only down the family line or from the Ustad(Teacher) to his Shagird(Pupil). The head cooks or the “Khansas” were an asset to the house hold, and were treated with due respect.

The word “Nawabi” is as synonymous with the Hyderabadi cuisine as “Shahi” is with Luknowi. These terms conjure delicacies that are rich in taste and texture with mouth-watering aromas. The “Kebabs” in Hyderabad need a special mention, the “ShammiKebab” is one such popular dish. The Kebabs are originally from Greece!!

The Hyderabadi meal is never complete without the bread from the kilns of the local bakers. The breads from this cuisine are equally popular, be it rich “Sheermal” or “lukmi” (bread stuffed with savory mince meat). Bread is not only an accompaniment to the meal but also forms a base for a popular sweet dish “Double Ka Meetha”.

Built on the foundations of love, the city of Hyderabad boasts of a culture as composite as its lineage. Just as there are Sufi saints in the Garden City, there is also the Tirupati Balaji who the rest of the world swears by. The native Telugu and Muslim races do not have any friction; both in fact, learn from each other. As a matter of fact, the Telugus of Hyderabad quite enjoy identifying themselves as Hyderabadis, rather than Andhraites so strong is the ethnic identity of the city state. Hyderabad, therefore, is merely the capital of Andhra Pradesh and a part of the RangaReddy district. Cultural identities haven’t varied. Both Hindu and Muslim men wear the achkans for special occasions. Even Muslim wives wear the Telugu mangalsutra till recently when such past glories were dispelled and relegated to history.

Hyderabadi food has also taken many influences, slowly displacing the standard flavours by more improvised ones. This is best demonstrated by the advent of chicken, which if mentioned alongside mutton, is considered nothing short of sacrilege by the gosht-eating population. Mutton being the revered meat, chicken never really stood a chance till the broiler came along. This was clean meat and the North Indian love for Tandoori Murg took over. The point to be noted here is that in Hyderabad, it is the hen that is considered a delicacy while in the rest of the country, it is the Murgha or the rooster.

There are several dishes in this repertoire that have their origins elsewhere but have been in and around the place long enough to be called natives. This is the quality of Hyderabadi, foreigners can walk in as anybody, but after tasting the waters of Hyderabad, they are forever Hyderabadis. Proved down the ages, this adage has evidence in the cuisine also.

While in Hyderabad, one must make it a point to try out the famous cuisine the city has to offer. Hyderabad boasts of a wide range of traditional vegetarian dishes, which are tempting to the core. They also have an assortment of typical non-vegetarian cuisines. Both the categories are rich in spice content and you need to be careful if you are not used to spicy and tangy food. Though spicy, it is extremely tasty and delicious and is definitely worth a try.

The prominent mouthwatering vegetarian dishes of Hyderabad are the Dahi Vada, Mirch-ka-sabu and Bagaara Baingan. The Dahi Vada essentially contains spicy and creamy curd in which round pieces of ground lentils have been immersed after being fried. The mirch-ka-sabu is a delicious vegetarian dish of Hyderabad consisting of hot chilies, which are immersed in cream gravy.

For all of you who have an active sweet tooth, pamper yourself with yummy sweet dishes like double-ka-meetha (bread pudding), Gajar-ka-halwa (carrot sweet dish) and Qubani-ka-meetha (apricot pudding). After relishing on the yummy Hyderabadi dishes one should have a sip of the Iranian chai or tea. This hot drink has a distinct flavor and you can easily find it in the street side cafes where you can just laze around and enjoy this famous Hyderabadi beverage.

The cuisine of Hyderabad is highly influenced by the Mughals who ruled here. Hence, the cuisine also has some elements of the Mughlai cuisine. The most famous of all is the Biryani, which is an aromatic assortment of rice, meat and seasonal vegetables. There is also a wide range of Kebabs to choose from which include Chicken korma, Sheer korma, Sheekh Kebab, Shammi Kebab etc. These special vegetarian and non-vegetarian Hyderabadi dishes are best enjoyed in the traditional Shahi Dastarkhana or the Royal Dining Hall. It is a conventional dining place where the ancient royal families relaxed and relished on the Hyderabadi cuisine. It is a ‘low chowki ‘ or wooden bed, on which cotton mattresses are spread. They are bordered with relaxing supports and soft cushions on the edges. All you have to do is make yourself comfortable and feel like a Nizam! No meal is complete without the traditional paan, which is betel leaf stuffed with a mixture of betel nuts and spices which is folded in the betel leaf and held together with a clove.

Some of the ingredients of the traditional recipes are kept secret and are only known to the subsequent generations of the royal cooks. The royal cooks of the traditional Hyderabadi families are known, as ‘Khansas’ and are held in high esteem in these families.

Hyderabadi Cuisines – Unforgettable ‘eating’ experience

By M H Ahssan

The 400 years of Hyderabadi culture also has its origin in Art, Music & Dance, Poetry, and last but not least, the Cuisine.

Hyderabad is never complete without the mention of the “Shahi Dastarkhan”. The Dastarkhan is the Dining place where the food is served and eaten. It is normally a low chowki for the dining table and cotton mattresses for squatting and bolsters for the back rest. The Dastarkhan holds a place of reverence in every household.

The Cuisine of Hyderabad has been influenced by various regional and religious cuisines, both Indian and Foreign, despite which it has been able to create an identity of its own. It has also been able to contribute towards making Indian cuisine popular world wide. The “Biryani” from this cuisine is one such example.

What makes the Hyderabadi Cuisine special is the use of special ingredients, carefully chosen and cooked to the right degree. The addition of a certain Herb, Spice, Condiment, or an Amalgam of these add an unique taste and texture to the dish. The herbs and spices used and the method of preparation gives the dish its name. “Murgh do pyaza” gets its name from the onions that are added twice to the dish in two variations.

The Masalas or the rich blend of herbs, spices and condiments give the dishes a base, or what is popularly known as “Gravy”. Some of these blends are a well-kept secret that pass only down the family line or from the Ustad(Teacher) to his Shagird(Pupil). The head cooks or the “Khansas” were an asset to the house hold, and were treated with due respect.

The word “Nawabi” is as synonymous with the Hyderabadi cuisine as “Shahi” is with Luknowi. These terms conjure delicacies that are rich in taste and texture with mouth-watering aromas. The “Kebabs” in Hyderabad need a special mention, the “ShammiKebab” is one such popular dish. The Kebabs are originally from Greece!!

The Hyderabadi meal is never complete without the bread from the kilns of the local bakers. The breads from this cuisine are equally popular, be it rich “Sheermal” or “lukmi” (bread stuffed with savory mince meat). Bread is not only an accompaniment to the meal but also forms a base for a popular sweet dish “Double Ka Meetha”.

Built on the foundations of love, the city of Hyderabad boasts of a culture as composite as its lineage. Just as there are Sufi saints in the Garden City, there is also the Tirupati Balaji who the rest of the world swears by. The native Telugu and Muslim races do not have any friction; both in fact, learn from each other. As a matter of fact, the Telugus of Hyderabad quite enjoy identifying themselves as Hyderabadis, rather than Andhraites so strong is the ethnic identity of the city state. Hyderabad, therefore, is merely the capital of Andhra Pradesh and a part of the RangaReddy district. Cultural identities haven’t varied. Both Hindu and Muslim men wear the achkans for special occasions. Even Muslim wives wear the Telugu mangalsutra till recently when such past glories were dispelled and relegated to history.

Hyderabadi food has also taken many influences, slowly displacing the standard flavours by more improvised ones. This is best demonstrated by the advent of chicken, which if mentioned alongside mutton, is considered nothing short of sacrilege by the gosht-eating population. Mutton being the revered meat, chicken never really stood a chance till the broiler came along. This was clean meat and the North Indian love for Tandoori Murg took over. The point to be noted here is that in Hyderabad, it is the hen that is considered a delicacy while in the rest of the country, it is the Murgha or the rooster.

There are several dishes in this repertoire that have their origins elsewhere but have been in and around the place long enough to be called natives. This is the quality of Hyderabadi, foreigners can walk in as anybody, but after tasting the waters of Hyderabad, they are forever Hyderabadis. Proved down the ages, this adage has evidence in the cuisine also.

While in Hyderabad, one must make it a point to try out the famous cuisine the city has to offer. Hyderabad boasts of a wide range of traditional vegetarian dishes, which are tempting to the core. They also have an assortment of typical non-vegetarian cuisines. Both the categories are rich in spice content and you need to be careful if you are not used to spicy and tangy food. Though spicy, it is extremely tasty and delicious and is definitely worth a try.

The prominent mouthwatering vegetarian dishes of Hyderabad are the Dahi Vada, Mirch-ka-sabu and Bagaara Baingan. The Dahi Vada essentially contains spicy and creamy curd in which round pieces of ground lentils have been immersed after being fried. The mirch-ka-sabu is a delicious vegetarian dish of Hyderabad consisting of hot chilies, which are immersed in cream gravy.

For all of you who have an active sweet tooth, pamper yourself with yummy sweet dishes like double-ka-meetha (bread pudding), Gajar-ka-halwa (carrot sweet dish) and Qubani-ka-meetha (apricot pudding). After relishing on the yummy Hyderabadi dishes one should have a sip of the Iranian chai or tea. This hot drink has a distinct flavor and you can easily find it in the street side cafes where you can just laze around and enjoy this famous Hyderabadi beverage.

The cuisine of Hyderabad is highly influenced by the Mughals who ruled here. Hence, the cuisine also has some elements of the Mughlai cuisine. The most famous of all is the Biryani, which is an aromatic assortment of rice, meat and seasonal vegetables. There is also a wide range of Kebabs to choose from which include Chicken korma, Sheer korma, Sheekh Kebab, Shammi Kebab etc. These special vegetarian and non-vegetarian Hyderabadi dishes are best enjoyed in the traditional Shahi Dastarkhana or the Royal Dining Hall. It is a conventional dining place where the ancient royal families relaxed and relished on the Hyderabadi cuisine. It is a ‘low chowki ‘ or wooden bed, on which cotton mattresses are spread. They are bordered with relaxing supports and soft cushions on the edges. All you have to do is make yourself comfortable and feel like a Nizam! No meal is complete without the traditional paan, which is betel leaf stuffed with a mixture of betel nuts and spices which is folded in the betel leaf and held together with a clove.

Some of the ingredients of the traditional recipes are kept secret and are only known to the subsequent generations of the royal cooks. The royal cooks of the traditional Hyderabadi families are known, as ‘Khansas’ and are held in high esteem in these families.

Mouth watering hot dish – ‘Hyderabadi Biryani’

By M H Ahssan

Hyderabadi Cuisine – Biryanis & Pulaos – Along with the tandoori style of cooking, biryanis are the greatest export sensation of nawabi cuisine. From the delicate pulaos typical of northern India, to the richer, spicier preparations of the Deccan, there are a hundred ways to say it with rice – each one as distinctive as your own signature.

In Hyderabad’s 400 year history the Hyderabadi cuisine has, like its culture, stood high and unmatched by any other state in India. In fact Hyderabad was known for the spectacular way its aristocracy entertained. The feast at these banquets usually contained a selection of Mughlai dishes which would be decorated with varq (a very fine pure silver leaf).

Hyderabadi Biryani Dish
Mouth Watering Hyderabadi Dum Biryani: a successful attempt to satisfy the exotic palate. Biryani holds a special place in Mughlai food and is known for its aroma and rich taste.Many have asked me for the recipe of hyderabadi Chicken Biryani. The recipe is very generic and simple, but I would still say that getting a perfect biryani is an art. I agree to this 100% after I started making biryani and perfecting it every time I failed. Authentic hyderabadi Biryani is mainly made from gosht(leg portion of goat meat). There are many videos available online nowadays that give a very detailed and good demo of steps involved in the making to this delicacy. Here is the link that I first read:

History of Biryani
My first attempt was to make Hyderabadi Lamb Biryani. It turned out into a gooey mess of rice as my rice was overcooked and also the masala had too much oil in it. In my next attempt, I kept the rice and lamb both uncooked and it turned out to me amazing. This is actually hyderabadi stlye Kachhi Biryani in which both rice and meat are layered uncooked.

Another good tip for making biryani is to use the best of the best basmati rice you can buy for money. Rub the grains of the rice between your palm and you should smell the aroma of rice. I have always used Tilda or any other dehradun basmati rice.

Another trick is to marinate the meat for atleast 8hrs for goat and 4 hrs for Chicken, before you put it in layers with rice. Dont forget to put tenderizer (raw papaya pulp) in the marinate for lamb/goat meat.

Authentic biryani calls for bone-in pieces of meat but if you dont have much time feel free to go for boneless.

Ingredients:

500 gms Basmati rice
1 kg mutton, cut into small pieces
2 tsp garam masala
6 red chillies
A handful of cashewnuts
5 big onions, sliced fine and fried till crisp
2 cloves
2 pieces dalchini
3 elaichi
6 green chillies
1 small bunch kothmir, chopped
1 small bunch pudina, chopped
3 tsp adrak and lasan paste
1 cup beaten curd
Juice of 2 limes
2 pinches saffron, dissolved in ¾ cup milk
5 tbsp ghee or refined oil
4 boiled eggs for garnishing
Salt to taste

Method: Grind the following to a fine paste: red chillies and cashewnuts. To the mutton apply the adrak-lasan paste and beaten curd. Set aside.

Heat 4 tablespoons ghee and fry the red chilli, masala. Add the marinated mutton, ¼ of the fried onion, one teaspoon garam masala and salt to taste.

Keep frying till ghee separates. Add 1 ½ cups warm water. Pressure cook till tender. Heat dekchi, add 1 tablespoon ghee and fry the sabut masala.

Add the rice and fry a little. Add the green chillies and salt to taste. Add enough warm water. Cook till rice is done, remove and spread on a thali, discarding the whole masala.

Mix together the chopped kothmir, pudina, garam masala and fried onion. Set aside.

To Assemble: Take a heavy bottomed dekchi and line it with ghee.

Spread a layer of rice and cover it with half of the mutton. Sprinkle half of the pudina/kothmir mixture and juice of 1 lime.

Cover with rice, followed by a mutton layer. Finish with a rice layer.

Sprinkle the rice with saffron milk and dot with ghee.

Cover tightly and place over a griddle for dum for 30 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with eggs cut into half’s.

Mouth watering hot dish – ‘Hyderabadi Biryani’

By M H Ahssan

Hyderabadi Cuisine – Biryanis & Pulaos – Along with the tandoori style of cooking, biryanis are the greatest export sensation of nawabi cuisine. From the delicate pulaos typical of northern India, to the richer, spicier preparations of the Deccan, there are a hundred ways to say it with rice – each one as distinctive as your own signature.

In Hyderabad’s 400 year history the Hyderabadi cuisine has, like its culture, stood high and unmatched by any other state in India. In fact Hyderabad was known for the spectacular way its aristocracy entertained. The feast at these banquets usually contained a selection of Mughlai dishes which would be decorated with varq (a very fine pure silver leaf).

Hyderabadi Biryani Dish
Mouth Watering Hyderabadi Dum Biryani: a successful attempt to satisfy the exotic palate. Biryani holds a special place in Mughlai food and is known for its aroma and rich taste.Many have asked me for the recipe of hyderabadi Chicken Biryani. The recipe is very generic and simple, but I would still say that getting a perfect biryani is an art. I agree to this 100% after I started making biryani and perfecting it every time I failed. Authentic hyderabadi Biryani is mainly made from gosht(leg portion of goat meat). There are many videos available online nowadays that give a very detailed and good demo of steps involved in the making to this delicacy. Here is the link that I first read:

History of Biryani
My first attempt was to make Hyderabadi Lamb Biryani. It turned out into a gooey mess of rice as my rice was overcooked and also the masala had too much oil in it. In my next attempt, I kept the rice and lamb both uncooked and it turned out to me amazing. This is actually hyderabadi stlye Kachhi Biryani in which both rice and meat are layered uncooked.

Another good tip for making biryani is to use the best of the best basmati rice you can buy for money. Rub the grains of the rice between your palm and you should smell the aroma of rice. I have always used Tilda or any other dehradun basmati rice.

Another trick is to marinate the meat for atleast 8hrs for goat and 4 hrs for Chicken, before you put it in layers with rice. Dont forget to put tenderizer (raw papaya pulp) in the marinate for lamb/goat meat.

Authentic biryani calls for bone-in pieces of meat but if you dont have much time feel free to go for boneless.

Ingredients:

500 gms Basmati rice
1 kg mutton, cut into small pieces
2 tsp garam masala
6 red chillies
A handful of cashewnuts
5 big onions, sliced fine and fried till crisp
2 cloves
2 pieces dalchini
3 elaichi
6 green chillies
1 small bunch kothmir, chopped
1 small bunch pudina, chopped
3 tsp adrak and lasan paste
1 cup beaten curd
Juice of 2 limes
2 pinches saffron, dissolved in ¾ cup milk
5 tbsp ghee or refined oil
4 boiled eggs for garnishing
Salt to taste

Method: Grind the following to a fine paste: red chillies and cashewnuts. To the mutton apply the adrak-lasan paste and beaten curd. Set aside.

Heat 4 tablespoons ghee and fry the red chilli, masala. Add the marinated mutton, ¼ of the fried onion, one teaspoon garam masala and salt to taste.

Keep frying till ghee separates. Add 1 ½ cups warm water. Pressure cook till tender. Heat dekchi, add 1 tablespoon ghee and fry the sabut masala.

Add the rice and fry a little. Add the green chillies and salt to taste. Add enough warm water. Cook till rice is done, remove and spread on a thali, discarding the whole masala.

Mix together the chopped kothmir, pudina, garam masala and fried onion. Set aside.

To Assemble: Take a heavy bottomed dekchi and line it with ghee.

Spread a layer of rice and cover it with half of the mutton. Sprinkle half of the pudina/kothmir mixture and juice of 1 lime.

Cover with rice, followed by a mutton layer. Finish with a rice layer.

Sprinkle the rice with saffron milk and dot with ghee.

Cover tightly and place over a griddle for dum for 30 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with eggs cut into half’s.

Hyderabadi Cuisine: ‘Hyderabadi Dum Ki Raan’

By M H Ahssan

Hyderabadi cuisine – slightly sour, hot and richly endowed with nuts and assorted spices and cooked in asli ghee – has to be enjoyed to be believed. Sometimes simple aids like slow cooking and dum help produce rich flavours.

The wealthy and leisured aristocracy of the erstwhile Nizam State as well as the long peaceful years of their dominance, contributed largely to the development of and devotion to, the culinary art.

Mealtime in a Hyderabadi home was not just a routine but a ritual, a time for celebration. A meal was the grand finale of a concerted taste to the well out spread of the day. No guest could leave a Hyderabadi home without sharing a meal with the family.

Hyderabadi Dum Ki Raan (Lamb Meg Roast Spicy Gravy)
Hyderabadi Cuisine – Chicken Dishes – Poultry, especially chicken, is extremely versatile and lends itself equally to being a starter, a side dish or the main course. The tenderness of the white meat poses a challenge to chefs and the key to cooking it well, lies in the subtlety with which it is flavoured.

Ingredients:

* Leg of lamb – 2nos (1.5kg)

For the marinade :

* Chilli powder – 2tsp
* Salt – 2tbs
* Raw papaya paste – 2tbs
* Ginger paste – 20gm
* Garlic paste – 10gm
* Vinegar – 60ml

For the filling

* Minced chicken breast – 150gm
* Grated cheese – 50gm
* Cream – 75 ml
* Sliced pistachios – 12nos
* Chopped red bell pepper – 1no
* Chopped green chilli – 1no
* Coarsely ground black pepper – 1/2tsp
* Salt – to taste
* Chopped mint leaves – 1/2tsp

The braising :

* Red chilli powder- 11/2tsp
* Oil to baste
* Crushed green cardamom – 3nos
* Crushed cloves- 3nos
* Crushed black cardamom – 1no
* Crushed cinnamon- 1″piece
* Crushed star anise- 1no
* Rose petals – 6

For the cashew nut paste :

* Cashew nuts – 15gm
* Poppy seeds – 15gm
* Chironji seeds – 15gm
* Coriander seeds – 10gm

For the gravy :

* Ghee – 75gms
* Green cardamoms – 3nos
* Black cardamom – 1no
* Clove – 1no
* Cinnamon – 1″pieces
* Bay leaf – 1
* Ginger paste – 15gm
* Garlic paste – 10gm
* Red chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
* Yogurt – 1/2cup
* Fried onions – 125gms
* Clear lamb stock – 1litre
* Salt – to taste
* Chopped mint leaves – 1tbs
* Chopped coriander leaves – 1tbs
* Powdered pathar ka phool – 1/4tsp
* Powdered rose petal – 1/4tsp
* Crushed Saffron – few strands

Method of Preparation : Clean and remove the blade bone of the lamb leg (raan) and then, using a sharp knife, loosen the meat around the thighbone (without exposing the bone) and then make deep slits along the length. Wash and pat dry.

Marinade : Rub the lamb leg, inside and out, with chilli powder. Repeat the process with salt followed by raw papaya paste, garlic paste, ginger paste and finally with vinegar. Rub the ingredients one by one separately. Marinate for 11/2 hours.

Filling : Grind chicken mince with cheese followed by cream added intermittently until a thick paste is obtained. Replace it to a bowl and add the other ingredients for filling, mix well and divide it into 2 halves.

Open the slits of the lamb leg and stuff a portion of the filling in each leg. Bind each stuffed leg with a needle and string to retain the shape whilst cooking. Pour butter over the stuffed legs and prick with a needle.

Braising : Rub the lamb legs with red chilli powder and repeat the process with oil. Place the legs in a roasting tray, add the remaining ingredients for braising and enough water to cover the legs. Braise in a pre- heated oven (275°F) for 2 hours. Remove, discard the liquor and rub again with oil and keep aside.

Roast the ingredients for cashew nut paste separately on a medium hot pan. Grind it to a smooth paste by adding required water and keep aside.

Gravy : Heat ghee in a large pan and season with green and black cardamom, clove, cinnamon and bay leaf. Stir over medium heat until the green cardamom changes colour. Add ginger and garlic paste and sauté well until the moisture evaporates. Lower the heat and add the cashew nut paste kept aside and fry until oil separates. Then add chilli powder and stir for a few seconds.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the yogurt. Return the pan to heat, add fried onions and stir until ghee separates. Add the marinated lamb legs and fry the meat well. Add lamb stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer till done.

Remove the leg from the gravy and pass the gravy through a fine mesh sieve into a separate saucepan. Return the gravy to heat, add the legs, salt, mint and coriander leaves. Bring it to a boil and add pathar phool powder and rose petal powder. Stir well. Add saffron, stir and simmer till the gravy is of ketchup consistency. Remove and adjust the seasoning.

Arrange the legs on a serving plate, pour on the gravy and serve.

Hyderabadi Cuisine: ‘Hyderabadi Dum Ki Raan’

By M H Ahssan

Hyderabadi cuisine – slightly sour, hot and richly endowed with nuts and assorted spices and cooked in asli ghee – has to be enjoyed to be believed. Sometimes simple aids like slow cooking and dum help produce rich flavours.

The wealthy and leisured aristocracy of the erstwhile Nizam State as well as the long peaceful years of their dominance, contributed largely to the development of and devotion to, the culinary art.

Mealtime in a Hyderabadi home was not just a routine but a ritual, a time for celebration. A meal was the grand finale of a concerted taste to the well out spread of the day. No guest could leave a Hyderabadi home without sharing a meal with the family.

Hyderabadi Dum Ki Raan (Lamb Meg Roast Spicy Gravy)
Hyderabadi Cuisine – Chicken Dishes – Poultry, especially chicken, is extremely versatile and lends itself equally to being a starter, a side dish or the main course. The tenderness of the white meat poses a challenge to chefs and the key to cooking it well, lies in the subtlety with which it is flavoured.

Ingredients:

* Leg of lamb – 2nos (1.5kg)

For the marinade :

* Chilli powder – 2tsp
* Salt – 2tbs
* Raw papaya paste – 2tbs
* Ginger paste – 20gm
* Garlic paste – 10gm
* Vinegar – 60ml

For the filling

* Minced chicken breast – 150gm
* Grated cheese – 50gm
* Cream – 75 ml
* Sliced pistachios – 12nos
* Chopped red bell pepper – 1no
* Chopped green chilli – 1no
* Coarsely ground black pepper – 1/2tsp
* Salt – to taste
* Chopped mint leaves – 1/2tsp

The braising :

* Red chilli powder- 11/2tsp
* Oil to baste
* Crushed green cardamom – 3nos
* Crushed cloves- 3nos
* Crushed black cardamom – 1no
* Crushed cinnamon- 1″piece
* Crushed star anise- 1no
* Rose petals – 6

For the cashew nut paste :

* Cashew nuts – 15gm
* Poppy seeds – 15gm
* Chironji seeds – 15gm
* Coriander seeds – 10gm

For the gravy :

* Ghee – 75gms
* Green cardamoms – 3nos
* Black cardamom – 1no
* Clove – 1no
* Cinnamon – 1″pieces
* Bay leaf – 1
* Ginger paste – 15gm
* Garlic paste – 10gm
* Red chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
* Yogurt – 1/2cup
* Fried onions – 125gms
* Clear lamb stock – 1litre
* Salt – to taste
* Chopped mint leaves – 1tbs
* Chopped coriander leaves – 1tbs
* Powdered pathar ka phool – 1/4tsp
* Powdered rose petal – 1/4tsp
* Crushed Saffron – few strands

Method of Preparation : Clean and remove the blade bone of the lamb leg (raan) and then, using a sharp knife, loosen the meat around the thighbone (without exposing the bone) and then make deep slits along the length. Wash and pat dry.

Marinade : Rub the lamb leg, inside and out, with chilli powder. Repeat the process with salt followed by raw papaya paste, garlic paste, ginger paste and finally with vinegar. Rub the ingredients one by one separately. Marinate for 11/2 hours.

Filling : Grind chicken mince with cheese followed by cream added intermittently until a thick paste is obtained. Replace it to a bowl and add the other ingredients for filling, mix well and divide it into 2 halves.

Open the slits of the lamb leg and stuff a portion of the filling in each leg. Bind each stuffed leg with a needle and string to retain the shape whilst cooking. Pour butter over the stuffed legs and prick with a needle.

Braising : Rub the lamb legs with red chilli powder and repeat the process with oil. Place the legs in a roasting tray, add the remaining ingredients for braising and enough water to cover the legs. Braise in a pre- heated oven (275°F) for 2 hours. Remove, discard the liquor and rub again with oil and keep aside.

Roast the ingredients for cashew nut paste separately on a medium hot pan. Grind it to a smooth paste by adding required water and keep aside.

Gravy : Heat ghee in a large pan and season with green and black cardamom, clove, cinnamon and bay leaf. Stir over medium heat until the green cardamom changes colour. Add ginger and garlic paste and sauté well until the moisture evaporates. Lower the heat and add the cashew nut paste kept aside and fry until oil separates. Then add chilli powder and stir for a few seconds.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the yogurt. Return the pan to heat, add fried onions and stir until ghee separates. Add the marinated lamb legs and fry the meat well. Add lamb stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer till done.

Remove the leg from the gravy and pass the gravy through a fine mesh sieve into a separate saucepan. Return the gravy to heat, add the legs, salt, mint and coriander leaves. Bring it to a boil and add pathar phool powder and rose petal powder. Stir well. Add saffron, stir and simmer till the gravy is of ketchup consistency. Remove and adjust the seasoning.

Arrange the legs on a serving plate, pour on the gravy and serve.

Mexico’s Mystery: Why Is Swine Flu Deadlier There?

By Sarah Williams

The swine-flu virus continued its gradual global march on Tuesday, prompting countries to strengthen efforts to stem its spread, while President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in supplementary spending to prepare for a possible swine-flu pandemic and installed the newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to help lead the fight against the disease. In the U.S., the caseload rose to 67 across five states — 45 of them in New York City, where health officials are investigating two new possible outbreaks at city schools — with more virus samples awaiting laboratory confirmation. New Zealand and Israel confirmed their first cases, while Canada, the U.K. and Spain saw small upticks in their swine-flu caseloads.

Several countries tightened border controls and discouraged travel to affected areas — Cuba suspended all flights to and from Mexico — but the World Health Organization kept the pandemic alert level at Phase 4, still two phases below a full pandemic. Outside Mexico, the apparent epicenter of the A/H1N1 virus, there have been no deaths confirmed from the flu and relatively few hospitalizations, and health officials continued to preach the need for a calm response. “What we see in the United States, or have been seeing so far, has been milder,” said Richard Besser, the acting director for the Centers for Disease Control.

But health officials also cautioned that the U.S. caseload, including fatalities, would rise, with ongoing surveillance. “We expect to see more cases and we expect to report on them,” says Besser. “As this moves forward, I fully expect that we will see deaths from this infection.”

Still, Mexico seems to be experiencing a very different — and much scarier — outbreak than the rest of the world. More than 2,000 suspected swine-flu cases have been reported in several Mexican states, with more than 150 deaths. Those numbers are still preliminary and are expected to rise as blood samples from Mexican patients continue to be tested for the A/H1N1 swine-flu virus. Lack of laboratory capacity to run the time-consuming blood tests has so far held up the confirmation of cases there.

On Tuesday the government of Mexico City ordered gyms, discos, theaters and all sit-down restaurants (excluding those that serve only take-out) closed until at least May 6, in an effort to limit public gatherings and the spread of the virus. As epidemiologists swarm the country in an effort to trace the virus’s spread, the big question remains: Why is the disease seemingly so much more deadly in Mexico than anywhere else? “This will be the object of a great deal of research and attention,” said Keiji Fukuda, the interim director-general for health, safety and environment for the World Health Organization (WHO). “But we can’t say why there seems to be a difference.”

The WHO will convene an expert panel on April 29 to attempt to answer that question, but one way to begin is to look at where the virus originated. Epidemiologists appear to be homing in on a possible ground zero in the Mexican Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, in a town called Perote, which is home to a large pig farm owned by the U.S. company Smithfield Foods. Flu-like cases began popping up there in early April, before the first confirmed case in Mexico on April 13.

But the truth is that even though the virus is referred to as swine flu, researchers do not yet know for sure that the A/H1N1 virus actually originated in pigs. There’s been no evidence yet of pigs getting sick in either Mexico or the U.S. (Despite several countries’ bans on pork imports, it’s important to remember that the disease cannot be contracted by eating pork.) The original reservoir for flu viruses is actually wild birds, which can spread infection to domestic birds and people — as we saw with the H5N1 avian flu in Asia — and to pigs. Pigs make particularly good biological mixing bowls since they can be infected by bird-, swine- and human-flu viruses and provide a hospitable environment for the viruses to swap genes and create entirely new strains in a process called reassortment. That is what may have happened with the A/H1N1 swine-flu virus, which contains genes from bird-, pig- and human-flu viruses. “When you get a large concentration of pig farms, people, wild birds and poultry, these things do happen,” says Peter Daszak, the president of the Wildlife Trust and an expert on emerging diseases.

In recent years, since the ongoing H5N1 bird-flu virus first surfaced, health officials have focused mostly on Asia as the breeding ground for the world’s next pandemic flu virus. But Daszak points out that Mexico, where people, pigs and poultry can exist in close proximity, is an overlooked hot spot for new viruses. Given the booming global livestock trade — more than 1.5 billion live animals have been shipped to the U.S. from all over the world in the past decade — it’s possible that the A/H1N1 virus originated in an Asian bird that was exported to Mexico, where it may have reassorted in a pig before infecting people. Far more investigation is still needed, but it’s clear that while U.S. officials were looking for flu exports from Asia, they should have also improved surveillance of their southern neighbor. “I think it might have been possible to prevent it,” says Daszak. “We should be paying more attention to our own backyard.”

Now that the swine-flu virus seems well established in human beings, containment is no longer an option. The public health response must be to slow the spread, which means getting a better handle on the virus. While the difference in severity between Mexico and U.S. cases would suggest that there are different viruses affecting the two countries, researchers have genetically sequenced swine-flu viruses from both Mexican and American victims, and “we see no difference in the viruses infecting sick people and less-sick people,” said Fukuda. And even if there were genetic differences, it wouldn’t necessarily mean much — scientists still don’t know exactly which genes do what on flu viruses.

The Mexican deaths may also be attributable to some underlying coinfection or health problem that is simply not present in the U.S. cases — but that will require more investigation to uncover.

It’s also possible that A/H1N1 began life in Mexico especially virulent — that country has apparently been grappling with the virus for weeks longer than the U.S. has — and evolved to become less dangerous by the time it crossed the border. That would not be an unusual evolutionary device, since viruses that are too deadly cannot survive if they kill off their host before being given a chance to spread. “It’s fairly common in epidemics to see a trade-off between the ability to cause severe death and transmissibility,” says Steven Kleiboeker, a virologist and the chief scientific officer for ViraCor Laboratories. The A/H1N1 virus may be attenuating itself as it spreads from person to person, becoming easier to catch but less dangerous.

The WHO, however, says that so far the virus appears to have stayed relatively stable during the chains of transmission, so it may not be mutating much. Still, the virus’s current relatively weak state does not guarantee that it won’t return later, much more virulent — which is exactly what happened in the 1918 flu pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide. As the flu season comes to an end in the northern hemisphere, it may lead to a natural petering out of new swine-flu cases in the U.S. But the strain may continue to circulate aggressively in the southern hemisphere, which is just now entering its flu season, and then return to the north next winter.

Any conclusions now will be premature, because we still don’t know what we’re looking at. Experts predict we’ll eventually begin to see fewer new cases in Mexico, as lab results separate real swine-flu infections from normal respiratory disease. Meanwhile, the anticipation of more cases and deaths in the U.S. has already been begun to be borne out. As the CDC’s Besser himself has pointed out, swine flu is going to be a marathon, not a sprint — and we’ve only just gotten started.

Mexico’s Mystery: Why Is Swine Flu Deadlier There?

By Sarah Williams

The swine-flu virus continued its gradual global march on Tuesday, prompting countries to strengthen efforts to stem its spread, while President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in supplementary spending to prepare for a possible swine-flu pandemic and installed the newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, to help lead the fight against the disease. In the U.S., the caseload rose to 67 across five states — 45 of them in New York City, where health officials are investigating two new possible outbreaks at city schools — with more virus samples awaiting laboratory confirmation. New Zealand and Israel confirmed their first cases, while Canada, the U.K. and Spain saw small upticks in their swine-flu caseloads.

Several countries tightened border controls and discouraged travel to affected areas — Cuba suspended all flights to and from Mexico — but the World Health Organization kept the pandemic alert level at Phase 4, still two phases below a full pandemic. Outside Mexico, the apparent epicenter of the A/H1N1 virus, there have been no deaths confirmed from the flu and relatively few hospitalizations, and health officials continued to preach the need for a calm response. “What we see in the United States, or have been seeing so far, has been milder,” said Richard Besser, the acting director for the Centers for Disease Control.

But health officials also cautioned that the U.S. caseload, including fatalities, would rise, with ongoing surveillance. “We expect to see more cases and we expect to report on them,” says Besser. “As this moves forward, I fully expect that we will see deaths from this infection.”

Still, Mexico seems to be experiencing a very different — and much scarier — outbreak than the rest of the world. More than 2,000 suspected swine-flu cases have been reported in several Mexican states, with more than 150 deaths. Those numbers are still preliminary and are expected to rise as blood samples from Mexican patients continue to be tested for the A/H1N1 swine-flu virus. Lack of laboratory capacity to run the time-consuming blood tests has so far held up the confirmation of cases there.

On Tuesday the government of Mexico City ordered gyms, discos, theaters and all sit-down restaurants (excluding those that serve only take-out) closed until at least May 6, in an effort to limit public gatherings and the spread of the virus. As epidemiologists swarm the country in an effort to trace the virus’s spread, the big question remains: Why is the disease seemingly so much more deadly in Mexico than anywhere else? “This will be the object of a great deal of research and attention,” said Keiji Fukuda, the interim director-general for health, safety and environment for the World Health Organization (WHO). “But we can’t say why there seems to be a difference.”

The WHO will convene an expert panel on April 29 to attempt to answer that question, but one way to begin is to look at where the virus originated. Epidemiologists appear to be homing in on a possible ground zero in the Mexican Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, in a town called Perote, which is home to a large pig farm owned by the U.S. company Smithfield Foods. Flu-like cases began popping up there in early April, before the first confirmed case in Mexico on April 13.

But the truth is that even though the virus is referred to as swine flu, researchers do not yet know for sure that the A/H1N1 virus actually originated in pigs. There’s been no evidence yet of pigs getting sick in either Mexico or the U.S. (Despite several countries’ bans on pork imports, it’s important to remember that the disease cannot be contracted by eating pork.) The original reservoir for flu viruses is actually wild birds, which can spread infection to domestic birds and people — as we saw with the H5N1 avian flu in Asia — and to pigs. Pigs make particularly good biological mixing bowls since they can be infected by bird-, swine- and human-flu viruses and provide a hospitable environment for the viruses to swap genes and create entirely new strains in a process called reassortment. That is what may have happened with the A/H1N1 swine-flu virus, which contains genes from bird-, pig- and human-flu viruses. “When you get a large concentration of pig farms, people, wild birds and poultry, these things do happen,” says Peter Daszak, the president of the Wildlife Trust and an expert on emerging diseases.

In recent years, since the ongoing H5N1 bird-flu virus first surfaced, health officials have focused mostly on Asia as the breeding ground for the world’s next pandemic flu virus. But Daszak points out that Mexico, where people, pigs and poultry can exist in close proximity, is an overlooked hot spot for new viruses. Given the booming global livestock trade — more than 1.5 billion live animals have been shipped to the U.S. from all over the world in the past decade — it’s possible that the A/H1N1 virus originated in an Asian bird that was exported to Mexico, where it may have reassorted in a pig before infecting people. Far more investigation is still needed, but it’s clear that while U.S. officials were looking for flu exports from Asia, they should have also improved surveillance of their southern neighbor. “I think it might have been possible to prevent it,” says Daszak. “We should be paying more attention to our own backyard.”

Now that the swine-flu virus seems well established in human beings, containment is no longer an option. The public health response must be to slow the spread, which means getting a better handle on the virus. While the difference in severity between Mexico and U.S. cases would suggest that there are different viruses affecting the two countries, researchers have genetically sequenced swine-flu viruses from both Mexican and American victims, and “we see no difference in the viruses infecting sick people and less-sick people,” said Fukuda. And even if there were genetic differences, it wouldn’t necessarily mean much — scientists still don’t know exactly which genes do what on flu viruses.

The Mexican deaths may also be attributable to some underlying coinfection or health problem that is simply not present in the U.S. cases — but that will require more investigation to uncover.

It’s also possible that A/H1N1 began life in Mexico especially virulent — that country has apparently been grappling with the virus for weeks longer than the U.S. has — and evolved to become less dangerous by the time it crossed the border. That would not be an unusual evolutionary device, since viruses that are too deadly cannot survive if they kill off their host before being given a chance to spread. “It’s fairly common in epidemics to see a trade-off between the ability to cause severe death and transmissibility,” says Steven Kleiboeker, a virologist and the chief scientific officer for ViraCor Laboratories. The A/H1N1 virus may be attenuating itself as it spreads from person to person, becoming easier to catch but less dangerous.

The WHO, however, says that so far the virus appears to have stayed relatively stable during the chains of transmission, so it may not be mutating much. Still, the virus’s current relatively weak state does not guarantee that it won’t return later, much more virulent — which is exactly what happened in the 1918 flu pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide. As the flu season comes to an end in the northern hemisphere, it may lead to a natural petering out of new swine-flu cases in the U.S. But the strain may continue to circulate aggressively in the southern hemisphere, which is just now entering its flu season, and then return to the north next winter.

Any conclusions now will be premature, because we still don’t know what we’re looking at. Experts predict we’ll eventually begin to see fewer new cases in Mexico, as lab results separate real swine-flu infections from normal respiratory disease. Meanwhile, the anticipation of more cases and deaths in the U.S. has already been begun to be borne out. As the CDC’s Besser himself has pointed out, swine flu is going to be a marathon, not a sprint — and we’ve only just gotten started.

Indus Valley code is cracked

By Raja Murthy

A 4,500-year-old mystery has been revived, with Indian-American scientists claiming on April 23 that the puzzling symbols that were found on Indus Valley seals are indeed the written script of a language from an ancient civilization.

But skeptics, such as historian Steve Farmer and Harvard University Indologist Michael Witzel, say that claims of the Indus Valley civilization having a written language, and therefore a literate culture, are generally created by pseudo-nationalists from India, Hindu chauvinists and right-wing political frauds who wish to glorify the existence of an ancient Hindu civilization.

The civilization on the banks of the 2,900-kilometer long Indus, one of the world’s great rivers with a water volume twice that of the Nile, is said to have flourished between 2600 BC to 1900 BC.

Unlike its river valley contemporaries in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and China, very little is known about the Indus Valley civilization, largely because its “script” is yet to be deciphered, even though ruins were excavated 130 years ago.

There appears little doubt that a reasonably advanced civilization thrived in the Indus Valley before mysteriously vanishing. But for the past decade, scholars and scientists worldwide have argued whether engravings found on hundreds of Indus Valley objects, such as seals and tablets, are a mysterious script of a language – like the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics – or whether they are merely non-lingual signs or pictograms.

On April 23, the US-based Science journal published a paper by an Indian and Indian-American team of scientists and researchers that claimed patterns of symbols found on Indus objects had the definitive linguistic pattern found in written languages. Such a pattern is different from non-linguistic signs.

The paper, titled “‘Entropic Evidence for Linguistic Structure in the Indus Script”, featured the findings of Indian-born researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

It claims computer analysis revealed comparative “entropic evidence” that Indus signs have a linguistic order similar to some of the world’s oldest languages, such as Sumerian from Mesopotamia, classical Tamil and Sanskrit from the Indian sub-continent.

Comparative entropy involves a mathematical process by which an unknown variable can be theoretically determined using known related variables. In this case, researchers say they used computer analysis to compare the pattern of Indus symbols with the patterns of known spoken and mathematical languages. This is the first time that such a process has been used to determine whether unknown symbols are the written script of a language.

“The findings provide quantitative evidence suggesting that the people of the 4,500-year-old Indus civilization may have used writing to represent linguistic content,” said project leader Rajesh Rao, a computer scientist at the University of Washington.

“If this is indeed true,” Rao told Asia Times Online, “then deciphering the script would provide us with unique insights into the lives and culture of the Indus people.”

The 130-year-old excavations in the Indus Valley, covering areas in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, have revealed evidence of an urban civilization. Ruins of excavated Indus Valley cities such as Mohenjadaro and Harappa have revealed elaborate urban infrastructure such as well-planned streets, brick houses, sophisticated drainage and water-storage systems, trading, use of weights, jewelry, knowledge of metallurgy and tool-making. Archaeologists say many more Indus Valley cities are yet to be excavated.

The problem is that any new “path-breaking” Indus Valley research findings have to pass credibility tests. The Indus Valley puzzle took a more crooked dimension in the past decade. India’s right-wing political outfits that grew in this period, such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been known to make clumsy, ridiculously amateurish attempts to “rewrite” over 5,000 years of Indian history.

Such fake coloring of authentic Indian and Hindu religious history was to feed a narrow-minded sectarian, political and chauvinistic agenda. The BJP has denied such history-faking tricks. But a senior BJP worker in Kolkata, an art critic by profession, told this correspondent in 2003 that he was engaged in rewriting history textbooks. The BJP was then heading India’s central government.

This history tomfoolery included attempts to portray the Indus Valley culture as a Hindu civilization. Some fraudsters have even produced fake Indus seals as “proof” of an advanced society with rich, as yet undiscovered, literature.

But the genuine Indus symbols are merely simple non-linguistic signs common in the ancient world, according to a controversial paper in 2004 titled “The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization”. The paper was written by comparative historian Steve Farmer; Richard Sproat, a biomedical computer scientist at the Oregon Health and Science University, Portland; and Michael Witzel, an Indologist from the Department of Sanskrit and Indian studies at Harvard University.

Five years later, in 2009, Rajesh Rao and his colleagues’ year-long study claimed to have debunked the debunkers Farmer, Sproat and Witzel. The California-based Packard Foundation and Mumbai-based Sir Jamsetji Tata Trust sponsored the project. The global media reported on Rao’s April 23 Science Journal paper supporting claims that the Indus symbols are the written script of an ancient language.

However, the original Indus script debunkers refuse to be debunked. In a quick counter response dated April 24, Farmer and Co rubbished the Washington University study. Their two-page answer was cheekily titled, “A Refutation of the Claimed Refutation of the Nonlinguistic Nature of Indus Symbols: Invented Data Sets in the Statistical Paper of Rao et al. (Science, 2009)”. Farmer and Co argued that Rao and Co had compared the Indus sign sets with “artificial sets of random and ordered signs”.

They said the Rao study proved nothing that is not known – that is, “the Indus sign system has some kind of rough structure, which has been known since the 1920s”, said their rejoinder.

“Indus Valley texts are cryptic to extremes, and the script shows few signs of evolutionary change,” Farmer and Witzel wrote in October 2000. “Most [Indus] inscriptions are no more than four or five characters long; many contain only two or three characters. Moreover, character shapes in mature Harappa appear to be strangely ‘frozen’, unlike anything seen in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia or China.”

The left-leaning Indian news magazine Frontline carried Farmer’s and Witzel’s article in a cover story titled “Horseplay in Harappa – In the ‘Piltdown Horse’ hoax, Hindutva propagandists make a little Sanskrit go a long way”. The article debunked sensational claims in 1999 that the Indus script had been “deciphered” by N S Rajaram and Natwar Jha.

The motive of this fraud was to prove that the Indus civilization was an early Hindu civilization. As proof, Rajaram and Jha produced an Indus Valley “horse” seal as evidence that the Indus people used horses, an animal commonly mentioned in the Vedas, the ancient Indian texts dating to the 2nd millennium BC – over 2,000 years later than the earliest dated Indus Valley seals. But no images of horses were found in the Indus Valley excavations, until Rajaram and Jha produced their horse seal.

Farmer and Witzel proved that the horse seal was a fraudulent computerized distortion of a broken “unicorn bull” seal. The fake horse seal was derided as the “Piltdown Horse”, an imaginary creation to fill the gap between the Harappan and Vedic cultures, just as the famous “Piltdown Man” did in 1912. That year, skeletal remains of the “missing link” between ape and man were “discovered” in Piltdown, a village in England. They were later found to be fake.

In their April 23 paper, Rao’s team said they compared statistical patterns in sequences of Indus symbols with sequences in known ancient and modern spoken languages, computer language and natural sequences such as in human DNA.

While Farmer and Co claim in their April 24 rebuttal that Rao’s team used limited and artificial comparative language tools, Rao’s team says the comparative computer analysis included:

1,548 lines of Indus text and 7,000 signs, from veteran Indus scholar Iravatham Mahadevan’s 1977 compilation from the Archaeology Society of India.

20,000 sentences from The Brown University Present Day Standard Corpus of Present-Day American English – a well-known dataset compiled from a wide range of texts including press reports, editorials, books, magazines, novels, scientific articles and short stories.

100 Sanskrit hymns from Book 1 of the Rig Veda, said to be composed between 1700-1100 BC.

“Ettuthokai”, or “Eight Texts”, anthologies of poems in classical Tamil from the Sangam Era, circa 300 BC to 300 AD.

Sumerian – nearly 400 literary compositions dated between 3 BC and 2 BC.

DNA – first one million nucleotides in the human chromosome 2, obtained from the Human Genome Project.

Protein – the entire collection of amino acid sequences from the Bacteria Escherichia Coli, more famous as E coli.

Programming Language – 28,594 lines of code from FORTRAN.

Both camps are adamant they are right. But both could be wrong, given how vested interests and human egos often stubbornly cling to inaccurate views by seeing what they want to see, instead of reality as it is.

If the Indus Valley has an equivalent to the sensational 18th-century discovery of the Rosetta Stone, considered one of the greatest-ever historical finds, that would indeed confirm whether the Indus symbols are a written language – one possibly opening the doorway to an unknown civilization. An officer in Napoleon Bonaparte’s invading French army, Captain Pierre-Francois Bouchard, found a grey-pinkish granite stone in an Egyptian village called Rosetta on July 15, 1799.

Dating to 196 BC and displayed in the British Museum since 1802, the Rosetta plaque carried a royal decree in Egyptian and Greek in three scripts – Hieroglyphic, Demotic Egyptian and Greek. Since Greek was a known language, stunned scholars could use the translation to decipher the 3,500-year-old hieroglyphics. The doorway to ancient Egypt was opened to the modern world.

Even if the Indus Valley symbols are indeed a written script, there is little chance of deciphering them unless a Rosettta Stone equivalent is available. Archaeologists from India and Pakistan continue to work at Indus Valley sites, unearthing new discoveries each year.

Indus Valley code is cracked

By Raja Murthy

A 4,500-year-old mystery has been revived, with Indian-American scientists claiming on April 23 that the puzzling symbols that were found on Indus Valley seals are indeed the written script of a language from an ancient civilization.

But skeptics, such as historian Steve Farmer and Harvard University Indologist Michael Witzel, say that claims of the Indus Valley civilization having a written language, and therefore a literate culture, are generally created by pseudo-nationalists from India, Hindu chauvinists and right-wing political frauds who wish to glorify the existence of an ancient Hindu civilization.

The civilization on the banks of the 2,900-kilometer long Indus, one of the world’s great rivers with a water volume twice that of the Nile, is said to have flourished between 2600 BC to 1900 BC.

Unlike its river valley contemporaries in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and China, very little is known about the Indus Valley civilization, largely because its “script” is yet to be deciphered, even though ruins were excavated 130 years ago.

There appears little doubt that a reasonably advanced civilization thrived in the Indus Valley before mysteriously vanishing. But for the past decade, scholars and scientists worldwide have argued whether engravings found on hundreds of Indus Valley objects, such as seals and tablets, are a mysterious script of a language – like the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics – or whether they are merely non-lingual signs or pictograms.

On April 23, the US-based Science journal published a paper by an Indian and Indian-American team of scientists and researchers that claimed patterns of symbols found on Indus objects had the definitive linguistic pattern found in written languages. Such a pattern is different from non-linguistic signs.

The paper, titled “‘Entropic Evidence for Linguistic Structure in the Indus Script”, featured the findings of Indian-born researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

It claims computer analysis revealed comparative “entropic evidence” that Indus signs have a linguistic order similar to some of the world’s oldest languages, such as Sumerian from Mesopotamia, classical Tamil and Sanskrit from the Indian sub-continent.

Comparative entropy involves a mathematical process by which an unknown variable can be theoretically determined using known related variables. In this case, researchers say they used computer analysis to compare the pattern of Indus symbols with the patterns of known spoken and mathematical languages. This is the first time that such a process has been used to determine whether unknown symbols are the written script of a language.

“The findings provide quantitative evidence suggesting that the people of the 4,500-year-old Indus civilization may have used writing to represent linguistic content,” said project leader Rajesh Rao, a computer scientist at the University of Washington.

“If this is indeed true,” Rao told Asia Times Online, “then deciphering the script would provide us with unique insights into the lives and culture of the Indus people.”

The 130-year-old excavations in the Indus Valley, covering areas in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, have revealed evidence of an urban civilization. Ruins of excavated Indus Valley cities such as Mohenjadaro and Harappa have revealed elaborate urban infrastructure such as well-planned streets, brick houses, sophisticated drainage and water-storage systems, trading, use of weights, jewelry, knowledge of metallurgy and tool-making. Archaeologists say many more Indus Valley cities are yet to be excavated.

The problem is that any new “path-breaking” Indus Valley research findings have to pass credibility tests. The Indus Valley puzzle took a more crooked dimension in the past decade. India’s right-wing political outfits that grew in this period, such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been known to make clumsy, ridiculously amateurish attempts to “rewrite” over 5,000 years of Indian history.

Such fake coloring of authentic Indian and Hindu religious history was to feed a narrow-minded sectarian, political and chauvinistic agenda. The BJP has denied such history-faking tricks. But a senior BJP worker in Kolkata, an art critic by profession, told this correspondent in 2003 that he was engaged in rewriting history textbooks. The BJP was then heading India’s central government.

This history tomfoolery included attempts to portray the Indus Valley culture as a Hindu civilization. Some fraudsters have even produced fake Indus seals as “proof” of an advanced society with rich, as yet undiscovered, literature.

But the genuine Indus symbols are merely simple non-linguistic signs common in the ancient world, according to a controversial paper in 2004 titled “The Collapse of the Indus-Script Thesis: The Myth of a Literate Harappan Civilization”. The paper was written by comparative historian Steve Farmer; Richard Sproat, a biomedical computer scientist at the Oregon Health and Science University, Portland; and Michael Witzel, an Indologist from the Department of Sanskrit and Indian studies at Harvard University.

Five years later, in 2009, Rajesh Rao and his colleagues’ year-long study claimed to have debunked the debunkers Farmer, Sproat and Witzel. The California-based Packard Foundation and Mumbai-based Sir Jamsetji Tata Trust sponsored the project. The global media reported on Rao’s April 23 Science Journal paper supporting claims that the Indus symbols are the written script of an ancient language.

However, the original Indus script debunkers refuse to be debunked. In a quick counter response dated April 24, Farmer and Co rubbished the Washington University study. Their two-page answer was cheekily titled, “A Refutation of the Claimed Refutation of the Nonlinguistic Nature of Indus Symbols: Invented Data Sets in the Statistical Paper of Rao et al. (Science, 2009)”. Farmer and Co argued that Rao and Co had compared the Indus sign sets with “artificial sets of random and ordered signs”.

They said the Rao study proved nothing that is not known – that is, “the Indus sign system has some kind of rough structure, which has been known since the 1920s”, said their rejoinder.

“Indus Valley texts are cryptic to extremes, and the script shows few signs of evolutionary change,” Farmer and Witzel wrote in October 2000. “Most [Indus] inscriptions are no more than four or five characters long; many contain only two or three characters. Moreover, character shapes in mature Harappa appear to be strangely ‘frozen’, unlike anything seen in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia or China.”

The left-leaning Indian news magazine Frontline carried Farmer’s and Witzel’s article in a cover story titled “Horseplay in Harappa – In the ‘Piltdown Horse’ hoax, Hindutva propagandists make a little Sanskrit go a long way”. The article debunked sensational claims in 1999 that the Indus script had been “deciphered” by N S Rajaram and Natwar Jha.

The motive of this fraud was to prove that the Indus civilization was an early Hindu civilization. As proof, Rajaram and Jha produced an Indus Valley “horse” seal as evidence that the Indus people used horses, an animal commonly mentioned in the Vedas, the ancient Indian texts dating to the 2nd millennium BC – over 2,000 years later than the earliest dated Indus Valley seals. But no images of horses were found in the Indus Valley excavations, until Rajaram and Jha produced their horse seal.

Farmer and Witzel proved that the horse seal was a fraudulent computerized distortion of a broken “unicorn bull” seal. The fake horse seal was derided as the “Piltdown Horse”, an imaginary creation to fill the gap between the Harappan and Vedic cultures, just as the famous “Piltdown Man” did in 1912. That year, skeletal remains of the “missing link” between ape and man were “discovered” in Piltdown, a village in England. They were later found to be fake.

In their April 23 paper, Rao’s team said they compared statistical patterns in sequences of Indus symbols with sequences in known ancient and modern spoken languages, computer language and natural sequences such as in human DNA.

While Farmer and Co claim in their April 24 rebuttal that Rao’s team used limited and artificial comparative language tools, Rao’s team says the comparative computer analysis included:

1,548 lines of Indus text and 7,000 signs, from veteran Indus scholar Iravatham Mahadevan’s 1977 compilation from the Archaeology Society of India.

20,000 sentences from The Brown University Present Day Standard Corpus of Present-Day American English – a well-known dataset compiled from a wide range of texts including press reports, editorials, books, magazines, novels, scientific articles and short stories.

100 Sanskrit hymns from Book 1 of the Rig Veda, said to be composed between 1700-1100 BC.

“Ettuthokai”, or “Eight Texts”, anthologies of poems in classical Tamil from the Sangam Era, circa 300 BC to 300 AD.

Sumerian – nearly 400 literary compositions dated between 3 BC and 2 BC.

DNA – first one million nucleotides in the human chromosome 2, obtained from the Human Genome Project.

Protein – the entire collection of amino acid sequences from the Bacteria Escherichia Coli, more famous as E coli.

Programming Language – 28,594 lines of code from FORTRAN.

Both camps are adamant they are right. But both could be wrong, given how vested interests and human egos often stubbornly cling to inaccurate views by seeing what they want to see, instead of reality as it is.

If the Indus Valley has an equivalent to the sensational 18th-century discovery of the Rosetta Stone, considered one of the greatest-ever historical finds, that would indeed confirm whether the Indus symbols are a written language – one possibly opening the doorway to an unknown civilization. An officer in Napoleon Bonaparte’s invading French army, Captain Pierre-Francois Bouchard, found a grey-pinkish granite stone in an Egyptian village called Rosetta on July 15, 1799.

Dating to 196 BC and displayed in the British Museum since 1802, the Rosetta plaque carried a royal decree in Egyptian and Greek in three scripts – Hieroglyphic, Demotic Egyptian and Greek. Since Greek was a known language, stunned scholars could use the translation to decipher the 3,500-year-old hieroglyphics. The doorway to ancient Egypt was opened to the modern world.

Even if the Indus Valley symbols are indeed a written script, there is little chance of deciphering them unless a Rosettta Stone equivalent is available. Archaeologists from India and Pakistan continue to work at Indus Valley sites, unearthing new discoveries each year.

The global politics of swine flu

By M H Ahssan

We may be at the incipient stage of swine flu’s deadly spread across the globe, but already signs of new trans-Atlantic fissures over the European Union’s (EU) travel advisory to the United States and Mexico as well as airport screening of US travelers can be found aplenty. This puts a premium on what United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has called for in response to this virus, namely, international solidarity.

Mexican health officials suspect that the swine flu outbreak has caused more than 159 deaths and roughly 2,500 illnesses in the country where the it first emerged.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 105 cases have been confirmed worldwide, including 64 in the United States; six in Canada; three in New Zealand; and two each in Spain, the United Kingdom and Israel. On Monday the WHO raised its alert level from three to four on a six-level scale. This means the virus is thought to be capable of significant human-to-human transmission – a step toward a pandemic.

Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that usually affects pigs. It is caused by a type-A influenza virus. The current strain is a new variation of an H1N1 virus, which is a mix of human and animal versions.

“Hysterical”, “unwarranted”, “overreaction” and “ineffective”, were the top choices of words used by US officials in reaction to the EU health officials’ alarm bells discouraging “all non-essential travel” to the US.

History often repeats itself, albeit in unexpected fashion, and the stern US responses to the Europeans’ health disaster response reminds one of China’s similar response when, in April 2003, the US Center on Disease Control (CDC), put this statement on its website in response to the early reports of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in Asia: “Don’t go to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi unless you really have to.”

In historical retrospective, given the eventual semi-global spread of SARS and its limited impact on the US, the CDC travel advisory in 2003 appears entirely timely and appropriate, irrespective of negative reactions by the Chinese government, which was accused by Western governments and world health officials of “deception” about the extent of the deadly disease.

Still, US experts such as Michael T Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, have described some countries’ travel warnings and bans on some imported foods from the United States and Mexico as “hysterical”.

But with the medical community still in a frantic search to understand this new strain of influenza virus and its potential for “new sub-systems” via mutations and “reassortments”, the US government may have under-reacted, given President Barack Obama’s assurance on Monday that the swine flu was a cause for concern but “not alarm”.

As a result, unlike president George W Bush, who in April 2003 signed Executive Order 12452 adding SARS to the list of communicable diseases, for which the US government can quarantine individuals, forcibly if necessary, Obama has refrained from taking a similar initiative. As a result of which, voluntary self-isolation and “social distancing” on the part of flu victims has for now replaced a robust and systemic prevention through mandatory quarantine systems, epidemical check-points and surveillance mechanisms.

In the event the flu’s growth in the US in the coming days and weeks leaps in the less than sanguine direction of a full epidemic, instead of a small-scale one as is the case at the moment, then inevitably questions may arise as to what the Obama administration could have done to stem the tide – other than by simply issuing a travel advisory for Mexico.

Hundreds of US flights to and from Mexico have continued unabated since the swine flu outbreak, and there has not been any attempt by the US government to either close some borders with Mexico or even reduce the substantial human traffic crossing those borders, fearing the adverse economic impacts in today’s climate of global economic recession.

This may turn out to be short-sighted if, indeed, the ominous forecasts of potential trans-border transmission of the disease are realized, as any belated US effort would be a remedy too late.

The trick is undoubtedly not to make policies based on worst-case scenarios, but then again there is also the grave risk of avoiding a painful “great reshuffling” of policies called for by a potential pandemic, to paraphrase Andrew Nikforuk in his book, Pandemonium.

“A severe pandemic might encourage us to rethink the deadly pace of globalization and biological trade in all living things,” wrote Nikforuk, wise thoughts that sound fresh several years later as the world grapples with the looming specter of a new natural disaster that has already wrought havoc on the failing state of Mexico.

The country has been mired in an uncontrolled war on drug cartels, and the latest setback promises to make Mexico even a more unstable country as the country loses some of its precious resources in fighting a disease. Clearly, Third World Mexico’s lack of an integrated strategy to combat the infectious disease with adequate resources has a lot to do with the flu’s high mortality rate compared to its impact in US and Canada.

As usual, the North-South gaps reveal themselves with glaring and oppressive clarity in such outbreaks of public illness.

At the same time, by posing the US as a “risk society”, a whole new fertile field of discourse on America’s (health) identity has been opened by the threat of swine flu, given the stigma of Europe’s travel advisory and some European nations’ bans on the import of US pork.

An imagined pandemic may sting the US nearly as much as a real pandemic and the sheer indeterminacy of the flu’s potency and future growth simply adds to its dispensation of a new unhealthy image for the US. Swine flu points at the growing linkage between foreign policy and health policy, as well as the nexus between health and security, seeing how prominent a role the US Homeland Security plays nowadays in the government’s reaction to the unexpected flu epidemic, reflecting a further medicalization of US security.

At the epistemological and policy levels then, in addition to providing a new venue for global health partnership and multilateralism, the obverse side of cooperative behavior is, as stated above, a new rise of national protectionism that is also at the nodal points of North-South divide. This is as we witness the huge disparities and fluctuations in access to preventive medicine in less developed countries, which are keenly concerned about a lack of adequate health financing.

The disease’s proliferation in Africa would be especially devastating as the continent is still struggling with the exorbitant ramifications of other infectious diseases. Irrespective of such a scenario, the mere threat of this new disease will escalate the demands of developing and least-developed nations for greater access to vaccine-manufacturing plants, affordable medicine, etc.

Much depends on the scope of the swine flu’s global spread and its lethal punch and. Should it turn out that we are merely witnessing its first phase of attack, which is pregnant with multiple subsequent waves causing greater and greater disruptions in world trade, transport and trans-border human movement, something impossible to pre-calculate at this stage, then a whole new logic of de-globalization may be inevitable.

On the other hand, this flu has the potential to be labeled as a “metropolis disease” that does not contaminate much of the the Third World, in which case it will lead to new theorizing about what is referred to these days as the “global network society”.

On the whole, swine flu can take one of two directions, it can either act as a circuit-breaker for a renewed globalization in terms of collective response, or a potent source of “international solidarity” as envisioned by UN chief Ban. Or, finally, it may have the contradictory effect of pushing both chariots simultaneously, at least in the short run.

INDIA IS ON HIGH ALERT AS ‘SWINE VIRUS’ ENTERS

By HNN Special Team

An alarm bells sounds in India as the Swine Influenza Virus enters India, according to confirmed sources. All the major travelling organizations kept on ‘high alert’ to curb this virus. Ministry of Health issued a clear notices to all the tourists places to take the necessary precautionary measures for this virus or report to the concerned state government departments for necessary action. India is putting systems in place to check the entry of swine flu into the country. A round the clock medical surveillance began at the Delhi and Mumbai international airports on Tuesday night.

Medical teams are at the immigration counters. Those found to be ill will be immediately quarantined. The Union Health Ministry has decided to upgrade medical facilities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. 32 doctors and eight nurses have been deputed.

According to the health ministry:

- A team of doctors and trained medical staff will be on standby at all the 9 airports
- Temporary quarantine areas are being set up inside the terminals where any suspect case can be isolated
- Along with the 24×7 call centres, they will take out ads in papers asking people to report any symptoms
- In the Mumbai airport too, all passengers from US, Canada, UK and France flying Delta, Continental, Air France and Air India are being screened.

Airline authorities are giving questionaires to passengers before they alight from the aircraft. They will need to fill in all their latest medical details.

The deadly swine flu virus first detected in Mexico can no longer be contained says the WHO.

The US has declared a public health emergency to deal with the emerging swine flu.

After Mexico, the United States is the worst affected with over 60 cases and 45 of them are from New York city. Hundreds of students of one school have fallen ill. They had visited Mexico during their spring break. However, city authorities have said it is not confirmed if it is swine flu.

In India the biggest challenge for the government right now is going to be preventing and tracking potential cases of swine flu entering the country through ports or international airports etc. But with lakhs of passengers coming into the country everyday screening each and everyone of them is going to be quite a challenge.

And here’s a look at the countries where the flu has spread:

- Mexico
- United States
- Canada
- The UK
- Spain
- Israel
- New Zealand

Suspected cases have also been reported in Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Australia, and South Korea, and seven EU states. The flu is obviously worrying more and more Governments and health officials around the world.

INDIA IS ON HIGH ALERT AS ‘SWINE VIRUS’ ENTERS

By HNN Special Team

An alarm bells sounds in India as the Swine Influenza Virus enters India, according to confirmed sources. All the major travelling organizations kept on ‘high alert’ to curb this virus. Ministry of Health issued a clear notices to all the tourists places to take the necessary precautionary measures for this virus or report to the concerned state government departments for necessary action. India is putting systems in place to check the entry of swine flu into the country. A round the clock medical surveillance began at the Delhi and Mumbai international airports on Tuesday night.

Medical teams are at the immigration counters. Those found to be ill will be immediately quarantined. The Union Health Ministry has decided to upgrade medical facilities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. 32 doctors and eight nurses have been deputed.

According to the health ministry:

- A team of doctors and trained medical staff will be on standby at all the 9 airports
- Temporary quarantine areas are being set up inside the terminals where any suspect case can be isolated
- Along with the 24×7 call centres, they will take out ads in papers asking people to report any symptoms
- In the Mumbai airport too, all passengers from US, Canada, UK and France flying Delta, Continental, Air France and Air India are being screened.

Airline authorities are giving questionaires to passengers before they alight from the aircraft. They will need to fill in all their latest medical details.

The deadly swine flu virus first detected in Mexico can no longer be contained says the WHO.

The US has declared a public health emergency to deal with the emerging swine flu.

After Mexico, the United States is the worst affected with over 60 cases and 45 of them are from New York city. Hundreds of students of one school have fallen ill. They had visited Mexico during their spring break. However, city authorities have said it is not confirmed if it is swine flu.

In India the biggest challenge for the government right now is going to be preventing and tracking potential cases of swine flu entering the country through ports or international airports etc. But with lakhs of passengers coming into the country everyday screening each and everyone of them is going to be quite a challenge.

And here’s a look at the countries where the flu has spread:

- Mexico
- United States
- Canada
- The UK
- Spain
- Israel
- New Zealand

Suspected cases have also been reported in Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Australia, and South Korea, and seven EU states. The flu is obviously worrying more and more Governments and health officials around the world.

A menu for the new Government in India

By Salman Haider

India has emerged and stands tall. Major countries of the world seek to be its partner and room has been made for it at global high tables, like the G-20. But while its role has enlarged, its voice remains muffled. Foreign policy has become predictable, reactive, low key. A more assured and assertive India needs to be rediscovered.

The first requirement, then, is a vision of where the country sees itself and where it is going. Foreign policy principles and priorities need updating and effective projection. This is no easy task: the essential ideas must come from the top and bear the stamp of the leader.

India must make a difference when it comes to the great issues of today: the environment and climate change are now centre stage; nuclear disarmament is beginning to claim major attention. A sluggish India has become a target for activists in these fields. It needs to throw up more ideas and take fresh initiatives.

To be a convincing world player, India must rise above neighbourhood troubles. It must place itself at the centre of a virtuous circle of cooperation and friendship with its closest neighbours. This is a difficult task, requiring patience and commitment, yet it must be achieved if the country is to rise to its full potential. Note some encouraging signs: the most deeply embedded problem, Kashmir, came near to solution through backchannel talks with Pakistan. These exchanges need early revival.

Look East
Development of relations with South East Asia and the Far East remains well below optimum. The ‘Look East’ window is still much smaller than it ought to be and we must push harder in that direction.

Restoration of balance in our dealings in the Middle East is also necessary. The Arab-Israel issue continues to polarise and divide, and India has been distanced from its traditional Arab associates. This must be rectified.

For all the lip service, our economic efforts in places like Africa and Central Asia have languished. Radical changes in our economic diplomacy are needed. We have to be prepared to invest heavily in these resource-rich regions, as China has already done. It may be desirable to set up a separate, well-funded Ministry solely for this purpose.

Don’t ignore the Dragon
China will remain a priority area. Currently, we are fairly comfortable with the relationship. The border remains more heavily armed than it need be and to enhance security we should work for mutual reduction of the armed forces deployed against each other. The framework agreements exist and should be put into effect.

Then there is the USA. Its imprint is to be found in every main area where our interests drive us. We should be prepared for continuous dialogue on a wide range of issues. We need to have our own agenda and priorities if it is not to be a one-sided dialogue with the hyper power.

Finally, we need to review and continuously improve the foreign policy instrument, the Indian Foreign Service. This is a high performance group that has made a mark. It needs constant upgrading of skills and performance to retain its edge.

A voter in search of a candidate

By M H Ahssan

The past few weeks have been spent in election mode — well, that’s to be expected in a newspaper office or any other media house. Several candidates have visited us and given us their pitches. While that’s very interestingand sometimes great fun as a journalist , it’s becomea bit of a downer as a voter. You can’t, it seems, really go by the candidate. And, as it happens according to surveys, 60 per cent of the electorate knows that — it votes by party.

So far, of the selection I’ve met, there have been well-meaning smart people with not enough street or grassroots cred, grassroots people with no smarts, wishy-washy candidates with no nothing to impress, keen but clueless candidates and over-smart people who are likely to go nowhere as no one knows who they are. Not, then, a very reassuring situation.

Or, a bit of a Rumsfeld situation — we’ve got the known knowns, the known unknowns, the unknown knowns and the unknown unknowns. But if one of the joys of electing a Member of Parliament is that he or she is your voice in the national assembly, then you feel a little short-changed.

One candidate only wants to hang Afzal Guru, another is bothered about India’s unused uranium deposits, someone else is worried about security, the other about defence deals and yet another about corruption or rather, corrupt people in politics. For some, it’s not clear what exactly they represent. Some of these issues are important and others do not really fall under the umbrella of influence which an ordinary MP has. How will this ordinary MP reflect the concerns of the average Mumbaikar in Parliament?

Cannot be, it seems. The municipal issues are not parliamentary issues, although they hurt us or affect us on a daily basis the most. The uranium might be an issue if a nuclear power plant was coming up in an unused mill compound. The hanging of Afzal Guru is not, I’m afraid, going to be a preventive for all future terrorist attacks. It is a salve at best for those who are looking for some blood revenge.

There are, then, it seems, no local Mumbai issues for Mumbai’s candidates.

Is this the same for all cities or all parts of India? Do we have candidates who truly represent us, no matter how diverse, different, intelligent, silly, emotional, irrational, scientific, religious, greedy, rich or poor we are? Yes, there are times when we vote for or against this or that party because some party appeals to us and some parties fill us with loathing. This is how it must be. But this does not absolve individual candidates from working for their constituencies or addressing issues which affect them, while at the same time being justifiably worried about uranium or the importance of the death penalty.

Perhaps the problem lies in the political parties themselves and in the way they do not allow dissent in the ranks. Where are the backbenchers who take their own party to task when their constituents are affected or when the part of the manifesto that affects them is ignored or subverted?

Of course, there are and have been candidates who stand for themselves and command loyalty no matter what, candidates who people have learnt to trust or rely on. But these are few and far between. As our version of parliamentary democracy has progressed, we have people who get in because it is a family business, because they have business interests to pursue, because the party has to hand out or return favours or because they have good bargaining power now or at some later stage. The worth of the person is sublimated for the greater good of the party and that accounts for the majority.

Under these circumstances, the search for the good candidate has left me flummoxed. I’m unconvinced by those in my constituency and my heart bleeds for those who have to choose or have chosen in the other 542.

Swine flu over cuckoo markets

By M H Ahssan

When reports of the swine flu – for the medically inclined, a strain, or strains, of H1N1 – pandemic sweeping Mexico and onto other parts of the world broke out late in the weekend, my first thoughts were admittedly about the other flying pigs that have recently been in evidence; particularly, the broad-based jump in global financial markets led by the stock of bankrupt US financial institutions.

Thoughts then turned to more humanitarian concerns, with some questions erupting into my thought process (and in parentheses the answers received as the article was written):

1. What is the actual virus going around; or is it a combination of different flu symptoms common in many parts of the world at this time of the year. (It turns out that the H1N1 strains involved are less lethal but all the more epidemic for that than the H5N1 strain that hit Asia barely five years ago).

2. Is the epicenter of the pandemic in Mexico? (All evidence currently points to this, with the first recorded cases in the middle of March going on to spread to other parts of the world).

3. Are the authorities in Mexico able to quickly quarantine the affected population and control the outbreak? (All evidence currently points to the negative; indeed, it appears that many thousands of Mexicans are moving away from the affected areas, in effect guaranteeing the spread of the virus).

4. Is there enough stock of anti-flu medicines available in Mexico and the southern part of the United States? (The simple answer is “no”. The known anti-flu vaccines have been in short supply through much of the world since the last big flu scare in Europe in 2007; it is possible that authorities only have enough supplies to treat the first few thousand people infected).

5. Where did the cases now erupting in other countries including Spain, France, Australia and the United Kingdom come from? (We don’t seem to know that yet, but it is most likely tourists returning from Mexico from their Easter holidays).

6. Why are the global media – financial and otherwise – dithering on what could well be the most important story of this year? (For the same reasons that they have only been playing up good news over the past few months and de-emphasizing bad news. In other words, I really don’t know the answer to that question).

As I fish through global financial media websites, it appears that while swine flu is an important headline, it is not quite a “top” news item. On the Bloomberg website for example, the story appears at item four (or item eight if you include breaking news), with the title “US Stocks Drop on Speculation Swine Flu Outbreak to Hurt Global Economy”. Similarly on the websites for the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, the swine flu story is all about the impact on the stock markets for the day and has been assigned lower importance than say the story about the debt-to-equity swap offer made by General Motors and the specter of former Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain hitting back at Bank of America executives allegedly maligning his good name.

This after both the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued statements that highlight the following reasons for classifying swine flu as a potential pandemic in their statement dated April 24:

New strain
The virus is a new strain of influenza, from which human populations have not been vaccinated or naturally immunized.

Human transmission
The virus appeared to infect by human-to-human transmission. Investigations of infected patients indicated no direct contact with swine, such as at a farm or agricultural fair. The strain was later confirmed to have been transmitted between humans. However, at least one other strain of swine flu has previously been transmitted between humans without wider community infection. In contrast, for example, disease transmission in the last severe human outbreak of influenza, the bird flu that peaked in 2006, was determined to be almost entirely from direct contact between humans and birds.

Virulence
The virus has produced severe disease in Mexico, and some deaths. Furthermore, in Mexico (but not in the United States) the illness has primarily struck young, healthy adults, much like the deadly Spanish Flu of 1918, possibly because of the phenomenon known as cytokine storm. Most other influenza strains produce the worst symptoms in young children, elderly adults and others with weaker immune systems.

Geography
The virus has been detected in multiple areas, indicating that containment is unlikely. This is exacerbated by the incubation and infectious periods of influenza.

Lack of data
That other factors are still somewhat unknown, such as transmission rates and patterns and effectiveness of current influenza treatments, combined with the unpredictability of influenza strains, means that reliable forecasts cannot be made.
In effect, put in simple English, what the CDC and the WHO are saying above is that the potential pandemic is more deadly than what was seen previously with the bird flu virus; as it is a new strain, there are few if any people with the immunity to handle the outbreak, and by hitting the strongest members of the population the virus has a latent tendency to spread faster, and it is already manifest in many regions of the world.

As per its update at 21:38 GMT on April 27, the WHO raised its pandemic alert to four from three, which is still two short of the six required to signify an actual pandemic.

Silence of the lambs
There is a typical spring ritual being played out in the financial media; much as lambs going to their slaughter rarely whine, so too the financial media do not report on the most important bits of news or their implications until well after the events play into reality.

The reason for my angst is not so much the actual reporting of the above news, as it is clear that while some people including me are classifying this as a pandemic, others including the responsible officers at the CDC/WHO aren’t yet there. That is a matter of opinion: when I see a disease with 2,000 recorded cases in one country over the course of a few days with a mortality rate of close to 7.5% and the same disease presents itself in numerous other countries, it is cause for alarm. For doctors and government officials, different standards apply, so one can live with that.

However, the media have once again missed the beat here. Over the past few weeks, the gravity-defying performance of the stock markets was led by the doubling of financial stocks – the broad KBW index of US financial stocks almost doubled from its mid-March lows – even as overall economic news, including confidence, industrial production, consumption and most importantly, employment, all took a nosedive.

Every ounce of bad news has been greeted by a response from government and market figures suggesting that the “worst is over”, that is, that economic growth appears negative now but will soon resume a positive trajectory, perhaps as early as 2010.

Indeed, the UK government in unveiling its budget last week (see G-8’s first bankruptcy, Asia Times Online, April 25, 2009), went to the extraordinary length of suggesting a 0.6% expansion in 2010 after a 3.5% contraction in 2009. Most private sector economists, in contrast, expect the UK economy to shrink by 5% this year and at least half that amount next year.

Similarly, the widely expected bank stress tests of the US government are expected to use similar, low-stress economic assumptions; in effect expecting the general increase in the tide to lift all boats (it is unclear to me how a tide will lift boats that have sprung rather large leaks, but that’s just your resident cynic talking).

Given the importance of these optimistic assumptions to the overall market story, wouldn’t you expect more folks in the financial media to focus a bit on the kind of developments that could derail these projections? After all, the bird flu, while a less virulent strain of the species-jumping virus than appears to be involved in the present swine flu outbreak, did take a rather large bite out of the economic growth of Asian countries in 2004.

Using even the same assumptions means that a good 0.5-1.0% of global economic activity could shrink in the form of lower tourism, general business traffic, days lost to disease and sickness, the impact of fear on consumption behavior etc. This up to a 1% decline in global gross domestic product is also higher than whatever turnaround has been predicted for next year; so you would expect the financial media to pay more attention to the matter.

There is something of a misanthropist view coming out from the possible outbreak of a pandemic that highlights mankind’s unhealthy fascination for farmed animal products and a food-production process that is proven to be unsustainable in the long run due to its excessive use of land and agricultural resources as well as the significant pollution caused by the raising, culling and transporting of livestock.

Viewed from a different perspective, the pandemic is but a natural manifestation of what is being seen in the global financial markets, where some investors have railed against the excesses of Western countries borrowing well beyond their means to fund a lifestyle that proved unsustainable.

Think of it this way: do you know of anyone living in America or Europe who still dreams of buying a US$1 million mansion on the San Andreas Fault, with a loan given ultimately by a bunch of hardworking Chinese factory workers? Much as that particular chapter in the history of the world economy is now closed, so too will the curtain descend on mankind’s unsustainable and grossly unequal use of land, fresh water and other scarce resources into a single-minded pursuit of farming meat.

How To Save Your Marriage In The Current Financial Crisis?

By M H Ahssan

Keeping a marriage or long term relationship strong requires a lot of effort on the part of both the partners and can be quite hard. And if we add the current financial crisis that is being witnessed on a global scale to the mix, it can turn out to be a disaster for many couples.

Mallika and Tanay have been married for three years, but recently things have not been so great on the home front. She complains that he doesn’t spend enough time with her and would rather hang out with his friends, whereas he complains that it’s all in her head and what she wants is a husband who does not have a life outside of her. All this was going on for a few months but by and large they were able to sort their differences and stay happy for the most part.

However, the current global financial crisis affected Tanay’s business considerably as most of his clientele was from the US. He in turn started asking Mallika to cut down on their monthly expenses and tighten their belts. Now with money issues too coming into the picture, even the littlest of arguments gets out of hand and results into a full blown fight. They were having their problems even before the financial crisis, but where they could deal with their issues rationally before, now that seems impossible.

It is the same case with thousands of couples. Thus, here is some advice that may help you to prevent your marriage from falling apart in the current financial scenario.

Financial Advice To Tide Couples Through The Global Meltdown
- Make saving a habit: You were saving 15% of your salary before this crisis occurred but now you’re not saving anything. This all or nothing attitude can really hurt your marriage. Even if you cannot save what you used to every month, at least save something. So, if 15% is not feasible now, save at least 5% of your income each month. It’s not so much the amount that you set aside, but more importantly the habit of saving even when the going gets a little tough. The crisis won’t last forever and when you’re a little flush with cash, you can always up your savings.

- Have a Plan B: With most companies trying to cut costs, the first thing to happen is job cuts. If you should happen to get laid off, it can add tremendous strain on the best of marriages. Thus, while you’re working your Plan A, give some thought to what you would do if you happen to lose your current job. Basically, put a Plan B into place. Create your resume, do some research and know what your options are. If the worst does happen, at least you won’t be sitting on the couch and complaining (while your spouse goes to work), but will be doing something concrete to make money.

- Don’t let romance take a backseat: It’s easy to romance your partner when you can spend on lavish dinners, go for romantic holidays, and buy expensive presents. But since all this may not be possible right now, it is easy to let the romance fly out of your marriage. But make sure you don’t let that happen. There are ways to connect intimately without spending the big bucks. A nice little candlelight dinner at home, a quite walk with your beloved, romantic picnics in the park, a heart felt love note – all these are ways in which you can express your love without spending too much money. Be creative!

- Keep a record of your spending: Most couples are at a loss of how they can cut down on their expenses as they believe that they don’t do any ‘faltu kharcha’ to begin with. But, if you start tracking your spending by writing down where each buck goes, you’ll be amazed to see how much money you spend out of habit that can easily be cut down.

- Don’t be afraid to dip into your savings: If things get really bad, you can dip into your savings to tide you over the current financial crisis. But remember that you should do so as a last resort and only if you have no other option left. Also keep in mind that you’re going to dip into your nest egg only for expenses that just cannot be avoided. For instance, if you’re behind on your home loan payments, if a medical emergency comes up etc. And no, your yearly trip abroad doesn’t count!

Most importantly, if you do have to remove money from your savings, be ok about it and know that you’ll put it back when times get better. After all, you were saving for a rainy day right? Well, the rainy day is here!

How To Save Your Marriage In The Current Financial Crisis?

By M H Ahssan

Keeping a marriage or long term relationship strong requires a lot of effort on the part of both the partners and can be quite hard. And if we add the current financial crisis that is being witnessed on a global scale to the mix, it can turn out to be a disaster for many couples.

Mallika and Tanay have been married for three years, but recently things have not been so great on the home front. She complains that he doesn’t spend enough time with her and would rather hang out with his friends, whereas he complains that it’s all in her head and what she wants is a husband who does not have a life outside of her. All this was going on for a few months but by and large they were able to sort their differences and stay happy for the most part.

However, the current global financial crisis affected Tanay’s business considerably as most of his clientele was from the US. He in turn started asking Mallika to cut down on their monthly expenses and tighten their belts. Now with money issues too coming into the picture, even the littlest of arguments gets out of hand and results into a full blown fight. They were having their problems even before the financial crisis, but where they could deal with their issues rationally before, now that seems impossible.

It is the same case with thousands of couples. Thus, here is some advice that may help you to prevent your marriage from falling apart in the current financial scenario.

Financial Advice To Tide Couples Through The Global Meltdown
- Make saving a habit: You were saving 15% of your salary before this crisis occurred but now you’re not saving anything. This all or nothing attitude can really hurt your marriage. Even if you cannot save what you used to every month, at least save something. So, if 15% is not feasible now, save at least 5% of your income each month. It’s not so much the amount that you set aside, but more importantly the habit of saving even when the going gets a little tough. The crisis won’t last forever and when you’re a little flush with cash, you can always up your savings.

- Have a Plan B: With most companies trying to cut costs, the first thing to happen is job cuts. If you should happen to get laid off, it can add tremendous strain on the best of marriages. Thus, while you’re working your Plan A, give some thought to what you would do if you happen to lose your current job. Basically, put a Plan B into place. Create your resume, do some research and know what your options are. If the worst does happen, at least you won’t be sitting on the couch and complaining (while your spouse goes to work), but will be doing something concrete to make money.

- Don’t let romance take a backseat: It’s easy to romance your partner when you can spend on lavish dinners, go for romantic holidays, and buy expensive presents. But since all this may not be possible right now, it is easy to let the romance fly out of your marriage. But make sure you don’t let that happen. There are ways to connect intimately without spending the big bucks. A nice little candlelight dinner at home, a quite walk with your beloved, romantic picnics in the park, a heart felt love note – all these are ways in which you can express your love without spending too much money. Be creative!

- Keep a record of your spending: Most couples are at a loss of how they can cut down on their expenses as they believe that they don’t do any ‘faltu kharcha’ to begin with. But, if you start tracking your spending by writing down where each buck goes, you’ll be amazed to see how much money you spend out of habit that can easily be cut down.

- Don’t be afraid to dip into your savings: If things get really bad, you can dip into your savings to tide you over the current financial crisis. But remember that you should do so as a last resort and only if you have no other option left. Also keep in mind that you’re going to dip into your nest egg only for expenses that just cannot be avoided. For instance, if you’re behind on your home loan payments, if a medical emergency comes up etc. And no, your yearly trip abroad doesn’t count!

Most importantly, if you do have to remove money from your savings, be ok about it and know that you’ll put it back when times get better. After all, you were saving for a rainy day right? Well, the rainy day is here!

5 Great Romantic Indian Hotels – Fall In Love Again!

By M H Ahssan

Re-discover your love and refuel your passion by visiting any of these 5 Great Romantic Hotels in India. These hotels are gorgeous retreats that have not yet been run over by enthusiastic tourists. Their isolation is one of their most appealing traits. 3 of them have even featured on Forbes’ list of great Indian hotels!

Devigarh Palace Hotel:
The phrase ‘heart-breakingly beautiful’ was definitely coined for this amazing palace resort situated in Delwara, half hour drive from the city of Udaipur. Set atop a small hill, the fort palace is surrounded with beautiful lush gardens on one side that are perfect for taking long romantic strolls with your partner.

Highlight: If you get a strong sense of deja vu upon seeing the hotel, and having never been there before, don’t start imagining possibilities of ‘punar janam’ and all that! Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Eklavya’ was shot at almost entirely at this hotel and hence the familiarity. If your spouse is crazy about the Big B like most of India, it will be like the proverbial cherry on top!

Hotel Rajvilas:
Situated in the pink city of Jaipur, this hotel is the best of the Oberoi Vilas hotels spread across India. Choose from gorgeous luxury tents for an exotic romantic holiday with your lover, or go with one of the dazzling villas for the ultimate in privacy. Either way, you’ll be so busy re-igniting your passion that you may just not want to leave!

Highlight: This is one of the cheapest 7-star properties in the world to stay at during the off-season. A great way to romance your spouse without breaking the bank.

Wild Flower Hall:
Situated in Shimla, this property was once the summer retreat for the British Babus. Today, it is a stunning hotel with remnants of the Colonial Raj. The great service and helpful staff go to any lengths to make your stay memorable, making you feel like Royalty.

Highlight: Adventure buffs also have the option of mountainous treks and mountain bike riding; that is if you can make time off from all the activity you’ll be getting inside your hotel room!

Amanbagh Hotel:
A scenic two-hour ride from the city of Jaipur will bring you to Amanbagh Hotel, which is truly a desert in the oasis fit for maharajas and their ranis. Haveli type rooms, landscaped gardens, peaceful surroundings, and the loving ambience of the hotel will surely put you in the mood for some steamy passion and romance!

Neemrana Fort Palace:
An hour and a half drive from Delhi will bring you to this awe-inspiringly beautiful fort-turned-palace hotel. Having the distinction of being one of India’s oldest heritage hotels, the Neemrana Fort Palace has every modern convenience you can imagine.

Cut into a small hillock, the hotel offers various steeped terraces and walkways for much-in-love couples. You can have complete privacy with your partner. The staff is so discreet that you’ll wonder if there really is any! Even if the hotel is absolutely full, you’ll still feel like the last two people on Earth!

5 Great Romantic Indian Hotels – Fall In Love Again!

By M H Ahssan

Re-discover your love and refuel your passion by visiting any of these 5 Great Romantic Hotels in India. These hotels are gorgeous retreats that have not yet been run over by enthusiastic tourists. Their isolation is one of their most appealing traits. 3 of them have even featured on Forbes’ list of great Indian hotels!

Devigarh Palace Hotel:
The phrase ‘heart-breakingly beautiful’ was definitely coined for this amazing palace resort situated in Delwara, half hour drive from the city of Udaipur. Set atop a small hill, the fort palace is surrounded with beautiful lush gardens on one side that are perfect for taking long romantic strolls with your partner.

Highlight: If you get a strong sense of deja vu upon seeing the hotel, and having never been there before, don’t start imagining possibilities of ‘punar janam’ and all that! Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Eklavya’ was shot at almost entirely at this hotel and hence the familiarity. If your spouse is crazy about the Big B like most of India, it will be like the proverbial cherry on top!

Hotel Rajvilas:
Situated in the pink city of Jaipur, this hotel is the best of the Oberoi Vilas hotels spread across India. Choose from gorgeous luxury tents for an exotic romantic holiday with your lover, or go with one of the dazzling villas for the ultimate in privacy. Either way, you’ll be so busy re-igniting your passion that you may just not want to leave!

Highlight: This is one of the cheapest 7-star properties in the world to stay at during the off-season. A great way to romance your spouse without breaking the bank.

Wild Flower Hall:
Situated in Shimla, this property was once the summer retreat for the British Babus. Today, it is a stunning hotel with remnants of the Colonial Raj. The great service and helpful staff go to any lengths to make your stay memorable, making you feel like Royalty.

Highlight: Adventure buffs also have the option of mountainous treks and mountain bike riding; that is if you can make time off from all the activity you’ll be getting inside your hotel room!

Amanbagh Hotel:
A scenic two-hour ride from the city of Jaipur will bring you to Amanbagh Hotel, which is truly a desert in the oasis fit for maharajas and their ranis. Haveli type rooms, landscaped gardens, peaceful surroundings, and the loving ambience of the hotel will surely put you in the mood for some steamy passion and romance!

Neemrana Fort Palace:
An hour and a half drive from Delhi will bring you to this awe-inspiringly beautiful fort-turned-palace hotel. Having the distinction of being one of India’s oldest heritage hotels, the Neemrana Fort Palace has every modern convenience you can imagine.

Cut into a small hillock, the hotel offers various steeped terraces and walkways for much-in-love couples. You can have complete privacy with your partner. The staff is so discreet that you’ll wonder if there really is any! Even if the hotel is absolutely full, you’ll still feel like the last two people on Earth!

The Thematic Wedding Affair

By Ayaan Khan

Not too long ago, Indian weddings were mostly about ostentation and lavish display, often bright, bold and beautiful in a glitzy sort of way. An event most looked forward to from time immemorial, a wedding today is not just an occasion where family elders get go together and bring about the amalgam of two destinies and families.

It’s no longer just about vows and diamond rings or a treasure trove of expensive, cherished things…it’s the making of memories woven with moments of love and celebration, meticulously orchestrated with everything that is designed to create a castle of pure fantasy. And central to all of this is a theme that runs right through often from the rituals to the reception. Yes, the era of ‘themed’ weddings has made its advent into the Indian wedding landscape in a big way and is evidently here to stay.

While the diva of all fairy tales, Cinderella, remains a great favourite of NRIs and other culturally aware people, there are the odd takers for more adventurous themes like beach and underwater themes. Today you can have your pick of wedding themes ranging from fairy tale romances, religious themes, Arabian fantasies, culture centric festivities and even astrologically determined combinations.

For instance, the marriage of a well known industrialist in the North is said to be have been centered around the number 7 which was elegantly woven into all the elements, right from the choice of the cards, the wordings on the invitation, the décor to the food.

Another wedding held in the South, also that of an industrialist was held on the 25th, a number that adds up to 7 synchronizing with the birth date of the bride and had 7 as its theme. At the entrance stood seven beautiful young ladies welcoming each one of the guests. The décor used the seven colours of the rainbow, reflected by a majestic fountain. There were 7 stalls representing 7 cuisines from various states of the country and the give away packets contained seven items.

The various ceremonies that were held prior to the reception numbered 7 in all, giving the bride an opportunity to dress herself up in 7 different ways, from a beautifully brocaded salwar kurta, to lehengas and sarees worn in different ways. Said the blushing bride, “Number 7 has always been an auspicious one for me and I want its benefits to spill right into the heart of my marriage.”

A number of weddings opt for themes that incorporate the Bollywood elements of song and dance. From the invitation cards, the dress and ensemble of the bride and groom along with close friends and family, the décor, the floral arrangements, the festivities and entertainment everything bears the stamp of clever co-ordination.

The success of a thematically conceived wedding celebration is based on two factors – the choice of the event management company and the budget, both of which are in a sense interdependent. You can’t be choosing a high profile event management company if your budget does not permit it and in case such a firm would hardly be willing to operate on a shoestring budget considering the spectrum of activities it involves itself in, from the moment the choice of the venue has been made.

Theme weddings can start anywhere from Rs. 3 lacs to 1 crore and above. The sky is virtually the limit here. Once the concept has been decided, everything else simply falls into place in the hands of an experienced and competent wedding planner. It is just a matter of how much one is willing to pay for the unfolding of a fantasy that is designed to take one’s breath away while keeping the memory of the event of a lifetime alive in the minds of every invitee, your own included of course!

Unmarried Indian women and their woes

By Samiya Anwar

Besides being single if somebody asks of my opinion I would say married people are happier, loving, secure and stable, also kind in nature”. It is just may be because I am still in the list of spinsters. However I observed many times if married respected, if not people question, suspect and doubt.

Life is not easy though, single women is one who not only is independent and enjoys life but also laughs easily who cries thoroughly, who often feels angry and lonely, who is strong and weak, who is brave and scared, she feels wanted, she deserves happiness. Because, they are more committed than men, they have more desires than need to marry, have a career and everything they want in life.

Although women of todays are fighting over all the stereotypes, they are also utilizing their skills in making career. It cannot be denied women are very successful in the present day in every sphere. From academics to sports, research to arts, every where women have shown potential abilities but still the life of women is no easy. They are stressful not stress-free. There are “too many expectations” from her in the family and world. It is something like your own family, relatives, neighbors, friends constantly badger you with “too many questions” if you remain single say close to 30. The pity looks of uncle-aunties scare you and bother. You end up occasionally losing sleep worrying about the future. You no longer feel happy when your cousin gets marry and a friend have a kid. A kind of covetousness fills inside. What to say and whom to say. You get screwed. You either slip into depression or start busying your mind in other work. Moreover get confused.

We can see there are relatively large numbers of women who remained unmarried despite societal pressures to wed. And sometimes I do, I do think of those successful and power-oriented females who have been climbing the ladder of life without any spouse. Don’t they feel the need of a partner? Will they die just being called a spinster having no children, getting old lonely? Or are they too busy to tie the knot? Or might be they don’t find a suitable match to have a marriage life. All these questions baffled my mind, so I had a discussion with few unmarried women about their opinion, life and career.

Some women believe that “marriage does not make you a complete person. You have to be a complete person before you can be married…” this is what a single woman says who is found more at parlors for a make-over. The parlors and spas are hit these days with single women who are going for weight-loss, liposuction, nose job and a complete new look. Also few are heartbroken with the family history of broken relationships and fear of increasing divorce rates. They question “If marriages are made in heaven, why there is divorce”. And somewhat women think after marriage they loose independence. There is a constant pressure from husband and in-laws to be at home and sacrifice career. She is in competition with fanatics always.

Other few don’t find a suitable partner. May be because, women are more likely to seek information than men, every working women wants a husband who earns more than her, who is good-looking, handsome, well-settled and qualified. Everything does not come in one package and women fail to understand. They spent larger amount of time at matrimonial sites, chat rooms and often feel sad, isolated, angry and rejected. Like Sabiha didn’t find her fate in the matrimony. She is 25 barely but working from 7 years in a call center to meet the needs of the family. She also dreams of a soul mate and wish to marry some day. But the time doesn’t permit her to settle that way. She feels sad, isolated and dishearten. She began to consume alcohol to forget her ultimate desire.

This is not just one case of dejected female, many unmarried females’ falls for obsessions. For instance, internet is a boon for the discontented people. A recent survey concluded that more and more females are serving net in comparison to last decade. The social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Myspace has number of women seeking for a relationship.

They are beautiful, they are successful, and they are popular but still lack something in life. And it is terrible that few women hate going home after work because they have no one waiting for them, if not in a relationship. Like in the Bollywood movie Gangster-A Love Story, Simran (Kangana Ranawat) finds it desolated when boy friend and gangster Daya (Shiney Ahuja) is at busy at work. She falls allegedly in love with someone else Akaash (Emran Hashmi), a cop in his absence.

However Fatima says “From a tiny tot, I loved the stories and keep asking my mother to repeat the same old story unless I started making my own. The story of how my parents met had been told to me many times. I knew it like most children know the story of Cinderella or other fairy tales I always dreamed of meeting someone and falling in love the way they did. And mind it; she is not a rare bird of those imaginary feathers. In words of Kripa if you get that one person in life, your life is perfect, you’re perfect in deed. I think the world keeps changing. But the women is same, she wants the same thing. A fairytale just like Cinderella, even now in the 21st century the world go round with the word-love. Every one wants to love and be loved. Marriage and relationship is a must-thing for you and also the society.

Nevertheless ness, we live in a very family-oriented and deeply cultural society where a good home is the BEST thing a woman can do. Till now people ponders (including men and women) that a women is successful only if she is married. Despite of having success and world at feet women still needs a shoulder to lie on, make love, cry and spend life with. Some agree, some not, few argue, few don’t listen. But there is potential need to every woman to settle down at some point of life because trouble shared is trouble half and women are men’s better half. To some extent it is false to say women are behind every successful man but men do stay behind each successful woman. And why not, men and women are no separate; they are two sides of a same coin. What do you say?

Diabetic Nerve Pain: 10 Foot Care Tips to Protect Yourself

By M H Ahssan

Diabetes can mean double trouble for your feet. First, diabetes can reduce blood flow to your feet, depriving your feet of oxygen and nutrients. This makes it more difficult for blisters, sores, and cuts to heal. And second, the diabetic nerve damage called peripheral neuropathy can cause numbness in your feet. When you can’t feel cuts and blisters, you’re more likely to get sores and infections.

If you don’t notice or treat the sores, they can become deeply infected, and lead to amputation. A sad reality: having a toe, foot, or lower leg surgically removed is 10 times more likely in people with diabetes.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy can also cause sharp pain in your feet. You may become excruciatingly sensitive to the lightest touch, like the sheets on your bed. Fortunately, a little TLC goes a long way in preventing foot problems from diabetes.

10 Tips to Protect Your Feet

Foot Care Tip 1. Check both feet daily.
Look over both feet carefully every day, and be sure you check between all of your toes. Blisters and infections can start between your toes, and with diabetic neuropathy, you may not feel them until they’ve become irritated or infected. If a physical challenge keeps you from checking your own feet, ask a family member to help.

Foot Care Tip 2. Wash with warm – not hot – water.
Wash both of your feet briefly each day with warm – not hot – water. You may not be able to feel heat with your feet, so test the water with your hands first. Avoid soaking too long in water, since waterlogged sores have a harder time healing. Dry your feet right away, and remember to dry gently between all of your toes.

Foot Care Tip 3. Make sure your shoes fit well.
It’s an investment worth making. Even the slightest rubbing or misfit shoe can cause a blister that turns into a sore that becomes infected and never heals. Buy better-fitting shoes, or try different socks, even at the most minor signs of redness or irritation, since you may not be able to feel when it’s getting worse. Before buying or putting on the shoes check your shoes for rough seams, sharp edges or other objects that could hurt your feet. And break your shoes in gradually.

Foot Care Tip 4. Skip the barefoot look.
Always wear shoes or slippers. Always wear socks with your shoes, since leather, plastics, and manmade shoe materials can irritate your skin and quickly bring on blisters. While you might prefer the look of hose, nylon knee-highs, or thin socks, you may find that these don’t give your toes or heels enough protection. Wear thicker socks to pad your feet and cushion any calluses or sore spots.

Foot Care Tip 5. Speak up.
Nerve damage can be unpredictable. Tell your doctor about any changes in sensation in your toes, feet, or legs. Speak up if you notice pain, tingling, a pins-and-needles feeling, numbness, or any other unusual signs – even if it seems trivial to you. There’s nothing small-potatoes about a potential foot amputation.

Foot Care Tip 6. Stay soft – but dry.
Your skin may be dry and cracked because of high glucose levels, and cracked skin means it’s easier for bacteria to get under your skin and harder for infections to heal. Use a small amount of skin lotion daily, but be sure your feet feel dry – not damp or sticky – afterwards. Try not to get the lotion in between your toes. Keep your toenails trimmed and filed smooth to avoid ingrown toenails. You may find it easier to trim your nails after using lotion, when your cuticles are softer. Use a pumice stone after showering or bathing to softly file corns or calluses.

Foot Care Tip 7. Try non-impact exercise.
Swimming, cycling, yoga, and tai chi are increasingly popular ways to exercise – with minimal impact on your feet. Talk with your doctor before starting an exercise program.

Foot Care Tip 8. Fix bunions, corns, and hammertoes.
If your big toe slants sharply in toward your other toes, with a big bump on the knuckle of your big toe, you’ve got a classic bunion. Corns are spots of thick, rough skin, where the tissue builds up on toes constantly barraged by too much rubbing or pressure. A buckled-under toe, called a hammertoe, can result from muscle weakness caused by diabetic nerve damage. All of these make it hard to fit shoes comfortably. But a good podiatrist can help you fix these problems and take better care of your feet.

Foot Care Tip 9. Consider fitted orthotics.
A podiatrist can also fit you with shoe inserts called orthotics to support your feet if your have diabetic nerve pain or the muscles have become weak from nerve damage. If pain or weakness is so severe that it’s too painful or even impossible to walk, a foot brace or orthopedic shoes might help. A podiatrist is your best source for these devices.

Foot Care Tip 10. Control your blood sugar.
The best treatment for nerve pain, ultimately, is to manage your diabetes well. In fact, a major study by the American Diabetes Association in 2006 showed that strict blood glucose control with intensive insulin therapy lowered the chances of having symptoms of peripheral neuropathy – tingling, burning, and pain – by 64%. While you can’t control whether or not you get diabetic nerve pain, you can help control your glucose levels with diet, exercise, and mediations if you need them.

Your feet are your source of independence – or at least its foundation. Give your feet a little tenderness, a little loving care, each day. And be sure to have your doctor take a good look at your feet during each of your diabetes checkups, in case you missed anything.

SWINE FLU: WILL IT BECOME PANDEMIC?

By Henrylito D. Tacio

“The pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.”

This statement, taken from the Bible (Leviticus 11:7-8), comes to mind as the world watches the outbreak of swine influenza among humans in the Mexico and the United States. More than 100 Mexicans have been reported to have died.

In New Zealand, twenty-five students and teachers, some with flu-like symptoms, were quarantined and tested for swine flu after returning from a trip to Mexico. In London, a British Airways cabin crew member was taken to the hospital as a precaution after developing flu-like symptoms on a flight from Mexico City.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) reported that some of those who died are confirmed to have a unique strain of flu virus that is a combination of bird, pig and human viruses. Because of this, the UN health agency declared the outbreak as a “public health emergency of international concern.”

WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan admitted the outbreak “has pandemic potential” because it is apparently being transmitted from human to human. But she added it is far too early to predict whether a pandemic will occur. Pandemic happens when the virus is spread all over the world.

At the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Anne Schuchat said containment of the outbreak was “not feasible.” As she told reporters in a telephone news conference, “Having found the virus where we have found it, we are likely to find it in many more places. It is clear that this is widespread, which is why we do not think we can contain spread of this virus.”

In the Philippines, the government is doing its best to prevent a domestic outbreak of swine flu. As the virus could be spread by infected traveler, the Manila International Airport Authority stepped up the monitoring of incoming passengers. Air travelers with fevers who have been to Mexico may be quarantined. “Together with other airport authorities abroad, we are heeding the call of the World Health Organization,” said Herminia Castillo, the international airport’s officer-in-charge.

In addition, the government has already banned the import of hogs and all other pork products from the US, which accounted for 27 percent of the 109.36 million kilograms of pork products imported last year. Mexico is not a major source of pork products for the country.

Pork and pork products sold in the market are safe to eat as no swine flu outbreak has been reported in the country yet, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry. In addition, swine-flu viruses are not transmitted by food, according to the CDC.

“So you cannot get swine flu from eating pork or pork products,” said the National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. in a statement. “Eating properly handled and cooked pork or pork products is safe. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160°F kills all viruses and other foodborne pathogens.”

The Department of Health confirmed that there is no case of swine flu yet in the country. “However, we advise the public to still observe any preventive measures to avoid contraction of the virus,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III urged during a recent press conference.

An advisory from the health department said people should cover their nose and mouth with tissue when coughing or sneezing, wash their hands regularly with soap and water especially after coughing or sneezing, and avoid close contact with sick people or crowded places.
A sick or feverish person should be closely monitored and stay at home to limit contact with others. When the fever and flu persists, doctors should be consulted immediately. “Refrain first from kissing or shaking hands with one another,” urged Dr. Eric Tayag, chief of the health department’s National Epidemiology Center.
There is no vaccine specifically protects a person against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human-flu vaccines might offer. However, Dr. Duque pointed out the government has enough stockpile of the Tamiflu (oseltamivir), the anti-viral drug used to treat various types of flu.

Swine flu – shorter version for swine influenza – is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses. Although the morbidity rate is high, mortality is low and becomes higher only in complicated cases.

Swine flu viruses are most commonly of the H1N1 subtype, but other subtypes are also circulating in pigs (example: H1N2, H3N1, H3N2). Pigs can also be infected with avian influenza viruses and human seasonal influenza viruses as well as swine influenza viruses. The H3N2 swine virus was thought to have been originally introduced into pigs by humans.

“The virus is spread among pigs by aerosols, direct and indirect contact, and asymptomatic carrier pigs,” the WHO explains. “Many countries routinely vaccinate swine populations against swine influenza.”

Among pigs, the usual signs of swine flu are anorexia, fever, chills, and prostration. “Thumps or jerky breathing is observed, together with sneezing and coughing,” informs The Science and Practice of Swine Production. “Eye and nasal discharges are watery in the beginning, but later becomes sticky and mucoid. The condition may worsen and precipitate into bronchopneumonia which can lead to death.”

Sometimes pigs can be infected with more than one virus type at a time. “Although swine flu viruses are normally species specific and only infect pigs, they do sometimes cross the species barrier to cause disease in humans,” the WHO states.

Dr. Tayag said the swine flu virus is spread via aerial droplets and could be passed from pig to human or human to human. He said infected individuals could exhibit symptoms of the illness three to five days after being infected.

The symptoms of swine flu in people, the CDC says, are similar to the symptoms of regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue. Some people have reported diarrhea and vomiting. Like seasonal flu, swine flu may cause a worsening of underlying chronic medical conditions.

The WHO says people usually get swine flu from infected pigs. Human-to-human transmission occurs when a person has in close contacts with people who have the virus. It can pass from human to human via coughing, sneezing or touching infected people or surfaces, then touching the mouth, nose or eyes.

“If a swine virus establishes efficient human-to human transmission, it can cause an influenza pandemic,” the WHO warns. Dr. Tayag claims a pandemic usually occurs every 10 to 40 years, and that the last pandemic happened in 1968 (which killed about one million people around the globe).

Health experts claim a pandemic would deal a major blow to a world economy already suffering its worst crisis in decades, and experts say it could cost trillions of dollars

Women in India Form Their Own Political Party

By Aditi Bhaduri

The first all-women’s political party in India has formed after 100 women joined. A first order of business is to boost female representation in parliament from 8 to 50 percent. Seventh in a series on the changing role of women in India.

It is a mellow April morning in Delhi. Soft sunlight filters through the trees that line the boulevards of the city’s stately Krishna Menon Marg neighborhood.

Suman Krishan Kant, however, is oblivious to the tranquillity outside the windows of her well-appointed bungalow.

The prominent social activist is reviewing and paying bills while files wait on the table for her attention. The elegant waiting room outside is beginning to fill in with men and women hoping to meet with her and enlist her advocacy with government agencies on their behalf. One of them, for instance, is a widow who hopes Kant will help her application for an increase in her pension.

It is the beginning of another working day for the president of the country’s all-women’s political party.

In February, Kant, the widow of former vice president Krishan Kumar Kant, joined with other influential women to launch the United Women’s Front to address issues such as women’s illiteracy, early marriage and tokenism in parliament, where women hold just 8 percent of seats. To qualify for official party status, the group had to muster at least 100 members and pay about $300 in registration fees.

“Women have simply not been getting the kind of governance they deserve,” says Kant. “Take Delhi for example. It has a female chief minister, yet it is one of the most dangerous places for women . . . All this is precisely because we do not have enough women in decision-making and in the political process. A few women here and there cannot make much of a difference.”

Prem Ahluwalia is a journalist who specializes in women’s issues and directs the Dehli-based Institute for South Asian Women, which seeks to foster ties among women in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives. She is also the United Women Front’s national general secretary.

“It is for the first time in the history of India that a national political party has been formed by women,” she says. “In fact it is the only party of women in the world. We need to ensure that the issues of priority concern to half of its population remain in the forefront of the pressing issues on India’s national agenda.”

Land of Contradictions
India is often called a land of contradictions and that pertains to the status of women here. The national constitution guaranteed women’s legal equality in 1950. India also elected Indira Ghandi in 1966, making her the world’s second female prime minister after Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandarnaike, who took office in 1960.

This past July Pratibha Patil was elected the country’s first female president, a mostly ceremonial position that nonetheless leaves India with a female head of state.

Women hold top cabinets posts and at least three states have female chief ministers. Village councils reserve 33 percent of their seats for women.

On the other hand, millions of women live in poverty, illiteracy, malnourishment and ill-health. In November, the World Economic Forum’s latest gender gap index put India among the world’s 10 most gender-biased economies, with women’s participation in the paid work force at 36 percent.

Recently, Sonia Gandhi, the female president of the All India Congress Party, the ruling party in the coalition government, said she was unable to pass a bill first introduced in 1996 that ensures 33 percent of parliamentary seats–the widely assumed critical mass–go to women.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2006 drafted a bill for the prevention of workplace sexual harassment that was supposed to have been passed this year. However, it is still pending.

New Law Lacks Implementation
National statistics from 2005 to 2008 show 45 percent of Indian women suffer from domestic abuse. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act passed through parliament in 2005 and came into force last year.

Lawyers, however, widely lament that insufficient arrangements have been made for them to handle cases brought under the law. For instance, the trained personnel–counselors, protection officers, service providers–called for by the law are not in place.

The party has these types of issues in its sights. In the two months since its formation, however, it has focused on recruitment and making 50 percent female representation in parliament its chief objective.

So far the party has established organizations in 16 of India’s 28 states. The groups vary in size. The Delhi chapter, for instance, claims 25,000 members; another state chapter claims 5,000.

The chapters are mainly led by veteran activists. The state of Orissa, for instance, has Shanti Das, a well-known union activist; Punjab has Pam Rajput, a prominent women’s rights activist and scholar.

Men Join In
But that doesn’t mean the party excludes men.

As Women’s eNews visits Kant’s office, in fact, Mohamed Shafique, 24, walks in, pulls out a file from the cupboard and starts leafing through it. He is preparing to begin the day as one of the party’s workers in Delhi, which holds state-level elections in July 2008, the first test of the new party’s ability to make a mark.

United Women Front is planning to field candidates for all 72 of Delhi’s assembly seats. So far it is stressing education and safety for women and an end to all kinds of violence against women.

“We need the youth,” says Kant, referring to Shafique, “because India has a young population.” According to official statistics here, 50 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion in 2006 was under 25.

“We are not against men,” Kant says. “We need men to work with us and we need their support.”

However, she draws certain lines.

“Men will not be part of the national committee,” says Kant firmly. “Men will be members of state chapters only; but we will have only women at the national level.”

Women in India Form Their Own Political Party

By Aditi Bhaduri

The first all-women’s political party in India has formed after 100 women joined. A first order of business is to boost female representation in parliament from 8 to 50 percent. Seventh in a series on the changing role of women in India.

It is a mellow April morning in Delhi. Soft sunlight filters through the trees that line the boulevards of the city’s stately Krishna Menon Marg neighborhood.

Suman Krishan Kant, however, is oblivious to the tranquillity outside the windows of her well-appointed bungalow.

The prominent social activist is reviewing and paying bills while files wait on the table for her attention. The elegant waiting room outside is beginning to fill in with men and women hoping to meet with her and enlist her advocacy with government agencies on their behalf. One of them, for instance, is a widow who hopes Kant will help her application for an increase in her pension.

It is the beginning of another working day for the president of the country’s all-women’s political party.

In February, Kant, the widow of former vice president Krishan Kumar Kant, joined with other influential women to launch the United Women’s Front to address issues such as women’s illiteracy, early marriage and tokenism in parliament, where women hold just 8 percent of seats. To qualify for official party status, the group had to muster at least 100 members and pay about $300 in registration fees.

“Women have simply not been getting the kind of governance they deserve,” says Kant. “Take Delhi for example. It has a female chief minister, yet it is one of the most dangerous places for women . . . All this is precisely because we do not have enough women in decision-making and in the political process. A few women here and there cannot make much of a difference.”

Prem Ahluwalia is a journalist who specializes in women’s issues and directs the Dehli-based Institute for South Asian Women, which seeks to foster ties among women in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives. She is also the United Women Front’s national general secretary.

“It is for the first time in the history of India that a national political party has been formed by women,” she says. “In fact it is the only party of women in the world. We need to ensure that the issues of priority concern to half of its population remain in the forefront of the pressing issues on India’s national agenda.”

Land of Contradictions
India is often called a land of contradictions and that pertains to the status of women here. The national constitution guaranteed women’s legal equality in 1950. India also elected Indira Ghandi in 1966, making her the world’s second female prime minister after Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandarnaike, who took office in 1960.

This past July Pratibha Patil was elected the country’s first female president, a mostly ceremonial position that nonetheless leaves India with a female head of state.

Women hold top cabinets posts and at least three states have female chief ministers. Village councils reserve 33 percent of their seats for women.

On the other hand, millions of women live in poverty, illiteracy, malnourishment and ill-health. In November, the World Economic Forum’s latest gender gap index put India among the world’s 10 most gender-biased economies, with women’s participation in the paid work force at 36 percent.

Recently, Sonia Gandhi, the female president of the All India Congress Party, the ruling party in the coalition government, said she was unable to pass a bill first introduced in 1996 that ensures 33 percent of parliamentary seats–the widely assumed critical mass–go to women.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2006 drafted a bill for the prevention of workplace sexual harassment that was supposed to have been passed this year. However, it is still pending.

New Law Lacks Implementation
National statistics from 2005 to 2008 show 45 percent of Indian women suffer from domestic abuse. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act passed through parliament in 2005 and came into force last year.

Lawyers, however, widely lament that insufficient arrangements have been made for them to handle cases brought under the law. For instance, the trained personnel–counselors, protection officers, service providers–called for by the law are not in place.

The party has these types of issues in its sights. In the two months since its formation, however, it has focused on recruitment and making 50 percent female representation in parliament its chief objective.

So far the party has established organizations in 16 of India’s 28 states. The groups vary in size. The Delhi chapter, for instance, claims 25,000 members; another state chapter claims 5,000.

The chapters are mainly led by veteran activists. The state of Orissa, for instance, has Shanti Das, a well-known union activist; Punjab has Pam Rajput, a prominent women’s rights activist and scholar.

Men Join In
But that doesn’t mean the party excludes men.

As Women’s eNews visits Kant’s office, in fact, Mohamed Shafique, 24, walks in, pulls out a file from the cupboard and starts leafing through it. He is preparing to begin the day as one of the party’s workers in Delhi, which holds state-level elections in July 2008, the first test of the new party’s ability to make a mark.

United Women Front is planning to field candidates for all 72 of Delhi’s assembly seats. So far it is stressing education and safety for women and an end to all kinds of violence against women.

“We need the youth,” says Kant, referring to Shafique, “because India has a young population.” According to official statistics here, 50 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion in 2006 was under 25.

“We are not against men,” Kant says. “We need men to work with us and we need their support.”

However, she draws certain lines.

“Men will not be part of the national committee,” says Kant firmly. “Men will be members of state chapters only; but we will have only women at the national level.”

FEMALE INFANTICIDE: Think of the mother

By Kalpana Sharma

Even the most calculating and hard-hearted woman will not be indifferent to what happens to the child she has birthed. This is the reason that female infanticide remains a phenomenon restricted to only a few areas while sex selective abortions are rampant.

“Don’t kill your daughter. The government will raise her,” says Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury. “It’s a matter of international and national shame for us that India, with a growth of nine per cent, still kills its daughters,” she adds.

Few will dispute the minister’s sentiments or the concern that has prompted her to suggest the ‘cradle scheme’ to correct the skewed sex ratio in this country. She has appealed to women contemplating aborting female foetuses to instead bring them to full term and then hand them over.

Her concern about India’s image is also not misplaced. At a time when the Indian media is full of stories of India’s success in business, and prayers for its success in sports, the world media seems to have discovered precisely what Ms. Chowdhury speaks of — the fact that we also specialise in killing girls, or rather preventing them from being born. In the last month, leading newspapers in Britain and the U.S. have carried stories on this issue.

The ‘cradle’ idea has already been tried in Tamilnadu. The ‘cradle baby scheme’ was launched in 1992 to deal with the high incidence of female infanticide in some districts, namely Madurai, Salem and Dharmapuri. Women were encouraged to surrender their daughters rather than killing them. Over time, 188 reception centres for such babies were set up in primary heath centres and government hospitals across the state.

Mixed success
The scheme met with mixed success. While there appeared to be a drop in the incidence of female infanticide, it also became evident that women who had earlier killed their daughters now had the option of sex selective abortion. They managed to avoid giving birth to daughters altogether. So the need to kill them after birth did not arise. The scheme was unable to address the societal attitudes towards women that encourage and justify female infanticide.

This illustrates the problem that the current scheme is likely to face. It will not deal with the strong son-preference that lies at the root of the incidence of female infanticide or sex selective abortions. In fact, it changes little in terms of mindsets.

Also, while initially the plan might have worked in districts where female infanticide was prevalent, it will be far more difficult to implement in the hundreds of districts around India where sex selective abortions have skewed the sex ratio to such an extent that there are less than 800 girls to every 1,000 boys under the age of six in some of these districts. To persuade women to go through nine months of their pregnancy with a child they do not want, and then to abandon it, is expecting a lot. After all, so long as the pressure to produce sons remains, these women will have to continue trying. Does this mean, they have to go through multiple pregnancies to full term? Or does the minister hope that doing this once will cure the families of the urge to have a son? Women have always paid the price through their bodies for dominant social norms — such as the belief that only a son can be the rightful heir of property. This norm is so deeply ingrained that even a liberal education does not seem to alter it.

Expecting women to go through multiple pregnancies and abandon their girl children seems not just unrealistic but impossible. After all, even surrogate motherhood has faced innumerable problems as in the end, the women who conceive and give birth cannot bear to part with the infant after birth. Even the most calculating and hard-hearted of women will find it tough to go through the process of pregnancy and then be indifferent to what happens to the child she has birthed.

This is the reason that female infanticide remains a phenomenon restricted to only a few areas while sex selective abortions are rampant. Even though abortions also take a toll of women’s health, they are rendered more impersonal because they happen within a few weeks of the pregnancy. Whereas killing or abandoning an infant after giving birth takes much greater physical and emotional toll on the mother.

Renuka Chowdhury must be commended for keeping the issue on the front burner. But she must be well aware that this kind of scheme, and the investment it will require, will not deal with the problem. Instead, the resources can be used to set up a machinery to ensure that the existing law, which prohibits sex selective abortion, is strictly implemented. Checking if all sonography machines have been registered could be one obvious way to start. In some places, where a vigilant bureaucrat has done this, there have been noticeable results.

Changing the mindset
But in the end, even the most strictly implemented law will not change the mindset, specially of the propertied classes who want sons to ‘carry on’ the family. This belief that the family is somehow not ‘complete’ unless there is a son has to somehow change. In the decade leading up to the 2001 census, it certainly did not change, as was evident from the Census statistics. We will now have to wait until the 2011 census to see if the multiple campaigns to promote the “girl child”, to encourage parents to educate their daughters, to condemn the giving and taking of dowry and to expose those in the medical fraternity who knowingly transgress the law to facilitate sex selective abortions will have made a difference. These are social processes that cannot be assessed within a short period.

What is absolutely clear is that India cannot shine, or be poised to take off, if millions of girls are prevented from being born. This hateful reality must change if we are ever to consider ourselves a modern, democratic and just nation.

Rapist to victim: will you marry me?

By Shoma Chaudhury

Dilution or outright waiver of punishment if a rapist offers to marry his victim is an extra-legal step, one that is not written into law anywhere. But it continues to be entertained because the internalisation of stigmatisation is wide-spread, and even the victims believe it.

In 1991, Bollywood churned out two films that wove their stories around rape victims. The first was Benaam Badshah (1991); starring Juhi Chawla and Anil Kapoor, the film unfolded the story of a pretty young girl in a Mumbai chawl, who is raped by the male lead actor (somehow, the word ‘hero’ is difficult to use with ‘raped’). The victim takes on a determined, if bizarre crusade to get this rapist to marry her. The other film Tejaswini, a Hindi remake of a southern hit, dealt with the struggles of a lady police officer who has to constantly fight against the anti-socials of her area funded by a minister. At the centre of the narrative is her crusade to see that the politician’s son is forced to marry a girl he raped. Thankfully, Benaam Badshah sank at the box office without a trace. Not so Tejaswini, which was a thumping box office hit in the southern states.

Fifteen years later, the story of the rapist going scot-free by marrying his victim transcended the celluloid world to step into the ugly reality of life. In 2005, in Charthawal village, Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, Imrana, wife of Noor Elahi, was being forced to separate from her husband and marry Ali Mohammad, her father-in-law, who had raped her. The decision was supported by the local panchayat, which declared her existing marriage null and void. She was commanded to observe a period of seven months to ‘purify’ herself and then marry Ali Mohammed.

Imrana proved a woman of some courage. With her husband’s support, the intervention of the National Commission of Women and other leading women’s organisations, and an uprising within the media, she thwarted those who wished to railroad her into further victimhood beyond the rape itself. Recording her statement before the chief judicial magistrate in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on 20 June 2005, Imrana told reporters that she was ready to defy the community panchayat. “I will continue to live with my husband despite the fact that the panchayat has declared that my marriage has been nullified after the rape. My husband supports me and I am ready to defy the panchayat,” she said. In August that year, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the Darul-ul-Uloom of Deoband and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) the two pillars of Islamic bodies in India, to reply to a petition filed against them. The petition charged these organisations with interfering with the country’s legal system and introducing parallel Islamic laws in violation of the Constitution.

Questioning the unilateral, feudal and fascistic approach of the ‘community panchayat’ in the Imrana case, in a press statement (June 20, 2005), several leading women’s organisations said: “How can a system exist parallel to political and executive bodies constituted by the state, manned (they appear to be run exclusively by men) by persons who are ignorant and insensitive and whose judgements are irrational and inhuman? How can their authority supersede that of the state?”

The State however, is party to the same unilateral game. In 2002, the Delhi High Court quashed the rape case against one Manoj Kumar after the victim submitted an affidavit saying that she was willing to marry him. Even when the victim refuses to marry the rapist, as in the case involving the rape of a 23-year-old Delhi nurse of Shanti Mukand Hospital, rapists can resort to this tactic. In this instance, the victim was raped, her right eye was gouged out, and her left eye was badly wounded by a ward boy on September 07, 2003. As she waited in court for the judge to pronounce punishment, in an application to the court, the rapist Bhura proposed marriage to her. His argument was that since no one would be prepared to marry her due to the social stigma, he would like to do so. She turned down the proposal as bogus, horrible and audacious. “He made it sound like a favour. This was more shocking than the proposal itself. The most horrible thing in the whole business was the court having admitted such an application,” said the victim. In the end, justice prevailed, and Bhura was awarded life imprisonment.

In other cases, however, rape victims themselves appear to tolerate offers of marriage by rapists. Why? Dr. Manjeet Bhatia, of Womens’ Studies and Development Centre, Delhi University, thinks this is just an extension of social attitudes towards the crime itself. “The internalisation of being stigmatised for life is so deeply ingrained in the victim that she actually believes that marrying her rapist is the only way out,” Bhatia says. And so the practice continues. Dr. Rajat Mitra, psychologist and director, Swarnchetan, an NGO that counsels victims of such crimes, says it cautions rape victims against marrying their attackers, telling them that such marriages are disastrous and are marked by further violence. But not every victim is willing to heed this advice. “When we tell people, for example, her family members, that she cannot live with somebody who has caused her such trauma, they brush it aside saying that the girl would get over it,” says Mitra.

Clearly, dilution or outright waiver of punishment if the assaulter offers marriage is an extra-legal step, one that is not written into law anywhere. Nonetheless the legal community appears to be willing to overlook this. Arati Mundkur, of Alternative Law Forum, says, “With regard to rapists marrying their victims, there is no rule or law on this point. This is a personal perception, unfortunately adopted by the judiciary as evinced in the recent Shanti Mukand rape case. The quantum of punishment should in no case be influenced by an offer from the rapist to marry the complainant. In a number of workshops we have conducted across districts in Karnataka, the idea among lawyers and among women is that if the rapist wants to marry the woman raped by him, no FIR/complaint should be filed. This offer to marry her is itself considered atonement.”

Ranjita Biswas, journalist, says, “When a rapist offers to marry his victim there is purportedly, a sigh of relief. What a perfect solution! The woman is socially rehabilitated and the rapist is forgiven. After all, he has agreed to marry her, hasn’t he? Sadly, even lawyers sometimes consider this not such a bad idea and choose to defer judgement waiting for a ‘response’ from the victim. But how can the courts entertain such a preposterous proposition in the first place? This is victimisation of the victim all over again. She has already been wronged. The wrongdoer, on the other hand, neatly escapes the consequences of his heinous act.”

Rapist to victim: will you marry me?

By Shoma Chaudhury

Dilution or outright waiver of punishment if a rapist offers to marry his victim is an extra-legal step, one that is not written into law anywhere. But it continues to be entertained because the internalisation of stigmatisation is wide-spread, and even the victims believe it.

In 1991, Bollywood churned out two films that wove their stories around rape victims. The first was Benaam Badshah (1991); starring Juhi Chawla and Anil Kapoor, the film unfolded the story of a pretty young girl in a Mumbai chawl, who is raped by the male lead actor (somehow, the word ‘hero’ is difficult to use with ‘raped’). The victim takes on a determined, if bizarre crusade to get this rapist to marry her. The other film Tejaswini, a Hindi remake of a southern hit, dealt with the struggles of a lady police officer who has to constantly fight against the anti-socials of her area funded by a minister. At the centre of the narrative is her crusade to see that the politician’s son is forced to marry a girl he raped. Thankfully, Benaam Badshah sank at the box office without a trace. Not so Tejaswini, which was a thumping box office hit in the southern states.

Fifteen years later, the story of the rapist going scot-free by marrying his victim transcended the celluloid world to step into the ugly reality of life. In 2005, in Charthawal village, Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, Imrana, wife of Noor Elahi, was being forced to separate from her husband and marry Ali Mohammad, her father-in-law, who had raped her. The decision was supported by the local panchayat, which declared her existing marriage null and void. She was commanded to observe a period of seven months to ‘purify’ herself and then marry Ali Mohammed.

Imrana proved a woman of some courage. With her husband’s support, the intervention of the National Commission of Women and other leading women’s organisations, and an uprising within the media, she thwarted those who wished to railroad her into further victimhood beyond the rape itself. Recording her statement before the chief judicial magistrate in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on 20 June 2005, Imrana told reporters that she was ready to defy the community panchayat. “I will continue to live with my husband despite the fact that the panchayat has declared that my marriage has been nullified after the rape. My husband supports me and I am ready to defy the panchayat,” she said. In August that year, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the Darul-ul-Uloom of Deoband and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) the two pillars of Islamic bodies in India, to reply to a petition filed against them. The petition charged these organisations with interfering with the country’s legal system and introducing parallel Islamic laws in violation of the Constitution.

Questioning the unilateral, feudal and fascistic approach of the ‘community panchayat’ in the Imrana case, in a press statement (June 20, 2005), several leading women’s organisations said: “How can a system exist parallel to political and executive bodies constituted by the state, manned (they appear to be run exclusively by men) by persons who are ignorant and insensitive and whose judgements are irrational and inhuman? How can their authority supersede that of the state?”

The State however, is party to the same unilateral game. In 2002, the Delhi High Court quashed the rape case against one Manoj Kumar after the victim submitted an affidavit saying that she was willing to marry him. Even when the victim refuses to marry the rapist, as in the case involving the rape of a 23-year-old Delhi nurse of Shanti Mukand Hospital, rapists can resort to this tactic. In this instance, the victim was raped, her right eye was gouged out, and her left eye was badly wounded by a ward boy on September 07, 2003. As she waited in court for the judge to pronounce punishment, in an application to the court, the rapist Bhura proposed marriage to her. His argument was that since no one would be prepared to marry her due to the social stigma, he would like to do so. She turned down the proposal as bogus, horrible and audacious. “He made it sound like a favour. This was more shocking than the proposal itself. The most horrible thing in the whole business was the court having admitted such an application,” said the victim. In the end, justice prevailed, and Bhura was awarded life imprisonment.

In other cases, however, rape victims themselves appear to tolerate offers of marriage by rapists. Why? Dr. Manjeet Bhatia, of Womens’ Studies and Development Centre, Delhi University, thinks this is just an extension of social attitudes towards the crime itself. “The internalisation of being stigmatised for life is so deeply ingrained in the victim that she actually believes that marrying her rapist is the only way out,” Bhatia says. And so the practice continues. Dr. Rajat Mitra, psychologist and director, Swarnchetan, an NGO that counsels victims of such crimes, says it cautions rape victims against marrying their attackers, telling them that such marriages are disastrous and are marked by further violence. But not every victim is willing to heed this advice. “When we tell people, for example, her family members, that she cannot live with somebody who has caused her such trauma, they brush it aside saying that the girl would get over it,” says Mitra.

Clearly, dilution or outright waiver of punishment if the assaulter offers marriage is an extra-legal step, one that is not written into law anywhere. Nonetheless the legal community appears to be willing to overlook this. Arati Mundkur, of Alternative Law Forum, says, “With regard to rapists marrying their victims, there is no rule or law on this point. This is a personal perception, unfortunately adopted by the judiciary as evinced in the recent Shanti Mukand rape case. The quantum of punishment should in no case be influenced by an offer from the rapist to marry the complainant. In a number of workshops we have conducted across districts in Karnataka, the idea among lawyers and among women is that if the rapist wants to marry the woman raped by him, no FIR/complaint should be filed. This offer to marry her is itself considered atonement.”

Ranjita Biswas, journalist, says, “When a rapist offers to marry his victim there is purportedly, a sigh of relief. What a perfect solution! The woman is socially rehabilitated and the rapist is forgiven. After all, he has agreed to marry her, hasn’t he? Sadly, even lawyers sometimes consider this not such a bad idea and choose to defer judgement waiting for a ‘response’ from the victim. But how can the courts entertain such a preposterous proposition in the first place? This is victimisation of the victim all over again. She has already been wronged. The wrongdoer, on the other hand, neatly escapes the consequences of his heinous act.”

Why Pooja got ‘mad’?

By Aeman Nishat

Behind the entire media cacophony over Pooja Chauhan is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women, thousands of them, who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth, particularly if she turns out to be a girl.

The Pooja Chauhan story has now become familiar to most people in India with access to the media — print or electronic. Virtually all newspapers flashed the photograph of this 22-year-old woman, walking in her underwear, in ‘conservative’ Rajkot city in Gujarat. She carried a baseball bat in one hand and bangles in the other. Her destination was the office of the Commissioner of Police. She walked for one hour. On the way, people gawked at her. Some laughed. The photographs showed men riding by on scooters, craning their necks to get a better look, laughing at her. No one, it seemed, stopped her, or tried to find out why she was doing what she was doing.

For the media, this was a great story. When they finally did speak to her, Pooja told them that she had decided to resort to this form of protest because she was fed up with the police not taking her complaints about harassment and violence seriously. She said she was being nagged by her husband’s family to bring more dowry and that they made her life even more difficult because she gave birth to a girl child. She accused her parents-in-law of getting a neighbour to beat her up. A week before this incident, Pooja had allegedly tried to immolate herself in front of the police commissioner’s office.

Media cacophony
What a story! All the elements of a Hindi movie. Yet, although the first stories did report the reasons that provoked Pooja to act in this manner, later reports took a different turn. Pooja’s parents were accosted by the local media and asked whether their daughter was sane. “Is she mad?” they apparently asked. Others reported that the story was complicated, that her husband’s family had also registered complaints against Pooja. It was also reported that the girl did not live with her husband anymore and was on her own, with her infant daughter.

Behind this entire media cacophony is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women, thousands of them even if you go by official statistics, who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth, particularly if she turns out to be a girl. Pooja survived such harassment. Thousands of women each year do not. At a time when India boasts of becoming an international economic giant, its women are being pushed to the brink for dowry, the giving and taking of which was banned in 1961 and is against the law. They also continue to be blamed for producing female children, something over which they can have no control. Yes, this is the same country where we celebrate a woman of Indian descent having been on a space mission — even if she is an American.

At the time of writing, Pooja was in a shelter. Although the court had ruled, after a network of women’s groups working on issues of violence against women filed a case under the Domestic Violence Act on her behalf, that she was entitled to continue staying in the rented house where she had taken shelter to get away from her abusive marital home, she found she could not in fact go back there as the landlord refused to accept her as a tenant. To prevent her from facing further violence, these women’s groups got together and arranged temporary shelter for her. They were moving her to a government-recognised women’s shelter so that she would be free to meet people, including members of the National Commission on Women.

In some ways, Pooja is lucky. Despite extreme provocation, she is still alive. Her parents have been supportive. As a result, she was able to move out of her husband’s house and into independent rented accommodation. Her strategy of doing something outrageous did work. It got her the attention she desperately sought. Perhaps some positive conclusion will arise from this. And hopefully she will survive the negative side of media attention, that which has spawned blogs where men blow off steam about women who are allegedly misusing anti-violence laws, and the repeated use of her photograph on many sites. One hopes she will not be too badly affected by the unsubtle hints in media reports that she was “mad” and slightly unbalanced for having resorted to what is popularly being called “a semi-nude protest”.

Missing the point
The point that the media has missed completely is that the issue they ought to investigate more thoroughly is not the state of Pooja’s mental health, but what her protest represents. They should remember the naked protest by middle-aged women in Manipur against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Because it took place in distant Manipur, which only springs into the news when something affecting hundreds of people occurs, the actual protest went largely unreported. There were no TV cameras to telecast that image, or to talk to the women, or to ask others whether they were collectively ‘mad’. They surely were. Not insane, but mad and angry at a system that refuses to hear the voices of ordinary people, or ordinary women.

Pooja is also mad at the system. Her protest symbolises that. Regardless of the specific details of her story, her protest reminds us again that dowry is alive and flourishing and that women face as much danger to their lives within their homes as they do out in the public space.

Why Pooja got ‘mad’?

By Aeman Nishat

Behind the entire media cacophony over Pooja Chauhan is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women, thousands of them, who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth, particularly if she turns out to be a girl.

The Pooja Chauhan story has now become familiar to most people in India with access to the media — print or electronic. Virtually all newspapers flashed the photograph of this 22-year-old woman, walking in her underwear, in ‘conservative’ Rajkot city in Gujarat. She carried a baseball bat in one hand and bangles in the other. Her destination was the office of the Commissioner of Police. She walked for one hour. On the way, people gawked at her. Some laughed. The photographs showed men riding by on scooters, craning their necks to get a better look, laughing at her. No one, it seemed, stopped her, or tried to find out why she was doing what she was doing.

For the media, this was a great story. When they finally did speak to her, Pooja told them that she had decided to resort to this form of protest because she was fed up with the police not taking her complaints about harassment and violence seriously. She said she was being nagged by her husband’s family to bring more dowry and that they made her life even more difficult because she gave birth to a girl child. She accused her parents-in-law of getting a neighbour to beat her up. A week before this incident, Pooja had allegedly tried to immolate herself in front of the police commissioner’s office.

Media cacophony
What a story! All the elements of a Hindi movie. Yet, although the first stories did report the reasons that provoked Pooja to act in this manner, later reports took a different turn. Pooja’s parents were accosted by the local media and asked whether their daughter was sane. “Is she mad?” they apparently asked. Others reported that the story was complicated, that her husband’s family had also registered complaints against Pooja. It was also reported that the girl did not live with her husband anymore and was on her own, with her infant daughter.

Behind this entire media cacophony is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women, thousands of them even if you go by official statistics, who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth, particularly if she turns out to be a girl. Pooja survived such harassment. Thousands of women each year do not. At a time when India boasts of becoming an international economic giant, its women are being pushed to the brink for dowry, the giving and taking of which was banned in 1961 and is against the law. They also continue to be blamed for producing female children, something over which they can have no control. Yes, this is the same country where we celebrate a woman of Indian descent having been on a space mission — even if she is an American.

At the time of writing, Pooja was in a shelter. Although the court had ruled, after a network of women’s groups working on issues of violence against women filed a case under the Domestic Violence Act on her behalf, that she was entitled to continue staying in the rented house where she had taken shelter to get away from her abusive marital home, she found she could not in fact go back there as the landlord refused to accept her as a tenant. To prevent her from facing further violence, these women’s groups got together and arranged temporary shelter for her. They were moving her to a government-recognised women’s shelter so that she would be free to meet people, including members of the National Commission on Women.

In some ways, Pooja is lucky. Despite extreme provocation, she is still alive. Her parents have been supportive. As a result, she was able to move out of her husband’s house and into independent rented accommodation. Her strategy of doing something outrageous did work. It got her the attention she desperately sought. Perhaps some positive conclusion will arise from this. And hopefully she will survive the negative side of media attention, that which has spawned blogs where men blow off steam about women who are allegedly misusing anti-violence laws, and the repeated use of her photograph on many sites. One hopes she will not be too badly affected by the unsubtle hints in media reports that she was “mad” and slightly unbalanced for having resorted to what is popularly being called “a semi-nude protest”.

Missing the point
The point that the media has missed completely is that the issue they ought to investigate more thoroughly is not the state of Pooja’s mental health, but what her protest represents. They should remember the naked protest by middle-aged women in Manipur against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Because it took place in distant Manipur, which only springs into the news when something affecting hundreds of people occurs, the actual protest went largely unreported. There were no TV cameras to telecast that image, or to talk to the women, or to ask others whether they were collectively ‘mad’. They surely were. Not insane, but mad and angry at a system that refuses to hear the voices of ordinary people, or ordinary women.

Pooja is also mad at the system. Her protest symbolises that. Regardless of the specific details of her story, her protest reminds us again that dowry is alive and flourishing and that women face as much danger to their lives within their homes as they do out in the public space.

Women join hands for a better media

By Meenakshi Sahu

In an increasingly market-driven media climate, a network that nurtures value-driven journalism among women has proved to be a lifeline for professionals who believe that there’s more to the media than news brands. HNN reports.

The Seventh National Conference of the Network of Women in Media – India (NWMI) had just ended in Vishakhapatnam. A young journalist from Mumbai was asked how she had liked her first NWMI meet. “My colleagues in Mumbai say I’m too idealistic because I want to write about rural child education for my newspaper. After this conference I know that there is scope for my kind of journalism,” she said, smiling brightly.

This 23-year-old is not the only journalist who’s been energised by the NWMI to follow her chosen path. Many women journalists have found their voice – individually and collectively – and many ‘kinds of journalism’ have got a boost since the NWMI came into being in 2002. In a few years, this collective seems to have facilitated a positive media movement across the country. And it has greatly strengthened the way its members – women media professionals from diverse backgrounds – view themselves and their work.

Despite great diversity in their backgrounds and jobs, NWMI members vouch for the effects that ‘a sense of belonging to a community’ has had on their work. The network has created a unique space where women journalists meet, online or at local and national meetings, to discuss issues specific to women and the media. Information about opportunities – professional and research oriented – is posted, contacts and friendships are forged.

Not everyone agrees with everyone else on everything, but the door to learning is always open because listening is as important as speaking, if not more, at national and local meetings of the NWMI. While consensus usually emerges on issues at the nucleus of the network, diverse opinions are respected. Besides the exchange of ideas, the network supports an in informal system of mentoring that should have been available at the workplace but, for various reasons, is not.

An NWMI member since its inception, Laxmi Murthy (Associate Editor, Himal Southasian), says journalism, “by its very nature, can be rather isolating, especially for women, who do not belong in the ‘old boys club’ and hang out at the Press Club. The NWMI provides a platform (at the local and national level) to move beyond isolation – professional as well as personal. Freelancers working out of home, as well as women in a male-dominated media house, seek out like-minded peers – and that is what NWMI is all about.”

Susheela Nair, Bangalore based freelance photographer and travel writer, affirms. “I’ve bonded with more women journalists after joining the Network. As freelancers we tend to work in isolation. We started going to the press club for meetings only because of the network. So much learning happens through the network and we get to know about many opportunities.”

Senior journalist and columnist, Kalpana Sharma, who’s well known to readers of India Together, says a network like this can improve the quality of work going around “as it gives journalists access to other perspectives, resources and mentors. Ordinarily, these should be available at the workplace. But increasingly, in the highly competitive environment in which we work, there is little cooperation and most journalists have to fend for themselves.”

Speaking of issues specific to women in the media, Sharma says, “Problems … vary greatly depending on the media. For instance, in English print media, women have done well although there is still a glass ceiling at the very top. There are also issues of sexual harassment but on the whole, compared to a couple of decades ago, women face fewer problems. The situation in the Indian language press is different. Here, women have to fight for fair wages, for the right to cover different beats and face some of the same problems as women in the English press. Television journalists have greater opportunities but there have been sporadic reports about sexual harassment.”

The background
While researching her book Making News: Women in Journalism, Ammu Joseph, a founder member of the NWMI and also a long-time regular on India Together, met and spoke to over 200 women journalists across languages and locations. There seemed to be a need for a common platform to discuss problems specific to women in the media. To debate on these problems and a possible network, regional workshops were held in Bangalore, Shillong and Jaipur. Women journalists from several towns and cities as also English and other language newspapers, were involved in the network building process, through these workshops.

“… The workshops obviously addressed a felt need. I had scheduled discussions on whether or not there was a need for a national network on the last day of the meeting but in all three regional workshops, participants articulated the need on the very first day!” recalls Joseph. “The workshops went well because they were designed to generate conversations among equals… Each session addressed certain key questions and everyone got an opportunity to share their experiences, thoughts and opinions. This really helped create a sense of collective ownership right from the beginning.”

The regional workshops led to the first national meet in Delhi, where the NWMI was born amidst clamorous debates on its name, structure, charter, etc. While some felt that it should be a formal network with office bearers, etc. others favoured “a more egalitarian, collective approach.” The rationale behind the latter possibly “emerged from the ideas and ideals of feminism, which questioned structures based on hierarchies of various kinds,” says Joseph. The decision taken favoured an informal, hierarchy-free structure, “where responsibility and accountability could be shared and decision-making be based on consensus.” “This is not always the most efficient form of organisation but I personally think the benefits outweigh the deficits,” she opines.

Laxmi Murthy points out that “the Network does not seek to replace unions,” but seeks to complement them. “For instance, the Pune group works closely with the Pune Patrakar Sangh and also has a room in the union office. Working with unions, especially plant unions which tend to be male-dominated is not easy, and women, especially young women, can hardly ever make a breakthrough. Yet, it is crucial to…try to make dents in the overall chauvinism and pressurize unions to take up issues specifically relevant to women journalists (maternity leave, separate toilets, crèches, night-drops, sexual harassment at the workplace etc). But this is…very exhausting! It is for this reason that women, who are also members of the union, find the informal NWMI style of functioning much more conducive to participation”.

The collective gains
Ammu Joseph thinks that the greatest gain from a network “is the sense of collective ownership.” Though “a few people do have to put in that extra effort (in the background, with not too many members really aware of the individual contribution of considerable time and energy towards the collective endeavour) to get and keep things going. And there are naturally some who enjoy the benefits accruing from the network without giving much in return — even in terms of regular communication. But I think it’s remarkable that so many do take initiative, take on responsibility, etc., on a purely voluntary basis. And I think that’s evidence of the feeling that this is something that belongs to everyone, which everyone can help shape and strengthen.”

“It’s … wonderful to belong to a supportive community of professional media women – to be able to discuss issues, to be on a similar wavelength, to be outraged by the same events, be able to laugh about the same things (that’s vital!),” says Murthy, adding, “Professionally, it’s good to be in touch with what’s happening, with regard to gender and media. As an editor, I have been able to get in touch with a wide variety of writers through the network. The NWMI is also a unique collaborative space, in a highly competitive field.”

Independent journalist, Anjulika Thingnam from Manipur was in the middle of a serious personal and professional crisis when she heard about the NWMI. She came to the 5th national meet in Bangalore, “searching for myself in the midst of all the women there. And I found it in NWMI,” she says. Meeting a mixed crowd of journalists from urban and rural areas and interacting with senior members left her feeling, “so energised… My self-esteem was healed”. Contacts made and the frequent news and information got through the e-group helped her “be in touch with a larger support group”.

“In my opinion, women journalists … in a small place like Manipur, under the burden of patriarchy, with little knowledge and awareness of the world outside us, need such a support group. In January 2007, I managed to get four of us organised into a small local group,” says Thingnam. The Manipur network has offered to host the next national meet “to inspire local women journalists to join the network and come forward without fear.” She sees it as a “good opportunity to highlight some of the issues that women, women journalists and the people of Manipur are grappling with everyday – issues of patriarchy, development, conflict, identity …”

A development media professional and member of NWMI’s Bangalore chapter, Shamanathaka Mani says she joined the network as she thought it would help her professionally. “I had expected too much from our group both at the professional and emotional level, but our group is, I think, more heterogeneous than homogeneous.” The process of planning activities at the local level is complicated by the presence of “too many decision makers,” according to her.

Many others count diversity as the strength of the network, however. Each of the annual meets that has followed the one in Delhi, “… has provided a glimpse of the ‘unity in diversity’ that characterises the network” opines Ammu Joseph. “Each host network has put its own stamp on the event in terms of collaborations, fund-raising, content, etc. So each meeting has had a slightly different flavour but every one of them has been exciting, stimulating and fulfilling to almost all the participants. Similarly, e-group discussions often reflect divergent opinions on various issues but there has been amazing consensus on vital matters to do with the media, including those to do with gender.”

Vidhulata, Editor of monthly magazine Aurath says, “From the day I joined NWMI, my confidence has increased. Being a Hindi journalist, I do have some communication problems but I am sure this can be overcome. I am going to hold a one-day workshop for senior journalists in May or June this year Bhopal so that more women journalists from MP can join the NWMI.”

During national meetings, the language barrier is bridged by continual translation, done by members who know the languages concerned. A group of rural journalists from Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh are conversant only with Telugu. They have been an inspiration to the rest of the network and the subject of many newspaper stories across several languages after each network meeting they’ve attended. Mostly from marginalised communities, these women handle all aspects of the production and distribution of a magazine, Navodayam. They conduct surveys and report on crime and child marriages. “Ever since we became part of the NWMI, our motivation to do better stories for our magazine has become stronger. We understand the importance of educating our girl children” says Bharathi, from the Navodayam group.

Senior columnist and writer, Sakuntala Narasimhan, says, “Such a collective … gives women journalists’ viewpoints (on sexist reporting, for instance) a stronger voice while protesting sexism in reporting. I got to know about the World Summit at Johannesburg in 2002, through the local network. I was chosen as one of the 4 journalists from India to be sponsored for covering the three-week summit. I filed 9 stories, and it was a great experience gathering so much information on a variety of subjects for use in my columns, interviewing global leaders etc.”

Laxmi Murthy points out, “The Network has regularly raised the issue of press freedom and freedom of expression and issued statements. Local chapters have organized activities around the issue – be it the Official Secrets Act, attacks on journalists or writers. The point is … to give voice in the public domain, to protest against gender-insensitive, casteist, communal activities/statements.”

In an increasingly market-driven media climate, the NWMI supports value-driven, gender-balanced journalism. It has proved to be a lifeline for journalists who believe that there’s more to the media than news brands.

Women join hands for a better media

By Meenakshi Sahu

In an increasingly market-driven media climate, a network that nurtures value-driven journalism among women has proved to be a lifeline for professionals who believe that there’s more to the media than news brands. HNN reports.

The Seventh National Conference of the Network of Women in Media – India (NWMI) had just ended in Vishakhapatnam. A young journalist from Mumbai was asked how she had liked her first NWMI meet. “My colleagues in Mumbai say I’m too idealistic because I want to write about rural child education for my newspaper. After this conference I know that there is scope for my kind of journalism,” she said, smiling brightly.

This 23-year-old is not the only journalist who’s been energised by the NWMI to follow her chosen path. Many women journalists have found their voice – individually and collectively – and many ‘kinds of journalism’ have got a boost since the NWMI came into being in 2002. In a few years, this collective seems to have facilitated a positive media movement across the country. And it has greatly strengthened the way its members – women media professionals from diverse backgrounds – view themselves and their work.

Despite great diversity in their backgrounds and jobs, NWMI members vouch for the effects that ‘a sense of belonging to a community’ has had on their work. The network has created a unique space where women journalists meet, online or at local and national meetings, to discuss issues specific to women and the media. Information about opportunities – professional and research oriented – is posted, contacts and friendships are forged.

Not everyone agrees with everyone else on everything, but the door to learning is always open because listening is as important as speaking, if not more, at national and local meetings of the NWMI. While consensus usually emerges on issues at the nucleus of the network, diverse opinions are respected. Besides the exchange of ideas, the network supports an in informal system of mentoring that should have been available at the workplace but, for various reasons, is not.

An NWMI member since its inception, Laxmi Murthy (Associate Editor, Himal Southasian), says journalism, “by its very nature, can be rather isolating, especially for women, who do not belong in the ‘old boys club’ and hang out at the Press Club. The NWMI provides a platform (at the local and national level) to move beyond isolation – professional as well as personal. Freelancers working out of home, as well as women in a male-dominated media house, seek out like-minded peers – and that is what NWMI is all about.”

Susheela Nair, Bangalore based freelance photographer and travel writer, affirms. “I’ve bonded with more women journalists after joining the Network. As freelancers we tend to work in isolation. We started going to the press club for meetings only because of the network. So much learning happens through the network and we get to know about many opportunities.”

Senior journalist and columnist, Kalpana Sharma, who’s well known to readers of India Together, says a network like this can improve the quality of work going around “as it gives journalists access to other perspectives, resources and mentors. Ordinarily, these should be available at the workplace. But increasingly, in the highly competitive environment in which we work, there is little cooperation and most journalists have to fend for themselves.”

Speaking of issues specific to women in the media, Sharma says, “Problems … vary greatly depending on the media. For instance, in English print media, women have done well although there is still a glass ceiling at the very top. There are also issues of sexual harassment but on the whole, compared to a couple of decades ago, women face fewer problems. The situation in the Indian language press is different. Here, women have to fight for fair wages, for the right to cover different beats and face some of the same problems as women in the English press. Television journalists have greater opportunities but there have been sporadic reports about sexual harassment.”

The background
While researching her book Making News: Women in Journalism, Ammu Joseph, a founder member of the NWMI and also a long-time regular on India Together, met and spoke to over 200 women journalists across languages and locations. There seemed to be a need for a common platform to discuss problems specific to women in the media. To debate on these problems and a possible network, regional workshops were held in Bangalore, Shillong and Jaipur. Women journalists from several towns and cities as also English and other language newspapers, were involved in the network building process, through these workshops.

“… The workshops obviously addressed a felt need. I had scheduled discussions on whether or not there was a need for a national network on the last day of the meeting but in all three regional workshops, participants articulated the need on the very first day!” recalls Joseph. “The workshops went well because they were designed to generate conversations among equals… Each session addressed certain key questions and everyone got an opportunity to share their experiences, thoughts and opinions. This really helped create a sense of collective ownership right from the beginning.”

The regional workshops led to the first national meet in Delhi, where the NWMI was born amidst clamorous debates on its name, structure, charter, etc. While some felt that it should be a formal network with office bearers, etc. others favoured “a more egalitarian, collective approach.” The rationale behind the latter possibly “emerged from the ideas and ideals of feminism, which questioned structures based on hierarchies of various kinds,” says Joseph. The decision taken favoured an informal, hierarchy-free structure, “where responsibility and accountability could be shared and decision-making be based on consensus.” “This is not always the most efficient form of organisation but I personally think the benefits outweigh the deficits,” she opines.

Laxmi Murthy points out that “the Network does not seek to replace unions,” but seeks to complement them. “For instance, the Pune group works closely with the Pune Patrakar Sangh and also has a room in the union office. Working with unions, especially plant unions which tend to be male-dominated is not easy, and women, especially young women, can hardly ever make a breakthrough. Yet, it is crucial to…try to make dents in the overall chauvinism and pressurize unions to take up issues specifically relevant to women journalists (maternity leave, separate toilets, crèches, night-drops, sexual harassment at the workplace etc). But this is…very exhausting! It is for this reason that women, who are also members of the union, find the informal NWMI style of functioning much more conducive to participation”.

The collective gains
Ammu Joseph thinks that the greatest gain from a network “is the sense of collective ownership.” Though “a few people do have to put in that extra effort (in the background, with not too many members really aware of the individual contribution of considerable time and energy towards the collective endeavour) to get and keep things going. And there are naturally some who enjoy the benefits accruing from the network without giving much in return — even in terms of regular communication. But I think it’s remarkable that so many do take initiative, take on responsibility, etc., on a purely voluntary basis. And I think that’s evidence of the feeling that this is something that belongs to everyone, which everyone can help shape and strengthen.”

“It’s … wonderful to belong to a supportive community of professional media women – to be able to discuss issues, to be on a similar wavelength, to be outraged by the same events, be able to laugh about the same things (that’s vital!),” says Murthy, adding, “Professionally, it’s good to be in touch with what’s happening, with regard to gender and media. As an editor, I have been able to get in touch with a wide variety of writers through the network. The NWMI is also a unique collaborative space, in a highly competitive field.”

Independent journalist, Anjulika Thingnam from Manipur was in the middle of a serious personal and professional crisis when she heard about the NWMI. She came to the 5th national meet in Bangalore, “searching for myself in the midst of all the women there. And I found it in NWMI,” she says. Meeting a mixed crowd of journalists from urban and rural areas and interacting with senior members left her feeling, “so energised… My self-esteem was healed”. Contacts made and the frequent news and information got through the e-group helped her “be in touch with a larger support group”.

“In my opinion, women journalists … in a small place like Manipur, under the burden of patriarchy, with little knowledge and awareness of the world outside us, need such a support group. In January 2007, I managed to get four of us organised into a small local group,” says Thingnam. The Manipur network has offered to host the next national meet “to inspire local women journalists to join the network and come forward without fear.” She sees it as a “good opportunity to highlight some of the issues that women, women journalists and the people of Manipur are grappling with everyday – issues of patriarchy, development, conflict, identity …”

A development media professional and member of NWMI’s Bangalore chapter, Shamanathaka Mani says she joined the network as she thought it would help her professionally. “I had expected too much from our group both at the professional and emotional level, but our group is, I think, more heterogeneous than homogeneous.” The process of planning activities at the local level is complicated by the presence of “too many decision makers,” according to her.

Many others count diversity as the strength of the network, however. Each of the annual meets that has followed the one in Delhi, “… has provided a glimpse of the ‘unity in diversity’ that characterises the network” opines Ammu Joseph. “Each host network has put its own stamp on the event in terms of collaborations, fund-raising, content, etc. So each meeting has had a slightly different flavour but every one of them has been exciting, stimulating and fulfilling to almost all the participants. Similarly, e-group discussions often reflect divergent opinions on various issues but there has been amazing consensus on vital matters to do with the media, including those to do with gender.”

Vidhulata, Editor of monthly magazine Aurath says, “From the day I joined NWMI, my confidence has increased. Being a Hindi journalist, I do have some communication problems but I am sure this can be overcome. I am going to hold a one-day workshop for senior journalists in May or June this year Bhopal so that more women journalists from MP can join the NWMI.”

During national meetings, the language barrier is bridged by continual translation, done by members who know the languages concerned. A group of rural journalists from Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh are conversant only with Telugu. They have been an inspiration to the rest of the network and the subject of many newspaper stories across several languages after each network meeting they’ve attended. Mostly from marginalised communities, these women handle all aspects of the production and distribution of a magazine, Navodayam. They conduct surveys and report on crime and child marriages. “Ever since we became part of the NWMI, our motivation to do better stories for our magazine has become stronger. We understand the importance of educating our girl children” says Bharathi, from the Navodayam group.

Senior columnist and writer, Sakuntala Narasimhan, says, “Such a collective … gives women journalists’ viewpoints (on sexist reporting, for instance) a stronger voice while protesting sexism in reporting. I got to know about the World Summit at Johannesburg in 2002, through the local network. I was chosen as one of the 4 journalists from India to be sponsored for covering the three-week summit. I filed 9 stories, and it was a great experience gathering so much information on a variety of subjects for use in my columns, interviewing global leaders etc.”

Laxmi Murthy points out, “The Network has regularly raised the issue of press freedom and freedom of expression and issued statements. Local chapters have organized activities around the issue – be it the Official Secrets Act, attacks on journalists or writers. The point is … to give voice in the public domain, to protest against gender-insensitive, casteist, communal activities/statements.”

In an increasingly market-driven media climate, the NWMI supports value-driven, gender-balanced journalism. It has proved to be a lifeline for journalists who believe that there’s more to the media than news brands.

FAQs of Women of India

By HNN Research Desk

The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. From a largely unknown status in ancient times through the low points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of women in India has been eventful.

What are some of the problems facing the women in India?
The problems Indian women face are same as those faced by their counterparts in other nations. Additionally, there are some unique problems in India for women.
The Dowry system prevalent in India calls for a large sum of money to be paid to the groom at the time of marriage. Brides that cannot meet the husband’s expectations are sometimes harassed after the wedding.

Desire for male progeny has caused natural imbalance and numerous problems for women.

Unwanted touching of women in public places — this problem is known as Eve teasing in India.

Unequal share of inheritance — in most Hindu families, only the sons inherit the wealth of the parents as married girls are considered no longer part of the family.
Lack of public toilets –this is more of a hygiene problem of India, but making even more difficult for women to get out of the house.

Ill treatment of widows — many families blame the untimely death of a husband to the misfortune of the woman. In extreme cases, the widow is made to wear only unattractive clothing and shave her head, although this practice is on the decline.

Why do Indian women wear the dot on the forehead?
Traditionally the dot (known as bindi, kum-kum) was the symbol of an auspicious privilege enjoyed by married Hindu women in India. The practice has now evolved to cover young girls and women of other faiths as well and has become part of the make-up.

What is the status of women in Indian society?
The answer is a complex one — women are both abused as well as revered in the Indian society; sometimes within the same household.

The Hindu religion calls for worship of the womanhood, and several rituals are conducted in honor of women. At the same time, it denied such privileges as performing the last rites and equal share of inheritance.

The conditions of divorced women, widows, and unmarried working women need substantial improvement.

What is Burning of Brides? Does this really happen?
In the 1980s numerous cases of newly married brides mysteriously dying in kitchen-stove explosions came to light in India. The deaths were found to be related to the dowry system when the bride is expected to bring a lot of money to the husband. The burnings consisted both of suicides and murders.

In ancient and medieval India, there was the tradition of wives committing suicide upon the death of their husbands, known as the Sati or the Sahagamana (co-departure). The women decorated themselves in their bridal attire before immolating themselves.

The dowry system is a deeply rooted problem in India and sometimes substitutes the inheritance the woman will receive from her parents. Officially, both the Dowry and Sati systems are banned, but one hears about the dowry deaths often in Indian newspapers.

The last known instance of Sati took place in 1987.

Do Men Cook in India?
Even though traditional household work is performed by women, interestingly, a large number of men cook/can cook in India. Men are called upon to prepare festive meals, especially during religious occasions. The most famous of the Indian cooks is Nala – a man.

A large number of Indian males grow up away from their mothers (due to poverty, purposes of education) and have learnt basic cooking due to necessity. Professional cooks in restaurants and eateries are invariably men.

Is it true that men in India do not know the woman till they marry her?
Oh dear. That is true in every country
Joke apart, it is true that many men and women go in for arranged marriages in India and have very little knowledge about the person they are about to wed.

I’ve heard that many women in India are virgins until they are married. Is that true?
Indian culture attaches great importance to purity and virtue of men and women. Many people who follow this doctrine typically have not had sexual experience till they are married.

How do the women in India spend their time?
Indian women spend time with the family members — mostly other female relatives. The educated women have friends they have made in school or work. (Contrary to perception, a large percent of women in India work)

Indian women also spend time with chores, raising children, watching movies, and caring for community.

Why do Indian Hindu women go in seclusion during their menstrual cycle? Is it still relevant in the modern era?
Some experts believe that it was the mechanism of relieving the women of daily chores and physical activities (of duties of joint-family) and allow for private time during their menstrual cycles.

Women during their periods were also considered unhygienic or dirty and that’s probably the reason they were excluded. This is the same reason many women prefer not to visit sacred places during their cycle.

Although waning, this custom of “sitting out” is still practiced in some parts of India among traditional families. However, this practice is not relevant in the modern era.

What was the role of women in India’s freedom struggle?
The role of women during decades of India’s freedom struggle was very big, thanks to the vision and encouragement of Gandhi. See the article Gandhi and Women for examples of how women got included in the India’s nationalistic agenda from the beginning.

Many women leaders emerged, and even many more engaged in social service, social reform, and improved the life of women in India.

FAQs of Women of India

By HNN Research Desk

The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. From a largely unknown status in ancient times through the low points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of women in India has been eventful.

What are some of the problems facing the women in India?
The problems Indian women face are same as those faced by their counterparts in other nations. Additionally, there are some unique problems in India for women.
The Dowry system prevalent in India calls for a large sum of money to be paid to the groom at the time of marriage. Brides that cannot meet the husband’s expectations are sometimes harassed after the wedding.

Desire for male progeny has caused natural imbalance and numerous problems for women.

Unwanted touching of women in public places — this problem is known as Eve teasing in India.

Unequal share of inheritance — in most Hindu families, only the sons inherit the wealth of the parents as married girls are considered no longer part of the family.
Lack of public toilets –this is more of a hygiene problem of India, but making even more difficult for women to get out of the house.

Ill treatment of widows — many families blame the untimely death of a husband to the misfortune of the woman. In extreme cases, the widow is made to wear only unattractive clothing and shave her head, although this practice is on the decline.

Why do Indian women wear the dot on the forehead?
Traditionally the dot (known as bindi, kum-kum) was the symbol of an auspicious privilege enjoyed by married Hindu women in India. The practice has now evolved to cover young girls and women of other faiths as well and has become part of the make-up.

What is the status of women in Indian society?
The answer is a complex one — women are both abused as well as revered in the Indian society; sometimes within the same household.

The Hindu religion calls for worship of the womanhood, and several rituals are conducted in honor of women. At the same time, it denied such privileges as performing the last rites and equal share of inheritance.

The conditions of divorced women, widows, and unmarried working women need substantial improvement.

What is Burning of Brides? Does this really happen?
In the 1980s numerous cases of newly married brides mysteriously dying in kitchen-stove explosions came to light in India. The deaths were found to be related to the dowry system when the bride is expected to bring a lot of money to the husband. The burnings consisted both of suicides and murders.

In ancient and medieval India, there was the tradition of wives committing suicide upon the death of their husbands, known as the Sati or the Sahagamana (co-departure). The women decorated themselves in their bridal attire before immolating themselves.

The dowry system is a deeply rooted problem in India and sometimes substitutes the inheritance the woman will receive from her parents. Officially, both the Dowry and Sati systems are banned, but one hears about the dowry deaths often in Indian newspapers.

The last known instance of Sati took place in 1987.

Do Men Cook in India?
Even though traditional household work is performed by women, interestingly, a large number of men cook/can cook in India. Men are called upon to prepare festive meals, especially during religious occasions. The most famous of the Indian cooks is Nala – a man.

A large number of Indian males grow up away from their mothers (due to poverty, purposes of education) and have learnt basic cooking due to necessity. Professional cooks in restaurants and eateries are invariably men.

Is it true that men in India do not know the woman till they marry her?
Oh dear. That is true in every country
Joke apart, it is true that many men and women go in for arranged marriages in India and have very little knowledge about the person they are about to wed.

I’ve heard that many women in India are virgins until they are married. Is that true?
Indian culture attaches great importance to purity and virtue of men and women. Many people who follow this doctrine typically have not had sexual experience till they are married.

How do the women in India spend their time?
Indian women spend time with the family members — mostly other female relatives. The educated women have friends they have made in school or work. (Contrary to perception, a large percent of women in India work)

Indian women also spend time with chores, raising children, watching movies, and caring for community.

Why do Indian Hindu women go in seclusion during their menstrual cycle? Is it still relevant in the modern era?
Some experts believe that it was the mechanism of relieving the women of daily chores and physical activities (of duties of joint-family) and allow for private time during their menstrual cycles.

Women during their periods were also considered unhygienic or dirty and that’s probably the reason they were excluded. This is the same reason many women prefer not to visit sacred places during their cycle.

Although waning, this custom of “sitting out” is still practiced in some parts of India among traditional families. However, this practice is not relevant in the modern era.

What was the role of women in India’s freedom struggle?
The role of women during decades of India’s freedom struggle was very big, thanks to the vision and encouragement of Gandhi. See the article Gandhi and Women for examples of how women got included in the India’s nationalistic agenda from the beginning.

Many women leaders emerged, and even many more engaged in social service, social reform, and improved the life of women in India.

FAQs of Women of India

By HNN Research Desk

The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia. From a largely unknown status in ancient times through the low points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of women in India has been eventful.

What are some of the problems facing the women in India?
The problems Indian women face are same as those faced by their counterparts in other nations. Additionally, there are some unique problems in India for women.
The Dowry system prevalent in India calls for a large sum of money to be paid to the groom at the time of marriage. Brides that cannot meet the husband’s expectations are sometimes harassed after the wedding.

Desire for male progeny has caused natural imbalance and numerous problems for women.

Unwanted touching of women in public places — this problem is known as Eve teasing in India.

Unequal share of inheritance — in most Hindu families, only the sons inherit the wealth of the parents as married girls are considered no longer part of the family.
Lack of public toilets –this is more of a hygiene problem of India, but making even more difficult for women to get out of the house.

Ill treatment of widows — many families blame the untimely death of a husband to the misfortune of the woman. In extreme cases, the widow is made to wear only unattractive clothing and shave her head, although this practice is on the decline.

Why do Indian women wear the dot on the forehead?
Traditionally the dot (known as bindi, kum-kum) was the symbol of an auspicious privilege enjoyed by married Hindu women in India. The practice has now evolved to cover young girls and women of other faiths as well and has become part of the make-up.

What is the status of women in Indian society?
The answer is a complex one — women are both abused as well as revered in the Indian society; sometimes within the same household.

The Hindu religion calls for worship of the womanhood, and several rituals are conducted in honor of women. At the same time, it denied such privileges as performing the last rites and equal share of inheritance.

The conditions of divorced women, widows, and unmarried working women need substantial improvement.

What is Burning of Brides? Does this really happen?
In the 1980s numerous cases of newly married brides mysteriously dying in kitchen-stove explosions came to light in India. The deaths were found to be related to the dowry system when the bride is expected to bring a lot of money to the husband. The burnings consisted both of suicides and murders.

In ancient and medieval India, there was the tradition of wives committing suicide upon the death of their husbands, known as the Sati or the Sahagamana (co-departure). The women decorated themselves in their bridal attire before immolating themselves.

The dowry system is a deeply rooted problem in India and sometimes substitutes the inheritance the woman will receive from her parents. Officially, both the Dowry and Sati systems are banned, but one hears about the dowry deaths often in Indian newspapers.

The last known instance of Sati took place in 1987.

Do Men Cook in India?
Even though traditional household work is performed by women, interestingly, a large number of men cook/can cook in India. Men are called upon to prepare festive meals, especially during religious occasions. The most famous of the Indian cooks is Nala – a man.

A large number of Indian males grow up away from their mothers (due to poverty, purposes of education) and have learnt basic cooking due to necessity. Professional cooks in restaurants and eateries are invariably men.

Is it true that men in India do not know the woman till they marry her?
Oh dear. That is true in every country
Joke apart, it is true that many men and women go in for arranged marriages in India and have very little knowledge about the person they are about to wed.

I’ve heard that many women in India are virgins until they are married. Is that true?
Indian culture attaches great importance to purity and virtue of men and women. Many people who follow this doctrine typically have not had sexual experience till they are married.

How do the women in India spend their time?
Indian women spend time with the family members — mostly other female relatives. The educated women have friends they have made in school or work. (Contrary to perception, a large percent of women in India work)

Indian women also spend time with chores, raising children, watching movies, and caring for community.

Why do Indian Hindu women go in seclusion during their menstrual cycle? Is it still relevant in the modern era?
Some experts believe that it was the mechanism of relieving the women of daily chores and physical activities (of duties of joint-family) and allow for private time during their menstrual cycles.

Women during their periods were also considered unhygienic or dirty and that’s probably the reason they were excluded. This is the same reason many women prefer not to visit sacred places during their cycle.

Although waning, this custom of “sitting out” is still practiced in some parts of India among traditional families. However, this practice is not relevant in the modern era.

What was the role of women in India’s freedom struggle?
The role of women during decades of India’s freedom struggle was very big, thanks to the vision and encouragement of Gandhi. See the article Gandhi and Women for examples of how women got included in the India’s nationalistic agenda from the beginning.

Many women leaders emerged, and even many more engaged in social service, social reform, and improved the life of women in India.

How do the women in India shave (legs, underarms, or genital areas)?
Depilation is considered a private matter in India and is not discussed in public.
All common forms of hair removal are practiced, including pastes made with natural herbs.

Unmarried Women Gear up for Parenthood

By M H Ahssan

Despite the traditionally low social status of the women in India, and the bad treatment given to them, times have changed for the better. Indian women in the 21st century are career orientated, happy and are remaining single – all by choice. Gone are the days when women spoke only with their eyes and their bowed heads. They have decided to re-write the rules of the fairly conservative Indian society.

Indian women have now taken a step further, and are enjoying the satisfaction of becoming mothers (something that makes any woman “complete”), even though many of them remain single. Skipping the ‘attachment’ of marriage and men, they are opting to become single parents – by adopting a child.

Single women celebrities like Raveena Tandon and Sushmita Sen have publicly adopted children. Questions, however, in the minds of many are:

- Why have single women opted for adoption?
- What motivates them into accepting the responsibility of a child – especially a female child?

When Sushmita Sen, ex-Ms Universe (1994), was asked about her adopted daughter, Renee, she said that she had wanted to adopt a child ever since she was 18. “As Femina Miss India, I saw so many poor children and from so close, that I wanted to adopt a girl child. It took me years to get one,” she has said. She received a call from an institution in Mumbai that had a pattern of allowing people who are single, to adopt children. The sixth baby that they introduced to Sushmita was sick and not a healthy child. This, coincidently, was the child Sushmita chose to adopt. Sushmita says that single motherhood has been “very beautiful”. She has changed her habits, so that they would not influence the child as she grows up. She has learnt that Renee is her responsibility and she would have to take good care of her.

Raveena Tandon, another celebrity, had adopted two children some ten years ago. When asked how it felt like to be a mother, she replied saying, “It’s just wonderful. It’s the greatest feeling in the world. And I strongly believe and advocate adoption. I think instead of spending money, injecting someone else’s embryo, etc., why not take care of a life that is already alive? As it is the country is so over-populated. If there’s a soul already breathing on this planet and crying out for help, why do we need artificial insemination?”

Reema Gupta, 38 and a financial consultant says that she did not get married out of choice. Earlier in her life, she was very focused on just her career and did not want any kind of distractions. She did not even give marriage a thought. Now, being financially settled, she would like to make the most of her earnings for a good cause, and have a sense of satisfaction for having done something for the society. Well, what better way than to adopt a child?

Saini Singh, a lecturer, has decided to adopt an orphan girl-child. Initially, her family was against the idea, but later, they agreed to it. She says that she would definitely adopt a female child because she still believes that women in the Indian society do not enjoy, and are not yet given the true status and respect that they deserve. “This decision of mine would give me the satisfaction of having done something for women in a small way during my lifetime”.

Men, such as Prateek Rastogi, a 24-year-old graduate in Computer Science Engineering and a “Bombayite” in nature, support the concept of a single parent, as long as the child is adopted. “Infact,” he says, “I would place the lady at a higher level”.

Despite the popularity of such a bold concept, there are people who say that the adopted child would never be brought up the same way other children around them would have, just because a single parent does not make a complete family. This, in my opinion, would only be true to some extent. However, a single parent would be able to devote more of his or her time towards the child. His or her priorities would be completely different. The most common argument of a non-believer is that a single woman would never do justice to the child because of the social dishonor attached to unwed mothers. They are thought of as the “bottom of the barrel”.

What I think is the reason that discourages un-wed women to adopt children in this present day and age, is the fear of who would take care of the child in the incident of her death.

The whole concept of a family is undergoing a massive change, but whether it is the beginning of a revolution or not, is still a question that has yet to be answered. This, however, shows that the social status of women in India has improved, and that the Indian society has begun to accept women as individuals, and not just mere pieces of decoration. Nevertheless, the good news is that the Indian law is in the favor of single parent adoption.

We, as educated human beings – educated Indians, rather – should take a stand, allow and encourage these kind of gradual changes in our society. That is the only way that we will be able to truly enhance the image of the women in our country. That is when they will really be worshiped for being the “second half”, or the Ardhangani of a man.

Unmarried Women Gear up for Parenthood

By M H Ahssan

Despite the traditionally low social status of the women in India, and the bad treatment given to them, times have changed for the better. Indian women in the 21st century are career orientated, happy and are remaining single – all by choice. Gone are the days when women spoke only with their eyes and their bowed heads. They have decided to re-write the rules of the fairly conservative Indian society.

Indian women have now taken a step further, and are enjoying the satisfaction of becoming mothers (something that makes any woman “complete”), even though many of them remain single. Skipping the ‘attachment’ of marriage and men, they are opting to become single parents – by adopting a child.

Single women celebrities like Raveena Tandon and Sushmita Sen have publicly adopted children. Questions, however, in the minds of many are:

- Why have single women opted for adoption?
- What motivates them into accepting the responsibility of a child – especially a female child?

When Sushmita Sen, ex-Ms Universe (1994), was asked about her adopted daughter, Renee, she said that she had wanted to adopt a child ever since she was 18. “As Femina Miss India, I saw so many poor children and from so close, that I wanted to adopt a girl child. It took me years to get one,” she has said. She received a call from an institution in Mumbai that had a pattern of allowing people who are single, to adopt children. The sixth baby that they introduced to Sushmita was sick and not a healthy child. This, coincidently, was the child Sushmita chose to adopt. Sushmita says that single motherhood has been “very beautiful”. She has changed her habits, so that they would not influence the child as she grows up. She has learnt that Renee is her responsibility and she would have to take good care of her.

Raveena Tandon, another celebrity, had adopted two children some ten years ago. When asked how it felt like to be a mother, she replied saying, “It’s just wonderful. It’s the greatest feeling in the world. And I strongly believe and advocate adoption. I think instead of spending money, injecting someone else’s embryo, etc., why not take care of a life that is already alive? As it is the country is so over-populated. If there’s a soul already breathing on this planet and crying out for help, why do we need artificial insemination?”

Reema Gupta, 38 and a financial consultant says that she did not get married out of choice. Earlier in her life, she was very focused on just her career and did not want any kind of distractions. She did not even give marriage a thought. Now, being financially settled, she would like to make the most of her earnings for a good cause, and have a sense of satisfaction for having done something for the society. Well, what better way than to adopt a child?

Saini Singh, a lecturer, has decided to adopt an orphan girl-child. Initially, her family was against the idea, but later, they agreed to it. She says that she would definitely adopt a female child because she still believes that women in the Indian society do not enjoy, and are not yet given the true status and respect that they deserve. “This decision of mine would give me the satisfaction of having done something for women in a small way during my lifetime”.

Men, such as Prateek Rastogi, a 24-year-old graduate in Computer Science Engineering and a “Bombayite” in nature, support the concept of a single parent, as long as the child is adopted. “Infact,” he says, “I would place the lady at a higher level”.

Despite the popularity of such a bold concept, there are people who say that the adopted child would never be brought up the same way other children around them would have, just because a single parent does not make a complete family. This, in my opinion, would only be true to some extent. However, a single parent would be able to devote more of his or her time towards the child. His or her priorities would be completely different. The most common argument of a non-believer is that a single woman would never do justice to the child because of the social dishonor attached to unwed mothers. They are thought of as the “bottom of the barrel”.

What I think is the reason that discourages un-wed women to adopt children in this present day and age, is the fear of who would take care of the child in the incident of her death.

The whole concept of a family is undergoing a massive change, but whether it is the beginning of a revolution or not, is still a question that has yet to be answered. This, however, shows that the social status of women in India has improved, and that the Indian society has begun to accept women as individuals, and not just mere pieces of decoration. Nevertheless, the good news is that the Indian law is in the favor of single parent adoption.

We, as educated human beings – educated Indians, rather – should take a stand, allow and encourage these kind of gradual changes in our society. That is the only way that we will be able to truly enhance the image of the women in our country. That is when they will really be worshiped for being the “second half”, or the Ardhangani of a man.

Woes of working women

By Arashi Al Ahmed

Professional success is a goal for both men and women, but for the latter it takes on a different aspect, especially if they are married and have children and duties of a housewife to attend to. Some say that success in both these sides of life is impossible and call for the return of working women to the household. Some women have, however, managed to find a balance between their home and working lives, and here they explain how they have achieved it.

Dr. Samiya Al-Amoudi of King Abdulaziz University says that despite her pressing professional duties, she manages to give her full attention to the needs of her children. “Ive found a balance by structuring my priorities, so that I can attend to all my responsibilities and commitments. If, for example, my children are sick, then my priority is to make time and coordinate, and this is an important factor in finding a balance between work and home.”

“The support and help from my family has had a great influence on my success,” Al-Amoudi continues. “And since I am a doctor and an activist in the fight against breast cancer I try to involve my children in my activities, and this helps them realize that they are part of my success, as without their considerable help and their standing by me I wouldnt have been able to get where I am.”

Balancing sacrifices
The supervision of childrens upbringing is, according to Al-Amoudi, a tough task. “The working woman faces a lot of difficulties,” she says. “She has to make a lot of sacrifices involving personal and social concessions for the sake of her family and children. You wont find a successful working woman who is also a successful mother to her children without her having made concessions of some sort in her social life.”

Muna Abu Soleiman is famous for her work in the media, notably as a presenter of a popular chat show on MBC satellite channel. “I think Ive achieved a degree of success in finding the balance between work and bringing up my daughters,” Soleiman says. “When they were young I chose to teach at university as it allowed me to give them the sort of care they needed at the time, and when they got older and were able to depend on themselves more I was able to give my work more of my attention and make great strides, all of which reflects on both me and my daughters.”

“You need to be very careful as a working woman with young children, as it is an extremely important juncture in their upbringing and there can be a heavy price to pay if you are not there for them.” Soleiman says, “So you need to find work that doesnt make too many demands on your time or your energy which are needed at home.

“Most girls these days,” Soleiman continues, “have university degrees or higher and so wont be working in relatively simple jobs such as sewing. Todays girls have been through higher education and speak different languages all of which qualifies them for work in very demanding areas. It remains for everyone to find some sort of flexibility over the issue and to help everyone achieve success and happiness.”

Nojoud Al-Ghamdi, who works for a public relations firm, is optimistic that that is happening. “The situation for Saudi women has improved a lot recently,” Al-Ghamdi says, “and weve overcome a lot of the barriers erected by society, and Im referring to university education and beyond, and learning foreign languages which is a requirement for the job market,” she says. “And of course no girl will accept a post that doesnt correspond to the qualifications she has worked so hard to acquire.”

“A quick overview of working Saudi women today shows that they are able to accomplish achievements both at work and at home, and the long hours spent at the office working hard have enabled them to reach a high level of standing, but personally if I had to choose between work and home I would choose home, since this is every womans natural and innate place,” she says.

Guilty feelings
Broadcaster Maha Shalbi admits to having to make occasional readjustments. “A clever woman tries to harmonize with the fast rhythm of the times and reconcile her work with the demands of her husband and family in general, but to be honest I have to confess that sometimes I feel I have let my family down and that leaves me feeling guilty, especially when my husband has to hint that somethings amiss,” Shalbi says. “When that happens I reorganize myself and take stock and make sure that my priorities are not getting confused.”

“I try to make up for any time I spend at work with time for my son to play with him and see to his needs, to make sure that he never feels my absence,” she says.

“The wife is her husbands partner in all paths and aspects of life,” says Dr. Rana Al-Sabagh, an organ transplant coordinator with three children, “and professional success is not just for men. I try to concentrate on the quality, not the quantity, of the time I spend with my children. I also think my children need a role model and someone to look up to in addition to support, so that they can develop their strengths and learn to depend on themselves.”

Women are better than men
Amal Khalid, who works in marketing and public relations, says the myth that a working woman cannot lead a successful home life perpetuates a derogatory view of women in working society. “I dont wish to be biased, but women are better at work than men, but how are we to proceed when the job market is bossed by men? Most bosses welcome unmarried women into their businesses as they are dedicated to their work and are prepared to work long hours, but still they give men greater privileges as they see them as having more experience and ability. They think that women, however well they perform in their work, still only have a quarter of the competence of men. This is obviously untrue, and from my own personal experience I would say that women are more competent in their work, and show greater experience and motivation, even those who are also responsible for large families.”

Hana Al-Rukabi, a broadcaster, says that it is plain to everyone that women have succeeded in finding a balance between work and home and that it has also influenced people both socially and in their thinking. “Thats a strong indicator of the importance of the womans role in the family and her influence on peoples upbringings, as well as her desire to take part in the building of new generations,” Al-Rukabi says. “Women represent half of society, and are also responsible for bringing up the other half, and their success in balancing their home and work lives affects the productivity of society as a whole and the process of stability and development.”

“My husband has been a huge support for me,” she says, “and deserves great credit for my success and for me getting to where I am today. At the same time I look after my family and domestic affairs, because if I were a failure in my role as a mother and wife then I wouldnt be able to succeed in any other aspect of my life.”

Talal Al-Nashiri, a sociologist says: “Womens success and their role in society is no less than that of men, and they can be exceptional in some areas.”

The rights of working women are virtually ignored, she said, “but despite that they continue to work diligently and courageously to achieve successful home and working lives, assuming twice the burden. When women take on that double burden it has positive social and economic effects by increasing a womans standing and giving her a role as a mover and shaker in society.”

Women are not allowed to be employed in positions that involve hazardous work. They are also not permitted to work night shifts of longer than 11 hours. Employers are obliged to provide medical care for female employees during and after pregnancy as well as provide designated places of rest at work for all female employees.

India anxious over Tiger chief’s fate

By Sudha Ramachandran

With military defeat imminent and sheer survival at stake, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has offered the Sri Lankan government a unilateral ceasefire in a desperate last-ditch attempt to maneuver its way out of a tight corner. The offer has been rejected by the government as a “joke”, as it insisted it will respond only if the Tigers lay down their arms and surrender.

The government’s rejection is not surprising. It has ignored pleas from the international community to put the ongoing war in the north on pause to enable tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the no-fire zone to escape.

As far as the government is concerned, the LTTE is on the brink of defeat and its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is within the army’s grasp. This is the man they have been hunting for the past three decades and they will not stop until they have him in the bag, dead or alive.

Sri Lankan army officials claim that the LTTE chief is restricted to a six-kilometer area and is hiding among civilians in the no-fire zone. They say he cannot escape by road as security is very tight.

So is the elusive Tiger chief’s luck finally running out?

It does seem so. However, he does not appear to have thrown in the towel yet. He is reportedly planning an audacious escape out of Sri Lanka by submarine, according to LTTE media coordinator Daya Master, who surrendered to Sri Lankan forces last week. Prabhakaran’s son, Charles Antony, Sea Tiger (the LTTE’s naval unit) chief Soosai and the coordinating army head and intelligence chief Pottu Amman will escape with him.

But the submarine escape plan is unlikely to be easy to implement.

The Sri Lankan navy is keeping a tight vigil along the northeastern coast from Trincomalee harbor in the east to Kankesanthurai on the Jaffna Peninsula using high-speed patrol boats and radars that can apparently detect even the slightest movement in the seas. Besides, there is aerial reconnaissance too. Getting past this will be difficult for the LTTE top brass.

Then there is the question of Prabhakaran’s health. The 54-year-old is believed to be leading his fighters in the ongoing battle against the Lankan forces. But he is hardly fighting fit. An insulin-dependent diabetic with a long-standing problem of hypertension and a host of other related complications, the Tiger chief is unlikely to survive the strain of an escape attempt by submarine.

In January, Sri Lanka army chief Sarath Fonseka said Prabhakaran might have already fled, perhaps to Southeast Asia. That triggered much speculation in the media of destinations that the LTTE chief might have escaped to. In recent weeks, army officials have said that Prabhakaran is very much on the island and in the thick of the battle.

It does seem that if Prabhakaran has not already escaped from Sri Lanka to take refuge in Malaysia, India or some other country with a large Tamil population, the Tiger chief’s chances of roaming free are rather remote.

In its physical description of Prabhakaran, Interpol describes him in its website as “very alert, known to use disguise and capable of handling sophisticated weaponry and explosives”. These skills have helped Prabhakaran elude the armed forces so far.

And luck too was on his side. Sri Lankan army officials admit that they missed capturing him “by a whisker” late last month.

Sri Lankan officials say that they are determined to capture Prabhakaran, dead or alive. Sinhalese nationalists and hardliners in the Sri Lankan establishment would love to see this happen. Prabhakaran in chains is a trophy that the Sri Lankan military and President Mahinda Rajapakse would want to flaunt. But it is likely that the armed forces will shoot him dead if they capture him alive. Apparently, sections in the government aren’t keen to put him through “long-winding, messy judicial processes”. They would simply like him “out of the way as soon as possible”, says a retired Sri Lankan intelligence official.

Although rumors of Prabhakaran negotiating a surrender deal with the government have been making the rounds over the past fortnight, it is highly unlikely that he will give himself up. He has ordered the killing of Tamil leaders who have compromised on the cause of Tamil Eelam, labeling them traitors. He cannot himself compromise on the issue now.

Like other Tiger fighters, Prabhakaran wears a cyanide capsule around his neck. He claims he will swallow it in the event of capture.

It is said that he has instructed his bodyguards to douse him with petrol and burn him in the event of his death or imminent capture so that his Sinhalese enemies cannot desecrate his body. There is the possibility too of the LTTE chief leading Tamils trapped in the “no-fire zone” in a mass suicide.

It is not just the Sri Lankan armed forces that are keeping their eyes open for the Tiger chief. Neighbor India, which is separated by a narrow strip of water from Sri Lanka, has been watching developments on the island closely. Whether Prabhakaran is captured dead or alive is an issue with serious implications for India.

Tamil nationalists in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been agitating for months, calling on the Indian government to intervene more forcefully to halt the war in Sri Lanka. They are of the view that Delhi’s support for Colombo is responsible for the military reverses of the LTTE and have warned that “rivers of blood will flow” in Tamil Nadu if any harm comes to Prabhakaran. If Prabhakaran were to die or be arrested and humiliated in any way, Tamil Nadu can be expected to explode.

Public support for Prabhakaran, which plunged after the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, has since revived over the past year. The plight of civilians trapped in the fighting has triggered an outpouring of sympathy for Sri Lankan Tamils and to some extent the LTTE.

India is in the midst of general elections and there is concern in the ruling United Progressive Alliance that Prabhakaran’s death or capture at this point will prove electorally disastrous for the Congress party and the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam, which have been walking the tightrope on the Sri Lankan issue.

But it is its impact beyond elections that India needs to worry about. Separatist sentiment in Tamil Nadu, which was contained in the 1960s, could get a fresh infusion of life.

Prabhakaran captured alive too is a headache for Delhi. The LTTE chief is wanted in India for his role in the assassination of Rajiv. The LTTE has been a banned organization in India since 1992. If Prabhakaran is captured alive, India would have to ask Sri Lanka for his extradition.

Prabhakaran in an Indian jail would only fuel Tamil secessionist sentiment in India. Therefore, say Indian officials, they would prefer Prabhakaran dead rather than captured, but dead by his own hands.

There was a time in the mid-1980s when the Indian government did not want Prabhakaran dead. They believed that the Sri Lankan government could be forced to provide a reasonable political solution only if Prabhakaran was alive. While that logic still holds good, Delhi recognizes that Prabhakaran is the main obstacle to Tamils seeking a negotiated settlement. It also feels that it can deal with a LTTE minus Prabhakaran, something it cannot do at present, given his wanted status in India.

Given the multiple problems that Prabhakaran – dead or alive – poses, it does seem India would prefer to see the LTTE chief escape to some faraway country.

Would Indian intelligence agencies help him get away? Indian intelligence officials rule out this option vehemently.

“But considering that Indian intelligence agencies had close links with the LTTE in the past, this cannot be completely ruled out,” writes Seema Guha in the Daily News & Analyses, drawing attention to instances when the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in Sri Lanka had cornered Prabhakaran but had to let him go because the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, was engaging the LTTE.

“Giving Prabhakaran an escape route will solve many a problem,” she argues. “Prabhakaran will be out of harm’s way and will be effectively reduced to a has-been. And he will be in no position to come and fight another day.”

India extending a helping hand to Prabhakaran can be ruled out. Whatever its links with him in the past, the equation has changed completely now. “India would not want to bail out a person tagged with a terrorist label by several countries at a time when it is accusing Pakistan of sponsoring terrorists targeting India,” a RAW official told Asia Times Online.

As for Prabhakaran, even if help were offered by India, he would be unlikely to accept it. His suspicion of India’s intentions vis-a-vis the Tamil militancy and the LTTE has a long history. He has never trusted India, he is unlikely to leave his fate in India’s hands now.

India anxious over Tiger chief’s fate

By Sudha Ramachandran

With military defeat imminent and sheer survival at stake, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has offered the Sri Lankan government a unilateral ceasefire in a desperate last-ditch attempt to maneuver its way out of a tight corner. The offer has been rejected by the government as a “joke”, as it insisted it will respond only if the Tigers lay down their arms and surrender.

The government’s rejection is not surprising. It has ignored pleas from the international community to put the ongoing war in the north on pause to enable tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the no-fire zone to escape.

As far as the government is concerned, the LTTE is on the brink of defeat and its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is within the army’s grasp. This is the man they have been hunting for the past three decades and they will not stop until they have him in the bag, dead or alive.

Sri Lankan army officials claim that the LTTE chief is restricted to a six-kilometer area and is hiding among civilians in the no-fire zone. They say he cannot escape by road as security is very tight.

So is the elusive Tiger chief’s luck finally running out?

It does seem so. However, he does not appear to have thrown in the towel yet. He is reportedly planning an audacious escape out of Sri Lanka by submarine, according to LTTE media coordinator Daya Master, who surrendered to Sri Lankan forces last week. Prabhakaran’s son, Charles Antony, Sea Tiger (the LTTE’s naval unit) chief Soosai and the coordinating army head and intelligence chief Pottu Amman will escape with him.

But the submarine escape plan is unlikely to be easy to implement.

The Sri Lankan navy is keeping a tight vigil along the northeastern coast from Trincomalee harbor in the east to Kankesanthurai on the Jaffna Peninsula using high-speed patrol boats and radars that can apparently detect even the slightest movement in the seas. Besides, there is aerial reconnaissance too. Getting past this will be difficult for the LTTE top brass.

Then there is the question of Prabhakaran’s health. The 54-year-old is believed to be leading his fighters in the ongoing battle against the Lankan forces. But he is hardly fighting fit. An insulin-dependent diabetic with a long-standing problem of hypertension and a host of other related complications, the Tiger chief is unlikely to survive the strain of an escape attempt by submarine.

In January, Sri Lanka army chief Sarath Fonseka said Prabhakaran might have already fled, perhaps to Southeast Asia. That triggered much speculation in the media of destinations that the LTTE chief might have escaped to. In recent weeks, army officials have said that Prabhakaran is very much on the island and in the thick of the battle.

It does seem that if Prabhakaran has not already escaped from Sri Lanka to take refuge in Malaysia, India or some other country with a large Tamil population, the Tiger chief’s chances of roaming free are rather remote.

In its physical description of Prabhakaran, Interpol describes him in its website as “very alert, known to use disguise and capable of handling sophisticated weaponry and explosives”. These skills have helped Prabhakaran elude the armed forces so far.

And luck too was on his side. Sri Lankan army officials admit that they missed capturing him “by a whisker” late last month.

Sri Lankan officials say that they are determined to capture Prabhakaran, dead or alive. Sinhalese nationalists and hardliners in the Sri Lankan establishment would love to see this happen. Prabhakaran in chains is a trophy that the Sri Lankan military and President Mahinda Rajapakse would want to flaunt. But it is likely that the armed forces will shoot him dead if they capture him alive. Apparently, sections in the government aren’t keen to put him through “long-winding, messy judicial processes”. They would simply like him “out of the way as soon as possible”, says a retired Sri Lankan intelligence official.

Although rumors of Prabhakaran negotiating a surrender deal with the government have been making the rounds over the past fortnight, it is highly unlikely that he will give himself up. He has ordered the killing of Tamil leaders who have compromised on the cause of Tamil Eelam, labeling them traitors. He cannot himself compromise on the issue now.

Like other Tiger fighters, Prabhakaran wears a cyanide capsule around his neck. He claims he will swallow it in the event of capture.

It is said that he has instructed his bodyguards to douse him with petrol and burn him in the event of his death or imminent capture so that his Sinhalese enemies cannot desecrate his body. There is the possibility too of the LTTE chief leading Tamils trapped in the “no-fire zone” in a mass suicide.

It is not just the Sri Lankan armed forces that are keeping their eyes open for the Tiger chief. Neighbor India, which is separated by a narrow strip of water from Sri Lanka, has been watching developments on the island closely. Whether Prabhakaran is captured dead or alive is an issue with serious implications for India.

Tamil nationalists in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been agitating for months, calling on the Indian government to intervene more forcefully to halt the war in Sri Lanka. They are of the view that Delhi’s support for Colombo is responsible for the military reverses of the LTTE and have warned that “rivers of blood will flow” in Tamil Nadu if any harm comes to Prabhakaran. If Prabhakaran were to die or be arrested and humiliated in any way, Tamil Nadu can be expected to explode.

Public support for Prabhakaran, which plunged after the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, has since revived over the past year. The plight of civilians trapped in the fighting has triggered an outpouring of sympathy for Sri Lankan Tamils and to some extent the LTTE.

India is in the midst of general elections and there is concern in the ruling United Progressive Alliance that Prabhakaran’s death or capture at this point will prove electorally disastrous for the Congress party and the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam, which have been walking the tightrope on the Sri Lankan issue.

But it is its impact beyond elections that India needs to worry about. Separatist sentiment in Tamil Nadu, which was contained in the 1960s, could get a fresh infusion of life.

Prabhakaran captured alive too is a headache for Delhi. The LTTE chief is wanted in India for his role in the assassination of Rajiv. The LTTE has been a banned organization in India since 1992. If Prabhakaran is captured alive, India would have to ask Sri Lanka for his extradition.

Prabhakaran in an Indian jail would only fuel Tamil secessionist sentiment in India. Therefore, say Indian officials, they would prefer Prabhakaran dead rather than captured, but dead by his own hands.

There was a time in the mid-1980s when the Indian government did not want Prabhakaran dead. They believed that the Sri Lankan government could be forced to provide a reasonable political solution only if Prabhakaran was alive. While that logic still holds good, Delhi recognizes that Prabhakaran is the main obstacle to Tamils seeking a negotiated settlement. It also feels that it can deal with a LTTE minus Prabhakaran, something it cannot do at present, given his wanted status in India.

Given the multiple problems that Prabhakaran – dead or alive – poses, it does seem India would prefer to see the LTTE chief escape to some faraway country.

Would Indian intelligence agencies help him get away? Indian intelligence officials rule out this option vehemently.

“But considering that Indian intelligence agencies had close links with the LTTE in the past, this cannot be completely ruled out,” writes Seema Guha in the Daily News & Analyses, drawing attention to instances when the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in Sri Lanka had cornered Prabhakaran but had to let him go because the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, was engaging the LTTE.

“Giving Prabhakaran an escape route will solve many a problem,” she argues. “Prabhakaran will be out of harm’s way and will be effectively reduced to a has-been. And he will be in no position to come and fight another day.”

India extending a helping hand to Prabhakaran can be ruled out. Whatever its links with him in the past, the equation has changed completely now. “India would not want to bail out a person tagged with a terrorist label by several countries at a time when it is accusing Pakistan of sponsoring terrorists targeting India,” a RAW official told Asia Times Online.

As for Prabhakaran, even if help were offered by India, he would be unlikely to accept it. His suspicion of India’s intentions vis-a-vis the Tamil militancy and the LTTE has a long history. He has never trusted India, he is unlikely to leave his fate in India’s hands now.

Should we worried about this ’swine flu’ outbreak?

By M H Ahssan

What is a swine flu?
Like humans, pigs get the flu. They develop a sudden fever, a barking cough, sneezing, lethargy and typically lose their appetite.

Humans can catch a swine flu usually when people have direct contact with pigs; historically, there’s such a case every year or two in the U.S.

What is this swine flu outbreak?
The virus responsible for this outbreak is a subtype of Influenza A/H1N1 that has never been detected in swine or humans.

The new virus appears to be made up of four different flu viruses: North American swine influenza; a swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe; human influenza A; and a North American avian influenza. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Dr. Anne Schuchat calls it “an unusually mongrelized mix of genetic sequences.”

What makes this new virus worrisome is how easily it appears to be able to pass from person to person. With cases popping up across the globe every day, how far this virus has already spread has yet to be fully assessed.

Why are we calling this outbreak ’swine flu’?
Technically, this influenza virus is no longer a swine flu. This new strain does not appear to be infecting pigs; it’s infecting humans.

The CDC was the first to use the term “swine flu” to describe this virus after initial analysis suggested the virus had many of the characteristics of a wine flu. Further tests revealed it also contained genetic material from a human flu virus and avian flu virus.

How did this new strain develop?
No one yet knows. That investigation could took a long time and the answer might never be found.

Even though this new strain of influenza A H1N1 contains some elements of swine influenza virus, it may not have started in pigs. It could as well have been bred in birds or even another mammal.

Whatever the origin of the current outbreak, it is likely the “swine flu” name is going to stick.

Why is a new strain worrisome?
If an influenza virus changes and becomes a new strain against which people have little or no immunity — and if this new strain can easily spread from person to person and cause severe illness in a high percentage of people that it infects — the seeds would be sown for a pandemic that could sicken and kill many people around the world.

Epidemiologists have been warning for years that it’s just a matter of time before a new strain of the flu emerges that has the potential to kill millions. Flu pandemics have historically occurred about three times per century and the world hasn’t seen one in more than 40 years.

The World Health Organization estimates that in the best case scenario, the next pandemic could kill two to seven million people and send tens of millions to hospital.

Do we have a pandemic strain of influenza virus here?
We’re not yet sure. It’s clear the virus can spread easily from person to person. But its virulence is being debated.

The good news is that so far, the number of deaths from this virus is relatively low. In countries where the virus is just being found, such as Canada, it’s causing such mild illness, it’s running its course in two to three days, in some cases without treatment.

Is there a vaccine?
There is no vaccine as the genetic makeup of this virus is still being analyzed. The CDC has not announced that they’re developing a vaccine. But if they do, it would likely take weeks if not months before it were widely available.

For swine influenzas that affect pigs, there is a vaccine available that can be given to pigs; there is no vaccine to protect humans from swine flu.

I got the flu shot this year. Am I protected?
Not likely. This is a virus that has never been seen before; therefore, vaccines for human flu would not provide adequate protection from the swine flu material contained in this virus. It may offer some protection though against the human flu genetic elements.

Can people catch swine flu from eating pork?
No. Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food; you cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products.

What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?
Symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of our regular flu, with sudden onset of:
- fever
- lethargy
- lack of appetite
- coughing

Some people with swine flu have also reported:
- runny nose
- sore throat
- nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

How is the virus transmitted?
Human-to-human transmission of swine flu is believed to occur the same way as seasonal flu, mainly through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus.

People also can become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

How can I protect myself from this virus?
Since influenza spreads through spit and spray as well as contact with contaminated surfaces, the usual good personal hygiene habits are the best defence.

Wash your hands repeatedly through the day with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Avoid touching you mouth, nose or eyes with your hands unless they’ve been washed. When coughing, cough into a tissue and throw it in the garbage. If you cough into your hand, wash your hands immediately. Sanitize surfaces that may have come into contact with the virus.

With human flu, the virus is most contagious between the second and third days after infection, but the virus is still contagious for about 10 days.

Can we treat swine flu in humans?
Yes. Most of the infections have been treated successfully, though there have been deaths in Mexico. In most cases, patients with this swine flu have recovered on their own. In those who have had to be hospitalized, this virus has been treated with antiviral medications.

The virus appears to be resistant to amantadine and rimantadine but has been susceptible to zanamivir and oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

Have there been swine flu outbreaks before?
Yes. Most famously, there was an outbreak in 1976 at Fort Dix, N.J., among military recruits that grabbed big headlines at the time.

Worried that they had the beginning of a pandemic on their hands, U.S. officials ordered the manufacture of swine flu vaccine and the country launched a mass immunization program that saw about 40 million people vaccinated.

But the outbreak didn’t turn into a pandemic and went away as mysteriously as it appeared.

Should we worried about this ’swine flu’ outbreak?

By M H Ahssan

What is a swine flu?
Like humans, pigs get the flu. They develop a sudden fever, a barking cough, sneezing, lethargy and typically lose their appetite.

Humans can catch a swine flu usually when people have direct contact with pigs; historically, there’s such a case every year or two in the U.S.

What is this swine flu outbreak?
The virus responsible for this outbreak is a subtype of Influenza A/H1N1 that has never been detected in swine or humans.

The new virus appears to be made up of four different flu viruses: North American swine influenza; a swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe; human influenza A; and a North American avian influenza. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Dr. Anne Schuchat calls it “an unusually mongrelized mix of genetic sequences.”

What makes this new virus worrisome is how easily it appears to be able to pass from person to person. With cases popping up across the globe every day, how far this virus has already spread has yet to be fully assessed.

Why are we calling this outbreak ’swine flu’?
Technically, this influenza virus is no longer a swine flu. This new strain does not appear to be infecting pigs; it’s infecting humans.

The CDC was the first to use the term “swine flu” to describe this virus after initial analysis suggested the virus had many of the characteristics of a wine flu. Further tests revealed it also contained genetic material from a human flu virus and avian flu virus.

How did this new strain develop?
No one yet knows. That investigation could took a long time and the answer might never be found.

Even though this new strain of influenza A H1N1 contains some elements of swine influenza virus, it may not have started in pigs. It could as well have been bred in birds or even another mammal.

Whatever the origin of the current outbreak, it is likely the “swine flu” name is going to stick.

Why is a new strain worrisome?
If an influenza virus changes and becomes a new strain against which people have little or no immunity — and if this new strain can easily spread from person to person and cause severe illness in a high percentage of people that it infects — the seeds would be sown for a pandemic that could sicken and kill many people around the world.

Epidemiologists have been warning for years that it’s just a matter of time before a new strain of the flu emerges that has the potential to kill millions. Flu pandemics have historically occurred about three times per century and the world hasn’t seen one in more than 40 years.

The World Health Organization estimates that in the best case scenario, the next pandemic could kill two to seven million people and send tens of millions to hospital.

Do we have a pandemic strain of influenza virus here?
We’re not yet sure. It’s clear the virus can spread easily from person to person. But its virulence is being debated.

The good news is that so far, the number of deaths from this virus is relatively low. In countries where the virus is just being found, such as Canada, it’s causing such mild illness, it’s running its course in two to three days, in some cases without treatment.

Is there a vaccine?
There is no vaccine as the genetic makeup of this virus is still being analyzed. The CDC has not announced that they’re developing a vaccine. But if they do, it would likely take weeks if not months before it were widely available.

For swine influenzas that affect pigs, there is a vaccine available that can be given to pigs; there is no vaccine to protect humans from swine flu.

I got the flu shot this year. Am I protected?
Not likely. This is a virus that has never been seen before; therefore, vaccines for human flu would not provide adequate protection from the swine flu material contained in this virus. It may offer some protection though against the human flu genetic elements.

Can people catch swine flu from eating pork?
No. Swine influenza viruses are not transmitted by food; you cannot get swine influenza from eating pork or pork products.

What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans?
Symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of our regular flu, with sudden onset of:
- fever
- lethargy
- lack of appetite
- coughing

Some people with swine flu have also reported:
- runny nose
- sore throat
- nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

How is the virus transmitted?
Human-to-human transmission of swine flu is believed to occur the same way as seasonal flu, mainly through coughing or sneezing of people infected with the influenza virus.

People also can become infected by touching something with flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

How can I protect myself from this virus?
Since influenza spreads through spit and spray as well as contact with contaminated surfaces, the usual good personal hygiene habits are the best defence.

Wash your hands repeatedly through the day with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Avoid touching you mouth, nose or eyes with your hands unless they’ve been washed. When coughing, cough into a tissue and throw it in the garbage. If you cough into your hand, wash your hands immediately. Sanitize surfaces that may have come into contact with the virus.

With human flu, the virus is most contagious between the second and third days after infection, but the virus is still contagious for about 10 days.

Can we treat swine flu in humans?
Yes. Most of the infections have been treated successfully, though there have been deaths in Mexico. In most cases, patients with this swine flu have recovered on their own. In those who have had to be hospitalized, this virus has been treated with antiviral medications.

The virus appears to be resistant to amantadine and rimantadine but has been susceptible to zanamivir and oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

Have there been swine flu outbreaks before?
Yes. Most famously, there was an outbreak in 1976 at Fort Dix, N.J., among military recruits that grabbed big headlines at the time.

Worried that they had the beginning of a pandemic on their hands, U.S. officials ordered the manufacture of swine flu vaccine and the country launched a mass immunization program that saw about 40 million people vaccinated.

But the outbreak didn’t turn into a pandemic and went away as mysteriously as it appeared.

‘SWINE INFLUENZA VIRUS’ ON PROWL

By Sarah Williams & M H Ahssan

A new strain of influenza is infecting people in Mexico and the United States and may have killed up to 60 people in Mexico, global health officials said today.

The authorities has analyzed samples of the H1N1 virus from some of the U.S. patients, all of whom have recovered, and said it is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses from swine, birds and humans.

Here are some facts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about how swine flu spreads in humans:

• Swine flu viruses typically sicken pigs, not humans. Most cases occur when people come in contact with infected pigs or contaminated objects moving from people to pigs.

• Pigs can catch human and avian or bird flu. When flu viruses from different species infect pigs, they can mix inside the pig and new, mixed viruses can emerge.

• Pigs can pass mutated viruses back to humans and they can be passed from human to human. Transmission among humans is thought to occur in the same way as seasonal flu – by touching something with flu viruses and then touching their mouth or nose, and through coughing or sneezing.

• Symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to those of seasonal influenza – sudden fever, coughing, muscle aches and extreme fatigue. This new strain also appears to cause more diarrhea and vomiting than normal flu.

• Vaccines are available to be given to pigs to prevent swine influenza. There is no vaccine to protect humans from swine flu although the CDC is formulating one. The seasonal influenza vaccine may help provide partial protection against swine H3N2, but not swine H1N1 viruses, like the one circulating now.

• People cannot catch swine flu from eating pork or pork products. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans, however, human infections with swine flu do occur, and cases of human-to-human spread of swine flu viruses has been documented.

Swine influenza virus : (referred to as SIV) refers to influenza cases that are caused by Orthomyxoviruses endemic to pig populations. SIV strains isolated to date have been classified either as Influenzavirus C or one of the various subtypes of the genus Influenzavirus A.

Swine flu infects people every year and is found typically in people who have been in contact with pigs, although there have been cases of person-to-person transmission. Symptoms include fever, disorientation, stiffness of the joints, vomiting, and loss of consciousness ending in death. Swine influenza is known to be caused by influenza A subtypes H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3.

In swine, three influenza A virus subtypes (H1N1, H3N2, and H1N2) are circulating throughout the world. In the United States, the H1N1 subtype was exclusively prevalent among swine populations before 1998; however, since late August 1998, H3N2 subtypes have been isolated from pigs. As of 2004, H3N2 virus isolates in US swine and turkey stocks were triple reassortants, containing genes from human (HA, NA, and PB1), swine (NS, NP, and M), and avian (PB2 and PA) lineages.

Avian influenza virus H3N2 is endemic in pigs in China and has been detected in pigs in Vietnam, increasing fears of the emergence of new variant strains. Health experts[who?] say pigs can carry human influenza viruses, which can combine (i.e. exchange homologous genome sub-units by genetic reassortment) with H5N1, passing genes and mutating into a form which can pass easily among humans. H3N2 evolved from H2N2 by antigenic shift. In August 2004, researchers in China found H5N1 in pigs. Measured resistance to the standard antiviral drugs amantadine and rimantadine in H3N2 in humans has increased to 92% in 2005.

Chairul Nidom, a virologist at Airlangga University’s tropical disease center in Surabaya, East Java, conducted an independent research; he tested the blood of 10 apparently healthy pigs housed near poultry farms in West Java where avian flu had broken out, Nature reported. Five of the pig samples contained the H5N1 virus. The Indonesian government has since found similar results in the same region. Additional tests of 150 pigs outside the area were negative.

Swine in Human
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the symptoms and transmission of the swine flu from human to human is much like seasonal flu, commonly fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It is believed to be spread between humans through coughing or sneezing of infected people and touching something with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth. The swine flu in humans is most contagious during the first five days of the illness although some people, most commonly children, can remain contagious for up to ten days. Diagnosis can be made by sending a specimen, collected during the first five days, to the CDC for analysis.

The swine flu is susceptible to four drugs licensed in the United States, amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir, however, for the 2009 outbreak it is recommended it be treated with oseltamivir and zanamivir. The vaccine for the human seasonal H1N1 flu does not protect against the swine H1N1 flu, even if the virus strains are the same specific variety, as they are antigenically very different.

1976 U.S. outbreak
On February 5, 1976, an army recruit at Fort Dix said he felt tired and weak. He died the next day and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death and that this strain of flu appeared to be closely related to the strain involved in the 1918 flu pandemic. Alarmed public-health officials decided that action must be taken to head off another major pandemic, and they urged President Gerald Ford that every person in the U.S. be vaccinated for the disease. The vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, but about 24% of the population had been vaccinated by the time the program was canceled.

About 500 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, resulting in death from severe pulmonary complications for 25 people, were probably caused by an immunopathological reaction to the 1976 vaccine. Other influenza vaccines have not been linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome, though caution is advised for certain individuals, particularly those with a history of GBS.

2007 Philippine outbreak
On August 20, 2007 Department of Agriculture officers investigated the outbreak of swine flu in Nueva Ecija and Central Luzon, Philippines. The mortality rate is less than 10% for swine flu, if there are no complications like hog cholera. On July 27, 2007, the Philippine National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) raised a hog cholera “red alert” warning over Metro Manila and 5 regions of Luzon after the disease spread to backyard pig farms in Bulacan and Pampanga, even if these tested negative for the swine flu virus.

2009 swine flu outbreak
In March and April 2009, more than 1,000 cases of swine flu in humans were detected in Mexico, and more than 80 deaths are suspected to have a connection with the virus. The Mexican fatalities are said to be mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu. Following a series of reports of isolated cases of swine flu, the first announcement of the outbreak in Mexico was documented on April 23, 2009.

The origins of the new Swine Influenza Virus SIV-H1N1 strain remain unknown. One theory is that Asian and European strains traveled to Mexico in migratory birds or in people, then combined with North American strains in Mexican pig factory farms before jumping over to farm workers. The Mexican health agency acknowledged that the original disease vector of the virus may have been flies multiplying in manure lagoons of pig farms near Perote, Veracruz, owned by Granjas Carroll, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods.

Some of the cases have been confirmed by the World Health Organization to be due to a new genetic strain of H1N1. The new H1N1 strain has been confirmed in 16 of the deaths and 44 others are being tested as of April 24, 2009.

As of April 25, 2009 19:30 EDT there are 11 laboratory confirmed cases in the southwestern United States and in Kansas, and several suspected cases in the New York City metropolitan area.

A variant of H1N1 was responsible for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide from 1918 to 1919.

The seasonal flu tends to kill just a fraction of 1% of those infected. In Mexico, about 71 deaths out of roughly 1,000 cases represents a fatality rate of about 7.1%. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, had a fatality rate of about 2.5%.

Statistical projections for this virus pathology based upon the same infection rate as the Spanish flu pandemic and current fatality rate, indicates that as many as 284 million deaths could occur worldwide as a result of the genesis of this new Swine Influenza Virus SIV-H1N1 strain.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, the New Zealand Minister of Health confirmed that 22 students returning from a school trip from Mexico had flu-like symptoms (most likely swine flu). 13 of the students with flu-like symptoms were tested and 10 tested positive for Influenza A, their cases strongly suspected to be the swine flu strain. However there is a possibility that the infected are not infected with the swine flu but other forms of the flu. The government has suggested that citizens of New Zealand with flu-like symptoms should see their physician immediately.

There have been five cases of possible swine flu in Canada, according to the Canadian Press. Two are in British Columbia, and three in Nova Scotia. According to the provincial government, four students in Windsor, Nova Scotia have confirmed cases of swine flu.

The new strain appears to be a recombinant between two older strains. Preliminary genetic characterization found that the hemagglutinin (HA) gene was similar to that of swine flu viruses present in U.S. pigs since 1999, but the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix protein (M) genes resembled versions present in European swine flu isolates. Viruses with this genetic makeup had not previously been found to be circulating in humans or pigs, but there is no formal national surveillance system to determine what viruses are circulating in pigs in the U.S.

On April 26, 2009, some schools in the United States announced closures and cancellations related to possibilities that students may have been exposed to swine flu.

According to University of Virginia virologist Frederick Hayden, the most recent flu season was dominated by H1N1 viruses, and people who had received flu shots in the U.S. may have some protection against swine flu.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seasonal influenza strain H1N1 vaccine is thought to be unlikely to provide protection against the new Swine Influenza Virus SIV-H1N1 strain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus has been detected in multiple areas, indicating that containment is unlikely. This is exacerbated by the incubation and infectious periods of influenza.

Veterinary swine flu vaccine
Swine influenza has become a greater problem in recent decades as the evolution of the virus has resulted in inconsistent responses to traditional vaccines. Standard commercial swine flu vaccines are effective in controlling the infection when the virus strains match enough to have significant cross-protection, and custom (autogenous) vaccines made from the specific viruses isolated are created and used in the more difficult cases.

Present vaccination strategies for SIV control and prevention in swine farms, typically include the use of one of several bivalent SIV vaccines commercially available in the United States. Of the 97 recent H3N2 isolates examined, only 41 isolates had strong serologic cross-reactions with antiserum to three commercial SIV vaccines. Since the protective ability of influenza vaccines depends primarily on the closeness of the match between the vaccine virus and the epidemic virus, the presence of nonreactive H3N2 SIV variants suggests that current commercial vaccines might not effectively protect pigs from infection with a majority of H3N2 viruses.

The current vaccine against the seasonal influenza strain H1N1 is thought unlikely to provide protection. The director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said that the United States’ cases were found to be made up of genetic elements from four different flu viruses—North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza A virus subtype H1N1, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe. On two cases, a complete genome sequence had been obtained. She said that the virus is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, but susceptible to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).

‘SWINE INFLUENZA VIRUS’ ON PROWL

By Sarah Williams & M H Ahssan

A new strain of influenza is infecting people in Mexico and the United States and may have killed up to 60 people in Mexico, global health officials said today.

The authorities has analyzed samples of the H1N1 virus from some of the U.S. patients, all of whom have recovered, and said it is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses from swine, birds and humans.

Here are some facts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about how swine flu spreads in humans:

• Swine flu viruses typically sicken pigs, not humans. Most cases occur when people come in contact with infected pigs or contaminated objects moving from people to pigs.

• Pigs can catch human and avian or bird flu. When flu viruses from different species infect pigs, they can mix inside the pig and new, mixed viruses can emerge.

• Pigs can pass mutated viruses back to humans and they can be passed from human to human. Transmission among humans is thought to occur in the same way as seasonal flu – by touching something with flu viruses and then touching their mouth or nose, and through coughing or sneezing.

• Symptoms of swine flu in people are similar to those of seasonal influenza – sudden fever, coughing, muscle aches and extreme fatigue. This new strain also appears to cause more diarrhea and vomiting than normal flu.

• Vaccines are available to be given to pigs to prevent swine influenza. There is no vaccine to protect humans from swine flu although the CDC is formulating one. The seasonal influenza vaccine may help provide partial protection against swine H3N2, but not swine H1N1 viruses, like the one circulating now.

• People cannot catch swine flu from eating pork or pork products. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills the swine flu virus as it does other bacteria and viruses.

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza that regularly cause outbreaks of influenza among pigs. Swine flu viruses do not normally infect humans, however, human infections with swine flu do occur, and cases of human-to-human spread of swine flu viruses has been documented.

Swine influenza virus : (referred to as SIV) refers to influenza cases that are caused by Orthomyxoviruses endemic to pig populations. SIV strains isolated to date have been classified either as Influenzavirus C or one of the various subtypes of the genus Influenzavirus A.

Swine flu infects people every year and is found typically in people who have been in contact with pigs, although there have been cases of person-to-person transmission. Symptoms include fever, disorientation, stiffness of the joints, vomiting, and loss of consciousness ending in death. Swine influenza is known to be caused by influenza A subtypes H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3.

In swine, three influenza A virus subtypes (H1N1, H3N2, and H1N2) are circulating throughout the world. In the United States, the H1N1 subtype was exclusively prevalent among swine populations before 1998; however, since late August 1998, H3N2 subtypes have been isolated from pigs. As of 2004, H3N2 virus isolates in US swine and turkey stocks were triple reassortants, containing genes from human (HA, NA, and PB1), swine (NS, NP, and M), and avian (PB2 and PA) lineages.

Avian influenza virus H3N2 is endemic in pigs in China and has been detected in pigs in Vietnam, increasing fears of the emergence of new variant strains. Health experts[who?] say pigs can carry human influenza viruses, which can combine (i.e. exchange homologous genome sub-units by genetic reassortment) with H5N1, passing genes and mutating into a form which can pass easily among humans. H3N2 evolved from H2N2 by antigenic shift. In August 2004, researchers in China found H5N1 in pigs. Measured resistance to the standard antiviral drugs amantadine and rimantadine in H3N2 in humans has increased to 92% in 2005.

Chairul Nidom, a virologist at Airlangga University’s tropical disease center in Surabaya, East Java, conducted an independent research; he tested the blood of 10 apparently healthy pigs housed near poultry farms in West Java where avian flu had broken out, Nature reported. Five of the pig samples contained the H5N1 virus. The Indonesian government has since found similar results in the same region. Additional tests of 150 pigs outside the area were negative.

Swine in Human
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the symptoms and transmission of the swine flu from human to human is much like seasonal flu, commonly fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It is believed to be spread between humans through coughing or sneezing of infected people and touching something with the virus on it and then touching their own nose or mouth. The swine flu in humans is most contagious during the first five days of the illness although some people, most commonly children, can remain contagious for up to ten days. Diagnosis can be made by sending a specimen, collected during the first five days, to the CDC for analysis.

The swine flu is susceptible to four drugs licensed in the United States, amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir, however, for the 2009 outbreak it is recommended it be treated with oseltamivir and zanamivir. The vaccine for the human seasonal H1N1 flu does not protect against the swine H1N1 flu, even if the virus strains are the same specific variety, as they are antigenically very different.

1976 U.S. outbreak
On February 5, 1976, an army recruit at Fort Dix said he felt tired and weak. He died the next day and four of his fellow soldiers were later hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death and that this strain of flu appeared to be closely related to the strain involved in the 1918 flu pandemic. Alarmed public-health officials decided that action must be taken to head off another major pandemic, and they urged President Gerald Ford that every person in the U.S. be vaccinated for the disease. The vaccination program was plagued by delays and public relations problems, but about 24% of the population had been vaccinated by the time the program was canceled.

About 500 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, resulting in death from severe pulmonary complications for 25 people, were probably caused by an immunopathological reaction to the 1976 vaccine. Other influenza vaccines have not been linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome, though caution is advised for certain individuals, particularly those with a history of GBS.

2007 Philippine outbreak
On August 20, 2007 Department of Agriculture officers investigated the outbreak of swine flu in Nueva Ecija and Central Luzon, Philippines. The mortality rate is less than 10% for swine flu, if there are no complications like hog cholera. On July 27, 2007, the Philippine National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) raised a hog cholera “red alert” warning over Metro Manila and 5 regions of Luzon after the disease spread to backyard pig farms in Bulacan and Pampanga, even if these tested negative for the swine flu virus.

2009 swine flu outbreak
In March and April 2009, more than 1,000 cases of swine flu in humans were detected in Mexico, and more than 80 deaths are suspected to have a connection with the virus. The Mexican fatalities are said to be mainly young adults, a hallmark of pandemic flu. Following a series of reports of isolated cases of swine flu, the first announcement of the outbreak in Mexico was documented on April 23, 2009.

The origins of the new Swine Influenza Virus SIV-H1N1 strain remain unknown. One theory is that Asian and European strains traveled to Mexico in migratory birds or in people, then combined with North American strains in Mexican pig factory farms before jumping over to farm workers. The Mexican health agency acknowledged that the original disease vector of the virus may have been flies multiplying in manure lagoons of pig farms near Perote, Veracruz, owned by Granjas Carroll, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods.

Some of the cases have been confirmed by the World Health Organization to be due to a new genetic strain of H1N1. The new H1N1 strain has been confirmed in 16 of the deaths and 44 others are being tested as of April 24, 2009.

As of April 25, 2009 19:30 EDT there are 11 laboratory confirmed cases in the southwestern United States and in Kansas, and several suspected cases in the New York City metropolitan area.

A variant of H1N1 was responsible for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide from 1918 to 1919.

The seasonal flu tends to kill just a fraction of 1% of those infected. In Mexico, about 71 deaths out of roughly 1,000 cases represents a fatality rate of about 7.1%. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, had a fatality rate of about 2.5%.

Statistical projections for this virus pathology based upon the same infection rate as the Spanish flu pandemic and current fatality rate, indicates that as many as 284 million deaths could occur worldwide as a result of the genesis of this new Swine Influenza Virus SIV-H1N1 strain.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 26, the New Zealand Minister of Health confirmed that 22 students returning from a school trip from Mexico had flu-like symptoms (most likely swine flu). 13 of the students with flu-like symptoms were tested and 10 tested positive for Influenza A, their cases strongly suspected to be the swine flu strain. However there is a possibility that the infected are not infected with the swine flu but other forms of the flu. The government has suggested that citizens of New Zealand with flu-like symptoms should see their physician immediately.

There have been five cases of possible swine flu in Canada, according to the Canadian Press. Two are in British Columbia, and three in Nova Scotia. According to the provincial government, four students in Windsor, Nova Scotia have confirmed cases of swine flu.

The new strain appears to be a recombinant between two older strains. Preliminary genetic characterization found that the hemagglutinin (HA) gene was similar to that of swine flu viruses present in U.S. pigs since 1999, but the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix protein (M) genes resembled versions present in European swine flu isolates. Viruses with this genetic makeup had not previously been found to be circulating in humans or pigs, but there is no formal national surveillance system to determine what viruses are circulating in pigs in the U.S.

On April 26, 2009, some schools in the United States announced closures and cancellations related to possibilities that students may have been exposed to swine flu.

According to University of Virginia virologist Frederick Hayden, the most recent flu season was dominated by H1N1 viruses, and people who had received flu shots in the U.S. may have some protection against swine flu.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seasonal influenza strain H1N1 vaccine is thought to be unlikely to provide protection against the new Swine Influenza Virus SIV-H1N1 strain.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus has been detected in multiple areas, indicating that containment is unlikely. This is exacerbated by the incubation and infectious periods of influenza.

Veterinary swine flu vaccine
Swine influenza has become a greater problem in recent decades as the evolution of the virus has resulted in inconsistent responses to traditional vaccines. Standard commercial swine flu vaccines are effective in controlling the infection when the virus strains match enough to have significant cross-protection, and custom (autogenous) vaccines made from the specific viruses isolated are created and used in the more difficult cases.

Present vaccination strategies for SIV control and prevention in swine farms, typically include the use of one of several bivalent SIV vaccines commercially available in the United States. Of the 97 recent H3N2 isolates examined, only 41 isolates had strong serologic cross-reactions with antiserum to three commercial SIV vaccines. Since the protective ability of influenza vaccines depends primarily on the closeness of the match between the vaccine virus and the epidemic virus, the presence of nonreactive H3N2 SIV variants suggests that current commercial vaccines might not effectively protect pigs from infection with a majority of H3N2 viruses.

The current vaccine against the seasonal influenza strain H1N1 is thought unlikely to provide protection. The director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said that the United States’ cases were found to be made up of genetic elements from four different flu viruses—North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza A virus subtype H1N1, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe. On two cases, a complete genome sequence had been obtained. She said that the virus is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, but susceptible to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).

Want ot be ‘Broadcast Journalist’?

By M H Ahssan

Broadcast Journalism is the collection, verification and analysis of information about events which affect people, and the publication of that information in a fair, accurate, impartial and balanced way to fulfil the public’s right to know in a democratic society. This involves a variety of media including television, radio, the internet and wireless devices. Broadcast Journalists working in television work in a variety of genres including news, current affairs, or documentaries. They may be employed by broadcasting companies, or work on a freelance basis.

The role of a Broadcast Journalist is to turn information into pictures and sound, both reporting and producing live and/or recorded packages as well as researching, preparing and reading bulletins. You will be responsible for generating content from a wide range of subjects. You will be encouraging new contributors and developing their ideas as well as your own. You are likely to be working as part of a team, generating your own stories and bringing on board new ideas.

You will be initiating and producing a wide range of news and current affairs material and will be expected to carry out in-depth research to a broad brief, write material for programme scripts, bulletins etc and at all times exercise excellent editorial judgement and adhere to legal and good practice guidelines.

You may carry out interviews and reporting duties, in both recorded and live situations, in a studio or perhaps on location. You can expect to be involved in originating and developing programme ideas to support forward planning of material and future programmes and provide briefings for reporters, camera crews and other resources staff and contributors.

You will need to operate broadcast equipment: in radio, portable recording equipment, self-operating outside broadcasting vehicles and studio equipment in television, to direct camera crews on pre-recorded and live coverage, to oversee editing and operate gallery equipment.

You may be responsible for programme budgets, ensuring effective use of money and resources, supervise the work of Broadcast Assistants and most certainly, as a Broadcast Journalist you would need to develop and maintain local and perhaps national contacts and fulfil a public relations role.

Qualities: What you need to be able to do the job
You will need to be an experienced journalist with strong editorial judgement and organisational skills, with a first class news awareness and judgement. You must be able to work as part of a team and you will also be able to work with minimal supervision, be brimming with ideas, and a creative self-starter. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are a must, including skills and style when it comes to interviewing.

One of the key qualities is a voice for broadcasting, together with knowledge of radio production techniques and broadcast equipment.
Of course, a passion for radio, current affairs and a real grasp of the subjects that interest audiences are a must.

Key Skills include:
- excellent verbal and written communication;
- ability to work under pressure, to tight deadlines;
- excellent interviewing and listening techniques;
- excellent content editing skills with basic picture and sound editing abilities;
- precise attention to detail and advanced analytical skills;
- excellent organisational abilities, initiative and problem solving skills;
- ability to see the broader picture and focus in on any niche angle the programme requires;
- self management abilities combined with effective team working, and self-discipline skills;
- diplomacy and sensitivity when working with members of the public and colleagues;
- personality, and excellent interpersonal skills at all levels;
- ability to build a rapport with interviewees without losing objectivity;
- current knowledge of the relevant legislation, regulations, and associated procedures, including Libel and Contempt, Copyright, Data Protection, Public Liability, etc., and how to comply with regulatory requirements;
- knowledge of the requirements of the relevant Health and Safety legislation and procedures;

Career path: How you start and where you can go with it.
Broadcast Journalists should have successfully completed a BJTC accredited Undergraduate degree, a Postgraduate Diploma or MA in Broadcast, Bi-Media, Multi-Media, TV or Online Journalism. IT and word processing qualifications are also required.

Broadcast Journalists may begin their careers working as Researchers or Newsroom Assistants, progressing to become On Screen Reporters, Special Correspondents, News Presenters, and Bulletin or Programme Editors. They may also move into Programme Production or Management roles, or become Journalists, Newspaper Reporters or Writers. Some Broadcast Journalists may also start their careers working as Newspaper or other Print Press Journalists.

As a Broadcasting Journalist, jobs are available across a range of functions, requiring different skills, knowledge and experience. Initially, a recognised journalistic qualification or substantial practical experience in journalism (say 3 years plus) is a starting point. A special interest, for example in sport, entertainment, fashion, health, arts etc, with a good all round knowledge of current affairs would also support your career as a Broadcast Journalist.

Want ot be ‘Broadcast Journalist’?

By M H Ahssan

Broadcast Journalism is the collection, verification and analysis of information about events which affect people, and the publication of that information in a fair, accurate, impartial and balanced way to fulfil the public’s right to know in a democratic society. This involves a variety of media including television, radio, the internet and wireless devices. Broadcast Journalists working in television work in a variety of genres including news, current affairs, or documentaries. They may be employed by broadcasting companies, or work on a freelance basis.

The role of a Broadcast Journalist is to turn information into pictures and sound, both reporting and producing live and/or recorded packages as well as researching, preparing and reading bulletins. You will be responsible for generating content from a wide range of subjects. You will be encouraging new contributors and developing their ideas as well as your own. You are likely to be working as part of a team, generating your own stories and bringing on board new ideas.

You will be initiating and producing a wide range of news and current affairs material and will be expected to carry out in-depth research to a broad brief, write material for programme scripts, bulletins etc and at all times exercise excellent editorial judgement and adhere to legal and good practice guidelines.

You may carry out interviews and reporting duties, in both recorded and live situations, in a studio or perhaps on location. You can expect to be involved in originating and developing programme ideas to support forward planning of material and future programmes and provide briefings for reporters, camera crews and other resources staff and contributors.

You will need to operate broadcast equipment: in radio, portable recording equipment, self-operating outside broadcasting vehicles and studio equipment in television, to direct camera crews on pre-recorded and live coverage, to oversee editing and operate gallery equipment.

You may be responsible for programme budgets, ensuring effective use of money and resources, supervise the work of Broadcast Assistants and most certainly, as a Broadcast Journalist you would need to develop and maintain local and perhaps national contacts and fulfil a public relations role.

Qualities: What you need to be able to do the job
You will need to be an experienced journalist with strong editorial judgement and organisational skills, with a first class news awareness and judgement. You must be able to work as part of a team and you will also be able to work with minimal supervision, be brimming with ideas, and a creative self-starter. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are a must, including skills and style when it comes to interviewing.

One of the key qualities is a voice for broadcasting, together with knowledge of radio production techniques and broadcast equipment.
Of course, a passion for radio, current affairs and a real grasp of the subjects that interest audiences are a must.

Key Skills include:
- excellent verbal and written communication;
- ability to work under pressure, to tight deadlines;
- excellent interviewing and listening techniques;
- excellent content editing skills with basic picture and sound editing abilities;
- precise attention to detail and advanced analytical skills;
- excellent organisational abilities, initiative and problem solving skills;
- ability to see the broader picture and focus in on any niche angle the programme requires;
- self management abilities combined with effective team working, and self-discipline skills;
- diplomacy and sensitivity when working with members of the public and colleagues;
- personality, and excellent interpersonal skills at all levels;
- ability to build a rapport with interviewees without losing objectivity;
- current knowledge of the relevant legislation, regulations, and associated procedures, including Libel and Contempt, Copyright, Data Protection, Public Liability, etc., and how to comply with regulatory requirements;
- knowledge of the requirements of the relevant Health and Safety legislation and procedures;

Career path: How you start and where you can go with it.
Broadcast Journalists should have successfully completed a BJTC accredited Undergraduate degree, a Postgraduate Diploma or MA in Broadcast, Bi-Media, Multi-Media, TV or Online Journalism. IT and word processing qualifications are also required.

Broadcast Journalists may begin their careers working as Researchers or Newsroom Assistants, progressing to become On Screen Reporters, Special Correspondents, News Presenters, and Bulletin or Programme Editors. They may also move into Programme Production or Management roles, or become Journalists, Newspaper Reporters or Writers. Some Broadcast Journalists may also start their careers working as Newspaper or other Print Press Journalists.

As a Broadcasting Journalist, jobs are available across a range of functions, requiring different skills, knowledge and experience. Initially, a recognised journalistic qualification or substantial practical experience in journalism (say 3 years plus) is a starting point. A special interest, for example in sport, entertainment, fashion, health, arts etc, with a good all round knowledge of current affairs would also support your career as a Broadcast Journalist.

Revealing the Real Risks: Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality

By Aeman Nishath

Recently, a woman in Iowa was referred to a university hospital during childbirth because of possible complications. At the university hospital it was decided that a cesarean section should be done. After the cesarean section was completed and the woman was resting in her hospital room, she went into shock and died. An autopsy showed that, during the cesarean section, the surgeon had accidentally nicked the woman’s aorta, the biggest artery in the body, which led to internal hemorrhage, shock, and death.

A cesarean section can save the life of the mother or her baby, or both. A cesarean section can kill a mother or her baby, or both. Every procedure or technology used during pregnancy and birth carries risks for the mother and baby. Whether or not to use any procedure or technology will be a judgment based on balancing the chances that it will make things better against the chances that it will make things worse.

We live in the age of technology. Since long before human beings landed on the moon, we have believed that technology can solve all of our problems. It should come as no surprise that doctors and hospitals are using more and more technology and invasive interventions on pregnant and birthing women. Has all this technology solved the problems surrounding birth? Let’s look at the record. Is the increasing use of technology saving the lives of more pregnant and birthing women? In fact, the risk of a woman in this country dying from maternal mortality (i.e., causes related to pregnancy) has not decreased in more than 25 years. Each year, nearly 1,000 women die during pregnancy, during birth, or in the first week after giving birth. Nearly half of these deaths could have been prevented with better access to higher-quality maternity care. Hundreds of thousands of other women experience medical complications from pregnancy.2

The data also suggest an increase in recent years in the number of women dying during pregnancy and birth in the US.3 We have known for some time that maternal mortality in the US is underreported–in one state in one year, a third of the maternal deaths had not been reported.4 But the latest evidence suggests that “The actual pregnancy-related death rate could be more than twice as high as that reported for 1990.”5

WHY ARE MORE AMERICAN WOMEN DYING?
It is difficult to pinpoint why more American women are dying before, during, and after giving birth–the data give only the leading or immediate cause of death, not the underlying causes. But if we look at the six leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths in the US, three–hemorrhage, anesthesia, infection–are often the result of invasive obstetric interventions.6 For example: Although the immediate cause of death is frequently given as “hemorrhage,” in many cases the hemorrhage is associated with cesarean section (as in the case cited in the first paragraph). There is good research, both in the US and the United Kingdom, showing that the maternal mortality rate for cesarean section is four times higher than for vaginal birth.7-9 The rate of maternal mortality is still twice as high as for vaginal birth even when the cesarean section is routine, or “elective”; i.e., it is not an emergency procedure. With nearly twice as many cesarean sections as are necessary being done today in the US, the procedure could be a significant part of the reason for the country’s rising rate of maternal mortality.10

Another possible cause of rising pregnancy-related deaths in the US is the markedly increasing use of epidural blocks for normal labor pain. Administering an epidural block doubles the risk that the woman will die; “anesthesia complications” are documented as one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the US.11

There is good reason to believe that other obstetric technologies also contribute to the rising number of women who die during childbirth in this country. Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that in the past ten years the number of women given powerful and dangerous drugs to induce labor has gone from 10 percent of all births to 20 percent.12 In the same ten years, the drug Cytotec, not approved by the FDA for labor induction because of insufficient scientific evaluation of risk–a warning often ignored by doctors–has become the single most popular labor-inducing drug. New scientific data show that inducing labor with Cytotec causes a marked increase in uterine rupture, an obstetric catastrophe in which a quarter of all babies die, many women die as well, and, of the women who survive, almost none can ever have another baby.

Why has the rate of Cytotec-induced labor doubled when the ability of women’s bodies to begin labor has not decreased? Further CDC data show that the answer is doctor convenience. In those same ten years, the number of births taking place Monday through Friday greatly increased.13 Like taking prenatal X-rays in the 1930s, prescribing the drug di-ethyl-stillbesterol (DES) to pregnant women in the 1950s, and thalidomide in the 1960s, inducing labor with Cytotec in the 1990s is another obstetric intervention that has gone into widespread use without adequate scientific evaluation, with tragic consequences for thousands of women and babies.

The scientific evidence strongly suggests that the increasing use of obstetric interventions and technologies–cesarean section, epidural anesthesia, and drugs to induce labor–is not saving more women’s lives, but ending them. Medical care was responsible for some of the earlier decreasing mortality of pregnant and birthing women, not because of high-tech interventions but because of basic medical advances, such as the discovery of antibiotics and the ability to give safe blood transfusions. There has never been any scientific evidence that such high-tech interventions as the routine use of electronic fetal monitoring during labor decrease the mortality rate of women.14 There is also no scientific evidence to prove that the fall in maternal mortality was because birth was moved into the hospital.15 The evidence does show that, as long as a system is in place that can transport women in labor within 30 minutes to a facility where antibiotics, blood transfusions, and necessary cesarean sections are available, there should be very little maternal mortality. For example, in the Netherlands, a third of all births are planned homebirths attended by midwives that refer women to doctors when necessary. The rate of maternal mortality in the Netherlands is far lower than in the US.

THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY CARE
The US spends twice as much as any other country on maternity care, and yet 15 other countries have lower rates of maternal mortality. There are at least two reasons for this, both having to do with access to quality care. More than 40 million Americans have no health insurance; many of these are women needing maternity care. If a woman applies for Medicare support for her maternity care, she must have means testing, which necessitates that she jump through many bureaucratic hoops before she can receive care. This can be a disaster. Furthermore, women receiving publicly funded care go to overcrowded hospitals staffed by interns and residents who are overworked and insufficiently trained.16 In addition, when poor women qualify for their maternity care to be funded by Medicare, they may be referred to a private practitioner, and receive this care in the doctor’s private offices and private hospitals. There they often receive less attention than the women whose care is being funded by private insurance instead of public funds, in part because of the cultural and socioeconomic gaps between the poor women and their doctors. The delays and crowding, and lack of understanding and skill of some doctors, can all lead to pregnancy-related deaths.

The second reason the US has a higher rate of maternal mortality than 15 other countries is the way birthing women are cared for here. American doctors insist that women need to be in the hospital when giving birth, yet these same doctors who need to provide maternity care for them are not in the hospital when the women actually give birth, but in their offices doing prenatal checkups on healthy women, or in another hospital doing gynecological surgery, or at home eating dinner.17 So when the birthing woman who is in the hospital (or transported to the hospital) needs urgent attention for developing complications, the obstetrician is often not there, must be called, and may come too late. Research shows that, in more than 70 percent of cases, the main factor in the death of babies at birth is the doctor’s absence.18

The US and Canada are the only countries in the world in which obstetricians provide primary birth care for the majority of normal births. The American obstetrician tries to be all things to women: a primary provider of maternity care for healthy pregnant and birthing women; a provider of preventive care for women; a specialist in women’s diseases; and a highly skilled surgeon. No other doctor anywhere in healthcare tries to maintain competence at all of these levels and in so many areas because it is unreasonable to expect this from one human being. It’s unlikely that an obstetrician can perform a six-hour gynecological surgical procedure on a woman with extensive cancer, then rush to his or her office and do the best job of quietly, patiently counseling a pregnant woman about her sex life. If you are considering a hospital birth with an obstetrician as your primary birth attendant, ask the doctor how much time he or she will spend with you during your labor. One of the reasons a midwife, rather than an obstetrician, is generally a better choice to attend your hospital birth is that, assuming a normal pregnancy, midwives have been shown statistically to be safer birth attendants than doctors.19 This is, in part, because the midwife is there in the hospital with you throughout your labor, while the obstetrician is not.

For more than 50 years now the US has had a system of maternity care that often boils down to this: A woman goes into labor, goes to the hospital, and is admitted by the labor and delivery (L&D) nurse, who examines her. The L&D nurse then calls the obstetrician, who gives orders over the telephone to the nurse. The obstetrician may or may not come by the hospital during the labor to check the woman. It is the job of the L&D nurse to monitor the labor and call the obstetrician when the birth is imminent so that the doctor does not have to hang around the hospital waiting for the birth.

During my 15 years as Director of Women’s and Children’s Health for the World Health Organization, I frequently visited the industrialized countries of Europe. I observed that in the 15 countries that lose fewer pregnant and birthing women than the US does–including those countries with the world’s lowest rates of maternal mortality–obstetricians remain in the hospitals, ready to jump in and treat serious complications. In those countries, it is the midwives who are out in the community, giving prenatal and postnatal checkups, and who are also in the hospitals as the only health professionals at the births of 80 to 90 percent of women who give birth without serious complications.

It cannot be overemphasized that American women’s lack of access to quality, immediate obstetrical attention in the hospital is a major reason so many of them die unnecessarily during pregnancy and childbirth. Put differently, every one of the 15 countries that have lower rates of maternal mortality has universal healthcare coverage for all pregnant and birthing women (with no bureaucratic hoops to jump through), and all obstetricians are hospital-based, ready to care for these women should they develop complications. Furthermore, maternal mortality is not higher in those countries where there are large numbers of planned homebirths with midwives, because there is a system in place for transporting birthing mothers to the hospital, and for managing complications with mutual respect and collaboration between out-of-hospital midwives and hospital staff.

Data from many states in the US show maternal mortality to be four times higher for African-American women than for Caucasian women, and nearly twice as high for Hispanic women.20 The markedly greater risk that African-American and Hispanic women will die during pregnancy and childbirth is because this group includes a higher proportion of uninsured women, poor women, and women who go to hospitals with insufficient and/or poorly trained staff. In short, African-American and Hispanic women have less access to quality maternity care.

WHERE’S THE DATA?
Occasionally, a group of obstetricians tries to get a handle on maternal deaths in their locale. In a study of ten hospitals in the greater Chicago area, reported in 2000, the maternal mortality rate there was twice as high as reported by the CDC.21 Furthermore, on investigation of each case, these Chicago obstetricians found that 37 percent of the deaths were preventable. In the preventable cases, mistakes by doctors and nurses were determined to be the cause of death more than 80 percent of the time. Unfortunately, as is nearly always the case, the study made no attempt to determine how many of the deaths were related to obstetric interventions such as induction of labor, epidural block, and cesarean section. Lamenting that state maternal mortality committees, which carefully review all maternal deaths, are now largely defunct in the US, the study urged that these committees be revived to investigate causes and develop programs of intervention and education.

There is an urgent need for careful auditing of every single maternal death in the US, with a thorough analysis of causes–including underlying causes–and presentation of the results to the public. The Federal Aviation Authority could not set policies for safe flying if they were unaware of half of the planes falling from the skies, and couldn’t retrieve the “black boxes” of most of those planes they knew had fallen. But this is analogous to the CDC trying to set policy for safe motherhood when they have limited data on maternal mortality. Federal policy prohibits the CDC from making surveys of what is happening in all states with maternal deaths.22 At the state level, there are enormous pressures from state and local medical societies to prevent adequate investigation of all maternal deaths.23 It’s not easy to get information about the nearly 1,000 women who die each year in the US around the time of birth. To begin with, it’s difficult to track maternal deaths, as death certificates in only 16 states include a question concerning whether the deceased had been pregnant within a year of her death. Although some states have regulations requiring that such deaths be reported, in no state can anyone, including scientists who want to study why these women die, gain access to information about individual cases of maternal death. If there is an investigation of a maternal death by a hospital, it is a longstanding policy that this happen behind closed doors, which protects the doctor and hospital involved. There is no public accountability. Public knowledge of pregnancy-related deaths does not fit well into any HMO or healthcare facility’s marketing efforts. Employees of most hospitals know that their job security often depends on their willingness to keep silent, and the tribal loyalty of doctors is a powerful deterrent to accessing information. The CDC is doing everything it can to push states to improve their maternal death audits. It has had some successes, but today only a few states conduct thorough audits of all maternal deaths, and only one state, Massachusetts, has a law, passed after intense lobbying by consumer groups, mandating that newspapers report maternal deaths.

We know that at least half of these maternal deaths are not reported anywhere, that nearly all of these women die in the hospital, not at home, and that, with adequate medical attention, close to half of these women need not have died. The possibility of liability due to inadequate medical attention has doctors terrified of litigation, and reluctant to release information concerning maternal mortality. American women need to know that their chance of dying around the time of birth is increasing. They have a right to know why.

Women in medicine—whatever next?

By Reema Fatima Subia

The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Health Care in America

One afternoon at the Royal College of Physicians, I expressed mild interest in the fact that in the election for my successor as Academic Vice President, there had been no female candidates. My (senior and male) colleague looked at me in astonishment and said “haven’t there been enough women already?” An interesting perspective given that in around 500 years there have been only two female presidents and only three female vice presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of London. What is this all about?

Historically, caring for the sick was seen as women’s work. The baton was taken back by the men when it secured professional status with the creation of the first medical royal colleges and societies. Since then, medicine has been dominated by men. But times are changing—just more than 500 years later—and women now make up the majority of medical school entrants, and are likely to become the dominant gender in the medical workforce in the next 10—15 years. Is this a triumph for those seeking gender equality, or is it a problem for the profession?

In the UK, this issue first hit the media spotlight in 2005, following which the Royal College of Physicians of London developed proposals for a research project to find the evidence base for a number of developing issues related to the increase in the number of women in the medical workforce. As the newest appointed female College Officer, I was asked to chair the research steering group. We appointed a researcher, and set off on an interesting journey to produce an unbiased and accurate evidence base. The research, done by Mary Ann Elston, will be published by the Royal College of Physicians next month. Perhaps I should have anticipated the potential controversy around the interpretation of those facts, given that each participant in the project was either a man or a woman, and came to it with their own values and experiences on the subject.

Ann Boulis and Jerry Jacobs’ book about women doctors and their relation to the evolution of health care in the USA is timely and discusses these issues from a perspective that is pleasantly sympathetic to women. They have collated and analysed an impressive dossier of qualitative and quantitative data and put forward some suggestions as to why the “gender gap” still exists in the USA and how to address it. Not surprisingly, most of the challenges facing women doctors in the USA echo those being experienced in the UK, but interestingly, the UK seems to be doing better.

One explanation for why there has been this increase in women in medical schools is the depressing thought that it has come from the decline in status of the medical profession overall. Boulis and Jacobs have posed convincing arguments to show us how it is not a simple as that. The status of medicine was apparently declining before the rise in female applicants, and has been influenced by complex societal changes that reflect current general sociological trends in the USA. Moreover, American women are now better educated so provide a better pool of applicants and have access to impressive female role models.

There have also been government initiatives to reduce barriers and discrimination affecting women in the professional workforce. The authors describe a positive feedback loop of declining discrimination, expanding opportunities, women’s early success, and continued women’s interest in medicine over time. There was concern in the USA that the number of male applicants to medical school was declining, but the research in this book has shown that this is also not really the case. The percentage of male applicants has declined, but actual total numbers are still rising, although at a slower rate than the numbers of female applicants.

This is also the case in the UK. An interesting aside is the effect of the Vietnam War Draft in the USA, which encouraged men into the medical profession to avoid being called up, although this levelled off and then declined in the 1980s.
Another observation that also holds true for the UK is the so-called gender segregation within medicine: that women tend to aggregate in specialties with particular characteristics. These have been described as the more planable and less technical specialties, and those with a higher emphasis on the caring aspects of medicine. For example, there are more women in general practice and palliative care, and fewer in surgery or clinical research.

Why is this? The evidence presented in the book suggests that women and men have a similar approach to patient care, and practise in very similar ways, so segregation is not only caused by women’s choice of career, there are other factors. What is interesting is that those in favour of better equality for women refer to these factors as “barriers”, whereas those who think there is no problem with gender equality attribute the career differences to choice. A choice becomes a barrier when it is influenced by external factors that make women decide not to choose that specialty. Examples include: gender stereotypes about appropriate roles for women; lack of flexibility in the structure of the working day; and out of hours work at times when child care is hard to find. All these become barriers that influence the choice about whether to enter that specialty.

Part-time working is a continuing source of controversy in medicine. With the increased number of women coming into the workforce, and their likelihood of working less than full time to complete their families, there will need to be alterations in the current pattern of the working day, and more opportunity for part-time work. It is essential to maintain the workforce, which means keeping women in the workplace. But this means that more people (jobs) will be required to fill the same number of working hours. An alternative approach would be to encourage women to work longer hours, but this would need to be supported by more flexible and accessible child care. Either way, an increase in part-time working will be more expensive.

Here in the UK, a 2006 report called for action in taking steps to increase the number of women in the most senior positions in medicine. A working party chaired by Baroness Deech has been set up and will report later this year. Although women will soon be the majority of medical school entrants, the numbers at the top do not reflect those going in at the lower levels. One of the arguments here is that it is not possible to become a part-time leader, and it is difficult to reach leadership status if you have not invested in the necessary extra activities along the way. The barriers to this—or the “choice” not to do these activities—is influenced by a number of issues. The working week has become longer, and societal expectations still presume that women will continue with the majority of the household chores and the child care. This makes it difficult for women with family responsibilities to participate in the “extras”, which involve going to meetings before or after the working day and participating in international travel.

The gender gap in medicine is narrowing. Gender equality is slowly filtering into the medical workplace, but there is still a way to go. The situation in the UK is better than the USA, with better pay equality, maternity leave provision, and opportunity for part-time working at consultant level, but organisational and cultural barriers continue to inhibit true equality in the medical workplace. Books like this, together with the research completed by the Royal College of Physicians, have presented the data in a usable form. It is now up to the profession to interpret it and act on it.

When I first became interested in women in medicine, I thought that I personally had not come across any discrimination in the workplace, but I now think that it was there, but subtle. It is only when you look carefully that you notice problems with the perceived normality around you.

Women in medicine—whatever next?

By Reema Fatima Subia

The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Health Care in America

One afternoon at the Royal College of Physicians, I expressed mild interest in the fact that in the election for my successor as Academic Vice President, there had been no female candidates. My (senior and male) colleague looked at me in astonishment and said “haven’t there been enough women already?” An interesting perspective given that in around 500 years there have been only two female presidents and only three female vice presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of London. What is this all about?

Historically, caring for the sick was seen as women’s work. The baton was taken back by the men when it secured professional status with the creation of the first medical royal colleges and societies. Since then, medicine has been dominated by men. But times are changing—just more than 500 years later—and women now make up the majority of medical school entrants, and are likely to become the dominant gender in the medical workforce in the next 10—15 years. Is this a triumph for those seeking gender equality, or is it a problem for the profession?

In the UK, this issue first hit the media spotlight in 2005, following which the Royal College of Physicians of London developed proposals for a research project to find the evidence base for a number of developing issues related to the increase in the number of women in the medical workforce. As the newest appointed female College Officer, I was asked to chair the research steering group. We appointed a researcher, and set off on an interesting journey to produce an unbiased and accurate evidence base. The research, done by Mary Ann Elston, will be published by the Royal College of Physicians next month. Perhaps I should have anticipated the potential controversy around the interpretation of those facts, given that each participant in the project was either a man or a woman, and came to it with their own values and experiences on the subject.

Ann Boulis and Jerry Jacobs’ book about women doctors and their relation to the evolution of health care in the USA is timely and discusses these issues from a perspective that is pleasantly sympathetic to women. They have collated and analysed an impressive dossier of qualitative and quantitative data and put forward some suggestions as to why the “gender gap” still exists in the USA and how to address it. Not surprisingly, most of the challenges facing women doctors in the USA echo those being experienced in the UK, but interestingly, the UK seems to be doing better.

One explanation for why there has been this increase in women in medical schools is the depressing thought that it has come from the decline in status of the medical profession overall. Boulis and Jacobs have posed convincing arguments to show us how it is not a simple as that. The status of medicine was apparently declining before the rise in female applicants, and has been influenced by complex societal changes that reflect current general sociological trends in the USA. Moreover, American women are now better educated so provide a better pool of applicants and have access to impressive female role models.

There have also been government initiatives to reduce barriers and discrimination affecting women in the professional workforce. The authors describe a positive feedback loop of declining discrimination, expanding opportunities, women’s early success, and continued women’s interest in medicine over time. There was concern in the USA that the number of male applicants to medical school was declining, but the research in this book has shown that this is also not really the case. The percentage of male applicants has declined, but actual total numbers are still rising, although at a slower rate than the numbers of female applicants.

This is also the case in the UK. An interesting aside is the effect of the Vietnam War Draft in the USA, which encouraged men into the medical profession to avoid being called up, although this levelled off and then declined in the 1980s.
Another observation that also holds true for the UK is the so-called gender segregation within medicine: that women tend to aggregate in specialties with particular characteristics. These have been described as the more planable and less technical specialties, and those with a higher emphasis on the caring aspects of medicine. For example, there are more women in general practice and palliative care, and fewer in surgery or clinical research.

Why is this? The evidence presented in the book suggests that women and men have a similar approach to patient care, and practise in very similar ways, so segregation is not only caused by women’s choice of career, there are other factors. What is interesting is that those in favour of better equality for women refer to these factors as “barriers”, whereas those who think there is no problem with gender equality attribute the career differences to choice. A choice becomes a barrier when it is influenced by external factors that make women decide not to choose that specialty. Examples include: gender stereotypes about appropriate roles for women; lack of flexibility in the structure of the working day; and out of hours work at times when child care is hard to find. All these become barriers that influence the choice about whether to enter that specialty.

Part-time working is a continuing source of controversy in medicine. With the increased number of women coming into the workforce, and their likelihood of working less than full time to complete their families, there will need to be alterations in the current pattern of the working day, and more opportunity for part-time work. It is essential to maintain the workforce, which means keeping women in the workplace. But this means that more people (jobs) will be required to fill the same number of working hours. An alternative approach would be to encourage women to work longer hours, but this would need to be supported by more flexible and accessible child care. Either way, an increase in part-time working will be more expensive.

Here in the UK, a 2006 report called for action in taking steps to increase the number of women in the most senior positions in medicine. A working party chaired by Baroness Deech has been set up and will report later this year. Although women will soon be the majority of medical school entrants, the numbers at the top do not reflect those going in at the lower levels. One of the arguments here is that it is not possible to become a part-time leader, and it is difficult to reach leadership status if you have not invested in the necessary extra activities along the way. The barriers to this—or the “choice” not to do these activities—is influenced by a number of issues. The working week has become longer, and societal expectations still presume that women will continue with the majority of the household chores and the child care. This makes it difficult for women with family responsibilities to participate in the “extras”, which involve going to meetings before or after the working day and participating in international travel.

The gender gap in medicine is narrowing. Gender equality is slowly filtering into the medical workplace, but there is still a way to go. The situation in the UK is better than the USA, with better pay equality, maternity leave provision, and opportunity for part-time working at consultant level, but organisational and cultural barriers continue to inhibit true equality in the medical workplace. Books like this, together with the research completed by the Royal College of Physicians, have presented the data in a usable form. It is now up to the profession to interpret it and act on it.

When I first became interested in women in medicine, I thought that I personally had not come across any discrimination in the workplace, but I now think that it was there, but subtle. It is only when you look carefully that you notice problems with the perceived normality around you.

Death in Birth

By Richard Lee

In a hospital ward in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, Fatmata Conteh, 26, lay on a bed, having just given birth to her second child. She had started bleeding from a tear in her cervix, the blood forming a pool on the floor below. Two doctors ran in and stitched her up, relatives found blood supplies, and nurses struggled to connect a generator to the oxygen tank. One nurse jammed an intravenous needle into Conteh’s arm, while another hooked a bag of blood to a rusted stand, and a third slapped an oxygen mask over her face. In the corner of the room, a tiny baby–3 hours old–lay on a bed, wailing, swaddled in bright-colored African fabric. “Listen! You must feel happy to hear your baby cry,” said a nurse, pleading with Conteh to find strength. Three visiting members of a neighborhood church began chanting over Conteh: “Jesus, put blood into this woman! Thank you, Lord!” But as their chants grew louder, the nurses stepped back from the bed. Conteh was dead.

Some version of that scene is repeated around the world about once a minute. Death in childbirth is not just something you find in a Victorian novel. Every year, about 536,000 women die giving birth. In some poor nations, dying in childbirth is so common that almost everyone has known a victim. Take Sierra Leone, a West African nation with just 6.3 million people: women there have a 1 in 8 chance of dying in childbirth during their lifetime. The same miserable odds apply in Afghanistan. In the U.S., by contrast, the lifetime chance that a woman will die in childbirth is about 1 in 4,800; in Britain, 1 in 8,200; and in Sweden, 1 in 17,400. Deaths are heavily weighted to the poorest and most isolated in each country, which means that many politicians remain largely ignorant of the scale of the tragedy. “Often the people in the cities do not know what is happening in their own rural areas,” says Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and patron of the White Ribbon Alliance, a global advocacy organization that works with governments to lower maternal mortality rates. Brown–who lost a baby 10 days after giving birth in 2001–says that when she tells heads of state and their spouses how many women die in childbirth, “they are aghast.”

The Gains Not Made
They have reason to be. For here is the truly ghastly reality of maternal mortality: in 20 years–two decades that have seen spectacular medical breakthroughs–the ratio of maternal deaths to babies born has barely budged in poor countries. To be sure, maternal health has seen advances, with new drugs to treat deadly postpartum bleeding and pregnancy-related anemia. But in many places, such gains are dwarfed by a multitude of problems: scattershot care, low pay for health workers and a scarcity of midwives and doctors. In Mozambique, where women have a 1 in 45 lifetime chance of dying in childbirth, there are just 3 doctors per 100,000 people; in all of Sierra Leone, there are 64 government doctors, only five of whom are gynecologists. Millions of families have never seen a doctor or nurse and give birth at home with traditional birthing helpers, while those who make it to a clinic–some being carried on bicycles or in hammocks–often find patchy electricity, dirty water and few drugs or nurses. Explaining the task of reducing maternal deaths, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Health, Saccoh Alex Kabia, who returned home last year after decades of working as a surgeon in Atlanta, says, “The whole health sector is in a shambles.”

Many hope that maternal death rates in poor nations will naturally fall over time, as they did in much of the world in the 20th century. They well might. But international officials say governments often lack the political will–as well as the money–to tackle the issue, perhaps because there are too few women politicians to push it. Monir Islam, director of the maternal-health program of the World Health Organization in Geneva, calls governments’ low level of investment in reducing deaths in childbirth a “sinful neglect.”

In an attempt to jolt officials into action, governments at the U.N. General Assembly in 2000 chose to make a drastic reduction in maternal mortality one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGS)–a series of targets in a program that channels aid to key issues, including education and clean water–to be met by 2015. The MDGS hold people “to a golden standard for progress,” says Jamie Drummond, executive director of the antipoverty organization DATA. When world leaders gather in New York City this month to take stock of the MDGS, their speeches are likely to tout the many achievements since 2000: millions more African children now attend school and sleep under mosquito nets; thousands of new water wells have been dug. Yet though maternal health care underpins many other development goals (healthy mothers are more likely to ensure that their children are well fed and educated), the total number of women dying in childbirth has remained virtually unchanged in eight years.

Why? Health officials are clear in their answers. Aside from lack of money and political will, they also face entrenched traditions and fatalistic attitudes to maternal mortality, especially in very poor communities. “People think that dying in childbirth is not preventable,” says Nadira Hayat, Afghanistan’s Deputy Minister of Health. “They say it is up to God.”

So it seemed before dawn one Sunday in August in Kora Olia, a remote village in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Badakhshan, where maternal mortality is about four times the country’s already high rate. Nine months pregnant, Harakatmo, 19, began bleeding heavily. Her husband and mother-in-law were concerned, but the local doctor was far away, and expensive, so they waited. When Harakatmo was still bleeding the next morning, they sent a horseman to fetch a village health worker, but Harakatmo’s bleeding continued. Panicked, her husband strapped her to a makeshift stretcher and carried her down the steep track from their home until he found a police truck to take them to a clinic several miles away. The doctor there urged the family to rush Harakatmo to Badakhshan’s only hospital, in Faizabad, the provincial capital. Harakatmo’s husband hired a ramshackle minivan for the journey–a five-hour ride along rutted dirt roads. On the way, they stopped while Harakatmo’s mother-in-law delivered the baby. It was already dead; the tiny corpse was wrapped in a cloth and placed next to Harakatmo. Lying in the hospital that evening, she said she considered herself lucky. “When I left my house this morning, I thought I would die.”

More will die if health-care systems are not reformed. In the first half of this year, 889 babies were delivered in Freetown’s crumbling Princess Christian Maternity Hospital. During that period, 70 women died giving birth, and about eight more women have died since–an astonishing death rate of about 9%. Yet far from being overstretched, the hospital most days feels desultory, with nurses lingering in near empty wards because people cannot afford to pay for care. Emergency maternity care is supposed to be free in Sierra Leone, but in reality, patients are asked to pay for every item, including cotton swabs, gauze and syringes–this in a country where the average income is about $200 a year. If transfusions are needed, relatives have to donate blood to replace what is used.

One morning I watched a fierce argument between nurses and the relatives of a woman whose unborn baby was already dead inside her. As she sat on a bed awaiting an emergency C-section, her relatives pleaded that they could not afford 400,000 leones (about $135) for the operation. Finally the woman’s aunt handed some 250,000 leones (about $85) to a nurse, who counted the banknotes before jamming them into her pocket, explaining to me that the money was “for drugs and to pay the doctor.” Since nurses and doctors earn about $150 a month, “the staff is struggling to survive,” says Peter Sikana, technical adviser for the U.N. Population Fund in Sierra Leone.

The scribbled notes from nurses in patient records, many of them in school exercise books paid for by relatives, describe their battles to keep women alive. In one such note, a nurse describes a woman, 18, who arrived at the hospital in late July suffering convulsions days after a traditional birth attendant delivered her baby at home. Four days later, the nurse wrote, “All due nursing care rendered but in vain. May her soul rest in peace.” Six weeks later, I find the woman’s father sitting outside the tiny family home atop an escarpment that overlooks Freetown. Holding the newborn baby, he says his daughter gave birth at home because “the terrain is too rough to reach the hospital.” By the time he carried her, half conscious, down the slope to the hospital, she was too sick to be saved. Even for women who give birth in a hospital, survival is no sure thing. Another woman, 20, was admitted in late July in early labor and began having seizures hours after giving birth. Through the night the nurses scrawled frantic notes, including this one at 1:30 a.m.: “Dr. was tried … via mobile [phone] to no avail.” The woman died two hours later. I find her husband grinding peanuts in a Freetown market. “She delivered a healthy baby,” he says, showing me a photograph of his wife, a tall woman with a confident, beaming smile.

Hope, for Some
Though many die in hospitals, researchers say the riskiest births are those without any nurse, midwife or doctor in attendance–about 35% of all the world’s births. In addition to age-old problems like unclean instruments and poor-quality water–in Sierra Leone, I visited a traditional birth attendant who said she had delivered hundreds of babies in a windowless room in a slum of cramped shanties, with no indoor plumbing–there are new hazards. Afghanistan, for example, has seen growing sales of over-the-counter oxytocin, an injectable hormone that is used to stanch postpartum bleeding and speed labor but that can kill if administered incorrectly. Shamisa, a midwife, says that recently a heavily pregnant woman was brought to her rural Badakhshan clinic in a coma after being given a range of drugs by a pharmacist; both she and the baby died.

After millions of deaths and years of muddled government policies, a groundswell of distress at maternal mortality rates is at last stirring action. At the July G-8 summit of industrialized nations in Hokkaido, Japan, leaders for the first time discussed maternal deaths as a crucial obstacle to development. And there has been progress. Some poor countries have shown rapid results from investments in maternal health: in Honduras, for example, maternal mortality rates dropped about 50% from 1990 to ‘97 after officials opened scores of rural clinics and trained thousands of midwives. Nepal and Sri Lanka have trained midwives in emergency obstetrics. In the Indian states of Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, pregnant women now get 1,400 rupees ($32) to spend on whatever maternity services they choose–even a taxi ride to a clinic to give birth. Afghanistan has built 1,465 clinics and trained about 19,000 community health workers since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. The incidence of this worldwide tragedy can be reduced.

Even in Sierra Leone there are glimmers of hope. Aid organizations recently began training traditional birth attendants; several towns now demand that they deliver babies in clinics, where nurses can monitor their work. An hour east of Freetown, I visited a village where local elders had just passed a law requiring all women to give birth at a clinic or face fines of about $8–more than the clinic fee. And the World Bank, UNICEF and the British government’s Department for International Development have agreed to jointly invest $262 million over the next three years to overhaul Sierra Leone’s shambolic health system. “We will lose two or three more generations,” says Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF’s representative in Freetown. “But the core message is one of hope.”

For some, that hope has come too late. A week after Conteh’s death, her relatives gathered to name her baby girl after the dead mother. Weeping, Conteh’s parents and her boyfriend hugged and kissed the infant, a bittersweet reminder of their loss. They are not alone. In the time it has taken to read this story, about 20 more women have died in childbirth.

THE HEARTBRAKE

Women are dying in childbirth in the same numbers as they were decades ago. The slow progress is an outrage, argues HNN’s Editorial Director Sarah Williams.

Habibu is lying on matting on the mud floor of her hut. The contractions are coming thick and fast now. The pain is intense, but she draws comfort from the memory that, the previous three times, this agony gave way to the peaceful, exhausted bliss of holding her baby in her arms.

Her husband’s mother is on hand to help – she has, after all, given birth many times herself and seen many more children born. Water has been brought from the pump and sits in two large bowls ready to be used – one to wash the baby and the other to wash everything and everyone else; pieces of old cloth have been gathered over the months before so as to soak up any blood and bodily fluid. A kerosene lamp has been borrowed from a neighbour to cast any light needed on this dark West African night.

The delivery itself seems to go well: a girl, Mama says, now to be heard crying. Habibu lies back and gives herself up to the pleasure of there no longer being any sharp pain, only exhaustion and discomfort, and to the satisfaction of having brought another life into the world.

It is a while before Mama realizes that blood is still pumping out of Habibu, forming a widening crimson pool on the mat and the floor. She uses the rags to try to staunch the flow; to no avail. There is no sign of the placenta being delivered, as would normally happen within minutes of birth. Mama waits in hope for further precious minutes before realizing that the blood flow is not going to stop and that there is serious danger. Alarmed now, she summons her son, who sets out on his bicycle to try to contact the nurse at the government clinic 12 kilometres away.

By the time the nurse arrives, two hours have passed and it is too late for Habibu, whose life has drained away with her blood. There is nothing the nurse can do for the woman. Instead she tends to the newborn baby, while cursing under her breath the fees she has to charge for attending a birth at the clinic – fees that mean so many women opt to go it alone. She knows she could easily have saved her – an injection of oxytocin, perhaps, or a manual delivery of the placenta – but knows just as clearly that this desperate experience will be repeated on many other nights and days over the months and years to come.

The specifics of this story are fictional, though I name its victim Habibu in honour of a woman I knew in a Burkina Faso village who died in childbirth. She had just remarried after years of hardship raising children as a widow and had been looking forward to cementing her new marriage with a baby. She could and should have attended the nearest health centre for antenatal checks and for her delivery – the last time I visited it, the maternity unit at that health centre had yet to lose a mother during childbirth. But she opted not to do so – in part because her previous children had been safely delivered at home, but also because such supervision costs money, and even the smallest sums are hard to find in a subsistence farming family.

Just one story – but one that is repeated an average of 1,500 times every day around the world, and with particular terrible regularity in Africa and South Asia. In other cases, the complication might be not postpartum haemorrhage but an obstructed labour that demands, but does not receive, a caesarean section. In many such instances the baby will die along with the mother; in others, the mother will survive but will have lost her child. And for every one woman that dies, another 20 suffer injury, infection or disability that can even leave them shunned by their family and community.

In the vast majority of these cases, the deaths are eminently preventable. While the number of child deaths worldwide has consistently fallen – from around 13 million in 1990 to 9.7 million in 2006 – the maternal mortality toll has remained stubbornly similar. For decades, the international estimate of the number of maternal deaths each year has hovered just over the half-million mark.

You might assume from this that maternal deaths are somehow mysterious, untouchable by medical science or development interventions. Yet nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only could the number of maternal deaths be radically reduced, but it could also be done within a few years if only there were sufficient will.

This was one reason why, when the Millennium Development Goals were set in 2000, arguably the most ambitious of all the targets set was in relation to maternal mortality. Whereas the target was to cut poverty in half and to cut child mortality by two-thirds, the aspiration was to slash the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters. The chart overleaf shows just how far the world is falling short.

This is where the gulf between rich and poor worlds is at its widest and most obscene. The lifetime risk of maternal death is just 1 in 8,000 in the Global North compared with 1 in 76 in the Global South. At the national extremes, an Irish woman has a 1 in 47,600 chance of dying from a pregnancy-related cause compared with a staggering 1 in 7 chance of death for a woman in Niger.

No matter how good the supervision or the medical facilities, some deaths in childbirth will always occur. But the statistics indicate clearly how much less hazardous it is for a woman in the West now to have a baby than it was for previous generations. There is no point in pretending that Ireland’s remarkable safety record could be replicated overnight all over the world. But the Millennium Development Goal could certainly still be achieved – even now, with only 6 years of the 25 left to run, when such pathetic progress has been made to date. And, were we to do so, 400,000 women every year would be saved from unnecessary death – and their husbands, children and families from unimaginable grief.

Given this, there are just two big questions to ask. How might these lives be saved? And, if we know how to save them, why isn’t it happening?

The ‘how’ is surprisingly straightforward. The best way to reduce maternal mortality (as well as the deaths of newborn babies) is to ensure that all births are attended by skilled health workers – trained midwives, nurses or doctors. At the moment only 59 per cent of births in the developing world are attended. The lowest rates of skilled attendance are in South Asia (41 per cent) and sub-Saharan Africa (43 per cent) and it is no coincidence that these are also the regions with the highest incidence of both maternal and neonatal mortality. If you live in the countryside in one of those regions, moreover, you’re about half as likely to have your birth attended as if you live in a city.

Ensuring that skilled workers are there during the delivery will cut out many of the unnecessary deaths. To save even more lives, a suitably equipped maternity centre needs to be within reasonable striking distance (less than two hours’ journey away) if some major obstetric complication arises.

Of course there are all kinds of other factors involved that would further reduce maternal mortality – among them better nutrition for pregnant women, better access to contraception, antenatal and postnatal visits, teaching each pregnant woman and her family about the danger signs. But, in the simplest terms, if every birth were attended by a skilled health worker the numbers of maternal deaths would tumble.

If it is that simple, that attainable, why is it not happening? Is this not something the whole world could agree on as an uncontentious objective? Isn’t motherhood, like apple pie, supposed to be an unchallengeable good?

Actually, the stubborn lack of progress on maternal mortality suggests that the root cause lies in women’s disadvantaged position in most countries and cultures. In countries with similar levels of economic development, maternal mortality tends to be inversely proportional to women’s status – in other words, the worse women are treated in society in general, the more likely they are to die in childbirth.1

Against this background of discrimination, often handed down from generation to generation by cultural tradition, initiatives to enhance maternal health need to go hand in hand with measures to promote women’s rights and to protect girls and women from violence, exploitation and abuse. Getting girls into school is a fast track to improving maternal health (and the health of their children) later; it also helps to protect them from child marriage, with its inevitable consequences of premature pregnancy and motherhood. The evidence is clear that educated adolescents are more likely to wait until they are out of their teenage years, when pregnancy risks are highest, to begin a family, and are more likely to have healthy babies. Pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15-19 worldwide, killing 70,000 every year. Girls who give birth at even younger ages than 15 are even more at risk due to their physical immaturity, being five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their twenties.2

Because there is such a close link between women’s oppression and maternal mortality, we need to treat maternal health as a fundamental human right – especially if we are to reach the poorest and most socially excluded women. The Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which has been ratified by 185 countries, requires that governments ‘ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation’. Very few developing countries are currently delivering on this commitment.

So women’s oppression is part of the background. But don’t go away thinking that this means there’s little that can be done about maternal mortality. The scandal is that mothers are dying unnecessarily because the world is unprepared to stump up the relatively meagre resources required to protect them.

That maternal deaths could be reduced by making sure all deliveries were attended has been known for decades – certainly ever since the international conference at Alma Ata in 1978 that propounded the notion of Primary Healthcare. The Alma Ata vision was of relatively low-cost outreach workers in communities, building on the model of ‘barefoot doctors’ pioneered in Maoist China. But those health workers and midwives at work out in the community were always supposed to be backed up by clinics – and beyond them hospitals to which they could refer patients.

This eminently sensible model of an integrated healthcare system that could have transformed the lives of people right across the Majority World was abandoned almost entirely because those pulling the purse-strings of ‘development’ considered this to be too expensive.

It was replaced in the 1980s by the disastrous idea that the funding gap in health should be met by getting the ‘consumers’ themselves to pay user fees. The legacy of that approach is still killing women all over Africa and South Asia, where the poor inevitably take their chances rather than pay for care, just as Habibu did.

A great deal of time and many millions of lives have been lost in the intervening decades since the vision of the Alma Ata Declaration was articulated, but we have returned to the same point. An integrated health system that would allow the MDGs to be met, and would transform maternal, neonatal and child health worldwide, is still achievable – provided the necessary resources are invested.

We could not get overnight to the point where all births are attended and have access to emergency obstetric care when needed – especially given the drain of doctors and nurses away from the countryside and even from Majority to Minority Worlds. There is at present a shortage of 2.3 million doctors, nurses and midwives spread across 57 countries.3 But ultimately it is still a question of resources: if we spent the money required to create health systems that functioned properly, we could still solve this problem in time to meet the MDG target.4

Back in 2003, global development assistance to maternal and neonatal health stood at $663 million a year. It was estimated then that an extra $6.1 billion would be required each year by 2015 to increase coverage to desired levels.5 To put this in perspective, the economic impact of maternal and newborn deaths has been estimated at $15 billion per year in lost productivity, while global military spending passes the $6-billion mark every one-and-a-half days.6

As global recession takes hold and the economic meltdown continues, it will be argued that such resources cannot easily be found. Yet with what ease are hundreds of billions of dollars found to bail out banks, to insure the financial system against its bad debts! Why could we not, over the last two decades, have found the much smaller sums necessary to bail out poor countries by investing in the kind of health services they so badly needed? Why could we not, long ago, have spent the sums necessary to insure young women and their families the world over against death and disability?

This article began by telling the story of Habibu, before sweeping off into the realms of statistics and health policies to make its case. But it is all too easy in discussing the global situation to forget that every single one of the 536,000 mothers who die in childbirth each year has her own story just like Habibu’s. Like her, they approached their labour full of expectation and hope for the new life that they were about to bring into the world, only to die for want of the care that should have been their right – and that mothers in the rich world routinely expect. We should hold stories like theirs in the forefront of our minds as we consider in the months and years ahead exactly what kind of world economy we are now to remake.

Votes cast as a ‘weapon of the weak’

By M H Ahssan

India’s rich and middle class urban voters have failed to show up in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the country’s 15th month-long general election. Despite a massive campaign to get the educated to vote, the software hubs of Bangalore and Pune, the two main metros which went to the polls in the second phase of voting on April 23, registered poor turnout.

In contrast to rural areas, which had a turnout of 60%, constituencies in Bangalore city registered a mere 46% turnout, a figure that is below the national average in two phases of voting so far but also lower than turnout in the 2004 general election. As in previous elections, in the two rounds of voting that have been completed in India’s multi-phase general election, urban middle-class voters have indicated that they are laggards in comparison to the rural or urban poor.

Media reports on the Indian elections often draw attention to the magnitude of the electoral exercise. Indeed, it is hard not to be impressed by the sheer scale of the election. A 714-million-strong electorate will vote in 828,804 polling booths in 543 constituencies in a five-phase election spread over a month. Four million electoral officials and 2.1 million security personnel are overseeing the process to ensure that it is free, fair and peaceful. Animals, too, are on hand to assist in the process. In the states of Assam and Meghalaya in India’s northeast, elephants carry officials and polling material to voting booths.

The Election Commission (EC), which conducts the polls, goes the extra mile to ensure that voters can exercise their franchise. In some parts of the country, which are inaccessible by roads, officials trek for three to four days or ride on the backs of elephants to set up polling booths.

In the western state of Gujarat, the EC has set up a polling booth for one voter – a priest in a temple in the heart of the Gir forest, which is home to the Asiatic lion. He will vote in the third phase of the election.

Officials brave wild animals, scorching heat, long treks, militants and impatient voters to ensure that people can exercise their fundamental right to vote.

As remarkable as these statistics or the logistics involved in conducting the election is the mass participation in Indian elections. Unlike the global trend of a steady decline in voting levels, in India voter turnout over the years has either increased or remained stable.

And what makes this rise in voter turnout significant is that it is spurred by the rise in participation in elections by the poor, women, lower castes and Dalits and tribals. The most vulnerable sections of Indian society are increasingly enthusiastic about voting.

Unlike Western democracies, which granted the right to vote first to propertied men, later educated men, then all men and only after much debate and agitation to women, independent India granted all adult men and women regardless of their religion, caste, language, wealth or education the right to vote in one fell swoop, points out Ramachandra Guha, author of India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy.

The Indian constitution granted all its citizens the right to vote. Right from the first general election in 1952, India’s poorest and most marginalized sections have possessed the right to vote. And they have been the most keen to exercise this right.

Voter turnout in India has been higher in rural areas than in cities since 1977. The poor vote more than the rich, especially in urban areas and in the past four general elections, Dalits (or Untouchables as they used to be called) have voted more than upper-caste Hindus, says Yogendra Yadav, a political analyst with the Center for the Study of Developing Societies. “This ‘participatory upsurge’ from below has defined the character of Indian democracy in the past two decades or so,” he says.

This is quite unlike the experience in Western democracies where it is the rich, the well-educated and those belonging to the majority community who are more likely to vote and participate in political activity.

Analysts have pointed out that if those at the lower end of the socio-economic hierarchy take the trouble to vote, defying threats and violence, it is because democracy is bringing change in their lives, however small these might be. Polling day is that one big day on which their decision matters, when their choice counts.

Voters defy militants’ calls for a boycott of the poll to exercise their franchise. Maoists have called for a poll boycott and sought to impose it with intimidation and violence. Still, people in the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have come out to vote. In assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in November and December last year, 62% of the electorate voted in spite of a boycott call by separatists.

The media have often underestimated the rural/poor voter, looking on him or her as someone who votes along caste or other parochial lines, who votes as told to rather than on the basis of an informed choice.

This might be true, but only to a limited extent. In 2004, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) campaigned on an “India Shining” slogan. But India was not shining for rural Indians and those at the bottom of the heap. Unlike the educated/urban voter who swallowed the NDA’s propaganda campaign, the rural voters registered their protest through the ballot box. They voted out the NDA. The vote is the “weapon of the weak”, points out Yadav.

This time around, whether the rural voter who is reeling under a severe agrarian crisis is impressed by the 8% average economic growth rate achieved under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is debatable. To its credit, the UPA has put in place a rural employment guarantee scheme that provides one member of every rural household with work for 100 days every year.

Both the Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have made provision of heavily subsidized wheat and rice a central plank in their election campaigns. The Congress has promised every poor family 25 kilograms of wheat or rice at 3 rupees (US$0.06) a kilogram and the BJP 35 kilograms at 2 rupees per kg.

One of the districts that voted in the first phase was Kandhamal in the eastern state of Orissa, which was ravaged by anti-Christian violence last year. Voter turnout in the district was 65.7%. About 90% of those still living in relief camps – people who are too terrified to return to their homes for fear of communal violence – turned up at polling booths despite a Maoist call for a poll boycott and fear of communal violence. Clearly, these victims of communal violence are looking on the ballot box with some hope.

How do Muslims – India’s largest religious minority – view the democratic process? Contrary to the perception worldwide that Muslims do not believe in democracy, Muslims in India are as enthusiastic as Hindus in their stated support of democracy. Voter turnout among Muslims, which dipped in the early 1990s and again in 2004, has generally been rising or stable and is as robust as that among Hindus. “Clearly, Indian Muslims are not opting out of democratic politics,” says Yadav.

It is not religion but class that appears to influence voter turnout. The rich and middle class Indian doesn’t seem to share the faith the poor have in the elections and the power of the vote. Over the years, urban apathy has grown. All the parties are the same, urban voters grumble, pointing to the fielding of criminal and corrupt candidates in some areas.

Voter turnout in successive elections over the past two decades indicate that for all their whining about the quality of politicians who represent them in parliament and state assemblies, India’s educated and more privileged sections don’t do anything about it on polling day. They simply stay away.

South Mumbai, where many of India’s millionaires and billionaires live and work is notorious for poor turnout on polling day, as is Bangalore, India’s software hub. State assembly elections in Bangalore in May last year saw an abysmal 44% exercise their franchise, the lowest in the past five elections.

Will Mumbai, Delhi and other Indian cities go Bangalore’s way in the coming phases of voting? The terror attacks in Mumbai in November last year shook up the country’s politically apathetic youth and brought them out into the streets demanding greater accountability and better performance from the political elite. Thousands participated in candlelight vigils and online campaigns.

Whether they will leave the comfort of their air-conditioned homes to wait in long lines outside polling booths to vote in scorching heat is another matter.

Votes cast as a ‘weapon of the weak’

By M H Ahssan

India’s rich and middle class urban voters have failed to show up in large numbers to exercise their franchise in the country’s 15th month-long general election. Despite a massive campaign to get the educated to vote, the software hubs of Bangalore and Pune, the two main metros which went to the polls in the second phase of voting on April 23, registered poor turnout.

In contrast to rural areas, which had a turnout of 60%, constituencies in Bangalore city registered a mere 46% turnout, a figure that is below the national average in two phases of voting so far but also lower than turnout in the 2004 general election. As in previous elections, in the two rounds of voting that have been completed in India’s multi-phase general election, urban middle-class voters have indicated that they are laggards in comparison to the rural or urban poor.

Media reports on the Indian elections often draw attention to the magnitude of the electoral exercise. Indeed, it is hard not to be impressed by the sheer scale of the election. A 714-million-strong electorate will vote in 828,804 polling booths in 543 constituencies in a five-phase election spread over a month. Four million electoral officials and 2.1 million security personnel are overseeing the process to ensure that it is free, fair and peaceful. Animals, too, are on hand to assist in the process. In the states of Assam and Meghalaya in India’s northeast, elephants carry officials and polling material to voting booths.

The Election Commission (EC), which conducts the polls, goes the extra mile to ensure that voters can exercise their franchise. In some parts of the country, which are inaccessible by roads, officials trek for three to four days or ride on the backs of elephants to set up polling booths.

In the western state of Gujarat, the EC has set up a polling booth for one voter – a priest in a temple in the heart of the Gir forest, which is home to the Asiatic lion. He will vote in the third phase of the election.

Officials brave wild animals, scorching heat, long treks, militants and impatient voters to ensure that people can exercise their fundamental right to vote.

As remarkable as these statistics or the logistics involved in conducting the election is the mass participation in Indian elections. Unlike the global trend of a steady decline in voting levels, in India voter turnout over the years has either increased or remained stable.

And what makes this rise in voter turnout significant is that it is spurred by the rise in participation in elections by the poor, women, lower castes and Dalits and tribals. The most vulnerable sections of Indian society are increasingly enthusiastic about voting.

Unlike Western democracies, which granted the right to vote first to propertied men, later educated men, then all men and only after much debate and agitation to women, independent India granted all adult men and women regardless of their religion, caste, language, wealth or education the right to vote in one fell swoop, points out Ramachandra Guha, author of India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy.

The Indian constitution granted all its citizens the right to vote. Right from the first general election in 1952, India’s poorest and most marginalized sections have possessed the right to vote. And they have been the most keen to exercise this right.

Voter turnout in India has been higher in rural areas than in cities since 1977. The poor vote more than the rich, especially in urban areas and in the past four general elections, Dalits (or Untouchables as they used to be called) have voted more than upper-caste Hindus, says Yogendra Yadav, a political analyst with the Center for the Study of Developing Societies. “This ‘participatory upsurge’ from below has defined the character of Indian democracy in the past two decades or so,” he says.

This is quite unlike the experience in Western democracies where it is the rich, the well-educated and those belonging to the majority community who are more likely to vote and participate in political activity.

Analysts have pointed out that if those at the lower end of the socio-economic hierarchy take the trouble to vote, defying threats and violence, it is because democracy is bringing change in their lives, however small these might be. Polling day is that one big day on which their decision matters, when their choice counts.

Voters defy militants’ calls for a boycott of the poll to exercise their franchise. Maoists have called for a poll boycott and sought to impose it with intimidation and violence. Still, people in the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have come out to vote. In assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in November and December last year, 62% of the electorate voted in spite of a boycott call by separatists.

The media have often underestimated the rural/poor voter, looking on him or her as someone who votes along caste or other parochial lines, who votes as told to rather than on the basis of an informed choice.

This might be true, but only to a limited extent. In 2004, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) campaigned on an “India Shining” slogan. But India was not shining for rural Indians and those at the bottom of the heap. Unlike the educated/urban voter who swallowed the NDA’s propaganda campaign, the rural voters registered their protest through the ballot box. They voted out the NDA. The vote is the “weapon of the weak”, points out Yadav.

This time around, whether the rural voter who is reeling under a severe agrarian crisis is impressed by the 8% average economic growth rate achieved under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is debatable. To its credit, the UPA has put in place a rural employment guarantee scheme that provides one member of every rural household with work for 100 days every year.

Both the Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have made provision of heavily subsidized wheat and rice a central plank in their election campaigns. The Congress has promised every poor family 25 kilograms of wheat or rice at 3 rupees (US$0.06) a kilogram and the BJP 35 kilograms at 2 rupees per kg.

One of the districts that voted in the first phase was Kandhamal in the eastern state of Orissa, which was ravaged by anti-Christian violence last year. Voter turnout in the district was 65.7%. About 90% of those still living in relief camps – people who are too terrified to return to their homes for fear of communal violence – turned up at polling booths despite a Maoist call for a poll boycott and fear of communal violence. Clearly, these victims of communal violence are looking on the ballot box with some hope.

How do Muslims – India’s largest religious minority – view the democratic process? Contrary to the perception worldwide that Muslims do not believe in democracy, Muslims in India are as enthusiastic as Hindus in their stated support of democracy. Voter turnout among Muslims, which dipped in the early 1990s and again in 2004, has generally been rising or stable and is as robust as that among Hindus. “Clearly, Indian Muslims are not opting out of democratic politics,” says Yadav.

It is not religion but class that appears to influence voter turnout. The rich and middle class Indian doesn’t seem to share the faith the poor have in the elections and the power of the vote. Over the years, urban apathy has grown. All the parties are the same, urban voters grumble, pointing to the fielding of criminal and corrupt candidates in some areas.

Voter turnout in successive elections over the past two decades indicate that for all their whining about the quality of politicians who represent them in parliament and state assemblies, India’s educated and more privileged sections don’t do anything about it on polling day. They simply stay away.

South Mumbai, where many of India’s millionaires and billionaires live and work is notorious for poor turnout on polling day, as is Bangalore, India’s software hub. State assembly elections in Bangalore in May last year saw an abysmal 44% exercise their franchise, the lowest in the past five elections.

Will Mumbai, Delhi and other Indian cities go Bangalore’s way in the coming phases of voting? The terror attacks in Mumbai in November last year shook up the country’s politically apathetic youth and brought them out into the streets demanding greater accountability and better performance from the political elite. Thousands participated in candlelight vigils and online campaigns.

Whether they will leave the comfort of their air-conditioned homes to wait in long lines outside polling booths to vote in scorching heat is another matter.

Big money seeks common man’s blessing

It was once hoped that curbing election expenses would keep the process fairer. Today, the opposite is true, and neither the UPA nor the NDA wants to disturb this comfortable arrangement. HNN reports.

Fighting elections in India has become extremely expensive. According to an Election Commission (EC) representative, while an estimated Rs.4500 crores was spent for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, this time around, the expenditure will cross Rs.10,000 crores. Though a huge sum, even this is in all probability a conservative estimate. About 20 per cent of this constitutes government expense; the remaining will be spent by political parties and their candidates.

The high election expenditure is not a reflection of the basic cost of the campaign but rather an indication of the permissive environment that has evolved over time where there is no limit for the amount of money that political parties can collect and spend on elections. Political parties are neither accountable nor transparent about their finances. The state machinery is unwilling or unable to curb illegal expenditure by political parties, allowing the elections to become an outlet for huge quantities of black money. Such an environment encourages political parties to outdo each other in spending in the quest for political advantage. Politicians across the country have chartered as many as 60 helicopters costing between Rs.75,000 and 2 lakhs per hour for use over a month (Hindustan Times, 21 April 2009). Profligate spending is no longer frowned upon. But this was not always so.

The law on election expenses

The election-related laws framed in 1950s had the objective that money should not be allowed to influence the outcome of elections. The Representation of People Act, 1951 required every candidate to keep an account of all election expenditure incurred or authorized by him. The expenditure was to be kept within prescribed limits and subject to inspection by EC representatives. Violating the limit was deemed a corrupt practice, punishable by disqualification from contesting elections for a period up to 6 years.

While limits of the candidates’ spending were established, the law did not set limits on the expense of political parties themselves, and there was a reason for this. The Constitution of India did not recognise the ‘Political Party’ as a formal entity at that time; political parties had no defined role to play, either in the elections or in the formation of government. The law to limit expenses therefore only dealt with the expenditure by the candidate; this was considered sufficient to curb overall expenses on the elections. In time, political parties started exploiting this loophole.

Did expense incurred by the sponsoring political party or by the friends and supporters of a candidate towards his election in excess of prescribed limits constitute a corrupt practice? This issue came up before the Supreme Court in the case of Kanwarlal Gupta vs. Amar Nath Chawla (1974). Using the occasion to expound on the objectives of the ceiling on spending by candidates, the Supreme Court observed:

“It should be open to any individual or to any political party, however small, to be able to contest an election on a footing of equality with any other individual or political party, however rich and well financed it may be, and no individual or political party should be able to secure an advantage over others by reason of its superior financial strength.”

“The other objective of limiting expenditure” the Supreme Court added, “is to eliminate, as far as possible, the influence of big money in electoral process. If there were no limit on expenditure, political parties would go all out for collecting contributions and obviously the largest contributions would be from the rich and the affluent who constitute but a fraction of the electorate … The small man’s chance is the essence of Indian democracy and that would be stultified if large contributions from rich and affluent individuals or groups are not divorced from the electoral process.”

After outlining these objectives, the Supreme Court argued that “if a candidate were to be subject to the limitation of the ceiling, but the political party sponsoring him or his friends and supporters were to be free to spend as much as they like in connection with his election, the object of imposing the ceiling would be completely frustrated and the beneficial provision enacted in the interest of purity and genuineness of the democratic process would be wholly emasculated.” The Supreme Court thus answered the original question in the affirmative.

This judgment met with the negative reaction of the government of the day. The Representation of People Act, 1951 was amended by the Congress government in 1975 and an infamous “explanation” added to the election expense provision. The explanation ran thus:

“Notwithstanding any judgment, order or decision of any Court to the contrary, any expenditure incurred or authorized in connection with the election of a candidate by a political party or by any other association or body of persons or by any individual (other than the candidate or his election agent) shall not be deemed to be, and shall not ever be deemed to have been, expenditure in connection with the election incurred or authorized by the candidate or by his election agent.”

Not only the sponsoring political party but also friends, relatives and supporters of a candidate were freed from any limits on spending for their candidate. The objectives of the original provisions in law limiting election expenses of candidates had been completely frustrated!

Financial transparency of political parties

The Income Tax Act was amended in 1979 requiring political parties to file income tax returns every year. The tax law allowed a political party to claim full exemption from income tax for a variety of sources of income including voluntary contributions received from any person provided the party maintained books of accounts, recorded details of all voluntary contributions above Rs.10,000 and got their books audited. However, most parties including the Congress and the BJP did not comply with the law and file returns. This fact only came to public notice after a Public Interest Litigation filed by Common Cause came up before the Supreme Court in 1995. The Supreme Court ordered the Government to investigate and prosecute the erring political parties, but it is not clear if anything came of this. The Law Commission of India in its 170th report, Reform of the Election Laws in 1999, made this scathing comment on the issue:

“While a small income-tax payer who fails to file his return is prosecuted and penalized, the political parties which are in receipt of huge funds which they spend on elections and other occasions are not being touched. The parties too do not appear to have realized that if they themselves do not follow the law, not only it sets a bad example to others, they will not have the face to tell others to abide by law.”

The Commission followed a comprehensive analysis of the problem of election expenses with the recommendation that political parties must be required by law to keep accounts, have them audited and publish them for the general public and strong penalties should follow including de-recognition of the party by the EC for non compliance. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution also expressed similar views in 2002.

The election expense laws were finally amended in 2003, but not on the lines suggested by the Law Commission. The Election and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2003 was passed by the NDA Government with the support of almost all parties including the Congress. While the infamous 1975 “explanation” to the election expense clause was finally deleted, this change made no difference any longer. The election laws and rules were amended to allow political parties to “accept any amount of contribution voluntarily offered to it by any person or company”. Only contributions to parties over Rs 20,000 (earlier Rs 10,000) were to be recorded and reported. The punishment for not submitting returns was that income tax exemptions could not be claimed! The income tax laws were also amended to give 100 per cent tax exemptions to companies and individuals for contributions to political parties.

The NDA government claimed that these changes would bring about more political accountability. But many questions remained unanswered. Would companies, for example – solely in business for profit – contribute a part of their profit to party funds without any expectation of return favors when/if the party came to power?

The idea of limiting election expenses had been buried once and for all by codifying in the Representation of People Act, 1951 the right of political parties to accept (and consequently spend) any amount. Enacting strict penalties to ensure transparency and accountability in finances of political parties had been given the go by, even though it was clear that the laws would not be respected otherwise.

The Election Commission suggested to the UPA government in 2004 that “political parties must be required to publish their accounts (at least abridged version) annually for information and scrutiny of the general public and all concerned, for which purpose the maintenance of such accounts and their auditing to ensure their accuracy is a pre-requisite” Their plea fell on deaf ears. The UPA was as comfortable with the status quo as the NDA.

Who will fund the parties?

The escalating cost of elections puts pressure on parties to mobilize funds whichever way they can. Most political parties do not collect money for party activities and elections by building a broad membership and collecting regular dues. The funds collected using legal channels from companies and individuals are only a fraction of what they ‘need’, given the possibilities of unlimited expenditure. During the 2004 elections, for example, all the political parties put together showed expenditure less than Rs.230 crores, according to figures made public by the EC. Sources of unaccounted wealth need to be tapped; this is probably what makes parties shy of making their ‘real’ books open to the public.

Seen against this context, the recent action of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Delhi in nominating extremely wealthy businessmen is understandable. The BSP candidates for four of the seven Delhi constituencies have declared assets of Rs.622, 155, 14.5 and 19 crore rupees respectively! The President of its Delhi unit admits that as the party does not fund its candidate’s election expenses, it expects them to have deep pockets if they should have a fair chance to win. And the original argument against huge money in political campaigns has come full circle – wealth, once seen as distorting the playing field, is now seen as necessary to keep it level.

Chasing The Poll Stars

By M H Ahssan

Come elections, no politician is immune to the pull of the planets. A huge industry rests in the space between reason and unreason.

SIXTY YEARS after independence, why have India and Pakistan – siblings born merely a day apart — led such remarkably different lives? Astrologers have a delightful explanation. The answer, they say, lies in the countries’ respective janam kundlis. A country’s kundli is determined by its birth time and place and astrologers had dutifully warned India’s first prime minister that August 14 wasn’t an auspicious birth date for a country. Sadly for Pakistan, half-anhour made all the difference: Nehru signed the dotted line at midnight on August 15.

If this story is believable, it is not much of a leap of imagination to understand why a few months before every general election the glassy image of modern India turns over on its head. Politicians invoke the divine with unmatched fervour. Astrologers are in epic demand. The gods become India’s most wooed constituency.

This year too, as India laces up for its fifteenth general election, goats are being sacrificed to the sound of clanking cymbals; 1,000 people are sitting in precise groups of 11, chanting in unison and blowing into rising flames; somewhere, an unassuming blind man is being handed a brown chappal; and an inconspicuous alleyway is blotted a bright red with all the red donations being showered upon it. An electoral aspirant is turning herself and the nomination box to face the sun. Elaborate rituals are being supervised outside peeling government offices; anxious candidates are turning to a strapped watch on their arm, waiting for the exact minute when the universe suggests they should file their nomination papers. (BJP Opposition leader LK Advani chose 12:39 pm because it is said that is when Ram killed Ravan.) A politician is secretly slipping an extra “a” into her name, hoping no one will notice her changed signature. Hordes of India’s poor are being ushered into manicured lawns for sudden propitiating banquets. In the temples of Lord Bhairon and Kali, alcohol is being offered to the deities, then fed to beggars as prasad. Suddenly, everywhere, politicians have turned into puppets, lifting a designated leg as they enter shrine or office, at the command of their master stargazer.

Dressed in a bright orange kurta, a long tika running up his forehead, Acharya Raj Jyotishi Shukla is emerging from the Congress office at 24 Akbar Road in Delhi. It’s a surprise to see him there, for Shukla says he was officially appointed BJP’s raj guru in 2006 at the behest of Sanjay Joshi, former BJP general secretary. “People in the BJP liked me because I talked about kattar Hindutva. They appointed me the upholder of Hindu religion and asked me to make sure it is never wiped out,” he says. But now he doesn’t restrict his consultation to just the BJP: he has risen above the political divide. “No politician knows where else I go,” he winks. In the last two months, Shukla says he has performed 40 poojas for 40 MPs, each lasting anywhere between two to 12 hours. The scale of each pooja depends on the particular disjunction between the planetary positions and the candidates’ desires. One can only wonder what impact the varying monetary value of each pooja will have on different candidates’ fortunes.

Politicians might be loath to disclose their particular position on the Richter scale of faith and superstition, but suffice it to say that according to a Business India story in 2004, the astrology industry in India adds up to a whopping Rs 40,000 crore. At election time, it apparently jumps by another Rs 600 crore.

UNIVERSAL ADULT franchise obviously brings many dreams, crises and fears for the ‘futures’ doctors to tend to. What follows is only a small recounting of epic pleas and epic interventions:

• Apparently, Trinamool Congress President Mamata Banerjee recently had her assistant call the popular numerologist Swetta Jumaani for tips on how to get an edge over the CPI(M). Jumaani advised her to change her spelling from ‘Mamta’ to ‘Mamata’. If events in Bengal are anything to go by, the Reds are reeling under the onslaught of that extra ‘a’.

• During the nuclear deal stand-off in Parliament last year, much to the horror of animal rights activists, Kishore Samrite, a Samajwadi party legislator, sacrificed 302 goats and 17 buffaloes to seek a divine boost for the Congress-led vote on July 22. Aided by some horse trading, the goats seem to have worked.

• Where there is a crowd, there must be a leader. Jalandhari Baba, now dead, or as his followers put it, “who has now taken leave of his body but left his rose fragrance behind” — was once one of the most sought after gurus in Delhi and had several politicians flocking to him. If you connected with Baba at a personal level, his devotees say, you didn’t even need to tell him what you wanted: your energies just spoke for themselves. In that tacit speaking line were some pretty powerful names. Pranab Mukherjee and LK Advani, apparently, visited Jalandari Baba on several occasions. PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti sought his help to extend her father’s term as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and NCP President Sharad Pawar asked for a cure for his cancer.

• In the hyper-surreal landscape of Tamil Nadu politics, short of a written diktat from AIADMK party chief Jayalalithaa, astrology enjoys an official place in all party affairs (see box on page 54). A senior party leader told TEHELKA that all those who wanted to contest the Lok Sabha polls this year had submitted a copy of their horoscope along with their application. “When candidates are shortlisted for a particular constituency, the horoscope of the candidates may help the party chief in taking the final decision,” he said. Adds R Balasubramaniam, a political commentator, “Jayalalithaa makes no bones about her belief in astrology.” Apparently, it is mandatory for AIADMK politicians to file their nominations exactly at 12.32 pm. Jayalalithaa herself is a stickler for the colour green. Before she leaves her Poes Garden residence, her car must face a small temple of Lord Venkateswara next to her home. Once, on her way to address supporters, she was horrified to find a temple to her left and the crowds to her right. A complete U-turn was made to have the temple on her right and the crowds on her left. Relieved that the planets were realigned, she continued with her speech.

• Elsewhere, Shiv Sena leader Gajanan Kirtikar, who has been indicted for his role in the Mumbai riots of 1992, turned to an astrologer to pick the choicest full moon day for filing his nomination from the Mumbai northwest constituency. One hopes he didn’t suffer the fate of Rajkumar Patel, a Congress candidate from Madhya Pradesh. Patel was told by his ace consultant to file his nomination for the Vidisha seat at the last hour for the most auspicious impact. Unfortunately, a technical slip required him to go home for additional papers. By the time he returned, the deadline for filing his nominations was past. Perhaps Sushma Swaraj’s spiritual contacts were better because with Patel disqualified, she has no serious contender in Vidisha.

• In Gujarat, a key minister has asked Asaram Bapu for help with a particular yagna, which will be performed at the candidate’s home on April 30. Perhaps the minister is taking a leaf out of his leader Narendra Modi’s book, because the story goes that at the height of the pogrom of Gujarat 2002, the controversial chief minister had a band of 17 priests performing the all-powerful Rudravishek prayers to invoke Lord Shiva.

“They are all into it but many won’t own up to it on paper,” says Hemang Arun Pandit, CEO of Ganeshspeaks.com, the portal that handles the backroom operations of top astrologer, Bejan Daruwalla. “They all come to me almost everyday from across the country asking for the right dates to file nominations,” says Daruwalla. In 2000, ex-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had called Daruwalla to strategise about the prospects of the NDA. “They also want to know what suggestions their rival candidates have taken from me,” Daruwalla adds. Some ambitious politicians go a step further and take the kundlis of political rivals to astrologers. “A rival party in UP asked me to read Mayawati’s kundli,” UP-based astrologer Pandit Padmesh Dubey told HNN.

RIVALRY, VULNERABILITY, ambition, greed, faith, intrigue, counterintrigue, and at the end of that manic cycle, unkept electoral promises and the intractable, faceless Indian voter. What can a politician do but turn to the stars?

“They are all eager to win and are at their most vulnerable before an election,” says senior astrologer Ajai Bhambi, who has been so inundated with calls before election 2009 that he has cancelled all out-of-station tours. He gets the largest number of calls before tickets are to be handed out. “Once I had my terrace full of candidates for rival parties, embarrassed to see each other at my door,” says Bhambi. Some clients who have offers from two different parties ask him to read the party’s kundli and the party leaders’ kundli to decide which party would gel better with their own kundlis! (Yes, even parties have kundlis, based on the day and time of their birth. Sometimes a leader’s individual kundli could have led the party to a win, but because it is also influenced by the party’s collective kundli, the candidate ends up losing.)

Bhambi is a staunch believer of kismat (whatever is written in your kundli will happen) and refuses to embark on machinations to alter the divine plan. This is not necessarily a good strategy. Says Acharya Kishore, another pandit operating within political circles, “I looked at [former Congress leader] Madhav Rao Scindia’s kundli and told him he would never be the PM.

His wife immediately took me aside and said, ‘Don’t talk like this, he will get angry.’”

Some like Bhambi and Acharya Kishore stop at predictions. Others conduct yagnas. But there is a fast growing group of ‘futures’ traders who stop at nothing, readily venturing into the dark underbelly of astrology — the tantric jaal, rituals usually performed at night to destroy one’s enemies. A client can choose from four lethal options — turn the enemy in your favour, destabilise the enemy, make the enemy go berserk, and kill the enemy. “Politicians don’t just want prayers. They want their planetary positions to change. We tell them this is not possible from us. Naturally, most of them turn to occult practitioners,” says Hemang Pandit.

No surprise then that a week ago, in the interiors of Orissa, the state’s Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei had conducted a special ritual at the dead of night at a Biroja temple meant for women. Even before he could complete his special prayers, Ghadei had to flee the spot after tribals, armed with bows and arrows, attacked him and the priest, protesting against the occult ritual.

BUT IT is probably the powerful and tantra-surcharged Kamakhya temple in Guwahati that is India’s premier enemy warding-off institution. Visit before election 2009 and one finds that yellow is the pervading colour at the temple of Bogola Devi, one of the 10 forms of Kamakhya Devi. A little girl selling yellow flowers at the bottom of the steep stairs that lead to the temple yells, “Come and buy some flowers for the goddess. All the big ministers buy flowers from my stall.” If you talk to her, she will tell you that all of them come late at night. There is a popular belief that Bogola Devi vanquishes enemies. Politicians come to ask her for help far from the public gaze. Rajiv Sarma of Kamakhya Debuttar Board says openly that Kamakhya Mandir is not an abode of astrologers but that of tantricism. “But most of the politicians who turn up to offer prayers here do so at the advice of astrologers,” he says.

The head priest of the Bogola Devi temple, Pankaj Sarma confirms that politicians of all parties come there to ask for more power and that many perform rituals after midnight, but he refuses to name anyone. Other sources, however, tell TEHELKA that controversial Congress candidate Mani Kumar Subba is a staunch devotee of Kamakhya Devi. His farmhouse in Delhi has a temple with a permanent astrologer and he regularly goes to Rishikesh and Haridwar for consultations with others.

Others choose milder routes. The Ajmer Sharif dargah in Rajasthan has always been a pilgrimage spot and a tourist attraction, but during peak election season, it draws a wide range of politicians too. “Many politicians call me, email me, and ask me to offer a dua for them,” says Qutubuddin Saki, the chief maulvi. If they cannot go themselves, they send their wives and children. Visitors who come to the dargah tie a thread around a revered pillar and ask for divine blessing. If their wishes are fulfilled, they are supposed to return and untie the thread. In the past, the seekers have included Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who came months before the assembly elections and returned 15 days after his win to untie the thread. Other politicians who visited recently include Mulayam Singh Yadav, who came six months ago, Vasundhara Raje, Shri Prakash Jaiswal, Shahnawaz Hussain and Sachin Pilot, all of whom have visited in the last two months. Saki is now waiting to see which among these returns to open the blessed thread and thank the influence wielded by the Ajmer dargah.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, priests and security guards at the city’s famous Siddhivinayak temple are already having sleepless nights as they brace themselves for the onslaught of politicians from across the country, who visit at peak hours. Congress MP Priya Dutt, who took over the mantle of the constituency after her father Sunil Dutt passed away, may not be a very religious person, but the prospect of retaining her father’s seat seems to have ignited a newfound spirituality. Before filing her nomination, Dutt made a marathon trip to the key religious shrines in the city, including the Siddhivinayak temple, the Mount Mary church and the Haji Ali dargah. After all, one never knows which religion the planets may favour on judgment day.

But Dutt is not the only new believer on the horizon. NCP top boss and prime minister aspirant Sharad Pawar, a known atheist and a key figure in the socialist movement of the 1970s shocked many when he paid a visit to the Tulza Bhavani temple in Osmanabad district before filing his nomination last month. In fact, almost every political leader in Maharashtra has visited this temple to pay obeisance before the elections.

IN KOLKATA, the Kalighat temple lies close to a rivulet that many say was the original Ganges. After the clock struck twelve and brought in another Bengali new year last week, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee apparently slipped into the temple quietly with two of her trusted aides for a special prayer. The next morning, a handful of her supporters sacrificed 50 goats for a neighbourhood feast. “Didi must win,” they chanted to thundering cymbals. Even Kolkata’s CPM leader Mohammed Saleem is said to have visited a Hanuman temple to request a divine shield.

Back in Delhi, astrologer RB Dhawan sits with long sheets of star patterns and web kundlis flashing on his laptop. “The energy of action can influence the auras around,” he says. Through what astrologers call “upayas” — action to negate or please dominant planetary influences — bad times can be delayed, good times advanced, and planetary alignments reworked. It is no coincidence, says Dhawan, that the BJP has made illegal money from Swiss banks an election issue. The current planetary alignment shows a connection between Rahu (a moon-dependent phase), Jupiter and Saturn. Rahu stands for darkness and anything black, Saturn signifies foreign travel. And Jupiter is the king of money. Also, of religion. A shrewd astrologer would know that a party associated with religion would benefit from turning this divine alignment in its favour. Sources say Advani has at least five astrologers, picked from across India for their varying specialties. Dhawan suspects they had something to do with Advani’s sudden interest in Swiss banks.

Her son Varun’s planetary alignments might be askew but Maneka Gandhi is luckier. She doesn’t have rely on orbits or engage a troop of astrologers to make laborious calculations. She has only to think about Jalandhari Baba. Once, an eager supporter told her he had bet an acre of land that she would win from her UP seat with at least 1 lakh votes. Once the counting was over, she did win, but with a margin of 80,000. Travelling back from Barielly to Delhi, Maneka silently cursed Jalandhari Baba. He had allowed a man to lose a precious acre of land because of her. “Why did guruji let this happen?” she asked herself over and over again. Before she left the UP border, her cell phone rang with unexpected news. There had been a recounting of votes. Maneka had won by a precise margin of 1 lakh!

It’s easy to be dismissive of politicians’ extreme reliance on their attendant soothsayers. But this proclivity is of a piece with the average Indian’s deep religiosity and his enduring belief in the illogical. Transpose all that into the high tension atmosphere of imminent elections in one of the most populous countries in the world, that also happens to be striding towards modernity, and it isn’t difficult to understand why politicians clutch at whichever supernatural straws they can.

Perhaps, it is this dichotomy that best explains our continuing passion for astrology and that of our elected representatives too.

Chasing The Poll Stars

By M H Ahssan

Come elections, no politician is immune to the pull of the planets. A huge industry rests in the space between reason and unreason.

SIXTY YEARS after independence, why have India and Pakistan – siblings born merely a day apart — led such remarkably different lives? Astrologers have a delightful explanation. The answer, they say, lies in the countries’ respective janam kundlis. A country’s kundli is determined by its birth time and place and astrologers had dutifully warned India’s first prime minister that August 14 wasn’t an auspicious birth date for a country. Sadly for Pakistan, half-anhour made all the difference: Nehru signed the dotted line at midnight on August 15.

If this story is believable, it is not much of a leap of imagination to understand why a few months before every general election the glassy image of modern India turns over on its head. Politicians invoke the divine with unmatched fervour. Astrologers are in epic demand. The gods become India’s most wooed constituency.

This year too, as India laces up for its fifteenth general election, goats are being sacrificed to the sound of clanking cymbals; 1,000 people are sitting in precise groups of 11, chanting in unison and blowing into rising flames; somewhere, an unassuming blind man is being handed a brown chappal; and an inconspicuous alleyway is blotted a bright red with all the red donations being showered upon it. An electoral aspirant is turning herself and the nomination box to face the sun. Elaborate rituals are being supervised outside peeling government offices; anxious candidates are turning to a strapped watch on their arm, waiting for the exact minute when the universe suggests they should file their nomination papers. (BJP Opposition leader LK Advani chose 12:39 pm because it is said that is when Ram killed Ravan.) A politician is secretly slipping an extra “a” into her name, hoping no one will notice her changed signature. Hordes of India’s poor are being ushered into manicured lawns for sudden propitiating banquets. In the temples of Lord Bhairon and Kali, alcohol is being offered to the deities, then fed to beggars as prasad. Suddenly, everywhere, politicians have turned into puppets, lifting a designated leg as they enter shrine or office, at the command of their master stargazer.

Dressed in a bright orange kurta, a long tika running up his forehead, Acharya Raj Jyotishi Shukla is emerging from the Congress office at 24 Akbar Road in Delhi. It’s a surprise to see him there, for Shukla says he was officially appointed BJP’s raj guru in 2006 at the behest of Sanjay Joshi, former BJP general secretary. “People in the BJP liked me because I talked about kattar Hindutva. They appointed me the upholder of Hindu religion and asked me to make sure it is never wiped out,” he says. But now he doesn’t restrict his consultation to just the BJP: he has risen above the political divide. “No politician knows where else I go,” he winks. In the last two months, Shukla says he has performed 40 poojas for 40 MPs, each lasting anywhere between two to 12 hours. The scale of each pooja depends on the particular disjunction between the planetary positions and the candidates’ desires. One can only wonder what impact the varying monetary value of each pooja will have on different candidates’ fortunes.

Politicians might be loath to disclose their particular position on the Richter scale of faith and superstition, but suffice it to say that according to a Business India story in 2004, the astrology industry in India adds up to a whopping Rs 40,000 crore. At election time, it apparently jumps by another Rs 600 crore.

UNIVERSAL ADULT franchise obviously brings many dreams, crises and fears for the ‘futures’ doctors to tend to. What follows is only a small recounting of epic pleas and epic interventions:

• Apparently, Trinamool Congress President Mamata Banerjee recently had her assistant call the popular numerologist Swetta Jumaani for tips on how to get an edge over the CPI(M). Jumaani advised her to change her spelling from ‘Mamta’ to ‘Mamata’. If events in Bengal are anything to go by, the Reds are reeling under the onslaught of that extra ‘a’.

• During the nuclear deal stand-off in Parliament last year, much to the horror of animal rights activists, Kishore Samrite, a Samajwadi party legislator, sacrificed 302 goats and 17 buffaloes to seek a divine boost for the Congress-led vote on July 22. Aided by some horse trading, the goats seem to have worked.

• Where there is a crowd, there must be a leader. Jalandhari Baba, now dead, or as his followers put it, “who has now taken leave of his body but left his rose fragrance behind” — was once one of the most sought after gurus in Delhi and had several politicians flocking to him. If you connected with Baba at a personal level, his devotees say, you didn’t even need to tell him what you wanted: your energies just spoke for themselves. In that tacit speaking line were some pretty powerful names. Pranab Mukherjee and LK Advani, apparently, visited Jalandari Baba on several occasions. PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti sought his help to extend her father’s term as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and NCP President Sharad Pawar asked for a cure for his cancer.

• In the hyper-surreal landscape of Tamil Nadu politics, short of a written diktat from AIADMK party chief Jayalalithaa, astrology enjoys an official place in all party affairs (see box on page 54). A senior party leader told TEHELKA that all those who wanted to contest the Lok Sabha polls this year had submitted a copy of their horoscope along with their application. “When candidates are shortlisted for a particular constituency, the horoscope of the candidates may help the party chief in taking the final decision,” he said. Adds R Balasubramaniam, a political commentator, “Jayalalithaa makes no bones about her belief in astrology.” Apparently, it is mandatory for AIADMK politicians to file their nominations exactly at 12.32 pm. Jayalalithaa herself is a stickler for the colour green. Before she leaves her Poes Garden residence, her car must face a small temple of Lord Venkateswara next to her home. Once, on her way to address supporters, she was horrified to find a temple to her left and the crowds to her right. A complete U-turn was made to have the temple on her right and the crowds on her left. Relieved that the planets were realigned, she continued with her speech.

• Elsewhere, Shiv Sena leader Gajanan Kirtikar, who has been indicted for his role in the Mumbai riots of 1992, turned to an astrologer to pick the choicest full moon day for filing his nomination from the Mumbai northwest constituency. One hopes he didn’t suffer the fate of Rajkumar Patel, a Congress candidate from Madhya Pradesh. Patel was told by his ace consultant to file his nomination for the Vidisha seat at the last hour for the most auspicious impact. Unfortunately, a technical slip required him to go home for additional papers. By the time he returned, the deadline for filing his nominations was past. Perhaps Sushma Swaraj’s spiritual contacts were better because with Patel disqualified, she has no serious contender in Vidisha.

• In Gujarat, a key minister has asked Asaram Bapu for help with a particular yagna, which will be performed at the candidate’s home on April 30. Perhaps the minister is taking a leaf out of his leader Narendra Modi’s book, because the story goes that at the height of the pogrom of Gujarat 2002, the controversial chief minister had a band of 17 priests performing the all-powerful Rudravishek prayers to invoke Lord Shiva.

“They are all into it but many won’t own up to it on paper,” says Hemang Arun Pandit, CEO of Ganeshspeaks.com, the portal that handles the backroom operations of top astrologer, Bejan Daruwalla. “They all come to me almost everyday from across the country asking for the right dates to file nominations,” says Daruwalla. In 2000, ex-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had called Daruwalla to strategise about the prospects of the NDA. “They also want to know what suggestions their rival candidates have taken from me,” Daruwalla adds. Some ambitious politicians go a step further and take the kundlis of political rivals to astrologers. “A rival party in UP asked me to read Mayawati’s kundli,” UP-based astrologer Pandit Padmesh Dubey told HNN.

RIVALRY, VULNERABILITY, ambition, greed, faith, intrigue, counterintrigue, and at the end of that manic cycle, unkept electoral promises and the intractable, faceless Indian voter. What can a politician do but turn to the stars?

“They are all eager to win and are at their most vulnerable before an election,” says senior astrologer Ajai Bhambi, who has been so inundated with calls before election 2009 that he has cancelled all out-of-station tours. He gets the largest number of calls before tickets are to be handed out. “Once I had my terrace full of candidates for rival parties, embarrassed to see each other at my door,” says Bhambi. Some clients who have offers from two different parties ask him to read the party’s kundli and the party leaders’ kundli to decide which party would gel better with their own kundlis! (Yes, even parties have kundlis, based on the day and time of their birth. Sometimes a leader’s individual kundli could have led the party to a win, but because it is also influenced by the party’s collective kundli, the candidate ends up losing.)

Bhambi is a staunch believer of kismat (whatever is written in your kundli will happen) and refuses to embark on machinations to alter the divine plan. This is not necessarily a good strategy. Says Acharya Kishore, another pandit operating within political circles, “I looked at [former Congress leader] Madhav Rao Scindia’s kundli and told him he would never be the PM.

His wife immediately took me aside and said, ‘Don’t talk like this, he will get angry.’”

Some like Bhambi and Acharya Kishore stop at predictions. Others conduct yagnas. But there is a fast growing group of ‘futures’ traders who stop at nothing, readily venturing into the dark underbelly of astrology — the tantric jaal, rituals usually performed at night to destroy one’s enemies. A client can choose from four lethal options — turn the enemy in your favour, destabilise the enemy, make the enemy go berserk, and kill the enemy. “Politicians don’t just want prayers. They want their planetary positions to change. We tell them this is not possible from us. Naturally, most of them turn to occult practitioners,” says Hemang Pandit.

No surprise then that a week ago, in the interiors of Orissa, the state’s Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei had conducted a special ritual at the dead of night at a Biroja temple meant for women. Even before he could complete his special prayers, Ghadei had to flee the spot after tribals, armed with bows and arrows, attacked him and the priest, protesting against the occult ritual.

BUT IT is probably the powerful and tantra-surcharged Kamakhya temple in Guwahati that is India’s premier enemy warding-off institution. Visit before election 2009 and one finds that yellow is the pervading colour at the temple of Bogola Devi, one of the 10 forms of Kamakhya Devi. A little girl selling yellow flowers at the bottom of the steep stairs that lead to the temple yells, “Come and buy some flowers for the goddess. All the big ministers buy flowers from my stall.” If you talk to her, she will tell you that all of them come late at night. There is a popular belief that Bogola Devi vanquishes enemies. Politicians come to ask her for help far from the public gaze. Rajiv Sarma of Kamakhya Debuttar Board says openly that Kamakhya Mandir is not an abode of astrologers but that of tantricism. “But most of the politicians who turn up to offer prayers here do so at the advice of astrologers,” he says.

The head priest of the Bogola Devi temple, Pankaj Sarma confirms that politicians of all parties come there to ask for more power and that many perform rituals after midnight, but he refuses to name anyone. Other sources, however, tell TEHELKA that controversial Congress candidate Mani Kumar Subba is a staunch devotee of Kamakhya Devi. His farmhouse in Delhi has a temple with a permanent astrologer and he regularly goes to Rishikesh and Haridwar for consultations with others.

Others choose milder routes. The Ajmer Sharif dargah in Rajasthan has always been a pilgrimage spot and a tourist attraction, but during peak election season, it draws a wide range of politicians too. “Many politicians call me, email me, and ask me to offer a dua for them,” says Qutubuddin Saki, the chief maulvi. If they cannot go themselves, they send their wives and children. Visitors who come to the dargah tie a thread around a revered pillar and ask for divine blessing. If their wishes are fulfilled, they are supposed to return and untie the thread. In the past, the seekers have included Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who came months before the assembly elections and returned 15 days after his win to untie the thread. Other politicians who visited recently include Mulayam Singh Yadav, who came six months ago, Vasundhara Raje, Shri Prakash Jaiswal, Shahnawaz Hussain and Sachin Pilot, all of whom have visited in the last two months. Saki is now waiting to see which among these returns to open the blessed thread and thank the influence wielded by the Ajmer dargah.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, priests and security guards at the city’s famous Siddhivinayak temple are already having sleepless nights as they brace themselves for the onslaught of politicians from across the country, who visit at peak hours. Congress MP Priya Dutt, who took over the mantle of the constituency after her father Sunil Dutt passed away, may not be a very religious person, but the prospect of retaining her father’s seat seems to have ignited a newfound spirituality. Before filing her nomination, Dutt made a marathon trip to the key religious shrines in the city, including the Siddhivinayak temple, the Mount Mary church and the Haji Ali dargah. After all, one never knows which religion the planets may favour on judgment day.

But Dutt is not the only new believer on the horizon. NCP top boss and prime minister aspirant Sharad Pawar, a known atheist and a key figure in the socialist movement of the 1970s shocked many when he paid a visit to the Tulza Bhavani temple in Osmanabad district before filing his nomination last month. In fact, almost every political leader in Maharashtra has visited this temple to pay obeisance before the elections.

IN KOLKATA, the Kalighat temple lies close to a rivulet that many say was the original Ganges. After the clock struck twelve and brought in another Bengali new year last week, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee apparently slipped into the temple quietly with two of her trusted aides for a special prayer. The next morning, a handful of her supporters sacrificed 50 goats for a neighbourhood feast. “Didi must win,” they chanted to thundering cymbals. Even Kolkata’s CPM leader Mohammed Saleem is said to have visited a Hanuman temple to request a divine shield.

Back in Delhi, astrologer RB Dhawan sits with long sheets of star patterns and web kundlis flashing on his laptop. “The energy of action can influence the auras around,” he says. Through what astrologers call “upayas” — action to negate or please dominant planetary influences — bad times can be delayed, good times advanced, and planetary alignments reworked. It is no coincidence, says Dhawan, that the BJP has made illegal money from Swiss banks an election issue. The current planetary alignment shows a connection between Rahu (a moon-dependent phase), Jupiter and Saturn. Rahu stands for darkness and anything black, Saturn signifies foreign travel. And Jupiter is the king of money. Also, of religion. A shrewd astrologer would know that a party associated with religion would benefit from turning this divine alignment in its favour. Sources say Advani has at least five astrologers, picked from across India for their varying specialties. Dhawan suspects they had something to do with Advani’s sudden interest in Swiss banks.

Her son Varun’s planetary alignments might be askew but Maneka Gandhi is luckier. She doesn’t have rely on orbits or engage a troop of astrologers to make laborious calculations. She has only to think about Jalandhari Baba. Once, an eager supporter told her he had bet an acre of land that she would win from her UP seat with at least 1 lakh votes. Once the counting was over, she did win, but with a margin of 80,000. Travelling back from Barielly to Delhi, Maneka silently cursed Jalandhari Baba. He had allowed a man to lose a precious acre of land because of her. “Why did guruji let this happen?” she asked herself over and over again. Before she left the UP border, her cell phone rang with unexpected news. There had been a recounting of votes. Maneka had won by a precise margin of 1 lakh!

It’s easy to be dismissive of politicians’ extreme reliance on their attendant soothsayers. But this proclivity is of a piece with the average Indian’s deep religiosity and his enduring belief in the illogical. Transpose all that into the high tension atmosphere of imminent elections in one of the most populous countries in the world, that also happens to be striding towards modernity, and it isn’t difficult to understand why politicians clutch at whichever supernatural straws they can.

Perhaps, it is this dichotomy that best explains our continuing passion for astrology and that of our elected representatives too.

A Famished Franchise

What is a vote to a starving man? What does the world’s largest election mean to the world’s largest group of forsaken people? HNN finds out.

A VOTE IS often a product of mixed motives — the result of generations of unshakeable loyalty, or the last-minute epiphany of a frustrated finger hovering over multiple EVM buttons. A vote sometimes rewards jobs provided, children schooled, identities recognised. Other times, it punishes pleas unheard, bulbs unlit, bruised faiths. It is a bargaining chip that negotiates a better life for you.

But what if you were forgotten? Even in the shower of attention that elections bring, what if the convoy drove past your village for the nth time? What is a vote to you, if for the third time, a child in your family was dying of hunger, and you had no hospital to take her to, and no earnings to buy her food with? From places that governments have long ignored come shocking stories of the complete failure of government and unbelievable deprivation. Not a morsel to eat, not a drop safe to drink. What does the world’s biggest election mean to the largest group of forsaken people in that country? What is a vote to a starving man?

It takes a stinging swarm of mosquitoes to wake little Maya from her tired sleep. Immediately, she bursts into tears. She thrashes her bony legs; her ribs visible under her skin. There are angry rashes and bleeding sores all over her body. Exhausted from crying, Maya’s eyes shut again. The wailing is now soundless, the tears flow quietly.

Maya looks about one year old, but is actually three. “She doesn’t seem to grow,” says Rasali, her mother. “She hasn’t been able to walk or crawl and most of the time, just lies in an unconscious sleep.” Maya has Grade-4 malnutrition, the severest degree, which means that she has only a few months left to live. She is from Nichikhori village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district, where locals recognise villages not by name, but by the number of children that have starved to death there in the past few months. Nichikhori is known by the number 6. Not one of the children here who stare at us shyly from behind walls and trees looks well, let alone well-fed. Without exception, they are underweight and have distended abdomens, reed-thin limbs, bulging eyes. Almost all have had a sibling starve to death.

Every four minutes, a child is born dead in Madhya Pradesh. Of those that survive, over 14 per cent die before they turn six. In the seven months from July 2008 to January 2009, 676 children died here of malnourishment. That’s three a day. Empty kitchens, leafless trees and ration shops that are as barren as the landscape are visible proof that there is precious little to eat in northern MP. A chronic, pervasive hunger that lay hidden till a few years ago now screams for attention in newspaper headlines. It is not surprising that, in December 2008, the BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chauhan became Chief Minister against a poll promise of subsidised rice. With no actual food to be had, the mere hope of food is what people subsist on. Lok Sabha aspirants have realised that here, the promise of food security is a profitable one to make and a convenient one to break.

RN Rawat, a Congress MLA from Shivpuri is contesting the Morena Lok Sabha seat, with “eradicating starvation deaths” as his primary agenda. When asked why he did not raise the issue in the years he was an MLA, Rawat says, “I may be raising this just before elections, but someone has to do it sometime.” The MP administration denied reports of malnutrition until 2007, when a wave of hungerrelated deaths brought criticism from across the world. Today, Central and state governments recognise the problem, but underplay its scale. Nutrition and Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) were started to treat malnourished children in remote villages, but they admit only severely malnourished children, who are already too sick to respond to treatment. The other hungry children are left to the Centre’s anganwadis, which are supposed to provide a daily meal to children under six. In Shivpuri district, however, women say these meals come only once a week.

“Why do these people depend on the government for everything?” asks Ganesh Singh, the BJP parliamentarian from Satna, who is contesting the seat again this year. “The government helps those who help themselves,” he declares.

In Singh’s constituency, long years of drought have forced many families to mortgage their land to moneylenders for food. Non-agricultural jobs are scarce and pay poorly. Entire villages bear insurmountable debts but still have no food. It is at this point that people look to the government. And when even children die of starvation, it is usually a sign of the most abysmal hunger.

Hari Singh, a labourer in Sheopur, lost his one-year-old son three weeks ago. “Sonu was always very weak,” says Singh. “When he was just over 14 months, he suddenly got boils all over his body and his skin started peeling. He became sookha (dry). He couldn’t even digest breast milk and then got diarrhoea. Towards the end, a rotting smell came from his body. That’s when I knew it was over.” The experience left Hari blaming himself. But what it reveals is an absolute breakdown of government welfare schemes.

IF THERE is food from anywhere, the child is sure to be fed. Universally, parents feed their child first,” says Sachin Jain, a member of the Right to Food campaign in Madhya Pradesh. “If children are starving, it means the entire community is on the brink.”

Starvation deaths are often downplayed by governments as transient aberrations, ones that might merit a cure but never prevention; aberrations that can be dealt with after they occur. The Mizoram government, for instance, has camouflaged chronic hunger among its other anti-famine measures. The state witnesses a unique phenomenon called mautam, literally, ‘bamboo death’. Every 48 years, a particular species of tropical bamboo flowers. A temporary surfeit of rich bamboo seeds leads to an explosion in the population of rats, which soon overrun paddy fields, causing a famine. The last famine was in 1959, and it took on political colour as it became the genesis for the militant Mizoram National Famine Front.

Since late 2004, Mizoram has been going through another devastating famine. There are clear manifestations of the onset of famine in eight districts. It seems bizarre that an entire people live perennially on the verge of starvation, but mautam remains a non-issue this election. CL Ruala, the Congress candidate says that the famine does not feature in the party manifesto because its repercussions are limited. C Rokhuma, founder of the Anti-Famine Campaign Organization, believes that Mizoram is a victim of politicised and badly tackled hunger. “The 2007 mautam was manipulated by politicians,” he says. “They let people starve and then brought rice for them from outside, so as to be seen as solving their problem.”

The snag in approaching hunger as a famine-like phenomenon is that the solution is often short-sighted. The Central government accumulates an emergency stock of food grains by buying directly from farmers, a cache meant for famine relief. It has been hoarding this for so long that it now has four times the required stock. As development economist Jean Dréze puts it, if these sacks of grain were lined up in a row, that array of futile, wasted food would stretch for more than a million kilometres, to the moon and back. Grotesquely, though India has the largest unused stocks of food in the world, it also has more people suffering from hunger than any other country.

ALOOK AT the states that have lost the most people to starvation — Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Orissa — reveals a more silent and misunderstood killer: chronic hunger, the kind that is caused by an utter disability to buy any food. With no land to grow food on and no earnings to buy even subsidised food, families grow hungrier by the generation.

Kalahandi in Orissa has become an icon of Indian poverty. Visited repeatedly by Congress bigwigs and development journalists, the district still remains an unfortunate, living stereotype. A ricesurplus district, yet a district with one of the highest mortality rates (140 per thousand) in the country. The poorest state, yet one voting for 27 crorepati candidates, seven of them from the hungriest Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region.

When the residents of Pengdusi village in Kalahandi are asked what they do for a living, one man bursts out laughing, “We’re boatmakers, fishermen or farmers. At least until we become patients.” In September 2007, 16 people died of diarrhoea here in just 15 days, most of them adults. No one was taken to the hospital because it is 45km away, and there was no bus, no ambulance, and no road. “If you fell sick in this village, you died,” says 30-year-old Madan Nayak, who lost his wife and, one day later, his one-month-old daughter. Diarrhoea is the most common symptom of hunger death — a body’s final rejection of any food or water, an inability to digest anything because of being unfed for too long. Even today, the Primary Health sub-Centre set up 5km from the village following media and NGO pressure, lies locked, with no doctor or health worker appointed. Two years after people died of neglect, no lessons have been learnt.

Yet, instead of despondence, there is still talk of political change. “We all campaigned for Pushpendra Singh of the BJD in the 2004 assembly elections, because we thought he would help us get our BPL cards,” says Haladar Majhi, “But after he won, when we went to remind him of his promise, he asked us who we were.” This year, the popular parliamentary candidate seems to be the Congress’ Bhakta Charan Das, the first politician to visit the village at its worst time in 2007. “He came on a motorcycle, with a doctor riding pillion,” says Haladar, “He ensured that the road is paved. He responds to us, at least for now.”

NEARBY, PREDOMINANTLY tribal Kashipur has been facing the wrath of failed crops. Everyone seems to be at work in lush paddy fields for most of the day, but in their homes, there is commonly just half a pot of dilute rice gruel for a family of five for three days. It is a simple difference between the haves and the have nots. In the last 50 years in Orissa, big farmers have been buying fertile land and cheap labour for throwaway prices. Adivasis work for foodgrains on lands they once owned. When there is no harvest in the rainy season between May and October, they find themselves jobless and too poor to buy even the Rs 2 rice from ration shops. Those with a few acres of land manage for a month or two before hunger strikes them too. Everyone seems to have an NREGA card, but instead of a guaranteed 100 days a year, people in Kashipur get an average of 20 days’ work. Most of that is unpaid.

The staple diet is mango kernels, which lie drying in front of every house. They will be ground and eaten, even though it was these very poisonous fungus- ridden kernels that caused rampant diarrhoea a year ago. “We know this isn’t very good for us,” admits Kaluna, who now raises four children belonging to her sister who died of starvation last year in Kashipur. “But there’s not enough farm produce,” she says. “We need something to quieten the growling stomach.”

The still-robust will to vote among the most neglected is striking. “In the absence of food, land, work, and good health, my vote is the only privilege I have left,” says the 67-year-old Dhiru Kaka, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and wife to starvation last year in Kashipur, Orissa. Playing with his voter ID card is his 2-year-old grandson, the only family he has left. When Dhiru Kaka made the trip to the polling booth on April 16, it was to cast his vote for the 17th time. “At least for a few months after the election, the winning politician will bring us food,” he says, hugging his grandson. “That is the best we can ever expect.”

Offer Valid Till Votes Last!

Hawala money. Benami deals. Cash for votes. Corporate payoffs. Everyone knows it is happening, even the Election Commission cannot control it. HNN maps the invisible funding of Indian elections.

FEROZESHAH ROAD is a quiet, tree-lined boulevard, in the heart of the Indian capital. Considered — by any standard — one of the finest addresses in the city, it houses political leaders and has a few select multi-storied buildings. Not the kind of place one expects surveillance to happen. But last week, intelligence officials — after a tip-off — kept watch on a third-floor flat at 34, Ferozeshah Road. They had reliable information that the occupants of the apartment were in the process of laundering — through hawala — a staggering Rs 380 crore from an undisclosed destination in south-east Asia (read: Singapore). The money, say intelligence officials, was meant for spending in the upcoming general election. Intelligence sources said that those involved included a wealthy businessman from Kolkata and his associate, a wellknown figure in Delhi’s illegal foreign liquor racket.

It may be the world’s largest democratic exercise, what the British weekly The Economist called India’s “jumbo election”. But it’s also one of the most expensive shows on earth. An Indian parliamentary general election is the ultimate political spending spree. And the fuel powering this frenetic activity is almost all black money. Like the proverbial iceberg, the official statistics of what candidates are spending — and therefore, announcing to the Election Commission (EC) — is just the tip. Nine-tenths of it lies beneath, silent, but powerful.

On the surface, everyone, candidates and political parties alike, toe the official code of the Election Commission. While submitting individual details, they offer proof that they are not crossing the commission’s stipulated limit of Rs 25 lakh per candidate.

Not that the commission is fooled, however. The presence of black money in the political arteries of the Indian economy is so overwhelming that the EC knows it plays a powerful role in an election. It has actually admitted it cannot control the deluge of money in election season. Election Commissioner SY Quraishi sounded exasperated when he told a television news channel in Delhi recently, “No, we have little control over money that flows underhand in the elections.” The next week, his office noted breaking news on television that an estimated Rs 10 lakh was found from the drawers of the offices of filmmaker Prakash Jha, who is contesting elections from Bettiah, Bihar on a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket. “The cash was meant to be distributed among the voters,” Bettiah superintendent of police KS Anupam told reporters.

WHETHER THE charge will be substantiated or not is to be seen. There’s no proof and the clout money has in an election is so routine, it’s accepted. “I am currently in Chennai and my conservative estimate for just three constituencies in Madurai alone is Rs 700 crores. The spending in South India is always higher than in North India,” former Finance Secretary S Narayan told TEHELKA this week. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a twoday opinion poll in Gujarat on black money stashed by Indians in banks abroad in early April. Ordinarily the EC would have been expected to raise objections to this sort of grandstanding. The quiet joke in the capital was that the the hardworking election watchdog would have preferred to come to grips with the money political parties spend during the polls, estimated at over Rs 50,000 crore ($10 billion) by those entrenched in the electioneering proces. That figure, incidentally, is almost one fifth of the figure arrived at by a recent national survey.

The survey conducted by Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a Delhi-based think-tank, says that across the country, one-fifth of voters have said politicians or party workers offered them money to vote in the past decade. In some states like Karnataka, Tripura, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, says CMS, nearly half say they have been bribed. Even in the Indian capital, 25 percent of voters received money for their votes.

The organisation estimates that onequarter of the actual election budget is directed towards illicit activity. “For political parties in India, the main objective is to win at any cost. As a result, parties are opening up their purse strings for the polls,” says Jagdeep Chokkar, a former Indian Institute of Management (IIM) professor.

Raymond Baker, author of Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market, writes that, since 1970, at least $5 trillion has moved out of poorer countries to the banking systems of the West. But a portion of this black money comes back to India — election time. That the entire process is unofficial is certain: the transactions, both back and forth, involve hawala operators, sale of benami properties and bagloads of cash ferried to the party faithful for redistribution. And this money transfer operates more efficiently than India’s official economy channels.

Informed sources told HNN that an estimated Rs 10-15,000 crores ($2-3 billion) has been earmarked by political parties for “unofficial” purchases of individual votes. Besides this, politicians in their effort to squeeze every last vote out of the world’s largest electorate — are criss-crossing the country’s 2.97 million square kilometre land mass, running up crores in air transport bills. With campaign costs virtually doubling every election, political observers feel the country’s democratic process is being hijacked by the kind of spendingpower politics that is more often associated with the US elections. Worse, it’s without the level of transparency in both collection and spending that is also associated with the US.

That the EC is troubled is understandable . The bulk of the money is transferred to the states even before the stringent EC code comes into force; more than 60 percent of corporate funding to all political parties is in the form of black money; on an average, a candidate spends anywhere between Rs 3-15 crore in a single constituency. Recently, Chandrababu Naidu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was admonished by the EC for handing out colour televisions and announcing a ‘special’ cash scheme for voters. Code violations such as Naidu’s — cash distributed at rallies or offerings of gold chains or similiar bribes — are merely the infringements that are caught out. Most of the infringements happen before the EC code kicks in.

AS A result, odd stories float around the offices of political parties in Delhi: the capital is the hub for receiving funds from which payments are radiated to state units. Sources say a television channel received nearly Rs 200 crore for slanted publicity; that a top corporate chief visited the offices of the Left brigade with an offer of support to the Third Front with the explicit condition that a leading woman aspirant not become the prime minister; that the UP-based owners of tobaccolaced chewable products have become the conduits for money transfers to state units because of their huge cash reserves. Top Mumbai-based companies are now funding elections in states where they have big business interests.

“Perhaps this will be the election that will see an all-India display of money power as never before. It is only in the urban and better-educated areas — and if the younger people turn out to vote in large numbers — that one can see some hope for transparency, clean voting and genuine democratic selection,” said former Finance Secretary S Narayan in a newspaper column.

Insiders say receipts and payments have been at record levels for the last two months. A number of kickbacks offered by brokers in various deals have slowly found their way to the coffers of the parties in power in each state. “You will find nothing on paper but it is true that a portion of government tenders, running into thousands of crores, is routinely channelled back to the funds of the party in power,” says a corporate insider. He adds that there is also a serious drive in the states to pick up money through various means the moment elections are announced. It is unofficially called the Chief Minister’s slush fund. The fund takes care of the cash transactions of the state and — if required — sends to the party’s centralised funds for distribution to states where the party is not in power. “Besides Delhi, there are certain pockets that take care of the regions. It is like Maharashtra funding Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh unit of the party funding Karnataka, (where it is not in power)” adds the insider.

CONSIDER THE case of the general managers working in the Rural Road Development Agency (RRDA) in Madhya Pradesh districts who received calls from the offices of a minister, demanding Rs 5 lakh. Tired of the calls, they complained to the EC in writing last week. It will be interesting to see how the EC reacts to the complaint. Those in the know say the demands such as the ones faced by the RRDA managers are routine in almost all states. In fact, the Samajwadi Party made four campaign films about Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, that portrayed the Dalit leader as having a penchant for erecting her own statues and demanding money from bureaucrats in her state. The EC rejected the films, but most people seem to agree with the content, ostensibly because similar reports have routinely filled the media about the UP chief minister and her way of operation.

State-owned companies are hardly the only ones tapped for funding — the country’s top corporate houses say the pressure from political parties for money is high indeed. Corporations want an immediate overhaul of the system, to bring in transparency to political funding. The issue cropped up during a Confederation of Indian Industry annual session meant to discuss the country’s troubled job market. Tata Communications chairman Subodh Bhargava and Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj, also a Rajya Sabha MP, moaned about black money flowing into elections. “Clean money makes a difference. Currently, as much as 60 percent of companies are financing political parties with black money,” an enraged Bajaj told reporters.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) secretary- general Amit Mitra says the problem is not the politicians or industrialists. “We must fund elections and take a call on how much an individual can donate. India could either go the US way (of capping corporate contributions) or follow the European model and allow elections to be completely funded by the government,” he says.

Both suggestions are sound, legislatively speaking, but the question is whether any legislation can bring change to a system in which funds are both collected in the form of off-the-book payments and then paid out in silent backhanders.

Conglomerates like the Birlas and the Tatas have separate electoral trusts, through which they donate money to political parties. The Tata Electoral Trust does not distribute funds to individual candidates but to registered political parties, based on their number of elected members to the Lok Sabha. “I think there is obviously a case for laying down procedures for funding as it is at the heart of Indian democracy,” says Communist Party of India (CPI) deputy general secretary Sudhakar Reddy, who is trying to raise the issue of Indian deposits topping the list in secret Swiss Bank accounts. “Companies who fund political parties obviously see returns if the supported party comes to power,” he adds.

IT’S THE return on investment that fuels corporate funding of elections. But even for political parties, the need to increase spending exponentially with every election has become imperative. “Politics is actually a big game of money. Those spending heavily are doing so only as an investment and expect a ten-fold return on their money,” says Anil Bairwal, chief coordinator of the Association of Democratic Reforms. It’s an umbrella group of NGOs that launched the National Election Watch to keep an eye on party and individual campaign budgets and spending.

Bairwal says that in the past, candidates and parties organised mega events such as mass weddings, and handed out money there in return for votes, but patterns are constantly changing in the country’s political landscape. “From Rs 100 for a vote more than a decade ago, the rate has gone up to Rs 1,500-2,000 a vote. In fact, the cash-for-vote often works as a hit-and-miss syndrome in India because booth capturing is out and you actually do not know who’s doing what,” he told HNN.

The EC is aware of the money movement. “Our emphasis will be on controlling the money power in elections,” outgoing chief election commissioner N Gopalaswamy told reporters last week. He added that the EC has also deployed 2,000 observers — many of them senior tax revenue officials — with a special brief to keep tabs on all pollrelated spending.

IT’S A daunting task, because of the sheer numbers involved — both the number of candidates and the size of their funds. Very conservative estimates say the Congress will officially spend approximately Rs 1,500 crore — one expense is its Rs 1 crore ($200,000) blowout to acquire the rights to the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire song Jai Ho from its copyright holder, T-Series. The BJP’s official budget is estimated to be about Rs 1,000 crore: this includes a Rs 200 crore advertising fund.

The BSP has a kitty of Rs 700 crore, similar to that of the Nationalist Congress Party. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) — thanks to some recent fund-raising drives by Union Communications Minister A Raja — has a kitty of Rs 400 crores. The official budget of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is close to Rs 300 crores. The CPM and its allies have a more modest Rs 250 crore budget.

Of course, not every outlay is about glad-handing and buying votes. Many of the expenses are legal though one could question the extravagance. One such is the cost of hiring choppers and executive jets by political parties. For this election the number of helicopters and small jets hired by the political parties have doubled since the last polls in 2004. Currently, political parties have hired an estimated 45 to 50 choppers — half of them from abroad — and 22 small jets. (Most are sixseater jets while some are 13-seaters.)

“The demand is sky-rocketing and political parties do not mind the cost,” says R Puri, who heads Air Charters India, which has rented out its entire fleet of helicopters and jets at prices that range between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh per hour. Hi Flying Aviation, India’s oldest air charter firm, also finds its order book full. Operators like the stateowned Pawan Hans have large fleets which are not allowed to rent out to political parties. However, the political companies are allowed to borrow Pawan Hans helicopters leased to corporations. During the elections, almost anyone and everyone pushes their choppers and planes towards the politicians.

And there are 16 private helicopter owners — read big corporate houses and five star hotel chains — who could spare a chopper to a friendly politico, of course with no financial consideration involved as per rules. In short, it means the favours would be asked for later. And finally, there are 17 state government choppers that can be used for campaigning purposes, in accordance with EC norms.

But flying high costs money. For India’s political leaders, who aim to fly very high indeed, the money to do so, it seems, is easily forthcoming.

Offer Valid Till Votes Last!

Hawala money. Benami deals. Cash for votes. Corporate payoffs. Everyone knows it is happening, even the Election Commission cannot control it. HNN maps the invisible funding of Indian elections.

FEROZESHAH ROAD is a quiet, tree-lined boulevard, in the heart of the Indian capital. Considered — by any standard — one of the finest addresses in the city, it houses political leaders and has a few select multi-storied buildings. Not the kind of place one expects surveillance to happen. But last week, intelligence officials — after a tip-off — kept watch on a third-floor flat at 34, Ferozeshah Road. They had reliable information that the occupants of the apartment were in the process of laundering — through hawala — a staggering Rs 380 crore from an undisclosed destination in south-east Asia (read: Singapore). The money, say intelligence officials, was meant for spending in the upcoming general election. Intelligence sources said that those involved included a wealthy businessman from Kolkata and his associate, a wellknown figure in Delhi’s illegal foreign liquor racket.

It may be the world’s largest democratic exercise, what the British weekly The Economist called India’s “jumbo election”. But it’s also one of the most expensive shows on earth. An Indian parliamentary general election is the ultimate political spending spree. And the fuel powering this frenetic activity is almost all black money. Like the proverbial iceberg, the official statistics of what candidates are spending — and therefore, announcing to the Election Commission (EC) — is just the tip. Nine-tenths of it lies beneath, silent, but powerful.

On the surface, everyone, candidates and political parties alike, toe the official code of the Election Commission. While submitting individual details, they offer proof that they are not crossing the commission’s stipulated limit of Rs 25 lakh per candidate.

Not that the commission is fooled, however. The presence of black money in the political arteries of the Indian economy is so overwhelming that the EC knows it plays a powerful role in an election. It has actually admitted it cannot control the deluge of money in election season. Election Commissioner SY Quraishi sounded exasperated when he told a television news channel in Delhi recently, “No, we have little control over money that flows underhand in the elections.” The next week, his office noted breaking news on television that an estimated Rs 10 lakh was found from the drawers of the offices of filmmaker Prakash Jha, who is contesting elections from Bettiah, Bihar on a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket. “The cash was meant to be distributed among the voters,” Bettiah superintendent of police KS Anupam told reporters.

WHETHER THE charge will be substantiated or not is to be seen. There’s no proof and the clout money has in an election is so routine, it’s accepted. “I am currently in Chennai and my conservative estimate for just three constituencies in Madurai alone is Rs 700 crores. The spending in South India is always higher than in North India,” former Finance Secretary S Narayan told TEHELKA this week. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a twoday opinion poll in Gujarat on black money stashed by Indians in banks abroad in early April. Ordinarily the EC would have been expected to raise objections to this sort of grandstanding. The quiet joke in the capital was that the the hardworking election watchdog would have preferred to come to grips with the money political parties spend during the polls, estimated at over Rs 50,000 crore ($10 billion) by those entrenched in the electioneering proces. That figure, incidentally, is almost one fifth of the figure arrived at by a recent national survey.

The survey conducted by Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a Delhi-based think-tank, says that across the country, one-fifth of voters have said politicians or party workers offered them money to vote in the past decade. In some states like Karnataka, Tripura, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, says CMS, nearly half say they have been bribed. Even in the Indian capital, 25 percent of voters received money for their votes.

The organisation estimates that onequarter of the actual election budget is directed towards illicit activity. “For political parties in India, the main objective is to win at any cost. As a result, parties are opening up their purse strings for the polls,” says Jagdeep Chokkar, a former Indian Institute of Management (IIM) professor.

Raymond Baker, author of Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market, writes that, since 1970, at least $5 trillion has moved out of poorer countries to the banking systems of the West. But a portion of this black money comes back to India — election time. That the entire process is unofficial is certain: the transactions, both back and forth, involve hawala operators, sale of benami properties and bagloads of cash ferried to the party faithful for redistribution. And this money transfer operates more efficiently than India’s official economy channels.

Informed sources told HNN that an estimated Rs 10-15,000 crores ($2-3 billion) has been earmarked by political parties for “unofficial” purchases of individual votes. Besides this, politicians in their effort to squeeze every last vote out of the world’s largest electorate — are criss-crossing the country’s 2.97 million square kilometre land mass, running up crores in air transport bills. With campaign costs virtually doubling every election, political observers feel the country’s democratic process is being hijacked by the kind of spendingpower politics that is more often associated with the US elections. Worse, it’s without the level of transparency in both collection and spending that is also associated with the US.

That the EC is troubled is understandable . The bulk of the money is transferred to the states even before the stringent EC code comes into force; more than 60 percent of corporate funding to all political parties is in the form of black money; on an average, a candidate spends anywhere between Rs 3-15 crore in a single constituency. Recently, Chandrababu Naidu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was admonished by the EC for handing out colour televisions and announcing a ‘special’ cash scheme for voters. Code violations such as Naidu’s — cash distributed at rallies or offerings of gold chains or similiar bribes — are merely the infringements that are caught out. Most of the infringements happen before the EC code kicks in.

AS A result, odd stories float around the offices of political parties in Delhi: the capital is the hub for receiving funds from which payments are radiated to state units. Sources say a television channel received nearly Rs 200 crore for slanted publicity; that a top corporate chief visited the offices of the Left brigade with an offer of support to the Third Front with the explicit condition that a leading woman aspirant not become the prime minister; that the UP-based owners of tobaccolaced chewable products have become the conduits for money transfers to state units because of their huge cash reserves. Top Mumbai-based companies are now funding elections in states where they have big business interests.

“Perhaps this will be the election that will see an all-India display of money power as never before. It is only in the urban and better-educated areas — and if the younger people turn out to vote in large numbers — that one can see some hope for transparency, clean voting and genuine democratic selection,” said former Finance Secretary S Narayan in a newspaper column.

Insiders say receipts and payments have been at record levels for the last two months. A number of kickbacks offered by brokers in various deals have slowly found their way to the coffers of the parties in power in each state. “You will find nothing on paper but it is true that a portion of government tenders, running into thousands of crores, is routinely channelled back to the funds of the party in power,” says a corporate insider. He adds that there is also a serious drive in the states to pick up money through various means the moment elections are announced. It is unofficially called the Chief Minister’s slush fund. The fund takes care of the cash transactions of the state and — if required — sends to the party’s centralised funds for distribution to states where the party is not in power. “Besides Delhi, there are certain pockets that take care of the regions. It is like Maharashtra funding Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh unit of the party funding Karnataka, (where it is not in power)” adds the insider.

CONSIDER THE case of the general managers working in the Rural Road Development Agency (RRDA) in Madhya Pradesh districts who received calls from the offices of a minister, demanding Rs 5 lakh. Tired of the calls, they complained to the EC in writing last week. It will be interesting to see how the EC reacts to the complaint. Those in the know say the demands such as the ones faced by the RRDA managers are routine in almost all states. In fact, the Samajwadi Party made four campaign films about Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, that portrayed the Dalit leader as having a penchant for erecting her own statues and demanding money from bureaucrats in her state. The EC rejected the films, but most people seem to agree with the content, ostensibly because similar reports have routinely filled the media about the UP chief minister and her way of operation.

State-owned companies are hardly the only ones tapped for funding — the country’s top corporate houses say the pressure from political parties for money is high indeed. Corporations want an immediate overhaul of the system, to bring in transparency to political funding. The issue cropped up during a Confederation of Indian Industry annual session meant to discuss the country’s troubled job market. Tata Communications chairman Subodh Bhargava and Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj, also a Rajya Sabha MP, moaned about black money flowing into elections. “Clean money makes a difference. Currently, as much as 60 percent of companies are financing political parties with black money,” an enraged Bajaj told reporters.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) secretary- general Amit Mitra says the problem is not the politicians or industrialists. “We must fund elections and take a call on how much an individual can donate. India could either go the US way (of capping corporate contributions) or follow the European model and allow elections to be completely funded by the government,” he says.

Both suggestions are sound, legislatively speaking, but the question is whether any legislation can bring change to a system in which funds are both collected in the form of off-the-book payments and then paid out in silent backhanders.

Conglomerates like the Birlas and the Tatas have separate electoral trusts, through which they donate money to political parties. The Tata Electoral Trust does not distribute funds to individual candidates but to registered political parties, based on their number of elected members to the Lok Sabha. “I think there is obviously a case for laying down procedures for funding as it is at the heart of Indian democracy,” says Communist Party of India (CPI) deputy general secretary Sudhakar Reddy, who is trying to raise the issue of Indian deposits topping the list in secret Swiss Bank accounts. “Companies who fund political parties obviously see returns if the supported party comes to power,” he adds.

IT’S THE return on investment that fuels corporate funding of elections. But even for political parties, the need to increase spending exponentially with every election has become imperative. “Politics is actually a big game of money. Those spending heavily are doing so only as an investment and expect a ten-fold return on their money,” says Anil Bairwal, chief coordinator of the Association of Democratic Reforms. It’s an umbrella group of NGOs that launched the National Election Watch to keep an eye on party and individual campaign budgets and spending.

Bairwal says that in the past, candidates and parties organised mega events such as mass weddings, and handed out money there in return for votes, but patterns are constantly changing in the country’s political landscape. “From Rs 100 for a vote more than a decade ago, the rate has gone up to Rs 1,500-2,000 a vote. In fact, the cash-for-vote often works as a hit-and-miss syndrome in India because booth capturing is out and you actually do not know who’s doing what,” he told HNN.

The EC is aware of the money movement. “Our emphasis will be on controlling the money power in elections,” outgoing chief election commissioner N Gopalaswamy told reporters last week. He added that the EC has also deployed 2,000 observers — many of them senior tax revenue officials — with a special brief to keep tabs on all pollrelated spending.

IT’S A daunting task, because of the sheer numbers involved — both the number of candidates and the size of their funds. Very conservative estimates say the Congress will officially spend approximately Rs 1,500 crore — one expense is its Rs 1 crore ($200,000) blowout to acquire the rights to the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire song Jai Ho from its copyright holder, T-Series. The BJP’s official budget is estimated to be about Rs 1,000 crore: this includes a Rs 200 crore advertising fund.

The BSP has a kitty of Rs 700 crore, similar to that of the Nationalist Congress Party. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) — thanks to some recent fund-raising drives by Union Communications Minister A Raja — has a kitty of Rs 400 crores. The official budget of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is close to Rs 300 crores. The CPM and its allies have a more modest Rs 250 crore budget.

Of course, not every outlay is about glad-handing and buying votes. Many of the expenses are legal though one could question the extravagance. One such is the cost of hiring choppers and executive jets by political parties. For this election the number of helicopters and small jets hired by the political parties have doubled since the last polls in 2004. Currently, political parties have hired an estimated 45 to 50 choppers — half of them from abroad — and 22 small jets. (Most are sixseater jets while some are 13-seaters.)

“The demand is sky-rocketing and political parties do not mind the cost,” says R Puri, who heads Air Charters India, which has rented out its entire fleet of helicopters and jets at prices that range between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh per hour. Hi Flying Aviation, India’s oldest air charter firm, also finds its order book full. Operators like the stateowned Pawan Hans have large fleets which are not allowed to rent out to political parties. However, the political companies are allowed to borrow Pawan Hans helicopters leased to corporations. During the elections, almost anyone and everyone pushes their choppers and planes towards the politicians.

And there are 16 private helicopter owners — read big corporate houses and five star hotel chains — who could spare a chopper to a friendly politico, of course with no financial consideration involved as per rules. In short, it means the favours would be asked for later. And finally, there are 17 state government choppers that can be used for campaigning purposes, in accordance with EC norms.

But flying high costs money. For India’s political leaders, who aim to fly very high indeed, the money to do so, it seems, is easily forthcoming.

Offer Valid Till Votes Last!

Hawala money. Benami deals. Cash for votes. Corporate payoffs. Everyone knows it is happening, even the Election Commission cannot control it. HNN maps the invisible funding of Indian elections.

FEROZESHAH ROAD is a quiet, tree-lined boulevard, in the heart of the Indian capital. Considered — by any standard — one of the finest addresses in the city, it houses political leaders and has a few select multi-storied buildings. Not the kind of place one expects surveillance to happen. But last week, intelligence officials — after a tip-off — kept watch on a third-floor flat at 34, Ferozeshah Road. They had reliable information that the occupants of the apartment were in the process of laundering — through hawala — a staggering Rs 380 crore from an undisclosed destination in south-east Asia (read: Singapore). The money, say intelligence officials, was meant for spending in the upcoming general election. Intelligence sources said that those involved included a wealthy businessman from Kolkata and his associate, a wellknown figure in Delhi’s illegal foreign liquor racket.

It may be the world’s largest democratic exercise, what the British weekly The Economist called India’s “jumbo election”. But it’s also one of the most expensive shows on earth. An Indian parliamentary general election is the ultimate political spending spree. And the fuel powering this frenetic activity is almost all black money. Like the proverbial iceberg, the official statistics of what candidates are spending — and therefore, announcing to the Election Commission (EC) — is just the tip. Nine-tenths of it lies beneath, silent, but powerful.

On the surface, everyone, candidates and political parties alike, toe the official code of the Election Commission. While submitting individual details, they offer proof that they are not crossing the commission’s stipulated limit of Rs 25 lakh per candidate.

Not that the commission is fooled, however. The presence of black money in the political arteries of the Indian economy is so overwhelming that the EC knows it plays a powerful role in an election. It has actually admitted it cannot control the deluge of money in election season. Election Commissioner SY Quraishi sounded exasperated when he told a television news channel in Delhi recently, “No, we have little control over money that flows underhand in the elections.” The next week, his office noted breaking news on television that an estimated Rs 10 lakh was found from the drawers of the offices of filmmaker Prakash Jha, who is contesting elections from Bettiah, Bihar on a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket. “The cash was meant to be distributed among the voters,” Bettiah superintendent of police KS Anupam told reporters.

WHETHER THE charge will be substantiated or not is to be seen. There’s no proof and the clout money has in an election is so routine, it’s accepted. “I am currently in Chennai and my conservative estimate for just three constituencies in Madurai alone is Rs 700 crores. The spending in South India is always higher than in North India,” former Finance Secretary S Narayan told TEHELKA this week. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a twoday opinion poll in Gujarat on black money stashed by Indians in banks abroad in early April. Ordinarily the EC would have been expected to raise objections to this sort of grandstanding. The quiet joke in the capital was that the the hardworking election watchdog would have preferred to come to grips with the money political parties spend during the polls, estimated at over Rs 50,000 crore ($10 billion) by those entrenched in the electioneering proces. That figure, incidentally, is almost one fifth of the figure arrived at by a recent national survey.

The survey conducted by Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a Delhi-based think-tank, says that across the country, one-fifth of voters have said politicians or party workers offered them money to vote in the past decade. In some states like Karnataka, Tripura, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, says CMS, nearly half say they have been bribed. Even in the Indian capital, 25 percent of voters received money for their votes.

The organisation estimates that onequarter of the actual election budget is directed towards illicit activity. “For political parties in India, the main objective is to win at any cost. As a result, parties are opening up their purse strings for the polls,” says Jagdeep Chokkar, a former Indian Institute of Management (IIM) professor.

Raymond Baker, author of Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market, writes that, since 1970, at least $5 trillion has moved out of poorer countries to the banking systems of the West. But a portion of this black money comes back to India — election time. That the entire process is unofficial is certain: the transactions, both back and forth, involve hawala operators, sale of benami properties and bagloads of cash ferried to the party faithful for redistribution. And this money transfer operates more efficiently than India’s official economy channels.

Informed sources told TEHELKA that an estimated Rs 10-15,000 crores ($2-3 billion) has been earmarked by political parties for “unofficial” purchases of individual votes. Besides this, politicians in their effort to squeeze every last vote out of the world’s largest electorate — are criss-crossing the country’s 2.97 million square kilometre land mass, running up crores in air transport bills. With campaign costs virtually doubling every election, political observers feel the country’s democratic process is being hijacked by the kind of spendingpower politics that is more often associated with the US elections. Worse, it’s without the level of transparency in both collection and spending that is also associated with the US.

That the EC is troubled is understandable . The bulk of the money is transferred to the states even before the stringent EC code comes into force; more than 60 percent of corporate funding to all political parties is in the form of black money; on an average, a candidate spends anywhere between Rs 3-15 crore in a single constituency. Recently, Chandrababu Naidu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was admonished by the EC for handing out colour televisions and announcing a ‘special’ cash scheme for voters. Code violations such as Naidu’s — cash distributed at rallies or offerings of gold chains or similiar bribes — are merely the infringements that are caught out. Most of the infringements happen before the EC code kicks in.

AS A result, odd stories float around the offices of political parties in Delhi: the capital is the hub for receiving funds from which payments are radiated to state units. Sources say a television channel received nearly Rs 200 crore for slanted publicity; that a top corporate chief visited the offices of the Left brigade with an offer of support to the Third Front with the explicit condition that a leading woman aspirant not become the prime minister; that the UP-based owners of tobaccolaced chewable products have become the conduits for money transfers to state units because of their huge cash reserves. Top Mumbai-based companies are now funding elections in states where they have big business interests.

“Perhaps this will be the election that will see an all-India display of money power as never before. It is only in the urban and better-educated areas — and if the younger people turn out to vote in large numbers — that one can see some hope for transparency, clean voting and genuine democratic selection,” said former Finance Secretary S Narayan in a newspaper column.

Insiders say receipts and payments have been at record levels for the last two months. A number of kickbacks offered by brokers in various deals have slowly found their way to the coffers of the parties in power in each state. “You will find nothing on paper but it is true that a portion of government tenders, running into thousands of crores, is routinely channelled back to the funds of the party in power,” says a corporate insider. He adds that there is also a serious drive in the states to pick up money through various means the moment elections are announced. It is unofficially called the Chief Minister’s slush fund. The fund takes care of the cash transactions of the state and — if required — sends to the party’s centralised funds for distribution to states where the party is not in power. “Besides Delhi, there are certain pockets that take care of the regions. It is like Maharashtra funding Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh unit of the party funding Karnataka, (where it is not in power)” adds the insider.

CONSIDER THE case of the general managers working in the Rural Road Development Agency (RRDA) in Madhya Pradesh districts who received calls from the offices of a minister, demanding Rs 5 lakh. Tired of the calls, they complained to the EC in writing last week. It will be interesting to see how the EC reacts to the complaint. Those in the know say the demands such as the ones faced by the RRDA managers are routine in almost all states. In fact, the Samajwadi Party made four campaign films about Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, that portrayed the Dalit leader as having a penchant for erecting her own statues and demanding money from bureaucrats in her state. The EC rejected the films, but most people seem to agree with the content, ostensibly because similar reports have routinely filled the media about the UP chief minister and her way of operation.

State-owned companies are hardly the only ones tapped for funding — the country’s top corporate houses say the pressure from political parties for money is high indeed. Corporations want an immediate overhaul of the system, to bring in transparency to political funding. The issue cropped up during a Confederation of Indian Industry annual session meant to discuss the country’s troubled job market. Tata Communications chairman Subodh Bhargava and Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj, also a Rajya Sabha MP, moaned about black money flowing into elections. “Clean money makes a difference. Currently, as much as 60 percent of companies are financing political parties with black money,” an enraged Bajaj told reporters.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) secretary- general Amit Mitra says the problem is not the politicians or industrialists. “We must fund elections and take a call on how much an individual can donate. India could either go the US way (of capping corporate contributions) or follow the European model and allow elections to be completely funded by the government,” he says.

Both suggestions are sound, legislatively speaking, but the question is whether any legislation can bring change to a system in which funds are both collected in the form of off-the-book payments and then paid out in silent backhanders.

Conglomerates like the Birlas and the Tatas have separate electoral trusts, through which they donate money to political parties. The Tata Electoral Trust does not distribute funds to individual candidates but to registered political parties, based on their number of elected members to the Lok Sabha. “I think there is obviously a case for laying down procedures for funding as it is at the heart of Indian democracy,” says Communist Party of India (CPI) deputy general secretary Sudhakar Reddy, who is trying to raise the issue of Indian deposits topping the list in secret Swiss Bank accounts. “Companies who fund political parties obviously see returns if the supported party comes to power,” he adds.

IT’S THE return on investment that fuels corporate funding of elections. But even for political parties, the need to increase spending exponentially with every election has become imperative. “Politics is actually a big game of money. Those spending heavily are doing so only as an investment and expect a ten-fold return on their money,” says Anil Bairwal, chief coordinator of the Association of Democratic Reforms. It’s an umbrella group of NGOs that launched the National Election Watch to keep an eye on party and individual campaign budgets and spending.

Bairwal says that in the past, candidates and parties organised mega events such as mass weddings, and handed out money there in return for votes, but patterns are constantly changing in the country’s political landscape. “From Rs 100 for a vote more than a decade ago, the rate has gone up to Rs 1,500-2,000 a vote. In fact, the cash-for-vote often works as a hit-and-miss syndrome in India because booth capturing is out and you actually do not know who’s doing what,” he told HNN.

The EC is aware of the money movement. “Our emphasis will be on controlling the money power in elections,” outgoing chief election commissioner N Gopalaswamy told reporters last week. He added that the EC has also deployed 2,000 observers — many of them senior tax revenue officials — with a special brief to keep tabs on all pollrelated spending.

IT’S A daunting task, because of the sheer numbers involved — both the number of candidates and the size of their funds. Very conservative estimates say the Congress will officially spend approximately Rs 1,500 crore — one expense is its Rs 1 crore ($200,000) blowout to acquire the rights to the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire song Jai Ho from its copyright holder, T-Series. The BJP’s official budget is estimated to be about Rs 1,000 crore: this includes a Rs 200 crore advertising fund.

The BSP has a kitty of Rs 700 crore, similar to that of the Nationalist Congress Party. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) — thanks to some recent fund-raising drives by Union Communications Minister A Raja — has a kitty of Rs 400 crores. The official budget of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is close to Rs 300 crores. The CPM and its allies have a more modest Rs 250 crore budget.

Of course, not every outlay is about glad-handing and buying votes. Many of the expenses are legal though one could question the extravagance. One such is the cost of hiring choppers and executive jets by political parties. For this election the number of helicopters and small jets hired by the political parties have doubled since the last polls in 2004. Currently, political parties have hired an estimated 45 to 50 choppers — half of them from abroad — and 22 small jets. (Most are sixseater jets while some are 13-seaters.)

“The demand is sky-rocketing and political parties do not mind the cost,” says R Puri, who heads Air Charters India, which has rented out its entire fleet of helicopters and jets at prices that range between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh per hour. Hi Flying Aviation, India’s oldest air charter firm, also finds its order book full. Operators like the stateowned Pawan Hans have large fleets which are not allowed to rent out to political parties. However, the political companies are allowed to borrow Pawan Hans helicopters leased to corporations. During the elections, almost anyone and everyone pushes their choppers and planes towards the politicians.

And there are 16 private helicopter owners — read big corporate houses and five star hotel chains — who could spare a chopper to a friendly politico, of course with no financial consideration involved as per rules. In short, it means the favours would be asked for later. And finally, there are 17 state government choppers that can be used for campaigning purposes, in accordance with EC norms.

But flying high costs money. For India’s political leaders, who aim to fly very high indeed, the money to do so, it seems, is easily forthcoming.

Waning Motherhood – The Cursed Bliss in India

By Sheena Shafia

“Mothers Reflect God’s loving presence on earth.”

Motherhood is such a blessing in woman’s life, that as a loving mother, she forgets her own self for the tender love of her dear ones and trains her children to virtue. The bond between a mother and her child is a powerful component in a child’s life.

But mothers who die during childbirth or before the birth of a baby leave behind their never ending stories, their children and families and numerous reasons as to why their lives ended so early.

Every time a woman in the third world becomes pregnant, her risk of dying is 200 times higher than the risk run by a woman in the developed world. Approximately 30 million women in India experience pregnancy annually, and 27 million have live births. In India every one woman dies every 5 minutes from a pregnancy-related cause.

Maternal mortality is generally defined as the death of a woman during pregnancy or delivery, or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy from a pregnancy-related cause.

The maternal mortality ratio is nothing but the maternal death per 100,000 live births in one year. The maternal mortality ratio in India is somehow near about 267 (Urban estimation), rising to 619 in rural areas where as the developed countries in contrast have a maternal mortality ratio of around 20 per 100,000 live births.

Given the high maternal mortality rate in India, the women who lose their lives as a result of pregnancy and childbirth remain invisible in general. Therefore, reliable estimates of maternal mortality in India are not available. However, WHO estimates show that out of the 529,000 maternal deaths globally each year, 136,000(25.7%) are contributed by India, most of which can be prevented. This is the highest burden for any single country.

The indirect estimate done by Bhat (Maternal mortality in India: An update. Studies in Family planning, 2002) shows that MMR is higher in eastern and central regions and is lower in north-western and southern region. Similar picture is also shown by data collected under Sample registration system by Registrar General of India in 1997.

States with high maternal mortality include Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The most common responsible causes of maternal deaths are hemorrhage (ante partum or post partum), eclampsia, pre-eclampsia, infection, obstructed and prolonged labour, complications of abortion, disorders related to high blood pressure and anaemia.
Causes of maternal death (%)

Haemorrhage 30
Anaemia 19
Sepsis 16
Obstructed labor 10
Abortion 8
Toxemia 8
Others 9

MAJOR CAUSE: Anaemia is one of the major causes of maternal mortality in India. It is noted painfully that after 61 years of independence India leads iron deficiency anaemia cases in the world and more than 90% of Indian women, adolescent girls and children are anaemic. Everyone is aware that anaemia results in physical weakness, mental shortcomings, low intelligence and increased vulnerability to a number of diseases and causes adverse pregnancy outcomes and even death of expectant mother. The anaemic mothers also bear anaemic children. The Ninth Plan envisaged universal screening for anaemia in pregnant women and appropriate use of IFA tablets is also indicated .But just like other plans and policies the programme had not been operationalised fully. In none of the states were services for anaemia included as a component of antenatal care. Data from Rapid Household Survey indicated that even iron folic acid consumption is still very Low. The target during the Tenth Plan was to make every effort to fully operationalise the Ninth Plan strategy for prevention and management of anaemia. But still now it has not faced much success. Only 22.3% of pregnant women consume Iron and Folic Acid supplementation for 90 days and the percentage is less than 10% among the non-educated women compared to 50% among the well-educated. Also the disparity between rural and urban areas is significant (18% and 34.5% respectively).

OTHER CAUSE: There are various other causes of maternal mortality. Eclampsia is one of them, which is a fallout of pregnancy-induced hypertension. This usually happens due to improper antenatal care. Hypertension during the course of pregnancy can ultimately culminate in convulsions. Eclampsia if not treated with care in time may lead to the death of the mother.

Another reason of maternal death is Haemorrhage. This may once again be caused by poor antenatal care, anaemia during pregnancies or during operative deliveries.

Obstructed or prolonged labour occurs when the foetus does not deliver in the anticipated time. This may be due to the wrong position of the foetus, if it is a too large a baby or if the pelvis of the mother is narrow. In urban India, obstructed labour is generally not among the primary causes of maternal deaths anymore but in rural India, due to lack of interest in institutional delivery it is still a cause of maternal deaths. Till now, in India only 43% of deliveries involve a skilled birth attendant compared to between 86% and 99% in Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Thailand.

Sepsis, another major cause of maternal deaths, may arise from infections, unsafe abortions, anaemia and improper care during pregnancy. Women who do not eat nutritious food during pregnancies are susceptible to infection. In rural, India this is one of the commonest causes of maternal deaths.

INTERMEDIATE CAUSE: They include the low social status of women, lack of awareness and knowledge at the household level, inadequate resources to seek care, and poor access to quality health care. Other causes are untimely diagnosis and treatment, poor skills and training of care providers, and prolonged waiting time at the facility due to lack of trained personnel, equipment and blood. The other prominent dark chapters of our society are the early age of marriage and child bearing, child spacing, family size and fertility patterns, literacy, socio-economic status and the and the customs and beliefs.

Under the Reproductive and child health (RCH)care programme efforts were made to improve the coverage, content and quality of antenatal care in order to achieve substantial reduction in maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality.

In the ninth plan the antenatal and intra partum care contained features like,

* Early registration of pregnancy (12 – 16 weeks);
* Minimum three Ante-Natal Check-ups;
* Screening all pregnant women for major health, nutritional and obstetric problems;
* Identification of women with health problems/complications, providing prompt and effective treatment including referral wherever required;
* Universal coverage of all pregnant women with TT immunization;
* Screening for anaemia and providing IFA tablets to prevent anaemia;
* Advice on food, nutrition and rest;
* Promotion of institutional delivery / Safe deliveries by trained personnel etc.

But according to the Household Survey 1998-99 the actual scenario was something different. A ntenatal coverage in states with poor health indices such as UP, Bihar, MP was very low. Whereas in the southern states antenatal coverage was quite good.

The main problem areas of antenatal checkups lie herewith:

* Inadequate coverage; lack of trained health personnel in antenatal screening, risk identification and referral services;
* Over crowding in PHCs/hospitals
* Lack of Emergency Obstetric services etc
One of the major goals of Government of India’s Department of Health and Family Welfare is to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. The focus has shifted from individualized interventions to attention to the reproductive health care, which includes skilled attendance at birth, operationalising Referral Units and 24 hours delivery services at Primary Health Centres and initiation of Janani Suraksha Yojna (National Maternity Benefit Scheme).

Not only that, improving women’s health require a strong and sustained government commitment, a favourable policy environment, and well-targeted resources. The government’s strategy should include extended care to women whom government programs do not reach. The government of India has been making policy and programmatic statements time to time and setting goals of reducing maternal mortality.

Major policy and program goals in MM ( Maternal Mortality)

1983
Health policy statement by Govt of India
MMR reduction by 200-300 by 1990 and below 200 by the year 2000

2000
National population policy
MMR reduction to less than 100 by 2010

2002
National health policy
MMR reduction to less than 100 by 2010

2002-007
Tenth Five year plan
MMR reduction to less than 200 by 2007

The challenge for the government is to help direct and improve privately provided services through appropriate regulatory arrangements and by encouraging an expansion of their scope to include promotion and prevention, in addition to curative care.
The link between pregnancy-related care and maternal mortality is well established. National programmes and plans have already stressed on the need for universal screening of pregnant women and operationalising essential and emergency obstetric care. Focused antenatal care, birth preparedness and complication readiness, skilled attendance at birth, and access to emergency obstetric care are factors that can help reduce maternal mortality.

The mind boggling high maternal mortality rate in India can be reduced by following the strategies enumerated below:

* Effective initiative from the government is required in terms of proper allocation of resources to all the health institutions specially Primary Health Centers. Even more important is to ensure that the funds actually reach the users whenever it is needed.

* Early registration of antenatal cases and effective health education of couples to make them understand the importance of antenatal check ups, hospital deliveries and small family norms.

* Local dais / birth attendants and female health workers should be imparted periodic training to update themselves with improved techniques and be incorporated as an integral part of health care system. The importance of observing proper aseptic measures while conducting deliveries should be emphasized to them.

* Prevention and early treatment of infection, ante partum and postpartum hemorrhage.

* Wide spread availability / supply of Iron – Folic acid tablets and nutritious food to the poor and remotest corners of the country.

* Treatment of illnesses like diabetes, tuberculosis and malaria during pregnancy should be ensured.

* Construction of better roads and transport facilities is required especially in the rural areas and urban slums to make the health care facilities more available and accessible to people in need.

* Providing facilities for hospital deliveries for high risk cases like severe anaemia, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

In conclusion it can be said that, a maternal death is often not only a result of technical incompetence or negligence, but is also caused by ineffective health system and limited knowledge, social attitudes and poor health and midwife practices by the family and community itself. Since the health of mothers is directly related to a child’s health and without due attention to the causes behind high maternal mortality ratios, we are simply ignoring an important determinant of the health of our nation. In doing so, maybe we are running the risk of damaging our chances for all-encompassing prosperity in future.

‘They Still Die in Labor Room’

By Samiya Anwar & M H Ahssan

Taj Mahal- One of the seven wonders of the world, One of the Greatest monuments, dedicated to the memory of the Queen Mumtaz , by her husband Emperor Sahajahan, is a testimony and a grim reminder of the tragedy of maternal mortality, that can befall any women in childbirth. The probability of an Indian mother dying during childbirth is roughly 10 times that of her Chinese counterpart. Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters in 10 years is now a Millennium Development Goal. Why is MMR in India so high and how far are we from the goal? HNN unravels the many challenges to saving mothers’ lives.

Maternal Death – A Tragic Reality
Women, undoubtedly is the most beautiful piece of creation. She is not just a female, she is more than it. She is definitely a special handiwork of God. That is why she is wanted, she is loved. Men love women. Isn’t so and why not they are always surrounded by women. First it is a woman, to whom they are born. Then they grow with women as sisters. They are married to women. And also women are the one who reproduces the generations. Yes, because women are the reason for the offspring and growth of society.

But the same women are put to menace for procreation of mankind. They are often treated as reproducing machines. Not cared, left as scraps or doormats at homes women die anonymously especially the poor. For women it is a joyful start to a life as the mother and for a child a whole new life. It is really indecent that there is no man or women who take care of them or good medical facilities when the women are in need of special care and attention during and after pregnancy. Hence they either develop complications in the womb or die soon after child birth. Lack of education and short of medical facilities would be the cause. Many stories of women dying with maternal deaths are largely untold and unheard.

This is a social issue and heeds attention. Thanks to the television channels for wonderfully presenting the shows on social problems. Balika Vadhu, is such a social serial on Colors, which had so far portrayed the maternal deaths of young women. It is a mirror of Indian Society. The Indian Government estimates that 301 women die annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the maternal mortality ratio is even higher — 358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar, and 379 in Madhya Pradesh. It is also estimated that few rural women chooses to remain passive. Laajwanti (name changed) a rural girl barely 16 has no complaints; however, she says “It’s a woman’s duty to produce as many children she can. They are God’s gift.” It is been observed that the maternal mortality rate has risen faster as there is pressure on girls to produce as soon they reach puberty. It is a shame to our country which is developing but not the people. We’re still backward. Right!

As the new data analysis tool reveals an estimated 80,000 pregnant women or new mothers die each year in India often from preventable causes including hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and anemia. Since many deaths happen in the anonymity of women’s homes or on the way to seek help at a medical facility, they often go unrecorded. It is absurd because we know about such practices, we have heard it, we have also listen to the news channels and read in several newspapers but still there is no official complaint.

Over 67% of maternal deaths in eight districts in Orissa were among SC/ST groups. Illiteracy is as much a factor as lack of primary health care. After achieving so many laurels in academics, still we’re not fully educated. Though the enrolment in schools has risen from past, our country yet suffers from problems due to lack of information and knowledge. Also in Purulia, West Bengal, 48% of the women who had died had no formal schooling. That’s a real embarrassment. In Bihar’s Vaishali, we can see 42% of the deaths occurred due to Haemorrhage, the most common cause of delivery-related deaths, with almost all hemorrhages occurring after delivery. Many women who delivered at home also died from postpartum hemorrhage. Eclampsia, a serious complication during pregnancy that is attributed to under-developed arteries in the placenta, was the second most common cause of death (17% in Dholpur, 19% in Purulia, and 27% in Guna/Shivpuri). However, the standard treatment for eclampsia, magnesium sulfate, was often not available in these places. These are the shocking findings of an ongoing survey across six states being conducted in co-ordination with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (Unicef). India is still quite far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR) by three quarters by 2015. On an average, there are at least 301 women dying annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the MMR is even higher—358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar and 379 in Madhya Pradesh.

Causes may be:
- Early marriage,Hidden pregnancy, history of abortion, etc
- Financial disasters, No medical facilities
- Smoking, drinking and drugs (urban women)
- Lack of knowledge (like the example I gave about Laajwanti above)

Maternal death is a sensitive issue of human race. We need to curb the social ailments from the society. It is like terrorism killing the number of innocent lives in the dark of ignorance. Though it is hard to eliminate fully from the society we can generate proper awareness about the loss of humanity with every mother dying during and post pregnancy.

Maternal mortality: This India story is a shame!
Over 67% of maternal deaths in eight districts in Orissa were among SC/ST groups. Illiteracy is as much a factor as lack of primary health care. In Purulia, West Bengal , 48% of the women who had died had no formal schooling.

Haemorrhage is the most common cause of delivery-related deaths, with almost all haemorrhages occurring after delivery. In Bihar’s Vaishali, 42% of the deaths occurred due to this. Many women who delivered at home also died from postpartum haemorrhage.

Eclampsia, a serious complication during pregnancy that is attributed to under-developed arteries in the placenta, was the second most common cause of death (17% in Dholpur, 19% in Purulia, and 27% in Guna/Shivpuri). However, the standard treatment for eclampsia, magnesium sulfate, was often not available in these places.

These are the shocking findings of an ongoing survey across six states being conducted in co-ordination with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (Unicef). India is still quite far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR) by three quarters by 2015. On an average, there are at least 301 women dying annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the MMR is even higher—358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar and 379 in Madhya Pradesh.

A new tool, Maternal and Perinatal Death Inquiry and Response (MAPEDIR), has been developed to analyse the underlying medical and social reasons behind maternal death and is being used across 16 districts in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar providing an ongoing, systematic collection of data to reconstruct and analyse the cases of 1,600 women—the highest number of audited maternal deaths in the world. MAPEDIR also informs health officials about the challenges local women face in accessing reproductive health care.

“The tragic reality is that too often maternal deaths are not visible. They don’t leave any trace behind, and their deaths are not accounted for. Unicef is committed to continue working with the National Rural Health Mission to promote surveillance as a key strategy to lower maternal and child mortality,” Chris Hirabayashi, Unicef India deputy director of programmes, said at a meeting with health officials from the six states who are using MAPEDIR.

“Unless we know the main reasons for maternal deaths we cannot take effective measures to tackle them. The traditional system did not deal with the issues adequately. Now using MAPEDIR, we can know if the death are due to delays in decision making at household level or lack of transport or delay at the facility or a cumulative of all three,” S P Yadav, director of medical and health services in Rajasthan said.

A team made up of state government health and nutriti on officials and NGO members, headed by a member of the local village council or Panchayati Raj Institution, conducts interviews with surviving family members at community-level with technical support from Unicef and funds from the United Kingdom’s department of international development (DFID) work under MAPEDIR.

Social and economic factors like the low status of women in communities, the poor understanding of families on when to seek care, lack of transport, poor roads, the cost of seeking care, multiple referrals to different health facilities and a delay in life-saving measures in rural areas have been listed out by Unicef as the reasons behind the high MMR.

Many of these deaths happen in the anonymity of women’s homes or on the way to a medical facility and so they often go unrecorded. An estimated 80,000 pregnant women or new mothers die each year in India often from preventable causes including hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and anemia.

Who cries when mothers die?
Munna was nine months pregnant. She did experience pains few days back, when her husband and mother-in-law rushed her to the nearest primary health centre in Kushwai of the District Shahdol in the State of Madhya Pradesh in India. They had to make her travel by bus from their village, and then in pain Munna had to walk, which she could barely to reach the health centre.

But unfortunately the kushwai health centre, where they had come with lot of hopes, did not had a medical doctor for last one and half years. One male health worker mans the centre. Though, he puts in his best but that may not be enough for women like Munna and others who need medical support.

Inspite of reaching the primary health centre, she did not get any help. She has to travel another eight kilometers to Burhar, the place where there is a community health centre. The centre is fortunately newly built and has facilities for delivery. Munna did develop some complications during the delivery but fortunately survived to see her new born.

She was lucky but thousands of women which die in the state are not. App 10,000 women die every year in Madhya Pradesh during pregnancy or within 42 days after pregnancy. Majority of these could be prevented. Medically these deaths may be due to hemorrhage, infection, eclampsia or unsafe abortion or any of three delays. But fact is there exists a yawning gap in our health system which stands in between life and death of women in the state. This gap has linkage to availability and access to health services, infrastructure, awareness among communities of not only the services but even recognizing danger signs, issue of how where they can access the services etc. Studies also tells us that for every maternal death in India, 20 more women suffer from the impaired health.

But if the situation at ground is like this, and has been there. What is the state’s response to an issue like this? Does it impact the political leaders, their discourse? Does issue of women dying in the state is debated in discussions where funds are allocated or decisions are made? Does state’s machinery care for it? Does civil society raise its concern?

To answer some of these questions a dip stick assessment was done in year 2004 at various levels within civil society, debates in the state assembly, media analysis. Outcomes were revealing. First of all the issue concerned only few in health department. There were only handful of civil society partners, and their major role was to support service delivery system. As such there was no push or urgency to bring change. Interestingly, the issue had never being debated on the floor of the state assembly, a place where elected representatives ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’ decide. It did not impact them, many of them were not even aware of the fact that state has this high number of maternal deaths? An issue like this was never raised by the political leaders in the debates which happen there – an issue of total neglect at the highest political body. Media covered ‘event news’ around the safe motherhood day, probably they never got the right information too.

That was a starting point, but nevertheless situation has changed today. Today state recognizes it as a major issue when it comes to women and children. State calls for an action. It is on high priority list of the political head of the state, state party is being questioned on the number of deaths, gaps on the infrastructure and many related points. Today more than 150 civil society organizations are raising concern on the issue and demanding urgency and urgency of action in the state.

How it happened and what does it impact and what strengths does it generate? Movements don’t just happen; the energy that underlies them must be marshaled, channeled, and focused. The principal means by which this is achieved in our society, and within our political tradition, is through advocacy networks and coalitions.

Networks like Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Madhya Pradesh Jan Adhikar Manch and Collective for advocacy, resource and training, Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha, Mahila Chetna Manch, and many others have not only contributed to help bring the issue at an individual level but as a part of informal collation added to that force which helped bringing the agenda on political normative framework. Some of the strengths which this informal network helped bring were the numbers of civil society partners raising concern on the issue spread across different regions of the state. From a handful few now it is more than 150 civil society partners in the state working in all divisions to bring the issue to forefront. The turn around is also in their way of working from being a service delivery partners or a social mobilization partners in supportive and submissive role in a new avatar of advocacy partner. In this new role civil society speaks on the issue of right to health, its violation, demands state’s accountability to provide for safemotherhood. In this new business influencing people who make decisions which impact human lives is the key.

The primary target of the civil society was to bring the issues which impact lives of women at the villages, blocks and districts to the agenda of the people who make or influence decisions, i.e. state assembly debates, political leaders, members of legislative assembly, ministers, media, rights commission etc. They had been to some part successful. ex-pression of this concern was undertaken by directly meeting and sensitizing political leaders. The evidences highlighting gap were shared with political leaders, urging them to rise above politics and give a strong call for action. These non governmental organizations wrote memorandums, shared information and collected evidences for the same purpose. Media engagement also supported by providing an enabling environment for change. Strong evidences i.e. case of maternal deaths which can be presented, health system gaps were highlighted which added pressure on the state and the leaders to react. Resultant of this solid gains achieved. Today questions on maternal mortality are being raised in the state assembly, the highest policy making body of the state. It is not just few many voices are being publicly heard on the issue. There is a increased concern within media.

From nowhere it came to a point where state publicly acknowledge the problem, and its commitment to act. Many new polices and schemes have been announced and that too in the rapid succession. This amount of concern and even expressed publicly by leaders had never been seen earlier in the state on the issue of maternal mortality. But that is not enough today empowered civil society and media is always looking with eagle’s eye on the new measures of the state and vocally points out the gaps This is a positive sign, where people are voicing their opinion. But it is not easy as said. Political leaders have started picking up real cases of deaths, gaps in infrastructure in the state, violation of rights, gaps in policies and seeking answers to what is being done by the state to response to the situation.

Advocacy experts tell us that ‘people centered advocacy’ is the best, i.e. position when people who suffer can speak for themselves. A step has been taken in the same direction by the engaged networks. Madhya Pradesh Jan Adhikar Manch in their work with communities helped to bring the issue to debate in various gram sabhas which were held by panchayats in Gwalior – Chambal division. Similarly women who had participated in various women conventions hosted by Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha came forward and wrote about the problems women face in rural areas when it comes to issue of safemotherhood and why do women die in their villages while giving birth. As per sources of Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha more than 200 women have written to the Chief Minister. On a simple fifty paise post card, they wrote by theselves and it was send to the Chief Minister. It looks simple but powerful, if it gets to his eyes. Recently a large number of women from villages across Madhya Pradesh have joined a signature (or thumb-impression) campaign to press for their right to health and to call upon the Government to ensure that the dream of safe motherhood becomes a reality. As a part of a special drive to raise concern on this crucial issue, more than 20,000 women from different villages of the State are now in the process of signing (or placing their thumb impression) on a various banners demanding the right to health and calling upon the State to ensure that the dream of safe motherhood becomes a reality. Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha are the civil society partners who are collecting these signatures/thumb impressions of women. They say that they do so after they are adequately sensitizing them on the issue of maternal mortality. Then if they feel that some concrete action is needed to improve the situation, they come and sign. Plan is to present the banners with their signatures to policy makers.

One might say that this is good effort, which indeed it is to bring the agenda of maternal mortality on to the political and action framework but it is still a long way to go. This is true. But if one looks back one and half years where there was hardly any concern, hardly anyone called for action, except few that too ‘within the box’. The focus was limited. From nowhere it has come somewhere, which is an important achievement by any means. Need of the day is to provide possible answers to the state, which is willing to listen. Answers which can help deliver results, within the context of the field realties and socio – cultural aspects – a new call to many!

Lhamu, a mother of twelve, lives in a remote village in Western Tibet. Three of her children died within a month of birth and the four year old strapped to her back looked as small as a one year old. She gave birth all alone, at home, all twelve times. But Lhamu was lucky. She didn’t die. One in 33 women dies during childbirth in Tibet. Malnutrition, abject poverty and lack of any health care – however basic—plagues Lhamu’s family, as it does much of Tibet. Tibet – vast lonely stretches of dead habit with nary a creature on its harsh plains and no economy to speak of. It can’t be as bad here in new economy India, right?

Think again.

One in 48 women in India is at risk of dying during childbirth. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in India is a high 407 per 100,000 live births, according to the National Health Policy 2002. Other sources put the MMR at a higher 540 (NHFS and UNICEF data, 2000). Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters by 2015 is a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for all countries including India. Achieving this means reducing the MMR to 100 by 2015. Part of the problem is this measurement – MMR data is just not there and if it is, it varies widely depending on what method was used to get it.

Studies show MMR among scheduled tribes (652) and scheduled castes (584) is higher than in women of other castes (516, according to one study). It is higher among illiterate women (574) than those having completed middle school (484). The key determinant seems to be access to healthcare. Less-developed villages had a significantly higher MMR (646) than moderately or well-developed villages (501 and 488 deaths, respectively).

“It is very sad that the numbers are so high even 57 years after independence,” avers Dr H Sudarshan who is Vigilance Director (Health) of the anti-corruption body Karnataka Lokayukta. “Not only are the numbers from the Sample Registration System (SRS) high, they are also incomplete. We do not know how many mothers actually died during childbirth and why. Underreporting is rampant and people hide MMR numbers in fear of repercussions. We need state-wise and within states, district-wise data,” says Sudarshan who was also Chairman of the Karnataka Health Task Force which made wide-ranging recommendations based on a 2-3 year detailed study conducted in the state. Regardless, the UN MMR numbers for India (540) are several times higher than those for other developing countries like China (56), Brazil (260), Thailand (44), Mexico (83) or even Sri Lanka (92).

Medical reasons
So what exactly leads to such a high MMR? The main reasons for maternal deaths related to pregnancy are anaemia, post-partum bleeding and septic abortions with anaemia being the most rampant. “Antenatal care is most important,” declares Sudarshan, “and that is just not being done. This kind of care checks for high risk pregnancies.”

Public health advocate Dr Mira Shiva agrees, “Hypertension and the toxemias of pregnancy can only be detected with antenatal care. There is a total neglect of a mother’s health in India. [The situation] is disgusting because a big chunk of all this is preventable. The medical establishment is busy with micronutrients but that is not the answer. Giving one iron tablet to a woman during her pregnancy is too late.” Shiva is coordinator of the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) and one of the founding members of the People’s Health Movement (PHM). Striking out at a more endemic problem, she says, “The real problem is food. It is all about food, the cost of food and the nutrition content therein. These pregnant women have to fetch the water, make fuel, work the buffaloes, etc., all on the measly amount of food they can afford. How can the nutritive intake be enough? It becomes a negative calorie balance. In short, what is needed goes beyond a medical solution.”

Sudarshan echoes Shiva’s sentiment, “We need to move from a medical model to a social model. Nutrition for pregnant mothers is very important and the ICDS Anganwadi scheme has clearly not achieved the hoped results.” Where antenatal care is good, the results are good as well. Kerala and Tamilnadu have good antenatal care and correspondingly have two of the lowest MMRs in India. In Assam and Bihar where antenatal care is almost zero, the MMRs are among the highest. India has the lowest percentage of antenatal coverage (60%) among countries like China, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Sri Lanka which are all in the high 86-95% range.

While antenatal care is paramount in the prevention of pregnancy-related deaths, septic abortions are more insidious. What is worse, the latter tends to go unreported due to the nature and circumstances surrounding it. In many rural areas couples do not use any spacing methods and women conceive within 7 months of having given birth. Dr Leena Joshi of Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) is familiar with this scenario. Her voice drops with concern when she mentions abortion rates in the remote reaches of Maharashtra. “The abortion rate in these areas is just so high. With it comes hidden mortality from septic abortion deaths. Since the PHCs do not have MTP methods, the abortions are performed by quacks. And even if the PHCs or district hospitals have MTP methods, the people opt for local help.” Why? “It saves them money. These are very poor people and transport costs and medical costs can be saved by walking to a local quack.” As a result there are a high number of abortion-related deaths which do not get reported under maternal mortality. Dr. Joshi laments that everybody only talks about deaths during the childbirth process. “But since there are so many septic abortion cases it all goes unreported.”

The problem of unsafe abortion is something that Shiva worries about as well. “Abortion (MTP) being legal in India, no one is turned away. Second trimester abortion is a big reason for rising MMRs.” People come late for the abortions and complications ensue. And apparently these are not only driven by spacing problems. “Contraceptives are used only by women and failure of these is common,” says Joshi. Of course, abortion of female fetuses is routine and it goes on until the woman conceives a male child. The whole scenario makes one shudder.

But all this seems to be not even half the story.

Take malaria, for example. Orissa has a high incidence and accounted for 28.6% of detected cases of malaria — 41% of falciparum — and 62.8% of all material deaths in India (1998). Malaria and pregnancy form a sinister synergistic pair. Falciparum malaria leads to abortion and still births in the gravid woman and can severely compound anaemia. Coincidentally, Orissa has a high incidence of sickle cell anaemia. The combination is lethal. The haemoglobin in pregnant women could drop to 1gm/dL (healthy levels are between 12-16gms/dL). While drugs are available to treat the malaria, the treatment requires a high degree of awareness and care in administration. For example, the common primaquine and tetracycline are absolute no-nos during any stage of pregnancy. But chloroquine and quinine are allowed. “But mistakes occur and are lethal,” says Shiva. Acting fast and carefully is paramount and any deaths due to these infections are primarily due to gross neglect or ignorance. Orissa has one of the highest rates of MMR in India at 738.

Another key reason for deaths during pregnancy is post-partum bleeding or haemorrhage. The need for blood in such cases is imperative and access is less than ideal. Both Sudarshan and Shiva worry about the blood bank policy in India. Heavily driven by the HIV/AIDS lobby, they feel that somewhere the important issue of access to blood has been sacrificed for quality and safety since the policy makers are looking at it all from the AIDS perspective. Says Sudarshan,”The policy says you have to keep the blood in an air-conditioned room. But in Coorg, for example, you don’t need it. HIV awareness is good, but blood banks need to be demystified and access and availability improved.” Shiva adds, “It is imperative in case of complications during pregnancy to have blood available. But no. NACO only sees blood banks from their perspective and only in an emergency are you allowed to take blood from the banks. It is a major concern.” When it comes to donation, Shiva points to an endemic problem. The strange connection between men, caring for women, and giving blood. “If the men have to pay a lot of money and go far to get blood for their wives, they just won’t. And men will never give blood. They think a 100 drops of blood equals one drop of semen and thus, giving blood is related to potency. And so many times, when women need blood, it is not available.”

Organisational reasons
Early diagnosis of high-risk pregnancies and complications and quick referrals are of paramount importance. But is institutionalising deliveries the answer? By requiring 100% institutional deliveries, the World Bank supported vertical program Reproductive Child Health 1 (RCH1) resulted in the abolishing of the dais (Traditional Birth Attendants), and Sudarshan believes, probably increased MMR. Subsequently, following a public uproar, the program was amended to advocate “training” TBAs into Skilled Birth Attendants. “Institutional support will bring down MMR, yes, but what type of institution is important,” says Sudarshan. “The so called Primary Health Care units are so dirty that infection will probably increase because of them.” “In Bihar, for example,” explains Sudarshan, “80% of the deliveries happen at home. In Karnataka it is 70%.” Joshi concurs with this high degree of preference. “In the Bhandara area almost 100% prefer home deliveries. And if there are complications, it means there are inevitable delays in getting more sophisticated care.”

Now, if there were a skilled birth attendant (SBA) at the time of each delivery or for antenatal checkups for each pregnancy, he or she can recognize a high-risk pregnancy or a potential complication and refer the mother to a district hospital or closest emergency care unit. The incidence of death from complications would be reduced. Countries like Malaysia have employed this strategy to bring down MMR to less than 100. In India only 43% of deliveries are attended by an SBA compared to between 86% and 99% in Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Thailand.

Sudarshan himself is involved in training tribal girls in the Soliga communities of Karnataka to be auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs). For a population of 3000, there is a sub-centre and for every 5 or 6 sub-centres, there is a primary health care unit. Sudarshan’s team trains the tribal girls in each village so that the few ANMs posted do not have to walk the 20 kms between the 4-5 villages this program covers. Joshi’s team in Bhandara also trained 25 local dais or Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) to recognize complications and give basic medicines and obstetric care in the villages, one to each village. They also conduct antenatal checkups every month in about 10 villages. But funds for such programs are scant primarily because maternal health is not recognized as a priority issue in India. “The awareness that a pregnant woman should be taken care of is just not there,” says Joshi. “If a woman is not delivering, the attitude used to be, let’s wait and see, maybe tomorrow morning she will deliver. Now with our training, the dais can recognize complications but the money to shift the patient to a hospital is still not there.”

This brings us to the next obstacle. So say the SBA refers to patient to an emergency obstetric care unit (EOC) and let’s assume that we have one of those for every few villages. How would the patient reach the EOC? “Transport is a big issue. It is appalling that we do not have EMS (emergency medical services) that is efficient and well staffed,” Sudarshan states categorically. He is working on building one for Karnataka with a coordinating body at district level which has jeeps, ambulances, even tractors available for responding to emergency calls. “We have to strengthen the PHC and an EMS is an integral part of that,” he says. Bhandara is not so lucky. “Vehicles are available in 50% of the cases. But they are expensive. In the day, people can use buses, but not at nights. There are several rivers in this area and the buses are not allowed to travel over these at night,” says Joshi.

Suppose the patient does reach the first referral unit (FRU) with complications that say, require a C-section. Is that a guarantee for a safe delivery? Sadly, no. Few FRUs run 24 hours. Joshi’s hospital has 2-3 gynaecologists where the recommended number for the population of that area is 5-6. “All the C-sections and hysterectomies are carried out by these 2-3 gynaecologists. In the PHC in the villages, there is one doctor and 2-3 sisters (nurses), but they are only graduates, not post graduates or MBBS. So they cannot even do a complicated normal delivery, let alone C-sections.”

Even in Karnataka, the FRUs are woefully understaffed and in some cases dangerously mismatched. “In one case,” says Sudarshan with an ironic smile, “an orthopedist was posted where an obstetrician was required. With bribes, these so-called doctors can get posted to any area they want regardless of what is actually required there.” And then there is the big problem of anaesthetists. At the Taluka level there is an acute shortage of them. Anaesthetists are required during complications and surgeries. When Sudarshan’s team proposed that nurse obstetricians and other doctors also get trained in anaesthetics, the proposal was shot down by the medical lobby. Human resource management in the health sector seems to be a big issue. Shiva echoed the sentiment saying, “We need trained people in PHCs. And people with the right training. There is no point sending patients who require C-sections to where there is no anaesthetist or ob-gyn.”

Government
Now, if we had fully staffed and functioning FRUs, would that bring down the mortality rate? Unfortunately, there is still one more layer that mothers have to contend with.

Shanta lives in a slum in Bangalore. When she was expecting her second child, she had the good fortune of being close to a government hospital where care would be free. Or so she thought. When she reached there, she realized that she had to ‘buy’ a bed or sleep on the floor. She also had to ‘buy’ food. So much so that she even had to ‘buy’ washing services or wear soiled clothes. And when it was time to “push” during delivery, she was just too weak, and the nurses slapped her. Left and right, again and again. They abused and cursed. “Is that the way to treat a patient?” Shanta queries in puzzlement. “My mother’s house where I had my first born was better,” she declared. Her sister-in-law Prema now laughs as she describes her own run-in with a local PHC outside Mysore. “They wouldn’t give me my child until I paid up. Luckily I had saved all year, knowing this would be the case. The nurse was actually someone I grew up with. I thought she would be fair, but no. Everyone wants money.” As soon as they got their money, she was sent home -– the same day — with no medicines or follow-up monitoring either for her or her baby.

Corruption is not a new problem. “Even if the most sophisticated PHC is right across the road the ward boy needs to be bribed with Rs 150 to wheel the mother into the operation theatre and another Rs 300 to wheel her to the ward and most cannot afford that,” declares a grave Sudarshan. In his opinion this final layer is the most important and toughest one to correct. “Bad governance. The real problem is not technological care but simply what I call the epidemic of corruption in the health services. And this is not just in the public healthcare sector, the private is just as bad,” he says. “Doctors in Arunachal Pradesh take their pay checks but never show up. There is rampant corruption in procurement where, in one case, 123 spurious drugs were identified but bribes were taken and they were not reported. Dialysis machines which cost 5 lakhs are bought at 12.5 lakhs. Poor people end up spending huge amounts due to over-prescription of medicines that should be free to them. This is the real problem and no amount of infrastructure improvement will bring down MMR if governance is not improved,” warns Sudarshan.

Shiva adds, “The private hospitals are mercenaries too. They perform unwanted C-sections and hysterectomies where none is required simply because there is big money in these procedures.” Sudarshan, who sits in the anti-corruption cell of the Karnataka Government has presented strong recommendations to the Karnataka government regarding this issue. He stresses that good accreditation, accountability, good monitoring, and honest reporting are the only things that will actually bring down MMR, given the other necessities are taken care of.

And where will the money for the necessary infrastructure come from? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised that the government spending on public healthcare — which currently stands at an abysmal 0.9% of GDP (one of the five lowest in the world) — will be increased to 2-3% of GDP which Sudarshan finds heartening, but tempers his optimism with caution. “It is great that there will be three times the amount available today for a sector that needs it badly, but one must plug the holes first. No point pouring all that money into a leaky vessel,” he quips.

So, can it be done? Can MMR be brought down under 100 by 2015?

Sudarshan thinks so, but he will give it not 10, but 15 years. “It all comes down to political will. Sri Lanka, in spite of the civil war showed tremendous political will in tackling IMR and MMR and setting goals for themselves. Tamilnadu has a Deputy Commissioner (DC) monitor maternal mortality himself.” This has increased the accountability and responsibility of the people in charge and has achieved good results. In Kerala, awareness about maternal health issues is high and the citizens demand more. Literacy plays a key role in keeping the MMR low. Kerala leads the way in successfully reducing MMR and Tamilnadu is close behind. While people like Sudarshan are doing everything to make sure it happens in Karnataka, the awareness and more importantly, recognition of this as an issue is lacking in other parts of India. In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam and Orissa where the MMRs are well above the national average, it will require serious political will and accountability to change status quo.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare puts plans in place with the best of intentions (see here), but until governance and administration is addressed, people like Prema will still have no guarantees of care without paying beyond their means to like other pockets. But whether we will make progress will also be determined by when the Ministry recognizes MMR itself one of the key “Health and Population Indicators.” Today, they do not. (See here.)

Both Shiva and Sudarshan agree that what India does not require is yet another vertical program to tackle maternal mortality. Verticals tend to be donor driven and cost intensive. MMR is not a disease unto itself. Clearly, high MMR is a symptom of a larger and wider problem in healthcare, namely the overall health of the woman, and should be treated as such and across verticals. Tackling a lot of the broader issues of governance and infrastructure should bring down the MMR. The National Rural Health Mission aims to reach across verticals to integrate services and by appointing an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) at the community level provides decentralized first contact care. Shiva was part of one of the Task Forces of the NRHM and lauds its efforts as broadening the RCH program. But in order that the NRHM succeed, we come back to the need for evaluation methods and strong accountability.

The health of mothers is directly related to a child’s health and without due attention to the causes behind high maternal mortality ratios, we are ignoring an important determinant of the health of our nation. In doing so, we may be running the risk of damaging our chances for all-encompassing prosperity.

Ways to tackle maternal mortality
To check the maternal mortality rate in India, health experts have stressed on changing the traditional treatment and delivery system being practised in most villages.

At the 52th All-India Congress of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, the annual meeting of The Federation of Obstetric & Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), gynaecologists from across the globe advocated the need to adopt advanced strategies practised in some of the countries in Africa.

“Lack of access and inadequate utilisation of healthcare facilities are responsible for maternal deaths in India. Countries like Mozambique have made good progress in reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR),” explained Staffan Bergstrom, from Sweden.

Bergstrom added that the healthcare facilities in remote areas of countries like India are virtually absent, with no specialist doctors and advanced treatment facilities.

“In a number of countries with low per capita income, there is a scarcity of specialist doctors. Non-specialist doctors do major surgeries and fail to diagnose complications. Besides, many medical and clinical officers are being trained to perform surgeries in remote places, where specialists are not available. This is very risky,” Bergstrom explained.

“We should remember that children’s health is directly related to mother’s health. The MMR reflect the health of our nation. So, we should introduce advanced facilities in our villages,” said Gita Ganguly Mukherjee, former head of obstetrics and gynaecology, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

In India, one of 48 expecting mothers is at risk of dying during childbirth. According to the data of National Health Policy 2002, the MMR in India is as high as 407 per 100,000 live births. Other sources have put the MMR as high as 540 (NHFS and Unicef data, 2000).

“The chances of death of an Indian mother during childbirth is roughly 10 times more than that of her Chinese counterpart,” said Bergstrom.

India and other Third World countries have set a goal to reduce the MMR by three-quarters by 2015.

Also Read:

Motherhood Cursed Bliss in India

Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality

Death in Birth

The Heartbrake

‘They Still Die in Labor Room’

By Samiya Anwar & M H Ahssan

Taj Mahal- One of the seven wonders of the world, One of the Greatest monuments, dedicated to the memory of the Queen Mumtaz , by her husband Emperor Sahajahan, is a testimony and a grim reminder of the tragedy of maternal mortality, that can befall any women in childbirth. The probability of an Indian mother dying during childbirth is roughly 10 times that of her Chinese counterpart. Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters in 10 years is now a Millennium Development Goal. Why is MMR in India so high and how far are we from the goal? HNN unravels the many challenges to saving mothers’ lives.

Maternal Death – A Tragic Reality
Women, undoubtedly is the most beautiful piece of creation. She is not just a female, she is more than it. She is definitely a special handiwork of God. That is why she is wanted, she is loved. Men love women. Isn’t so and why not they are always surrounded by women. First it is a woman, to whom they are born. Then they grow with women as sisters. They are married to women. And also women are the one who reproduces the generations. Yes, because women are the reason for the offspring and growth of society.

But the same women are put to menace for procreation of mankind. They are often treated as reproducing machines. Not cared, left as scraps or doormats at homes women die anonymously especially the poor. For women it is a joyful start to a life as the mother and for a child a whole new life. It is really indecent that there is no man or women who take care of them or good medical facilities when the women are in need of special care and attention during and after pregnancy. Hence they either develop complications in the womb or die soon after child birth. Lack of education and short of medical facilities would be the cause. Many stories of women dying with maternal deaths are largely untold and unheard.

This is a social issue and heeds attention. Thanks to the television channels for wonderfully presenting the shows on social problems. Balika Vadhu, is such a social serial on Colors, which had so far portrayed the maternal deaths of young women. It is a mirror of Indian Society. The Indian Government estimates that 301 women die annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the maternal mortality ratio is even higher — 358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar, and 379 in Madhya Pradesh. It is also estimated that few rural women chooses to remain passive. Laajwanti (name changed) a rural girl barely 16 has no complaints; however, she says “It’s a woman’s duty to produce as many children she can. They are God’s gift.” It is been observed that the maternal mortality rate has risen faster as there is pressure on girls to produce as soon they reach puberty. It is a shame to our country which is developing but not the people. We’re still backward. Right!

As the new data analysis tool reveals an estimated 80,000 pregnant women or new mothers die each year in India often from preventable causes including hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and anemia. Since many deaths happen in the anonymity of women’s homes or on the way to seek help at a medical facility, they often go unrecorded. It is absurd because we know about such practices, we have heard it, we have also listen to the news channels and read in several newspapers but still there is no official complaint.

Over 67% of maternal deaths in eight districts in Orissa were among SC/ST groups. Illiteracy is as much a factor as lack of primary health care. After achieving so many laurels in academics, still we’re not fully educated. Though the enrolment in schools has risen from past, our country yet suffers from problems due to lack of information and knowledge. Also in Purulia, West Bengal, 48% of the women who had died had no formal schooling. That’s a real embarrassment. In Bihar’s Vaishali, we can see 42% of the deaths occurred due to Haemorrhage, the most common cause of delivery-related deaths, with almost all hemorrhages occurring after delivery. Many women who delivered at home also died from postpartum hemorrhage. Eclampsia, a serious complication during pregnancy that is attributed to under-developed arteries in the placenta, was the second most common cause of death (17% in Dholpur, 19% in Purulia, and 27% in Guna/Shivpuri). However, the standard treatment for eclampsia, magnesium sulfate, was often not available in these places. These are the shocking findings of an ongoing survey across six states being conducted in co-ordination with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (Unicef). India is still quite far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR) by three quarters by 2015. On an average, there are at least 301 women dying annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the MMR is even higher—358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar and 379 in Madhya Pradesh.

Causes may be:
- Early marriage,Hidden pregnancy, history of abortion, etc
- Financial disasters, No medical facilities
- Smoking, drinking and drugs (urban women)
- Lack of knowledge (like the example I gave about Laajwanti above)

Maternal death is a sensitive issue of human race. We need to curb the social ailments from the society. It is like terrorism killing the number of innocent lives in the dark of ignorance. Though it is hard to eliminate fully from the society we can generate proper awareness about the loss of humanity with every mother dying during and post pregnancy.

Maternal mortality: This India story is a shame!
Over 67% of maternal deaths in eight districts in Orissa were among SC/ST groups. Illiteracy is as much a factor as lack of primary health care. In Purulia, West Bengal , 48% of the women who had died had no formal schooling.

Haemorrhage is the most common cause of delivery-related deaths, with almost all haemorrhages occurring after delivery. In Bihar’s Vaishali, 42% of the deaths occurred due to this. Many women who delivered at home also died from postpartum haemorrhage.

Eclampsia, a serious complication during pregnancy that is attributed to under-developed arteries in the placenta, was the second most common cause of death (17% in Dholpur, 19% in Purulia, and 27% in Guna/Shivpuri). However, the standard treatment for eclampsia, magnesium sulfate, was often not available in these places.

These are the shocking findings of an ongoing survey across six states being conducted in co-ordination with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (Unicef). India is still quite far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR) by three quarters by 2015. On an average, there are at least 301 women dying annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the MMR is even higher—358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar and 379 in Madhya Pradesh.

A new tool, Maternal and Perinatal Death Inquiry and Response (MAPEDIR), has been developed to analyse the underlying medical and social reasons behind maternal death and is being used across 16 districts in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar providing an ongoing, systematic collection of data to reconstruct and analyse the cases of 1,600 women—the highest number of audited maternal deaths in the world. MAPEDIR also informs health officials about the challenges local women face in accessing reproductive health care.

“The tragic reality is that too often maternal deaths are not visible. They don’t leave any trace behind, and their deaths are not accounted for. Unicef is committed to continue working with the National Rural Health Mission to promote surveillance as a key strategy to lower maternal and child mortality,” Chris Hirabayashi, Unicef India deputy director of programmes, said at a meeting with health officials from the six states who are using MAPEDIR.

“Unless we know the main reasons for maternal deaths we cannot take effective measures to tackle them. The traditional system did not deal with the issues adequately. Now using MAPEDIR, we can know if the death are due to delays in decision making at household level or lack of transport or delay at the facility or a cumulative of all three,” S P Yadav, director of medical and health services in Rajasthan said.

A team made up of state government health and nutriti on officials and NGO members, headed by a member of the local village council or Panchayati Raj Institution, conducts interviews with surviving family members at community-level with technical support from Unicef and funds from the United Kingdom’s department of international development (DFID) work under MAPEDIR.

Social and economic factors like the low status of women in communities, the poor understanding of families on when to seek care, lack of transport, poor roads, the cost of seeking care, multiple referrals to different health facilities and a delay in life-saving measures in rural areas have been listed out by Unicef as the reasons behind the high MMR.

Many of these deaths happen in the anonymity of women’s homes or on the way to a medical facility and so they often go unrecorded. An estimated 80,000 pregnant women or new mothers die each year in India often from preventable causes including hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and anemia.

Who cries when mothers die?
Munna was nine months pregnant. She did experience pains few days back, when her husband and mother-in-law rushed her to the nearest primary health centre in Kushwai of the District Shahdol in the State of Madhya Pradesh in India. They had to make her travel by bus from their village, and then in pain Munna had to walk, which she could barely to reach the health centre.

But unfortunately the kushwai health centre, where they had come with lot of hopes, did not had a medical doctor for last one and half years. One male health worker mans the centre. Though, he puts in his best but that may not be enough for women like Munna and others who need medical support.

Inspite of reaching the primary health centre, she did not get any help. She has to travel another eight kilometers to Burhar, the place where there is a community health centre. The centre is fortunately newly built and has facilities for delivery. Munna did develop some complications during the delivery but fortunately survived to see her new born.

She was lucky but thousands of women which die in the state are not. App 10,000 women die every year in Madhya Pradesh during pregnancy or within 42 days after pregnancy. Majority of these could be prevented. Medically these deaths may be due to hemorrhage, infection, eclampsia or unsafe abortion or any of three delays. But fact is there exists a yawning gap in our health system which stands in between life and death of women in the state. This gap has linkage to availability and access to health services, infrastructure, awareness among communities of not only the services but even recognizing danger signs, issue of how where they can access the services etc. Studies also tells us that for every maternal death in India, 20 more women suffer from the impaired health.

But if the situation at ground is like this, and has been there. What is the state’s response to an issue like this? Does it impact the political leaders, their discourse? Does issue of women dying in the state is debated in discussions where funds are allocated or decisions are made? Does state’s machinery care for it? Does civil society raise its concern?

To answer some of these questions a dip stick assessment was done in year 2004 at various levels within civil society, debates in the state assembly, media analysis. Outcomes were revealing. First of all the issue concerned only few in health department. There were only handful of civil society partners, and their major role was to support service delivery system. As such there was no push or urgency to bring change. Interestingly, the issue had never being debated on the floor of the state assembly, a place where elected representatives ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’ decide. It did not impact them, many of them were not even aware of the fact that state has this high number of maternal deaths? An issue like this was never raised by the political leaders in the debates which happen there – an issue of total neglect at the highest political body. Media covered ‘event news’ around the safe motherhood day, probably they never got the right information too.

That was a starting point, but nevertheless situation has changed today. Today state recognizes it as a major issue when it comes to women and children. State calls for an action. It is on high priority list of the political head of the state, state party is being questioned on the number of deaths, gaps on the infrastructure and many related points. Today more than 150 civil society organizations are raising concern on the issue and demanding urgency and urgency of action in the state.

How it happened and what does it impact and what strengths does it generate? Movements don’t just happen; the energy that underlies them must be marshaled, channeled, and focused. The principal means by which this is achieved in our society, and within our political tradition, is through advocacy networks and coalitions.

Networks like Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Madhya Pradesh Jan Adhikar Manch and Collective for advocacy, resource and training, Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha, Mahila Chetna Manch, and many others have not only contributed to help bring the issue at an individual level but as a part of informal collation added to that force which helped bringing the agenda on political normative framework. Some of the strengths which this informal network helped bring were the numbers of civil society partners raising concern on the issue spread across different regions of the state. From a handful few now it is more than 150 civil society partners in the state working in all divisions to bring the issue to forefront. The turn around is also in their way of working from being a service delivery partners or a social mobilization partners in supportive and submissive role in a new avatar of advocacy partner. In this new role civil society speaks on the issue of right to health, its violation, demands state’s accountability to provide for safemotherhood. In this new business influencing people who make decisions which impact human lives is the key.

The primary target of the civil society was to bring the issues which impact lives of women at the villages, blocks and districts to the agenda of the people who make or influence decisions, i.e. state assembly debates, political leaders, members of legislative assembly, ministers, media, rights commission etc. They had been to some part successful. ex-pression of this concern was undertaken by directly meeting and sensitizing political leaders. The evidences highlighting gap were shared with political leaders, urging them to rise above politics and give a strong call for action. These non governmental organizations wrote memorandums, shared information and collected evidences for the same purpose. Media engagement also supported by providing an enabling environment for change. Strong evidences i.e. case of maternal deaths which can be presented, health system gaps were highlighted which added pressure on the state and the leaders to react. Resultant of this solid gains achieved. Today questions on maternal mortality are being raised in the state assembly, the highest policy making body of the state. It is not just few many voices are being publicly heard on the issue. There is a increased concern within media.

From nowhere it came to a point where state publicly acknowledge the problem, and its commitment to act. Many new polices and schemes have been announced and that too in the rapid succession. This amount of concern and even expressed publicly by leaders had never been seen earlier in the state on the issue of maternal mortality. But that is not enough today empowered civil society and media is always looking with eagle’s eye on the new measures of the state and vocally points out the gaps This is a positive sign, where people are voicing their opinion. But it is not easy as said. Political leaders have started picking up real cases of deaths, gaps in infrastructure in the state, violation of rights, gaps in policies and seeking answers to what is being done by the state to response to the situation.

Advocacy experts tell us that ‘people centered advocacy’ is the best, i.e. position when people who suffer can speak for themselves. A step has been taken in the same direction by the engaged networks. Madhya Pradesh Jan Adhikar Manch in their work with communities helped to bring the issue to debate in various gram sabhas which were held by panchayats in Gwalior – Chambal division. Similarly women who had participated in various women conventions hosted by Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha came forward and wrote about the problems women face in rural areas when it comes to issue of safemotherhood and why do women die in their villages while giving birth. As per sources of Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha more than 200 women have written to the Chief Minister. On a simple fifty paise post card, they wrote by theselves and it was send to the Chief Minister. It looks simple but powerful, if it gets to his eyes. Recently a large number of women from villages across Madhya Pradesh have joined a signature (or thumb-impression) campaign to press for their right to health and to call upon the Government to ensure that the dream of safe motherhood becomes a reality. As a part of a special drive to raise concern on this crucial issue, more than 20,000 women from different villages of the State are now in the process of signing (or placing their thumb impression) on a various banners demanding the right to health and calling upon the State to ensure that the dream of safe motherhood becomes a reality. Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha are the civil society partners who are collecting these signatures/thumb impressions of women. They say that they do so after they are adequately sensitizing them on the issue of maternal mortality. Then if they feel that some concrete action is needed to improve the situation, they come and sign. Plan is to present the banners with their signatures to policy makers.

One might say that this is good effort, which indeed it is to bring the agenda of maternal mortality on to the political and action framework but it is still a long way to go. This is true. But if one looks back one and half years where there was hardly any concern, hardly anyone called for action, except few that too ‘within the box’. The focus was limited. From nowhere it has come somewhere, which is an important achievement by any means. Need of the day is to provide possible answers to the state, which is willing to listen. Answers which can help deliver results, within the context of the field realties and socio – cultural aspects – a new call to many!

Lhamu, a mother of twelve, lives in a remote village in Western Tibet. Three of her children died within a month of birth and the four year old strapped to her back looked as small as a one year old. She gave birth all alone, at home, all twelve times. But Lhamu was lucky. She didn’t die. One in 33 women dies during childbirth in Tibet. Malnutrition, abject poverty and lack of any health care – however basic—plagues Lhamu’s family, as it does much of Tibet. Tibet – vast lonely stretches of dead habit with nary a creature on its harsh plains and no economy to speak of. It can’t be as bad here in new economy India, right?

Think again.

One in 48 women in India is at risk of dying during childbirth. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in India is a high 407 per 100,000 live births, according to the National Health Policy 2002. Other sources put the MMR at a higher 540 (NHFS and UNICEF data, 2000). Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters by 2015 is a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for all countries including India. Achieving this means reducing the MMR to 100 by 2015. Part of the problem is this measurement – MMR data is just not there and if it is, it varies widely depending on what method was used to get it.

Studies show MMR among scheduled tribes (652) and scheduled castes (584) is higher than in women of other castes (516, according to one study). It is higher among illiterate women (574) than those having completed middle school (484). The key determinant seems to be access to healthcare. Less-developed villages had a significantly higher MMR (646) than moderately or well-developed villages (501 and 488 deaths, respectively).

“It is very sad that the numbers are so high even 57 years after independence,” avers Dr H Sudarshan who is Vigilance Director (Health) of the anti-corruption body Karnataka Lokayukta. “Not only are the numbers from the Sample Registration System (SRS) high, they are also incomplete. We do not know how many mothers actually died during childbirth and why. Underreporting is rampant and people hide MMR numbers in fear of repercussions. We need state-wise and within states, district-wise data,” says Sudarshan who was also Chairman of the Karnataka Health Task Force which made wide-ranging recommendations based on a 2-3 year detailed study conducted in the state. Regardless, the UN MMR numbers for India (540) are several times higher than those for other developing countries like China (56), Brazil (260), Thailand (44), Mexico (83) or even Sri Lanka (92).

Medical reasons
So what exactly leads to such a high MMR? The main reasons for maternal deaths related to pregnancy are anaemia, post-partum bleeding and septic abortions with anaemia being the most rampant. “Antenatal care is most important,” declares Sudarshan, “and that is just not being done. This kind of care checks for high risk pregnancies.”

Public health advocate Dr Mira Shiva agrees, “Hypertension and the toxemias of pregnancy can only be detected with antenatal care. There is a total neglect of a mother’s health in India. [The situation] is disgusting because a big chunk of all this is preventable. The medical establishment is busy with micronutrients but that is not the answer. Giving one iron tablet to a woman during her pregnancy is too late.” Shiva is coordinator of the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) and one of the founding members of the People’s Health Movement (PHM). Striking out at a more endemic problem, she says, “The real problem is food. It is all about food, the cost of food and the nutrition content therein. These pregnant women have to fetch the water, make fuel, work the buffaloes, etc., all on the measly amount of food they can afford. How can the nutritive intake be enough? It becomes a negative calorie balance. In short, what is needed goes beyond a medical solution.”

Sudarshan echoes Shiva’s sentiment, “We need to move from a medical model to a social model. Nutrition for pregnant mothers is very important and the ICDS Anganwadi scheme has clearly not achieved the hoped results.” Where antenatal care is good, the results are good as well. Kerala and Tamilnadu have good antenatal care and correspondingly have two of the lowest MMRs in India. In Assam and Bihar where antenatal care is almost zero, the MMRs are among the highest. India has the lowest percentage of antenatal coverage (60%) among countries like China, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Sri Lanka which are all in the high 86-95% range.

While antenatal care is paramount in the prevention of pregnancy-related deaths, septic abortions are more insidious. What is worse, the latter tends to go unreported due to the nature and circumstances surrounding it. In many rural areas couples do not use any spacing methods and women conceive within 7 months of having given birth. Dr Leena Joshi of Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) is familiar with this scenario. Her voice drops with concern when she mentions abortion rates in the remote reaches of Maharashtra. “The abortion rate in these areas is just so high. With it comes hidden mortality from septic abortion deaths. Since the PHCs do not have MTP methods, the abortions are performed by quacks. And even if the PHCs or district hospitals have MTP methods, the people opt for local help.” Why? “It saves them money. These are very poor people and transport costs and medical costs can be saved by walking to a local quack.” As a result there are a high number of abortion-related deaths which do not get reported under maternal mortality. Dr. Joshi laments that everybody only talks about deaths during the childbirth process. “But since there are so many septic abortion cases it all goes unreported.”

The problem of unsafe abortion is something that Shiva worries about as well. “Abortion (MTP) being legal in India, no one is turned away. Second trimester abortion is a big reason for rising MMRs.” People come late for the abortions and complications ensue. And apparently these are not only driven by spacing problems. “Contraceptives are used only by women and failure of these is common,” says Joshi. Of course, abortion of female fetuses is routine and it goes on until the woman conceives a male child. The whole scenario makes one shudder.

But all this seems to be not even half the story.

Take malaria, for example. Orissa has a high incidence and accounted for 28.6% of detected cases of malaria — 41% of falciparum — and 62.8% of all material deaths in India (1998). Malaria and pregnancy form a sinister synergistic pair. Falciparum malaria leads to abortion and still births in the gravid woman and can severely compound anaemia. Coincidentally, Orissa has a high incidence of sickle cell anaemia. The combination is lethal. The haemoglobin in pregnant women could drop to 1gm/dL (healthy levels are between 12-16gms/dL). While drugs are available to treat the malaria, the treatment requires a high degree of awareness and care in administration. For example, the common primaquine and tetracycline are absolute no-nos during any stage of pregnancy. But chloroquine and quinine are allowed. “But mistakes occur and are lethal,” says Shiva. Acting fast and carefully is paramount and any deaths due to these infections are primarily due to gross neglect or ignorance. Orissa has one of the highest rates of MMR in India at 738.

Another key reason for deaths during pregnancy is post-partum bleeding or haemorrhage. The need for blood in such cases is imperative and access is less than ideal. Both Sudarshan and Shiva worry about the blood bank policy in India. Heavily driven by the HIV/AIDS lobby, they feel that somewhere the important issue of access to blood has been sacrificed for quality and safety since the policy makers are looking at it all from the AIDS perspective. Says Sudarshan,”The policy says you have to keep the blood in an air-conditioned room. But in Coorg, for example, you don’t need it. HIV awareness is good, but blood banks need to be demystified and access and availability improved.” Shiva adds, “It is imperative in case of complications during pregnancy to have blood available. But no. NACO only sees blood banks from their perspective and only in an emergency are you allowed to take blood from the banks. It is a major concern.” When it comes to donation, Shiva points to an endemic problem. The strange connection between men, caring for women, and giving blood. “If the men have to pay a lot of money and go far to get blood for their wives, they just won’t. And men will never give blood. They think a 100 drops of blood equals one drop of semen and thus, giving blood is related to potency. And so many times, when women need blood, it is not available.”

Organisational reasons
Early diagnosis of high-risk pregnancies and complications and quick referrals are of paramount importance. But is institutionalising deliveries the answer? By requiring 100% institutional deliveries, the World Bank supported vertical program Reproductive Child Health 1 (RCH1) resulted in the abolishing of the dais (Traditional Birth Attendants), and Sudarshan believes, probably increased MMR. Subsequently, following a public uproar, the program was amended to advocate “training” TBAs into Skilled Birth Attendants. “Institutional support will bring down MMR, yes, but what type of institution is important,” says Sudarshan. “The so called Primary Health Care units are so dirty that infection will probably increase because of them.” “In Bihar, for example,” explains Sudarshan, “80% of the deliveries happen at home. In Karnataka it is 70%.” Joshi concurs with this high degree of preference. “In the Bhandara area almost 100% prefer home deliveries. And if there are complications, it means there are inevitable delays in getting more sophisticated care.”

Now, if there were a skilled birth attendant (SBA) at the time of each delivery or for antenatal checkups for each pregnancy, he or she can recognize a high-risk pregnancy or a potential complication and refer the mother to a district hospital or closest emergency care unit. The incidence of death from complications would be reduced. Countries like Malaysia have employed this strategy to bring down MMR to less than 100. In India only 43% of deliveries are attended by an SBA compared to between 86% and 99% in Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Thailand.

Sudarshan himself is involved in training tribal girls in the Soliga communities of Karnataka to be auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs). For a population of 3000, there is a sub-centre and for every 5 or 6 sub-centres, there is a primary health care unit. Sudarshan’s team trains the tribal girls in each village so that the few ANMs posted do not have to walk the 20 kms between the 4-5 villages this program covers. Joshi’s team in Bhandara also trained 25 local dais or Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) to recognize complications and give basic medicines and obstetric care in the villages, one to each village. They also conduct antenatal checkups every month in about 10 villages. But funds for such programs are scant primarily because maternal health is not recognized as a priority issue in India. “The awareness that a pregnant woman should be taken care of is just not there,” says Joshi. “If a woman is not delivering, the attitude used to be, let’s wait and see, maybe tomorrow morning she will deliver. Now with our training, the dais can recognize complications but the money to shift the patient to a hospital is still not there.”

This brings us to the next obstacle. So say the SBA refers to patient to an emergency obstetric care unit (EOC) and let’s assume that we have one of those for every few villages. How would the patient reach the EOC? “Transport is a big issue. It is appalling that we do not have EMS (emergency medical services) that is efficient and well staffed,” Sudarshan states categorically. He is working on building one for Karnataka with a coordinating body at district level which has jeeps, ambulances, even tractors available for responding to emergency calls. “We have to strengthen the PHC and an EMS is an integral part of that,” he says. Bhandara is not so lucky. “Vehicles are available in 50% of the cases. But they are expensive. In the day, people can use buses, but not at nights. There are several rivers in this area and the buses are not allowed to travel over these at night,” says Joshi.

Suppose the patient does reach the first referral unit (FRU) with complications that say, require a C-section. Is that a guarantee for a safe delivery? Sadly, no. Few FRUs run 24 hours. Joshi’s hospital has 2-3 gynaecologists where the recommended number for the population of that area is 5-6. “All the C-sections and hysterectomies are carried out by these 2-3 gynaecologists. In the PHC in the villages, there is one doctor and 2-3 sisters (nurses), but they are only graduates, not post graduates or MBBS. So they cannot even do a complicated normal delivery, let alone C-sections.”

Even in Karnataka, the FRUs are woefully understaffed and in some cases dangerously mismatched. “In one case,” says Sudarshan with an ironic smile, “an orthopedist was posted where an obstetrician was required. With bribes, these so-called doctors can get posted to any area they want regardless of what is actually required there.” And then there is the big problem of anaesthetists. At the Taluka level there is an acute shortage of them. Anaesthetists are required during complications and surgeries. When Sudarshan’s team proposed that nurse obstetricians and other doctors also get trained in anaesthetics, the proposal was shot down by the medical lobby. Human resource management in the health sector seems to be a big issue. Shiva echoed the sentiment saying, “We need trained people in PHCs. And people with the right training. There is no point sending patients who require C-sections to where there is no anaesthetist or ob-gyn.”

Government
Now, if we had fully staffed and functioning FRUs, would that bring down the mortality rate? Unfortunately, there is still one more layer that mothers have to contend with.

Shanta lives in a slum in Bangalore. When she was expecting her second child, she had the good fortune of being close to a government hospital where care would be free. Or so she thought. When she reached there, she realized that she had to ‘buy’ a bed or sleep on the floor. She also had to ‘buy’ food. So much so that she even had to ‘buy’ washing services or wear soiled clothes. And when it was time to “push” during delivery, she was just too weak, and the nurses slapped her. Left and right, again and again. They abused and cursed. “Is that the way to treat a patient?” Shanta queries in puzzlement. “My mother’s house where I had my first born was better,” she declared. Her sister-in-law Prema now laughs as she describes her own run-in with a local PHC outside Mysore. “They wouldn’t give me my child until I paid up. Luckily I had saved all year, knowing this would be the case. The nurse was actually someone I grew up with. I thought she would be fair, but no. Everyone wants money.” As soon as they got their money, she was sent home -– the same day — with no medicines or follow-up monitoring either for her or her baby.

Corruption is not a new problem. “Even if the most sophisticated PHC is right across the road the ward boy needs to be bribed with Rs 150 to wheel the mother into the operation theatre and another Rs 300 to wheel her to the ward and most cannot afford that,” declares a grave Sudarshan. In his opinion this final layer is the most important and toughest one to correct. “Bad governance. The real problem is not technological care but simply what I call the epidemic of corruption in the health services. And this is not just in the public healthcare sector, the private is just as bad,” he says. “Doctors in Arunachal Pradesh take their pay checks but never show up. There is rampant corruption in procurement where, in one case, 123 spurious drugs were identified but bribes were taken and they were not reported. Dialysis machines which cost 5 lakhs are bought at 12.5 lakhs. Poor people end up spending huge amounts due to over-prescription of medicines that should be free to them. This is the real problem and no amount of infrastructure improvement will bring down MMR if governance is not improved,” warns Sudarshan.

Shiva adds, “The private hospitals are mercenaries too. They perform unwanted C-sections and hysterectomies where none is required simply because there is big money in these procedures.” Sudarshan, who sits in the anti-corruption cell of the Karnataka Government has presented strong recommendations to the Karnataka government regarding this issue. He stresses that good accreditation, accountability, good monitoring, and honest reporting are the only things that will actually bring down MMR, given the other necessities are taken care of.

And where will the money for the necessary infrastructure come from? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised that the government spending on public healthcare — which currently stands at an abysmal 0.9% of GDP (one of the five lowest in the world) — will be increased to 2-3% of GDP which Sudarshan finds heartening, but tempers his optimism with caution. “It is great that there will be three times the amount available today for a sector that needs it badly, but one must plug the holes first. No point pouring all that money into a leaky vessel,” he quips.

So, can it be done? Can MMR be brought down under 100 by 2015?

Sudarshan thinks so, but he will give it not 10, but 15 years. “It all comes down to political will. Sri Lanka, in spite of the civil war showed tremendous political will in tackling IMR and MMR and setting goals for themselves. Tamilnadu has a Deputy Commissioner (DC) monitor maternal mortality himself.” This has increased the accountability and responsibility of the people in charge and has achieved good results. In Kerala, awareness about maternal health issues is high and the citizens demand more. Literacy plays a key role in keeping the MMR low. Kerala leads the way in successfully reducing MMR and Tamilnadu is close behind. While people like Sudarshan are doing everything to make sure it happens in Karnataka, the awareness and more importantly, recognition of this as an issue is lacking in other parts of India. In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam and Orissa where the MMRs are well above the national average, it will require serious political will and accountability to change status quo.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare puts plans in place with the best of intentions (see here), but until governance and administration is addressed, people like Prema will still have no guarantees of care without paying beyond their means to like other pockets. But whether we will make progress will also be determined by when the Ministry recognizes MMR itself one of the key “Health and Population Indicators.” Today, they do not. (See here.)

Both Shiva and Sudarshan agree that what India does not require is yet another vertical program to tackle maternal mortality. Verticals tend to be donor driven and cost intensive. MMR is not a disease unto itself. Clearly, high MMR is a symptom of a larger and wider problem in healthcare, namely the overall health of the woman, and should be treated as such and across verticals. Tackling a lot of the broader issues of governance and infrastructure should bring down the MMR. The National Rural Health Mission aims to reach across verticals to integrate services and by appointing an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) at the community level provides decentralized first contact care. Shiva was part of one of the Task Forces of the NRHM and lauds its efforts as broadening the RCH program. But in order that the NRHM succeed, we come back to the need for evaluation methods and strong accountability.

The health of mothers is directly related to a child’s health and without due attention to the causes behind high maternal mortality ratios, we are ignoring an important determinant of the health of our nation. In doing so, we may be running the risk of damaging our chances for all-encompassing prosperity.

Ways to tackle maternal mortality
To check the maternal mortality rate in India, health experts have stressed on changing the traditional treatment and delivery system being practised in most villages.

At the 52th All-India Congress of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, the annual meeting of The Federation of Obstetric & Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), gynaecologists from across the globe advocated the need to adopt advanced strategies practised in some of the countries in Africa.

“Lack of access and inadequate utilisation of healthcare facilities are responsible for maternal deaths in India. Countries like Mozambique have made good progress in reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR),” explained Staffan Bergstrom, from Sweden.

Bergstrom added that the healthcare facilities in remote areas of countries like India are virtually absent, with no specialist doctors and advanced treatment facilities.

“In a number of countries with low per capita income, there is a scarcity of specialist doctors. Non-specialist doctors do major surgeries and fail to diagnose complications. Besides, many medical and clinical officers are being trained to perform surgeries in remote places, where specialists are not available. This is very risky,” Bergstrom explained.

“We should remember that children’s health is directly related to mother’s health. The MMR reflect the health of our nation. So, we should introduce advanced facilities in our villages,” said Gita Ganguly Mukherjee, former head of obstetrics and gynaecology, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

In India, one of 48 expecting mothers is at risk of dying during childbirth. According to the data of National Health Policy 2002, the MMR in India is as high as 407 per 100,000 live births. Other sources have put the MMR as high as 540 (NHFS and Unicef data, 2000).

“The chances of death of an Indian mother during childbirth is roughly 10 times more than that of her Chinese counterpart,” said Bergstrom.

India and other Third World countries have set a goal to reduce the MMR by three-quarters by 2015.

Also Read:

Motherhood Cursed Bliss in India

Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality

Death in Birth

The Heartbrake

‘They Still Die in Labor Room’

By Samiya Anwar & M H Ahssan

Taj Mahal- One of the seven wonders of the world, One of the Greatest monuments, dedicated to the memory of the Queen Mumtaz , by her husband Emperor Sahajahan, is a testimony and a grim reminder of the tragedy of maternal mortality, that can befall any women in childbirth. The probability of an Indian mother dying during childbirth is roughly 10 times that of her Chinese counterpart. Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters in 10 years is now a Millennium Development Goal. Why is MMR in India so high and how far are we from the goal? HNN unravels the many challenges to saving mothers’ lives.

Maternal Death – A Tragic Reality
Women, undoubtedly is the most beautiful piece of creation. She is not just a female, she is more than it. She is definitely a special handiwork of God. That is why she is wanted, she is loved. Men love women. Isn’t so and why not they are always surrounded by women. First it is a woman, to whom they are born. Then they grow with women as sisters. They are married to women. And also women are the one who reproduces the generations. Yes, because women are the reason for the offspring and growth of society.

But the same women are put to menace for procreation of mankind. They are often treated as reproducing machines. Not cared, left as scraps or doormats at homes women die anonymously especially the poor. For women it is a joyful start to a life as the mother and for a child a whole new life. It is really indecent that there is no man or women who take care of them or good medical facilities when the women are in need of special care and attention during and after pregnancy. Hence they either develop complications in the womb or die soon after child birth. Lack of education and short of medical facilities would be the cause. Many stories of women dying with maternal deaths are largely untold and unheard.

This is a social issue and heeds attention. Thanks to the television channels for wonderfully presenting the shows on social problems. Balika Vadhu, is such a social serial on Colors, which had so far portrayed the maternal deaths of young women. It is a mirror of Indian Society. The Indian Government estimates that 301 women die annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the maternal mortality ratio is even higher — 358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar, and 379 in Madhya Pradesh. It is also estimated that few rural women chooses to remain passive. Laajwanti (name changed) a rural girl barely 16 has no complaints; however, she says “It’s a woman’s duty to produce as many children she can. They are God’s gift.” It is been observed that the maternal mortality rate has risen faster as there is pressure on girls to produce as soon they reach puberty. It is a shame to our country which is developing but not the people. We’re still backward. Right!

As the new data analysis tool reveals an estimated 80,000 pregnant women or new mothers die each year in India often from preventable causes including hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and anemia. Since many deaths happen in the anonymity of women’s homes or on the way to seek help at a medical facility, they often go unrecorded. It is absurd because we know about such practices, we have heard it, we have also listen to the news channels and read in several newspapers but still there is no official complaint.

Over 67% of maternal deaths in eight districts in Orissa were among SC/ST groups. Illiteracy is as much a factor as lack of primary health care. After achieving so many laurels in academics, still we’re not fully educated. Though the enrolment in schools has risen from past, our country yet suffers from problems due to lack of information and knowledge. Also in Purulia, West Bengal, 48% of the women who had died had no formal schooling. That’s a real embarrassment. In Bihar’s Vaishali, we can see 42% of the deaths occurred due to Haemorrhage, the most common cause of delivery-related deaths, with almost all hemorrhages occurring after delivery. Many women who delivered at home also died from postpartum hemorrhage. Eclampsia, a serious complication during pregnancy that is attributed to under-developed arteries in the placenta, was the second most common cause of death (17% in Dholpur, 19% in Purulia, and 27% in Guna/Shivpuri). However, the standard treatment for eclampsia, magnesium sulfate, was often not available in these places. These are the shocking findings of an ongoing survey across six states being conducted in co-ordination with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (Unicef). India is still quite far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR) by three quarters by 2015. On an average, there are at least 301 women dying annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the MMR is even higher—358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar and 379 in Madhya Pradesh.

Causes may be:
- Early marriage,Hidden pregnancy, history of abortion, etc
- Financial disasters, No medical facilities
- Smoking, drinking and drugs (urban women)
- Lack of knowledge (like the example I gave about Laajwanti above)

Maternal death is a sensitive issue of human race. We need to curb the social ailments from the society. It is like terrorism killing the number of innocent lives in the dark of ignorance. Though it is hard to eliminate fully from the society we can generate proper awareness about the loss of humanity with every mother dying during and post pregnancy.

Maternal mortality: This India story is a shame!
Over 67% of maternal deaths in eight districts in Orissa were among SC/ST groups. Illiteracy is as much a factor as lack of primary health care. In Purulia, West Bengal , 48% of the women who had died had no formal schooling.

Haemorrhage is the most common cause of delivery-related deaths, with almost all haemorrhages occurring after delivery. In Bihar’s Vaishali, 42% of the deaths occurred due to this. Many women who delivered at home also died from postpartum haemorrhage.

Eclampsia, a serious complication during pregnancy that is attributed to under-developed arteries in the placenta, was the second most common cause of death (17% in Dholpur, 19% in Purulia, and 27% in Guna/Shivpuri). However, the standard treatment for eclampsia, magnesium sulfate, was often not available in these places.

These are the shocking findings of an ongoing survey across six states being conducted in co-ordination with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (Unicef). India is still quite far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR) by three quarters by 2015. On an average, there are at least 301 women dying annually for every 100,000 live births. In some states the MMR is even higher—358 in Orissa, 371 in Bihar and 379 in Madhya Pradesh.

A new tool, Maternal and Perinatal Death Inquiry and Response (MAPEDIR), has been developed to analyse the underlying medical and social reasons behind maternal death and is being used across 16 districts in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar providing an ongoing, systematic collection of data to reconstruct and analyse the cases of 1,600 women—the highest number of audited maternal deaths in the world. MAPEDIR also informs health officials about the challenges local women face in accessing reproductive health care.

“The tragic reality is that too often maternal deaths are not visible. They don’t leave any trace behind, and their deaths are not accounted for. Unicef is committed to continue working with the National Rural Health Mission to promote surveillance as a key strategy to lower maternal and child mortality,” Chris Hirabayashi, Unicef India deputy director of programmes, said at a meeting with health officials from the six states who are using MAPEDIR.

“Unless we know the main reasons for maternal deaths we cannot take effective measures to tackle them. The traditional system did not deal with the issues adequately. Now using MAPEDIR, we can know if the death are due to delays in decision making at household level or lack of transport or delay at the facility or a cumulative of all three,” S P Yadav, director of medical and health services in Rajasthan said.

A team made up of state government health and nutriti on officials and NGO members, headed by a member of the local village council or Panchayati Raj Institution, conducts interviews with surviving family members at community-level with technical support from Unicef and funds from the United Kingdom’s department of international development (DFID) work under MAPEDIR.

Social and economic factors like the low status of women in communities, the poor understanding of families on when to seek care, lack of transport, poor roads, the cost of seeking care, multiple referrals to different health facilities and a delay in life-saving measures in rural areas have been listed out by Unicef as the reasons behind the high MMR.

Many of these deaths happen in the anonymity of women’s homes or on the way to a medical facility and so they often go unrecorded. An estimated 80,000 pregnant women or new mothers die each year in India often from preventable causes including hemorrhage, eclampsia, sepsis and anemia.

Who cries when mothers die?
Munna was nine months pregnant. She did experience pains few days back, when her husband and mother-in-law rushed her to the nearest primary health centre in Kushwai of the District Shahdol in the State of Madhya Pradesh in India. They had to make her travel by bus from their village, and then in pain Munna had to walk, which she could barely to reach the health centre.

But unfortunately the kushwai health centre, where they had come with lot of hopes, did not had a medical doctor for last one and half years. One male health worker mans the centre. Though, he puts in his best but that may not be enough for women like Munna and others who need medical support.

Inspite of reaching the primary health centre, she did not get any help. She has to travel another eight kilometers to Burhar, the place where there is a community health centre. The centre is fortunately newly built and has facilities for delivery. Munna did develop some complications during the delivery but fortunately survived to see her new born.

She was lucky but thousands of women which die in the state are not. App 10,000 women die every year in Madhya Pradesh during pregnancy or within 42 days after pregnancy. Majority of these could be prevented. Medically these deaths may be due to hemorrhage, infection, eclampsia or unsafe abortion or any of three delays. But fact is there exists a yawning gap in our health system which stands in between life and death of women in the state. This gap has linkage to availability and access to health services, infrastructure, awareness among communities of not only the services but even recognizing danger signs, issue of how where they can access the services etc. Studies also tells us that for every maternal death in India, 20 more women suffer from the impaired health.

But if the situation at ground is like this, and has been there. What is the state’s response to an issue like this? Does it impact the political leaders, their discourse? Does issue of women dying in the state is debated in discussions where funds are allocated or decisions are made? Does state’s machinery care for it? Does civil society raise its concern?

To answer some of these questions a dip stick assessment was done in year 2004 at various levels within civil society, debates in the state assembly, media analysis. Outcomes were revealing. First of all the issue concerned only few in health department. There were only handful of civil society partners, and their major role was to support service delivery system. As such there was no push or urgency to bring change. Interestingly, the issue had never being debated on the floor of the state assembly, a place where elected representatives ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’ decide. It did not impact them, many of them were not even aware of the fact that state has this high number of maternal deaths? An issue like this was never raised by the political leaders in the debates which happen there – an issue of total neglect at the highest political body. Media covered ‘event news’ around the safe motherhood day, probably they never got the right information too.

That was a starting point, but nevertheless situation has changed today. Today state recognizes it as a major issue when it comes to women and children. State calls for an action. It is on high priority list of the political head of the state, state party is being questioned on the number of deaths, gaps on the infrastructure and many related points. Today more than 150 civil society organizations are raising concern on the issue and demanding urgency and urgency of action in the state.

How it happened and what does it impact and what strengths does it generate? Movements don’t just happen; the energy that underlies them must be marshaled, channeled, and focused. The principal means by which this is achieved in our society, and within our political tradition, is through advocacy networks and coalitions.

Networks like Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Madhya Pradesh Jan Adhikar Manch and Collective for advocacy, resource and training, Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha, Mahila Chetna Manch, and many others have not only contributed to help bring the issue at an individual level but as a part of informal collation added to that force which helped bringing the agenda on political normative framework. Some of the strengths which this informal network helped bring were the numbers of civil society partners raising concern on the issue spread across different regions of the state. From a handful few now it is more than 150 civil society partners in the state working in all divisions to bring the issue to forefront. The turn around is also in their way of working from being a service delivery partners or a social mobilization partners in supportive and submissive role in a new avatar of advocacy partner. In this new role civil society speaks on the issue of right to health, its violation, demands state’s accountability to provide for safemotherhood. In this new business influencing people who make decisions which impact human lives is the key.

The primary target of the civil society was to bring the issues which impact lives of women at the villages, blocks and districts to the agenda of the people who make or influence decisions, i.e. state assembly debates, political leaders, members of legislative assembly, ministers, media, rights commission etc. They had been to some part successful. ex-pression of this concern was undertaken by directly meeting and sensitizing political leaders. The evidences highlighting gap were shared with political leaders, urging them to rise above politics and give a strong call for action. These non governmental organizations wrote memorandums, shared information and collected evidences for the same purpose. Media engagement also supported by providing an enabling environment for change. Strong evidences i.e. case of maternal deaths which can be presented, health system gaps were highlighted which added pressure on the state and the leaders to react. Resultant of this solid gains achieved. Today questions on maternal mortality are being raised in the state assembly, the highest policy making body of the state. It is not just few many voices are being publicly heard on the issue. There is a increased concern within media.

From nowhere it came to a point where state publicly acknowledge the problem, and its commitment to act. Many new polices and schemes have been announced and that too in the rapid succession. This amount of concern and even expressed publicly by leaders had never been seen earlier in the state on the issue of maternal mortality. But that is not enough today empowered civil society and media is always looking with eagle’s eye on the new measures of the state and vocally points out the gaps This is a positive sign, where people are voicing their opinion. But it is not easy as said. Political leaders have started picking up real cases of deaths, gaps in infrastructure in the state, violation of rights, gaps in policies and seeking answers to what is being done by the state to response to the situation.

Advocacy experts tell us that ‘people centered advocacy’ is the best, i.e. position when people who suffer can speak for themselves. A step has been taken in the same direction by the engaged networks. Madhya Pradesh Jan Adhikar Manch in their work with communities helped to bring the issue to debate in various gram sabhas which were held by panchayats in Gwalior – Chambal division. Similarly women who had participated in various women conventions hosted by Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha came forward and wrote about the problems women face in rural areas when it comes to issue of safemotherhood and why do women die in their villages while giving birth. As per sources of Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha more than 200 women have written to the Chief Minister. On a simple fifty paise post card, they wrote by theselves and it was send to the Chief Minister. It looks simple but powerful, if it gets to his eyes. Recently a large number of women from villages across Madhya Pradesh have joined a signature (or thumb-impression) campaign to press for their right to health and to call upon the Government to ensure that the dream of safe motherhood becomes a reality. As a part of a special drive to raise concern on this crucial issue, more than 20,000 women from different villages of the State are now in the process of signing (or placing their thumb impression) on a various banners demanding the right to health and calling upon the State to ensure that the dream of safe motherhood becomes a reality. Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Madhya Pradesh Samaj Sewa Sanstha are the civil society partners who are collecting these signatures/thumb impressions of women. They say that they do so after they are adequately sensitizing them on the issue of maternal mortality. Then if they feel that some concrete action is needed to improve the situation, they come and sign. Plan is to present the banners with their signatures to policy makers.

One might say that this is good effort, which indeed it is to bring the agenda of maternal mortality on to the political and action framework but it is still a long way to go. This is true. But if one looks back one and half years where there was hardly any concern, hardly anyone called for action, except few that too ‘within the box’. The focus was limited. From nowhere it has come somewhere, which is an important achievement by any means. Need of the day is to provide possible answers to the state, which is willing to listen. Answers which can help deliver results, within the context of the field realties and socio – cultural aspects – a new call to many!

Lhamu, a mother of twelve, lives in a remote village in Western Tibet. Three of her children died within a month of birth and the four year old strapped to her back looked as small as a one year old. She gave birth all alone, at home, all twelve times. But Lhamu was lucky. She didn’t die. One in 33 women dies during childbirth in Tibet. Malnutrition, abject poverty and lack of any health care – however basic—plagues Lhamu’s family, as it does much of Tibet. Tibet – vast lonely stretches of dead habit with nary a creature on its harsh plains and no economy to speak of. It can’t be as bad here in new economy India, right?

Think again.

One in 48 women in India is at risk of dying during childbirth. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) in India is a high 407 per 100,000 live births, according to the National Health Policy 2002. Other sources put the MMR at a higher 540 (NHFS and UNICEF data, 2000). Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters by 2015 is a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for all countries including India. Achieving this means reducing the MMR to 100 by 2015. Part of the problem is this measurement – MMR data is just not there and if it is, it varies widely depending on what method was used to get it.

Studies show MMR among scheduled tribes (652) and scheduled castes (584) is higher than in women of other castes (516, according to one study). It is higher among illiterate women (574) than those having completed middle school (484). The key determinant seems to be access to healthcare. Less-developed villages had a significantly higher MMR (646) than moderately or well-developed villages (501 and 488 deaths, respectively).

“It is very sad that the numbers are so high even 57 years after independence,” avers Dr H Sudarshan who is Vigilance Director (Health) of the anti-corruption body Karnataka Lokayukta. “Not only are the numbers from the Sample Registration System (SRS) high, they are also incomplete. We do not know how many mothers actually died during childbirth and why. Underreporting is rampant and people hide MMR numbers in fear of repercussions. We need state-wise and within states, district-wise data,” says Sudarshan who was also Chairman of the Karnataka Health Task Force which made wide-ranging recommendations based on a 2-3 year detailed study conducted in the state. Regardless, the UN MMR numbers for India (540) are several times higher than those for other developing countries like China (56), Brazil (260), Thailand (44), Mexico (83) or even Sri Lanka (92).

Medical reasons
So what exactly leads to such a high MMR? The main reasons for maternal deaths related to pregnancy are anaemia, post-partum bleeding and septic abortions with anaemia being the most rampant. “Antenatal care is most important,” declares Sudarshan, “and that is just not being done. This kind of care checks for high risk pregnancies.”

Public health advocate Dr Mira Shiva agrees, “Hypertension and the toxemias of pregnancy can only be detected with antenatal care. There is a total neglect of a mother’s health in India. [The situation] is disgusting because a big chunk of all this is preventable. The medical establishment is busy with micronutrients but that is not the answer. Giving one iron tablet to a woman during her pregnancy is too late.” Shiva is coordinator of the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) and one of the founding members of the People’s Health Movement (PHM). Striking out at a more endemic problem, she says, “The real problem is food. It is all about food, the cost of food and the nutrition content therein. These pregnant women have to fetch the water, make fuel, work the buffaloes, etc., all on the measly amount of food they can afford. How can the nutritive intake be enough? It becomes a negative calorie balance. In short, what is needed goes beyond a medical solution.”

Sudarshan echoes Shiva’s sentiment, “We need to move from a medical model to a social model. Nutrition for pregnant mothers is very important and the ICDS Anganwadi scheme has clearly not achieved the hoped results.” Where antenatal care is good, the results are good as well. Kerala and Tamilnadu have good antenatal care and correspondingly have two of the lowest MMRs in India. In Assam and Bihar where antenatal care is almost zero, the MMRs are among the highest. India has the lowest percentage of antenatal coverage (60%) among countries like China, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Sri Lanka which are all in the high 86-95% range.

While antenatal care is paramount in the prevention of pregnancy-related deaths, septic abortions are more insidious. What is worse, the latter tends to go unreported due to the nature and circumstances surrounding it. In many rural areas couples do not use any spacing methods and women conceive within 7 months of having given birth. Dr Leena Joshi of Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) is familiar with this scenario. Her voice drops with concern when she mentions abortion rates in the remote reaches of Maharashtra. “The abortion rate in these areas is just so high. With it comes hidden mortality from septic abortion deaths. Since the PHCs do not have MTP methods, the abortions are performed by quacks. And even if the PHCs or district hospitals have MTP methods, the people opt for local help.” Why? “It saves them money. These are very poor people and transport costs and medical costs can be saved by walking to a local quack.” As a result there are a high number of abortion-related deaths which do not get reported under maternal mortality. Dr. Joshi laments that everybody only talks about deaths during the childbirth process. “But since there are so many septic abortion cases it all goes unreported.”

The problem of unsafe abortion is something that Shiva worries about as well. “Abortion (MTP) being legal in India, no one is turned away. Second trimester abortion is a big reason for rising MMRs.” People come late for the abortions and complications ensue. And apparently these are not only driven by spacing problems. “Contraceptives are used only by women and failure of these is common,” says Joshi. Of course, abortion of female fetuses is routine and it goes on until the woman conceives a male child. The whole scenario makes one shudder.

But all this seems to be not even half the story.

Take malaria, for example. Orissa has a high incidence and accounted for 28.6% of detected cases of malaria — 41% of falciparum — and 62.8% of all material deaths in India (1998). Malaria and pregnancy form a sinister synergistic pair. Falciparum malaria leads to abortion and still births in the gravid woman and can severely compound anaemia. Coincidentally, Orissa has a high incidence of sickle cell anaemia. The combination is lethal. The haemoglobin in pregnant women could drop to 1gm/dL (healthy levels are between 12-16gms/dL). While drugs are available to treat the malaria, the treatment requires a high degree of awareness and care in administration. For example, the common primaquine and tetracycline are absolute no-nos during any stage of pregnancy. But chloroquine and quinine are allowed. “But mistakes occur and are lethal,” says Shiva. Acting fast and carefully is paramount and any deaths due to these infections are primarily due to gross neglect or ignorance. Orissa has one of the highest rates of MMR in India at 738.

Another key reason for deaths during pregnancy is post-partum bleeding or haemorrhage. The need for blood in such cases is imperative and access is less than ideal. Both Sudarshan and Shiva worry about the blood bank policy in India. Heavily driven by the HIV/AIDS lobby, they feel that somewhere the important issue of access to blood has been sacrificed for quality and safety since the policy makers are looking at it all from the AIDS perspective. Says Sudarshan,”The policy says you have to keep the blood in an air-conditioned room. But in Coorg, for example, you don’t need it. HIV awareness is good, but blood banks need to be demystified and access and availability improved.” Shiva adds, “It is imperative in case of complications during pregnancy to have blood available. But no. NACO only sees blood banks from their perspective and only in an emergency are you allowed to take blood from the banks. It is a major concern.” When it comes to donation, Shiva points to an endemic problem. The strange connection between men, caring for women, and giving blood. “If the men have to pay a lot of money and go far to get blood for their wives, they just won’t. And men will never give blood. They think a 100 drops of blood equals one drop of semen and thus, giving blood is related to potency. And so many times, when women need blood, it is not available.”

Organisational reasons
Early diagnosis of high-risk pregnancies and complications and quick referrals are of paramount importance. But is institutionalising deliveries the answer? By requiring 100% institutional deliveries, the World Bank supported vertical program Reproductive Child Health 1 (RCH1) resulted in the abolishing of the dais (Traditional Birth Attendants), and Sudarshan believes, probably increased MMR. Subsequently, following a public uproar, the program was amended to advocate “training” TBAs into Skilled Birth Attendants. “Institutional support will bring down MMR, yes, but what type of institution is important,” says Sudarshan. “The so called Primary Health Care units are so dirty that infection will probably increase because of them.” “In Bihar, for example,” explains Sudarshan, “80% of the deliveries happen at home. In Karnataka it is 70%.” Joshi concurs with this high degree of preference. “In the Bhandara area almost 100% prefer home deliveries. And if there are complications, it means there are inevitable delays in getting more sophisticated care.”

Now, if there were a skilled birth attendant (SBA) at the time of each delivery or for antenatal checkups for each pregnancy, he or she can recognize a high-risk pregnancy or a potential complication and refer the mother to a district hospital or closest emergency care unit. The incidence of death from complications would be reduced. Countries like Malaysia have employed this strategy to bring down MMR to less than 100. In India only 43% of deliveries are attended by an SBA compared to between 86% and 99% in Mexico, China, Sri Lanka, Brazil and Thailand.

Sudarshan himself is involved in training tribal girls in the Soliga communities of Karnataka to be auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs). For a population of 3000, there is a sub-centre and for every 5 or 6 sub-centres, there is a primary health care unit. Sudarshan’s team trains the tribal girls in each village so that the few ANMs posted do not have to walk the 20 kms between the 4-5 villages this program covers. Joshi’s team in Bhandara also trained 25 local dais or Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) to recognize complications and give basic medicines and obstetric care in the villages, one to each village. They also conduct antenatal checkups every month in about 10 villages. But funds for such programs are scant primarily because maternal health is not recognized as a priority issue in India. “The awareness that a pregnant woman should be taken care of is just not there,” says Joshi. “If a woman is not delivering, the attitude used to be, let’s wait and see, maybe tomorrow morning she will deliver. Now with our training, the dais can recognize complications but the money to shift the patient to a hospital is still not there.”

This brings us to the next obstacle. So say the SBA refers to patient to an emergency obstetric care unit (EOC) and let’s assume that we have one of those for every few villages. How would the patient reach the EOC? “Transport is a big issue. It is appalling that we do not have EMS (emergency medical services) that is efficient and well staffed,” Sudarshan states categorically. He is working on building one for Karnataka with a coordinating body at district level which has jeeps, ambulances, even tractors available for responding to emergency calls. “We have to strengthen the PHC and an EMS is an integral part of that,” he says. Bhandara is not so lucky. “Vehicles are available in 50% of the cases. But they are expensive. In the day, people can use buses, but not at nights. There are several rivers in this area and the buses are not allowed to travel over these at night,” says Joshi.

Suppose the patient does reach the first referral unit (FRU) with complications that say, require a C-section. Is that a guarantee for a safe delivery? Sadly, no. Few FRUs run 24 hours. Joshi’s hospital has 2-3 gynaecologists where the recommended number for the population of that area is 5-6. “All the C-sections and hysterectomies are carried out by these 2-3 gynaecologists. In the PHC in the villages, there is one doctor and 2-3 sisters (nurses), but they are only graduates, not post graduates or MBBS. So they cannot even do a complicated normal delivery, let alone C-sections.”

Even in Karnataka, the FRUs are woefully understaffed and in some cases dangerously mismatched. “In one case,” says Sudarshan with an ironic smile, “an orthopedist was posted where an obstetrician was required. With bribes, these so-called doctors can get posted to any area they want regardless of what is actually required there.” And then there is the big problem of anaesthetists. At the Taluka level there is an acute shortage of them. Anaesthetists are required during complications and surgeries. When Sudarshan’s team proposed that nurse obstetricians and other doctors also get trained in anaesthetics, the proposal was shot down by the medical lobby. Human resource management in the health sector seems to be a big issue. Shiva echoed the sentiment saying, “We need trained people in PHCs. And people with the right training. There is no point sending patients who require C-sections to where there is no anaesthetist or ob-gyn.”

Government
Now, if we had fully staffed and functioning FRUs, would that bring down the mortality rate? Unfortunately, there is still one more layer that mothers have to contend with.

Shanta lives in a slum in Bangalore. When she was expecting her second child, she had the good fortune of being close to a government hospital where care would be free. Or so she thought. When she reached there, she realized that she had to ‘buy’ a bed or sleep on the floor. She also had to ‘buy’ food. So much so that she even had to ‘buy’ washing services or wear soiled clothes. And when it was time to “push” during delivery, she was just too weak, and the nurses slapped her. Left and right, again and again. They abused and cursed. “Is that the way to treat a patient?” Shanta queries in puzzlement. “My mother’s house where I had my first born was better,” she declared. Her sister-in-law Prema now laughs as she describes her own run-in with a local PHC outside Mysore. “They wouldn’t give me my child until I paid up. Luckily I had saved all year, knowing this would be the case. The nurse was actually someone I grew up with. I thought she would be fair, but no. Everyone wants money.” As soon as they got their money, she was sent home -– the same day — with no medicines or follow-up monitoring either for her or her baby.

Corruption is not a new problem. “Even if the most sophisticated PHC is right across the road the ward boy needs to be bribed with Rs 150 to wheel the mother into the operation theatre and another Rs 300 to wheel her to the ward and most cannot afford that,” declares a grave Sudarshan. In his opinion this final layer is the most important and toughest one to correct. “Bad governance. The real problem is not technological care but simply what I call the epidemic of corruption in the health services. And this is not just in the public healthcare sector, the private is just as bad,” he says. “Doctors in Arunachal Pradesh take their pay checks but never show up. There is rampant corruption in procurement where, in one case, 123 spurious drugs were identified but bribes were taken and they were not reported. Dialysis machines which cost 5 lakhs are bought at 12.5 lakhs. Poor people end up spending huge amounts due to over-prescription of medicines that should be free to them. This is the real problem and no amount of infrastructure improvement will bring down MMR if governance is not improved,” warns Sudarshan.

Shiva adds, “The private hospitals are mercenaries too. They perform unwanted C-sections and hysterectomies where none is required simply because there is big money in these procedures.” Sudarshan, who sits in the anti-corruption cell of the Karnataka Government has presented strong recommendations to the Karnataka government regarding this issue. He stresses that good accreditation, accountability, good monitoring, and honest reporting are the only things that will actually bring down MMR, given the other necessities are taken care of.

And where will the money for the necessary infrastructure come from? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has promised that the government spending on public healthcare — which currently stands at an abysmal 0.9% of GDP (one of the five lowest in the world) — will be increased to 2-3% of GDP which Sudarshan finds heartening, but tempers his optimism with caution. “It is great that there will be three times the amount available today for a sector that needs it badly, but one must plug the holes first. No point pouring all that money into a leaky vessel,” he quips.

So, can it be done? Can MMR be brought down under 100 by 2015?

Sudarshan thinks so, but he will give it not 10, but 15 years. “It all comes down to political will. Sri Lanka, in spite of the civil war showed tremendous political will in tackling IMR and MMR and setting goals for themselves. Tamilnadu has a Deputy Commissioner (DC) monitor maternal mortality himself.” This has increased the accountability and responsibility of the people in charge and has achieved good results. In Kerala, awareness about maternal health issues is high and the citizens demand more. Literacy plays a key role in keeping the MMR low. Kerala leads the way in successfully reducing MMR and Tamilnadu is close behind. While people like Sudarshan are doing everything to make sure it happens in Karnataka, the awareness and more importantly, recognition of this as an issue is lacking in other parts of India. In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam and Orissa where the MMRs are well above the national average, it will require serious political will and accountability to change status quo.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare puts plans in place with the best of intentions (see here), but until governance and administration is addressed, people like Prema will still have no guarantees of care without paying beyond their means to like other pockets. But whether we will make progress will also be determined by when the Ministry recognizes MMR itself one of the key “Health and Population Indicators.” Today, they do not. (See here.)

Both Shiva and Sudarshan agree that what India does not require is yet another vertical program to tackle maternal mortality. Verticals tend to be donor driven and cost intensive. MMR is not a disease unto itself. Clearly, high MMR is a symptom of a larger and wider problem in healthcare, namely the overall health of the woman, and should be treated as such and across verticals. Tackling a lot of the broader issues of governance and infrastructure should bring down the MMR. The National Rural Health Mission aims to reach across verticals to integrate services and by appointing an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) at the community level provides decentralized first contact care. Shiva was part of one of the Task Forces of the NRHM and lauds its efforts as broadening the RCH program. But in order that the NRHM succeed, we come back to the need for evaluation methods and strong accountability.

The health of mothers is directly related to a child’s health and without due attention to the causes behind high maternal mortality ratios, we are ignoring an important determinant of the health of our nation. In doing so, we may be running the risk of damaging our chances for all-encompassing prosperity.

Ways to tackle maternal mortality
To check the maternal mortality rate in India, health experts have stressed on changing the traditional treatment and delivery system being practised in most villages.

At the 52th All-India Congress of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, the annual meeting of The Federation of Obstetric & Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), gynaecologists from across the globe advocated the need to adopt advanced strategies practised in some of the countries in Africa.

“Lack of access and inadequate utilisation of healthcare facilities are responsible for maternal deaths in India. Countries like Mozambique have made good progress in reducing maternal mortality ratio (MMR),” explained Staffan Bergstrom, from Sweden.

Bergstrom added that the healthcare facilities in remote areas of countries like India are virtually absent, with no specialist doctors and advanced treatment facilities.

“In a number of countries with low per capita income, there is a scarcity of specialist doctors. Non-specialist doctors do major surgeries and fail to diagnose complications. Besides, many medical and clinical officers are being trained to perform surgeries in remote places, where specialists are not available. This is very risky,” Bergstrom explained.

“We should remember that children’s health is directly related to mother’s health. The MMR reflect the health of our nation. So, we should introduce advanced facilities in our villages,” said Gita Ganguly Mukherjee, former head of obstetrics and gynaecology, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

In India, one of 48 expecting mothers is at risk of dying during childbirth. According to the data of National Health Policy 2002, the MMR in India is as high as 407 per 100,000 live births. Other sources have put the MMR as high as 540 (NHFS and Unicef data, 2000).

“The chances of death of an Indian mother during childbirth is roughly 10 times more than that of her Chinese counterpart,” said Bergstrom.

India and other Third World countries have set a goal to reduce the MMR by three-quarters by 2015.

Junk debt – or a rubbish rating?

By Kunal Kumar Kundu

United States-based rating firm Standard & Poor’s downgraded its outlook for India’s sovereign debt from stable to negative on February 24, while retaining the country’s BBB- rating – the lowest investment grade. In essence, India’s sovereign debt is just a step away from being declared junk. Not only does that indicate that the economy is in a perilous state – it drives up the cost of borrowing.

The last time India was downgraded to junk was in 1991. Are we saying that India is currently on the edge of the precipice and is about to hurtle down the abyss, as it did then, when, if memory serves me right, inflation ruled at 16.7% in August 1991. India’s foreign currency assets were worth a measly US$1.1 billion on June 30, 1991, just good enough to cover the country’s import bill for a fortnight.

That year, the government leased 20 tonnes of gold to the State Bank of India (SBI) for sale abroad, with an option to repurchase it after six months. The government also asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in July 1991, to ship 47 tonnes of gold to the Bank of England to raise $600 million.

Agreed, India’s current fiscal situation is a cause for concern. This is purported to be the background for the current downgrade, along with external vulnerability, given the rising current account deficit. But before we go into the depth of the issue, it is important remember that in the interim, during 2001-2004, there was a strong debate on same issue, when global rating agencies downgraded India in view of a rising fiscal deficit.

In January 2004, Professor Nouriel Roubini (RGE Monitor) and Richard Hemming (senior advisor at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund) in their paper “A Balance Sheet Crisis in India?”, drawing on their and India’s experience of the previous crisis in 1991, concluded by highlighting several vulnerabilities that India was on the verge of another crisis. In retrospect, however, these risks never materialized. India recorded 8%-plus annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the next few years thereafter and everything was under control.

Now, the specter of a high deficit is again looming large. India’s estimated fiscal deficit for the financial year 2008-09 is 6%, and if one takes into account the state government deficits, the total fiscal deficit should be in the region on 9% to 10%. However, the uptick in the deficit has as much to do with rising expenditure as it has to do with falling revenues as growth momentum slows, following the contagion effect of the global crisis.

It is important to note that the fiscal deficit rose despite a sharp fall in private spending. Hence the rise in the fiscal deficit has not been caused by private spending. Even the external (im)balance that is of concern to the rating agency has a lot to do with the global financial crisis. In fact, with domestic demand shrinking and commodity prices falling (and unlikely to improve much even next year or the next given the general recessionary trend), India’s external balance will be much under control going forward.

Given the demand contraction (both domestic and external), India will be lucky to record even 6% GDP growth in 2008-09. It is not expected to be much better than 6.5% even by 2009-10. Thereafter, India will record much higher GDP growth. Clearly the fiscal vulnerability that is being talked about is more cyclical than structural and hence is a lesser cause for worry.

Seemingly, for the the rating agency economists, these are issues not important enough to dwell on, and hence they have decided to sound alarm bells by simply going by the macro-indicators and their past experience, failing to take congniscance of the fact that the business environment changes and a much more holistic view needs to be taken.

In the case of India, 1991 was different. Since then, India has seen many structural changes and, as an economy, the country is in a much better shape. Because of prudent practices, India has managed to avoid the financial contagion that many developed economies, with their cutting-edge policies and regulations, have fallen into.

A major part of the blame for the implosion of the global financial market has to do to with the credit rating agencies themselves, for their miserable failure to predict a crisis that was possibly one of the most predictable ever to hit the global financial system. Agencies that pour their energies into studying company data day in and day out could not predict the collapse of the US housing bubble, despite every data indicating that big trouble was brewing. Not only that, they went ahead and boldly gave a high investment grade rating to various structured products that abounded with junk, leading to the problem being exacerbated.

A scorecard released recently by Credit Suisse detailing the vulnerability of various countries repays study. (Click here for table.)

Credit Suisse ranked countries with regard to their vulnerability by taking into account various factors, the lowest ranking being more vulnerable. The table highlights the ratings given to the East European countries. As we all know, this region has the ability to have a severe impact on even the developed European economies. The S&P rating column shows that only one East European country, Latvia, had a BBB- rating similar to that of India. All others have higher rating than that of India, at times substantially higher.

Yet consider that fact that Hungary, Ukraine and Romania have already gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout. In contrast, India is talking of making contributions to the IMF’s coffers to finance these bailouts. India’s ranking is 25, that is, it is a country considered to be much less vulnerable than others. More importantly, consider Iceland, now a poster boy of doom because of its reckless policies. Iceland was rated similarly to India. Clearly, S&P even failed to predict Iceland’s tremendous fall from grace.

Given the current situation, Keynesianism – with government spending seeking to take up the slump in the private sector – is the way out of the present crisis for most countries. Given the contraction in domestic demand, India needs to do the same.

Similarly for the US. The forecast fiscal deficit for the US in the current year is higher than that of even India. It is quite likely that, if S&P or another such rating agencies were handed the relevant data for the US without the information to which country it referred, the sovereign rating that would result for the world’s biggest economy could well be “junk”.

India’s politicos dangle US$1 trillion hope

By M H Ahssan

India’s general election, which runs from April 16 through to the middle of May, is bringing out a streak of political self-righteousness that is exposing more than the hypocrisy that pervades a ruling elite whose position of power is dependent on the poverty-stricken masses.

The battle for votes is shedding light on wealth spirited out of the country and tucked away in Swiss banks and similar secretive hideaways. Businessmen, politicians and others living in India, the world’s biggest democracy and home to one of the fastest-growing economies, have stashed away over the years a staggering US$1.3 trillion, according to a public interest petition filed this week before the Supreme Court. The petitioners sought judicial intervention to direct the government to seize the overseas loot.

Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan headed a Supreme Court bench that heard the petition on April 22, the first time such a lawsuit has reached the country’s top court.

If this money is brought back, each Indian village could get $2.3 million for development, opposition politicians say. That might be rather optimistic – the petitioners’ $1 trillion-plus figure represents dirty money accumulated over four decades. Even so, the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity Project says India suffers from the illegal outflows of $22 billion to $27 billion every year.

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) was launched in September 2006 “to promote national and multilateral policies, safeguards and agreements aimed at curtailing the cross-border flow of illegal money”, according to the project’s website.

India is not alone in suffering from such outflows. According to GFI, for every $1 poor nations receive in foreign aid, $10 in dirty money flows illicitly abroad. It says terrorist groups and drug cartels are the biggest beneficiaries of this dark economy. Efforts to counter the outflows are having little impact.

“Global corruption has not diminished despite 10 years of effort,” a GFI report notes. [1] “Assets now stashed in tax havens around the globe are estimated at $11.5 trillion, and non-bank cash deposits outside the country of origin are rising.”

Asia accounts for about 50% of illicit financial flows from developing economies, according to Professor R Vaidyanathan, a finance faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a visiting Fulbright Scholar in Corporate Finance at the University of Illinois in the United States.

India’s political classes are suspected to account for much of the black money, some of it tucked away to avoid tax, and so far a cynical general public appears unimpressed by the efforts of politicians to pose as concerned retrievers of this cash.

The petitioners pleading to the Supreme Court are led by former Indian law minister Ram Jethmalani. Already a controversial lawyer and still a politician, Jethmalani suffers credibility problems after having had as his clients India’s biggest stock market scamsters, Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh.

Respondents to the petition include India’s central government, the Reserve Bank of India, stock exchange regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Directorate of Enforcement – whose functions include enforcement of laws such as the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 and Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 – and the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes.

While the sight of politicians falling over each other vowing to get back the loot if voted to power is possibly more mind-boggling than the unconfirmed, gigantic quantity of the muddy money they are chasing, of more immediate interest to the Indian electorate is who stashed away the funds in the first place.

Money and elections are as inseparable as pizza and cheese, but unlike in, for example, the US where electoral funding rules are detailed, the process for funding Indian elections is dangerously hazy and unspecified. While candidates are required to divulge their wealth and assets to India’s Election Commission, how they first acquired this wealth is not necessarily made clear.

Rich individuals, the source of their wealth often swathed in mystery, appear all over the Indian political landscape. The second phase of general election voting, starting on April 23, fields 288 candidates considered to be crorepati the sub-continental equivalent of millionaire, the name derived from one crore, or ten million, rupees – about US$197,500.

The first phase of voting, on April 16, featured 198 crorepatis, according to election watchdogs such as the New Delhi-based National Election Watch (NEW), a nationwide campaign involving 1,200 non-governmental organizations pushing for electoral reforms. NEW says it studies information that candidates provide to the Election Commission.

Past governmental efforts at tracking black wealth have been half-hearted at best. “Given facilities such as online banking, hiding black money these days is much more difficult,” says Ramesh Kumar [2], an accountant with 19 years of experience in various companies. “If governments are serious, it should be a relatively easy matter to track down black money. The problem is that corruption reaches from top to bottom, as when a single bribe is shared among many in the ladder.”

Successive Indian governments have been part of the problem of not pursuing illegal money hoarders. The German government last year offered to reveal names of slush-money account holders in Liechtenstein, a tax haven in Western Europe. Germany’s overseas intelligence agency, the Bundes Nachrichten Dienst, or BND, acquired a compact disc with names of 800 secret account holders in LTG, a Liechtenstein bank. The incriminating disc fell into BND hands during an undercover operation to unearth German tax evaders.

Countries such as the US, Britain, Canada, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Ireland reportedly took up the German government offer. Critics said the Indian government declined to react because powerful people including politicians, media barons, corporate chieftains and leading stockbrokers, are in the dirty-money list the German government discovered.

The Indian government’s approach to black money contrasts starkly with the US, Vaidyanathan, of the Indian Institute of Management, said. For instance, the Swiss wealth management firm UBS in February this year paid a $800 million fine to the US government for withholding details of American account holders. But UBS actually paid the Indian government a small fee for reserving the right not to disclose names of its Indian account holders, Vaidyanthan said.

“Germany, France, the US are all exerting pressure [to get back black money],” Vaidyanathan told Asia Times Online. “Hence India also should join this effort to get its funds.” The issue is not a new one for Vaidyanathan, who has been writing and talking about dark wealth since 1990s. “My finance courses at IIM – Bangalore included the issue of tax havens for a long period.”

“There are more than 70 tax havens in the world, but as the Internal Revenue Service of the US reveals, around 40 of them aggressively market themselves,” Vaidyanathan said. “Some have gone so far as to offer asylum or immunity to criminals who invest sufficient funds.”

Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam told the Supreme Court on April 22 that the government was not asleep on the black money issue. The government promised to file an affidavit within 48 hours stating what steps it had taken to bring back funds from banks in Switzerland and elsewhere.

Even so, as the volume of claim and denial in the black-money drama rises, it is sounding more hollow than convincing. Opposition politicians, who started the latest act in the drama, have so far forgotten to explain why they did nothing to recapture the funds when they were running the government.

Maoists rule India’s ‘Red Corridor’

By Sudha Ramachandran

Indian Maoists hijacked a train with 800 passengers in the eastern state of Jharkhand on Wednesday morning. Although the crisis was defused within five hours, when the Maoists released the train and its passengers, the incident has sparked grave concern throughout the security establishment.

The ease with which the Maoists were able to stage an operation of this magnitude – and at a time when security has been tightened for general elections – has laid bare yet again that it is the Maoists’ writ, not that of the government that runs through this part of the country.

The train was on its way from Barkakana in Jharkhand to Mugalsarai in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh when it was hijacked near Hehegarha railway station in Latehar district. Around 200 Maoists are said to have carried out the operation. A railway station in Palamu was bombed as well.

In March 2006, a train was hijacked in the same district. Passengers were set free after 12 hours. The Indian Railways have been targeted repeatedly by the Maoists. Besides holding-up trains, they have blasted railway tracks, burned railway stations, looted weapons from railway police and abducted personnel.

No passengers were hurt in Wednesday’s hijacking and hostage drama. The operation, which took place on the eve of the second part of India’s month-long five-phase general election, was aimed at scaring voters into staying away from polling booths.

Maoists have called for a boycott of the polls in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. In a bid to disrupt polling during the first phase of voting last week, they detonated landmines, raided polling booths and torched electronic voting machines. Around 20 people were killed and scores injured on polling day alone.

Analysts have sought to downplay the impact of the Maoist’s poll violence. Bibhu Prasad Routray, research fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management has written that “Maoist violence on April 16 affected a meager 0.09% (71) of the 76,000 polling stations that were identified as vulnerable in the first phase.” He argues that Maoists suffered damage in the violence they sought to inflict on the security forces in the run-up to voting.

While the Maoists have carried out spectacular attacks and did disrupt polls to some extent, they were not fully successful in effecting a boycott. Voter turnout in the constituencies worst hit by Maoist violence was a respectable 50%.

Maoist influence runs through a stretch of territory referred to as the “Red Corridor”. This extends from the Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh through Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand up to Bihar. Areas in western Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh are also under Maoist influence. And they have some presence in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as well.

The area where the Maoists operate has grown dramatically in recent years. In the early 1990s the number of districts affected by varying degrees of Maoist violence stood at just 15 in four states. This rose to 55 districts in nine states by the end of 2003 and to 156 districts in 13 states in 2004. Maoists are believed to be operating now in around 200 districts (of a total of 602 districts in the country) in 17 states.

Government officials point out that these statistics and the name Red Corridor have conjured up images of Maoists being in control of a large swathe of land and posing a threat to the Indian state. An official in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region told Asia Times Online that while the Maoists do control “some area” in Dantewada district and are able to carry out big attacks in several states, in most areas of the Red Corridor they operate as a hit-and-run force.

“They do not threaten the government, either at the state or the federal level and they are nowhere near sparking off a general uprising,” he said, drawing attention to the diminishing public support for the Maoists and increasing resistance to their diktats.

Human-rights activists argue that while the Maoist threat might “not have Delhi on its knees, it is a fact that the problem has laid bare India’s failure to deliver good governance, to respond to the plight of the poorest and most marginalized sections of its population”.

Unlike jihadi violence that comes from across the border in Pakistan, Maoist violence has its roots firmly in India. Indeed, the Maoist problem has left India red-faced.

Districts that fall in the Red Corridor are rich in minerals like iron ore and bauxite. But the people living there, who are largely Adivasi or tribal are desperately poor. Exploited by forest officials, contractors, mining companies and middlemen and neglected by the state, villagers in the Red Corridor are among the worst off in the country.

And it is to liberate them from their oppressors and the Indian state that the Maoists claim to be waging their armed struggle.

It is true the Maoists have improved life for the Adivasis by forcing local officials to dig wells or pay better wages to the villagers. But over time, the liberators have turned oppressors themselves. Villagers who don’t obey the Maoists have been killed and Maoist violence stands in the way of development projects.

The scale of Maoist operations has grown dramatically over the years. In November 2005, more than 1,000 Maoists stormed a jail in Jehanabad in Bihar and freed about 350 of their jailed comrades. Armories and camps of the police and paramilitary forces have been raided. A week ago, they signaled capacity to stand and fight the security forces. Around 200 Maoists stormed a state-owned bauxite mining company in the eastern state of Orissa, taking around 100 employees hostage. They battled for more than nine hours with members of India’s Special Operations Group and its Central Industrial Security Force before they finally retreated.

Analysts have drawn attention to increasing Maoist attacks on infrastructure. P Ramana, research fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, has pointed out that 62 telecommunication towers were damaged by the Maoists in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Orissa in from 2005 to 2008, with 43 of these occurring in 2008. These attacks are aimed at disrupting “communication amongst the security forces, as well as between ‘police informants’ – who have been provided cellular telephones – and the security forces, in order that operations against the rebels get impaired,” he writes.

The Maoists have also been blowing up power lines and service towers. In May 2007, they blew up three 132 KVA high-tension towers in the Bastar region, plunging six districts into darkness for a week and disrupting normal power distribution for a fortnight. “Functioning of hospitals, communication systems and rail traffic, besides iron ore mines was badly affected,” Ramana points out. In June of last year, two 220 KVA towers were blasted depriving 15,000 villages of electricity.

Maoists have displayed their military capability through their high-profile attacks on railways and other infrastructure. They have been able to inflict losses running into millions of dollars on the state they are seeking to overthrow.

But simultaneously they are inflicting heavy losses on the people they claim they are going to liberate. They have worsened the daily lives of some of India’s most exploited people.

G20: The ‘trillion’ dollar magic trick

By M H Ahssan

To great fanfare, the G20 announced a US $1.1 trillion global package, which will actually deliver less than half that amount in new or guaranteed resources. Meanwhile issues of fundamental economic reform were left off the agenda.

The G20 meeting on 2 April, billed as the London Summit 2009 because of its inclusion of non-G20 players, captured positive media attention despite failing to set out a vision for transformative economic change, and pumping more money into the IMF and World Bank without a clear plan for reforming them.

Where did the ‘trillion’ go?
The IMF received most of the boost, with a possible $500 billion in new resources and $250 billion in issuances of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Of the $500 billion, only half has been signed and sealed, the vast majority of which had been previously announced: $100 billion from Japan in January and the same amount from the EU in March. Most of the new $50bn comes from China – a small drop in its vast ocean of reserves, indicating that it continues to be reluctant to back the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) financially without real governance reform. The second tranche of $250 billion only exists as a G20 promise to find the extra cash, and to make “substantial progress” in doing so by April’s spring meetings.

The other massive increase in IMF resources was through an allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), the IMF’s own internally created reserve asset. An SDR allocation effectively means printing new money, $100 billion of which will go to “emerging market and developing countries”. Unlike other forms of finance, SDRs come without conditions attached, but a country must still pay interest when it uses them. As SDRs are allocated according to voting shares at the IMF, the majority will go to rich countries.

On new money for the multilateral deveopment banks (MDBs), the language is particularly hazy. The G20 agrees only to “support” additional annual lending by the MDBs of $100 billion per year. Some of this, such as a boost to IFC trade financing, is money already promised. Some is supposed to come from existing MDB resources. Some will come from a 200 per cent boost to the Asian Development Bank’s capital, and consideration of similar moves for the Inter-American Development Bank and the African Development Bank.

World Bank attempts to garner additional contributions for their ‘vulnerability’ funds were snubbed, with the G20 making clear that these would only be delivered bilaterally from willing donors. So far, the UK is the only country to make concrete commitments – diverting £200 million of its existing aid budget for this purpose. The G20 also asked the Bank to increase lending limits for “large countries” and to lend at market rates to low income countries, but only those with “sustainable debt positions and sound policies.”

Money for the poorest?
Of the putative $1.1 trillion, $50 billion, or less than 5 per cent, is likely to be for the 49 poorest countries in the world. The communique does not give clear details of how this figure is arrived at. Brussels based NGO, Eurodad estimates that, in addition to $6 billion (over three years) from IMF gold sales that will be added to the IMF’s concessional lending pot, $19 billion in new money will come from the SDR allocation. The communique also calls for a doubling of the IMF’s concessional lending capacity, currently at about $20 billion. That means that most of the total is IMF loans, which are only available if poor countries’ economies go into meltdown.

The detail on the promised “global effort to ensure the availability of at least $250 billion of trade finance over the next two years” is entirely absent from the communique. However, the IFC – the private sector lending arm of the World Bank – is already angling for a slice of this cash for its new global trade lliquidity programme. Most of the rest is likely to funds provided by export credit agencies, which have been heavily criticised for a host of issues, including focussing their support on the arms industry. The communique’s commitment to meet existing aid pledges obviously meant more to some G20 countries than others. Italy, the current host of the G8, plans to cut its aid by 55 per cent this year.

Elephants in the room: governance and conditionality
The G20 communique says nothing new on IFI governance reform, and big increases in IMF resources have not been matched with clear commitments to end the controversial austerity policies that have so far accompanied IMF bailout packages.

Changes to voting shares to give developing economies “greater voice and representation” are promised in general but the annex appears to backtrack on IMF reform. The existing plan for Bank governance reforms by the 2010 Spring Meetings for the World Bank is reconfirmed, but on the Fund, the annex indicates that the slightly accelerated quota review may not address the democratic deficit or governance imbalance but will be undertaken “to ensure the IMF’s finances are on a sustainable footing”.

Critics remain concerned that lessons from the Asian financial crisis a decade ago have not been learned, where IMF conditions were blamed for worsening recessions. Duncan Green of Oxfam said: “We have deep concerns about how central the IMF has become in this crisis. The fund has been given a blank cheque but its reform remains no more than a promise.”

Financial reform: does it have teeth?
Campaigning NGOs and continental European governments had pushed the issue of tax havens to the fore in the run up to the summit. The UK, itself a sponsor of many of the world’s most famous tax havens including the Cayman Islands and Jersey, had picked up the rhetoric.

The G20 decided to endorse the OECD approach of exchanging information about companies and individuals suspected of evading taxes on request, rather than the more stringent automatic exchange of information called for by the Tax Justice Network and others. There was no mention of measures that could help developing countries crack down on corporate tax abuse: country-by-country financial reporting or requiring transparency of all information on beneficial ownership in all jurisdictions.

The fanfare surrounding a supposed ‘blacklist’ of non-cooperative countries published on the day of the summit by the OECD went silent when it emerged that only four countries were on the list – Uruguay, the Philippines, the Malaysian Federal Territory of Labuan, and Costa Rica – none of them well known tax havens. Further confusion followed when even these four were removed, leaving no countries in the OECD’s worst category. The strong rhetoric – declaring that “the era of banking secrecy is over” and promising to “stand ready to deploy sanctions” – has yet to be turned into effective action.

As promised by the G20 finance ministers in March the Financial Stability Forum will be expanded to include all G20 countries, and renamed the Financial Stability Board (FSB). It will continue to have a purely advisory role to; “promote co-ordination”; “assess vulnerabilities affecting the financial system” and “set guidelines”. With no specific powers or sanctions available to it, and a lack of a clear governance structure, it remains to be seen whether the new board will be an improvement on the old forum.

On banking regulation, a topic that has dominated headlines in the run up to the summit, surprisingly little concrete was agreed, though international bodies are tasked with looking further into a host of issues. International minimum capital requirements will remain unchanged “until recovery is assured” and the often criticised Basel II capital framework supported. The existing ‘toxic assets’ in banks remain a huge problem, but one that has been left to national regulators to fix.

In his post-summit press conference, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown repeated his assertion that the ’shadow banking system’ would be brought into “the global regulatory net”, but the language of the communique is far more cautious – “systematically important financial institutions, markets, and instruments” should be subject to an “appropriate degree of regulation and oversight.”

The FSB and IMF are tasked with deciding what “systematically important” means. Many hedge funds and private equity firms may continue to escape the regulatory net, especially those formally headquartered in off-shore financial centres. Hedge fund and credit rating agency “registration” is promised, and credit derivatives markets will be “standardised,” but it is left to the industry itself to decide how to do this.

Missing the green picture
Green groups slammed the G20 for failing to grasp the opportunity to signal a clear commitment to building a low-carbon economy. The communique promises to “make best possible use” of stimulus packages “towards the goal of building a resilient, sustainable, and green recovery” and to “identify and work together on further measures to build sustainable economies.” But there were no hard commitments about what portion of stimulus packages would be directed towards green projects, technologies, or jobs.

The aim of the upcoming UN climate talks in Copenhagen is set as reaching agreement, with no reference made to the scale of the changes G20 countries, particularly the richest ones, will have to make to combat climate change. Friends of the Earth said the G20 had “short changed people and the planet”. Greenpeace said climate change had been tagged on to the communique as an “afterthought”.

Liberalisation still the norm?
The communique is understandably short on the usual congratulatory opening paragraphs, though it reiterates support for “an open world economy based on market principles” but now balanced by “effective regulation, and strong global institutions.”

On trade the expected promise to “not repeat the historic mistakes of protectionism” is made, but the commitment to “reach an ambitious and balanced conclusion to” the Doha trade round looks suspiciously similar to the commitments made by the G20 in Washington last November, since when little progress has been made. Interestingly the G20 estimate for how much the Doha trade round could boost the global economy stands at a modest $150 billion. Civil society organisations around the globe have questioned whether reviving a trade round that developing countries have rejected many times is a good idea.

Protest grows
Marches and protests took place around the world in the run up to the G20 summit, including in India, Philippines, Indonesia, Spain, Germany, France, Austria and Italy. In London, thousands marched under the banner of ‘Jobs, Justice, Climate,’ as part of the 160-plus Put People First alliance of development, environment, faith groups and trade unions.

In addition to mobilisation of citizens, civil society groups have also put out collective statements which look very different from the limited set of issues in the G20 communique. At January’s World Social Forum, civil society and social movements from around the world produced a statement signed up to by more than 600 organisations worldwide, entitled “Let’s put finance in its place!” It includes demands barely considered by the G20, yet at the heart of the debate about how best to control global finance, including managing capital flows, and calling for “citizen control of banks and financial institutions.” It also issued a challenge to the leaders gathered in London, saying: “the G20 is not the legitimate forum to resolve this systemic crisis.”

On the eve of the G20, at the World in Crisis NGO summit in Prague, a declaration was issued calling for putting economies “at the service of social, environmental and other vital interests of women, men, girls and boys, in particular to start greening our economies and to increase local economic resilience.” A raft of proposals were included on a host of critical topics including: market regulation; breaking the dominance of finance over the economy; keeping the climate negotiations on track; rethinking development finance; fairly sharing resource consumption across the globe; ensuring tax justice; and making IFIs more transparent, representative and accountable.

Meanwhile, the London Summit was slammed for systematically excluding civil society voices. In contrast to most international gatherings there was no process for civil society organisations to accredit and attend. Of the few civil society representatives who were allowed in as media representatives, some had accreditation withdrawn at the last minute. One of these denied entrance, Benedict Southwark of UK campaigning group the World Development Movement said that this: “starts to reek of the deliberate exclusion of critical voices.”

Spotlight turns to UN
A week before the G20 met in London, the UN General Assembly president’s commission on financial reforms released its draft report. The Joseph Stiglitz-led commission was much stronger in the latest report than in its first set of recommendations, and appears ahead of the G20 curve. The G20 has yet to pay adequate attention to this high powered group of thinkers.

The recommendations said: “short term measures to stabilize the current situation must ensure the protection of the world’s poor, while long term measures to make another recurrence less likely must ensure sustainable financing to strengthen the policy response of developing countries.”

The commission was not unwilling to lay blame: “Loose monetary policy, inadequate regulation and lax supervision interacted to create financial instability,” and there was “inadequate appreciation of the limits of markets.” The report split its recommendations up into things to be done immediately and those that should be on the agenda for systemic reform.

Among immediate goals, it called for global fiscal stimulus, a new credit facility with better governance arrangements than exist at institutions such as the IMF, an end to pro-cyclical conditionality and rolling back the limits on developing country policy space created by trade agreements. For the financial sector the commission noted “While greater transparency is important, much more is needed than improving the clarity of financial instruments,” and recommended the use of rules and incentives to limit excess leverage, prevent tax evasion, and address the regulatory race to the bottom.

While the short-term recommendations were sometimes eye-catching, the systemic demands surprised many observers. The call for “a new global reserve system”, echoed the demand to end the US dollar’s privileged position as international reserve currency made by China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan. The commission also supported the idea for a UN-based Global Economic Council at the head of state level – essentially bringing a G20 type structure under the auspices of the UN system.

On long-term changes to financial regulation, the commission listed seven areas for reform and warned against “merely cosmetic changes”. Notably it said: “The fact that correlated behaviour of a large number of institutions, each of which is not systemically significant, can give rise to systemic vulnerability makes oversight of all institutions necessary.” This throws cold water the G20’s plans for regulating only ’systemically-important’ financial institutions.

The UN commission, despite being organised more quickly than the G20 meeting, was much more open to civil society input. More than 100 organisations made submissions to the stakeholder consultation procedure, and the final report on civil society opinion was detailed, comprehensive, and well received by the commission. The civil society submissions were all put online, more than can be said of the official G20 working group reports (see Update 64), which are yet to be published. In late March, members of the commission also held interactive dialogues with representatives at the UN General Assembly and civil society organisations.

The global focus will now move to a UN conference from 1-3 June in New York, billed as the follow-up to the UN Financing for Development conference in Doha. The conference is being held at the initiative of the General Assembly president, rather than from the UN Secretariat because of opposition from some major countries. It is unclear how much participation there will be by heads of state, especially as the G20 announced that it will hold another leader’s level summit sometime before the end of this year.

G20: The ‘trillion’ dollar magic trick

By M H Ahssan

To great fanfare, the G20 announced a US $1.1 trillion global package, which will actually deliver less than half that amount in new or guaranteed resources. Meanwhile issues of fundamental economic reform were left off the agenda.

The G20 meeting on 2 April, billed as the London Summit 2009 because of its inclusion of non-G20 players, captured positive media attention despite failing to set out a vision for transformative economic change, and pumping more money into the IMF and World Bank without a clear plan for reforming them.

Where did the ‘trillion’ go?
The IMF received most of the boost, with a possible $500 billion in new resources and $250 billion in issuances of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Of the $500 billion, only half has been signed and sealed, the vast majority of which had been previously announced: $100 billion from Japan in January and the same amount from the EU in March. Most of the new $50bn comes from China – a small drop in its vast ocean of reserves, indicating that it continues to be reluctant to back the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) financially without real governance reform. The second tranche of $250 billion only exists as a G20 promise to find the extra cash, and to make “substantial progress” in doing so by April’s spring meetings.

The other massive increase in IMF resources was through an allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), the IMF’s own internally created reserve asset. An SDR allocation effectively means printing new money, $100 billion of which will go to “emerging market and developing countries”. Unlike other forms of finance, SDRs come without conditions attached, but a country must still pay interest when it uses them. As SDRs are allocated according to voting shares at the IMF, the majority will go to rich countries.

On new money for the multilateral deveopment banks (MDBs), the language is particularly hazy. The G20 agrees only to “support” additional annual lending by the MDBs of $100 billion per year. Some of this, such as a boost to IFC trade financing, is money already promised. Some is supposed to come from existing MDB resources. Some will come from a 200 per cent boost to the Asian Development Bank’s capital, and consideration of similar moves for the Inter-American Development Bank and the African Development Bank.

World Bank attempts to garner additional contributions for their ‘vulnerability’ funds were snubbed, with the G20 making clear that these would only be delivered bilaterally from willing donors. So far, the UK is the only country to make concrete commitments – diverting £200 million of its existing aid budget for this purpose. The G20 also asked the Bank to increase lending limits for “large countries” and to lend at market rates to low income countries, but only those with “sustainable debt positions and sound policies.”

Money for the poorest?
Of the putative $1.1 trillion, $50 billion, or less than 5 per cent, is likely to be for the 49 poorest countries in the world. The communique does not give clear details of how this figure is arrived at. Brussels based NGO, Eurodad estimates that, in addition to $6 billion (over three years) from IMF gold sales that will be added to the IMF’s concessional lending pot, $19 billion in new money will come from the SDR allocation. The communique also calls for a doubling of the IMF’s concessional lending capacity, currently at about $20 billion. That means that most of the total is IMF loans, which are only available if poor countries’ economies go into meltdown.

The detail on the promised “global effort to ensure the availability of at least $250 billion of trade finance over the next two years” is entirely absent from the communique. However, the IFC – the private sector lending arm of the World Bank – is already angling for a slice of this cash for its new global trade lliquidity programme. Most of the rest is likely to funds provided by export credit agencies, which have been heavily criticised for a host of issues, including focussing their support on the arms industry. The communique’s commitment to meet existing aid pledges obviously meant more to some G20 countries than others. Italy, the current host of the G8, plans to cut its aid by 55 per cent this year.

Elephants in the room: governance and conditionality
The G20 communique says nothing new on IFI governance reform, and big increases in IMF resources have not been matched with clear commitments to end the controversial austerity policies that have so far accompanied IMF bailout packages.

Changes to voting shares to give developing economies “greater voice and representation” are promised in general but the annex appears to backtrack on IMF reform. The existing plan for Bank governance reforms by the 2010 Spring Meetings for the World Bank is reconfirmed, but on the Fund, the annex indicates that the slightly accelerated quota review may not address the democratic deficit or governance imbalance but will be undertaken “to ensure the IMF’s finances are on a sustainable footing”.

Critics remain concerned that lessons from the Asian financial crisis a decade ago have not been learned, where IMF conditions were blamed for worsening recessions. Duncan Green of Oxfam said: “We have deep concerns about how central the IMF has become in this crisis. The fund has been given a blank cheque but its reform remains no more than a promise.”

Financial reform: does it have teeth?
Campaigning NGOs and continental European governments had pushed the issue of tax havens to the fore in the run up to the summit. The UK, itself a sponsor of many of the world’s most famous tax havens including the Cayman Islands and Jersey, had picked up the rhetoric.

The G20 decided to endorse the OECD approach of exchanging information about companies and individuals suspected of evading taxes on request, rather than the more stringent automatic exchange of information called for by the Tax Justice Network and others. There was no mention of measures that could help developing countries crack down on corporate tax abuse: country-by-country financial reporting or requiring transparency of all information on beneficial ownership in all jurisdictions.

The fanfare surrounding a supposed ‘blacklist’ of non-cooperative countries published on the day of the summit by the OECD went silent when it emerged that only four countries were on the list – Uruguay, the Philippines, the Malaysian Federal Territory of Labuan, and Costa Rica – none of them well known tax havens. Further confusion followed when even these four were removed, leaving no countries in the OECD’s worst category. The strong rhetoric – declaring that “the era of banking secrecy is over” and promising to “stand ready to deploy sanctions” – has yet to be turned into effective action.

As promised by the G20 finance ministers in March the Financial Stability Forum will be expanded to include all G20 countries, and renamed the Financial Stability Board (FSB). It will continue to have a purely advisory role to; “promote co-ordination”; “assess vulnerabilities affecting the financial system” and “set guidelines”. With no specific powers or sanctions available to it, and a lack of a clear governance structure, it remains to be seen whether the new board will be an improvement on the old forum.

On banking regulation, a topic that has dominated headlines in the run up to the summit, surprisingly little concrete was agreed, though international bodies are tasked with looking further into a host of issues. International minimum capital requirements will remain unchanged “until recovery is assured” and the often criticised Basel II capital framework supported. The existing ‘toxic assets’ in banks remain a huge problem, but one that has been left to national regulators to fix.

In his post-summit press conference, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown repeated his assertion that the ’shadow banking system’ would be brought into “the global regulatory net”, but the language of the communique is far more cautious – “systematically important financial institutions, markets, and instruments” should be subject to an “appropriate degree of regulation and oversight.”

The FSB and IMF are tasked with deciding what “systematically important” means. Many hedge funds and private equity firms may continue to escape the regulatory net, especially those formally headquartered in off-shore financial centres. Hedge fund and credit rating agency “registration” is promised, and credit derivatives markets will be “standardised,” but it is left to the industry itself to decide how to do this.

Missing the green picture
Green groups slammed the G20 for failing to grasp the opportunity to signal a clear commitment to building a low-carbon economy. The communique promises to “make best possible use” of stimulus packages “towards the goal of building a resilient, sustainable, and green recovery” and to “identify and work together on further measures to build sustainable economies.” But there were no hard commitments about what portion of stimulus packages would be directed towards green projects, technologies, or jobs.

The aim of the upcoming UN climate talks in Copenhagen is set as reaching agreement, with no reference made to the scale of the changes G20 countries, particularly the richest ones, will have to make to combat climate change. Friends of the Earth said the G20 had “short changed people and the planet”. Greenpeace said climate change had been tagged on to the communique as an “afterthought”.

Liberalisation still the norm?
The communique is understandably short on the usual congratulatory opening paragraphs, though it reiterates support for “an open world economy based on market principles” but now balanced by “effective regulation, and strong global institutions.”

On trade the expected promise to “not repeat the historic mistakes of protectionism” is made, but the commitment to “reach an ambitious and balanced conclusion to” the Doha trade round looks suspiciously similar to the commitments made by the G20 in Washington last November, since when little progress has been made. Interestingly the G20 estimate for how much the Doha trade round could boost the global economy stands at a modest $150 billion. Civil society organisations around the globe have questioned whether reviving a trade round that developing countries have rejected many times is a good idea.

Protest grows
Marches and protests took place around the world in the run up to the G20 summit, including in India, Philippines, Indonesia, Spain, Germany, France, Austria and Italy. In London, thousands marched under the banner of ‘Jobs, Justice, Climate,’ as part of the 160-plus Put People First alliance of development, environment, faith groups and trade unions.

In addition to mobilisation of citizens, civil society groups have also put out collective statements which look very different from the limited set of issues in the G20 communique. At January’s World Social Forum, civil society and social movements from around the world produced a statement signed up to by more than 600 organisations worldwide, entitled “Let’s put finance in its place!” It includes demands barely considered by the G20, yet at the heart of the debate about how best to control global finance, including managing capital flows, and calling for “citizen control of banks and financial institutions.” It also issued a challenge to the leaders gathered in London, saying: “the G20 is not the legitimate forum to resolve this systemic crisis.”

On the eve of the G20, at the World in Crisis NGO summit in Prague, a declaration was issued calling for putting economies “at the service of social, environmental and other vital interests of women, men, girls and boys, in particular to start greening our economies and to increase local economic resilience.” A raft of proposals were included on a host of critical topics including: market regulation; breaking the dominance of finance over the economy; keeping the climate negotiations on track; rethinking development finance; fairly sharing resource consumption across the globe; ensuring tax justice; and making IFIs more transparent, representative and accountable.

Meanwhile, the London Summit was slammed for systematically excluding civil society voices. In contrast to most international gatherings there was no process for civil society organisations to accredit and attend. Of the few civil society representatives who were allowed in as media representatives, some had accreditation withdrawn at the last minute. One of these denied entrance, Benedict Southwark of UK campaigning group the World Development Movement said that this: “starts to reek of the deliberate exclusion of critical voices.”

Spotlight turns to UN
A week before the G20 met in London, the UN General Assembly president’s commission on financial reforms released its draft report. The Joseph Stiglitz-led commission was much stronger in the latest report than in its first set of recommendations, and appears ahead of the G20 curve. The G20 has yet to pay adequate attention to this high powered group of thinkers.

The recommendations said: “short term measures to stabilize the current situation must ensure the protection of the world’s poor, while long term measures to make another recurrence less likely must ensure sustainable financing to strengthen the policy response of developing countries.”

The commission was not unwilling to lay blame: “Loose monetary policy, inadequate regulation and lax supervision interacted to create financial instability,” and there was “inadequate appreciation of the limits of markets.” The report split its recommendations up into things to be done immediately and those that should be on the agenda for systemic reform.

Among immediate goals, it called for global fiscal stimulus, a new credit facility with better governance arrangements than exist at institutions such as the IMF, an end to pro-cyclical conditionality and rolling back the limits on developing country policy space created by trade agreements. For the financial sector the commission noted “While greater transparency is important, much more is needed than improving the clarity of financial instruments,” and recommended the use of rules and incentives to limit excess leverage, prevent tax evasion, and address the regulatory race to the bottom.

While the short-term recommendations were sometimes eye-catching, the systemic demands surprised many observers. The call for “a new global reserve system”, echoed the demand to end the US dollar’s privileged position as international reserve currency made by China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan. The commission also supported the idea for a UN-based Global Economic Council at the head of state level – essentially bringing a G20 type structure under the auspices of the UN system.

On long-term changes to financial regulation, the commission listed seven areas for reform and warned against “merely cosmetic changes”. Notably it said: “The fact that correlated behaviour of a large number of institutions, each of which is not systemically significant, can give rise to systemic vulnerability makes oversight of all institutions necessary.” This throws cold water the G20’s plans for regulating only ’systemically-important’ financial institutions.

The UN commission, despite being organised more quickly than the G20 meeting, was much more open to civil society input. More than 100 organisations made submissions to the stakeholder consultation procedure, and the final report on civil society opinion was detailed, comprehensive, and well received by the commission. The civil society submissions were all put online, more than can be said of the official G20 working group reports (see Update 64), which are yet to be published. In late March, members of the commission also held interactive dialogues with representatives at the UN General Assembly and civil society organisations.

The global focus will now move to a UN conference from 1-3 June in New York, billed as the follow-up to the UN Financing for Development conference in Doha. The conference is being held at the initiative of the General Assembly president, rather than from the UN Secretariat because of opposition from some major countries. It is unclear how much participation there will be by heads of state, especially as the G20 announced that it will hold another leader’s level summit sometime before the end of this year.

A Healthy Heart

By Sanjoy Satpathy

Why is every one so concerned about the heart and the heart attack? Because other organs give ample time before they fail but when heart stops it’s the end of the world. Liver takes days and weeks before it fails; so also, other organs like kidney, lung and brain do not cause sudden death.

Heart attack was very common in the west only a few decades back but with modification of diet, life style, education, drugs advancement in medical science, the mortality has drastically come down. But heart disease has become an epidemic in the third world or developing world. Due to improper food, sedentary life style, diabetes and blood pressure heart attacks have become the leading cause of death in middle aged people in India.

We should know a little bit of “heart attack”.

See the photograph of the heart; you will notice small arteries and veins on the surface of this wonderful organ, which supply blood to the heart muscles.

Heart has only one function to receive blood and pump out blood to all the organs of the body.

It’s a sophisticated pump working from the beginning of the life in side the mother’s womb till death.

On an average it pumps 60 to 100 times per minute you can calculate how much time it pumps blood in a day. It needs blood for its muscles through those tiny arteries. When they get blocked may be a single one or two or all the three then the person gets a heart attack and some part of the heart muscle become dead – bigger the area of the dead muscle more serious will be the out come. If it’s massive then the person dies suddenly within minutes.

The narrowing occurs because of many factors but the most important being the gene and the type life one leads. Mental stress, bad food habits, smoking, over weight, lack of physical exercise, family history, high cholesterol level all contribute to narrowing which is called atherosclerosis of arteries.

So to keep your heart healthy one has to make efforts right from child hood not after one gets a heart attack. The America heart association and WHO recommends plenty of green vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fibers in diet, less of salt, sugar and oil in diet. Keep your weight in the range for your age, sex and height. Do a little bit of exercise, if nothing is possible walk three to four kilometers a day or use cycle for going to your office if it’s with in four or five kilometers of range. Avoid saturated fatty (<7%) diet. Animal meats should be avoided and fish , especially oily ones, twice a week should be consumed in their place. For vegetarians they should get their protein from pulses and milk or curd. Avoid Soya protein or milk.

Indians do eat lots of deep fried food and the same oil is used for cooking over again and again which results in productions of toxic chemicals called oxidants which affect the vascular system of the body resulting in all sorts of disease from cancer to heart attacks.

A Healthy Heart

By Sanjoy Satpathy

Why is every one so concerned about the heart and the heart attack? Because other organs give ample time before they fail but when heart stops it’s the end of the world. Liver takes days and weeks before it fails; so also, other organs like kidney, lung and brain do not cause sudden death.

Heart attack was very common in the west only a few decades back but with modification of diet, life style, education, drugs advancement in medical science, the mortality has drastically come down. But heart disease has become an epidemic in the third world or developing world. Due to improper food, sedentary life style, diabetes and blood pressure heart attacks have become the leading cause of death in middle aged people in India.

We should know a little bit of “heart attack”.

See the photograph of the heart; you will notice small arteries and veins on the surface of this wonderful organ, which supply blood to the heart muscles.

Heart has only one function to receive blood and pump out blood to all the organs of the body.

It’s a sophisticated pump working from the beginning of the life in side the mother’s womb till death.

On an average it pumps 60 to 100 times per minute you can calculate how much time it pumps blood in a day. It needs blood for its muscles through those tiny arteries. When they get blocked may be a single one or two or all the three then the person gets a heart attack and some part of the heart muscle become dead – bigger the area of the dead muscle more serious will be the out come. If it’s massive then the person dies suddenly within minutes.

The narrowing occurs because of many factors but the most important being the gene and the type life one leads. Mental stress, bad food habits, smoking, over weight, lack of physical exercise, family history, high cholesterol level all contribute to narrowing which is called atherosclerosis of arteries.

So to keep your heart healthy one has to make efforts right from child hood not after one gets a heart attack. The America heart association and WHO recommends plenty of green vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fibers in diet, less of salt, sugar and oil in diet. Keep your weight in the range for your age, sex and height. Do a little bit of exercise, if nothing is possible walk three to four kilometers a day or use cycle for going to your office if it’s with in four or five kilometers of range. Avoid saturated fatty (<7%) diet. Animal meats should be avoided and fish , especially oily ones, twice a week should be consumed in their place. For vegetarians they should get their protein from pulses and milk or curd. Avoid Soya protein or milk.

Indians do eat lots of deep fried food and the same oil is used for cooking over again and again which results in productions of toxic chemicals called oxidants which affect the vascular system of the body resulting in all sorts of disease from cancer to heart attacks.

Reevaluation of India’s Nuclear Program

By Mukesh Williams

The paper concerns the reasons for India going nuclear, the development of its nuclear program and its rationale for its not signing the NPT and CTBT in spite of advocating a non-violent foreign policy. The early stages of India’s nuclear program were prompted by a perceived threat of China and later of Pakistan. The success of the program was a combination of three factors namely, a skilled organizational workforce, scientific leadership and political endorsement. In this the contributions of the IAEC, Homi Bhabha and the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru played a significant role.

India’s accelerated nuclear development in the 1960s and 1970s was again prompted by the nuclear ascendancy of China and its unilateral support to Pakistan as a buffer zone. India took advantage of the positive connotations of nuclear technology in mid-twentieth century and developed a thermal reactor thereby initiating a nuclear program that would evolve into the nuclear explosive project. The explosion of a nuclear device by China in 1964 initiated a debate in the Indian media and political circles on the efficacy of developing a nuclear military technology and the negative impact on its fragile economy. While the Congress Party believed in international diplomacy to contain the hegemonic intentions of China, the BJP and the Praja Socialist Party argued for developing a military nuclear option. It was believed that the military nuclearization of India would not contradict the pacifist goals of Gandhian ideals that had infused its foreign policy. On the contrary the theory of deterrence would protect the sovereignty of India thereby making the ethical compromise pragmatic and viable.

The secretive development of the nuclear program under Indira Gandhi and Homi Sethna culminated in the explosion of PNE at Pokhran in 1974 and made Indian foreign policy more assertive. The changed geo-political reality of the 1980s in the wake of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan pushed the United States closer towards Pakistan making Pakistan an American ally to combat the threat of growing Soviet communism in the region. With a supportive America, Pakistan took the Chinese help in developing its own nuclear program aimed at containing India. Perceiving a new nexus between Pakistan and China, India began to develop its own missile technology. In 1996 the CTBT once again reiterated a time bound framework for universal nuclear disarmament placing yet a new pressure on India to contain its nuclear program. Sensing the closing of the nuclear window India conducted five nuclear explosions at Pokhran to bolster its image aboard and then place a moratorium on nuclear tests. In the wake of these explosions there were worldwide condemnations and the US, European powers and its allies like Japan placed economic sanctions on India.

India howev