Thursday 15 August 2013
In the memory of Tarun Sehrawat
Thursday 18 October 2012
Iski topi uske sar
G.D. Birla accompanying Mahatma Gandhi on his stroll from the Birla House, New Delhi |
Monday 23 July 2012
5 old mules
The khaps are at it again. Asking women not to venture out without a male escort. And they have found support from politicians as well as a section of the educated illiterate which hides behind the sham label of "common man" while living the lives of callous monsters.
Let me provide some relevant stats.
A study titled The Role of Women in Agriculture reveals that "women comprise just over 40 percent of the agricultural labour force in the developing world, a figure that has risen slightly since 1980 and ranges from about 20 percent in the Americas to almost 50 percent in Africa. The global average is dominated by Asia. Within Asia, the sub-regional averages range from about 35 percent in South Asia to almost 50 percent in East and Southeast Asia. The Asian average is dominated by China, where the female share of the agricultural labour force has increased slightly during the past three decades. The female share in India has remained steady at just over 30 percent". From the same study: "Information provided to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) from 86 countries indicates that in 2008, 5.4 million women worked as fishers and fish farmers in the primary sector. This represents 12 percent of the total. In two major producing countries, China and India, women represented a share of 21 percent and 24 percent, respectively, of all fishers and fish farmers". Some facts released by the Indian Government: 48% of India’s self-employed farmers are women. There are 75 million women engaged in dairying as against 15 million men and 20 million in animal husbandry as compared to 1.5 million men.
Another study titled Feminization of India’s agricultural workforce by Anuradha Talwar and Swapan Ganguly states that "amongst rural women, the percentage of 'marginal workers' (defined as working for less than 183 days per year) has increased significantly from 8.1 per cent in 1991 to 14.2 per cent in 2002".
A 3rd study, which seeks to point out the benefits of using bio-mass fuel by rural women starts out by pointing: "The overall pattern of time spent on such activities is analyzed for over 5,000 women in rural India. Women spend about 40 minutes per day collecting fuel and almost one hour fetching water. They spend almost two hours pursuing income-earning activities. 64 percent of the surveyed women engage in some kind of income-generating activity".
I spent some time collating census data and found the following % breakup for male and female "Agricultural Laborers" in 4 states of India which are relevant to this discussion: Haryana (56%, 44%- which means that 44% of all female laborers in Haryana are females), Goa (45%, 55%)- this is what happens when males spend their days sipping fenny, Uttar Pradesh (62%, 38%) and Rajasthan (42%, 58%)- 58 PERCENT OF AGRICULTURAL LABORERS IN RAJASTHAN ARE FEMALES.
If you are still awake, what this implies is that a large proportion of rural women work on the farm, fetch water, catch fish and perform other income-generating activities, which they can't do by staying inside their homes. Moreover, as per a recent FAO report, if women had the same access to productive resources as men they could increase their yields by 20-30 per cent. This would raise total agricultural yields in developing countries between 2.5-4 % and reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million. And here we have the glorious khaps asking women to stop doing all of these till the menfolk get rid of their hangover and are ready to escort them. Well, asking women not to go out because the same khaps have done NOTHING to improve the human quotient of the rapists in their villages is like asking people not to buy vehicles because the roads in the villages are only going to get worse, or asking them not to have children because of the high infant mortality rates in the country, or better still, asking villagers not to pass excreta because the sanitation facilities in the villages are inadequate. Whoopsy daisy!
These same khaps pass judgments censuring people from specific castes, issue orders for DIShonor killings and routinely defy the Constitution of the country. Defending them is the same as stating that the Taliban should be respected because they help people in times of earthquakes!!!
Good night and God Save us, wherever you are!!! Btw, God chose not to save Manoj and Babli as 5 old mules in Haryana smoking hukkas brayed and asked for them to be killed.
Tuesday 3 January 2012
Resolutions: piece of cake
I did it. Fulfilled my resolutions for 2011. Every one of them. While you were lolling around procrastinating and finding ways to avoid what you had set out to do, I was my usual focused, committed, diligent, persevering, and unblinking self, blasting anything that came in the way of me and the fulfillment of my resolutions. So it is with great joy, and profound humility, that I present before you my royal conquests.
# | Resolution at the start of the year | Fulfillment |
1 | Achieve a dramatic turnaround in my body weight and achieve a balance which will aid me in aligning my external and internal persona resulting in a harmonious synergy of body and spirit. | Gained 10.25 kgs. |
2 | Immerse myself in celebrated works of literary accomplishment to enrich my intellect and leave me throbbing with perspicacity and sagacity. | Read 291 book reviews. |
3 | Travel to hitherto unknown lands so as to broaden my worldview and assimilate the experiences of diverse cultures thus making me an epitome of syncreticity. | Went to Bhindi Bazaar. |
4 | Associate myself with meaningful and change-inducing social causes demanding courage which would leave an imprint on the course of the times to come. | Stared back at an auto-wallah. |
5 | Make a multitude of friends of the opposite sex so as to be able to understand their thought processes better and have a plethora of mutually rewarding and memorable experiences. | Followed Mallika Sherawat, Poonam Pandey and Sherlyn Chopra on twitter. |
6 | Involve myself with rejuvenating sporting activities so as to increase my energy levels and attain exemplary fitness. | Played Scrabble on facebook. |
7 | Learn more about the lives of luminaries belonging to different fields so as to attain inspiration to ascend to great heights. | Read a dozen obituaries. |
8 | Delve deep into the world of cool gadgets. | Learnt how to scroll through a document on a MacBook. |
9 | Get in touch with old friends and make new ones with the objective of enriching my social life and surrounding myself with invigorating conviviality. | Sent 21 friend requests on facebook, 5 on Netlog, and several others on other forums, the names of which are tough to recall. |
10 | Invest in art. | Went to The Comedy Store. |
Jealous? :D Well, you can do it too.
Friday 19 August 2011
Dutt, the Guru
Monday 18 April 2011
Thursday 7 April 2011
The CO(mmo)N MAN
Submit fake bills. Cheat with your taxes. Break traffic signals. Break every queue. Kill the girl child. And the elder ones too, if they dare to have a mind of their own. Bribe and save time. Employ children at home. If you are "higher up", hate the dirty rats. If you are "disadvantaged" by birth, substitute strife with sloganeering. Blame the politicos YOU chose because they belong to the same caste as YOURS for the mess around you. If someone can't speak your language, cut off his tongue. If someone can't see the TRUTH you can SEE, gouge out his eyeballs. If someone has a different skin color, peel it off. Don't worry, a moron with zero credibility behind him is leading a tamasha which is serving as a nice filler between the World Cup and the IPL at a place suitably called Jantar Mantar, and you can wipe your slate clean by scribbling your name on a piece of paper.