Skewed health coverage

The Hoot

The health of the Indian media is supposedly robust but the state of healthcare coverage in the Indian media is almost comatose. It snaps out of that coma only when ‘health’ and ‘wealth’ meet.  Is it not the media's job to cover broader health issues than those related to the health of their readers, asks KALPANA SHARMA

Posted/Updated Wednesday, Oct 26 15:08:54, 2011

SECOND TAKE Kalpana Sharma   The health of the Indian media is supposedly robust compared to the media in many other countries, particularly the West. But the state of healthcare coverage in the Indian media is far from that; in fact it would appear its condition is critical, almost comatose. Occasionally, it snaps out of that coma – when ‘health’ and ‘wealth’ meet.   If that sounds a bit obtuse, let me explain. Anyone can do a spot check of five or six leading daily newspapers. Count the stories related to health. The stories receiving a large amount of space will be: a disease that has afflicted a celebrity, eg pancreatic cancer after Steve Jobs succumbed to it; lifestyle diseases and the extent of their occurrence in urban areas, eg diabetes and hypertension and obesity; an unusual condition afflicting a celebrity, eg some years ago excruciating details on something called‘diverticulitis’ because Amitabh Bachchan was struck down with it. Apart from this, the health coverage includes chapter and verse on a disease for which a particular day has been chosen, such as Breast Cancer day or TB Day, etc. Apart from these, there are literally “seasons” of health stories – usually linked to funding and fellowships. So you might get a spurt in articles on TB, or on HIV/AIDS, or on tobacco-related illnesses. And of course, one must not forget the “health” reporting of politicians arrested for corruption who regularly require hospitalization.   But what of the diseases that strike and kill thousands of our poor? The latest such example is Japanese encephalitis (JE) which has killed nearly 500 children in eastern UP. The media has only just woken up to this fact – well over a month after the first deaths occurred. CNN-IBN did a special programme on October 11. Predictably, NDTV followed suit a few days later. And as a result of this media spotlight, the Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad hotfooted it to the afflicted area, Gorakhpur in UP. And since then, the print media has taken note and several editorials decrying the pathetic state of health care have appeared in major newspapers.   Encephalitis in UP, or Bihar and Assam, is not a new disease. It has been around for decades. And it occurs every year. Children die, or survive with severe afflictions. There is always talk about doing something about it. But the plans are not implemented, or action is taken when it is too late to save children from dying. Much of what needs to be done is preventive – the fairly unglamorous process of dealing with sanitation, providing clean water supply, ensuring that the Culex mosquito does not get easy breeding grounds, providing protection by way of vaccines and treated mosquito nets to the vulnerable population etc. This is not high drama. It is difficult to picturise this process on film. But it can be done. And it can certainly be written about. To write would mean doing considerable legwork over a period of time. And the story might not make it to a prominent position. In any case, newspapers are now clear that they only write for their readers, who are middle class and urban. So encephalitis in deepest darkest UP is simply not sexy enough.    Health coverage in the media in many ways is a litmus test of the relevance of media in turning the spotlight on the dark corners in our country. With the media increasingly rendering invisible much of India, the news of tragedies, such as the encephalitis occurrence in UP, only come into the limelight when many avoidable deaths have occurred. Why should that be so? Is it not the task of the media to cover issues that are not directly related to the health of their readers but are essential to the health of the nation?   (Link to the original article) http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=5560&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=10&valid=true

Women and the Arab Spring

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, October 30, 2011

The cusp of change: Exercising the choice democracy brings. Photo: AP

As change sweeps through the Arab world and dictatorships are toppled, will women's rights be forgotten as it happened in Iran?

As the Arab Spring moves through the Arab Autumn towards winter, there is hope but also anxiety and apprehension about the future. The elections in Tunisia — with a record 90 per cent turnout — have triggered the hope that countries like Egypt and Yemen and now Libya, will also witness a peaceful transition to a democracy they have never known. But the grounds for apprehension are abundant.

As the world watches, a key question that is being raised is that of women's rights in the new political arrangements emerging in these countries. Arab women have spoken out, emphasising that a guarantee of their human rights is a prerequisite to a just society. But in the noise of the celebrations as dictators get toppled, these voices are sometimes being drowned out.

Arab voices

I was privileged to attend a fascinating discussion on the future of women in the Arab world at a recent conference in France. The Women's Forum for Society and the Economy 2011 drew together over a thousand women from around the world. But what turned out to be the most riveting session was the one where women from Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen and the renowned human rights activist and 2003 Nobel Peace Award winner Shirin Ebadi from Iran discussed how the future of Arab women would emerge following the Arab Spring. It threw up a relevant discourse on religion, secularism and law.

If women's rights are also human rights, then should societies fighting for the reassertion of human rights also first guarantee women their rights? Is it possible to allow religion to dictate law if the interpretation of that religion is left to men? Are rights that women have won, even in a dictatorship, still valid even after the overthrow of the dictator? Is it possible to have a ‘ secular' constitution and still respect religion and religious laws?

These were some of the questions that wove their way through the remarks made by the participants. Moushira Mahmoud Khattab, an impressive woman from Egypt who has been a diplomat and a Minister for Family and Population and is now a human rights activist, pointed out that even under Hosni Mubarak, women had won many rights. In fact, she was one of those central to bringing in laws to criminalise female genital mutilation (FGM) that is widespread in Egypt and other north African countries, raise the minimum age of marriage to 18, give women the right to initiate divorce, give women the right to custody of their children after divorce and allow children born outside wedlock to be registered. But now, after the January 25 uprising that led to the overthrow of Mubarak, she says there are voices that have been raised against these rights calling them “Suzanne's laws”. Suzanne was Mubarak's wife and all these changes were initiated in her name. But, asked Ms. Khattab, why should rights that women had won after a struggle be negated just because they had been initiated during a hated dictatorship? The role of women in the January 25 revolution was crucial, she said. Women challenged tradition when they went out and protested and even spent nights out in Tahrir square. Yet, today in Egypt, women's rights are being questioned.

Nadwa Al Dawsari is a young activist from Yemen. She has spent many days in Freedom Square in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a with this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman, who lives in a tent in the square. Ms. Dawsari said there was an assumption that in tribal societies, like the one in Yemen, women had no rights. Yet, over 30 per cent of the protestors in Freedom Square were women. The young people of Yemen wanted a civil state, not an Islamic state, she said. She insisted that what was important now was to get the dictator to leave Yemen and for free elections to be held. Other issues could be tackled later, even if the election brought the Islamists to power.

Tunisian women, however, are not as confident as Ms. Dawsari about the Islamists coming to power. In fact, many have gone on record to say they fear for the future if the Islamist party, al Nahda, wins the elections. But what primarily concerned Amira Yahyaoui, a young blogger and militant human rights activist from Tunisia, was that women's rights in Tunisia ought not be compared to other Arab countries but to those where women are better off. “We want women and men to have real equality. Women need to be considered not as women but as human beings. What we have at present is not enough,” she said. Currently, although Tunisian women have more rights than their counterparts in some other Arab countries, they do not have equal rights of inheritance. They also cannot marry non-Muslims.

Ms. Yahyaoui was also not confident that women would have enough of a say in the process of constitution-making in Tunisia. Under the list system of proportional representation, women did not stand a chance of winning in substantial numbers as political parties tended to push male candidates to the top of their lists.

After listening to the young women from Tunisia and Yemen, Shirin Ebadi spoke. “Look at Iran”, she told them, “Do not repeat our mistakes.” When she saw images of the protestors in Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, she saw them demanding democracy. “Did anyone say we are against polygamy? That we want divorce rights? That we are human beings and need equal rights? You are making the same mistake Iranian women made. We thought we could demand women's rights after the revolution”, she said.

Ms. Ebadi said that the Iranian women who participated in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran, knew what they did not want. They wanted an end to dictatorship. What they did not demand and insist upon were the rights that they did want. They did not go on the streets and demand an end to polygamy, or the right to divorce. It was taken for granted that these rights could be negotiated later.

Biased interpretation

“I am a practising Muslim woman”, said Ms. Ebadi, “but when a government is based on Sharia law, it can be interpreted in different ways.” She said that she did not believe that Sharia law was against human rights and democracy. But when it is left to men within a patriarchal system to interpret that law, inevitably the suppression of women's rights is justified. The best way to prevent that, she advised her Arab sisters, was to push for women's rights during the struggle. “Don't wait for the victory. Choose your allies. Dictate these conditions before the alliance”, she said.

She reminded the Tunisian about a recent incident where a TV channel was attacked for telecasting the film “Persepolis”, an animated feature film about women's rights in Iran. The director of the channel had to give a public apology. “These are not good signs”, she said. Ms. Ebadi said that although Iranian women had succeeded, even under a fundamentalist regime, in wresting many rights, these were not enough. “We are expecting a bigger victory. Aim for complete equality between the rights of women and men”, she said.

As the Arab world goes through a political churning, the voices of these women need to be heard, and heeded.

(To read the original, click on the link)http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/article2573489.ece

Citizens, not 'naukranis'

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, October 16, 2011

  

Domestic workers are not servants, they have a right to fair wages and working conditions…

This Deepavali, will the woman who cleans your house and cooks for you be able to celebrate the festival with her family, or will she be cooking and washing dishes as you celebrate with your family and friends? Rarely does this question cross the minds of the majority of people who employ domestic help. Yet, the 3,000 domestic workers who gathered for a public hearing in Jaipur last month reminded us about precisely this reality: “We run two homes, yours and ours”, they said. “Can any of you in society do without our labour?” How easily we forget that these women also have their own homes to run even as they manage ours.

The women who gathered in Jaipur also demanded that they be recognised as workers. “We are not ‘naukranis', we are workers in a free India,” they asserted. Yet, the majority of the people who employ them rarely think of them as ‘workers'. As a result, there is no accepted standard of what they should be paid, how that payment should be calculated — per day, per hour, per month or according to the number of tasks performed. The rate at which they are paid depends on the demand and supply of domestic workers. In big cities like Mumbai, for instance, where demand often outstrips supply, these women — and the majority are women and girls — can negotiate a higher wage. In places where there is a surplus, they are forced to settle for next to nothing. For, if they demand more, there are always others willing to work for less.

Nebulous

The rights of domestic workers can no longer be ignored. For many poor women who have to manage their own households, part-time work in several households is the ideal way to earn money. The skills they use in their homes are precisely the skills required in their jobs. Yet, because this is paid labour, it ought to come with a clear set of rights that the employer recognises and respects. Nothing of this kind happens.

“She is like a member of the family”, some say about their domestic help. Yet the woman will not be allowed to use the toilet the family uses, sometimes not even to drink or eat out of the same utensils that everyone uses. And there is no question of time off, either during the day or one day in a week. So how can she be a “member of the family”?

Across the world, the issue of domestic workers, their rights, their wages has been a raging controversy. It has been particularly acute in the case of migrant workers engaged as domestic help in some countries. The most notorious cases of abuse, including sexual abuse, have emerged from Saudi Arabia. In June this year, an Indonesian maid was beheaded in Saudi Arabia after she was convicted for having killed her employer. The reason she was driven to do this was a history of abuse and torture. What she experienced is not the exception; testimonies from scores of domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka who work in Saudi Arabia indicate just how widespread is such treatment. Graphically documented in a report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch titled, “As if I am not human: Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia”, this is grim reading as dozens of women speak of being repeatedly raped, tortured, abused and forcibly confined so that they cannot escape and report the abuse. These stories have seen the light of day because a few did manage to escape. Tragically, even those that did escape did not find a happy ending. Their tormentors, their former employers, often got away under Saudi law while the women were left with no money to show for the years they had worked and had to face deportation.

Initial steps

These stories and the campaigns by those concerned about migrant domestic workers, particularly in the Gulf countries, finally prompted the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to pass a Convention Covering Decent Work for Domestic Workers in May this year. All countries, barring Swaziland, endorsed the Convention. It will become operational only once the parliaments of the individual countries ratify it.

The Convention sets out steps to protect the human rights of domestic workers, allow them freedom of association, eliminate forced or compulsory employment, abolish child labour, protect them against all forms of abuse and violence and provide decent working conditions. It also touches on the way remuneration is calculated — by the tasks done or the number of hours worked, their right to annual paid leave, weekly offs, daily rest periods and terms and conditions regarding termination of employment. In other words, a structure similar to that of workers employed in the formal sector where these things are stated and not assumed. A director of the ILO, Manuela Tomei stated that the new standards established by this Convention, “make clear that domestic workers are neither servants, nor ‘members of the family' but workers. And after today they can no longer be considered second-class workers.”

The problem in India is that domestics are not even considered ‘ workers', leave alone ‘second-class workers'. This is the crux of the problem. Until we acknowledge that however informal the arrangement, this is also work, we will continue to exploit the crucial service provided by the 50 lakhs and more domestic workers in India. In some states, notably Tamil Nadu, the first steps towards fixing a minimum hourly wage is being discussed. In countries around the world, where domestic workers are engaged, the payment is worked out on an hourly basis. As a result, whether a worker finds employment directly, or through an agency, she is guaranteed a set wage.

Uphill task

Although there are many efforts being made to organise domestic workers, particularly in some of the bigger cities, it is an uphill task because of the nature of the work, and the constant flow of people willing to work. Yet, just as the ILO has intervened on the international level, surely the government in India has to take some steps. If there is any genuine concern in government circles, it is not entirely evident. A law drafted in 2008 on domestic workers has not seen the light of day. Worse still, domestic workers have been excluded from the Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, an area where there is urgent need for intervention. And even though the government has extended the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to provide health insurance to ‘ registered' domestic workers between the ages of 18-59, there is no clarity on how this will be implemented if the majority of these workers remain unregistered.

The lights that will shine in many homes this Deepavali must now shine on these dark corners of our homes, where unfair practices and exploitative wages are allowed to continue.

(To read the original, click on the link) http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/article2540042.ece

Beating violence, not men

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, October 2, 2011

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/article2503137.ece

  

Violence against women, both inside homes and in the public space, needs to be treated with the seriousness it deserves…

Violence against women is no laughing matter. Yet, in Andhra Pradesh, the state Minor Irrigation Minister, Mr. T. G. Venkatesh seems to think it is something that can be treated as a joke. According to a front page news item in the Deccan Herald (September 25, 2011) headlined: “Cashing thrashing: Pati, Patni and ten thousand”, Mr. Venkatesh is reported to be offering a new scheme that he thinks will deal with abusive husbands.

“Beat your drunken husband if he touches you. The government will pay you a Rs. 1,000 reward. The more you beat him, the better as you can get up to Rs. 10,000”, he is reported to have told a women's meeting in Kurnool. The Minister apparently advised women to beat up their drunken and/or abusive husbands on the street so that everyone can see what they are doing. “Once you do this and you get rewarded, your husband will stop harassing you”, he reportedly stated. And went on to say that the scheme could be called “Pati, Patni and Rs. 10,000 scheme”. How simple life would be if we could remove alcoholism and domestic violence by beating up drunken men and stop murders by enforcing capital punishment!

Complex phenomenon

Dealing with violence against women is not such a simple matter. For one, most of the violence takes place within the home. Second, given the way women are socialised, the majority accepts domestic violence as an essential part of the deal of being married.

Yet, even though so few report it, the highest number of crimes categorised by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) as ‘ crimes against women' is under the head, ‘cruelty by husbands and relatives'. In 2009, out of 2,03,804 recorded ‘crimes against women', 89,546 were those of ‘cruelty by husbands and relatives'. And incidentally, Andhra Pradesh topped the list of states accounting for 12.5 per cent of the total crimes against women in the country (NCRB 2009) followed by West Bengal.

So perhaps Mr. Venkatesh thought, given his state's leading position in this category, he needed to devise a scheme to deal with violence against women. But his solution, if indeed the idea is a serious one and not a joke, mocks at the seriousness of the issue. The women at the receiving end of domestic violence are rarely if ever in a position to fight back. There is a strong body of evidence and documentation over the years in India that shows that even educated women bear the daily humiliation and physical violence rather than go public with it, or report it to the police. Many of them blame themselves. Others fear that they will be left destitute, a fate they believe is worse than suffering the violence.

Vital support

Of course women should resist and fight back. And the Domestic Violence Act enacted in 2005 is an important step to help them to do that. But before they can pick up the courage to do so, they need support, including places like shelter homes if they have no option but to physically get away from their abuser and report the violence. Unless such backing is available, there is little likelihood of an abused woman risking more violence by fighting back.

The section in the NCRB on crimes against women does not include rape, which is categorised separately under ‘violent crimes'. We know this is one crime that is grossly under-reported. Yet the growth in the incidence of rape in the NCRB data is stark. It seems to double every decade between 1971 and 1991. Between 2001 and 2009 the incidence grew from 16,075 reported cases to 21,397. And although 94.2 per cent of these reported cases were charge-sheeted, there were only 26.9 per cent convictions. This is obviously a major reason why women do not persist with rape cases, even after having overcome the hesitation to report them, and often withdraw the case when they realize how long it will take and how difficult it is to get a conviction.

In this connection, a small study by the Centre for Social Research (CSR) on rape cases in Delhi brings out another important aspect of crimes against women. The CSR study looked at 58 FIRs on rape filed between 2009 and 2011. The study deflated several popular hypotheses about rape. For instance, when there is a hue and cry about the rising incidence of rape, police officials are quick to advise women not to venture out after dark. It is assumed that women only get raped at night. Yet the CSR study data shows that seven rapes had occurred between 6 am and 12 noon, 17 between 12 and 6 pm and 14 between 6 pm and 12 midnight. In other words, more rapes took place in the daytime than either early in the morning or late in the evening.

Damning facts

Linked to this theory about a dangerous public space is the belief that women are ‘secure' in their homes. Yet, nine of the 58 incidents studied took place in the victim's home. And the majority of the rapes were by men known to the women. In fact, out of the 58 cases studied, 51 of the accused were relatives, neighbours, friends, teachers or acquaintances. Worse still, the majority of the victims were under 20 years old and of them 22 per cent were less than 10 years old. Thus, women are as unsafe in their homes as outside; they are as likely to be raped by men they know as by strangers and the age of a woman, even if she is a small child, is no bar to being raped.

Violence against women is a bad joke, not something we can laugh about.

(To read the original, click on the link above)

Bucking the trend?

The Hoot, September 22, 2011

http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=5514&mod=1&pg=1&sectionId=10&valid=true

Anubha Bhosle of CNN-IBN actually managed to interview Sharmila in her hospital room, something few journalists have done. On NDTV Jain looked at electric power generation in Jammu and Kashmir and unemployment and new entrepreneurship. Can one hope then that this is the beginning of a new trend on news TV in India, asks KALPANA SHARMA

Posted/Updated Thursday, Sep 22 19:10:44, 2011

It was a relief to see news television, or at least some channels, responding to the earthquake in ‘remote’ Sikkim on September 18 and covering it with enough of a sense of urgency to knock off the mindless discussions and coverage around Narendra Modi’s farcical Sadhbhavana fast. For once, lack of access to footage did not stop the channels from reaching people on the phone, showing the location of the epicentre on maps and discussing the impact. It would have been so much easier just to run a ‘breaking news’ ticker while continuing to discuss the Modi story. Can one hope that this represents the beginning of an acknowledgement by news television that there are stories waiting to be reported outside their studios and backyards?   If after the ‘Anna-mania’, as Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN called it, viewers have wondered why Indian television channels routinely fill their prime time with talking heads on the same subject for hours on end, there is some inkling available from a recent study of American television channels. Dave Marash, writing in the Columbia Review of Journalism, discusses the decreasing amount of time television news channels in the US are devoting to video footage of news events and the increasing amount of time on panel discussions, interviews and talking heads. “Interviews, panels, conversations among anchors, pundits, scholars, and ‘experts’ which, at best, produce intelligent but evergreen generalizations by people who haven’t ‘been there’ for a while, are preempting the current and specific observations available only from those who are there. While more and more of the world is ‘speaking’ video, American TV news is ignoring it, in favor of cheaper but less informative ways to report the news.” Marash could as well be commenting about Indian TV news.  One of the reasons, he suggests, is increased costs. Even channels like CNN that built their reputation through live coverage of the first Iraq war are increasingly cutting down on video packages – that is stories reported and edited by their correspondents on the ground – and substituting them with live commentary by reporters on the spot and talking heads in the studio. The problem with tying up your reporter to remain on standby during these talk shows is that she is then not available to record and report away from this spotlight. The one channel that continues to have many more “boots” on the ground, as Marash puts it, is Al-Jazeera, the only channel that gives you a real insight into what is happening in the Middle East. But even Al-Jazeera, Marash says, is beginning to fall for the now established routine in older news channels in the West of live comment from correspondents on the spot and the rest in studio.  In India proximity, as news channel officials admit, determines live coverage. (Former NDTV staffer T. Sudhir’s article on this website about the coverage of the deluge in Delhi at the cost of coverage of the devastating floods in Orissa is a case in point.) This was more than evident in the case of the saturation coverage of the Anna Hazare fast and protest. It was in Delhi, where the major channels are located. It required little effort to cover it. Only after criticism about this obsession with one fast to the exclusion of other protests – especially of the decade long fast by Irom Sharmila in Manipur – have some channels invested in sending their correspondents to prepare video packages from Manipur.    Both NDTV and CNN-IBN telecast two half-hour long shows on Sharmila’s fast against the background of the repression in Manipur. Anubha Bhosle of CNN-IBN actually managed to interview Sharmila in her hospital room, something few journalists have done. As a result, viewers heard the voice of this remarkable woman, saw the expression in her eyes, felt her vulnerability as well as her determination, and got a glimpse of the reasons why she persists. It was exceptional.    What would be even more exceptional is if this is followed up with other stories from the northeast, ones that give Indian viewers a sense of what daily life is like for people living in that region. And if other protests, such as the on-going standoff over the Kudankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu that has finally caught media attention after many weeks when thousands sat and protested, are also recognized as worthy of coverage. Surely, such protests are as much the voice of Indian ‘civil society’ as the Ramlila ground protests led by Anna Hazare.   Indeed, stories on life lived in places like Manipur, or Kashmir, will educate Indian viewers that people living in these conflict-ridden areas suffer more than just the fallout of conflict; they live with developmental neglect of the most basic kind. Srinivasan Jain’s attempt on NDTV to convey another story from Kashmir should be commended on that count. Jain looked at electric power generation in Jammu and Kashmir as well as unemployment and new entrepreneurship. Although the documentary was patchy in parts, you did get a sense of other issues of concern that do not detract in any way from the dominant issues of ‘azadi’ or autonomy.   Can one hope then that this is the beginning of a new trend on news TV in India? If it is, then it really is about time. Instead of complaining that weekly ratings are forcing channels to become more competitive and virtually imitate each other (note the string of ‘exclusives’ on Anna Hazare on the same day on practically all news television channels), should they instead re-evaluate formats and content to figure out what would appeal to their worn-out viewers? Just as the longer format is now gradually seeping into print – with Times of India leading the way with Crest and Mint with its Saturday Mint Lounge as well as the revival of Caravan magazine -- news television might be able to attract more eyeballs if it devised format and content that are distinctive and different. In the long run, surely this is a better way to keep the gaze of viewers rather than the current frenzied attempts to be the same as the competitor.

Only pretty girls can fly

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, September 18, 2011

The HinduBehind the glamour: It's a hard grind... Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

Why is it that our national carrier continues to have separate rules for men and women who work as flight attendants?

“AI may go for younger cabin crew to lure flyers”, read a headline on September 12 (Times of India). The first paragraph of the story could not have been more blatantly sexist: “Flight attendants on Air India could soon stop reminding you of the elderly and portly headmistress who rarely smiled at you in school. And they could be more nattily dressed.”

So while the rest of the world moves ahead, our national carrier remains stuck in a time warp. At a time when it cannot pay its 30,000 employees their salaries on time, when the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has castigated it for going ahead and ordering additional aircraft when it carried an incredible Rs. 40,000 crores debt burden, Air India believes that nicer looking ‘air hostesses' — a term that Air India continued to use long after the rest of the world had adopted the gender neutral term, ‘flight attendant', will somehow make thousands of passengers rush towards the floundering airline.

Persisting story

The story of the ‘Maharaja' and its women employees is an old one.  Ever since Air India became India's national airline in 1953, when the airline owned by the Tatas since 1932 was nationalised, women flight attendants have had to fight against the different set of rules applied to them.  From a time when they could be employed only up to the age of 35, and would have to quit if they became pregnant, it has been a long and tough journey to get the airline to acknowledge that there is something called gender equity. The legal battles have raged over decades, making their way up to the Supreme Court. Some were won. Some lost.

Whatever one might think of Air India, its service, its performance or its crew, the gender battles in the airline illustrate the struggle women in the service industry have to wage to be recognised as equals. For instance, in Air India, while women had to be a certain weight for a certain age, the same rule did not apply to the male employees. Why? Women, regardless of the years of service they put in, could not be promoted beyond a certain point. Men could. Why? Women had to retire at a certain age or take up ground jobs while men could continue to serve in the cabins up to the age of 58. Why? These are some of the questions that were at the heart of many of the battles fought within Air India.

Performance, not looks

And most of all, why do those who run airlines believe that their airline will be considered more attractive if they have pretty women serving the passengers? People's choice — and now in India we have a choice — of the airline they fly depends most of all on the airline's safety record, then its on-time performance, the cleanliness of the craft, the comfort of the seats, the quality of the food served and, of course, the quality of the service on board.  Is the crew responsive, efficient, kind to older people and children and trained to deal with emergencies? How they look is the last on this list.  These criteria apply equally to the men and women who work as flight attendants. Yet, only women's looks are constantly emphasised. 

What are the attributes needed to qualify for the job of flight attendant? Here is a description posted on a job website:

“The aspiring candidates should have a few exceptional qualities within them — sense of responsibility, pleasing personality, presence of mind, initiative, good physique, patience to work long hours, systematic approach towards duty, good appearance, communication and interactive skills, language proficiency, pleasant voice, team spirit, positive attitude, sense of humour and so on.” And, “Apart from the physical and other attributes mentioned above, the candidate should also have a lot of stamina, patience, common sense, presence of mind and the strength to keep her poise in the face of a crisis. An outgoing personality and a bit of luck always help.”

The majority of the requirements have to do with attitude and with qualities such as “patience”, “systematic approach, “positive attitude”, “sense of humour” and “pleasing personality”. In the middle of all this is also “good physique” and “good appearance”. In fact, behind the glamour, the job is a hard grind and requires a high level of fitness. But should this be translated into every candidate for the job, particularly if she happens to be a woman, looking like an aspiring model?

In 2004, when Air India decided to recruit 400 new flight attendants — and 32,000 people applied — those with pimples or scars on their faces were turned away and not given a chance to prove that they might have “a pleasing personality” or even common sense and patience. Two years ago, when Air India dismissed 10 women flight attendants for being “too fat to fly”, according to a newspaper headline, one of them, who had worked for 27 years with the airline pointed out, “This is not a modelling job; we are not working a catwalk” and added, “weight is not an infectious disease”.

Furthermore, no matter how good-looking your staff, your company cannot survive just on that. This too should be obvious, particularly in the case of Air India. It is not the weight or looks of its cabin crew that have steered it into this current crisis; it is the quality of management that has. Indian Airlines, before it merged with Air India, had the same rules for men and women. And regardless of the age of its crew or how they looked, the airline remained afloat.

Looking smart and having a “pleasing personality” are necessary requirements for anyone who is in the service industry, including those who manage front offices and have to deal with people. But none of this means there should be separate sets of rules for men and women. Air India needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

(To read the original, click on the link http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/article2458911.ece)

Unearthing the truth

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, September 4, 2011
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/article2421002.ece

KALPANA SHARMA

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 Photo: AFP

For thousands of ‘half widows' and families in Kashmir whose members have gone missing, the SIT report confirming the presence of mass unidentified graves may finally bring some kind of closure…

Imagine a day when your husband, brother, father steps out of the house and never returns. Imagine some member of the family being taken off by the police or army for questioning, and they never return. Imagine living for years not knowing — whether they are alive or dead, whether you should mourn or live in hope, whether you should give up or fight for the truth.

This is the reality to which thousands of families in Kashmir wake up each day — families of the estimated 8,000 individuals who have disappeared since the beginning of militancy in 1989. This is not a new story. It has been told, and retold many times. Yet, despite the retelling, nothing seems to change.

Glimmer of hope

Today, there is a small glimmer of hope that the truth might finally come out. Despite ‘civil society' — yes, that same ‘ civil society' that kept all our media busy for over two weeks to the exclusion of all other news — producing reports and investigations that suggested that literally thousands of unidentified bodies lie buried in unmarked graves across Kashmir, that these graves might hold the key to the mystery of the thousands who have disappeared, the state government took no action.

Last month, a special investigation team (SIT) of the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) produced a report that confirmed much of what was already known, but not accepted. The SIT's 11-member team took three years to follow through on information that had been placed in the public domain by groups like the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and the Indian People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK). Its findings, made public through the use of the Right to Information and released to the local media, are explosive. They confirm that in 38 locations in four districts — Bandipora, Baramulla, Kupwara and Handwara — there are 2,730 unidentified bodies in unmarked graves. Of these, the SIT has already confirmed that 574 are local people and not the ‘foreign militants' as the gravediggers, ordered by security forces to bury these bodies, were told. That still leaves 2,156 bodies to be identified. The SIT has concluded that “there is every probability that these unidentified dead bodies (2156) buried in various unmarked graves … may contain the dead bodies of enforced disappearances”.

The SIT report confirms what the IPTK 2009 report, “Buried Evidence: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Kashmir” revealed through photographs and eyewitness accounts. It surveyed 55 villages in three districts and identified 2,373 unidentified bodies in unmarked graves. The SIT figure is higher. It reports that many of the bodies were disfigured beyond recognition and several were charred. The majority were men and most had bullet injuries. This horrific secret lay buried in graveyards that local people knew existed but could not report for fear of reprisals. Now finally the truth is out. Or at least a part of it. A thorough survey in all districts would probably reveal many more such graves and unidentified bodies. And if they were matched with the DNA of the 8,000 or so who have disappeared, it is possible that after decades there would be a closure to the terrible and lingering loss that thousands of families in Kashmir have had to bear not knowing what has happened to their loved ones.

The worst off have been the women, whose husbands were pulled out for questioning, or just picked up, and who never returned. These women, ‘half widows' as they are called, are stuck in a unique situation in Kashmir. In July, APDP came out with another report that reveals the gender dimension of this tragedy. Titled “Half Widow Half Wife? Responding to Gendered Violence in Kashmir”, the report documents the plight of the estimated 1,500 such women that APDP has identified. The number might look small but it represents just a small part of a larger problem in the state.

Heart-rending

The individual stories in the APDP report are heart-rending. Most of these women are ineligible for pensions or government relief because they cannot produce a death certificate. There is confusion about whether they can marry again after four years or seven years. Many of them face problems with their in-laws while they wait for confirmation one way or another about the fate of their husbands. They live with high levels of mental stress and have to deal with children who also have deep psychological problems.

Insurgency, militancy, separatists, ‘stone-pelters', India, Pakistan — these are the words that get repeated in reportage from Kashmir. Yet another reality is what thousands of ordinary families suffer when their loved ones literally vanish into thin air. How can there be closure to the grief you experience when you have no idea whether the person you love is alive or dead? How can you mourn?

If, once the SIT report is handed over by the SHRC to the state government, action is taken to deal with the unidentified bodies buried across the state, perhaps there will be some kind of closure to this terrible story. Families can then, through DNA sampling, confirm whether the person they have been looking for all these years lies in one of these graves. This must also be followed up with steps to prosecute those responsible for these extra-judicial killings.

Yes, we need an India without corruption. But this violation of human rights, this terrible travesty of justice where people are picked up, killed and buried without anyone knowing about it is a more hideous form of corruption. It represents the misuse of powers granted in the name of fighting militancy. This type of corruption must also be addressed.

Indians in the so-called ‘mainland', those who filled the Ramlila grounds in Delhi, for instance, are only too ready to assert that Kashmir in the north and Manipur in the northeast are an ‘integral' part of India. If this be so, then the concerns of these half-widows, of the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters of the 8,000 disappeared persons in that state, should also be an ‘integral' part of our concern for a just and democratic society.

(To read the original, click on the link above)

Another India, another protest

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, August 21, 2011 

Lone battle: Irom Sharmila, force-fed and kept alive by the State. Photo: The Hindu Photo Library

While the farcical drama around Anna Hazare's protest and arrest has hogged the limelight, Irom Sharmila's indefinite fast since 2000 to get the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) repealed continues to be ignored by the nation and the media…

A day after Indians ‘celebrated' Independence Day by following the annual ritual of hoisting the flag, singing the national anthem and patriotic songs and listening to politicians, including the Prime Minister, talk about the strengths of Indian democracy, the police cracked down on a much-celebrated campaigner against corruption, Anna Hazare and his team.

The drama that followed his arrest and that of others in his team, the growing protests, the late night release and then Anna's refusal to be released was not just farcical; it was a pitiful display of a government with no respect for people's right to protest and no strategy to deal with those who demand that right. In one day, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government managed to unite the opposition. Even those who do not subscribe to every aspect of Hazare's campaign, such as his demand that only his team's formulation of the Lok Pal Bill be accepted, strongly condemned the government's actions. On August 16, Anna Hazare successfully “arrested” the UPA government.

Ignored

Yet even as Hazare's anti-corruption crusade gained momentum with hundreds courting voluntary arrest, in another part of India, a protestor who has used a similar tactic, of going on an indefinite fast, continues to be ignored by the rest of the country and by the political leadership.

Given the issue — rooting out corruption — and the mobilisation of groups in big cities across India, as well as the concerted media attention, some might consider it irrelevant to talk about a corner of the country where a lone woman continues her fight against the truly undemocratic Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) imposed on Manipur that has made life a living hell for the ordinary people of that State.

Indeed, when the rest of India — barring, of course, the Kashmir Valley — celebrated Independence Day, the scene in Manipur was strikingly different. Pradip Phanjoubam, Editor of the Imphal Free Press, wrote this moving opening paragraph in his editorial on August 15 titled, “State of Independence”:

“On the eve of the India's Independence Day, Imphal is acquiring the look of a war front. The scenario is not too different in other townships in Manipur as indeed in much of the Northeast. It has almost become a ritual every year. Various militant organisations would call for a boycott of the celebration of what is arguably the biggest and most important day in the country's history and in response the provincial governments would virtually stage flag marches to demonstrate the power of the establishment and push its way without being deterred by any threat whatsoever. Uniformed gun totting security personnel are on every corner of the streets frisking people, stopping motorists, checking their vehicles, questioning them etc. As expected, even a week before the big day approached, Imphal already began wearing a deserted look, especially after sunset. People return home early so as not to be accosted by security men and go through the humiliation of being made to stand on the side of the roads to be frisked and questioned like potential trouble makers. The ordinary people are supposed to be mere bystanders in this war game, but every time tensions escalate in moments like this, they have no choice than to be prepared to be the undeserved casualties, and sometimes become statistics of ‘ collateral damage', the well known sugar-coating aimed at making civilian killing and harassment seem like necessary and pardonable fallout of a conflict.”

Yes, Imphal is a long way from our relatively comfortable lives in cities in the rest of India, even if our lives are disrupted by the occasional power outage, by water shortage, by pot-holes on our roads, by inflation, and by the government deciding to deny those so inclined the right to protest. But Manipur is also India. Yet, here people live without electricity for most of the day, even in the capital city. Here, the areas with a sufficient water supply would probably be only those where the government and the army reside. Here, people are afraid to go out after dark and markets close as soon as the sun sets. Here, men with arms, the security forces and the various groups of militants, run the show. Here, ‘democracy' seems a theoretical construct, certainly not a lived reality.

Beacon of hope

And here, since November 2000, a 38-year-old woman, Irom Sharmila, has been on an indefinite fast demanding withdrawal of AFSPA. She is under arrest and is being force-fed by the government in a public hospital in Imphal. Every year she is released, and then re-arrested. Yet, this woman of unimaginable courage will simply not give up. And by holding on to her resolve, she holds up a small candle of hope for the people of her state. A hope that people will notice, that her determination will be recognised, that the current government, which in its earlier term had promised to look again at AFSPA, will not break one more promise.

We have forgotten that a year after the UPA government first took office in 2004, it set up a five-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge B. P. Jeevan Reddy. The committee recommended, amongst other things, a withdrawal of AFSPA. So Sharmila's demand is not unreasonable; a government-appointed committee has endorsed it. But the recommendation was given more than six years ago. Yet today, the security forces continue to enjoy the right to act with impunity, while the citizens of Manipur, who are also citizens of India, live without many fundamental rights guaranteed to them under our Constitution.

Anna Hazare's campaign, in the national capital and in full media glare, is premised on scepticism about the government's intent on the matter of dealing with corruption. But Sharmila has even a greater reason for scepticism given the absence of any movement on a recommendation that has been before the government for so many years.

If we are concerned about freedom, about democratic rights, about the right to protest, let us also remember other protests, other parts of India where democratic rights are being denied. Let us remember Sharmila.

(To read the original, click on the link above)