Blunt Sensitivity

Every time I pick up a newspaper, I sense an increased sense of numbness and indifference developing around me. It seems we are getting more and more self-engrossed with every passing day.

The importance of News has leveled down to mere stress buster for many just like those mills and boon and mindless stories of the kind become the refuse for students during exam season. While we consume news, somewhere inside we secretly feel content because we believe that tragedies of the sort happens to certain people and we are positively different from “them”.  We forget that we are the part of the same society; we are watching on tv and renouncing.

Everyday, the newspapers and numerous twenty-four hour news channels in India are overflowing with stories of murder, burglary, theft, rape, frauds, scams and anti government protests but there is hardly any positive news on development or government reforms. The exact same crimes and the exact same stories everyday, which are crisply articulated by our hard working journalists and fed to us everyday, day after day with the only change in names and dates.

Surprisingly like most others, such news does not make me sad or enraged anymore. We all seem completely indifferent on such matters and towards those victims and a lot of us consume news as entertainment.

For example, I read an article today where a teenage girl from Delhi accused the father of physical, mental and sexual harassment and next to it a new report on Arushi Talwar case stating that on the night of murder, the parents of Aarushi googled murder techniques on their computer. Such stories have become a norm in our society. In fact these crimes turn into trends for example the trending rape cases and the children in borewells trend a while ago and the domestic help abuse trend before that.

Apart from these issues being the trademark of an ailing society, the bigger issue is the way it is affecting our sensitivity, morals and our efforts to eliminate the ills. 

Unfortunately, the daily dose of crime report has made us numb and inconsiderate. All that matters to us is our personal safety, security and wellbeing and in the process we forget that we are all connected with each other for our social and economic wellbeing.

India is a big country with a bigger population. It’s a big chaos where everyone is struggling to survive, grow and grab every possible opportunity. It’s a country of intense competition. Economically, we are one of the fastest growing nations in the world. But socially, we are still lagging far behind. We are poor, our living standard is one of the lowest, sex ratio one of the worst, poverty ratio one of the highest and corruption level at among the top in the entire world.  We are a society with huge socio economic disparities and the differences won’t go unless we become sensitive towards the problems. We need to give a closer look to such matters that are affecting anyone around us and figure out a solution for each problem. News is not all about entertainment and it is definitely not something to watch and forget.  News requires reaction. Only a collective social sensitivity can lead to a better individual life.

Tablets or Classrooms?

Right to education is every Indian’s fundamental right. Yet, India is one of the countries with lowest levels of literacy in the world.

Since independence, the Indian government has been struggling to bring changes to the illiteracy figures of the country. There have been numerous literacy missions, programmes and huge amounts of funds spent to make education accessible to everyone. But after 65 years of Independence, India’s literacy level is below 74% which is one of the lowest in the world.

No classrooms but, we have laptops!
Interestingly, after what seems like 65 years of failed literacy mission due to poverty and lack of ‘the basics’, an Indian political party are promising laptops and tablets to students. The Samajwadi Party in its election manifesto has promised free computers for students. The party's manifesto says, "If voted to power, will give students that pass class 12 a laptop and those who pass class 10 a tablet pc".
At a stage when it’s necessary to bring changes to the fundamentals of Indian education system, it seems like an irony to provide free tablets to pupils. Is it possible to change India’s literacy figures through few free tablets and PCs? Isn’t it mere political agenda to bag in votes?

Comparing with the developed world
Surprisingly, countries like the UK and the USA whose literacy levels are much higher than us, are stressing on basic educational improvement and reforms when they can afford to aim for higher targets. The prime minister of United Kingdom, in his recent speech urged parents to read to their children every night no matter how busy they are. The UK government is aiming to improve the quality of education through improving the quality of teaching, restoring discipline, raising curriculum standards, empowering teachers and closing the gap between the richest and poorest pupils.(Source: The conservatives).
Similarly, the Obama administration focuses on making education within reach of every child through various basic reforms and policies. (Source: The White House)

Basic Problems
A vast majority of children in India can’t even receive primary education due to poverty. Their families prefer them to work as cheap labour and add to the family’s income instead of getting education. Poverty is one of the biggest factors behind the failed efforts to educate India.
Another big issue is the lack of basic infrastructure in schools. The majority of Indian families send their children to government funded schools because they can’t afford private or public school education? Most government schools lack electricity, furniture, classrooms, toilets and blackboards. Those who wish to study are forced to cope up with poor or missing facilities which turn education into an agonizing experience. Open air classrooms, where pupils are forced to sit in the fields to study is a common sight in most Indian villages.

Absentee Teachers
More than one-fourth of primary school teachers don’t go to work and only half the number of total teachers engage in actual teaching. (source: world bank survey). Huge funds for education get wasted due to issues like this which has become a norm in most schools.
The problem of illiteracy in India is deep rooted and multidimensional. A Political party distributing laptops and tablets to the students seems like a mockery of the situation where access to basic primary education, high dropout rates, infrastructure and poverty should be the main concern.

India needs a renovation in its basic education system and structure. It is first necessary to make education accessible, affordable and desirable to the vast masses. We can’t think of giving away free tablets from public funds when there are so many around who survive on less than $179 a month.

Unreached Territory

The immaculate serene beauty of the north east India is incomparable. Away from the corporate world, competition, crowd, traffic, pollution and complexities of life, people in this part of India live a simple basic life. 

This is the north east India. They are surrounded by miles of dense forest on all sides which boasts of its rich flora and fauna. The numerous hill stations are like unexplored hamlets and not as commercialised as the rest of India.  It attracts more travellers and explorers than tourists.

The Problems

But, beyond the beautiful serenity lie numerous issues which need immediate address.
Connected to rest of India through a tiny strip of land called the Silliguri corridor with Nepal on one side and Bangladesh on the other, just one railway line serves this vast region and even that merely goes as far as the end of Assam. There is no railway service beyond Assam. Though it is connected by road and air, the bad condition of these roads and dense forests en route makes travelling difficult and most people in this region can’t afford air travel. Apart from poor connectivity, this region is very sensitive due to terrorist activities and insurgencies by rebel groups like ULFA who want to establish a sovereign state separate from India. Illegal migration from neighboring countries is another major problem faced by the authority.

For more pictures, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldaroundricha/

Poverty, Illiteracy, Diseases and Superstition

Being cut from rest of the mainland, this region is underdeveloped and issues like poverty, illiteracy and poor health facilities are major concerns. Most of the population lives in remote rural clusters distant from even the basic amenities. Lack of clean drinking water is the biggest problem faced by these people which also leads to several diseases like diarrhoea, worm infestation, malaria and jaundice. Due to lack of health facilities these infectious diseases go untreated and spread rapidly and result in loss of life  of many people who are affected.

Hospitals and health centres are limited to cities while the poor villagers depend on local quacks and witch doctors (ojha). Poverty, illiteracy and poor government infrastructure have incorporated various myths and superstition among the villagers. Since there is no immediate medical facility for these villagers, they turn to witch doctors who does all sorts of so called magic on the patients to remove bad spirit from the body. Mostly, such activities make the patient’s condition worse and sometimes even result in death.
One such village is Balunala basti near Lumding township of Nagaon district. in the state of Assam. Poor inhabitants of this village are deprived of basic minimum amenities. Unhygienic surroundings in and around these dwellings increase their suffering manifold. They hardly have any access to the developments and progress in this difficult geographical area. They earn their livelihood from local cultivation of seasonal vegetables, sugarcane and paddy. Per capita income of these people is extremely low as compared to the country's average.

A Cry for Help

The north east India are highly neglected and backward. While rest of the country seem united and flourishing, this particular area seems cut off and forgotten. The simple people in this remote part of the world need help. They need basic infrastructural development. They need clean drinking water, sanitation, hospitals, schools and roads. They need basic human amenities. They need to be connected.

How relevant are the commonwealth games?

The 19th commonwealth games have been so far surrounded by controversies.
A lot of ace athletes like the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt pulled out of the commonwealth games giving reasons like security, sudden injury and also reasons like to prepare for other important events. The games seem to have turned into a mere platform for amateur or struggling athletes from around the world. The commonwealth games is an international event in which athletes from commonwealth of nations take part and compete for sports that are mainly played in these countries. Most of these countries were once colonies of the British Empire. It is an event where all the countries which were once under the British rule get together. An important question that arises is, “why are we still celebrating the hideous past of being a British colony when there are other major and important game events already in existence?” Every year most of the athletes pull out of the commonwealth games. Countries hosting these games end up spending billions on its organisation. Most of these countries are developing or underdeveloped where poverty is widespread. There are problems which need emergency attention.


After a series of setbacks that plagued the games this year, empty stadiums is another problem for the organisers. Thousands of tickets to the games still remain unsold. The organisers are giving away free tickets to fill the stadiums. Amid such problems the relevance of the games has become questionable. But, the game goes on.