This from the DNA

A labourer’s wife has been sold off by his employer because of the former’s inability to repay debt in Gothada village of the district, police said on Friday.

Kanwarlal used to work at Karulal’s farm along with his wife, Shardabai. Kanwarlal used to take credit from the farm owner and the debt on his head had accumulated to Rs 5,000.

Unable to repay the debt, the labourer left his wife with his employer around three months back.

The victim kept working in the accused’s farm. Shardabai was sold off to Nandram Gayari 25 days back for Rs 10,000.

Upon learning about the incident, her relatives informed police. And the police have arrested Karulal and Nandram, while twoother accused were still at large.

My first reaction on reading this was OMG - how can this happen.
On the second reading - the reaction was, “is the case an exception or is it fairly normal”. obviously the ‘husband’ had no problems leaving the wife with the employer.
obviously the employer had no problems reselling the woman to the next person.
And no one blinks an eye lid.

Tags: Gender Issues, Poverty

It has all the makings of a bad hindi film. The seemingly rich, powerful & shady businessman - called Singhal or Singhania or Chattwal - something over three syllables - finding his nefarious activities under threat. This character was usually played by an Amrish Puri or an Anupam Kher or a Danny.

He starts with bribes - dont’ do this come and work for us. we can show you the path to riches. join us and you will reach the stars kind of jazz. When that doesn’t work it is - do you know who I am and what i can do?. When that that doesn’t work he send his minion down to drop of minor threats. And then as the film reaches a certain point he ups the stakes - calls up (or sends a letter to, or a phone call) to the protoganist and says we know where you live, what you do, or where your kid studies (or somthing that threatens you and yours) .

The kind of threats that have been posted on Rashmi Bansal’s blog by people claiming to support IIPM are not funny. One by a fake blogger who claims to be the world’s top public intellectual has left this on her blog:

How is N*******? I spoke to her earlier this week, and discussed blogging… we agreed it was our little secret! We agreed to chat, and maybe go for a little ride, next week…

The name that has asterisk on it is her daughters’ name.

Incidetally this is one of the many blogs that has an identical opening post. If IIPM has nothing to do with comments like this it needs to clearly and publicly state that - because if any of the bloggers involved even fall down and scratch their knee, there are going to be a whole bunch of others who are going to turn around and point the finger at IIPM. And i guess that it is in their best interest to pray for and ensure the safety of the concerned bloggers so that their esteemed institute does not get accused of being anything more than being a diploma mill.

A woman who sells vegetables near the Dadar Flyover. Playing around with it on photoshop (with virtual photographer) gives the pic an almost timeless feel.

Who is she? what has her life been like? what is her story ? will it make a good film?

My mom calls me a voyeur.

When i was growing up in the 1980’s the big term around was “Brain Drain“. All those kids who went to the IIT”ss and then ran away abroad. Every family we knew had atleast one sibling in the states. Doctors, Engineers, Teachers, Scientists, Managers - you name it. It almost seemed that an entire generation had fled India’s shores for a better quality of life. And lets face facts, the quality of life in pre-liberalised India was not particualry khaas. It reminded me of living life in a Mrinal Sen Film (not that bad - but close).

Back in 1994, when i returned to India after living for almost a decade in London, a lot of people thought that i had completely lost it. I returned just after the Surat plague, and my friends there kept dissuading me about my return. Oh but you are English now, you won’t fit in there - they would say. I returned for a myriad of reasons the most important of all being professional ones. I didn’t see myself heading a main stream television company there, though i thought that given a certain level of performance i would be able to achieve that in India. Ambition, and the ability to achieve that ambition pulled me back. There were other reasons - i was hellishly homesick, missed my folks, missed Mumbai. But, all those would have gone on the back burner if i thought i could head a BBC or an ITV or a C4. I still can’t see an Asian woman heading one of those organisations. But, that is a different post.

In the last 4 or 5 years a number of people that i know have returned to India from abroad. in a way a reverse Brain Drain - the opportunities existed and they came back. Things may not be perfect, but atleast there the possibilty of achieving one’s aims.

So when I read today about the world bank study that linked continuing poverty to a brain drain - I wondered if brain drain was simply symptomatic.

The study’s findings document a troubling pattern of “brain drain,” the flight of skilled middle-class workers who could help lift their countries out of poverty, some analysts say. And while the exact effects are still little understood, there is a growing sense among economists that such migration plays a crucial role in a country’s development.

According to the report, the countires with the highest rate of brain drain are from Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America. These are also the areas with almost non existence governance. The only way people who can stay will stay, is if the conditions are condusive to their staying.

Jagdish Bhagwati - whom I have heard speak once, and whose essays on international economics have helped me enjoy a good nights sleep more than once - has the last word on this:

immigrants were often voting with their feet when they departed from countries that were badly run and economically dysfunctional. They get their government’s attention by the act of leaving.

Tags: Economics

Three very different pieces of data

There will be 18 million orphans to the AIDS epedimic in Africa by the end of this decade.
95% of children with AIDS, across the world, are not receiving any treatment.
And the Pope recommends abstinence over safe sex.

I had blogged about the last of the three statements here.

Tags: Development, Poverty

Big sister

Originally uploaded by 603sabre.

Today is Blog Quake Day and rather than spend time writing reams and reams, i thought i will follow the old adage of a picture speaks a thousand words.
A couple of wiki sites on making donations:

Earthquake 10-05 Donating - India
Earthquake 10-05 Donating - Pakistan

More photographs on flickr here.

One thing more than any than any other that the earth quake has proven is that man made boundaries are laughable. When natural disaster strikes it does not discriminate country a from country b. Suffering and pain and grief and loss extends across the land mass. So does the biting cold, the lack of shelter and the inability for government mechanisms to provide adeqeute aid on time.

At the same time a disaster weary world seems to have forgotten the fact that in one of the poorest regions of the world people are waking up to one more cold morning in the open. Maybe, the blogging community can help. Desipundit has put out a call for blog quake day - a means of harnessing the power of the blogospher to bring relief to those displaced by the quake.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Blogging, Social Software

Sid from Patang was down in Mumbai on Saturday. And SK and I met up with him for a few drinks at Maharaja.

One of the very interesting conversations that we had (and we had many) was on the Right to Information Act and how it impacts our lives. In my neighbourhood - Charat Singh Colony - is a park that is paid for and maintained by the BMC. But for years residents in the colony had claimed that it was a private park build and maintained by them. With the Freedom of Information act in place an enterprising neighbour demanded to see details about the park. And, today many local residents can use the park.

So at a very fundamental level - the Freedom of Information Act empowers the citizen. And this is simply an example that I know of in my own locality. And, i don’t for a moment deny the impact of the Act on citizens. My problem is that it does not extend to the private sector.

Today, my life is impacted more by Companies than by the Government. My Bank, my Credit Card, Insurance compnay, phone company, electricity board - you name it - are run by private companies. Yes, I know that if I was a shareholder - under the Companies Act - i can, technically, ask and receive all information that I want. But, what if i am not a share holder. What if I am merely a consumer? Whom is my bank sharing my credit rating with? whom is my phone company giving out my number to? If you were a person applying for a home loan - you would be told with pride how many loans bank x gave out. Would you be told how many it foreclosed on? You know than n zillion people use Visa, do you know how many people have had recovery agents sent to their homes. As a consumer, this sort of information definitely would help make a better decision.

Now, for each of the companies that impact my life - i would probably need a piece of information that I really can’t access. And given that my life is impacted more and more by Companies and less and less by the Government, what are my rights vis-a-vis information that impacts me directly?

I think that we need to look at the right to information as applied to Civil Life and not just life that is impacted by Government. Let’s take something as simple as education. A new institute or school comes up - what are the bonafides of the people who run it? How competent are they? How will they impact the learner’s life? Who are the people who back it? Where does their money come from?
Look at something that occoured in the Indian blogosphere last month - the fracas over IIPM - don’t you reckon that the Right to Information also applies to a private institue that charges a bomb for a degree that may or may not exist. It has taken a whole bunch of bloggers - three of whom faced slurs, insults and were threatened with court cases to ensure that questions were asked. I am not commenting on the nature of the course. The IIPM programme maybe, for all practical purposes, more job oriented than a MBA offered by a the University of Patna (and pigs may fly) - but spculation on absurdities is not the purpose of ths post. The point is when it is a government i have the right to ask - But, god forbid I ask the same questions of a Firm that supplies me with services. When that happens all hell breaks lose.

Yes, it makes me feel good to see that the EGS scam is exposed in rural Maharashtra? But I am equally concrened in knowing what did Jog construction spend money on, when it was supposed to build rugged roads and flyovers. When that happens we can say with pride that we truly have the Right to Information in our country.

Tags: Economics, Society

All through last year, and this - p2p sites have been served with notices. This image is going up on some that have been shut down.

It almost seems like a challenge. For everyone of the sites that they shut down a couple more come up. Moving into countries like Poland and Turkey where it is difficult to get prosecuted.

It promises to be an interesting game.

Tags: P2P, Social Software