People & Their Problems

New Delhi, 14 December 2007

Female Foeticide

END INHUMAN KILLINGS

By Radhakrishna Rao

The relentless female foeticide linked to the sex-determination test in Punjab and Haryana, which has led to an alarming dip in the female population of the two States, have now found a new easy-to-use high-tech gadget to determine the sex of the unborn baby.

For parents who consider a male progeny as a prized possession, this innovative kit imported from the US and Canada and costing around Rs.20,000 has become a most sought after gadget in the States. The gadget enables the identification of the gender of the foetus within seven weeks of the pregnancy.

Both in Punjab and Haryana where a skewed sex ratio has caused an acute shortage of “local brides’, this new kit could definitely undermine the efforts at minimizing the menace of female foeticde. Against such a bleak social situation, women’s groups and religious organisations in both the States are now in the thick of a campaign aimed at ending the rampant and widespread menace of female foeticide.

As things stand, the female-men ration in India is 933 females for every 1,000 men. However, in sharp contrast Punjab has 874 females and Haryana 857 females for every 1,000 men. Kerala seems to be the only exception. There are more women than men in this lush green South Indian State.

According to the Punjab Medical Council, "There are reports that doctors who are believed to be indulging in the illegal practice to carry out sex determination tests through the ultra-sound technique are selling the kit to the clients.” To cry a halt to this, the State’s medical fraternity has now called for widening the scope of Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act to take care of the latest development.

Incidentally, Punjab is known to lose one fourth of all girls who would be born. Appalled by the growing and unchecked trend of female foeticide and abandoned female children, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhanadhak Committee (SGPC), the highest seat of Sikh spiritual and temporal authority, has not only issued an edict against female foeticide but has also decided to take care of the abandoned female babies.

Towards this end, the SGPC would soon ask the gurudwaras all over the State to place cradles at their entrances and exhort unhappy parents obsessed with “a boy” syndrome to leave “the innocent female children at  God’s door and not the devil’s”.

According to media reports, in recent months, there has been an increase in the number of new-born female children being abandoned in public parks, railway compartments and roadsides.

Further, as pointed out by the Centre for Advocacy and Research, “The preference for a son is a reality but we have to create enough processes to make sex determination costly and difficult. Without this happening, talking of putting an end to sex-determination is like crying in wilderness.”

In Rajasthan, ten out of 28 districts have a sex ratio between 850 and 900 girls per 1,000 boys. Recall, the discovery of a few female foetuses in a deserted place outside the township of Nayagarh in Orissa sometime back had created country-wide revulsion. It was alleged that a few doctors working in the Government hospitals had a role to play in this heinous act.

Following the public outrage, the Orissa State Health Department raided 277 nursing homes spread across the State. Shockingly, it was found that about 78 of these were unregistered. The truth finally emerged. Nayagarh had become a nerve centre of female foeticide.

According to a demographer, “The unholy alliance between tradition (son preference) and technology (ultra-sound) has a played a havoc in Indian society.” Added a doctor, “Ultra-sound was invented in the 1950s for safe motherhood but it has not only killed millions of foetuses in India, it is also a leading cause of matrimonial mortality.”

In States such as Punjab and Haryana, where there is a serious shortage of local women, men are forced to marry girls from outside their home states. For instance, Jat men from the pre-dominantly agricultural hamlets of Haryana, enter into wed-lock with girls from the North Kerala township of Payyannur. However, many of these girls from the impoverished social background, unable to withstand the ignominies heaped on them, have returned back to Payyannur.

Men from the Punjab villages “import” brides from parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the North-Eastern States. What is more, some Punjabi men have managed to get brides from as far off as Philippines. These brides are not only expected to take care of the rigors of the household work and agricultural operations but also bear, ideally, a male progeny.

In some cases one “bride” is shared by a number of brothers in the family they are married into. Thus polyandry is raising its ugly head in the rural backyards of Haryana and Punjab.

Sociologists are clear in their perception that a huge dowry associated with marrying off a girl is a major factor pushing the people of Punjab and Haryana (to a large extent) and Western Uttar Pradesh (to some extent), into the clutches of the “female foeticide.”

Moreover, as per the Hindu tradition, only a male can lit the pyre of his dead father or mother. Besides, a male child is considered a “safety net” in the evening of one’s life. In fact, a favourite justification for supporting the practice of female foeticide is that it serves as an effective tool of family planning.

However, many field surveys show that sex-determination tests can only ensure multiple abortions with perilous consequences for the well-being of the female. As it stands, the lack of food, clean drinking water, economic security and safe clinical facilities could lead to a situation where women has to have over six children to ensure one surviving male child.

Indeed, as one research study points out, any further reduction in the sex ratio in North India would signify a continuing decline in the relative status of women. Moreover, it would be unlikely to offer any benefit to the women. Thus, the ongoing practice of female foeticide completely negates the glorification of women in India’s religious texts as the “Mother Supreme.” ----- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

PEOPLE & THEIR PROBLEMS

New Delhi, 7 December 2007

Promoting Green Buildings

VITAL NEED FOR CHANGE

By Radhakrishna Rao

Following widespread concern over global warming brought about by unchecked environmental abuse, there is a growing awareness now of the need to popularize the construction of energy efficient and eco-friendly buildings across the world.

India’s first internationally certified green building that houses the Confederation of Indian Industry-Sohrabji Godrej Business Centre spread over 16,000sq ft was set up in Hyderabad in 2003. Today, the country has over 25 million sq ft of registered green building expanse which is all set to touch a 100 million sq ft by 2010-12.

Importantly, India has all the potentials to emerge as a hub of green building construction and play a significant role in encouraging eco-friendly construction. Green buildings now save on at least a third of the power and water. Moreover, they emit 35 per cent less carbon dioxide.

Though the green buildings cost three per cent more than the conventional buildings, in the long run, they contribute to an average energy savings to the tune of 30 per cent and are a substantial savings on waste handling.

Green builders have stressed the need to reach out to the 100 million people involved in the construction sector the world over. A classic example of an eco-friendly building complex is the Tata Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) at Gopahari village in Haryana, showcasing how green construction makes for higher energy efficiency and recycling of the wastes.

Further, green buildings should generate as much energy as they emit. For instance, a building can produce electricity through solar cells. The design and use of material too would make a difference depending on the geography, weather and local conditions. Be it glass, concrete or wood. But it needs to be underscored that one model won’t suit all

In fact, it is imperative that the country usher in a green building revolution and facilitate India emerging as one of the world leaders in green buildings by 2010. Students need to come up with effective and innovative ideas that could be easily implemented in their school campuses to make them green.

Incidentally, for quite sometime now the industry lobby groups have been in the forefront of the campaign aimed at popularizing the green building concept in the country. More so, as software and multi-national corporations are keen on having green campuses-cum-office complex, making the green building movement in the country good business sense.

In addition to green corporate complexes, eco-friendly individual houses are also becoming a part of the Indian landscape. The green houses allow house owners to not only significantly save on electricity and water but also generate lesser waste. Studies show that a house that is fitted with CFL lamps, solar water heater and recycling facilities saves around Rs.2.560 lakh over a period of six years. Solar water heaters alone will save around Rs.71,000 over six years.

But going green is not just about costs. It is about using resources wisely, as well as a shift in the professional attitude of architects, managers, corporates and all those associated with the green buildings movement.  But a change in the way both architects and their clients envisage their houses and buildings is needed for the green concept to really catch on.

However, a section of Indian architects stated that a lot of the green concept propagated by the industry is on predicted western needs and hence does not make much sense in the Indian context. On the other hand, they lay emphasis on falling back on the local materials and local needs to popularize the green building concept.

Not many are aware that the magnificent concrete and glass buildings in the booming urban centres spread across the globe account for a third of the carbon dioxide emission that contributes to global warming. Thus, the need to promote green building architecture has assumed added significance

But then initial capital investment in regard to green buildings continues to be a major impediment in the way of popularizing the green architecture. A way around this is to bring eco-friendly products into the mainstream and subsidize sustainable technologies, the concept would become more economically feasible.

According to a Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, the approach from the construction industry towards sustainability for development must include a thought on using renewable energy and alternate technology — reusing and recycling materials during the design, manufacture, construction and maintenance. Attention should be given to producing less waste and recycling more, producing less toxicity, noise and spatial pollution.

Sadly, despite the ever-rising construction activity, awareness of the green building concept and sustainable architecture in India has significantly lagged behind the countries in the West. Given the fact that the overall sustainable building movement has significant business implications and is an opportunity to make real contribution to the efforts towards curbing India’s growing environmental crisis.

All in all, it needs to be remembered that the green houses are not just about getting appliances such as solar panels. It is much more. Starting from the design of the shell of the construction which should take into account the climatic conditions. True, in an urban area one does not always have the opportunity to incorporate every aspect. But even within fixed parameters, climatic consideration can be taken into account while designing a green building complex or an individual house. Specially, as the business advantages that sustainable buildings create are enormous. ---- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

People And Their Problems

New Delhi, 27 November 2007

Rising Farm Suicides

ACUTE AGRARIAN CRISIS

By T.D. Jagadesan

Of the 1.5 lakh Indian farmers who took their own lives between 1997 and 2005, nearly two-thirds did so in the States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh).

The number of Indians committing suicide each year rose from around 96,000 in 1997 to roughly 1.14 lakh in 2005. In the same period, the number of farmers who took their own lives each year shot up dramatically. From under 14,000 in 1997 to over 17,000 in 2005. While the rise in farm suicides has been on for over a decade, there have been sharp spurts in some years. For instance, 2004 saw well over 18,200 farm suicides across India. Almost two-thirds of these were in the Big Four of “Suicide SEZ” States.

The year 1998, too, saw a huge increase over the previous year. Farm suicides crossed the 16,000 mark, beating the preceding year by nearly 2,400 such deaths. Farm suicides as a proportion of total suicides rose from 14.2 in 1997 to 15.0 in 2005.

The Annual Compound Growth Rate (ACGR) for all suicides in India over the nine-year period is 2.18 per cent. This is not very much higher than the population growth rate. But for farm suicides it is much higher, at nearly 3 (or 2.91) per cent. Powerfully, the AGGR for suicides committed by consuming pesticides was 2.5 per cent. Close to the figure for farmers.

Although alarming, it still does not capture the full picture. The data on suicides is complex, and sometimes misleading. Not just because of the flawed manner in which they are put together, or because of who puts them together. There are other problems, too. Farmers’ suicides as a percentage of the total number of farmers is hard to calculate on a yearly basis. A clear national “farm suicide rate” can be derived only for 2001. That is because we have the census to tell us how many farmers there were in the country that year. For other years, that figure would be a conjecture, however plausible.

But even in 2001, when the farm suicides had not reached their worst, the farm suicide rate (FSR) at 12.9 was much higher than the general suicide rate (GSR) at 10.6 for that year. But the GSR slowed down after that to 10.3 by 2005 even as the total number of suicides went up. It means that the increase in the number of general suicides did not keep pace with the growth in general population.                                                                                           

In 2005, the Big Four or “Suicide SEZ” States accounted for 43.9 per cent of all suicides and 64.0 per cent of all farm suicides in the country. By contract, a group of States with the highest general suicide rates --- including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura and Puducherry --- accounted for 20.5 per cent of farm suicides in India.

To the extent the media have covered the farm crisis, their focus has been on farm suicides in four States --- Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Very broadly speaking, that appears to have been right. All have very high rates of farmers’ suicides. Madhya Pradesh though is a major State showing such trends which has received scant attention.

It is important that the figure of 1.5 lakh farm suicides is a bottom line estimate. It is by no means accurate or exhaustive. There are inherent and serious inaccuracies in the NCRB data as they are based on ground data that exclude large groups of people.

The quality of reporting also varies from State to State. For instance, Haryana shows a very low ratio of farm suicides to general suicides. This conflicts with other assessments of the problem in that State. Data from Punjab have also been highly contested by groups monitoring the farm crisis there. However, even in this flawed data, the trends are clear and alarming. But what has driven the huge increase in farm suicides, particularly in the Big Four or “Suicide SEZ” States?

There exists since the mid-90s, an acute agrarian crisis. That’s across the country. In the Big Four and some other States, specific factors compound the problem. These are zones of highly diversified, commercialized agriculture. Cash crops dominate.

Water stress has been a common feature and problems with land and water have worsened as State investment in agriculture continues to decline, even disappear. At the same time, cultivation costs have shot up in these high input zones, with some inputs costing several hundred per cent more. The lack of regulation of these and other aspects of agriculture have sharpened those problems and deepened the agrarian crisis.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

People & Their Problems

New Delhi, 13 November 2007     

Check Global Warming

INDIA AWARE OF COMMITMENT

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

Weather the world over is going crazy. If Los Angeles on the US’s West Coast last month witnessed unheard of bush fires leading to massive human evacuation, and its East Coast is periodically ravaged by hurricanes, can India be far behind? Delhi is experiencing its coldest November in recent years, Bihar was ravaged by unprecedented floods till two months ago and it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict where the summer season ends and the monsoon sets in what to say of winter? While scientists blame it on the El Nino affect and environmentalist warn of dire consequences of untold  misery awaiting mankind and Governments the world over grapple with various ways to reduce environmental man-made disasters thanks to the unabated plundering of natural resources ---- water, land soil erosion green house gases pollution et al .  

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize has aptly been awarded to the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the former American vice president, Al Gore, which clearly signaled the importance of stabilizing the earth’s climate and controlling global warming. Incidentally the IPCC is now headed by Dr. R. P. Pachauri, the TERI chief, who also deserves credit for his achievement in releasing three volumes of the assessment report while the fourth one, The Synthesis Report, is expected to be ready in November this year.

This announcement of the prize comes close on the heels after the G-8 conference which deliberated on the subject of climate change and merely agreed to “seriously consider” halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The rigid stand of the USA may have softened a bit but its overall position that the emerging economies, specially India and China, have to adhere to some restrictions did not possibly change.

The per capita emissions are today the highest in the world. as per figures of 1999. The US topped the list with 5.60 tonnes of emission per person, Russia followed with 2.72, the European Union and Japan both 2.40, China 0.53 and India close to 0.25 tonnes per person.  Thos has increased considerably in subsequent years, specially by the developed world though emissions by China and India have also shown a marked rise because of the steady pace on industrialization in these countries.

Keeping in view international pressures and also the need to check curb emissions, India has been seriously considering the problem. Recently the Prime Minister set up a high level group of senior ministers and non-government experts on climate change to help fashion a response to global warming and demands that India take on commitments to cut greenhouse emissions. The group includes ministers of finance, external affairs, environment and also the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and advisers on science and technology. The non-governmental side is represented by Dr. R. K. Pachauri, chairperson of TERI, Pradipto Ghosh, former environment secretary, Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science & Environment and Ratan Tata, chairman of the Investment Commission.           

Though this Committee would formulate guidelines for controlling emissions and other related issues, already certain steps have been taken in this regard. There is serious attempt by the Central and state governments to control air pollution in the metropolises and in most places the stringent rules of controlling vehicular emissions are being followed. This has become all the more necessary because for an overpopulated country like ours because lakhs of people live in slums and squatter settlements who are greatly affected because of air pollution.

Moreover the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has been trying to enforce through the state boards control of emissions from industry and power plants. Another important aspect in the country is to explore the various forms of non-renewable sources of energy apart from the emphasis on exploiting hydel energy, wherever it is possible. The country’s per capita consumption of electricity is around 440 units (compared to Brazil’s 1980 and China’s 1380 units) and the country may have to add 3880 billion kilowatt hours of electricity by 2030 to sustain the present rate of growth. The thrust is on nuclear and hydel power though around 70 per cent of the electricity may come from thermal plants.

It is well known that India has vast reserves of thorium and this could be used for our nuclear power programmes, even if the Indo-US deal does not materialize because of the reported objections by the Left parties and also some technical differences raised by a section of scientists. Scientists in the country have for quite some time been seriously experimenting how thorium (and not uranium) could be effectively used for reactors. It may be pointed out here that High Temperature Reactor Technology has already been proved in Germany and is now being taken up in China and South Africa. And this is based on thorium and much safer than contemporary reactors.

The cry the world over to stabilize greenhouse gases would no doubt affect India in the long run. According to a report by Lehman Brothers India, India’s GDP would dip by 5 per cent for every two degrees temperature rise and for the next 6 degrees, the effect would be 15-16 per cent. The report titled The Business of Climate Change II, a sequel to its earlier report on climate change, Lehman Brothers has said that the US, the European Union, are estimated to have accounted Russia, Japan for nearly 70 per cent of the build-up of fossil fuel CO₂ between 1850 and 2004.

Meanwhile at a recent conference organized by TERI, Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, an expert on the subject, estimated that it would cost the government & 2.53 trillion in investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.7 per cent by 2036 if 1990 emission levels are taken as the baseline.

Based on computations at TERI, the cost of demanding high levels of efficiency from the manufacturing sector could hit the country’s economic growth beyond a limit. The calculations show that India could achieve 3 per cent efficiency in its total energy consumption methods without hitting growth but a further push for 9 per cent efficiency could mean exploitatively high cost. This data was presented to the international community at Vienna recently at an international meeting in preparation for the IPCC’s Bali conference in December. 

By 2030 India is expected to reach the current levels of US carbon emissions with all its negative implications for global warming. This has been a cause for concern for scientists and planners in the country and more stringent emissions measures are likely to be taken in the coming years. Though India and other developing countries have been arguing that developed countries grew rich through a fossil-fuel burning economic growth model and that it would be inequitable to seek to prevent them from following a similar path, there has been pressures for the country to check emissions.  

It is thus quite clear that the argument of Nicholas Stern of UK that taking action to reduce climate change would not hurt the growing economies of countries such as India is not quite prudent. Even then the pressure is on China and India to agree to some kind of emission cuts. In fact, the EU has been saying that it is the only way to convince the USA and Australia to undertake commitments in the new phase of Kyoto Protocol.

The IPCC has estimated that in South Asia 500 million0 people would be affected by reduced river flows in the northern part of the subcontinent and about 250 million in China. It is further estimated that the range of people exposed to increased water stress by 2050 would include 120 million to 1.2 billion in Asia, 75 to 250 million in Africa and 12 to 81 million in Latin America. Thus climate change affects us all. Therefore it is imperative that a global effort has to be initiated at this juncture and countries such as China, India and South Africa would have to play a crucial role in the coming years. However, it remains to be seen whether the US and the EU would make some sacrifices and set aside 10 per cent of their defence budget for another form of security expenditure – one that protects mankind from possible extinction.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)