Tiger population rises!

What a wonderful news came in this morning, amid the radioactivity from Japan and the war for freedom in Libya - India's tiger population has actually risen in the past 4 years. In 2006, the population was 1,411, and it was this number that was widely circulated in the media and dozens of ad campaigns/corporate CSR campaigns focused on this number to drive home the point that we must do something about it.

Well, that number is from 2006, when it was 1,411. Now, according to the latest Tiger Census released by...the news article doesnt say....the population in 2010 was 1,706, a rise of 395, or a rise of 28%. While the growth is a really positive sign, because in the past four years, India's thirst for space and resources has only picked up, and India's population only risen, it is still only under 2,000, and for a country where there were thousands of tigers in its jungles, my only wish is that we do not start slacking now. It will be very easy for all the stakeholders involved, and most stereotypically for the government, to take a pause, believe that the job is done, and stop in their efforts completely.

However, it is far from so. In fact, this number should only energize the stakeholders involved because now they know that whatever they are doing is working. This means that they must stay the course and not falter. I had the good fortune of meeting a scientist from the Wildlife Institute of India on a train journey from Dehradun to New Delhi, and it was exciting to listen to him about some of the projects they were busy in. He was talking to somebody on the phone about some colleague of his who was out there trying to capture a tiger, I think she was code-named T-6, in some jungle in central India, and a few days later, I read about the same tiger in the news, including the scientist's name! Quite exciting really, when you know a little more than what the rest of the public knows.

In fact, the Wildlife Institute of India, based in Dehradun, is at the forefront of tiger conservation and research. In fact, this great institute is at the forefront of wildlife conservation in India in general. I am sure all have heard of the Project Tiger. It is this body that is monitoring the tiger population across the country. On monday, March 28, that is today, this number was released by the Minister of Environment, the Governmint of india, during the International Tiger Conference, being hosted in New Delhi.

Saving the tiger is not just a mission in India, but the world over. There is a Global Tiger Recovery Programme which nations are planning to implement across the globe, and which aims to double the cat's population by 2022. This conference in New Delhi is a follow-up to the conference in Russia, and being organized by an inter-governmental body called the Global Tiger Forum. Even the World Bank has a program called the Global Tiger Initiative.

Despite the tiger population going up, it is easy for all to see that the situation is getting worse by the day, with shrinking forests, rising population and corporates and other entities increasingly venturing into previously untouched forest lands for mining and other activities. According to this news story in the Hindustan Times,

As per the government's own study tiger reserves in India cannot hold more than 1,000 to 1,200 tigers and forest have witnessed a degradation in the last two decades.

The core tiger area has shrunk to 31,207 sq kilometers in from over one lakh sq kms in 1970s, when Project Tiger was launched. Ramesh has admitted that India cannot increase its forest cover.

Other experts such as Belinda Wright of Wildlife Protection Society of India poaching treat and fall in prey population in tiger habitats is a reason for concern.

Human animal conflict will only rise in the future, as people rise, and thus rises their need for space and resources. More often than not, you hear of a leopard straying into a village, only to be beaten to death by those people. One only needs to read this sad news and wonder if it will only get worse from here.

A mob of about 300-400 villagers poured petrol on a caged leopard and burnt it alive on the outskirts of the Corbett National Park here, even as wildlife wardens and some policemen stood by helplessly, an official said.

Chandola said, ‘Even though there were about 35 wildlife officials and four policemen, they were overpowered by a mob of 300-400 people who would not let the officials go anywhere close to the burning animal that kept wailing and roaring inside the cage until he met his end.’

gruesome, gruesome. Unfortunately for the animals that inhabit our national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, they do not know where their territory ends and the territory of the humans begins. Unfortunately still, a few of them cross this threshold every few months, for lack of food, or fear, they attack humans - injure or kill them, and in response, are sent to their sad ends by God's greatest creation.





a good wholesome rant

Nobody's free. We are all the slaves of our prejudices, dogmas and habits. Yet some can afford to be such a slave without being a slave to poverty, hunger and disease. That distinction is where most of this world misses out.

Its easy for the "free" world, ably led by the United States and the rest of the WASP congregation, to portray themselves as the epitomes of a free, just and modern society, mainly because they can boast of a life mainly bereft of the poverty, hunger and disease that I just talked about. For the rest of the world, well, they have to just grin and listen to the homilies of these developed nations. There is a very famous saying, which can be applicable to any religion in this world - you can't preach the Gita/Bible/Quran/Torah/etc to an empty stomach. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good samaritans in this world, who collect money from society and work hard to bring relief to at least a few thousand of the world's millions of destitutes. But more than the good samaritans are the good samaritans working on a quid pro quo basis. You can have this food I am offering you, but you must do something for me. For the poor African in sub-Sahara Africa, its about accepting Christ as his savior. For another poor bloke somewhere else, its about accepting Allah as the beginning and end of all things.

And then there's war. humankind still can't come to the terms with the fact that whether a group of people, together as a race, ethnic group, caste, religion or sexual preference, want to live their lives in whatever way they want, have no choice but to live with other groups of people who may not share their beliefs or habits. This example is too stereotypical and too mild, but one can't deny the fact that humankind loves to fight for all sorts of reasons. In fact, some kill to protect human freedom! This reminds me of what Prince Hamlet said when he was on his way to meet his mother in the chamber scene - "I must be cruel, only to be kind."

While the middle east is already chasing this elusive bird called freedom, I can't help but wonder if the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are free yet. Keeping aside my cynicism, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that most societies in the world today are slowly becoming more extremist in their views, more unwilling to listen to others, and increasingly under the belief that they know what is right for others. This is true for societies today in all parts of the world, and in all states of economic progress. Unfortunately, the way the world has shaped, certain societies have a greater power in enforcing what they think is right upon the others.

If I look at an even higher level, its amazing that humankind has survived with such an intense level of conflict throughout its known history, and still continues to look forward to the next day and is still striving to achieve new feats. Theres people fighting for freedom from their government, people fighting for their basic rights, people fighting for freedom from somebody else, people struggling to cope with nature's fury, and the mistrust among races, among religions, among regions, among language groups - how can one believe there is a God, one who is supposed to be in charge of such a strange planet. Or perhaps God is laissez faire, and that letting things happen the way they are is the best way to go. Hmm, we shall never know.

I sometimes have very high opinions of myself - I consider myself decently well-read, decently well-traveled and somewhat of a high thinker, but I find it hard to fathom how difficult it can be even for me to think with an open mind sometimes. Its true for me as well - I am a slave of my prejudices and habits. And despite all the times I tell myself to rise above them, I can't help but be drawn to random issues that plague this world.

I was having this conversation with a few people about "the futility of it all", and somebody raised a very valid point. Ah, I remember, the conversation was about today's media, and its love for sensationalism and yellow journalism, and somebody said that the people have always been dying in the world, even in the most brutal way, its that with this generation's achievements in communications, we come to know of them at once! Our achievements in matters of speed (planes, cars, mobile communications etc) have reduced our patience, and our attention spans to nano-seconds, and we have absolutely stopped debating or pondering on issues. This perhaps explains why today's human shows no conviction towards anybody or any issue but themselves.

Oh and I haven't even began to talk about the way we are raping nature! It breaks my heart to imagine some of the most majestic of species will be wiped out from the face of this planet because they just can't survive humankind's onslaught and greed for more resources. We'll all be living on barren land soon, without forests, with polluted rivers, smoggy air and still fighting.

More than just talk now in Libya

It would do injustice to my own blog post if I do not at least, try to attempt to cover whats going on in Libya. On the 17th of this month, I had blogged that the world is still talking about Libya....just talking. We were still coming to terms with the damage and the potential nuclear damage that the Japanese tsunami would bring, when I had said that the world seemed to have moved on from Libya. The world, or rather, France, UK and the US proved me wrong on that very day. The United Nations passed its resolution declaring Libya a no-fly zone, meaning no Libyan Air Force planes, under Gaddafi, could fly in their airspace, and American, French and British forces were in the region to enforce that ban. Ah, I see the Canadians have joined in the fun.

Many commentaries and opinions will be put forward about why the western nations, those brave protectors of freedom worldwide, took so long to take direct action and let Col. Gaddafi continue to raid rebel strongholds and actually present a possibility of successfully crushing whatever uprising there was.

Call me a heartless animal, but I suppose a military action works out both ways. The world wants to see, or at least an opinion has been formed in the global media that the world wants to see Gaddafi go, and as for the western armed forces, they get to exercise their military might, you know, shake off the dust and give those men and machines a good exercise. Of course, like said, many opinions and judgements will be put forward concerning the military action against Gaddafi. According to an opinion piece in the Hindustan Times, Europeans have, apart from the stated reason of protecting Libyan civilians, other reasons as well. Italy is actually Libya's very big trade partner, so it will look to deflect criticism. Similarly, Sarkozy was one of the first western leaders in the past few years to welcome Gaddafi on a state visit, and I am sure he would like to see that that episode is not relived in anybody's mind. Oh, and how can I forget concern numero Uno - Oil!

With military action against Libya being led under the aegis of the United Nations, western media, diplomats and politicians will be quick to dismiss this as another Iraq, but there is no doubt that Gaddafi will have to go, there is absolutely no way he can stand up against the military might of the west. Interesting times in West Asia ahead.

Wikileaks and the UPA

The big story doing the rounds these days in the country is the leaked diplomatic cables regarding the Government of India. These leaks are being released by The Hindu, and have caused quite a stir in the entire country, and no matter what the truth, or the conspiracy theory, no doubt many facts are tumbling out of the closet.

Some, according to many, were known already and these leaks are only a vindication of their stand, such as the cash-for-votes in the Parliament in which the Government paid Members of Parliament to vote in favour of the US-India Nuclear bill. Crores were paid under this same accord to Ajit Singh's MP's to vote in favour of the bill, but apparently, they still voted against!

The leak causing the biggest agony is the one of Congress politician Satish Sharma's aide showing an American agent/diplomat/whatever chests of currency to be paid to the Members of Parliament!! Before saying anything else, I just want to say that this whole issue is way bigger than you and I, and the kind of parlays that must be taking place at the highest level of governments are unfathomable to at least my mind. There must be a hundred other factors involved here, and I really don't know what is wrong and what is right. I never was a fan of the CONgress, so these leaks only reinforce my dislike for them, but can any ruling politician be that disloyal to their country for money? Especially when one is a part of the government of India? I want to believe that this is not true, and despite the billions these politicians have stashed away in Switzerland or where ever, they too draw a line somewhere beyond which they will not betray their country.

When one tries to read into the entire issue, there are many questions that crop up. Why is The Hindu releasing these leaks? Why is The Hindu releasing the leaks now? etc etc. People are discussing the relationship between the newspaper and the government, the newspaper and the Commies of India, the commies of India and the US Government, the US government and the Indian government, and we can go on and on and on trying to read in between the lines. Apparently, this is where the politicians flourish, because they can deny everything and call it heresy. I mean, the basic question you can ask is - why would that person show the cash to the American official in the first place? That raises another question - was the cash from them? If you recall, the UPeeA government had conferred the Padma Bhushan on Indian-American hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal. Apparently he is one of the financiers of the deal to buy MP's for the nuke vote. So was that a reward for his work?

Another big question that came up in the past few days is the extent to which the US government has influence over the UPeeA government. I mean, after all, both governments had billions at stake in the nuclear bill, with each nuclear power plant, to be built by western companies, costing at least USD 10 billion, and when something costs 10 billion US dollars, a million here and a million there doesn't really matter!

There's another issue which is being raised online and possibly even the media - the American pressure on the government to buy American planes, for their multi-billion dollar deal for advanced jet fighters. This whole issue arises after the leak which talks of something called a Keralite mafia in the Prime Ministers Office. I think the whole issue started with the shunting of Mr. MK Narayanan as the National Security Advisor after he was apparently too hawkish on Pakistan. Now we all know that Prime Minister Singh has a very altruistic view towards this country, and according to the leaks, that lead to the former being shown the door.

So to add another twist to this theory, now people talk of the other Keralite in the Cabinet, the Defense Minister Mr. AK Antony. Now apparently Mr. Antony has not yet succumbed to the American pressure to buy American planes (and I hope the government never does!) So could this be a calculated step by the US government to show our politicians at the helm how they have their numbers all dialled up? I mean, they say that Mani Shankar Iyer was removed from the post of Petroleum Minister because he was critical of the Americans.

However, there are two points which the UPeeA Government is making in the Parliament which really puts me in a camp against them. One - the issues of the 14th Lok Sabha are irrelevant in the 15th Lok Sabha, and the second, the Prime Minister says his government got the people's mandate when they won again, so they had the people's support. It is this cavalier attitude, or should I say, excessive confidence in their own abilities, that really unnerves me.

In this entire episode, I haven't even talked of the media yet, and the role they have played, and maybe are still playing. This country already saw the reach of the fourth estate when the Nira Radia expose first came to light, and even now, there are people crying afoul of how some sections of the media, particularly New Delhi Television (NDTV), is trying to portray that the BJP is at fault here and trying to malign the Congress's image.

The next few days will be interesting. There will be a lot of talk, a lot of hot air, a lot of allegations and counter-allegations, and the country will see clearly how governance at the highest levels functions in this country, and how India is now the latest stooge of the good ol' US of A (that which I personally believe to be true).

Modern Priorities

Human tragedy today is nothing but a pause in the economic engine. Meanwhile, I hope you realize the world's moved on from Libya, where Gaddafi's forces are again gaining power and pushing back the revolutionaries. The rest of the world, especially the developed world that otherwise never fails to butt into a third world nation's business, is silent, or maybe they're still talking......just talking.

Signe Wilkinson
www.slate.com
accessed: 17 March, 2011

Untamed nuclear energy

In the aftermath of the massive devastation and loss of life and property in Japan, the world is now spooked by the Japanese nuclear crisis. The entire nation is working overtime to avert a crisis that could affect not just the Japanese nation, but the rest of the world for many years to come. While thousands of Japanese are still struggling for food and clothing as the nation is working to get back on its feet, the number one story across the globe is the possible fallout after explosions at one of their nuclear power plants at Fukushima.

The plant is only about 250 kilometers away from Tokyo, and should anything untoward happen, and the scientists and engineers fail to bring the situation under control, the loss of lives will be much worse.

I do not want to sound sensationalist, but the fact is that while the developed world has increasingly adapted nuclear energy as the next fuel of choice for power generation, it's done it without effective control and understanding of the entire process.

Let me elaborate. Nuclear power plants require massive, massive investments, but when their cost benefit analysis is done, scientists say that they will never stop producing electricity, at least not in the present era of humankind. However, the potential for damage is always under reported.

Coming back to Fukushima, the plant has suffered 4 explosions and two fires, and water is being poured over the plant to prevent overheating, and a 20 km radius zone around the plant has been evacuated to prevent exposure to radiation. Western media has begun using the word Chernobyl in their reporting already.

According to this report in Business Week, western nations, mainly United States and France, the biggest proponents and operators of nuclear energy in the world (Japan comes third), are still trying to finance a permanent containment structure over the Chernobyl reactor.

“For many years there’s been no talk of the issue of safety in nuclear plants, it’s been entirely economic,” said Walt Patterson, a nuclear safety expert at London-based Chatham House who wrote a book examining the widening industry in 1976. “The electorate is going to be a good deal less willing to invest in nuclear issues.”

Their push to develop nuclear energy in developing nations, such as India and China, seems to be exactly this, building multi-billion dollar nuclear power plants in these countries that will bring a rich windfall for companies such as GE, Westinghouse and Areva, while greatly protecting them on the liabilities front.

Till now, it seems, the nuclear power production companies were winning in convincing the world that nuclear energy is completely safe, and its only getting safer. However, the impending crisis in the Japanese reactor, considered to built with much higher safeguards and protection than say, Chernobyl for example, tells me that despite the most modern technology, humankind is still at the mercy of the Gods should things go wrong. Already nuclear power plants the world over have either been shut down to test/reinforce their preparedness, or are under a very thorough assessment of their potential to contain disaster, including India.

According to this article in Salon.com, pro-nuclear energy groups have been stressing for many years the safety of their wares, and how nuclear energy is the way to go. Even in the United States, where Barack Obama is pushing a new power strategy for the country which will be based on nuclear energy, two major questions have been - the carbon emission of these plants, and the basic question of their safety. Surely the Americans must still remember the Three Mile Island crisis in 1979. I totally agree with the Salon writer that PR for the nuclear energy has mostly been laden with spin. Obama cited Japan as an example of great nuclear energy management. What happens now to nuclear energy production and commissioning around the world, especially in the developing world where the potential for a cavalier management of nuclear energy is a strong possibility?

India and the United States have in recent times made parlays on the potential of nuclear energy in India, and they did sign an accord last year when American President Barack Obama was here, for developing many nuclear power plants across the country worth billions of dollars. This was termed a historic day in the relations between the two nations. During those days, the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, and their supporters were very active to remind the government that despite all the promises of development and cooperation, the Government of India must not forget that the Americans were still shirking from their stake in the responsibility for the tragedy. I doubt if the Government of India listened then, though it seems that it has been listening now. In fact, my biggest reason to believe that the Government of India merely buckled under the pressure put by the US Government on behalf of their nuclear power companies is the weak Nuclear Liability Bill that the government pushed in the Parliament. This article by the Times of India has quite a decent report on what transpired when the bill was passed in August last year, and the arguments between the government and the opposition.

The Prime Minister of India recently said he has ordered a complete audit of the safety of India's all nuclear power plants, but the Asia Times article I linked a few paragraphs above only corroborates my own belief that nuclear safety is not taken seriously in India.

We are most disorganized and unprepared to handle emergencies of any kind of even much less severity," A Gopalakrishnan, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) told Asia Times Online. "The AERB's disaster preparedness oversight is mostly on paper and the drills they conduct once in a while are half-hearted efforts, which are a sham," he said.

A culture of opacity surrounds India's nuclear establishment. It is not just the nuclear weapons program that is shrouded in secrecy. Little is known about the civilian nuclear program and the functioning of bodies like the AEC and the AERB. In the circumstances, the veracity of audits is hard to accept.

"Audits conducted in the past did reveal loopholes in safety measures at nuclear reactors but these findings were never made public," a senior official at the Kaiga nuclear plant told Asia Times. "Worse, there was little follow-up action."

Activists say they are not expecting anything to come of the prime minister's promised audit of nuclear reactors. "We can already predict the report - all we need to do is to listen what the nuclear establishment has been saying for the last few days and we will know what the report is likely to say," observes Purkayastha.

 That last line echoes the theme of the Salon article quite well, about the power the pro-nuclear power establishment has over the government. This brings me to opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power station in Maharashtra.

Although there are a number of nuclear power plants planned across the country, to be built by the western companies but operated by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, this power plant has seen some very vocal and loud oppositions on grounds of safety, and the damage it will do to livelihood, flora and fauna. Although the power plant is planned in a location which is in Seismic Zone 3, it has experienced numerous small tremors, and three major quakes, with the biggest one measuring 6.2 on the Richter Scale.

Over the next few months, governments and nuclear power companies will probably go into overdrive to protect their image and claims, and the opposition to nuclear power should also grow stronger. No doubt the world will be taking a hard look at their own nuclear capabilities and plans as Japan tries to get out of this crisis, and I do hope they do, and the world extends all the help it can to them. Till now, from the way the international news reports sound, it seems that Japan has been fighting a lone battle to cope with the situation. That is most unfortunately.

Japan :(

The futility of life and economic progress again came to the fore when Northern Japan was devastated by an earthquake of the ginormous magnitude of 8.9 on the Richter scale, and the subsequent tsunami that battered the coast, destroyed many thousand homes and buildings and took thousands of lives. The toll could have been much higher had this been any other country except Japan, but since Japan is no stranger to nature's fury, sitting bang on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the nation has honed its disaster management systems to near perfection. Of course, human preparedness can be no match to nature's fury as again seen in Japan.

In what could be an even bigger disaster, the nation's nuclear power plants are on high alert, and despite having the best containment systems, any fallout from any one of them (there are more than a dozen) would be devastating. There are still thousands missing, and the toll will probably continue to be revised upwards for the next few days.

Vehicles are left on a flooded street in Watari, Miyagi, northern Japan on Monday, March 14, 2011 following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.

AP.

A ship is washed aground in Kamaishi City, Iwate, by the tsunami which followed the Japanese earthquake [Picture: Reuters]

 

The Third World Guinea Pig

I am really at a loss for the right words to start this blog post. I don't know how much to write, what all to write about, and maybe even express my right sentiment. All I know is that ever since I started making sense of the injustice in this world, most of which I realize we see but do not even realize, this issue has angered and embittered me.

There has been a issue raging for many years about the generic AIDS medication that is distributed to aids patients in the third world nations, particularly in Africa. The big issue raised is of something called intellectual property rights, which the big western pharma giants raise all the time, saying that they should be allowed to charge a premium on the AIDS medication they provide to the African AIDS patients, because they have spent many millions on its research, and they should be rightly paid for it. That is all fine and dandy, but what it does is that their greed effectively takes away this essential cocktail of drugs from many of these patients, because they can't afford it. The generic drug makers, especially from India, have been able to provide cheap AIDS cocktails to the AIDS patients, but this too gets the goat of Big Pharma.

In the United States, where the Big Pharma has forever influenced government policy, the focus had shifted to R&D on lifestyle drugs a long time ago. The most popular lifestyle drug beyond doubt is Viagra, the drug promising to wipe out your impotence. Unfortunately, very few people actually care to know the long term repercussions of this shifting focus away from research on lifesaving drugs and medicines, and most western media only view this as an opportunity to invest in pharma stocks and companies.

The problem is that the developed world is only a small percentage of the entire world's population, and most unfortunately, they control most of the capital, especially the one that goes into the research and development of lifesaving drugs. Now the rest of the world, especially the vast majority of the poor, still suffers from the same diseases, and millions perish in the process, that the developed world has managed to more or less eradicate from their society. Since North America and Europe constitute the largest markets for Big Pharma, naturally their attention shifts to new diseases in these societies, such as male impotence, baldness, depression, obesity and heart diseases. Adding to this trend is the fact that there are very few government supported medical R&D in any part of the world that continue to fund studies into creating/improving drugs that help much of the third world. Even third world pharma companies, especially the Indian ones, while improving their R&D profile, are best at making generic copies of drugs developed in western labs. Even that is changing, because India is slowly being suckered into opening its market for every damn western business practice in the name of free trade, and pharma is no exception. Taking over Indian companies effectively shuts down one opposition pharmaseutical companies from the west face in the now highly lucrative Indian market and elsewhere, and they get to take over their patents, and at the same time cut down challenges to their own patents.

To take this ridiculous situation a notch higher, while western companies do not make drugs for the third world, that sure does not stop them from using the third world as guinea pigs. This century is replete with examples of men, women and children belonging to some of the poorest parts of the world being given drugs as test rats, most often for money, and in many cases, without even telling them. India has been no exception.

This recent news about hundreds of Guatemalans, belonging to one of the poorest countries in South-Central America, suing the American Government for using them as guinea pigs, when they were intentionally infected with syphilis to study the effects of the disease on humans. Of course, when the facts are stacked against you, and lying won't clear you, you take to admission, apologize and promise to undo the injustice, as the American Government now is doing.

This is just one of the many, many experiments that drug companies have done on the poor and unsuspecting peoples of this world. Yet, governments across the world, especially in the third world, are not coming forward with the alacrity and urgency to take forward the R&D in research on essential lifesaving drugs for the third world population. Millions will continue to die while the issues that will occupy our minds will be intellectual property, margins and profits.

International Women's Day - March 8, 2011

In one of my rants, I ask the question - How can a society that fails to protect its women and children ever hope to progress? Unfortunately, most Indian societies do not ask this question. While there are some pockets in the country, divided by region or economic affluence and small in number compared to India's population, that do nourish and protect their boys and girls without prejudice, most of our society is simply too deeply ensconced in an institutional discrimination against women.
 Many people who comment on gender issues in the country also ask this rhetorical question - how can a society where the Hindu's worship so many Goddesses treat its women so bad? I know I called it a rhetorical question, but the answer would be that in today's society, I feel people only use religion when it suits them. I think gone are the times when humankind used religion to reach a higher state of being.

Coming back to my point of institutional discrimination against women in our society, the fact that we account for one of the highest instances of female infanticide in the world is a more glaring and visible national shame, but discrimination when it comes to opportunities, protection and our attitudes occurs daily and subconsciously. For example, our national capital, New Delhi is notorious for being one of the most women-unfriendly cities in the world. Girls are regularly harrassed on trains, buses and on the streets, yet that society has not been able to come together and provide even an iota of support to its women. For most of them, its just another day and they learn to ignore it. It only strengthens the crime.
 Numerous studies have been done on gender issues in India, by anthropologists, economists, Indians and outsiders, and all more or less find that imbalances exist in every part of the society. This study presented under the United Nations Population Fund, and done by a European researcher, talks about the growing gender ratio imbalance in the country.

Till a few years ago, the widespread belief in India was that the reason why so many families, especially the poor families, preferred the boy child was because that brought another earning member into the family. Numerous studies exist now that prove beyond doubt that the regions that show the most gender imbalance in their populations are actually some of the most affluent regions in the country. (are you listening, Punjab and Haryana?)



Firstly, in a country as populated and crowded as India, it is impossible to be vigilant against any banned practices such as sex determination tests and female foeticide. These evil practices occur regularly and probably in all corners of the country. Secondly, most Indian societies are patriarchial, and it is very difficult to break this mindset of according priority to the boy child. The only change I see is in the urban environment, where families are not concerned about their child's gender, and women have greater opportunities to do well, and do so independently.

This decade, everybody was talking about the Women Empowerment Bill in the Indian Parliament, a bill that will reserve a certain percentage of Parliament seats for women. Last year, it was passed in the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, but the Lok Sabha has not passed it yet. People against it present one point - women in our society will only end up becoming proxies for their husbands to stand in these elections. Yes, it may happen, but I also strongly believe that it won't take long for such women to shake off the yokels and stand up for themselves. The social studies all stand united in confirming that stronger women lead to stronger societies, economically and socially. Given that Indian men are not much of men themselves, the women will have to stand up for themselves. My own family has fiercely independent women, and I want to see the same in every woman in the country.