How do you define GROWTH?

1. India's rank in Global Hunger Index is 65 out of 84 countries in the list. 77% of Indian population are able to spend only up to a maximum of Rs. 20/day. The BPL line is fixed at $1.25/day. About 50% of children are malnourished across India and about 3/4th of women are anaemic in Rural India.

2. According to Human Development Report 2009, India stands at 134 in a list of 182 countries. Several poor African nations are above us.

3. The level of per capita food grain availability is falling rapidly from the good old days of Green Revolution. The levels can be compared to the statistics during Bengal Famine. The per capita availability of food grains has declined from 186 kg/annum (it was showing a rising trend then!) in 1991 to 166 kg in 2000 and further down to 160kg in 2007. Food Prices shooting up? Any guesses?

4. Before Corporate Farming, which is meant to improve the farming quality in India, started after the liberalization policies, India was self sufficient in food. Now we are planning to import millions of tonnes of grains to meet domestic demand. "Govt. may import up to 2 million tonnes of Rice"- runs the headlines on November 4, 2009.

5. Farmer suicides continue to happen. Who cares? Some kind of check was done by only one state government, which didn't improve situations, but just stopped suicides.

6. The farm loan waiver was only 60000 crores. The tax revenues foregone by Indian Government for corporate sector in the single fiscal year of 2008-09 is to the tune of 4.2 lakh crores (420000 crores against 60000 crores).

7. Mothers want the schools to reopen long before the end of Summer vacation so that the children can get at least one square meal a day.

8. There are petitions to make mid-day meals heavier on Mondays as children starve over weekends.

9. The BPL card entitles 4kg of grains/month or roughly 135 grams a day. Undertrials in Indian prisons get 700 grams.

10. The Food Crop regions are fast making way for Cash crops and variety of Bt variants. The situation is already alarming. The Bt variants have no issues when they used for the first time according to experts. But, later no experts are available for comments for the 'toxic' effects of them.

Off Note: The NREGS guarantee jobs at Rs.100 a day for "households", and not for "persons". In households, the ones who are abled, go to work. Still, it's just Rs. 3000/month in the household. And an average Indian house hold had 5 members. That's Rs. 600/person for a month and Rs. 20 per person per day. They have to meet food, medical and other expenses with this amount.


Only 3-4 % of Indian population invest in stocks. India became trillion dollar economy 1-2 years back. The GDP growth of the nation is estimated at 8-9%, reduced to 6-7% because of economic slump. India has 53 dollar billionaires, 4 in top 20 in the world.

Now, what is growth?

A quiet triumph for humanity

Politics and politicians herd us like sheep into a protective ‘national’ net that restricts and exploits us rather than allow us to utilize our strengths.

If I had hurt you.......

I hurt people, knowingly and unknowingly. It just usually happens. Most of the times, it's unintentional. I don't usually hurt anyone knowingly as I don't like them seen hurt because of me. But sometimes, I just get carried away by the instantaneous thoughts. The sad and the cruel part is that it's so irreversible. That person also should have taken care, is what I think then. But it's so wrong. I should have restrained. I didn't. It just get out of my hands and reach, and the damage is already done.

Now, at this juncture, I think there won't be any reconciliation. I don't know how to do it. I have no chance too, I think. Too sad. I have hurt that person so much and I don't even know what did I say or did to hurt. And that hurts me a lot. But I don't deserve to be reconciled. I know. :(

Say Frog! Love this video, somehow!

P Sainath - Globalising Inequality

It's a bit long speech. But I'm sure it's better than any other speech by anyone you may hear these days. Although it's 4 years old, it's more than relevant at any point of time.

You can watch the video here also.

Yesterday I had a chance to hear him in person. 2.5 hours. Similar, with more data and more statistics and more realities.

He doesn't represent anyone or anything. He reports TRUTH. That's more than enough.

Matrubhoomi - A Nation without Women

This is not a review. This is not an opinion. But nothing has ever disturbed me like the 90 minutes running time of this movie. I want to believe that this movie remains a fiction. I hope it will just remain fiction.

The movie starts with the killing of a newborn child, because it is a girl. The movie moves into the lives of the village with only men, where they give vent to their sexual frustration through cross-dressed dancing, pornographic screenings, and even bestiality (Courtesy: Wikipedia for the word). They somehow find a girl named Kalki, played by Tulip Joshi and the father pays 5 lakhs for each of his son and the marriage happens between the five sons and her. But on the first night, the father has sex with her and they fix each day for each son. Being kind to her unlike other brothers, who considers her only for their purpose, the younger one gets closer to her. Getting jealous of him, the four brothers kill the younger brother. Kalki tries to run away, but gets locked along with the cattle. She is raped again and again by the father and the sons. The father and uncle of the young boy, who was a helper in the household who is killed by the brothers, also rapes her to take revenge for his death. When she gets pregnant, she gets royal treatment. Later an inter-community fight breaks out in the name of paternity and all men in the village gets killed. Kalki gives birth to a girl child and the movie ends.

It may not be a well crafted movie. But the message is so strong that the people who can understand the seriousness of the issue will be startled by the possible result our current practices can lead to. 35 million women are missing in the Indian population in the past 100 years, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs and UNFPA statistics (shown at the end of the movie, which is made in 2004). Some recent reports indicate that even in urban population, girls are born less in number than boys today, even in Kerala, where the sex ratio was 1040-1050 females per 1000 males in the last census of 2001. And the technology is the villain here. Some alarming statistics have come out indicating the sex ratio falling below 850 females per 1000 males in some regions around Delhi. It really happened that some men in Haryana had to find women from other states to marry.

But I hope the trend is reversing, with people getting more and more educated. Governments run lot of welfare schemes for girl child. Hope everyone understands the seriousness and work towards the success of the schemes. News reports like this and this gives hope. Hope the trend continues and improve the situation. A society can't sustain without Women.

The dreaded L word

To save the elderly a lonesome old age, families are going halfway to the joint family days, living together separately.

Historic!

(Click on the picture to go to the news)

It's nice to see this image with two Women Heads of Nation on stage. It doesn't matter whether they are real or nominal representatives of the respective countries!