Kachra gatherers are also human beings

 Avika Tondon

India for ages has been a country which has hosted many religions, creeds and social classes with fervour. Unfortunately the country has not been able to create harmony in all of them. There are discrepancies and there is injustice in this arena till date.

If we take the “Kachra Gatherers” into consideration then there is great humiliation attached to what they do for a profession to feed themselves and their families on a daily basis. They are looked down upon and still (in many places in our country) not allowed to enter homes, temples and places of importance. They are considered untouchables. They are supposed to do filthy work and are thus considered permanently unclean. Every elevated soul conveniently forgets that they are also born as human beings and that human rights are same for all human beings regardless of their caste, creed, colour, profession etc.

Their rights and happiness is ignored by the society as a whole. They keep the society clean and healthy risking their own lives medically while exposing themselves to degenerated trash of the society. They should be given a super special priviledge of free monthly health check up in a hospital in their dwelling place and free medicines to keep them going. Education is something that must be provided to their children also till they graduate. It is the duty of our government and our society to help these people to come up in the society and live up to human standards which is what they definitely deserve.

Instead they live in unhygenic colonies with no one to take care of their health and hygene and that of their families especially their children who deserve better. They live hand to mouth existence and to add insult to injury they are looked down upon by every. One needs to realize that they deserve to live with human dignity and that their life too is valuable and cherished just like the rest of us.

Everyone needs to remember that humanity is the first and foremost religion in the world. One needs to prove one’s humanity by being good to those people of society who are low merely due to financial constraints and do not lack good qualities in them. They deserve to be saluted and their basic needs must be catered to by the government officially alongwith the NGOs.

When we accomplish the above we will see a bright smile flashing from their otherwise pained faces which say that they are fully aware and completely hurt by the cold attitude of the society they serve. The sooner this happens the better because it is this very hurt that give rise to insurgencies and unrest. This is something that India for sure needs to avoid for its peace concerns.

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Copenhagen Convention on Climate Change failed

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Copenhagen has clearly failed to deliver what the world community expected of it, namely, a legally binding agreement that is ambitious in the sense of deep cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by developed countries to prevent irreversible climate change, and is yet viable and also equitable in the sense of providing adequate carbon space for the legitimate development and economic growth of developing countries that social justice demands.

The Copenhagen Accord, as the final outcome is called, was arrived at in the late hours of December 18 in a closed-door meeting of five heads of state-President Barack Obama of the United States with the heads of government of China, India, Brazil and South Africa, countries known as the BASIC Four This “political agreement” was formalized in the early hours of December 19, the final day of the negotiations which lasted 13 days. Significantly, and not unexpectedly, the accord eluded consensus, a necessary condition for being termed even as a COP decision, with Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba firmly opposing the accord. As a result, the accord was merely “taken note of” under the UNFCCC and would be an agreement among states that declared their adherence to it.

It is clear that developed countries will push for the accord becoming a binding document in lieu of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto process in the coming months of negotiations. Developing countries must guard against and resist this attempt.

{Front Line January, 2010}

Debt pushing farmers out of agriculture in Punjab

The debt burden on Punjab farmers has shot up a staggering 500 per cent over the past ten years, pushing more marginal farmers out of agriculture. According to a new study by the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), farm bebt in the state rose to Rs. 30394.12 crore in 2007-08 compared to Rs. 5700.91 crore in 1997, when the first estimates were made following a spate of suicides by farmers, agriculture labour and members fo their families.

According to IDC’s Director of Punjab Development Studies, Prof H S Shergill, the farm debt increased 5 times at current prices and double at constant prices of 1997. The study established an average debt of Rs. 20,000 per owned acre.

Of the 72 per cent heavily indebted farmers, 17 per cent were under more than Rs. 80,000 per cent owned. They were in a “debt trap” what with 60 per cent of them being marginal and small farmers who could not pay even the annual interest on their loans from their current farm income.

Meanwhile, the latest figures with the government indicate that there has been considerable reduction in the number of land holdings from 10.93 lakh in 1995-96 to 10.03 lakh in 2005-06, when the number of marginal farmers with less than 1 hectare holding went down from 2.03 lakh to 1.33 lakh.

The latest study suggests that the per farm household debt had risen from Rs 52,000 to Rs. 1.39 lakh, indicating that more farmers from the marginal sections may be pushed out of agriculture in the near future. A steep rise in farmland prices notwithstanding, the amount of farm debt stood at 4 per cent of the total value of land under agriculture compared 3 per cent in 1997.

{The Hindu, Delhi, December 4, 2009}

Wells Fargo to close 122 branches

Wells Fargo & Co said on December 1 that it would fold up 122 California branches due to its takeover of Wachovia Corp last year, the Los Angeles Times reported. The closures, scheduled to occur in April, will involve shutting down 101 Wachovia offices and 21 Wells Fargo locations, the bank’s spokeswoman Jennifer Langan told the news paper.

{Business Standard, Lucknow, December 3, 2009}