Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
me/TheHindu_Zone_official
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
THE HINDU
TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2018
NOIDA/DELHI
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
OPED 9
Available, accessible, but not stable The rot in rehabilitation
Whether in Chennai, Delhi or Mumbai, why we need to
India should prepare a third generation right to food legislation to address failings in food security
rethink our approach to building 'slumfree cities'
tions to be realised “progressively”
will lead to counterintuitive results tenements, violating the Right to Education
where the States will simply refrain Act. Only teachers use the indoor toilets,
from doing any more than what the while children are forced to use the open
NFSA explicitly requires them to do. spaces behind the school. By Integrated
Worryingly, the framing of the Child Development Services norms, the set
Shalini Iyengar NFSA as being the fi nal word on go tlement should have 62 anganwadis. Only se
& Balakrishna Pisupati vernment commitments to provide Karen Coelho & Vanessa Peter ven have been established. There are only
food security to citizens might in two ration shops where there should be 10.
stead have the result of limiting the Another season of evictions has begun in These are not simply teething problems.
The right to food is a well established courts with respect to how far citizen Chennai. As temperatures soar in the city, Chennai’s older resettlement colonies, Kan
principle of international human entitlements can be extended. This thousands of families living along the Cooum nagi Nagar and Semmencheri, built in the
rights law. It has evolved to include fear was borne out in the recent Swa- river watch bulldozers reduce to rubble their early 2000s, have seen some improvement
an obligation for state parties to res raj Abhiyan cases that address the homes, painstakingly built over decades. over time, yet discrimination remains in
pect, protect, and fulfi l their citizens’ impact of government failures in Over 4,000 homes were demolished to scribed in every line of their structures and
right to food security. Our current tackling consecutive drought years in “restore” the Cooum in 2017. Scores of once systems. In Semmencheri, 6,500 families
understanding of food security in India. While the court took a strong buzzing neighbourhoods, with their schools, have been housed since 2006 in units mea
cludes the four dimensions of access, stance in ordering the executive to youth clubs, community halls, and shrines, suring 150 sft. Residents report that water,
availability, utilisation and stability. “While the National Food Security Act addresses issues of access, availability implement the provisions of the are now wastelands of debris. Their buried supplied through public taps, is erratic and
As a state party to the Universal De and utilisation, it is largely silent on the issue of stability.” A scene from a NFSA, it was reluctant to go beyond histories will soon be overwritten by land contains worms. Drainpipes are broken and
claration of Human Rights and the market in Ahmedabad. AP * the provisions of the NFSA in terms scaped parks with fountains or bicycle sewage stagnates in some areas. Classrooms
International Covenant on Econom of what it could order the govern tracks, going by national trends in urban ri in the primary school are too few and too
ic, Social and Cultural Rights, India out, there was an increased mention NFSA suff ers from serious lacunae in ment to give citizens. Given that the verfront development. Contemporary eco small, teachers are indiff erent, and the qual
has the obligation to ensure the right of food as being among a cluster of its drafting, which severely under NFSA predominantly mentions just restoration projects are everywhere dislodg ity of the food is poor. The Primary Health
to be free from hunger and the right basic rights integral to human digni mine its stated objective of giving le rice and wheat, and that too for only ing ecologies of lowincome settlement and Centre, built six years after resettlement, has
to adequate food. ty. The second was a shift of the gal form to the right to food in India. some citizens, this has worrying urban livelihoods, whether on the Yamuna three of fi ve sanctioned doctors, all trainees
frame from the problem of availabili implications. in Delhi, the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad or the with little experience. So, patients are redi
From availability to access ty to the problem of access. Assessing the Food Security Act Finally, while the NFSA addresses Musi in Hyderabad. River rejuvenation has rected elsewhere for even slightly complicat
Broadly speaking, attitudes towards The 1980s and 1990s saw an in The NFSA surprisingly does not gua issues of access, availability and, emerged as among the most exclusionary in ed complaints and for all fi rst deliveries. The
food security in India can be divided creasing acknowledgement that In rantee a universal right to food. In even tangentially, utilisation, it is lar terventions in our urban development land term “substandard settlements”, used to
into two generations subsequent to dia’s focus on increasing food sup stead, it limits the right to food to gely silent on the issue of stability of scape, sparking largescale human tragedy. refer to slums, is ironically apt for these
Independence. While the demarca plies was falling short of actually those identifi ed on the basis of cer food supplies — a startling omission statebuilt colonies ostensibly intended to
tion is far from exact, it indicates ameliorating hunger. Even as the da tain criteria. It then goes on to furth given India’s vulnerability to climate Rehoused and excluded improve living conditions for slumdwellers.
how the importance given to diff e ta showed that India had trans er restrict the right to 75% of the In change impacts, to name one im Where do the people go? The more fortu
rent elements of food security al formed from a food defi cit nation to a dian population. It also specifi es that pending threat to food security. nate, who can prove eligibility, are rehoused Social problems
tered over time. food surplus one, seminal research a claim under the Act would not be Thus there is a need to frame a in vast ghettos that have sprung up on India’s But physical conditions are only the tip of
The years postIndependence by Amartya Sen and others revealed available in times of “war, fl ood, “third generation” food security law metropolitan peripheries, shaping a new ur the iceberg. Delhi’s Bawana, Mumbai’s Ma
were turbulent for India. Memories that hunger and food security were drought, fi re, cyclone or earth and recognise and mainstream is ban geography of apartheid. These resettle hul, and even Chennai’s Kannagi Nagar, now
of the Bengal famine remained fresh tied to the issue of access — that is, in quake” (notably, it is within the Cen sues including increasing natural dis ment colonies have high concentrations of regarded as the queen of resettlement sites,
and fears of a food shortage were spite of ample quantities of grain, tral government’s remit to declare asters and climate adaptation. Such a Dalits, Other Backward Classes and indigent are fearful places for parents of young chil
rampant. Hunger was thought to be a and a variety of government eff orts whether such an occassion has ari framework would robustly address Muslims whose disconnection from the ur dren. Young boys are routinely chased,
function of inadequate food produc such as the Public Distribution Sys sen). Given that a right to food be the challenges facing the country’s ban mainstream has earned them the label rounded up, beaten and incarcerated by the
tion. In 1974, the World Food Confe tem, people were dying of starvation comes most valuable in exactly these food security across all four dimen of “a new urban untouchability”. police under pressure to control crime.
rence defi ned food security primari because they were unable to physi circumstances, it is questionable sions and make a coordinated eff ort In Chennai, families evicted from the Rates of child marriage in Kannagi Nagar are
ly in terms of production — as the cally or fi nancially (or both) reach whether the Act is eff ective in gua to resolve them instead of the piece banks of the Cooum were moved to resettle high, as parents see marriage as the only way
“availability at all times of adequate this food. This view of food security ranteeing the right that it is meant to. meal eff orts that have characterised ment colonies in Perumbakkam and Guda to protect daughters from sexual assault.
world food supplies.” was mirrored at an international le Another problematic aspect of the such attempts so far. pakkam outside the city, where the govern Numerous instances of traffi cking and kid
It is arguable that the framing of vel too. In 1996, the World Food Sum NFSA is its embrace of certain objec Food security brings together di ment has built thousands of multistoried napping of girls are reported. The sale and
food security in quantitative terms mit stated that food security was tives that are to be “progressively verse issues such as inequality, food tenements. In offi cial accounts, they have abuse of drugs and alcohol, and the inci
sparked India’s determination to in achieved “when all people, at all realised”. These provisions include diversity, indigenous rights and envi been rehoused in “integrated townships” dence of domestic abuse, theft, suicides and
itiate the Green Revolution to boost times, have physical and economic agrarian reforms, public health and ronmental justice. Given the current with all the basic amenities. murders are much higher than in other parts
food production. While the pro access to suffi cient, safe and nutri sanitation, and decentralised pro crises in India, it is time we prepare a However, the reality is starkly diff erent. of the city. Senior police offi cials and local
gramme achieved dramatic increases tious food.” curement, but they make no men third generation right to food legisla Residents point to leaking roofs, crumbling school authorities confess helplessness.
in rice and wheat production in This focus on access culminated in tion of the need to reconsider funda tion that recognises that a climateas plaster, and broken pipes. Although families They ascribe these problems to broken liveli
some parts of the country, its devas India in a 2001 case brought by the mental assumptions about our usual scenario no longer exists. Such were moved to Gudapakkam over a year ago, hoods, economic stress and indebtedness,
tating environmental impact has also People’s Union for Civil Liberties, in agricultural systems and look at food a legislation would ideally be rooted street lights have not been provided, com and to the eff ects of crowding lakhs of lowin
rightly been critiqued. which the Supreme Court evolved a security in a more comprehensive in the principle of a right to food se promising the safety of women and girls. The come residents from hundreds of city slums
Two occurrences over the 1980s right to food and read it into the right manner. It is arguable that the rubric curity in its true spirit and not mere settlement is 35 km from the city, but noth into a single substandard settlement.
and 1990s set the stage for what we to life provisions of the Constitution. of “progressive realisation” actually ly as a sound bite. ing has been done to ease the commute of Resettlement colonies are simmering sites
understand as food security in India Following that, a host of court orders retards food security reform in the workers and students. Government child of discontent and despair. The rot in resettle
today. The fi rst was when the Su and directions ultimately resulted in country. This is because some of the Shalini Iyengar is faculty with School of Law, care centres (anganwadis) are absent. All this ment models must provoke a rethinking of
Environment and Planning at Srishti School
preme Court dramatically expanded the 2013 National Food Security Act elements mentioned under this head has blocked women from rejoining the work this approach to building “slumfree cities”.
of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru,
the ambit of rights that citizens could (NFSA), which has been lauded for are already incorporated in laws and and Balakrishna Pisupati is Chairperson,
force. In Perumbakkam, where 10,000 fami
claim against the state. While no ex guaranteeing a quantitative “right to policies at the State and national le Forum for Law, Environment, Development lies live, a small primary school has func Karen Coelho is an urban anthropologist and Vanessa
plicit ‘right to food’ could be made food” to all Indians. However, the vels. Demarcating them as obliga tioned for over two years from residential Peter is a policy researcher
and Governance
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
grasp the immensity of the coun
ic structure itself” and to entrust to the AICC the task of evolv
try’s biodiversity, have been lar
ing “an approach to face up to the challenges confronting the
gely ignored in consultations.
Congress”. All amendments to this resolution also lapsed.
Over the years, the Wildlife Act
has expanded the number of species given varying degrees
of protection under its six Schedules: 184 animals in 1972 to
over 909 entries of taxa of vertebrates, invertebrates and A HUNDRED YEARS AGO JUNE 5, 1918.
plants now. What has remained unchanged is the power of
inclusion and exclusion, which lies with the Centre. The War Horses and War Dogs.
Schedule lists are critical as they determine antipoaching CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
regulations and even habitat protection, in part because di Warhorses and wardogs are our comrades in arms. The war
verting forest lands is diffi cult in areas where betterprotect
CONCEPTUAL ABSTRACT horse is in harness and subject to discipline. He is a soldier
ed species are found. Terraforming says Charis. Massis in the “Daily News”. The wardog is subject
Ignoring, for now, the taxonomists’ nightmare of misspelt Physics Checking crimes against Dalits to every other condition of war except discipline. So he is not a
species names and seemingly random nomenclature em soldier. He is always deserting from one regiment and joining
ployed, the lists continue to keep out scientifi c research that This refers to the process What has been the impact of the SC/ST Act? another, hiding himself among the French or Belgian civilians.
can match species to appropriate protection. Inconsisten by which the living condi He has been known to go over the top with the fi rst wave of our
cies abound: Crimson rose, a colourful butterfl y that is wide tions on a planet are Srinivasan Ramani west. Even here, the rates not vary across twoparty infantry and return again — a prisoner among the German pri
ly found in south India, remains as protected as the tiger, changed deliberately to have been declining. In or multiparty systems soners, laughing mightily as though this was one of the best
while the poorly understood, nearthreatened striped hye match the conditions on Recently, the Supreme the southern States, the signifi cantly. jokes in the world. The wardog is a gipsy, a vagabond, lovable
na is in Schedule III along with “least concern” species of earth. The terraforming of Court banned the imme homicide rates are very However, Mayer fi nds a scoundrel, aff ectionate where he is hungry, disdainful when
wild pig or barking deer. A majority of the 659 species of In small areas of planets like diate arrest of a person ac low (as is the case with signifi cant correlation bet he is full, a born thief, an artful rogue, a prodigal who is always
dian endangered fi sh do not fi nd mention; only an estimat Mars has been considered cused of insulting or injur Maharashtra, Odisha and ween crime rates against sure to turn up at the killing of the fatted calf.
ed quarter of the butterfl y species have been represented; as a way to change their ing someone belonging to West Bengal). These Dalits and overall murder
and 128 species of bats, including fruit bats, are considered harsh living conditions the Scheduled Castes or trends are true for other rates across States. The
vermin despite their signifi cant role as pollinators. and enable successful hu Scheduled Tribes. Critics major crimes against Da decline in overall rates of CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Even if the errors are addressed, do we need a panIndia man inhabitation. Among and activists have argued lits too. interpersonal violence has
list? What is endemic may not be rare, what is widespread other things, the process that this amounts to a dilu Mayer tests out various impacted crimes against
DATA POINT
elsewhere may be locally endangered, and what is endan involves the modifi cation tion of the SC/ST (Preven hypotheses. Is this due to Dalits as well, he argues.
gered in one area may be a pest elsewhere. Shouldn’t States of the temperature and at tion of Atrocities) Act increasing Dalit literacy? The decrease in overall
have the fi nal say in what is important for protection within mosphere of the planet as (POA Act), 1989. What has He does not fi nd a statisti crime rates is due to a bet
their myriad landscapes? Take, for instance, the dilemma of well as providing an adeq been the impact of the cally signifi cant correla ter economy which has
ecologists in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, where the uate supply of water POA Act, especially on vio tion between literacy and fostered “gentle com
British introduced deer and elephants over a century ago. through the use of various lent crimes against Dalits? reducing crime rates. merce”, and a more res
The two protected species (Schedules III and I, respectively) advanced technologies. A 2017 paper by Peter Higher political mobilisa ponsive state that acts
have caused largescale degradation of native vegetation The term was coined by Mayer, “The better angels tion? A look at parliamen upon the agency of the Da
and threaten other native animals and plants. Duly ranked American science fi ction of their natures?”, pu tary ascendancy of Dalit lits, which is seen in high
in conservation value, local habitat loss, cultural signifi writer Jack Williamson. blished in Studies in In- Chief Ministers in States er reporting of crimes
cance, population decline, and constantly updated through dian Politics, argues that suggests that this does not against them.
local research, a multiparameter list would be a far greater CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC “contrary to popular un entirely explain the de Mayer concludes that
refl ection of India’s biodiversity than a single Central legisla derstanding, murder, rape cline either. Cleavages in even if Dalits haven’t
M ORE ON
tion can ever hope to be.
The process of inclusion can spawn environment move
ments around species hitherto under the shadows of the
THE WEB 3 and arson against Dalits
have declined signifi cantly
since a peak in the early
the party system and par
ty competition also do not
explain this. The hypothe
achieved equality in a
castestratifi ed India, they
have achieved signifi cant
great mammals. This may be the fastest way to protect the Pranab Mukherjee at an 1990s.” The highest rates sis that greater party com steps towards empower
critically endangered amboli toad, which is unlisted cur RSS meet? Just what the of Dalit homicide are seen petition allows for Dalits ment which has mini
rently, or even get the Indian fl ying fox, considered an exten doctor ordered for in the northern States to have a say in govern mised their routine humi
sion of the divine in southern villages, out of the vermin list. democracy (Madhya Pradesh, Uttar ment and would deter liation through various
Pradesh, Bihar and Rajas high homicide rates does crimes committed against
http://bit.ly/pranabatrssmeet
The writer is Principal Correspondent at The Hindu’s Bengaluru bureau than) and in Gujarat in the not hold as those rates do them.
CM M ND-NDE
YK