Ensure food and medicines

Viral influenza outbreak in Kalikot and neighbouring districts, and its consequent toll on lives is a recurrent phenomenon that starts in spring and ends in autumn every year. Food scarcity is also another threat that looms large over this unfortunate district as well as adjoining ones. Such is the reality in these backwater districts of the country. But thanks to government apathy, things are not likely to improve this year either. In fact, things could get worse this year because Kalikot had the misfortune of having a very poor harvest.

So far, influenza has claimed six lives in Kalikot and reports state that 40 people have been infected already. Obviously, what we have here is a situation that calls for immediate government response so that things do not go from bad to worse. It should be recalled that about this time last year, more than 270 people had died due to this dreaded disease and food shortages here. As usual, last year too, the government could hardly be credited with having done anything worthwhile to improve the situation. As a result, the disease spread to the adjoining districts and claimed hundreds of lives. The government had belatedly announced cash compensation for the families of those who had died of viral influenza last year. Half the number of families have yet to be compensated. This year too, the same thing, if not even worse, will happen if the Health Ministry and Nepal Food Corporation do not respond to the combined threat of hunger and disease looming large in the country’s food deficiency zones.

Humla, Jumla, Rolpa and Kalikot districts fall in the deficiency zones. These remote and backward areas are dependent on government supplied food every bitter winter. Early this year—as a result of last year’s poor harvest—the district demanded an additional food supply of 9,000 quintals from Nepal Food Corporation (NFC). NFC has yet to meet the demand but the district has already been hit by acute food shortage.

It is indeed a disturbing reality that no government has been genuinely interested in preventing these food shortages and outbreaks of diseases or even in rushing in food and medical relief. Instead, the government has closed down food depots in a number of places when it ought to have initiated measures to subsidize food and medicine supply to the marginalised areas where rampant poverty and deprivation are the lot of the people.

Challenges in managing water resources

By Rajendra K Kshatri

The evident synergy between Nepal’s abundant hydropower potential and the acute deficit of energy in India presents a significant opportunity to reach an understanding for the planning and development of water resources not only for their mutual benefit but also among riparian stokeholders of the South Asian region. Reaching a workable understanding of mutual benefit may also involve the consideration of a broader agenda of subregional economic development cooperation, as in the Greater Mekong subregion.

Despite the perceived plentitude together with spectacular benefits, the achievement is poor because the past and recent initiatives have not operated properly. Therefore, problems arise in sharing benefits between Nepal and India. Following the restoration of democracy in the Kingdom, our politicians have said on several occasions that a required degree of comfort has been experienced while dealing with India in sharing the anticipated bonanza on the development of Indo-Nepal relationship for economic cooperation concerning, inter alia, hydroelectric power. However, the visible crisis of good faith is deemed as usual. To address the special conditions of partnership, it is necessary that they must first understand their unique problem and then use their ingenuity and cooperative spirit to create new methods of overcoming them.

In this context, it is worth noting that instead of a zero sum game, in which one can gain only at the cost of the other, a "win-win" approach should be sought. The time has arrived for a fundamental rethinking of the strategy for cooperation with the avowed aim to realize the potentials. Perhaps toughest of all, the major challenge that Nepal faces today is to make democracy work for ordinary people. We must acknowledge the importance of it without viewing it as mechanical device for development.

Perhaps the most important conclusion we can draw from the Indo-Nepal relations is that there is a shortage of information and synthesized knowledge of the opportunities and constraints to the development and management of water resources. This includes the benefits of alternative development strategies. It is necessary for both countries to commit themselves to ushering Indo-Nepal relations into a new era of cooperation. This has to be based on the generally accepted principles of international law, the tenets of non-alignment and the principles of equity and mutual respect to each other’s vital national interest. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, put this point with great clarity in a speech at the annual session of UN General Assembly in New York last year: "A new, broader definition of national interest is needed in the new century, which would induce states to find greater unity in the pursuit of common goals and values. In the context of many challenges facing humanity today, the collective interest is the national interest."

As water is being considered as the "blue gold" to gain foreign currency in Nepal, the prospects of major economic benefits, no doubt, lie on its prudent development. However, the subject is prompting more controversy on whether it goes for local sources first for small projects or foreign investment for bigger projects. Over the past few years this big question has dogged our politicians and planners. Those differences indeed are often recognized as one of the root causes of delay in implementing projects. How justified such fears are is difficult to judge despite the presence of the clear state policy to mobilize the available waters. In fact, there seems a less bullish view to capitalize the potential of it in a timely and appropriate manner. The upshot is that the government has been practically confused and there is something mushy about the policies as a whole. All this leads towards a miserable conjecture. What is needed to spice up the mush is some indication of how the government would govern better at dealing with the problem to explore a better way for solution.

It is quite surprising that the government continues to focus on short term solutions without adequate consideration for resource utilization and conservation. This gives the impression that our planners are generally starved of their ideas to suggest at which important development strategies get hammered out. A careful attention is needed to bridge the huge gulfs between needs, efforts and return. In fact, there is reason to worry more about government policy and attitude than about the ills of restructuring the movement. The policy side has not been much better.

There are plenty of reasons to believe that international water resources offers a unique opportunity for the promotion of international amity, since there are now plenty of examples of good practices available internationally. Looking at the patterns of Indo-Nepal cooperation, the reason has been continued economic nationalism, combined with sharply different views about water allocation and benefit sharing. Still there is enough opportunity to reconcile their interest to make a breakthrough to economic prosperity. The establishment of the Joint Commission between the two countries has provided an imminent forum to negotiate or discuss on the projects of their common interest. However, the mismanagement to start talks holds back the development.

In an effort to develop water resources, sharp differences between nations over their respective rights to use water is not an unusual phenomenon. Each side in a negotiation may see only the merits of its case, and only the faults of the other sides. The difference itself exists because it exists in their thinking. Perhaps our perceptions are likely to be one-sided and we may not be listening or communicating adequately or vice-versa. Dealing with substantive problems and maintaining a good working relationship need not be conflicting goals if parties are committed and psychologically prepared to treat each separately on its own legitimate merits. The inability of both Nepal and India to reconcile their compelling interest in the case of water resources development can be viewed only as a tragedy. In fact, there is a slow acquiescence to fate.

What is crucial, at this stage, is the projection for a far sighted vision. For this it would require recognition, which must come one very moment, that good neighbourliness is good international politics and indeed may well be the only way to assure the internal economic progress of the two countries. Keeping up the pace of rapprochement for better utilization of water resources, however, could be harder since it requires a "champion" from both sides of the border to start the process of dialogue for better economic ties.

Office hunting

By Smriti Jaiswal

It was to be my first job and my excitement knew no limits. I said a small but an earnest prayer before knocking at the badly furnished door. "So what," I thought to myself, "if the building is clumsy, it does not mean the office will be the same. An office will be orderly because an office is an office." But fantasies are always so much more than realities. When I entered I felt I was hit by a tornado. I could only do so much to keep myself from screaming out.

"Sit down", said a careless voice.

How I managed to get through the interview is still a mystery to me, but get through I did. I guess I kept telling myself "so what if the office is like a shabby dog? So what if the furnitures seem to be near bursting point? The appearance is not important, don’t you know what the wise men have said - don’t judge the book by its cover."

So I held myself till the interview was over. The next day I was to begin my work.

The store of surprises for me was not yet over. I had joined a magazine in the hope that I would be constantly in touch with people of education, enthusiasm and knowledge. I had come with the mission of learning and experiencing the wonderful guidance of seniors. I had come with all the humility of a child to his teachers. I was, however, in for a big shock.

Not only were the crew who sailed the ship of one of the influential English magazine quite ignorant of English, a few were very near to being uneducated too. They welcomed me with extra enthusiasm which quite thrilled me for a while. I felt accepted and a part of the family.

"Well", started one among them, "it’s great you have come. We were in need, great need."

"Indeed," I replied kindly.

"Now we have someone who will handle the English columns."

I answered that I would do my best with the columns appointed to me.

There was a short chuckle and the speaker went on, "there is no system of column allotment here. You will have to dip your hands into all you can, including the adaptation part."

"Adaptation?" I was delighted to know a new word in the world of journalism.

"Which means", said the speaker without a hint of embarrassment, "you take articles from other magazines and newspapers and rewrite them before entering them into our own."

I was flabbergasted. "You must be joking, you can’t mean it. That way we won’t be genuine."

My boss shrugged, "we are here to sell, not to be genuine. We are here to earn, not to idealize."

"But-"

"Listen young lady, I understand what you are trying to get at but traditions are traditions and won’t be changed for anyone."

I had been given a beating and I took it silently this time.

The description of how I spent the few months there will need a lot more space than this but to make a long story short, I came across all sorts of incompetence capable. The workers were either over-loaded or useless. Nothing was done on time, everything was left for the last moment. There was no sense of refinement, no purpose of creativity. The magazine was as drab as life out there. There was no elan about anything. Slowly, I felt myself being crushed but I went on bravely.

What finally drove me to resignation was not the mental pressure but the dirt around me. The office was never swept. Heap of waste lay under my feet, all fallen on the floor after having flooded the thrash-can.

"I can’t work here anymore," I confessed to my boss. He looked at me sympathetically. I have a feeling he had always seen this coming. "Before you leave," he said, "I’ll tell you something. Don’t expect anything more than this anywhere. It’s all the same, you will never get the order, discipline, hard work and the perfection you sought."

I left inspite of his warning and advice.

It has been years since I left but his words ring in my ears till date. They were absolutely true for I never found an office which could be called by that name. They have all been comical caricatures, vulgar parodies built for the promotion of incompetence.

Dalits and the Indian media

By Pratyoush Onta

As part of its "The New Millennium" series, Indian daily, the Pioneer, published (on 30 January 2000) a special 12-page supplement on Dalits of India and their movement for social justice. Put together by Raja Sekhar Vundru, a Dalit IAS officer, Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit activist-writer and others, the supplement carried articles by those two and by well-known writers.

These included articles by Kancha Ilaiah (author of Why I am not a Hindu), Gail Omvedt (author of among other books, Dalits and the Democratic Revolution), Arvind Das (known for his writings on Bihar), T K Oommen (Professor at JNU), Syed Shahabuddin (a former MP), G P Deshpande (a JNU professor), Sheoraj Bechain (lecturer, DU), journalist B N Uniyal and Chandan Mitra, the editor of the newspaper. It also carried interviews with the former PM of India VP Singh, and K Ramaswamy, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. According to people in the know, this was the first such supplement published in a national Indian daily.

I had read parts of this supplement earlier and have only recently come to know how it came to be published. About a year ago, with some friends acting as intermediaries, Chandra Bhan Prasad was asked by Chandan Mitra to write a regular column in Pioneer on issues of concern to Dalits. In more ways than one, this was an unexpected arrangement. It is not too often that Dalit writers are given space in these national dailies and on top of that Pioneer is known to be a BJP-sympathizer. According to Prasad, some months after his column "Dalit Diary" got going, more than twenty Dalit activists met with Mitra to thank him for having given space for the column. During the course of the meeting, the supplement idea was generated.

While reading the supplement B N Uniyal’s "Wanted, A Dalit Journalist" had caught my eyes. It turns out that it was a revised reprint of an article that Uniyal had first published in the same paper in November 1996 under the title "In Search of a Dalit Journalist." Uniyal’s article, worth reading by anyone concerned about issues of democracy and representation in media organizations in South Asia, describes his search for a Dalit journalist following a request by a foreign newspaper correspondent who wanted a short quote from such a person. He describes the beginning moment of this search in the following manner: "Suddenly, I realised that in all the 30 years I had worked as a journalist I had never met a fellow journalist who was a Dalit; no, not one. And worse still was the thought that during all these years it had never occurred to me that there was something so seriously amiss in the profession." His search was exasperating. People he called for help denounced his query as "a conspiracy to divide the journalistic fraternity" or described him as "trying to act smart". Others inquired if he was trying to "provide grist to Mr Kanshi Ram’s caste mill."

In the revised reprint, Uniyal tells us that the issue he had raised in his 1996 article was "totally ignored" by the Indian media establishment. "No editor, columnist, or commentator, no professional association like the Editors’ Guild and no public organisation like the Press Council took any notice of it. None felt aghast or alarmed at the situation described in the article. It did not provoke a debate." Uniyal had searched for Dalit journalists in the Accreditation Index 1996 of the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India. He found none.

His 1996 article, considered a milestone by Dalit activists in the history of their movement, has spurred some Dalit intellectuals to work on the subject. The issue is not the absence of Dalit writings in the public sphere - for more than a century, as Bechain highlights in his contribution to the supplement, Dalits have produced their own journals - but their absence in mainstream Indian media and publishing. In early 1999, Prasad and Bechain submitted a memorandum entitled "End Apartheid from Indian Media, Democratise Nation’s Opinion" to the Editors’ Guild of India and the Press Council of India. Based on their own research of the employee profile and media coverage of Dalit issues, they conclude that "an undeclared ban on Dalits’ entry has been a policy of the media world" and the "Dalit agenda is inconsequential in the national discourse."

To end the dominance of caste -- Hindus in the Indian media -- they demand that a "National Commission for Democracy in the Indian Media" be established. This Commission, they add, must ensure that "by the year 2005 the workforce composition of the Indian media reflects the population composition of the six social categories (varnas, Dalits, most backward castes (MBCs), Dalit Muslims, Dalit Christians and Dalit Sikhs)." It must also "conduct annual work force census in the print and electronic media under the above six categories" and ensure "that each media vehicle devotes proportionate space to Dalit-MBC issues, and that Dalit-MBC writers are commissioned for the purpose." Prasad and Bechain also call for the evolution of a system of penalties to be imposed on media organizations that fail to "abide by the above directives." According to Prasad, not much response has been given to their memo yet. In a complex media scene where there are many dominant players - both representing the state and private sectors - it is perhaps too early to see what calls such as "ending apartheid from Indian media" will engender in the long run. But serving a notice to the establishment is certainly a step in the right direction.

Viewed from Nepal, some aspects of the Dalit movement in India seem far more worked out. However, as far as the media is concerned, our situations seem similar. Hence Indian and Nepali Dalit activists, media managers and analysts might have a lot common to work for.