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FAQs: Petition for Absnetee Voting in Indian Elections

These are some FAQs to answer questions about the absentee voting petition.
We are in the process of moving all the blogs to worldpress.
Please visit http://www.voterswithoutborders.org/ for all updates on Absentee Voting/

1. What is a Petition? How are they delivered?
A petition is a request to change some thing, most commonly made to a government official or public entity, usually signed by numerous individuals. A petition may be oral rather than written, and in this era may be transmitted via the Internet. (wiki)

Petitions facilitate grassroots democracy through collective assertion of common demands made to the government. Petitions posted online provide the most effective means to carry the vox populi to the government irrespective of the spatial boundaries that exist between people. Online petitions also help in reaching a wider base and makes use of networking that exists predominantly in this digital age for its transmission.

Petitions can be delivered to the concerned authorities either through electronic means or a hard copy by post or in person. For the current petition, we plan to use both the means.

2. Are petitions effective? Does it work for India?
Petitions deliver results to varying degree depending on the how well it is written, the numerical strength and the reach of petition, and most importantly the issue it addresses.
There are numerous examples of successful petitions toady. Some examples could be found here wiki and e-legislative action) .

Some cases specific to India:
Mid day Meals: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties petitioned the government for 'Child's Right to Food' by successfully filing a Public Interest Litigation. The eventual result of the petition was that the Supreme Court of India ordered the Government of India (GOI) to implement Mid-Day meals programs throughout all the public schools.

Save Tiger: Few years ago a petition to save the tigers from extinction received world wide attention. It appeared in several blogs and news papers. Several NGOs actively took up the issue. The result of this public pressure was what led to setting up of Project Tiger by GOI ( http://projecttiger.nic.in/ ). Thanks to this initiative, the tiger population is already showing signs of revival.

Gay Rights: Naz foundation has recently filed a petition to Amending Article 377 which currently criminalizes homosexual relationship. They filed in PIL in Delhi High Court, which recommended government to decriminalize homosexual and protect the gay rights.

3. How many signatures do you need?
The more the better. The objective is to have as many willing individual as possible who would not only affix their affirmation to their petition electronically but also help in spreading the word. For this petition, we are targeting a modest 10000 signatures.

4. What are our objectives and how do we plan to achieve it?
As stated in the petition, we want the government to ensure that every citizen of India above the legal age limit has the right to vote, irrespective of where he/she physically lives and/or works.
We plan to achieve this by gathering support through petition signatures from as many Indian netizens as we possibly could reach. We have sought support from various NRI organizations and Indian groups, and organizations working on electoral reforms and grass root democracy in India.
We plan to involve electronic (blogs, YouTube) and print media (Times of India, The Hindu, Indian Express) for our support. We are exploring possibility of filing PIL through an Indian organization. We plan to personally submit the final petition Indian embassy at Houston and Washington DC.

5. Why are YOU important?
If you are an NRI- An Indian diaspora that is estimated to be over 20 million. With a substantial proportion of these being non residents currently holding Indian citizenship, they become the unspoken voice of India. The diaspora spread encompasses Indians who are working abroad, studying in universities or they could be part of UN peacekeeping missions or at the very least tourists or visitors in a foreign country. They make significant contributions to the Indian society through business, commerce and socio-cultural ties. Remittance by Indians residing abroad contributes more than $25 billion to India's GDP annually. They have the right to participate in Indian democratic system and their voice should be heard through voting. The existing systems provide no means to exercise their right.

Migrant workers and Laborers: (Includes migrating software engineers, business executives) India has a very young and highly mobile population. Indian railways alone carry 18 million people every day including the polling day. With the liberalization and globalization having set in, jobs are no longer local. People constantly are shifting jobs and are relocating to cities away from their home town ever more rapidly. Exclusion of large section of eligible voters due to transitory travel or temporary shift in residence during the polling day is untenable.

6. Will my voice be heard?
Yes it will be. Do not worry that you are just one person and just by you signing/ not signing this petition will not make a difference. Just realize all it takes is one person to start the revolution. Do your part and do not worry about the fruits of your action. Through all means possible, we will make sure the petition reaches the concerned politicians who legislate and government officials who frame policies on electoral process.

7. What do I need to do?
First of all we all must have a "Yes, We can" attitude. So please read and sign the petition. You can multiply/amplify your voice by spreading the word among your friends, colleagues and organizations you are part of. Urge them to sign and spread the word. This is the way networks work. Networks can spread exponentially provided each node acts as a transmitting agent.Also Join us in orkut and facebook.

Together we can and we will be agents of Change! Remember bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. Let us say, voting is my birth right and I shall definitely have it!

Voters without borders!

Petition for Absentee Voting in Indian Elections Petition

Petition for Absentee Voting in Indian Elections Petition


We Indians stand united whenever there is a crisis or calamity. The response to recent Mumbai attacks is one such example where millions of Indians around stood in solidarity with the victims and pressurized the Government to act to prevent such heinous crimes in the future.

The common thread that weaves in and out of the any crisis is that the citizens of India have always stood up with or without the government support. But we need able, upright and visionary leaders to steer the country to a developed nation free of hunger, disease ignorance and lack of opportunity. Unfortunately we cannot custom create our leaders but we as citizens of India through the power of voting have the ability to make or break these leaders.

For us, the proud citizens of India, 2009 is going to be a crucial election year. As you are aware, many of us (such as NRI’s and people on temporary move) , being registered voters of India are not able to caste votes due to geographical reasons. As per The Representation of the People Act-1950, voter can only cast his/her ballot in a constituency only if, he/she is "ordinarily residing" in the corresponding area for at least six months prior to the polling date. We are being denied our constitutional right to vote and the right to participate in Indian polity due to our temporary residence. We feel that this needs amendments to allow 'absentee voting' in the largest democracy of the world. Non-resident Indians feel a strong urge to exercise vote and be a part of the democratic setup. We say "My Vote, My Voice".

As a first step towards achieving this goal, an online petition has been prepared addressing concerned ministry. Please take sometime to read and sign the petition. Link to Petition http://www.PetitionOnline.com/abvindia/
Please spread the word and send it across concerned friends/organizations/mailing-lists or through networking sites like orkut and facebook. Questions, if any, contact us. we will be glad to answer. We sincerely look forward to a very eager and enthusiastic response. Let us say "Voting is my might birth right, I shall definitely have it!"

Voters without Borders

Power of Graphs- google gadget

Here is a google applet of India's development indicators (state wise)



Its an amazing gadget (click insert gadget, motion chart) which you can create using google spreadsheets and time series data!

Article: Social and eonomicdevelopment in India - Demographic perspective

This is a long article that I wrote for publication- read in free time.

As the world sings the saga of India rising, Indians are confounded by the contrasting realities. Everyday as millions of youths chase their dreams in the rapidly growing economy, million more continue to struggle in poverty, illiteracy and ill health. India presents a motley blend of mystery, wonder and despair, which leaves even the experts baffled. The ruling UPA boasts of a 9% growth, and promises 'inclusiveness'; the left on the other hand is vehemently critical of all its measures. The newspapers and the news channels are busy blaming the politicians, praising India Inc and swapping the page-3 news to page 1; the common man is left puzzled while trying to make sense of this chaotic mess.

The question, "How is India doing today?" can be addressed only in relative terms; with respect to its own past and its position in the current world. In a vast country like India, striking regional disparities can be seen due to differences in natural resources, growth rates, initial conditions, political structure and social traditions. Assessing development and tracking its history is imperative to understand the impact of social conditions, politics and public policies on socio-economic development. In this venture, demographic development indicators like poverty level, literacy rate, fertility rate and human development index give us a good measuring stick, through which we can rank our nation on the development ladder.

Poverty level

Poverty level indicates the number of people with low purchasing power and lack of access to basic amenities like drinking water, health care, education etc. The World Bank Development Indicator report (2004) estimates that roughly 1.1bn or 1/6th of the world population lives in extreme poverty, earning less than $1 per day. Majority of the world’s poor live in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Asia. In India, it is estimated that about 300 million people live below the extreme poverty line. The number of moderately poor is much higher. After Independence, Nehruvian socialist policies had little effect on reducing poverty. From the 1950’s to mid 70’s the poverty level hovered around 50% and showed no clear signs of decline. The 80's showed a significant decline in poverty: about 13% in a decade (see Fig.1). Land reforms, robust agricultural growth and export contributed to this decline, more than Indira's 'Garibi Hatao' rhetoric. Since the reforms in the 90's, economic development has been robust and dramatic, but the poverty levels show only a marginal decline. In fact, there is evidence that poverty actually increased during the early 90's, and it was only after 1998 that there was a clear indication of declining poverty. According to an NSS survey in 2005, about 27% of population lives below poverty line. There is widespread regional disparity in the prevalence of poverty. Punjab has less than 8.4% poor; whereas Orissa, Bihar, UP have 40% or more below the poverty line. Southern states like Karnataka (25%), Tamil Nadu (22.5%) have poverty levels close to the national average of 27%. Continued dependence on agriculture sector, which employs a staggering 60% of the total labor force and contributing only 20% to GDP has been cited as one of the prime reasons for persistent poverty. The jobs created since liberalization have been mainly in the service sector, giving little scope for the millions of illiterate or semi-literate population to reap the benefits of an open economy. Recent public initiatives like NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and Food for Work are attempts to reduce poverty by using the unemployed to build rural infrastructure. There is mixed evidence for the effectiveness of these schemes. Long-term poverty reduction strategies should focus on making growth more inclusive through massive investment in human capital and creating opportunities to tap the human resources there in.

Fig. 1: Poverty rate in India
Source: Central Statistical Organization, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Government of India.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India

Literacy and Education level

Literacy rate measures the human capital (i.e. productive skills and knowledge) of the population. More literate population generally shows lower birthrate per woman, lesser infant mortality and has better access to economic activities. The performance of India in educating its population has been poor compared to many countries of the world. In 2001 world literacy averaged to 80%, while India remained far below the average at 66%. The literacy growth in India has been steady but slow. Back in the 50's, the literacy rate was just above 18%, and since then we have seen roughly an increase of 10% per decade, with the highest 13% increase in the 90's (see Fig. 2). Constitutionally the states bear the major responsibility of elementary education. Large regional disparities in literacy and learning levels reflect the poor efficacy of many state educational policies. Kerala stands apart with more than 90% literate population, which is largely a result of mass campaigns by people and political action termed as the ‘Kerala model’. States like Bihar, Rajasthan and UP hover around 55%. Surprisingly, the economically better performing states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have a literacy rate just above the national average. One of the prime drivers of human development is Female literacy. A literate female invariably takes care of her child’s health, nutritional and educational needs. Higher female literacy has been linked to decreased infant and maternal mortality rates, as well as a decrease in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Female literacy was dismally low till the 80's. It increased rapidly from 18% in 1981 to 38% in 1995. Hindi speaking states have shown greater gender disparity and correspondingly lower human development. Failure of states in addressing the educational access problem necessitated central intervention, and in 1976 a constitutional amendment was brought to make education a concurrent subject - i.e. a joint responsibility of state and central government. Some of the major central initiatives like partial implementation of Kothari commission report (1964), National Policy on Education (1986) etc have met with limited success. In 2000, Sarva Shiksha Abhyan (SSA) was launched by the NDA government with the objective of achieving Universal Elementary Education by 2010. Along with SSA, the Mid-day meal scheme was introduced nationwide in 2001. All these helped to substantially increase the enrollment in primary schools to 94% (Pratham ASER survey, 2005). The current trend shows that ensuring access to school for all is within reach and India is poised to achieve complete literacy by 2030. But the story is not complete; the Nationwide ASER survey also showed that the learning level of children is dismally poor in many states. About two-thirds of the students aged between 7-14 couldn’t read a story at grade 2 level, and about 40% of them couldn’t do basic subtraction and division. Drop out rates at primary schools still remain high. Another surprising finding is that children in some states with high enrollment like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had very poor learning levels. The situation calls for shifting policy focus from access and enrollment to attainment and retention, to ensure that all the children enrolled learn well and complete their primary education.

Fig 2: Growth of literacy rates in India from 1950 to 2001.
[Source: http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2001-02/chapt2002/chap106.pdf]

Fertility rate and population growth:

Ever since Independence, population growth has been recognized as one of the major obstacles in the path of India’s development. Our population has increased three-folds from 360 million in 1951 to 1 billion plus in 2001. The population density of India is one of the highest in the world. One of the prime factors determining the population growth is the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime - termed as the Total Fertility Rate (TFR). The population will begin to stabilize if the TFR reaches below the replacement level of 2.1. However for the population to decline in numbers, it generally takes 25-30 years after reaching replacement level. Most of the developed countries have a fertility rate at or below the replacement; some countries, especially the European ones are experiencing negative population growth. According to UN estimates (2007), the world TFR is about 2.62, while India with a TFR of 2.82 is slightly above the world average.

India has had the one of the oldest family planning programs among developing countries. After Independence, India has made significant progress in reducing the fertility rate. In 1950, on an average 6 children were born per woman, as compared to 2.8 in 2007. If the current decline continues, India will most probably reach replacement level by 2020. In spite of this decline, India performs relatively poor with respect to countries with a similar history of population growth, like China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Brazil etc. In these countries, population policies, coercive or otherwise succeeded in bringing down birth rates dramatically over the past 50 years. The task is certainly harder in India, especially with social taboos on sexuality and a lack of openness about sexual and reproductive health. Widespread resistance to sex education at school level has an adverse impact on the reproductive choices exercised by women.

There is astounding regional diversity within India with regard to birth rate. Many southern states, especially Kerala (1.7) and Tamil Nadu (1.8) have performed well in controlling their fertility rate. Some states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, and AP are on the verge of reaching replacement level. The BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh) states strikingly show very high birth rates, with all of them above 4 (see Fig. 3). These states also lag behind in female literacy, which is the key driver in reducing the fertility rate. The situation calls for greater focus in the Hindi-speaking belt by spreading awareness about family planning and reproductive health, sex education etc. In this venture there is more to learn from within the country than outside.

Fig 3: Total Fertility Rate distribution in India in 2001, darker Areas represent greater TFR. Source: www.demographie.net/sifp/EPW%20district%20Feb02.pdf

Life Expectancy and Health

The healthier a person is, the longer he or she lives. The average Life expectancy of population of indicates the physical health conditions of the people. Wealthier population can afford private medical care and generally live longer, while the longevity of poor crucially depends on conditions of public health, nutrition and sanitation services. Developed countries in Europe, North America and Australia have a Life Expectancy at Birth (LEB) of over 75 years, whereas the poorest countries in Sub Saharan Africa have a life expectancy of less than 45 years. India, China and most Asian countries have seen a dramatic increase in LEB after the 1950’s. In the late 1940's, on an average Indians used to live for 33 years. We then had a steady increase in life expectancy to 65 years in 2001 (see Fig 4). Elimination of small pox, and a sharp reduction in deaths due to Cholera and Malaria contributed to this increase in LEB. States now show relatively less variation in life expectancy; Bihar (61yrs) slightly lags behind Maharashtra (66 yrs), even Madhya Pradesh (57 yrs) with the lowest LEB among Indian states is not too far behind. Swaminathan Iyer argues, “increased longevity has been the greatest single benefit to Indian citizens since independence, a benefit spread across all states and income levels”. A word of caution has to be exercised before generalizing an increase in longevity to excellent public health. There are many other indicators of public health like Infant mortality, maternal mortality and malnutrition, in which India lags behind even some developing countries. In the name of structural adjustments, the government spending on public health has in fact decreased after the Economic liberalization. With a mere 1% of GDP allocation, India’s public health spending is among the lowest in the world. There are only 40 doctors per 10,000 people in India, where as in United States, it is as high as 2300. The scarcity of doctors can be addressed if we allow greater private participation in setting up medical colleges and hospitals. Only when we address these issues can we hope that our people will be healthier while the country is getting wealthier.

Fig 4. Life Expectancy of Indian’s from 1941-2001
Source: Registrar General of India (2003) SRS Based Abridged Life Tables.

Human Development Index

The inaugural UN-Human Development Report (1990) notes, "Physical expansion of economy, as measured by per capita GDP, does not necessarily mean that people are better off in the larger sense of the term, especially with regard to health, freedom, education and leisure time. People are the real wealth of a nation." Many countries in the world have shown good social development in spite of relatively poor economic conditions; for India the opposite appears to be true. To measure the quality of life, Amartya Sen and Mahbub-ul-Haq in the early 90's came up with a composite index called the Human Development Index (HDI). HDI (a number between 0 and 1) is based on a combination of factors like literacy, education level, life expectancy and per capita income. Countries with HDI greater than 0.8 are typically considered developed countries, 0.5 or below indicate an underdeveloped country. India has an average HDI of 0.63 (medium) and ranks 127 in the world according to the UNDP report-2005. India's high GDP growth contrasts with the poor human development indicating a failure at the social front. Achievements in literacy, access to public health and gender equality are far from impressive. The UNDP report adds, “Pervasive gender inequalities, interacting with rural poverty and inequalities among states are undermining the growth into human development." Regional disparities are clearly reflected in the varying degree of Human development. With an HDI of 0.85, Kerala is comparable to some European countries in quality of life, and presents a paradox of high social growth and poor economic growth. Contrastingly, some economically progressive states like Karnataka and AP have fared only moderately in this measure. BIMARU states rank at the bottom in state rankings of HDI. India’s failure in raising human development reflects the myopic vision of political leaders and policy makers; to them per capita growth has overshadowed the need for equity and inclusiveness. The ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme), considered the largest nutritional program in the world, has failed to deliver due to poor governance and rampant corruption. Public schools in many states are unsuccessful in checking high drop out rates and the ever-prevalent teacher absenteeism. Hardly 40% of the grains under the PDS (Public Distribution System) ever reach the people below poverty line (BPL). The ‘exclusion error’ and ‘distribution error’ in PDS are so high that it is considered one of most inefficient ways of income transfer to the poor. All these inefficiencies and inadequacies are reflected in the HDI.

Comparative study- India, China and South Korea

Before the 1950's more than two thirds of the humanity was poor. The problem area of the world was Asia, which had most of the world’s poor. The second half of the twentieth century saw dramatic changes in the demographic profile of the world. Many eastern countries emerged as economic giants, marked by the rise of Asian tigers in the 1960's and China’s reforms in 1978; where as India's liberalization in the early 90's is relatively recently. On the social front most of the East Asian countries have shown tremendous progress, reducing poverty increasing health and wealth of people. It is insightful to compare the India's journey through development with other Asian countries such as China and South Korea.

At the end of the world war-II (1945), the education and health status of people in these countries (India, China, South Korea) were similar. The literacy rates at 18%, 20% and 22% respectively, were comparable. During the fifties and sixties, South Korea massively invested in education; literacy grew at an unprecedented rate to 87% by 1970. This phenomenal rise in human capital coincided with the onset of economic boom pioneered by Gen. Park Chung-hee in early 1961-62. Consequently Korea saw a dramatic reduction in poverty over the next two decades. By the late 80's Koreans were no longer considered third world citizens.

China comes closest to India in terms of history and population. In the 1950's, beginning of the Mao era, China was socially and economically very backward. Although Mao has been criticized for his whimsical socio-political policies, his leadership saw high growth in the health and education sectors. Life expectancy and literacy rates rapidly improved during his regime. The controversial coercive 'one child policy' helped reduce the fertility rate significantly. In the late 70's, when Deng Xio Ping opened up markets, China was sufficiently advanced in its social indicators. People from all sections of society could reap the benefits of the opening of the economy. Manufacturing-led growth generated enormous wealth and employment; consequently over the next twenty years, China saw one of the most dramatic declines of poverty in history, lifting about 300 million people above the poverty level. The current HDI of China stands at 0.75 - very close to that of the developed nations. Experiences in these countries shows that participatory growth was largely led by the presence of good social infrastructure and human capital before the opening of markets.

In contrast, India showed a relatively slow and sluggish growth in the social sector before opening of the markets in 90's. With a literacy rate of just 55% and an HDI of 0.51, India was just above the margin of an underdeveloped country. The liberalization and globalization of the economy created enormous opportunities for the educated masses hailing mainly from middle class families; most of the people at the bottom layer were left completely untouched by the wave of liberalization. This growth didn't create the manufacturing or service jobs accessible to an illiterate/semi-literate rural population. Over the years that followed, poverty levels didn't show any drastic reduction. India’s HDI has increased slowly, but not at a rate commensurate with the per capita income growth.

Conclusion

The failure at the social front in the era of liberalization has been reflected with increased inequality and social unrest. While the GDP growth is absolutely essential, it should be seen more in terms of hitherto unseen social opportunities. To achieve inclusive and participatory growth, public policies should focus on substantial investment in human capital, ensure their efficient delivery through good governance and create opportunities for economic participation by all sections. The lessons learnt from the journey through our own past, and that of the world, tell us much about the road ahead in realizing the VISION 2020 of a developed India.

About the writer:

The author is a doctoral student in Physics at the Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA. He is also pursuing 'Minor' in Public Policy and Demography, with works focused on Education Policy. Jolad's details may be seen at:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/~saj169/MyWebpage/index.htm

Schools for the poor: Chance or Choice?

Touted as an unsinkable ship of social progress, public schooling in India has been showing dismal performance for several decades. In spite of steady increase in funding, government schools have shown stagnated or stunted growth.

Consider the following facts: In India 82% of children in rural area and 47% of urban areas attend public schools. At any given time one in four teachers are absent from work at government schools in India (world bank and KSG Harvard study). Even though the enrollment rate in primary schools has stood around 94%, more than 40% of these children drop out after primary school. What is alarming is that learning level among these children is far below the minimal standards. ASER 2005 study shows that more than 60% of the children in 7-14 age group cannot read a simple story at grade 2 level, leave alone basic math skills.

Inspite of the above grim picture, one might cite examples of some specially targeted school systems (like Kendriya Vidyalaya's) showing considerable achievements, but they come at the expense of enormous inputs over a relatively small set. Attempts to scale up small successes working within the public system has achieved only marginal successes. The situation contrasts with percapita expenditure of government on these children. City governments in India spend Rs 1,000-1,700 per child on education? Not every year.. but every MONTH!! [School Choice]. State wise, for example Karnataka spends about Rs600 per child, per month, which is more than the average cost of private schooling. Studies show that on an average, children in private schools perform far better than public schools.

Why is this so? Is there something inherently wrong with public schools? No one denies the primary role of government to ensure education as a public good to available to all children in the society. But, the government is only a tool for the purpose of education, it just happens to be a wrong tool [1]. Government is inherently inefficient in delivering public goods. Bureaucracy, Un-competitiveness, hierarchical structure etc, have made public school system one of the most corrupt public sector in India. If not for the public schools how do we ensure universal access and equitable quality in education? I believe that best solution is to fund students -not schools, through educational vouchers.

An education voucher is a coupon offered by the government entitling a student to take education at any school of his choice. It is a tool in the hands of a poor student to exercise the same choices in education, as are available to the richer students [2]. School vouchers improve quality through competitive market mechanism. Private parties set up schools in order to attract students. Market forces make them to use the available resources in the most efficient manner and provide better quality of education. Underperforming schools will eventually phase out since every student, irrespective of socio-economic background is now empowered to choose the school of his/her choice. Thus money from the market follows the student and not the underperforming schools. Eventually even the government schools have to compete with private schools to attract students and thus enriching the quality. The innovativeness of voucher system is to empower the poor to be a consumer in education market. Markets delivers the best products (here education) at the most competitive price. Voucher system has dual advantages: the efficiency and accountability of private sector, along with equity and universal access of the public sector [See: CCS-concept note].

Not everyone accepts the choice based of funding. Voucher critics argue that school choice system leads to commercialization of education, eventually destroy the public education and thus defying the purpose of universal elementary education. These critics argue from the ideological position that education, being a public good, should be delivered only by government. Their belief that private sector with its profit motive cannot deliver the public goods is quite wrong. For example, environmental protection is a necessary public good, and one most effective used method to reduce carbon emission is 'carbon trading'- a system based on markets with government playing the only as regulator. To combat poverty, Mohammad Yunnis (last year noble laurete economics) pioneered micro credits for poor in Bangaldesh , again based on market principles.

Let us come out of arguments, be scientific and ask, are there any evidence that the voucher system has worked in reality? YES... Voucher programs have been implemented in different forms in countries as diverse as Sweden, Chile, Holland, USA, UK, New Zealand, Czech Republic and even Bangladesh [CCS]. There is sufficient evidence to show that in many of these countries Voucher system has led to increased performance of schools, better test scores and learning levels.

"It will not work in India- India is different!", critics say. They don't have a clear idea why it might not work, they just say India is different!. But, is there any data to show that it has not worked (I should remind them of Sherlock Holmes words, "It is fatal to hypothize before one has the necessary data.")? NO.. Where as, I believe that it will work better in India. In India, public sector has performed worse than most countries, where as private sector performance is comparable.

Setting aside one's beliefs, ideologies or prejudices, we should seriously look into whether Voucher system works in India. I hope, medium scale experiments (say at the district level) will be carried out to measure the feasibility and effectiveness of Voucher system. If it works, we have a good solution to the long standing problem of under-performing school system in India.

References:

1. School choices overview
   
2. CCS India education choice campaign
3. School choices India
4. Kingdon, G. “The Quality and Efficiency of Public and Private Schools: A Case Study of Urban India”, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 58, No.1: 55-80, February 1996.
5. Public and private schools in rural India, Karthik Muralidharan

Indians dont have Sex, babies just happen!

Rahul Bose's comment on IBN live's Rising India , 'In India nobody has sex, suddenly babies happen!' , has more to it than just a pun.

There is a sharp contrast between the perception of 'tabooed Sex' and reality. There is more to it than just explaining the presence of billion plus population with no talk on Sex. Economic liberalization has not changed the social conservatism. We are not comfortable with the issues of sex and sexuality. Politicians are equally adamant in perpetuating this system. Three southern states-Madya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharastra, successively banned the Sex education in schools. This happens in a country which has the second highest number of AIDS cases in the world. Consider Karnataka education minister Basavaraj Horatti's statement "In today's world, we need moral education and not sex education”. Politcians have a tendency to equate sex education with pornography (I suspect probably they have only seen the latter :) ) and impose their opinions and prejudices on people without having the faintest idea about their implication. Studies in US indicate that 'there is little or no correlation between sex-education and promiscuity'. Studies world wide (US, Europe and Africa) show that sex education and awareness at early stages of childhood are key factors in reducing AIDS and other STDs along with developing a healthy sexual attitude.

There is another stronger reason for making sex education part of the curriculum in elementary schools. A grim story was revealed recently in the first ever nationwide survey on child abuse. One out of every two children in India is abused physically, emotionally or sexually. Consider the following facts: 88% face physical abuse from parents, 53% face sexual abuse, every 2nd child reports emotional abuse. Boys are equally vulnerable to abuse as girls. 70% of children have never reported the abuse! (Based on CNN-IBN discussion on Why kids are not safe in India?).

Parents and society are equally to be blamed for this messy situation. Physical abuse is apparent in almost every family. Even in schools, about 60% of the teachers beat up their kids. Indian society has infused every parent to treat their 'children as their commodity' and exercise their full authority over them. Rarely ever we talk about 'rights of child'. Little do we realzie that in more than 80% of the cases parents are the emotional abusers. Renuka Choudry says "we have unwittingly victimized the kids in one way or the other".

What is rather worrisome is that in a society which "apparently" treats sex as 'sin', more than 50% of the kids face sexual abuse. Most often the abusers are the one of who are "trust"worthy to the family like relatives, cousins and friends. Children are afraid to talk about this with their parents out of shame and guilt. Parents are hesitant to openly about relationships, sex, good touch versus bad touch. Loveleen Kackar, the author of the report says "there is actually a conspiracy of silence among parents, policy makers and the civil society". " Its happening everywhere but we are just putting it under the carpet. We put ban on Sex education, we don't want our kids to talk about sex. " says child rights activist Gerry Pinto.

One question keeps haunting me, 'when will we come out of this self imposed cocoon of conservatism and face the reality?' When will our politicians ever realize the consequences of their prejudice? Why do they want to hold back to the past?

If we wish to stop more than 100 million children from the wrath of abuse, it is time for the civil society to take strong action.

Corruption is a symptom and not disease

In India, no denies the validity of common perception “Sarkari daftar mai sabhi paisa khahte hai” (In government offices everyone demands bribe). Why is there so much corruption prevalent in Indian society? Is it that by inborn nature that many people tend to be corrupt? Given the large-scale prevalence of this problem, we can argue that corruption and dishonesty in public life is not an individual trend. Surely it is not a trend peculiar to Indian society. Problem of corruption is prevalent in all societies to varying degrees in different public and private sectors. Many countries (including highly developed ones) have passed through similar conditions at various times in History and have seen different faces of corruption. The inter linkages between human behavior engaging in corrupt/dishonest practices to political and administrative structures, economic conditions and social order is subtle and needs particular attention. I would like to stress that corruption is not a ‘disease’ carried by individuals in a society but a reflection of the prevalent socio-economic and political conditions.

A study conducted by Center for media studies highlights the practice and prevalence of corruption in India. Their study in collaboration with Transparency International (TI) indicates that in India, common people (excluding high profile business man and politicians) pay petty bribes more than Rs.20,000 crore ($5bn) to avail various public services. More than 60 percent of citizens had the firsthand experience of paying bribe or “using a contact” to get a job done in a public office. Corruption is not merely in the media or in the minds of people as it is sometimes made out. But it is in the system all across the public services, is what this study highlights http://www.cmsindia.org/cms/corruption.pdf.

CMS in 2006, ranked India 70th in the world on corruption barometer (higher ranking indicates greater corruption). Ironically Police (crime and Traffic), the very own people responsible for maintenance of law and order, stands high on the corruption index. Judiciary (lower Courts) and Land Administration are rated next only to Police. Corruption level varies drastically from state to state. Kerala being the least corrupt and Bihar (as expected) stands as the most corrupt state. Surprisingly economically prosperous states like Karnataka and Tamilnadu occupy the top rankings. These rankings are based on both “perception” and “experience” of people.

If one tries to dig out the reasons for such widespread prevalence of corruption, we can come out with the following set of reasons (not exhaustive of course).
• Lack of transparency and accountability in the system,
• Hierarchical administrative system,
• Poor literacy and lack of awareness,
• Lack of an effective corruption reporting mechanisms,
• Ineffective judiciary,
• Lack of performance incentives and competitive atmosphere
• Lack of honesty in officials in the Government,
• Acceptance of Bribe as a way of life, custom and culture.
I would argue that the last two reasons are essentially due to the other factors listed above. The ubiquitous presence of corruption in society leads to the acceptance of bribe as a way of life and culture.

Lack of Transparency
Lack of transparency in public services gives an undue advantage to civil servants to keeps the information from public preview, there by easing the route to corruption. For more than eight decades Indian’s were legally denied the access to files or documents related to public work, due to an archaic law called official secrets Act -1923. It restricts the information disclosure or inspection of government work by general public. This secrecy protected the government from public scrutiny. In October 2005, government enacted the powerful Right to Information Act-2005 overriding the official secrets act. The result was immediate, thousands of cases of petty corruption were exposed, citizens awareness resulted in drastic decline in petty bribes. Within a year India’s ranking in corruption declined from 88 to 70. But on the other hand, India still gives protection to government servants from prosecution. Articles 310 and 311 provide not only guarantee constitutional protection to civil servants but also make it mandatory to seek prior sanction before prosecuting them. These laws create multiple routes for the civil servants to escape from being caught in corruption cases.

Hierarchical administrative structure
Centralized and hierarchical administrative system creates a bureaucratic chain paving way for corruption at each level. Corruption is rampant in almost all countries following centralized planning and socialist economy- like Russia, Poland, eastern Europeans nations, third world countries like India, Pakistan etc. To give an example, In India states have the responsibility of primary education. In Karnataka, primary and high school teacher appointment to a post in village has to pass through various layers and reach the state capital. The bribing goes on at each level in this structure making education the second most corrupt sector.

Lack of Accountability
Almost everywhere government sectors suffers from lack of accountability. Secure jobs, lack of incentives for performance or mandates for underperformance results in sloppy work. More stress is given on the inputs than the outlays. Public monopoly and lack of competitiveness makes the public sectors underproductive. Lack of questioning of outcomes puts less pressure on civil servants to perform and hence would naturally resort to corrupt means for personal gain.

Poor law and order maintenance and ineffective judiciary
People with power and money can influence the police, politicians and judiciary. More often people convicted of corruption find escape roots and are rarely punished. The very people responsible for maintaining law and order are corrupt. CMS survey indicates that Police are the most corrupt in India and is followed by Judiciary (lower courts). Cases often go on for decades together and delayed justice is denied justice. Indian constitution boasts of being the largest constitution in the world with over 400 articles. The constitution has undergone 112 amendments in sixty years! A closer study reveals that it is highly procedural, non adaptive and sometimes ambiguous. The laws and civil codes derived out of constitution are unsuitable for changing societal conditions. India’s justice system is one of the slowest in the world.

Illiteracy and lack of awareness
Poor people are susceptible to be duped easily. Well-informed citizens are less susceptible to be duped by public. Illiteracy and poor education system creates lack of informed citizens and prevents them from actively participating in the democratic process. There is a strong correlation between education and economic development with reduction in corruption. In the late 40’s India and South Korea were comparable in many ways; both had literacy around 20% (17% and 22% respectively), poverty level was high in both countries- so was corruption. But the next few decades South Korea was marching fast on the road to development both economic and social. By 70’s South Korea’s literacy rose to 88% where as India showed a dismal increase to 35%. South Korea boomed economically becoming one of the rising Asian tigers. Corruption in South Korea decreased rapidly. India’s corruption remained as it is. Evidence can also be seen in many impoverished African countries, where corruption is widely prevalent.

Lack of effective corruption reporting mechanism
In the absence of good corruption reporting mechanism, people get discouraged to take initiative to tackle corruption. Tedious bureaucratic procedures, paper based methods, presence of few centralized information centers, remote location create huge barriers in reporting corruption.


Human behavior towards corruption
The factors described above inevitably influences the human behavior to find the shortest perceived route to individual prosperity- Corruption. Thus, corruption is a collective behavior (symptoms) reflecting the conditions prevalent in society.


References

1. http://www.cmsindia.org
2. http://www.parivartan.com
3. http://rti.aidindia.org
4. http://www.transparency.org

Magic of Invisible Hand

Every time I visit my hometown Bangalore, it shows a fast changing picture of society. It is city projecting the modern face of India. Being a pakka Bangalorean myself, I have seen it changing rapidly in the last 15 years. Two decades ago, Bangalore was considered to be a pensioner’s paradise-a calm sleeping city without many economic activities. It was mostly composed of middle and lower middle class people and the city hardly had shown any growth since Independence.

Last decade changed the very face of Bangalore and came to be termed as Silicon Valley of Asia. Bangalore became the buzzword for development and growth in modern India. Dictionaries added the term ‘Bangalored’, to refer US jobs outsourced to India. Books like ‘Bangalore Tigers’ have been written on the rise of Indian giants in software Industry. BBC news has captuured the changing face of Bangalore in its series of articles. Roots of India’s spectacular economic growth (more than 8% GDP growth per annum) lies in growth of cities like Bangalore. Hyderabad and Chennai too have a similar story to tell. The world is singing India’s economic boom.

What do these development have for the average man? First, there has been drastic reduction of poverty and improvement of quality of life. The Human Development Index (HDI) of Bangalore has increased from 0.623 to 0.753 in the last decade and is one of the highest in the country. HDI measures the average quality of life through various parameters like education level, life expectancy and purchasing power of people. In comparison, Bangalore’s HDI rating is higher than that of Kerala, which stands number 1 in state ranking.

Changes can be also seen in various public and private services. Public transportation has improved a lot in Bangalore. Variety of new and improvised BMTC buses and many of them are equipped with modern GPRS tracking system. All autos are clean, well maintained and equipped with digital meters. Restaurants, Darshini’s and numerous fast food chains have come up serving wide variety of foods while maintaining good hygiene and quality. Railways stations have become lot cleaner and modern. City is changing its face every moment.

An average person can now afford much more than what they could a decade ago. Purchasing power and consumerism has grown rapidly among all sections of people. An auto driver on an average earns Rs.10,000 per month. Most of the middle class youngsters working in software, call center earn a huge some of salaries and spend proportionately. The salaries in public sectors have also shot up rapidly. Salaries of lecturers, government employees have almost doubled in the last five years where as the inflation has grown at a slower rate (compound at 5% per annum makes a rise of 30% in five years). So even they can afford much more than before. The spending habits of people have influenced the growth various commercial activities. Number of shopping malls, pizza huts, mobile revolution, restaurants have shot up and have created numerous jobs reducing unemployment drastically, thereby providing uplifting the lower socio economic classes. It is also true that income disparity has widened. Even though everyone doesn’t have same share of the pie, the pie has definitely gotten bigger.

Who is responsible for these changes? Is it the government with its rhetoric of ‘Garibi hataov’, ‘rozgaar yogna’ , ‘framers subsidy’, or is it due to bunch of philanthropists giving money to NGO’s to alleviate poverty?

Neither the Government, nor the pure charity has bought any significant changes. Root of all these changes lie in government becoming ‘liberal’ since the 90’s by ending the ‘Licence Raj’ in economy and opening the market for international trade. This released the entrepreneurial spirit of Indians to show their potential to the world. We saw the birth of Infosys, Wipro and Satyam. Hundreds of multinationals like Cisco, Yahoo, Texas Instruments and Microsoft saw their destiny in India. The motive behind all these companies was to raise productivity and make profit. Hundreds and thousands of young engineers got jobs in these companies and started earning huge sums of money. They also worked for their own personal gains. Most of them neither directly worked for nor had any intention of contributing actively for the social development. Yet they themselves became the indirect cause of change in the society.

The change, as economists rightly attribute, is due to ‘the invisible hand’ at work. To quote Adam Smith from his ‘The Wealth of Nations’:
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest…. Someone earning money by his own labor benefits himself. Unknowingly, he also benefits society, because to earn income on his labor in a competitive market, he must produce something others value…”.
Each person pursuing his own interest has invested his human and financial capital to allocate resources in the appropriate manner for maximum personal gain. In the process he or she has added substantial value to the society by creating goods and services beneficial to the rest of the society. This process has generated wealth and prosperity and thereby alleviating poverty automatically.

What was government’s role in the whole process? Government helped the whole process not by increasing its role, but by limiting its role in the economic affairs. Economic freedom has also benefited the government by increased taxes collection. As people are getting richer they pay more taxes, governments budget gets fatter. Government with all its inefficient and corrupt usage of resources still leaves a bigger slice of pie for the poor in its social initiatives. Eventually if the government succeeds in empowering all sections of society, almost everyone will be able to the, reap the benefits of liberalization and global trade.

India is rising not by the state but despite the state. Thanks to the power of invisible hand!

People's particpation in Democracy

We were taught in childhood that Democracy is of the people, by the people and for the people. Ironically in India, we see that democracy is off the people, to buy the people and far the people. We always end up blaming the Neta’s (Politicians) for all the blunders that has happened since Independence. Most people forget is their role in democracy after they cast their vote once in five years. Since people don’t demand accountability, naturally any party that comes to power easily forgets its promises and responsibilities. And we end up blaming the government and politicians all the time for the poor condition of the nation and people. Bollywood has nicely capitalized this issue by glamorous portrayal of bad politicians and honest policeman’s!

I am not interested in writing about the unhappy state of the nation, but rather on what can we do to change it? I am stressing ‘we’ as only a collective action of people can bring changes. These changes can be very broadly classified as local or a global depending on the scale of operation and impact (although this is highly subjective- depending on scale cut off). Of course each one influence the other and it is hard to draw a clear line between them and to decide whether we need one over the other.

We do see lot of efforts by NGO’s working on various issues like education, health care, women empowerment etc. Most of them concentrate their activities on a local scale- like village, slum in a city. Their work enables us to understand the ground realities and social dynamics. Some NGO’s work in a charity mode, they are bound be local unless there is a chain reaction to propagate their work. They help few people and can change their life significantly. Their effects often dominate within a given locality. On the other hand some NGO’s with good leadership, innovative ideas, active and informed members do a good job in developing a scalable, replicable and sustainable models in social development. Their work could be crucially considered for policy making.

Coming to the category of people who influence the govt policies the most (other than
Neta’s (Politicians)and Babu’s(Beauracrats) ) are social activists. They can act as the watch dog of democracy. To name few influential activists and their work we have Jayprakash Narayan who was instrumental in opposing state of emergency (1975-77) and thus bringing back democracy and protecting fundamental rights in the Nation. Environmentalist S R Hiremath in formulating National Forest policy(1988). Recently Aruna Roy , Arvind Keijriwal, Sandeep Pandey were instrumental in Save ‘Right to Information’ (RTI) act which resulted in GoI withdrawing its proposed amendment and thus saving the very spirit of the act. Their success was mainly dependent on awareness campaigns, media support, peaceful demonstrations and hunger strikes.

But all this work of few people is not enough. Unless there is mass movement, participation of all citizens we cannot create a society where everyone has equal opportunity, access to good education, healthcare and socio cultural amenities. To quote Janaagraha (a movement for participatory democracy in Bangalore) “citizen participation is central not just for greater accountability of government, but for better-quality governance, for equitable outcomes and for collective ownership”. How do we demand accountability? Now with the help of Right to Information(RTI) Act –one of the most powerful acts Indian Government has ever passed, we can question every governments move at every stage. RTI can used at every stage- to know why the passport application wasn’t processed, question delay in building and maintaining roads, why relief materials haven’t reached the beneficiaries, why a school hasn’t been built inspite of government sanctioning it? The government is obliged to provide all necessary information regarding all these queries. In this way one can track down the misappropriation of funds, corruption of officials, inefficient handling of resources etc. It is the mantra to root out corruption in public sectors.

RTI started showing its power immediately after it was passed in Oct 2005. There are thousands of success stories of the usage of RTI in getting the public work done in time. A person near Delhi gets a telephone connection in a day, passport application was processed within 10 days, 250 Villages got relief with the use of RTI act, a case building a road never existed was exposed… and so on so forth! All this appears like a miracle in India where the control of ‘Raj’ has been dominated for decades even after the British left. NDTV site on RTI http://www.ndtv.com/rti/default.asp gives various illustrative examples. Parivartan http://www.parivartan.com/Home.asp

RTI empowers every citizen to seek any information (other than defense, security issues and like ones) from the Government and no reason be given for such requests. You can also inspect and sample materials of any government work. The application process is quite simple and can be found GoI site http://righttoinformation.gov.in/. Officials are supposed to provide the information within 30 days of request else they will loose salary @ Rs50-500 per day!! It is precisely for this reason that bureaucrats are scared and are ready to give information right away and get the corresponding work done before further questions be asked! Success of RTI depends solely on the participation of people. Many activists and NGO’s are conducting various awareness camps to spread the importance of RTI. Media participation has been really significant with NDTV, Indian Express and Hindustan times being the major players.

Notwithstanding that the people are being aware of RTI and using it effectively (which sent the heat waves to the corrupt bureaucrats), government decided to amend it by excluding file notings. File notings are records of movement of files b/w officials and their statements on them. Excluding file notings would have taken the very life of RTI as people would have no access to understand how a decision was made and cannot bring any person to accountable. Thanks to the efforts of thousands of activists in India and abroad(AID was closely involved in this campaign http://rti.aidindia.org), NGO’s, media and millions of people who supported ‘Save RTI’ campaign, Government finally decided not to take up amending RTI this year. This is a great victory to the people who actively participated in government affairs and prevented it from taking such a retrograde step.

Web Links
RTI
http://www.ndtv.com/rti/default.asp
http://rti.aidindia.org
http://www.righttoinformation.info/
GOI site: has lot of info regarding act and has forms
http://righttoinformation.gov.in/

NGO’s for participatory democracy
http://www.janaagraha.org/
http://www.egovernments.org/
http://www.loksatta.org/
http://prsindia.org/

burial of Right to education bill-Is India really 'shining'?

A few days back government of India decided to shelve the ‘Right to Education’ (RTE) Act. To me as a person interested in education and education policies of India, this was shocking news.

Here is a brief background of RTE: After years of struggle and pressure by many Educationalists and NGO’s, government had finally passed RTE bill in Oct 2005. The act makes education a fundamental right to all children between 6-14 years. Thus it makes the government accountable to guarantee this fundamental right. The act differs from previous polices on education with respect to the fact it is not a ‘directive principle’ to frame policies but an obligatory commitment to ensure education to the children in the prescribed age. Detailed analysis of the bill exposed many of its fallbacks suggested need for serious amendments. In fact as a good measure, government had solicited suggestions from various educationalists, NGO’s and policy makers. In US ASHA-for education has been seriously discussing RTE and was about to come up with its final stand. I was part of this venture as my personal and professional interest. Inspite of all limitations RTE does have the potential to provide universal elementary education to all and thus achieving a total literacy in the coming years.

A good reading on RTE can be found in the following links

http://www.indiatogether.com/2005/dec/edu-lbrighted.htm

http://www.pratham.org/documents/DraftEducationBill.doc

http://nac.nic.in/concept%20papers/edubill.pdf

http://www.ashanet.org/ashawiki/pmwiki.php/General/RTEDBDiscussion

Coming to the actual issue, recently government decided to revoke the RTE bill citing some spurious financial limitations.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/21/stories/2006072102841400.htm

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1748745.cms

Well these ‘limitations’ are seriously questionable. Lobbying by the private schools is seen to one factor in slacking of RTE. More than this, for the government the ‘Vote bank politics’ seems to be far more important than seeing India literate. During the recent protests against increasing the OBC quota by 27%, government had no problems in increasing seats in all higher education institutions to retain the exiting merit seats. Such an increase cost the exchequer Rs.8000 crore, an amount equal to 1/3 of the Indian education budget (Rs 24,000 Crore)! The government had taken this decision within two weeks of protests! One wonders, how it ever thought of such an approval when it didn’t have enough money for the implementing ongoing committed schemes. Well the reason is simple: reservations are needed to keep the ‘vote bank’ alive, where as primary education issue wouldn’t create big waves to topple them.

On a closer note, why is Primary education loosing all its priorities? Well National Advisory Council (NAC) had recommended that at least 6% of GDP should be spent to achieve total literacy(Well it is still less than what most rapidly developing countries like China and South Korea area spending). In reality not even 4% of GDP(Rs. 24,000 Crore) is being spent on Education. To give a feel for the numbers lets look at other budgetary spendings- Urban renewal: Rs50,000 cr, Pay hike for the Babu’s: Rs20,000 cr etc. How are we ever going to achieve the ‘Vision 2020’ of making India a superpower with more than 30% of its people illiterate and many more not receiving an ‘equitable’ quality of education?

I do agree that globalization and free market has generated huge wealth in the last couple of years. But this is no way a sufficient condition for Nation’s progress as a whole. Progress of a Nation depends on how empowered and informed its citizens are and not just its roads, buildings or industries. Empowered citizens are those who can think and act independently. Only proper education can achieve such empowerment.
Looking at the current situation I wonder if India is really "shining"!

What I think of freedom.

Looks like I too (along with the million others!) have fallen into this Blogosphere.

(This being my first blog I am not sure how good it might turn out)

The very fact that the blogs gives us the freedom to express ourselves and share our thoughts with e-world, let me start by writing on my views on freedom! I am sure many might not agree to my views wholly, but I would really appreciate constructive criticisms.

Recently I heard a beautiful song from 1966 movie Born free:

Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart

Live free and beauty surrounds you
The world still astounds you
Each time you look at a star

Stay free, where no walls divide you
You're free as the roaring tide
So there's no need to hide

Born free, and life is worth living
But only worth living
'cause you're born free
- Andy Williams

To me this summarizes the very purpose of life. I believe Freedom is the main factor for a human to grow into a unique individual. Degree of freedom to an individual also reflects in some sense the degree of happiness. By freedom I am not talking absolute freedom to do anything. Freedom should come with responsibility to see to it that it does not harm others in any way. To me this topic is interesting since I have lived in two different countries: India and USA, with each country offering different degree of freedom to individuals. Also you can see the distinct attitude difference between an average Indian and an American.

Any society which tries to curb the basic freedom of speech, expression, culture etc poses a potential threat to growth of an individual and in turn creating an unrest and disharmony in itself. In India, freedom is restricted right from childhood in almost all socio economic classes. In the school, child has to strictly follow whatever the elders say (parents and teachers). Getting better grades than his/her classmates becomes a top priority. There is no freedom for the child to explore the world on its own. This inherently narrows the growth of the child. Participation in theatre, art or music is considered unnecessary and often takes a back seat in favor of board exams. Child is left with no choice than to become prey to the ambitions of their parents, to choose a career of their wish. Most of the Indians choose their career by force and competition than by choice and love. I regret that during the childhood I didn’t have freedom to choose what I liked to do. Now it is hard to revert it back. I am sure there are millions of people in India whose dreams were shattered due to lack of freedom and opportunities. At some point either they regret their life or blame situations. Inspite of we getting Political freedom and living in a democratic world I still wonder why society tries to restrict freedom? Conservative attitude is still rampant in Indian society.

Couple of months back, great writer Salman Rushdie gave a talk at Penn State on importance of freedom of expression in society. He held the audience astounded with his in depth understanding and clarity of thought. His book Satnanic Verses was banned in India as some of its content appeared to be offensive to Muslim Community. Much more conservative countries like Iran have announced a Fatwa of $3mn on him! In a reply to them, Rushdie said- If you don’t like the contents of book, close it, it then looses the ability to offend you! (Ironically most of those protesting against the book, had hardly read it!). His message at the end was-“Let’s make the world bit more open”.

Recently Indian government tried to ban ‘blogs’ after Bombay bomb blast, citing that it might create turmoil in society. Censoring books, articles and blog’s is a sign of autocracy. How can democracy be successful if people are not free to express themselves?

Let’s come to the issue of social freedom. In Indian society social freedom is severely restricted. Familial and social obligations forces people to choose not on the basis of what they feel is right but by what others think is right and what is accepted widely by the community. Here Women suffer the most. Consider this, girls are not allowed to come home late (guys are hardly questioned). Parents of girls look suspiciously watch daughter’s movements. Well with respect to guys they are quite liberal. Even economic liberty for women is severely limited in many house holds. Not to talk about their sufferings in villages. Most of them are not even sent to schools. In cities many parents from middle and upper middle class families still feel that higher education is not needed for women. There is also an attitude that men should be more educated than their life partners.

Let’s come to ‘forbidden topic’ of Sex. In India talking about Sex in public is a taboo. In this way freedom of speech is limited. Every one is afraid of talking about it openly. Conservative mentality, societal compulsion, shyness and ignorance seem to be the main reason for it (Ironically most of the Bollywood movies directly or indirectly portray the sexual attitude of society often linked to the higher class society). But this in no way means that Indians are not interested in sexual topics or do not indulge is sex outside nuptial bond. India currently stands #2 in the number of HIV infected patients. Teachers are reluctant to teach sex education to kids. Parents ? No No.. how can they talk about such issues with kids??!! Well this is the attitude people carry. This breeds ignorance and misconception among young minds. Sexual curiosity leads them to Pornography and later some turn to prostitutes. The more society tries to curb, the more it comes out. How then do we expect people to develop a healthy attitude towards these issues?

Lack of social freedom shows its dirty face when it comes to the issue of marriage. barriers of Caste, religion and family come out in all wildernesses. In most of the conservative families, sons/daughters loose their right to decide their life partners. Some, who boldly venture against such evils often, have to meet stiff resistance. Parents assume that they know very well their son/daughter interest is in marrying to whomever they like. At the end most of the marriages just ends in compromise between the girl(/boy) and parents. In my most such ‘happy marriages’ are forced upon. Continuing on the same line, what is the state of most women after such marriages? Most of them become partial servants to their husbands (in the name of loyalty to their husbands). Most women

loose their freedom to take decisions on their own. Women have to compromise their career options. This is not only the case in middle class but also in many high profile societies.

Well so far I talked about the freedom and society. I do plan to write an article on how freedom is also intrinsically linked to the development of a Nation. This would be based on the book Development as freedom-Amartya Sen.