The Common Man

The political uprising in our country has brought to the forefront the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spearheaded by social activists who wanted to bring about change, but the sequence of events landed them in becoming change agents themselves. The political party in the capital has totally hijacked the term ‘aam aadmi’ who was earlier referred as ‘common man’--- the ordinary Indian who was most suitably depicted in the cartoons of noted R K Laxman for more than 50 years before the birth of AAP.

Common man is the person who everyone relates to, who the masses identify with. The common man is the one who survived the Mumbai floods in July 2005, who endured the terrorist attacks in the financial capital in November 2008, who died in the Uttarakhand floods. The common man is time and again bogged down by corruption and inflation, and the common man is the one who is thought of and remembered by politicians every five years when the election bells are ringing.  The common man is the one who lives on hope that there will be a change, and his dream of India will come true very soon. The common man is no more a passive observer, but is making his voice heard. 

We are saluting the spirit and strength of this common man who lives through all this and much more each and every day in different parts of the country. We have handpicked six ordinary people who have provided extraordinary service to the common man to change their lives forever. The February issue highlights all the dimensions of the multifaceted common man.

In the lead article ‘The Common Man is surging’, Prof. Yogesh Atal says, the recent happenings in the political arena have changed the very perception of the Common Man. He is not the beggar waiting to receive the doles or relief; he has begun to demand what is his due.

Prof Atal is an internationally acclaimed sociologist who has authored a number of books and edited nearly 40 books and monographs for UNESCO including a trilogy on Poverty. He worked with UNESCO for nearly 23 years and retired as its deputy assistant director general in 1997. He is among the pioneers in the social sciences to write and publish in Hindi, and popularise social sciences through the medium of Hindi. He is also a poet and litterateur.

In ‘The ubiquitous ‘Common Man’ of India’, Prof. P. Radhakrishnan says, corruption, misrule, crony capitalism, lack of accountability and transparency all have exacerbated the condition of India’s common man. Further, the manner in which the Constitution has been worked over in the years has proved that the common man has been squeezed out of politics.

The writer is a Professor of Sociology at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and is a media commentator on public affairs.

In ‘An Uncommon Common Man’, well known satirist, V. Gangadhar talks about the common man immortalised by the iconic cartoonist of India, R.K. Laxman. Laxman’s themes, says Gangadhar, were not lofty, as his common man was someone who every Indian could easily identify with. His sketches exposed the rot in the system, which angered the aam aadmi, but never failed to bring a smile on his face. 

In ‘The rise of the Aam Aadmi’, Dr. Bhalchandra K. Kango, Secretary, state council CPI, Maharashtra says, the ‘aam aadmi’ of the 70s and 80s was a composition of emerging middle class and toiling masses who got lost in identity politics. Today, with corruption and problems of governance taking centre stage along with growing concern about inflation and economic slowdown, we see a commonality of interests amongst the two classes re-emerging and bringing the common man or the ‘aam aadmi’ into focus.

The Right to Information (RTI) is one of the simplest and most powerful tool in the hands of the common man to seek information on a number of issues, in order to minimise corruption and get what is rightfully due to him, writes Shailesh Gandhi in his article ‘Right to Information (RTI) – path to Swaraj.’

Gandhi is former Central Information Commissioner. A distinguished alumnus awardee of IIT Bombay and a first generation entrepreneur, he sold his business to become a RTI activist in 2003. He gave many landmark decisions on RTI, apart from organising the first digital fileless Commission office.

Aam Aadmi Crusaders

In Aam Aadmi crusaders, India One People Foundation salutes the spirit and achievements of six ordinary people who have changed the lives of the aam aadmi. Read the struggle and achievements of the crusaders:

Baba Amte

One man crusade

Baba Amte was a one man crusade and messiah for the people struck with leprosy. He served them till his last breath.

(Contributed by Veena Adige, Associate editor of Bhavan’s Journal, the fortnightly magazine of Bharatiya Vidya BhavanShe has authored four books including The Legacy of Baba Amte.)

Advocate Varsha Deshpande

Her fight to save the girl child

Advocate Varsha Deshpande has been striving to save and protect the girl child. She founded the ‘Lek Laadki Abhiyaan’ that upholds the mantra ‘Eliminate Inequality not Women, Destroy Dowry not Daughters’.

(Contributed by Prof. Vibhuti Patel, Director, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai.)

Rajendra Singh

A man, water and a revolution

Rajendra Singh’s message to people is to see the earth like a bank. If you regularly deposit water, you’ll always have some to withdraw. If you are just taking, you will have nothing in your account.

(Contributed by Rajlakshmi Pillai, former sub-editor, OIOP)

Dr. Anil Joshi

He makes the mountains smile

Dr. Anil Joshi set up an organisation that looks into need-based science and technology developments and execution for the mountains. He is rightly called the ‘Mountain Man’ for he makes the mountains smile.

(Contributed by Rajlakshmi Pillai, former sub-editor, OIOP)

Advocate Mahesh Chandra Mehta

Lawyer with a cause

Advocate Mahesh Chandra Mehta, is a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court since 28 years. He pledged his life for environment and has held the baton to achieve environmental sustenance through the legal route. He is the first Indian lawyer to indulge in legal activism and to show the path on how to protect and safeguard environment.

(Contributed by Sonam Saigal, sub-editor, OIOP)

Anna Hazare

The man behind the change

Anna Hazare, single handedly won the hearts of millions of Indians across the country when he sat on an indefinite fast in New Delhi in 2011. His cry was to exert pressure on the Indian government to enact a stringent anti-corruption law, the Jan Lokpal Bill. This septuagenarian made the entire country shout in unison, ‘main bhi anna, tu bhi anna, ab toh saara desh hain anna, (I am anna, you are anna, now the entire country is anna)

(Contributed by Sonam Saigal, sub-editor, OIOP)

Know India Better

Know India Better is on the paradise on earth --- Kashmir, a year-round destination with each season showcasing a different facet of the valley. In ‘How beautiful is my valley’ Gustasp and Jeroo Irani, who are uabashed Kashmir lovers, visit the valley in winter, when snow-cuddled mountains and valleys and half frozen lakes and rivers take centre stage. They cruise on the Dal Lake in  colourful shikaras , stroll the famous Mughal Gardens, learn to ski on the slopes of Gulmarg and enjoy the mountain view in pristine Aru and Betab valley, while indulging in local Kashmiri cuisine.

Gustasp and Jeroo are travel companions for whom life is a never-ending journey. Over the last 25 years they have travelled extensively across India and the globe, taking the rough with the smooth; sampling different cultures and cuisines. In the process they have trekked in the Australian Outback, slurped snake soup in Hong Kong, have danced with the Samburus in Africa, stayed with a local family in a Malay village, cracked the Da Vinci Code in Pari. For them, writing and photography are more than just freezing moments of that journey; it’s a passion.

In Face to Face, Shoma Chatterjee has a tête-à-tête with noted English fiction writer Shashi Deshpande who was recently bestowed an award for her contribution to creative fiction by women by Soi (meaning female soulmate), an organisation of women writers in West Bengal founded by Nabaneeta Deb-Sen. Daughter of the renowned Kannada dramatist and Sanskrit scholar Shriranga, Shashi has authored eleven novels, several short story collections, four books for children and one book on essays. She has won many awards including the Sahitya Academy Award and the Padmashri. Shashi talks of her journey as a writer for nearly 45 years.

In Youth Voice, Urvish Paresh Mehta a F. Y. B.Com student at Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics, shares his thoughts on “Learning by doing”. Urvish who is also pursuing Chartered Accountancy has a flare for writing, and regularly participates in Inter-Collegiate Debate Competitions. His articles have been published in newspapers and magazines. He follows cricket religiously and dreams of living in a ‘happier India’. 

In the General section, the spotlight is on the future of the AAP. In the article Will Aam Aadmi Party survive as a National Party?, Prof. P.M. Kamath uncovers the AAP by looking at its strengths and weakness and puts forward a valid argument of whether or not the party will be a national player.

The writer is a former Professor of Politics, University of Bombay. Currently, he is Hon. Director, VPM’s Centre for International Studies (Regd.) and adjunct Professor, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University.

While pointing out that India-US bilateral relationship is too vital for both sides to allow incidents such as the recent Devyani Khobragade episode to vitiate the atmosphere, Dr. B. Ramesh Babu, in ‘Khobragade episode triggers a much needed correction’ contends that the archaic legacy of diplomatic immunities between the nations need a critical re-evaluation and re-tooling in tune with the transformational changes sweeping the world in the era of globalisation.

Dr. B. Ramesh Babu is a specialist in International Relations and American Politics and Foreign Policy. He is currently scholar in residence, Foundation for Democratic Reforms, a think tank and advocacy group based in Hyderabad. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Hyderabad. Formerly he was the Sir Pherozeshah Mehta Professor and Head of the Department of Civics and Politics at the then University of Bombay.

In the first in our series on Indian classical dance, noted dancer and academic, Dr. Kanak Rele classifies the various dance styles and explains the meaning of the many techniques used to convey a theme, mood or idea in this time-space art.

She is the Director, Nalanda Dance Research Centre.

In Gems from the past, B.M.N. Murthy writes on Navigation in India. He explores the navigation expertise in ancient India and says that the social taboo that existed against crossing seven seas raised from a myth without any scriptural sanction.

The writer, a retired chief Engineer from the Life Insurance Corporation of India, is a prolific writer. He writes regularly on Indian heritage, tradition, Vedic wisdom, etc. If you wish to be on his mailing list, contact him at bmnmurty@gmail.com

 

Great Indians

In Great Indians, we profile V P Menon -- Unparalleled leadership (1893-1965),

Vasudeo S. Gaitonde - Abstractionist par excellence (1924-2001), and

Farooque Shaikh - A thinking actor (1948-2013)

And also read our regular columns and other features.

To book a copy, email to oiopfoundation@gmai.com / oiop@vsnl.net or call Nagesh Bangera, OIOP Subscription-in-charge at 022- 2353 44 00.

We look forward to your feedback.

January-14

Inclusive Growth

Since 1991, the mantra of ‘Inclusive Growth’ has been discussed ad infinitum and many programmes have been launched to reduce poverty and promote economic inclusion. The pre-liberalisation era saw the launch of many anti-poverty programmes, but most of them were symbolic in nature and failed to alleviate poverty as was propagated in the Five Year Plan. Over the past two decades, more rapid economic growth gave us greater opportunity and more tools to reduce poverty and promote inclusion. Many flagship programmes were launched with the primary objective of transferring the fruits of development and economic opportunities to the poor. The Planning Commission’s approach paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan documents 13 flagship development programmes covering many sectors – rural employment guarantee, housing, roads, direct assistance to the poor, health, education, child nutrition, urban development, irrigation, rural electrification, drinking water and agriculture. Are these programmes achieveing the results as envisaged in the FY Plan? While  some sociologists feel that ‘Inclusive Growth’ is more a myth than reality, there are others who believe that if implemented with honesty and systematically India can inch towards inclusive growth.  The January 2014 issue gives an insight on Inclusive Growth.

In ‘Symbolism vs Substance’, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, the founder and President of Lok Satta Party, proposes seven broad approaches to promote inclusive growth in the next decade. He believes India has the technology, resources and cumulative knowledge to make every Indian a productive member of a modern economy. But what is needed is an honest and robust approach in place of symbolism, hypocrisy and short-term populism, he says.

Though official documents state otherwise, there is little evidence, to claim that India has pursued a sustainable inclusive growth strategy, as the Five Year Plan formulation is not integrated with respect to participation in economic activity, income generation and welfare improvement. In ‘Sustainable growth still a distant dream’, Dr. M.H. Suryanarayana, teacher/researcher at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, says India has a long way to go even to conceptualise such a process, let alone realise it.

In ‘Mindsets need to change first’, Dr. Madhav Chavan, CEO-President, Pratham Education Foundation, says that inclusive growth is not just a matter of making laws and creating governmental welfare programmes. It needs a cultural shift in the society. Schools are but one point where the process of shifting can begin, he says.  

In ‘The key to infrastructure development’, Dr. Buddhadeb Ghosh says that we need to wait and see how the new Government in 2014 will coordinate both public and private sector allocation across the ‘districts’ as opposed to ‘states’ in order to minimise the differences in key infrastructure facilities between the waning and the accelerating regions within a state. Therein lies our success, he says. The writer is Principal Investigator for MGNREGA and Border Area Development Programme (BADP) Projects, Planning Commission, GOI, New Delhi and Associate Scientist, Economic Research Unit at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

Indian agriculture accounts for almost 14% of the total GDP and around 60 percent of our total population is still directly or otherwise involved in the agrarian systems. In ‘Peasantry neglected in the growth strategy’, Prof. Ajay Dandekar, a social scientist, writes that in such a scenario, India’s peasantry will have to be given its due place within the system, if the dream of inclusive growth has to be realised.

Economic growth has not generated as many jobs as anticipated. In ‘Bipolar Disorder’, Anuradha Kalhan, Lecturer, Dept of Economics, Jai Hind College, Mumbai (needs to be changed I think…plz get her exact design now), says that there also appears to be a growth in survival strategies to stay above the line of destitution instead of measurable employment.

The Approach Paper to the 12^th Five Year Plan was titled “Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth.” Sadly, there is no discussion about the status of women and the need to make a special effort to improve it. In ‘Bringing women into the ambit’, Kiran Moghe says that if there is no fundamental change in the direction of government policies, which need to turn their face to the poor, the marginalised and the deprived in our country, inclusive growth for women will be only a distant dream. The writer is National Joint Secretary, All India Democratic Women’s Association - AIDWA (Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana), a mass organisation of rural and urban women. Her work involves grassroots as well as policy level interventions on various gender issues.

In ‘Know India Better’, we feature ‘India: the new adventure land’. With adventure sport tourism on a steep incline, Akul Tripathi, a media professional and freelance writer, embarks on a quest to understand the ones emerging in India and the best places to experience them. He finds options galore and a bright future for all adrenaline junkies. Text and photographs: Akul Tripathi

In ‘Face to Face’, Arup Mitra, Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, says, “Inclusive growth, in terms of notion, is not an illusion.” Prof. Mitra’s research interest encompasses urban development, labour and welfare, industrial productivity and growth, and gender disparities. He has written four books and more than hundred papers in various academic journals and edited volumes. His latest book ‘Insights into Inclusive Growth, Employment and Wellbeing in India’ covers a wide range of issues in development. Prof. Mitra, in an email interview with Rajlakshmi Pillai, speaks about the various factors that can contribute or hinder inclusive growth. In his view, if inclusive growth in India is pursued realistically, it can be a possibility.

In our ‘Feature’ section, in the article, ‘Focusing on the small economies is the need of the hour’, Amrita. S. Nair offers a few suggestions to revive growth and says how strengthening village economy and MSMEs can help decrease the intensity of the economic slowdown. The writer is an Economics graduate from Jai Hind College, Mumbai. She was an active member of the economics association of her college and a part of various group presentations concerning the economics seminars.

In the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgment upholding IPC Section 377 that criminalises homosexual act, Shoma A. Chatterji, in her article ‘Homosexuality in Indian mythology, literature and cinema’, writes that homosexuality is not a mere aping of the West but is evident in Indian mythology, history, literature and culture. The writer is a freelance journalist, film scholar and author. She has authored 17 published titles and won the National Award for Best Writing on Cinema twice. She won the UNFPA-Laadli Media Award, 2010 for ‘commitment to addressing and analysing gender issues’ among many awards. She is currently Senior Research Fellow, ICSSR, Delhi, researching the politics of presentation of working women in post-colonial Bengali cinema 1950 to 2003.

From this issue on, we are embarking on a new journey to unearth the gems of wisdom from Indian’s rich ancient heritage. In the first part of the series, we present to you ‘India’s pioneering contributions to the world of medicine’. How many of us know that the world’s first plastic surgery was conducted in India by an Indian? Sushruta, an ancient Indian surgeon, delved into the intricacies of medicine and fine points of surgery in his treatise Sushruta Samhita, much before the western world even knew about it. Isn’t it time that the medical fraternity in India take a ‘Sushruta oath’ in place of the ‘Hippocratic oath’? This would be an apt tribute to the father of Indian surgery. A feature by B. M. N. Murthy, a retired senior engineer from the Life Insurance Corporation of India, who writes regularly on Indian heritage, tradition, vedic wisdom, etc. If you wish to be on his mailing list, contact him at bmnmurty@gmail.com

In ‘Cultural Kaleidoscope’, we conclude our series on Indian classical music. In the concluding article, Latha Venkatraman,  an independent journalist and a student of music, profiles three gharanas that continue to enrich Indian classical music and enthrall audience not just in India but worldwide.

In ‘Youth Voice’, Bhavya Ashwin Mehta who is pursuing Chartered Accountancy, shares his thoughts about serving society. Bhavya is the founder and Managing Trustee of Deeds Of Kindness Trust, a Borivili-based organisation that reaches out to people in need. He aspires to be an IAS officer so that he can bring about a change in the country. In his free time, he keeps researching on issues such as water harvesting, fuel saving, etc. 

In ‘Great Indians’, we feature Swati Tirunal, The Raja-Rishi (1813-1846); 

Lolita Sarkar, torchbearer of gender justice (1927-2013) and 

Colonel Venugopal Vasanth AC, Honour and pride…forever (1967-2007).

And also read our regular columns and other features. To book a copy, email to oiopfoundation@gmai.com / oiop@vsnl.net or call Nagesh Bangera, OIOP Subscription-in-charge at 022- 2353 44 00.

We look forward to your feedback.