India Unlikely To Meet Health-Related Sustainable Development Goals, Says Govt Auditor

August 29, 2019

New Delhi: India has a “long way to go” to achieve its target of public health spending, its primary health infrastructure is inadequate, and the country faces a dearth of data to track its progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for health by 2030, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, the government’s auditor, has said.

These gaps “represent risks for the achievement of the key objectives of the 2030 Agenda”, the CAG said in a July 8, 2019, report.

While the health ministry proposed to increase India’s public health expenditure to 2.5% of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, “it has remained within a narrow band of 1.02-1.28% of GDP”, the report said.

For this report, the CAG audited the NITI Aayog, the health ministry, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, and 14 other ministries for preparedness to achieve SDGs. To analyse states’ performance, seven states–Assam, Chhatitsgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and West Bengal–were chosen based on their ranking on various health indices for 2015-16.

The NITI Aayog’s three-year action agenda (2017-2020) envisaged a rise in the Centre’s health budget to Rs 1 lakh crore ($14.5 billion) by 2019-20. But, the allocations have fallen short: India allocated Rs 53,294 crore ($7.7 billion) in 2017-18, Rs 56,045 crore ($8.1 billion) in 2018-19 and Rs 65,038 crore ($9.4 billion) in 2019-20, the report noted.

India’s National Health Policy 2017, framed in line with the SDGs, prescribes increasing the health expenditure of states to more than 8% of their annual budgets by the year 2020, but the seven states evaluated spent between 3.29% and 5.32% for the period of 2012-2017, according to the report.

The National Health Mission–which provides for universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services–was conceived as the primary tool to reach health targets: maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of less than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births, neonatal mortality rate (NMR) of 12 deaths per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality rate (U5MR) of 25 deaths per 1,000 live births.

In 2017, India’s MMR was 130 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to Census data, while its NMR was 24 deaths per 1,000 live births and U5MR was 39 deaths per 1,000 live births, as IndiaSpend reported on September 20, 2018.

Yet, allocations to the National Health Mission fell short by 13.6% in 2018-19 compared to the budget projections, according to the CAG’s report.

Source: Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, cited in the Comptroller & Auditor General’s report

The standing committee of parliament on health, while examining the allocations, had observed that these shortfalls would affect the strengthening of health facilities.

India’s neonatal mortality rate (24 deaths per 1,000 live births) is higher than the global average (18). Sri Lanka (8), Bangladesh (18) and Nepal (21) are better off despite having lower per capita incomes, as IndiaSpend reported on September 20, 2018.

In 2015, India spend 1% of its GDP on public health, second-lowest in the south east Asia region, according to data cited in the National Health Profile 2018. That same year, Maldives spent 9.4%, Sri Lanka 1.6%, Bhutan 2.5% and Thailand 2.9%.

State spending on health yet to increase
To reach the 2025 target of spending 2.5% of GDP on health, the National Health Policy mandated states to increase their health spending on primary care by at least 10% every year. In addition, a 4% health and education cess was also proposed which was not implemented.

The Policy, as we said, also prescribes increasing states’ health spending to more than 8% of their annual budgets by the year 2020. Yet, none of the seven states studied for this report by the CAG spent that amount by 2017.

Further, 29% of NHM funds with states were not spent over five years to 2016, as IndiaSpend reported on August 20, 2018.

Health shortages affect progress
Rural India has a shortfall of between 24% and 38% in the number of sub-centres, primary health centres (PHC) and community health centres in 28 states and union territories, data from the CAG’s 2017 audit report on reproductive and child health under the National Rural Health Mission, which seeks to strengthen the delivery of public health services in rural India, showed.

Each PHC with a load of more than 20 deliveries per month needs at least two medical officers, according to Indian Public Health Standards set in 2006. Chhattisgarh has a total of 341 doctors in PHCs, which makes for 0.43 doctor per PHC, lower than required, according to the data cited in the CAG’s report. There were “considerable” human resource shortages in Chhattisgarh and UP, the report said.

UP is one of the worst-performing states in infant and under-five mortality rankings, as IndiaSpend reported on March 16, 2017. While UP has a 30% shortage of PHCs, West Bengal has a shortage of 69%.

With a rural population of 62 million, West Bengal has one PHC for every 68,000 people–less than half the prescribed number of one PHC per 30,000 people.

Health Resources In Select Indian States, 2016-17
State	Primary Health Centres Required	Primary Health Centres Functioning	Shortfall In Primary Health Centres	Doctors in Primary Health Centres	Average Doctors Per Primary Health Centre
Assam	1112	1014	98	1048	1.03
Chhattisgarh	870	785	85	341	0.43
Haryana	501	366	135	429	1.17
Kerala	1141	849	292	1169	1.38
Maharashtra	2461	1814	647	2929	1.62
Uttar Pradesh	5183	3621	1562	2209	0.61
West Bengal	3046	914	2132	918	1

Source: Report of CAG (No. 25 of 2017)

The population-doctor ratio in India was 11,082:1 in 2017 in government hospitals, 25 times higher than the World Health Organization recommendation of 25 professionals per 10,000 population, as IndiaSpend reported on January 28, 2019.

Dearth of data
The NITI Aayog, the government’s policy think tank and the body responsible for overseeing implementation of SDGs, and the statistics ministry in consultation with the state governments, were to prepare the National Indicator Framework, the backbone for monitoring of SDGs.

However, data for 137 of 306 national indicators were not available for 13 SDG goals, the CAG’s report said.

The framework includes 50 indicators related to health, but data for 23 of these–such as screening for cervical cancer among women and incidence of viral hepatitis–were not available, according to the report.

At both the Centre and the state levels, there was “evidence of insufficient efforts at putting in place a comprehensive indicator framework, identification of data sources, production of disaggregated data” for Goal 3 (good health and well-being), the report said.

“Better measurement, greater evidence and more informed reporting are expanding voter awareness and deepening policy debates,” as IndiaSpend reported on May 15, 2019. “This makes it imperative for central and state governments to improve the quality of public health data.”

(Ali is a reporter with IndiaSpend.)

First published on https://www.indiaspend.com/

‘Home’ as a site of oppression: Paul Chirakkarode’s ‘Pulayathara’

August 29, 2019

Translated by Catherine Thankamma

Pulayathara by Paul Chirakkarode (1939-2008) explains how different an idea ‘home’ is, for the Pulayas and Paraiyars of Kerala, the supposed ‘lower’ castes of the land. ‘Home’, for them, is an ever changing, fragile, and ambiguous entity, for it is where their ‘upper’ caste ‘masters’ permit it to exist. ‘Roots’ then, in this context, becomes a symbol of privilege, for the feeling of ‘rootedness’ would only be possible for the one with a fixed home. The book takes us through the life of Thevan Pulayan, as it moves through the tumultuous story of his displacement and loss of identity. A man so attached to ‘his’ land and the fields that he worked on, his lifestory is placed on the background of fissuring paddy fields that have dried up because of scanty rains in the month of Makaram. One of the earliest Dalit writers in Malayalam, Paul Chirakkarode’s work also tells us how the lives of ‘untouchables’ have not been very different for the Christian converts among them either. Although allowed to set up homes on Church-sanctioned land, their lives were still controlled by the ‘upper caste’ Christians around them. Furthermore, Chirakkarode adds how the land sanctioned to the Pulayas were spatially separated from where the upper castes lived, leading to their inevitable ghettoisation in Kerala’s geo-cultural landscape. All of it seem to have made ‘home’ a site of oppression and subjugation – often just an idea, not physically existent – for the Pulayas and Paraiyars, writes the translator of the text Catherine Thankamma in the Introduction, communities that are still largely considered ‘untouchables’ in present-day Malayali society, making it a significant text of and for the times.’

The following are some crucial excerpts from the Introduction, and chapters ‘Heartbreak’ and ‘Yearning’ of Pulayathara by Paul Chirakkarode, translated from Malayalam by Catherine Thankamma.

Image Courtesy: The Indian Express

Home is not just a place of habitation. It is an idea, a concept deeply embedded in our collective unconscious ever since human beings gave up a nomadic way of life for a settled one. The idea of home is one that simultaneously represents physiological, psychological, and social needs. The Malayalam word thara can variously mean floor, platform, foundation, and home. For the Pulayar and Parayar, two Dalit castes of Kerala, thara was often a 36-square-foot raised mud platform enclosed by a framework made by binding together whole/slit bamboo poles and thick ribs of coconut branches, the walls and roof covered with woven coconut sheaves. To this they would return after the day’s hard labour, to rest their aching bones till dawn. For these repressed people—who hardly had any aspirations and which, if they dared to have any, were hardly ever realized—thara should have been an asylum, a sanctuary. However, in the caste-determined feudalistic social fabric, even the surety of a home was denied to the so-called untouchable castes. Pulayathara (1962) depicts how the socially sanctioned substantive inequality that existed in nineteenth-century Kerala turned ‘home’ into a site of oppression and subjugation.
[…]

The time for harvest had arrived. The green paddy fields acquired a golden hue from the grain that adorned each plant. From the slope of the hill on which the Church stood, the cluster of fields lay outspread, a vast expanse. The early morning sun dripped more gold on the golden rows of grain. The dark-skinned women, carrying newly sharpened sickles, could be seen moving in a line along the edge of the fields. Thevan Pulayan stood in the Pallithara yard and watched. He felt a sharp stab of pain as though a dagger had pierced his chest. The paddy field that lay snug on the other side of the line of fields was Narayanan Nair’s, Thevan Pulayan’s merciless Tham’ran’s.

Thevan was the one who had built its boundary, plied the seven-leafed wheel to dry out the excess water, and sowed the seeds. His sweat had fallen on that soil, drop by drop. His soul that had been plucked out and thrown away from that field was striking against its skeletal frame, crying to be let out.
‘Eda k’datha, Kandankora,’ Thevan Pulayan turned towards the house and called.

Kandankoran reached his Achan’s side. The older Pulayan said, a sob in his voice, ‘Eda k’datha, harvest has begun.’

‘Hmm.’ A deep grunt. Kandankoran felt a grief-stricken sigh stifle his chest. He, too, was chewing down the pain.

Thevan Pulayan said, ‘Eda k’datha, they must be harvesting our field too.’ Kunjol Velathan and son Azhakan, who were tenanting Anjilthara, must be moving towards the field now. He must reach there before that. Thevan was the one who sowed that field. The right to cut the first grain-laden shoot was his. He would not allow another to usurp that right.

‘I’ll go there and be back soon.’
Kandankora stopped him. Thevan would be inviting danger if he went there. Thevan Pulayan would not stand on the side and look on. He would enter the fi eld and harvest. Thampuran would then use his stick on him. As the picture rose in his mind, Kandankoran felt a flash of fear. In earlier times workers often suffered the beatings of landlords.

‘Acha, don’t go.’
Thevan Pulayan experienced the agony that the soul of an imprisoned man feels. Kandankoran stood by silently. Life had no stability anywhere. It shifted beneath their feet. In those aimless lives, defeats outnumbered everything else. There might have been others among Thevan Pulayan’s ancestors who had been thrown out of their homes in the same manner. Even then they had continued to serve the landlords. They showed great enthusiasm in seeing the landlord’s granary fi ll with grain. Even as they worked themselves to death, the landlords grew stout. But they forgot that another generation had sprung from among the low castes and was growing up.

Unknown to Kandankoran, Thevan Pulayan went to the field. He walked fast—past Anjilthara, past the outer fence—but his legs were trembling. The tremor spread all through his body. Was that resistance? Maybe. It could also be the weight of humiliation. The western wind blew in from Aayirampara field. Thevan Pulayan inhaled deeply. As he inhaled the air, he felt a new life enter him.

People were already lined up in the field. Kunjolu Velathan from Anjilthara cut the first crop. The others too began to reap and move forward. Thevan Pulayan could not bear to watch it. The old Pulayan turned and walked back.
[…]

Suddenly a child came running towards them. He said, ‘Achan has asked for Paulos and Pallithara Pathros. He wants you to see him immediately.’

Pallithara Pathros asked, ‘Who all are there at the Mission bungalow?’

‘Achan, Custodian Thomas, and some other people.’ Paulos looked at Pallithara Pathros meaningfully.

‘It must be to tell us not to hold the meeting,’ said a youngster.

Another agreed and added, ‘What the Custodian went about saying must be true.’

In their hearts everyone was afraid. But no one admitted it. They spent some time dithering. Finally Paulos said, ‘Let Achan resist us, let the Custodian resist us, we will hold this meeting.’

His words sounded like a soldier’s battle call. The others gained courage from it.

‘Yes, we will hold this meeting!’ They echoed his words.

The words struck the walls of the Church and reverberated. It was the echo of the new generation awakening. As it struck, the foundation of the Hilltop Church shook. The tremor was strong. Paulos and the others entered the priest’s bungalow. They stood in the attractive room bathed in the light of an electric lamp. There seemed to be quite a few people there. Custodian Thomas sat next to the priest. At that moment, for some reason, Paulos thought of Archangel Gabriel who sat next to God. As he thought of it, a grin appeared on Paulos’s face.

Achan looked at them closely through his shining spectacles.

Then he lowered his head and sat silently. After a while Paulos said, ‘We have come, Acho.’

Courage echoed in those words, the courage of a community that had become enlightened. It created waves in the acquisitive mindset that fi lled that attractive room.

‘A command has been issued by the higher Church. You cannot hold your meeting,’ Achan said regretfully.

So they could not speak about the grievances that they suffered? What other place was there where they could proclaim it all?

A terrible urge to challenge sprang up within him, but Pathros controlled it. He asked quietly, ‘Why, Acho?’

Custodian Thomas was furious. He said, ‘Look, just look at his audacity. Eda, I will tell you. Your ways are against the Lord. You are going towards Satan’s side. The communists here are aiding you. So …’ He paused, cleared his throat, and said with the intolerance of the believer, ‘We will not allow you to hold the meeting. It is a shame for us. And the authorities are on our side!’

Paulos asked: ‘Who are these us and you?’

At last, the division was out into the open! Caste difference had been expressed openly. However much you sang and prayed, the barrier of caste continued. It would not die.

Paul Chirakkarode (1939-2008), born to a Dalit preacher, was a lawyer, a social activist, and a prolific writer. He has more than 20 novels, 3 collections of stories, 3 biographies, and numerous critical and political tracts in his repertoire. He also taught at various educational institutions. He was the founder editor of the journal Padavugal, published by the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Kerala. His fictional writings include Nananja Bhoomi, Kayam, Aa Velicham, and, Puthiya Paarpidam.

Catherine Thankamma is a retired college professor, writer, and translator who mostly translates short stories for anthologies. Narayan’s Kocharethi: The Araya Woman, recipient of the 2011 Crossword Award, and Sethu’s Aliyah (2017) are the novels that she has translated. She lives in Kochi, India.

These are excerpts from Pulayathara written by Paul Chirakkarode, translated by Catherine Thankamma, and edited by Mini Krishnan. It is published by Oxford University Press, India. Republished here with permission from the publisher.

First published on Indian Cultural Forum

Who is Sant Ravidas and why are his devotees agitating? Pardeep Attri provides background

August 29, 2019

On August 10th, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), on the orders of Supreme Court, demolished a Sant Guru Ravidas temple in Tughlakabad on the grounds that the land belonged to the Government.

This 15th century temple located in a forested area has been dedicated to Sant Guru Ravidas, a spiritual saint and a poet highly revered by many people and especially Dalit communities in North India.

The legal case of the land was pending for 27 long years and the Supreme Court order tried to end the old dispute by declaring the land as belonging to DDA. This has now erupted in rage amongst the Dalit congregation who, along with the larger Ravidassia community in North India, have been on protests ever since that temple was demolished.

Dalits followers of Sant Guru Ravidas who claim ownership of the land where the temple stood are being asked to rebuild this temple on another plot. Dalits who are organised into ‘Ravidas Jayanti Samaroh Samiti’ (Ravidas Jayanthi Celebration committee) say that it is like suggesting the Hindus to build the Ram temple at a site other than Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, where some believe that Lord Ram has been born.

On 21st August, thousands of Dalits from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other states staged protests against the demolition and the police resorted to lathi charge and tear gas shells. Nearly 90 leaders, including Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar Azad, were detained by the police.
TwoCircles.net spoke to Pardeep Attri, a follower of the Sant Ravidas himself, to know more about the saint and why Dalits are agitated over this order of the SC and the subsequent demolition of the temple by the DDA.

Pardeep Attri, is also the founder editor of Velivada, a web publication and owner of the twitter handle Ambedkar Caravan.

Can you tell us a little about who is Sant Guru Ravidas?
Pardeep: Guru Ravidas was born in 1433 at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in a Chamar family and travelled around preaching the value of humanity across India. He openly denounced all the Brahmanical scriptures like Vedas, Puranas, Smritis, Upanishads as these promoted the hegemony of Brahmins and justified the social inequality and exploitation of the masses.

As he says – “Charon ved kiya khandoti, Jan Ravidas kare dandoti” (I, Ravidas, proclaim all Vedas are worthless)

He threw a challenge to Brahmins of his time by worshipping God despite being from the untouchable community, which wasn’t allowed to read/write, forget worshipping God. He saw a dream of “Begumpura” (city without sorrow) almost 500 years before Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’!

Image source from velivada

Who are his followers, how many people belong to this sect (India and abroad)?
Pardeep: Followers of Guru Ravidas follow the newly established religion, Ravidassia, which came into existence when one of the religious teachers from Dera Sach Khand Ballan, Jalandhar, was murdered in Vienna, Austria, while he was on tour to Europe for preaching. Most of the followers are from the Dalit community from Northern Indian states such as Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra in the center. So, if you want to put numbers on followers I would say 34% population of Punjab consisting of Dalits is mostly follower of Guru Ravidas. There is a large followership of Guru Ravidas in Italy, Spain, Austria, UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Guru Ravidas temples have been built by followers around the world. There is even a road named after Ravidas in UK.

Babasaheb Ambedkar had dedicated the book, “Who were the untouchables” to Sant Ravidas, Chokhamela, and Nandanar.

Guru Ravi Dass Lane, Bedford

What according to you are the present day contributions of ravidassias ?
Pardeep: If Dalits from Punjab are conscious about their rights and gathered in thousands to protest against any atrocity that happens to Dalits in Punjab, credit one way or another goes to the fight launched by Guru Ravidas almost 600 years ago and his followers who kept the torch of struggle lit despite numerous challenges.

Is it fair to say that a lot of Ravidassias come from the Dalit Community?
Pardeep: No, in fact, all of the Ravidassia come from Dalit community!

How connected is the Ravidassia faith to the anti-caste movement.
Pardeep: I think I answered it in the above questions. But here is a bit more –
Founders and followers of Ad Dharm movement in Punjab subscribed to the philosophy of equality preached by Guru Ravidas. Later, it was Ad Dharm – a sect formed by the Dalits of Punjab, inspired by Guru Ravidas’s ideology, that started many schools for Dalit community in Punjab. They supported Dr Ambedkar throughout and when Gandhi was claiming to be a representative of the untouchable community during Round Table Conferences at the beginning of the 1930s, Ad Dharm leaders sent 100s of telegrams to the UK, letting the British authorities know that Dr Ambedkar is the real representative of the untouchable community. Babu Mangu Ram, the founder of Ad Dharm movement in Punjab, sat on a hunger strike against the hunger strike of Gandhi when Gandhi was opposing separate electorate awarded to untouchables.

Kanshi Ram belonged to the same Ravidassia community and everyone knows his fights for anti-caste movement!

Present-day Sach Khand Ballan Dera publishes a weekly magazine, operates various schools and hospitals for Dalits in Punjab. In a nutshell, you can say that the anti-caste movement in Punjab is led by the Ravidassia community.

Can you comment on the on-going saffronization of Guru Ravidass and the faith itself?
Pardeep: It would take me hours to answer this question. But putting it very briefly, the so-called upper castes have been trying for decades to include Guru Ravidas in the list of their own numerous Gods. Many attempts – such as depicting Guru Ravidas on the foot of a cow, dressing Guru Ravidas in saffron garments, putting brahma-Vishnu

Image source from velivada

tilak on Guru Ravidas’s forehead, showing him as being blessed by some Hindu Gods etc. have been made. But Guru Ravidas was against all such customs.

A few years back, in the Punjab School Education Board’s books, the names of Guru Ravidas’ parents, his date of birth and even his name were wrongly published. Such mischief is being done by so-called upper castes to show Guru Ravidas was one of their Gods. Dalit academics from Punjab, especially, have been actively condemning the process of Brahminization of Guru Ravidas.

What do you wish to say about the hurt sentiments surrounding the destruction of the Tuglakhabad Shri Guru Ravidass Temple?
Pardeep: More than sentiments hurt, I would say it is a matter of oppression and suppression of the Dalit community and denying them equality and justice. Sure, Guru Ravidas has millions of followers and they all have religious sentiments attached to religious places associated with their Guru. But the demolition of Ravidas temple is an attack on Dalit history and Dalit pride. It is believed Guru Ravidas had visited that place so sure there is a strong attachment to the place from Dalit community. I see it more as an inline to Brahminical forces’ whole agenda of destroying Dalit history. A few years ago, Siddhartha Bhavan in Mumbai, place where Dalit Panthers was founded, was demolished by BJP government; Dr Ambedkar’s belongings are in a miserable condition in Nagpur. All that the BJP/RSS Government wants is publicity in the name Dalit icons and Dalit votes while destroying the Dalit history.

How do you think this parallels to the destruction of Babri Masjid for example.
Pardeep: I believe there is a strong relationship here, while millions of Hindu temples are built on illegal lands, obstructing normal traffic many times, no one has dared to touch those temples, temples which are built in the name of 33 crore fictitious gods. On the other hand, our historical places have been destroyed.
Destruction of Babri Masjid and Guru Ravidas temple are attempts to suppress Muslim and Dalit communities, both communities already have been side-lined and kept at the margin.

With Ravidassia using the same slogan ‘Mandir Wahin Banayenge’ as the BJP?RSS about Ram temple, do you see this a reclamation of the slogan in some way ?
Pardeep: Yes, it is the same rhetoric that RSS/BJP has been saying that why don’t Muslims build Masjid somewhere else and Dalits believe why can’t Ram Mandir be built somewhere? King Ram doesn’t have any historical proof but there is a long history of Guru Ravidas and the places he visited, Delhi’s temple is one such place. There has been a continuous attack on Dalits and minority communities and their religious places in India, take, for example, the Golden temple, Amritsar, was demolished, Babri Masjid was demolished, Sidharatha Bhavan in Mumbai (historical place for Dalits as Dalit Panthers was formed and operated from there) was demolished by BJP government and now Guru Ravidas temple has been demolished.

For other analogies, you can look into whenever there have been incidents of caste discrimination that some Dalit has been denied of cremation in common cremation places, many times what has been the solution of governments that build some separate cremation place, somewhere else so that so-called upper castes don’t get angry at the common cremation place. Why should there be separate cremation places for different caste groups?

I can’t recall at the moment exact incident but there has been a lot of cases that government/admin trying to pacify the situation by offering some other place to build a temple or toilet or cremation places. This is no equality and no justice. Further, Guru Ravidas temple is a historical place and it is an absurd argument to move historical place to somewhere else. What would be historical about that new place?

“Mandir Wahin Banayenge” slogan one could say is a clever appropriation of what so-called upper castes have been doing in their demand to build Ram Mandir. And more so uttered to bring attention to the issue of historical places can’t be moved from one place to another. It is also shouted because in one place when Hindus consider Dalits as part of Hinduism then deny their rights, what sense does that make? If Hindus are adamant on building Ram Mandir at the same place then Dalits are adamant that our Guru’s temple be built at the same place which is historical.

Protest in Delhi against the demolition of Guru Ravidas temple ( from Facebook)

How do you foresee this issue being politicised in the coming days.
Pardeep: I would not use the word politicised. What is there to politicise actually? The land was awarded to the temple and there are papers available. Or even if there are some papers missing, how many temples in India have proper papers? How many temples are built on public land? The answer would be in millions!

It is RSS/BJP controlled courts and the administration that is saying ‘don’t politicise the issue’. After killing 1000s and politicising the Babri Masjid issue for more than 3 decades, they are telling the Dalits don’t politicise the issue, which is simply absurd.
On the other hand, if Guru Ravidas temple is not rebuilt on the same location Dalits are firm to continue to fight against that ruling.

What role has the international Ravidassia diaspora played in protesting the destruction of the temple?
Pardeep: There were protests in front of Indian embassies around the world on 21st August, from Austria to the UK to USA and Australia Ravidassia followers came out to support the cause.

Courtesy: Two Circles

Congratulations, Mayawati! But What About Dreams of Babasaheb and Kanshi Ram?

August 29, 2019

Mayawati has once again been elected as the president of Bahujan Samaj Party. She has retained this post ever since she succeeded party founder Kanshi Ram.

Mayawati has once again been elected as the president of Bahujan Samaj Party. She has retained this post ever since she succeeded party founder Kanshi Ram. In her long tenure, how has the Bahujan movement changed? What happened to the dreams of Babasaheb and Kanshi Ram? Is she scared of the ruling powers? Asks senior journalist Urmilesh.

Abrogation of Article 370: SC refers petitions to Constitution Bench, issues notices to Center

August 28, 2019

In wake of the abrogation of article 370, many different individuals and organisations have moved a variety of petitions before the Supreme Court. A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SA Bobde and Justice SA Nazeer heard a batch of petitions on Wednesday, August 28, 2019. Here are the key highlights of the petitions and their current status.

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Petitions to examine the Constitutional validity of the scrapping of Article 370:

A batch of petitions were filed challenging the Presidential Order of August 5. The first Kashmiri to file a petition was advocate Shakir Shabir who claims that the Presidential Order is unconstitutional and void ab initio. Another petition was moved by Lok Sabha MPs Mohammed Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference.

Retired military officers and bureaucrats also moved Supreme Court. Petitioners in this case include Radha Kumar (a former member of the Home Ministry’s Group of Interlocutors in J&K), Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Kapil Kak, former IAS officer HH Tyabji, Gopal Pillai (a former Union Home Secretary), and Amitabha Pande (former Secretary of the Union Government’s Inter-State Council) among others.

Detained former IAS officer Shah Faesal, activist Shehla Rashid and five other also moved SC challenging the validity of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. They further said that the order was unconstitutional for being passed in disregard of the consent of the people. The petition may be read here.

Supreme Court lawyer Soayib Qureshi and advocate ML Sharma have also filed petitions.

The SC has now ordered that a Constitution Bench of five judges hears these petitions. Hearing will begin in the first week of October. The court has also issued notice to the Central government.

Petition against communication clampdown:

Kashmir Times Executive Editor Anuradha Bhasin sought immediate restoration of communication lines and relaxation of all restrictions on the movement of media-persons in Kashmir and some districts of Jammu. The petition may be read here. The SC has now issued notice to the Center and the J&K administration and sought a reply within seven days.

Activist Tehseen Poonawala also moved SC alleging violation of Constitutional rights in wake of the communication blackout in the region. He also called the arrests and detention of local political leaders and activists, unjustifiable and arbitrary. Poonawala’s petition has been tagged with Bhasin’s petition.

Habeas Corpus Petition by Sitaram Yechuri:

CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri also moved the apex court demanding answers about the whereabouts and health of party member and former MLA Yousuf Tarigami who it is alleged has been placed under detention in Kashmi and is said to be in poor health. However, the Center argued that Yechuri’s visit was political in nature and was likely to “adversely affect the situation”.

The Supreme Court allowed Yechuri to visit Tarigami, but cautioned him saying, “We make it clear that if the petitioner is found to be indulging in any other act, omission or commission save and except what has been indicated above i.e. to meet his friend and colleague party member and to enquire about his welfare and health condition, it will be construed to be a violation of this Court’s order.” Yechuri was also directed to file an affidavit about Tarigami’s health upon his return. Yechuri tweeted, “The Supreme Court has permitted me to go to Srinagar and see Com Yousuf Tarigami and “report” back to them on the condition of his health. Once I meet him, return and report to the Court, I will make a more detailed statement.” The entire order may be read here.

Petition by JMI University student:

Mohammed Aleem Sayeed, a Kashmiri student of Jamia Milia Islamia University also moved Supreme Court for permission to visit his family in Kashmir. He was extremely worried as he was unable to establish contact with his family in wake of the communication blackout and moved court as a last resort. Ruling in his favour the court said, “The petitioner shall be allowed to travel to Jammu & Kashmir; go to Anantnag; meet his parents and after ensuring their welfare, to report back to the WP(Crl.) 225/2019 2 Court on the next date fixed. An affidavit of the events that have transpired pursuant to the order of this Court, shall be filed immediately on return of the petitioner from Jammu & Kashmir.” The entire order may be read here

Study finds disturbing anti-Muslim prejudices among Police personnel, 1/3 justify mob violence in Cow slaughter incidents

August 28, 2019

While no statistics of actual representation of Muslims within the police force are available with the government of India concealing this data the Common Cause-CSDS study, therefore, highlights importance of trainings in rectifying and addressing biased attitudes towards communities

Image: Communalism Combat, March 1998

This is not the first time that this has been brought to India’s notice. But are the institutions of governance receptive to such critiques? The deep-rooted bias within our police force against India’s religious minorities. Seminal studies by the noted academic and India scholar, Paul Brass (Forms of Collective Violence—Riots, Pogroms and Genocide in Modern India, 2002, published later in 2006), where the author and social scientist argues on the systemic and institutionalised riot mechanism in India, that works to a pattern, against the Muslim minority of India. Earlier, in the tumultuous 1990s an IPS officer, Vibhuti Narain Rai, took time off from his duty to scrutinise, research and study not just attitudinal issues within the police force when it came to Muslims, but also the conduct and behaviour of Indian policemen when they were confronted with communal violence (1995). This was published in a book, titled Combating Communal Conflicts,

Now, in 2019, after the India of targeted progroms has changed to the everyday fear-mongering and hate violence of lynchings, a study by Common Cause- Centre for the study of developing societies (CSDS), Lokneeti has revealed disturbing prejudices of police personnel towards Muslims on the question of committing violence. The study has also highlighted prejudicial attitudes in the incidents of mob violence.

The idea behind the study titled ‘Status of Policing in India Report 2019’, was to “offer policy-oriented insights into the conditions in which Indian police works.” Apart from other aspects, the report delves into sensitivities and service conditions of police personnel, their resources and infrastructure, patterns of their routine contact with common people and state of policing apparatus on the country.

To study the attitudes of the police personnel towards various communities, the researchers asked the police personnel to what extent, according to them, are people from different communities, castes, religions, economic and educational backgrounds naturally prone towards committing crimes. It interviewed 12,000 police personnel from 21 different states.

The report highlights a disturbingly evident bias in attitudes towards Muslims as a community when it came to the question of committing crimes. It observed, “When we looked at what the police personnel think about various communities, the data indicated a significant bias against Muslims. However, no such prejudices were reported against people from SC or ST communities. About half of the police personnel reported that Muslims are likely to be naturally prone towards committing violence (‘very much’ and ‘somewhat’ combined). We observed similar trend in the reverse direction as well, with less number of police personnel likely to report that Muslims are less likely to be naturally prone at committing violence as compared to people from various caste-groups”.

Picture: Status of Policing in India Report 2019 by Common Cause-CSDS-Lokneeti

Studying the pattern decades earlier, for instance, Paul R. Brass, the noted author and social scientist, argues, in Forms of Collective Violence: Riots, Pogroms, and Genocide in Modern India:
In the long, previously unpublished essay on “The Politics of Curfew”, I have provided extensive, detailed accounts from my own interviews over many years, as well as from other sources, concerning the misuse of curfew in India as a device for the victimization of the Muslim population during riots. In preparing that essay, I searched for comparative literature on the subject and found none, but I did find evidence that misuse of curfew restrictions to victimize particular ethnic or subject groups is hardly confined to India. I have, therefore, argued that this is an issue that needs to be taken up by the human rights community and international organizations. I have also proposed a set of policies that might be considered by such groups and by governments in India.

The last essay in the collection takes up the issue of what secularism means in India in relation to collective and state violence involving Hindu-Muslim relations. I argue here, as I have elsewhere, that secular values are absolutely essential for the maintenance of a just peaceful social order in India. I believe, moreover, that the whole movement against secular values in India and the West is a grave mistake in which, regrettably, many valued colleagues and serious academic writers in India and the West are involved.”

Similarly, in his preface to the book, Combating Communal Conflicts, that was then published in 1999, Rai writes:
When I got an opportunity to study the behaviour of Indian Police during communal riots as a fellow of the SVP National Police Academy, Hyderabad, I did not realise that my work could be so interesting and challenging. The more I immersed in the research, the more I became aware of my limitations. The biggest limitation was the difficulty I experienced in trying to overcome the mental barrier of the average policeman. Most of the Police Officers and men with whom I had an opportunity to interact were convinced that most effective way to control or prevent a communal riot was to adopt harsh measures against the Muslims. Almost all of them, with very few exceptions, were of the view that Muslims were responsible for starting riots and, therefore, the most effective way of preventing them was to deal harshly with that community. Perhaps, this is the reason that events like Hashimpura (1987, Meerut) or Logain (1989, Bhagalpur) where the police killed more than 30 innocent members of the minority community or allowed more than 100 to be slaughtered by those belonging to the majority community are not able to create any feeling of repentance and are even justified with forceful arguments. It was this mental barrier that prevented me from gaining access to many police documents that would have helped this Study.

As a Police Officer, it is my firm belief that unless we come to terms with the fact that we have been committing colossal blunders in dealing with communal riots, we will continue to repeat our mistakes and continue to be put in the dock. Unfortunately, the Police leadership is not prepared to accept these mistakes. I think this is the reason that in spite of the fact that it was the SVP National Police Academy that gave me the fellowship to undertake this Study, it refused to publish my findings. I am thankful to the LBS National Academy of Administration. Mussoorie for having taken the initiative in publishing my study. I would specially like to thank Shri N.C. Saxena, IAS, Director. LBS National Academy of Administration. Mussoorie for having taken the decision to publish it.”

Gujarat 2002’s genocidal pogrom against India’s largesst religious minority took this entrenched prejudice to new levels. Yeh andar ki baat hai, Police hamare saath hai! (It’s an inside story, the police is with us!) was the much-heard boast of the Sangh Parivar cadre in Gujarat then. Then a call to conscience, to all members of the Indian Police Service in mid-March, by a serving officer, received some supportive responses but is making this public in the interests of furthuring a debate on issues of conscience within the forces told India and the world how widespread the anti-Muslim conduct was. Former ADGP(Intelligence), Gujarat, RB Sreekumar who bore witness to the 2002 pogrom, spoke to Communalism Combat on the trials and tribulations of taking a Constitutional stand. He still faces persecution from the powers that be.

Now the the study by Common Cause- Centre for the study of developing societies (CSDS), Lokneeti makes a similar point.
Police personnel in four of the States surveyed, namely, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Bihar, had about two-third or more police personnel who held the opinion that the Muslim community is likely (‘very much’ and ‘somewhat’ combined) to be naturally prone towards committing violence. Four out of five police personnel from Uttarakhand had this opinion.

Picture: Status of Policing in India Report 2019 by Common Cause-CSDS-Lokneeti

Similarly, disturbing patterns of biased attitudes emerged in the cases of mob justice.
In the recent years, numerous cases of mob violence against individuals (sometimes referred to as ‘mob lynching’)on suspicions of cow-slaughter, kidnapping, etc. have been reported, and the police is known to have played an enabling role for the people engaging in such forms of violence. This merits the need to understand police personnel’s opinions on the public taking matters into their hands over issues that cause moral outrage, such as cow slaughter or rape or kidnapping. On the other hand, a relatively neutral category of crime such as road accidents caused due to the negligence of the driver has been taken for the purpose of comparison.

The study attempted to analyse the attitude of the police towards the nature of crime and justifiability of a mob in punishing the culprit. The researchers asked the respondents to what extent is it natural for the mob to punish the culprits on their own in four situations- in a case of cow-slaughter, in a case of kidnapping, in a case of rape and in a case of road accident due to driver’s negligence. They said, “..a relatively neutral category of crime such as road accidents caused due to the negligence of the driver has been taken for the purpose of comparison.”

Shockingly, more than one in every three police personnel believed that it was natural for a mob to “punish” the alleged culprit in a case of cow-slaughter (‘to a large extent’ and ‘somewhat’ combined). While in the case of the three other cases of crime, two in five personnel believed so.

This meant that while a little less than half believed that it wasn’t natural for the mob to punish the culprit in case of cow-slaughter, while more than half found it natural, either to a “large extent” or “somewhat” or “rarely”. In case of other three types of alleged crimes, about 6 to 10 percentage points lesser people were found to believe the mobs’ action to be not natural at all.

Picture: Status of Policing in India Report 2019 by Common Cause-CSDS-Lokneeti

The study also found out that “for all the four cases of mob-violence, the senior officers are less likely to believe the action of mob to be natural compared to their subordinates (constabulary ranks).”

It observed, “While 28 percent of seniors were found to believe the mob violence in case of cow slaughter to be more of natural (‘to a large extent’ or ‘somewhat’), the proportion of subordinates were found to be 8 percentage points higher. In the three other cases of mob violence, this difference was found to be around 10 percentage points.”

Among the respondents who were in complete disagreement (responding as ‘not at all’), the respondents at the officer level ranks were in higher proportion, 10 percentage points higher, compared to the respondents at constabulary ranks.

The report emphasised on the need for “proper training in essential aspects of the rule of law at all levels in order to inculcate constitutional values and rational conduct among police personnel.”

A deeper analysis reflected that Madhya Pradesh was found to have two in every five and Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh about one in every four believing it to be very natural for a mob to punish the culprit in case of cow slaughter. Seven of the States had less than one in every three believing it to be not natural at all for the mob to punish the culprit.

The report –the latest in a long line of similar studies—has alleged that a significant proportion of police force has a casual attitude towards incidents of mob violence, believing it to be natural for the mob to take law into their own hands. While majority of police personnel were found to have received the trainings in human rights, caste sensitisation and crowd control, for a large section of the police, this training was only imparted at the time of joining.

The study documents that, “These attitudes and opinions could therefore be a reflection of the lack of proper and frequent trainings. Such training, if provided regularly using proper modules, might help not just in softening their preconceived notions towards vulnerable sections of the society, but in also ensuring that such biases do not interfere with proper functioning of the police. An institutional bias against the marginalised sections further increases the vulnerability of these groups. A healthier police-public interface can only be achieved when these prejudices are attacked and due process is established. Thus, there is an urgent need for the police to come out of the web of societal prejudices and prove itself efficient in upholding all the rights provided by the Constitution of India.”

Related Articles:
1. Anti–minority bias in the Indian Police
2. Former DGP RB Sreekumar of Gujarat speaks to Communalism Combat-Newsclick about the fresh challenges he faces.
3. Gujarat Behind the Curtain
4. Concerned Citizens Tribunal—Crimes Against Humanity, Disturbing Trends: Police System

Police Force sans Diversity: Poor rep of SCs, STs, Women, OBCs, Muslims Invisibilized

August 28, 2019

The representation of Muslims not analysed because of absence of NCRB data; the condition of women is the worst, especially in officer-level posts

A study by Common Cause- Centre for the study of developing societies (CSDS), Lokneeti has again revealed that marginalised communities such the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward castes (OBCs) and women are under-represented in the country’s police forces. Tragically, the organisation could not even look at the presence of the Muslim minorities because of the deliberate concealment of this data by the government. Not just Muslims, Christians, the other small but distinct religious minority has also been victim of a targeted bias from the system. In 2008, in both Kandhamal and Karnataka evidences of these attitudes were seen.

The idea behind the present study titled ‘Status of Policing in India Report 2019’, was to “offer policy-oriented insights into the conditions in which Indian police works.” Apart from other aspects, the report delves into sensitivities and service conditions of police personnel, their resources and infrastructure, patterns of their routine contact with common people and state of policing apparatus on the country.

The report titled, Status of Policing in India Report 2019 –Policy Adequacy and Working Conditions may be read here.

On the issue of diversity, the report highlights that while SCs are under-represented in 19 out of 21 state police forces studied in proportion to their share of reserved postings, STs and OBCs are inadequately represented in 16 and 11 states, respectively.

The representation of women amongst these is the “worst” with only 7.3 percent women police personnel at the national level in 2016. Moreover, none of the states have been able to meet the required benchmark of 33 percent while filling their posts, as per the report. The highest representation has been in Tamil Nadu at 12.9 percent in 2016.

When it comes to SCs, their representation in the state police force ranges from a worrying 40.2 percent (of the reserved sanctioned strength) in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to 101.8 percent in Punjab. SCs are underrepresented across North Indian states such as UP, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, being some of the worst performing states.

On similar lines, the ST representation across states ranges from 3.6 percent in Haryana to 152.5 percent in Uttarakhand. While the OBC representation is the poorest in West Bengal with 22.6 percent and best in Telangana with 145.3 percent.

The report observes that while overall 13.4 per cent of the total police personnel are officers (assistant sub-inspector to deputy superintendent of police), only 11.5 per cent, 11.6 per cent, 11.1 per cent and 10.1 per cent of the SCs, STs, OBCs and women are of the officer rank.

The data for SCs, STs and OBCs is only available only till the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP). Therefore, the percentage of officers among women in police and the overall police force has also been taken as the proportion of ASI to DySP to enable comparison across categories, the report highlighted. Except for five of the selected states namely Assam, MP, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, the proportion of women officers is consistently lower than the overall proportion of officers in all state, the report noted.

More than one-third of the states studied have disproportionately lower number of officers across all four categories. For example, in Delhi the overall number of officers is 20.6 per cent whereas only four per cent of the OBCs are officers. Similarly, in West Bengal, nearly 13 per cent of the STs and OBCs were of the officer rank while the overall figures stood at 23.8 per cent.

From the report, it becomes clear that maintaining diversity is not on the states’ agenda. The police forces are not only marred by high vacancies in the sanctioned posts, but also a lack of promotion or growth even if one gets recruited.

There is no data on representation of Muslims who are not covered under any reservation, as the data was discontinued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) after 2013.

The report says, “Aside from the moral and productivity-based arguments in favour of diversity, it is also a legal mandate for police forces in the country.” The Constitution makes provisions for reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in public service recruitments, including police, at both the State and the Central levels. Further, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued advisories to the State governments to increase the representation of women to at least 33 percent of the total police strength in the States. It is against these benchmarks of State-specific reservation quotas and the MHA advisory that the study measures the diversity within the police forces of different States.

In 2009, the Union Home Ministry set 33% as the benchmark target for women’s representation in the police. Apart from the Union Territories, only nine states adopted 33% reservation, five states 30%, Bihar 38% and five states below 30%. Nine states are yet to set targets.
In 2013, the Union Government recommended each police station to have at least three women Sub-Inspectors and 10 women police Constables to ensure women help desks are staffed at all times.
In 2015, the Union proposed creating Investigative Units for Crimes Against Women (IUCAW) at police stations in crime-prone districts across states. These units are to have 15 specialised investigators dealing specifically with crimes against women. At least one-third of the investigative staff are required to be women.
Studies in the past have highlighted how diversity ensures more acceptability in communities and makes problem solving easier.

Ronal Weitzer, a US based researcher and author of the book, Race and Policing in America wrote, “Importantly, such diversity can help to build trust and confidence in the police: the more a police department reflects the composition of the local population, the higher the department’s reputation among residents, which can provide a foundation to build further trust, coupled with other needed reforms.”

Pavani Nagaraja Bhat from the Police Reforms Program of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) highlights the grave problem of under-representation of women in the police forces in an essay, “As of 1 January 2017, the strength of women police in India was 7.28% of the total police.[1]This low representation of women is despite state governments setting reservation targets for women in the police ranging from 4% to 38%. Of the 7.28%, 0.85% belong to supervisory ranks, 9.76% to investigative ranks and 89.37% to the constabulary. These numbers are reflective of the exclusion of women in policing — especially at investigative and leadership levels. This inordinately affects the quality of policing. Yet, police recruitment continues to be irregular and scanty.”

United Nations Women collected data across 39 countries which showed that the presence of women police correlates positively with reporting of sexual assault, confirming that recruiting women is an important component of a gender-responsive justice system.
Several studies show the value of women in policing, not just in handling violence against women but other inherent aspects of policing. This is due to the experiences and realities of women that are different from those of men. A study from 2010 observed: “twenty years of exhaustive research demonstrates that women police officers utilise a style of policing that relies less on physical force, and more on communication skills that defuse potentially violent situations. Women police officers are therefore much less likely to be involved in occurrences of police brutality, and are also much more likely to effectively respond to police calls regarding violence against women. Despite having a poor record in gender based crimes, India still lags far behind in the representation of women in police forces.

The study does not include the inclusion of Muslims, India’s most hounded minority today. According to a report compiled by The Economist “No serious official effort has been made to assess the lot of India’s Muslims since the publication in 2006 of a study ordered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Called the Sachar report, it broadly showed Muslims to be stuck at the bottom of almost every economic or social heap. Though heavily urban, Muslims had a particularly low share of public (or any formal) jobs, school and university places, and seats in politics. They earned less than other groups, were more excluded from banks and other finance, spent fewer years in school and had lower literacy rates. Pitifully few entered the army or the police force.”

Sabrangindia and Communalism Combat before that has been assiduously analysing and campaigning around the issue of both representation of Indian Muslims in the police force and administration and also the attitudes of men in uniform vis a vis India’s largest minority.
An introduction to the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission Report into the Bombay 1992-1993 brute anti-minority pogrom published an introduction by journalist, educationist and activist, Teesta Setalvad. She has researched the various judicial commission reports into anti-minority violence. This section. Anti-Minority Bias in the Police Force may be read here. Ex-IPS officer, KS Subramanian’s essay ‘Babri Masjid 1992 – Gujarat 2002 – Kashmir 2016: How the Sangh Parivar has wrecked India’s secular social fabric by sustained anti-minority violence’ may be read here.

In February 1995, in the cover story of Communalism Combat (www.sabrang.com) Vibhuti Narain Rai gave an interview that turned the searchlight within, on the Indian Police Force. Setalvad had met him at the National PoliceAcademy where I had been asked to become part of a training given my work in the post Babri-Masjid demolition Bombay violence. In this explosive interview he had argued, cogently and with statistics about the deep-rooted bias within the Indian police. “No riot can continue for more than 24 hours unless the state wants it to continue,” he had said in an interview, that, after it appeared in the February 1995 issue of Communalism Combat was reproduced by 35 Indian publications in different languages. This seminal interview may be read here.

This poor representation of various sections of India’s marginalised, make it almost impossible for the social issues and crimes most plaguing the country today, to be taken seriously by the police. In fact, one witnesses that in many instances the police collude with the majoritarian community, namely Upper caste class Hindu male to perpetuate even more violence on those who are already persecuted.
Though some progressive judgments such as the one in which the SC upholds Karnataka law on Reservations in Promotions for Govt. employees provide a glimmer of hope, the implementation on the ground remains questionable.

Related Articles:
1. Crimes by men in uniform
2. Anti–minority bias in the Indian Police
3. Mayhem in Malegaon: A fact-finding team of human rights activists and lawyers that visited riot-hit Malegaon returns with disturbing evidence of a “complete communal-isation of the police and paramilitary forces”
4. Local Jharkand Police Used Communal Slogans: NCM on Latehar Hangings
5. Controversy: DIG claims he never said ‘Muslims follow religion of terrorists’

Iceland is mourning a dead glacier – how grieving over ecological destruction can help us face the climate crisis

August 28, 2019

Death certificates and commemorative plaques aren’t something you’d normally associate with a glacier. But that is exactly how Iceland recently mourned the loss of 700-year-old Okjökull, the first of its major glaciers to die.

People gather to commemorate the loss of 700 year old glacier Okjokull. STR/EPA

This is just one early example of events we will encounter more and more often as the hot new world we are creating slowly destroys ecosystems and livelihoods. But acknowledging the growing emotional trauma and grief felt at present and future environmental tragedies may yet be the kick we need to limit their reach.

Grief radically differs in its logic from ordinary sadness over a loss. If sadness is the response to the removal of an object from the tablecloth that represents a person’s lived world, grief results from loss that tears the very fabric of that cloth. In order to repair this hole and emerge from the resulting pain and outrage, the lived world has to be reconfigured.

To grieve though, one must acknowledge the tear in that world. This can take time, and denial is a common part of the process of accepting deep loss. This may at first take the form of a temptation toward out-and-out disbelief, and linger as sporadic thoughts and hopes that what was lost, wasn’t.

It may seem an irrational reaction, but it’s a completely understandable defence mechanism against life-shattering loss. The world without what’s been lost is so radically and qualitatively different that the psyche resists accepting reality.

While much climate denial owes itself to corruption and vested interests, the avoidance of grief may explain why many decent and intelligent people are also tempted to deny the climatic breakdown humans are causing.

It is, in a certain sense, unimaginable, even absurd, to think of us destabilising our very climate, or the scale and speed of change required to stop the slide. It isn’t surprising that so many people have been desperately hoping that the science must somehow be wrong, or that so many more act as if we can still hope for the continuation of our same old world, rather than the fundamental shift in the way we operate and organise that’s required.

From grief to action

It requires sustained strength and attention to gradually turn denial into acceptance and to build a new life. Actions like Iceland’s glacier funeral are a vital part of that process. As symbols of eternity, glaciers have great cultural significance on the Nordic island. They’re also crucial for tourism and energy. And at current rates of warming, all of the country’s glaciers will suffer Okjökull’s fate in the next 200 years, one by one. For Icelanders, emotionally acknowledging this can galvanise the associated grief into action.

Left: Okjökull glacier in September 1986. Right: the now dead glacier in August 2019. Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory

It’s not an easy process, of course. As marks of our recklessness, the grief in cases such as this is particularly potent and often laden with anger, akin to that of someone close to a murder victim. This glacier ecosystem wasn’t “lost” – to speak of loss here is euphemistic. It was killed on our watch.

Grief over climate breakdown and the degradation of our natural world is also notably different from grief at the death of a loved one, because it never lessens, let alone goes away. The anthropogenic climate emergency will define our entire lifetime, and deeply impact on all of us soon enough. Because of time-lags in the climate system, things will get worse for a long time to come, whatever we do.

Thus, while a healthy reaction to the death of a loved one is to grieve deeply and then gradually to recover, the only recovery from ecological grief that is possible at all is for us to change the world such that our actions no longer deteriorate it.

During Okjökull’s funeral residents reminisced, public figures such as Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir spoke and presented a death certificate, and this plaque was laid. Grétar Thorvaldsson & Málmsteypan Hella/Rice University

This is how ecological grief – at the tearing from us of the natural systems we are neither willing nor able to do without – leads to the radical action necessary to bring about a new world.

Given how late the hour is, that means not accepting inaction any longer – and that’s up to us. In the words of Iceland’s commemorative plaque, laid at the base of the dead glacier as a message to the future: “We know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”

Courtesy: The Conversation

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Study finds disturbing anti-Muslim prejudices among Police personnel, 1/3 justify mob violence in Cow slaughter incidents

While no statistics of actual representation of Muslims within the police force are available with the government of India concealing this data the Common Cause-CSDS study, therefore, highlights importance of trainings in rectifying and addressing biased attitudes towards communities

Police Force sans Diversity: Poor rep of SCs, STs, Women, OBCs, Muslims Invisibilized

The representation of Muslims not analysed because of absence of NCRB data; the condition of women is the worst, especially in officer-level posts

Iceland is mourning a dead glacier – how grieving over ecological destruction can help us face the climate crisis

Death certificates and commemorative plaques aren’t something you’d normally associate with a glacier. But that is exactly how Iceland recently mourned the loss of 700-year-old Okjökull, the first of its major glaciers to die.

From grief to action

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