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Editorials - 26-12-2021


சுனாமி சீற்றம் ஏற்பட்டு சுமார் 17 ஆண்டுகள் கடந்துள்ள நிலையிலும், இயற்கை சீற்றத்தை இயற்கையோடு இணைந்து எதிர்கொள்ளும் இயற்கை அரண்களை ஏற்படுத்த முனைப்பு காட்டாதது கடலோர மக்களுக்குக் கவலை அளிப்பதாகவே உள்ளது.

கடந்த 2004-ஆம் ஆண்டு டிச.26-ஆம் தேதி காலை 6.29 மணிக்கு இந்தோனேஷியாவின் சுமத்ரா தீவில் 8.9 ரிக்டர் அளவில் ஏற்பட்ட நிலநடுக்கம் சுனாமியாக உருவெடுத்து, 14 நாடுகளின் கடற்கரையோரப் பகுதிகளில் லட்சக்கணக்கானோரின் உயிரைப் பறித்தது.

இந்த ஆழிப்பேரலை இந்தோனேஷியாவில் 1,67,540 பேரையும், இலங்கையில் 35,322 பேரையும், இந்தியாவில் 16,269 பேரையும், தாய்லாந்தில் 8,212 பேரையும் பலி கொண்டது. 

இதைத்தவிர, சோமாலியா, மாலத்தீவு, மலேசியா, மியான்மர், தான்சானியா, சீசெல்ஸ், தென்னாப்பிரிக்கா, யேமன், கென்யா என மொத்தம் 14 நாடுகளில் மொத்தம் 2.30 லட்சம் பேரை பலி கொண்டது.

இந்தியாவில் தமிழகம், ஆந்திரம், அந்தமான், கேரளம் போன்ற மாநிலங்கள் சுனாமி சீற்றத்தால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டன. ஆனால், அதில் மிக அதிக பாதிப்புக்குள்ளான மாநிலம் தமிழகம்தான்.

தமிழகத்தில் நாகப்பட்டினம், சென்னை, திருவள்ளூர், காஞ்சிபுரம், விழுப்புரம், கடலூர், புதுக்கோட்டை என 13 கடற்கரையோர மாவட்டங்கள் சுனாமியால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டன. இதில் ஒருங்கிணைந்த நாகை மாவட்டம் மிகக் கடுமையான பாதிப்புக்கு உள்ளானது. அரசு கணக்கெடுப்புப்படி, இம்மாவட்டத்தில் சுனாமியால் பலியானவர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை 6,065. இதில், பிற மாவட்டத்தவர் 536 பேர், பிற மாநிலத்தவர் 240 பேர். இம்மாவட்டத்தில் சுனாமியால் ஏற்பட்ட அப்போதைய சேத மதிப்பு ரூ. 733 கோடி.

இம்மாவட்டத்தில் மிக அதிக உயிரிழப்பு ஏற்பட்ட பகுதி வேளாங்கண்ணி. அதேபோல, நாகை கீச்சாங்குப்பம், அக்கரைப்பேட்டை, செருதூர், பூம்புகார், பழையாறு, கீழமூவர்கரை, தரங்கம்பாடி, சந்திரப்பாடி போன்ற பகுதிகளிலும் நூற்றுக்கணக்கானோர் பலியாகினர்.

சுனாமி நிவாரணப் பணிகளுக்காக ரூ. 5 ஆயிரம் கோடியை 3 கட்டங்களாக மத்திய அரசு ஒதுக்கீடு செய்தது. தொடர்ந்து, பாதிக்கப்பட்டவர்களின் புனர்வாழ்வுக்காக பல்வேறு திட்டங்கள் செயல்படுத்தப்பட்டன. பின்னர், பேரிடர் கால தற்காப்புகள் குறித்த விழிப்புணர்வுகளுக்கு முக்கியத்துவம் அளிக்கப்பட்டன. 

ஆனால், ஆழிப்பேரலை எனும் இயற்கை சீற்றத்தை, இயற்கையுடன் இணைந்து எதிர்கொள்ளும் திட்டங்களுக்கு முக்கியத்துவம் அளிக்கப்படாமலேயே 17 ஆண்டுகள் கடந்துவிட்டன.

நாகை மாவட்டத்தில் அதிக உயிர்ச் சேதம் ஏற்பட்ட பகுதி வேளாங்கண்ணி. இதற்கடுத்து அதிக உயிர்ச் சேதம் ஏற்பட்ட பகுதி கீச்சாங்குப்பம். ஆனால், இந்த 2 பகுதிகளுக்கும் இடையில் உள்ள கடலோரப் பகுதியான பொய்கைநல்லூரில் ஒரு உயிர்ச் சேதம் கூட ஏற்படவில்லை. அதற்குக் காரணம், பொய்கைநல்லூர் கடற்கரையையொட்டிய பகுதிகளில் ஏறத்தாழ 6 கி.மீ. நீளத்துக்கு சுமார் 30 அடி முதல் 60 அடிக்கும் அதிகமான உயரத்தில் உள்ள மணல் மலைகளே ஆகும்.

சுனாமி என்பது வாழும் தலைமுறைறக்குப் புதிதாக இருக்கலாம். ஆனால், கடல் பொங்கி கரையைக் கடந்துவந்து, கடற்கரையோர வளங்களை சூறையாடிச் செல்லும் இயற்கை சீற்றம் உலகுக்குப் புதிது அல்ல. கி.மு. 426இல் இந்த இயற்கை சீற்றம் ஏற்பட்டதாக கிரேக்க வரலாற்றாசிரியர் தியுசிடைட்ஸ் பதிவு செய்துள்ளார். அதேபோல, ரோமன் வரலாற்றாசிரியர் அம்மியனஸ் மாசில்லினுஸ் என பல மேலைநாட்டு வரலாற்று ஆசிரியர்களும் சுனாமி குறித்துப் பதிவு செய்துள்ளனர்.

சிலப்பதிகார பூம்புகார், அடையாளமின்றி அழிந்து போனதற்கும், அப்போது ஏற்பட்ட கடல்கோள் (சுனாமி) தான் காரணமாக இருந்திருக்க முடியும் என்பது வரலாற்று ஆர்வலர்களின் கூற்று. இந்த இழப்புகள் ஏற்படுத்திய அனுபவப் படிப்பு காரணமாக, தமிழக கடற்கரை பகுதிகளில் முன்னோர்களால் உருவாக்கப்பட்டு, எஞ்சியிருப்பதுதான் பொய்கைநல்லூரில் உள்ள மணல் மலைகள்.

வேளாங்கண்ணியில் ஏற்பட்டதைப் போன்ற ஆழிப் பேரலை பொய்கைநல்லூரிலும் ஏற்படாமல் இல்லை. ஆனால், அந்த அலைகள் மணல் மலைகளில் மோதி, சீற்றம் தணிந்து கடலுக்குத் திரும்பின. அதனால்தான் பொய்கைநல்லூர் பகுதியில் சுனாமியால் ஒரு உயிரிழப்புக் கூட ஏற்படவில்லை.

இந்த மணல் மலைகள் இப்பகுதியில் தற்போது இயற்கை அரணாக இருந்தாலும், இயற்கையாகவே ஏற்பட்ட அமைப்பு அல்ல, முன்னோர்களால் உருவாக்கப்பட்டதே ஆகும். இதனை, மறைந்த இயற்கை வேளாண் விஞ்ஞானி கோ. நம்மாழ்வார், தனது ஆய்வில் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

முந்தையக் காலத்தில் நம் முன்னோர்கள், அலையை எதிர்கொள்ளும் திசையில், பனை மட்டைகளை வெட்டி கடற்கரையில் பதித்துள்ளனர். கடலில் இருந்து எழும் அலைகள் அந்தப் பனை மட்டைகளைக் கடந்து சென்று திரும்பும்போது, அலையில் வந்த மணல்களை பனை மட்டைகள் தங்களிடம் தக்கவைத்துக் கொள்ளும். இந்த நிகழ்வு தொடர்ந்து நிகழும்போது, அங்கு மணல் திட்டுகள் உருவாகிவிடும். இதே முறையைக் கடைப்பிடித்து மணல் திட்டுகளின் உயரத்தை அதிகரிக்கச் செய்து, அந்த இடங்களில் மணல் சரிவைத் தடுக்க பனை, குதிரை குளம்படி, ராவண மீசை, பீக்களாத்தி, அலையாத்தி, புன்னை, தாழை, சவுக்கு என பலவகை செடிகளை நட்டு, காடுகளை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளனர் முன்னோர்கள்.

அப்படி உருவானதுதான் தற்போது நாகையை அடுத்த பொய்கைநல்லூர் பகுதியில் மக்களைப் பாதுகாத்து நிற்கும் மணல் மலைகள். தற்போதும் சுமார் 30 அடி உயரம் முதல் 60 அடி உயரம் வரையிலான மணல் அரண்களை இங்கு காண முடிகிறது.

கடந்த 1970-களில் நாகையில் கடுமையானப் புயல் சீற்றம் ஏற்பட்டது. சுமார் 11 பேர் உயிரிழந்தனர். பலர் காணாமல் போயினர். இதைத் தொடர்ந்து, அப்போதைய அரசு தொலைநோக்குத் திட்டமாக கடலோர மாவட்டங்களில் புயல் பாதுகாப்பு மையங்களை உருவாக்கியது. புயல் சீற்றத் தடுப்பு இயற்கை அரணாக, கடலோரங்களில் அலையாத்தி மரங்களை நடவுச் செய்தது.

அந்த வகையில், சுனாமி சீற்றத்துக்குப் பின்னர், தமிழக கடலோரப் பகுதிகளில் சுனாமி சீற்றத்தடுப்பு இயற்கை அரண்கள் உருவாக்கப்பட்டிருக்க வேண்டும். ஆனால், இதுவரை உருவாக்கப்படவில்லை.

சுனாமி சீற்றத்தைக் குறைக்க ஆகச் சிறந்த வழிகள், மணல் மேடுகளும், அங்கு உருவாக்கப்படும் அலையாத்திக் காடுகளும்தான் என சுற்றுச்சூழல் ஆர்வலர்கள் தொடர்ந்து வலியுறுத்தி வருகின்றனர். ஏதோ காரணத்தால், இதுவரை மத்திய, மாநில அரசுகளின் கவனத்தை ஈர்க்காமல் இருந்த அந்தக் கோரிக்கைகள் தற்போது, ஊடகங்களால் உரக்க ஒலிக்கத் தொடங்கியுள்ளன.

கீச்சாங்குப்பத்தைச் சேர்ந்த கிராம பெரியவர் ஆர்.எம்.பி. ராஜேந்திரநாட்டார் கூறியது: "நான் சிறு வயதாக இருந்த காலத்தில் கீச்சாங்குப்பத்தின் கடற்கரையிலும் மிக உயரமான மணல் குன்றுகள் உண்டு. அந்த மணல் குன்றுகளில் ஏறி விளையாடிய பழைய நினைவுகள் இன்றும் பசுமை மாறாமல் உள்ளன. ஆனால், அந்த மணல் குன்றுகள்தான் இப்போது இல்லை. அந்தக் குன்றுகள் இருந்திருந்தால் எங்கள் கிராமம் 618 உயிர்களை சுனாமியில் இழந்திருக்காது" என்றார்.

முந்தையக் காலங்களில் ஏற்பட்ட பேரழிவுகளில் இருந்து முன்னோர்களுக்குக் கிடைத்த அனுபவப் பாடமே இன்றளவும் நம்மை காக்கும் இயற்கை அரண்களாக, கடற்கரையோர காடுகளாக, மணல் மேடுகளாக உள்ளன. ஆனால், சுனாமியில் பேரழிவை எதிர்கொண்ட பின்னரும், வாழும் தலைமுறை அதிலிருந்து எந்தப் பாடத்தையும் இதுவரை கற்றுக் கொள்ளவில்லை என்பதே எதார்த்தமாக உள்ளது.

இனிவரும் காலங்களிலாவது, சுனாமி, புயல் போன்ற இயற்கை சீற்றங்களில் இருந்து கடலோர மக்களைப் பாதுகாக்க இயற்கை அரண்களை ஏற்படுத்த மத்திய, மாநில அரசுகள் முனைப்புக்காட்ட வேண்டும் என்பது மக்கள் எதிர்பார்ப்பு.

Leher Kala writes: We have reached a stage in this pandemic where the risks of restarting in-person classes are worth it, considering the alternative: having a humungous, misanthropic and unfit generation left behind in so many ways.

Recently, there was a rare day of unexpected merriment during my 10-year-old’s class on Zoom. Some mischievous intruders hacked into the software and posted funny cartoons and videos in the middle of science. Classes were suspended for the day while teachers scrambled to figure out what happened. The children, who have had every bit of joy sucked out of their lives in the last two years, were chuckling in delight at this unusual break.

For many weeks now, if not months, life has reverted back to what one might dare to call “normal”. Even with the new Omicron restrictions, restaurants are allowed to function at 50 per cent capacity. When social activity is permitted, 200-guest weddings are allowed, airports are buzzing, we desperately need some clarity on one critical issue: will Delhi’s schools ever reopen?

All over again, the Omicron variant threatens to keep crores of Indian children restricted to their homes for a third, consecutive, year. Everyone agrees that amid new crises, survival comes first, everything else is a luxury. However, we have reached a stage in this pandemic where the risks of restarting in-person classes are worth it, considering the alternative: having a humungous, misanthropic and unfit generation left behind in so many ways, condemned to struggle with difficult academic concepts that got lost in translation via remote learning. Worryingly, parents across income groups have begun talking of a Zero Year, knowing it’s impossible to expect a child to handle calculus in Class 11 after a shaky maths foundation in the 9th and 10th. Equally crucially, parents and children are
burnt out by being cooped together, endlessly.

One way to reconcile to the frustration of pandemic-related learning loss is to understand that what students have missed academically, they have gained in life skills. For example, in the last year my daughter has lost a grandparent to Covid, watched a parent soldier through it, led a solitary existence and, for one horrific month, internalised the panic in her household. Our own real-world problems are an excellent starting point for building resilience. The virtues of incessant striving, drilled into every Indian student as the surefire route to success, now sounds like unreliable advice. Because, the real challenge during Covid has been to philosophically embrace uncertainty; to accept, when larger forces are at play, that so much is out of our control. Ultimately, the most valuable education is one that provides training to adapt to whatever googly life throws at you.

Our current education system conspires to kill innovation, to replace wonder with superficial knowledge, that the children can obediently regurgitate via examinations every quarter. Having said that, there is no substitute for the structure and discipline of a regular school day, where children can engage with their peers, play games, compete, and learn their lessons. Well-to-do parents have the privilege of supplementing their children’s education, ensuring their kids watch documentaries, read, and while away hours in constructive ways. School closures are deeply unfair for the majority of India’s students — whose parents can’t engage with them intellectually and lack the resources for tuitions. If this goes on much longer, there will be an unbridgeable knowledge gap between income groups. What Yuval Harari eerily described as the rise of superior humans in his book Homo Deus, who can afford bioengineering and artificial intelligence to upgrade their abilities, leaving 90% of the population behind.

The last two years have felt like we’re stuck in a waiting room, and the waiting keeps getting extended. Whether we realise it or not, there have been fundamental shifts in our perspectives since 2020. The worries of those early days — the detrimental effects of excessive screen time for children — seem laughable now. My standards have lowered considerably since then. It’s a bleak beginning to 2022. Reopening schools will be a challenge, but more can be done to rise to it.

The writer is director, Hutkay Films



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Kunal Kamra, Suraj Yengde write: It is about time comedy gets caste on board because it is the original humour that we can collectively fight and riot over.

Comedy and caste are perhaps two friends who have never met. They don’t know how much they are missing each other. If comedy meets caste, they can make content of the highest quality. Think about it. What is funnier than an arbitrary system that differentiates one from the other merely by their last name. A billion-and-a-half people keep hunting for people’s last names like Indiana Jones does treasure, so they can find out how much of a ‘worthless’ person I am than the other.

Caste is comedy. However, its experiences are not. Any reasonable person will revolt against it. Unlike the visible physical features that race distinguishes, caste doesn’t offer that stark difference. Yet, we are so innovative that we have invented mechanisms to part our ways and keep disturbing the unity of society because of caste. Caste is everywhere. We need to be an observer. We cannot be obtuse when we talk about caste. When we go to a restaurant, we can see the person sitting at the counter has a different social capital than the person taking orders. Similarly, the waiter’s social capital is different from that of the one wiping the tables or mopping the floor or cleaning utensils in the kitchen. This is because of the caste differences that endow birth-based professional hierarchy.

There are so many issues that liberal, middle-class India can get upset about, but when it comes to caste, they have comfortably skirted the issues in order to protect their privilege. This is an outcome of unpaid labour. It’s a problem of unequal distribution of wealth. We justify our position as an outcome of “merit”, immediately discarding millennia-old privileges that have produced an accepted caste atrocity.

What can comedy do to engage with caste? Comedians are representative of a class and caste who mollycoddle the audience of the same last names. When a comedian performs, even if they feel like taking up an issue, they fail to do so. The nature of stand-up comedy is urban-centric mainly, and these are the topics that the audience comes to hear. The audience wants to hear about the Uber driver issue, the potholes, the exhausting traffic, our politicians, the mall, Netflix, etc.

There is a slight discomfort among the comedians to slip in a joke about something that would upset their set genre of “last name” audience.

We have comedians from diverse genders, sexuality, religion taking on the issues of their concern. The two major themes that go well are gender and secularism. Comedians hark on the established narrative without attempting to create something anew. What will it take for caste to become a narrative that we will commit to, in order to abolish it?

The creators have to find ways to communicate a topic that is ubiquitous to the audience, that everybody can feel, but nobody wants to acknowledge. It is like a fart released during pooja at a relative’s house.

Isn’t it ironic that our influences and culture get shaped by the world around us? In America and elsewhere, black comedy is a theme. It has made a massive mark on the stage. We also laugh at their jokes and admire their commitment. We might even tweet #BlackLivesMatter, but that’s where we leave it. Black comedy is possible mainly because of a vibrant black business community, black bars, black clubs, and a market that is run by black people. When Black Americans got TV in their house, Bill Cosby had to appear on their screen. In India, too, the industry is market-oriented. If a stand-up show goes to small towns, the comedians will be forced to bring that experience into perspective.

The market is not secular in India. That is why it needs to be made aware of our immense diversity. India needs consumers who are paying to watch content that is unrepresentative of them.

We can make jokes about topics that we have personally experienced. If we are to speak about caste to an audience that is majorly married within their gotra, then they would not appreciate the joke. However, if comedy surrounds the topic of caste and its abolition, we can make a case without indulging into self-aggrandisement. A caste joke need not begin with Dalits and end with them. Caste is a Brahmin; it is a Baniya, a Shudra. If one spends time with one’s family, they will pick up ample content in this discipline.

Lately, a few younger comedians have brought the content of caste into their performances. They have done it in a way that the message was sent, and nobody broke their heads. We can now scratch the surface and be original entertainers without plagiarising or borrowing the untended content.

It is about time comedy gets caste on board because it is the original humour that we can collectively fight and riot over.

Comedy has a responsibility. It is a demonstrative medium that doesn’t relegate the audience into invisible, insignificant entities. The audience is part of the act as much as the comedian delivering their content.

If stand-up comedy and the entertainment industry, in general, has to prolong its identity, it has to integrate and educate. A workshop of ideas integrating our history with artists and the anti-caste academic sphere can be a good start. The entertainment industry can support a festival of anti-caste. We need to create platforms and spaces for comedians from Dalit backgrounds to take the stage. As a start, whosoever has a space and a dedicated audience needs to start an unapologetic conversation about caste.

If we all laugh at caste, we are laughing at bigotry, misogyny, patriarchy, sexism. Why not begin with laughter as a new armament in the arsenal of anti-caste protest?

Kunal Kamra is a comedian based in Mumbai Suraj Yengde, author of Caste Matters, curates the fortnightly ‘Dalitality’ column



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Manjula Lal writes: To go back to what I thought was my friends’ strangely negligent attitude, perhaps they knew that I would be able to cope and therefore were not so solicitous.

Written by Manjula Lal

In book publishing, rookie editors used to be trained to look out for ‘widows and orphans’, an expression used for the single word/words at the end of a paragraph. The ‘widows’ were longer words and the ‘orphans’ small ones. The idea seemed to be that these stragglers looked pathetic, lost or unwanted, spoiling the look of the page. They had therefore to be brought out from the cold and pushed into the shelter of the other words in the paragraph, which is easily done by deleting a few dispensable words or using a technical tightening tool.

About 20 years ago, there was a worldwide effort to ban the use of the word ‘widows’ and we were told to call ‘widows and orphans’ ‘singles and doubles’. In tandem, the Indian Army also started calling wives of martyred soldiers Veer Nari, so that their bereavement did not define them forever. No substitute English word was found.

However, old habits die hard. A year or so after losing my husband, I said about a neighbour: ‘She’s a widow, you know’. And immediately pulled myself up short. What pernicious profiling! Obviously, every time you meet or talk about people like me, the thought of our bereavement should not be uppermost in your mind. I should have said, ‘She’s a retired teacher’, and why she lives alone should be a subject matter of investigation if somebody is sufficiently intrigued about her personal life. No need to produce an instant sketch of loneliness and pathos, on the presumption that her whole persona is now defined by her marital status.

The incident triggered a thought: Do my friends describe me as ‘widowed’ to a third party? Probably not. I guess they must be saying ‘She lost her husband recently’. I don’t think, in contemporary circles where we have reached the age when people are popping off one by one, we think of the one left behind as a widow/widower, just as we don’t think of those friends whose marriages broke down as ‘divorcees’. If you do that, you could be compared to the married woman in the novel by American Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter. Set in Boston under British rule, it’s about a woman who had to go around with a scarlet ‘A’ pinned on her dress, marked forever as an adulteress. It goes without saying that her paramour suffered no such indignity.

Personally, what has been intriguing six years into single status is how no one rings up with concern asking how I’m doing minus the spouse. I expected friends to ask, ‘Do you need anything?’ or ‘How are you managing?’. Generally speaking, any kind of call was rare, as if the mourning period is some kind of solitary confinement. To be fair, they might have thought the offspring was providing appropriate care. That would be a reasonable presumption, although there is no daughter to provide comfort, only a son — most people know the difference.

This whole scenario came to mind recently when a classmate died of Covid. As he was in the IAS, there was naturally much support from the services to see his wife through this trauma. She herself works for one of India’s top five companies. Yet another classmate said with genuine concern, “We must extend all help, as there is no competent male in the family to take care of her.”

It brought back to mind the sentence I was often asked by doctors when my mother was lying in a coma in a government hospital three decades ago: “Where is the male member?” Surely, specs and all, at 32 years of age, I looked emotionally and intellectually capable enough to be told about her treatment — at least as much as the worthy doctors. And though I was alone in the room with her when her monitor flatlined, the doctor refused to give me the official word on what it meant. Instead, I was confronted with the same query: “Where is the male member?”I know, youngsters will make a joke of this phrase, with its easy use as a double entendre, but it is a standard phrase in hospital corridors. And should be banned forthwith, just like ‘widow’.

To go back to what I thought was my friends’ strangely negligent attitude, perhaps they knew that I would be able to cope and therefore were not so solicitous. Which just proves that I have myself internalised stereotypes about widows being helpless. Clearly, they were not defining me by my bereavement, whereas I have been in danger of doing so.

Lal is the author of That’s News to Me and In Search of Ram Rajya National Editor Shalini Langer curates the She Said column



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Tavleen Singh writes: The consequences of mixing communal hatred, religiosity, and hyper-nationalism into the normal business of political life are now clear to see.

My intention this week was to write about the lynchings in Punjab gurdwaras in the name of ‘sacrilege’. They shamed me and I did not recognise my religion. It should shame our political leaders that they fulminated against sacrilege but were too cowardly to admit that the real desecration was that two men were lynched in places of worship. Then came videos of speeches calling for a genocide against Muslims by saffron-robed ‘saints’ at a Dharam Sansad (religious parliament) in Haridwar. And, to heighten tensions, political troublemakers released on social media a doctored video of Asaduddin Owaisi that made him sound as if he was threatening all Hindus in a post-Modi era when he was speaking specifically about police atrocities in Uttar Pradesh.

It soon became clear to me that what is happening is a much bigger thing than the horrible killings in those two gurdwaras in Punjab. What we could be seeing is fanatics seizing the religious narrative across the lines of faith. This is the culmination of a deliberate process of stirring religious passions and inter-communal hatred into politics that began after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. From the moment he began his first term in 2014, he made it clear that he would wear his Hindu faith as a badge of honour, and unlike ‘secular’ prime ministers would never hesitate to participate in Hindu religious ceremonies in public places. He worshipped on the banks of the Ganga and allowed cameras to record every religious ritual that he performed inside the sanctum sanctorum of temples. It seemed at the time like a necessary correction to decades of disaffection brought about by too much smug and insincere secularism.

Then, when Modi remained silent in the face of Muslims and Dalits being lynched by his supporters, it became plain that the correction had gone too far, and that the consequences of his new anti-secular ideology would be terrible. If political leaders take secularism too far the consequences are usually benign. It means that religion should remain a private matter and that it should never again be given so high a political status that it could cause India to be divided in its name.

Partition was horrible for most Indians but, as the years went by, its wounds were allowed to slowly heal or at least be forgotten. But, this did not happen for the RSS whose idea of nationalism became inextricably mixed up with a hatred of Muslims. So, it was in a sense inevitable that when a man schooled in Sangh ideology became Prime Minister, he would ensure that those old wounds were reopened, and this is what Modi has done in different ways. When Muslims and Dalits were lynched by cow vigilantes directly affiliated to the BJP, Modi said nothing. When his handpicked chief minister in Uttar Pradesh set up ‘Romeo squads’ in police stations as almost his first act in office and BJP spokesmen defended this on the grounds that ‘love jihad’ had to be stopped, Modi remained silent again. When BJP chief ministers started passing laws to stop religious conversion, he chose to remain silent, so Christian priests and churches have come under attack in recent months. These attacks have become more frequent and more barbaric. Modi has remained silent.

The only time he spoke out was when his MP from Bhopal, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, said that Nathuram Godse was in her eyes a ‘patriot’. Since his ‘patriotism’ had led him to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi, Modi was obliged to say something and he did. He said he would never forgive her for what she had said but, after saying this, he has made no effort to take action against her. Meanwhile, after winning his second term he has personally made it a point to make religiosity an essential part of his political messaging, and so we have come to where we are now. Religious slogans are now openly raised at political meetings by senior leaders of the BJP, and at the height of the opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Prime Minister remained silent when his ministers called Muslim protesters ‘traitors’ from public platforms.

The consequences of mixing communal hatred, religiosity, and hyper-nationalism into the normal business of political life are now clear to see. To borrow what my friend and fellow columnist, Vir Sanghvi, said in a tweet on the Haridwar event, ‘the lunatics have taken over the asylum’. Every religion has its share of extremists and bigots, but despite India’s long history of inter-communal violence, there has never been a time when they have been allowed to steer the ship of faith.

So, what happens next? Nothing good. We are likely to see more killings in the name of faith and more fanatics creeping stealthily out of the dark caves in which they have long remained hidden. They have sensed that this is their time, and that they have in some ways become more powerful than the most powerful political leaders. This is not good for India but inevitable when a Prime Minister as popular as Narendra Modi has paved the way for this to happen. At a more mundane level, will this help the BJP win Uttar Pradesh again? Who knows? What is clear is that the ‘opium of the masses’ is much easier to rely on at election time than promises of shining new highways and vague promises of ‘development’.



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P Chidambaram writes: A figure that I am certain does not resemble Santa Claus — but no one knows who — has been visiting India throughout the year that is drawing to a close. He was an unwanted visitor. He brought unwanted gifts. Count them

This is the time of the year when Santa Claus is believed to visit homes with gifts. He may disappoint many, but the belief persists. It is a story to entertain children.

A figure that I am certain does not resemble Santa Claus — but no one knows who — has been visiting India throughout the year that is drawing to a close. He was an unwanted visitor. He brought unwanted gifts. Count them:

Touching New Highs

For households: Retail inflation at 4.91 per cent. Of which, fuel and light inflation at 13.4 per cent. Santa’s suggestion: find a job that gives you dearness allowance and house rent, and the employer pays electricity and water bills.

For Farmers: Freedom to lease the land to corporates, freedom to borrow from corporates, freedom to sell the produce anywhere to corporates and freedom to become landless agricultural labour. It is a different story that farmers refused the generous offer.

For all producers and consumers: Wholesale price inflation at 14.23 per cent. It means that nearly all prices are up. If the price of one thing — goods or services — falls, count yourself lucky, because the prices of five other things would have risen, which is why the wholesale price inflation is the highest in 12 years.

For young men and women: Unemployment rate at 7.48 per cent. Of which, urban unemployment rate at 9.09 per cent (CMIE).

For post-graduate and doctoral scholars: Over 10,000 vacant teaching posts in central universities, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Their objective remains teaching and, going by the outcomes, they do a pretty decent job of teaching. It is fortunate that they have invented a way to teach without teachers.

The New Reservation 

For SC, ST and OBC: Over 10,000 teaching posts that are vacant. Of which 4,126 are ‘reserved’ for SC, ST and OBC. Don’t panic, reservation continues. The reservation policy has been tweaked for their benefit: it is no longer reservation in posts, it is reservation in vacancies. The government will create more vacancies and reserve those vacancies for SC, ST and OBC candidates. The reservation policy will be honoured in letter and spirit. The candidate can include in his/her curriculum vitae that he/she is currently employed in a vacancy.

For those who pay EMI: Higher interest rate on the EMI (monthly installment). Banks have written off ‘bad loans’ of
Rs 2,02,783 crore in 2020-21. Borrowers must be grateful that banks are offering them loans.

For the poor: A queue. Please wait for your turn (which may never come). Public sector banks (PSB) are busy helping out poor corporates. In 2020-21, just 13 corporates owed Rs 4,86,800 crore to PSBs. Banks settled those dues for Rs 1,61,820 crore. PSBs were happy to do their bit for the welfare of the people of India (which, of course, are the 13 corporates) by absorbing the loss of Rs 2,84,980 crore. PSBs are willing to do more — provided you are a defaulting corporate.

For economists and students of economics: A ‘V’ shaped recovery. At least that is what the government claimed. It did so on the high authority of the Chief Economic Adviser who is, by the way, leaving the government. Dr Krishnmurthy Subramanian brought a great amount of learning from the Indian School of Business to the Government of India, he will take back a great amount of unlearning from the Government of India to the Indian School of Business. Interestingly,
Dr Gita Gopinath, Deputy Managing Director-designate of IMF, stopped by in Delhi last week and described the Indian economic recovery as ‘K’ shaped. Don’t agonise, no one is obliged to choose between the two letters, because there are 24 other letters in the alphabet. Based on experience, it can be predicted that eternal optimists will choose the letter ‘I’ and nihilists will settle for the letter ‘O’. Economic geniuses will argue in favour of the letter ‘M’.

Witness to Freedom

For the Free Press: A ‘bigger’ rank for India (currently, 142 out of 180, moving up from 140 of the previous year) in the World Press Freedom Index. India’s Minister of Information & Broadcasting may be right when he said that he does not agree with the conclusions drawn by ‘Reporters Without Borders’ who publish the Index. He should know a thing or two about press freedom. As long as India’s ‘Reporters With Orders’ print or telecast war cries such as ‘Goli Maaro’ and ‘Hara Virus’, there is ample proof that press freedom in India is alive and kicking. The Minister also reasoned that there was a ‘lack of clear definition of press freedom’. Santa suggested that he should invite, among others, the following journalists and attempt a definition of press freedom: Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Karan Thapar, Sagarika Ghose, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Raghav Bahl, Bobby Ghosh, Punya Prasun Bajpai, Krishna Prasad, Rubin, Prannoy Roy and Sudhir Agarwal.

For All the People: Policies that will ensure undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting and child mortality. They earned India the rank of 101 out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index. As a welcome by-product, patriotic couples ensured that the Total Fertility Rate fell to 2.0, which is below the replacement rate.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



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To avoid inconvenience to customers, banks and payment networks must work together to swiftly overcome the technology integration challenges, and launch campaigns to educate the public on tokenisation.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) move to defer the deadline again for digital payment entities to purge customer data from their servers by another six months to June next year bows to the inevitability of a royal mess, if it were to enforce the current deadline of December 31. Card issuer, card networks and payment gateways and merchants should stop dithering and move on card tokenisation. There should be no reason for yet another postponement of the date for commencing tokenised transactions.

The card tokenisation service allows networks to create a unique alternative code or token for the card details stored with the merchant, the so-called Card-on-File, or for card details on electronic devices such as mobile phones. This token is specific to that token requestor and card (and device, if a device is involved). This prevents the customer' actual card details from being used by merchants or payment aggregators. They store and transmit only the token. Tokenisation and detokenisation are done by card networks who, presumably, have higher levels of security. While card details and token details would all be encrypted end-to-end during transmission, and so would be relatively secure during transmission, if the merchant site or a payment aggregator site were to be hacked, card details would be sold on the dark web, if those details were stored on the merchant site. Once only tokens are stored, those token numbers, even if they fall into the hands of a hacker, are useless on other sites, Thus tokens reduce the vulnerability of card usage.

To avoid inconvenience to customers, banks and payment networks must work together to swiftly overcome the technology integration challenges, and launch campaigns to educate the public on tokenisation.

( Originally published on Dec 26, 2021 )<

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The presence of at least two variants with different treatment requirements calls for stepped-up genome sequencing, enhanced testing options, including affordable home testing kits, and drugs and therapeutics, both licensing those found effective and development of new ones.

The decision to administer booster shots - to healthcare and frontline workers and those above 60 years with comorbidities - is welcome. The task is to complete the basic vaccination rounds, observe Covid-appropriate behaviour, license anti-virals found to be effective against Covid, develop new drugs, and enhance testing and genomic sequencing. The decision to extend vaccination to those between 15 and 18 years is also a welcome move.

The decision on booster doses is based on science and advice from experts. India's vaccine manufacturers must publish their efficacy studies and data. This is necessary for multiple reasons, including to counter anti-vaxxers, who use the need for boosters to strengthen their opposition. It will open new markets for Indian vaccine makers. Experts have assessed the supply pipeline. The booster drive, though limited, and the vaccination of 15-to-18-year-olds must not detract from completing the basic vaccine drive. Covering the total eligible population with the basic two doses must remain a priority. Vaccine production must be stepped up, not just to meet domestic demand but to ensure meeting export commitments, including delivery to the Covax facility. India must resume supplying vaccines under its grant programme to countries with no or little access. The cost of supplying free vaccines to countries that need it is likely to be lower than the cost of disruption that a new variant could unleash.

Boosters and more comprehensive vaccine coverage do not justify abandoning Covid protocols. India's high density of population makes observing social distancing difficult; therefore, masking is critical, as is avoiding unnecessary gatherings and outings. The central government has asked states to step up vigilance against Omicron. The presence of at least two variants with different treatment requirements calls for stepped-up genome sequencing, enhanced testing options, including affordable home testing kits, and drugs and therapeutics, both licensing those found effective and development of new ones.

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Over the past week, the poll-bound state of Punjab was roiled by twin episodes of alleged sacrilege. Two incidents, one inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple in Amritsar on December 18, and the other at a local gurdwara in Kapurthala the next day, took place under different circumstances but culminated in the same unfortunate end, with an enraged public beating to death the person accused of desecration.

In the Golden Temple case, the special investigation team found that the man accused of desecration visited the temple at least 15 times in the previous four days, and CCTV footage of the incident showed the man jumping the handrails and heading for the holy sword. But in the Kapurthala case, investigators have now found no attempt at desecration and said the death of the man, who remains unidentified, might have been the result of a “well-planned conspiracy”. A case of murder has been registered, and the caretaker of the gurdwara who raised the initial alarm and accused the man of sacrilege is now the prime suspect.

Sacrilege is a serious and sensitive issue, particularly in Punjab, where incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib rocked the state in 2015. The acts of desecration triggered agitations, resulting in the death of two protesters in police firing. This was a major poll issue in 2017 and played a key role in the loss of the erstwhile Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance. This time, too, the incidents have happened months before elections. Acts of sacrilege are condemnable because they violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship, and are designed to stoke unrest. They are also aimed at insulting religious sentiments and beliefs, which is not acceptable in a multi-faith democracy such as India. Any such attempts must be investigated thoroughly and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But the response to these acts cannot be extra-judicial. A constitutional democracy cannot afford to normalise mob violence, and any constriction of due process and fair trial must be contested. All leaders who fan extremist mob sentiments, or speak out against the condemnable act, but not the illegal response, are doing a disservice to the Constitution, and must instead push for an investigation of all aspects of such incidents. Only such a response can repair the trust deficit between the public and the law enforcement agencies. Act against desecration but don’t allow people to take the law into their own hands. Mob justice is never the answer.



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Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s engagements during a two-day visit to Myanmar were clearly in line with India’s two-pronged strategy for dealing with the neighbouring country while keeping strategic and security interests related to the North-East states near the top of the agenda. Thus, Mr Shringla made a push with the military junta for restoring the democratic process following the February 1 coup that has unleashed a cycle of violence across Myanmar, while also raising the impact of instability in Myanmar on India’s North-East states, including a pointed mention of the November 13 ambush on an Assam Rifles convoy by militant groups that have for long had bases in the neighbouring nation. To drive home India’s expectations regarding the restoration of democracy, Mr Shringla sought a meeting with deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, though it was no surprise that this wasn’t agreed to by the State Administrative Council. The foreign secretary did meet leaders of Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, foreign envoys, and members of civil society to discuss the way forward and to highlight India’s deep concerns over developments such as Ms Suu Kyi’s recent conviction in a trial.

India firmly believes the instability in Myanmar, which has created additional space for operations by anti-India militant groups and forced thousands of Myanmarese citizens to seek refuge in the North-East states, has to be dealt with in cooperation with Myanmar’s military. Any move that puts too much pressure on the military junta, which has repeatedly shrugged off Western sanctions despite their impact on the people, could drive the generals closer to China. At a time when Asean’s five-point consensus formula hasn’t yielded much success and unity within the Southeast Asian bloc over Myanmar is fraying, India will have to resort to deft diplomacy to secure its national security interests and keep pushing the military junta to work for a faster restoration of the democratic process in the interest of the people of Myanmar.



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By most accounts, the Summit for Democracy hosted by United States (US) President Joe Biden earlier this month was a mess. Many rightly criticised the decision to invite or not invite certain countries: Why, for example, include Pakistan, which, in any case, chose not to officially participate in reported deference to China’s sensitivities, but not Bangladesh? Others thought the agenda was poorly thought through. The participation of Taiwan, while perceived as a pointed message by the US to China, was also accompanied by unnecessary controversy.

In truth, the summit was motivated by a number of factors beyond simply idealism. It was originally proposed when Biden was a presidential candidate to be the centerpiece of an affirmative agenda for his foreign policy, and Biden pledged to hold such a meeting in his first year in office. The summit also advanced the Democratic Party’s domestic agenda, amid the perception among its electoral base about the erosion of democratic institutions under Donald Trump’s presidency. A further consideration was geopolitical, given intensifying US competition with China and Russia. The fact that China marshalled counter events — and that its ambassador co-authored a joint op-ed with his Russian counterpart criticising the summit — reinforced this competitive perspective.

Proponents in the US administration argue that the summit did succeed in bringing together the leaders of several countries — by some reckoning, one of the largest conclaves of heads of State and government outside a United Nations framework — along with civil society leaders. They also hope that this will be followed by a second edition, hosted by another country, and thus represents the start of a long-term process.

India proved an active participant in the summit, as reflected in the prime minister’s brief but pointed country statement. That statement reinforced the importance to India of democracy, including at the State and grassroots levels, which — among other things — has witnessed the increased participation of women. It also emphasised the structural foundations of democracy, including the mechanics of elections and the democratic delivery of social services. Finally, it highlighted some challenges to democracy as perceived by the Indian government, including specifically social media and cryptocurrency.

Overall, the Summit for Democracy reflected a number of areas of growing convergence between New Delhi and Washington. The first was the importance of demonstrating the success of democratic governance. For all its many flaws, the US is an example of a State that can play a global leadership role while remaining a competitive democracy and open society. For its part, India has much to contribute as a model of democratic development, whether in terms of pioneering electronic voting, biometric identification, or the distribution of certain public goods.

Another broad area of convergence between the US and India involves recognising the longer-term value of democracy, in its largest sense, even if it requires short-term modifications to accommodate national interests. This dilemma for both countries is most evident when the stakes are highest, such as in the near abroad. The US has historically backed some very undemocratic regimes, whether in Latin America or Southeast Asia, when it has suited its interests. Similarly, India has had to engage with a variety of governments in its neighborhoods even as it has recognised the long-term value of transparency, accountability, and civic participation. Recent experience has shown that ignoring these factors has come at the cost of stability and security in India’s periphery.

Finally, there is a great deal of overlap in Indian and US perceptions to challenges to democracy. This extends to misinformation and disinformation campaigns by foreign actors, the corrosive effects of unregulated digital tools, and challenges related to corruption and black money. The fact that corruption featured as a priority for the US at the summit, represents a widening of Washington’s conception of democracy. Similarly, India has started to think of connectivity, technology, and investment in increasingly democratic terms.

Despite some areas of evidently growing convergence between India and the US, some important differences remain. Two, in particular, stand out. One, while the US has long adopted a more evangelical approach to democratic support and promotion, India retains a stronger impulse to “do democracy” rather than to preach it. Efforts at labelling Indian foreign assistance or technical cooperation as democratic support are deemed counterproductive, particularly from the perspective of many recipient countries in the developing world.

Additionally, the US has a very different approach to democratic coalition-building, perhaps an outgrowth of its alliance mentality. This results in an instinct to stand symbolically with fellow democracies (many of which are also US treaty allies, such as in Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, and South Korea). For India, there is less of a motivation to join other democracies on matters of symbolic importance or when interests are not significantly compromised.

Overall, cooperation on democracy ought to come more naturally to India and the US, despite their many differences. More than 15 years ago, two very different leaders — George W Bush and Manmohan Singh — opted to collaborate on the UN Democracy Fund. The intervening years have only injected the issue with greater importance and urgency.

Dhruva Jaishankar is executive director, ORF America

The views expressed are personal



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A fitting finale to 2021 would be the collective hope that we never see a year like this again.

We have seen much sadness this year. Covid-19, which entered our lives last year, brought much of humanity to its knees this year. Millions have been infected even as the virus assumes new avatars, and so many have died from its ravages. So far over 270 million have been infected all over the world. Of these, over 5.4 million have died. In India, over 480,000 people have died. India is among the top five countries which have lost the most people to the virus.

People across India were forced to take loans to meet treatment costs for both the pandemic and other illnesses. Between May and August, 238,000 people took loans of approximately 4,200 crore from banks for this. And this is the figure for just four months.

However, the good news is that the Union and state governments took on the fight against the pandemic head-on. They ensured that a total of 1.32 billion doses of vaccines have been administered so far, giving people some respite from the virus.

The pandemic brought in its wake an increase in economic inequality across the world. In India, 57% of the country’s total income went to the top 10%. As a result of this inequitable distribution of wealth, 270 million people who were brought above the poverty line by 2014, have fallen below it again. Now, with the Omicron variant upon us, and still not enough information on its effects, society and the government cannot drop their guard.

Apart from the virus, India and China are locked in a standoff ever since Indian soldiers were killed in the Galwan Valley after a breach by the People’s Liberation Army. In 2021, there were no casualties on this front, but the threat is far from over. This is a situation that adds to India’s worries, which are already exacerbated by the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have not snowballed into any major conflict in 2021, but shelling and attacks from across the border have cost us at least 35 soldiers. Drones originating from Pakistan have also become a cause for concern. These have given a fillip to terrorist activity in Kashmir and have resulted in the deaths of at least 40 people. It is little comfort, that through the efforts of the home ministry and state government, about 100 terrorists were killed. These include those who cruelly targeted innocent people from the minorities. The violence still continues. There was a firing on a van full of policemen in Srinagar on the night of December 13, and such incidents are likely to continue.

If 2021 has proved anything, it is that the concept of a global village has become redundant. Vaccine nationalism by the richer countries has made the battle against the virus all the more difficult for the poor nations. They will have to dig in for the long haul if they have to become self-reliant in vaccines.

The beginning of the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya last year and the inauguration of the Vishwanath Dham complex in Varanasi this month reflect the changing attitudes of the establishment in India. Keshav Prasad Maurya, deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, has raised the issue of Mathura now. Is this just a part of the upcoming elections or something more?

December 8 brought enormous tragedy with India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, along with 12 others, perishing in a helicopter crash. He had begun the process of making India’s defence forces more coordinated and efficient in keeping with the needs of the time.

The other terrible tragedy was the deaths at the farm protest site at Lakhimpur Kheri. Despite this and other blows, the farmers did not lose sight of their goals — and victory was theirs in the end. This year will be remembered as a seminal one in farmers’ struggle.

But this year will also be remembered with joy over the unprecedented performance of our sportspersons at the Tokyo Olympics. It was India’s best performance in the last four decades with a seven-medal haul including javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s gold, Ravi Dahiya, and Mirabai Chanu’s silvers, PV Sindhu, Bajrang Punia, Lovlina Borgohain’s bronze medals, and the one for the hockey team. India won a medal in hockey after 41 years.

The victory of Kamala Harris, whose mother was from India, as the first woman vice-president of the United States was a unique achievement for so many reasons. India has made a significant mark in global companies like Google, Microsoft and Twitter, and inspiration for the younger generation.

As the year draws to a close, we can only hope that the next one will bring hope and positive change. Wishing all our readers a happy and healthy New Year.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan

The views expressed are personal



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When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) initiative at the Glasgow climate conference, he was drawing the world’s attention to the urgent need of finding new, smarter, and more effective ways of managing disasters. IRIS aims to forecast, prevent and minimise the loss and damage caused by disasters, by building the technological and institutional capacity of Small Island Developing States with the help of satellite-based modelling and information systems. This is an outcome of the growing realisation that institutional preparedness is critical to handling disasters effectively. A greater focus needs to be laid on building capacity to assess and reduce the risks of a disaster, than just deploying resources on post-disaster relief and rehabilitation.

Ever since the subject of disaster management was transferred from the ministry of agriculture to the ministry of home affairs in 2002, how the issue of disaster management is looked at, has gradually evolved. Increasingly, managing disasters is seen not only as a matter of response, but as assessing the threats, strengthening the capacity of communities, and reducing the assessed risks through creating disaster-resilient infrastructure and preparedness at all levels: Institutional, technical, and financial.

A tentative step in this direction was taken when the Disaster Management Act was enacted in 2005. The Act put in place a statutory mandate and institutional mechanism to deal with disasters. It created a national framework for managing disasters and tasked the central ministries/agencies as well as state governments with specific roles, but primarily relied on the states to deliver on the goals with their resources and capacities.

This pragmatic but serious turn in the policy was noticeable when India adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015. The year (2015) is significant because two other major international decisions having a bearing on the approaches to disaster management came into being. One of them was the adoption by the United Nations of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the other one was the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

India’s geo-climatic conditions make it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. International cooperation in disaster management is, therefore, critical to India for the effective handling of disasters within its borders as well as the region. Recognising the importance of building infrastructure with disaster-resilient properties and enhancing the resilience of existing infrastructure, India set up the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure in 2019.

With the growth of disaster management as a multi-disciplinary and multi-dimensional field, the role of new technologies, research and development, innovative appro-aches, and use of effective early warning systems and local knowledge has become critical. These need to be ingrained in the decision-making processes if we want to get a complete picture of risks and plan for reducing and managing them.

The government is implementing a project on Common Alerting Protocol to disseminate warnings/alerts about impending hazards to geographically referenced populations in vernacular language. One of the popular measures implemented by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is to create a pool of local volunteers trained to handle different types of hazards and disasters.

Recently, the Union home minister, Amit Shah, appreciated the role of the Apada Mitras and Apada Sakhis in enhancing community preparedness and up-scaled the implementation of the scheme to 350 districts of the country with a view to train one lakh able-bodied volunteers in disaster response.

NDMA has also been involved with states to strengthen the disaster management authorities and agencies at the state and district level in hazard-prone districts. Since 2019, the government has also started recognising the contribution made by individuals and institutions at various levels to managing disasters.

Covid–19 exposed the disaster-managing ability of most countries in the health sector. Several natural disasters compounded the stress caused by the pandemic. The ongoing pandemic is a reminder that the impact and intensity of disasters can be moderated if adequate preparedness and risk reduction measures are in place.

RR Rashmi is a distinguished fellow, TERI, and former special secretary, MoEFCC

The views expressed are personal



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