It is play time for floods

                                                 Dinesh Mishra/ Patna

Flood season is approaching fast and it will impact Bihar also sooner or later. The round of negotiations with Nepal will commence and assurances given to the people of Bihar that something is being planned for them and soon the action will be taken. By the end of the year everything will come to a happy ending.

 A Technical Committee appointed by the Government of Bihar (2007) to study the flood problem and suggest remedies for it says explicitly, ‘…The reservoir and the flood damaged area should be close to each other.’ The spot where Barahkshetra Dam is proposed to be built in Nepal is about 55 km from Indo-Nepal border and the confluence of the Kosi below the border is not less than 200 km. If the committee headed by former Engineer-in- Chief of Bihar says that distant dams don’t provide protection against floods, what purpose it is going to serve?

  The distance of Dheng Bridge from the proposed location of the Nunthar Dam is nearly 70 kilometers and the distance between Dheng to Badlaghat is over 250 kilometers. The case of the Kamla is no different either. That strengthens the view that no flood protection would be possible from this dam in its present form. That is the reason, probably, that no flood cushion has been provided in the design of the dam but the politicians nurse a feeling that the dam at Nunthar will help in preventing floods in the basin. A former Central Minister, Hari Kishore Singh, says, ‘…There is no money available to build the dam at Nunthar. When money is not there, what is the point in talking about the project?

 Even if resources are located, the political situation in Nepal is not conducive for taking up any construction work there or even entering into an agreement for it. Atmosphere there is not favorable to India. Nobody would know whether there is a provision for any flood cushion in the designs or not. May be, the ministers know it. A politician always assumes that if a dam is going to be built, it is imperative that there would be arrangements of irrigation, flood control and power production. The engineers must tell the politicians if no such provision has been made.’ Do our engineers refrain from giving correct picture to their political bosses? Do they lack courage to tell the truth? No engineer will ever like to get humiliated after telling the truth, it seems. People know only to chant 'Zindabaad'.

(Dinesh Kumar Mishra (born 1948) is convenor of ‘Barh Mukti Abhiyan’, an NGO which is mounting a grassroots movement that challenges the current, top-heavy flood control policy in India.)

Education is a social responsibility too

                                                       Abha Khanna

A child’s begging hand is like a slap on the face of every proud Indian. It is a shame that in a fast developing country, many children in the cities are forced to work as beggars, rag pickers and shop workers or simply roam the streets in the absence of a guiding hand.

What is the future of children who roam the streets and have no access to education? What can motivate street children to go to a classroom and learn skills that can brighten their future?

Society needs to play a role here. There’s a lot of untapped talent in them. These children are very alert and receptive to their environment. A little love and affection acts as a strong motivator to bring them to a classroom. They are eager learners and usually respond very positively to well-meaning guidance.

Majority of children who do not attend school have one element missing in their life. Their parents/guardians prioritize earning over education. They are either unable to spare time to ensure their ward’s schooling, or prefer to push their child to start earning at a young age. Either way, the child is the sufferer. However, a large percentage of parents/guardians respond positively to counseling and guidance. If social service organizations take the lead to provide their children with education, they are even supportive.

SumVikas Trust was born of the dream that no Indian child should be devoid of basic education, and should never need to beg. All children of poor, backward and uneducated families should have access to opportunities that can prepare them for gainful employment and make them responsible citizens of India. This dream connected a group of professionals who wanted to do their bit to uplift and strengthen the weaker sections of society. SumVikas launched in June 2007, with the aim to undertake social service projects on a no-profit-no-loss basis. 

SumVikas focuses entirely on children who are out of the schooling system. The teachers virtually play the role of mother, when they take a round of their houses and bring the children to class. These children are then admitted to nearby schools and given tuition support after school so that the child does not drop out again.

From where these children come from, the women also need to be empowered. Many are illiterate, unemployed or underpaid. Their empowerment has a direct effect on the lives of their children. With this in mind, SumVikas also started literacy classes and skills training centres for women.

Eight years down the line, the trust runs projects in Delhi, Uttarakhand and Haryana. Big and small achievements have made the journey worthwhile… motivating the team to work harder and reach out to more people in need.

Activists and NGOs under govt scanner

                                                        SANJU VERMA

For Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Non-Governmental Organisaions (NGO) should have supplementary role rather than the leading role in initiating, conceptualising and leading people in a particular direction. This is a marked shift in the policy of the government since former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demitted the office. However, even during his tenure, the former Prime Minister flagged the anti-development stance of NGOs, particularly in case Kodaikulam Nuclear Power project in Tamil Nadu. But he did not initiate any action against alleged erring NGOs

Since Mr Modi took charge of the country, his office, the PMO, has so far been quite vigilant over foreign funding to NGOs and has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to tighten rules of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). In the span of about one year of Modi government coming to power, the FCRA licenses of over 9, 000 NGOs from across the country have so far been cancelled. Approximately, a little over12,000 NGOs registered with home ministry.

People, who are in know of Mr Modi and his Gujarat model of development, claim that the Prime Minister has grown from chief minister to PM despite NGOs and he “never had good opinion about voluntary organisations”. In the Gujarat model, they claim, government is on the fore front in providing leadership while leaving the space for NGOs only to follow and implement the directives.

With this as the premise for allowing the NGOs to function in the country, no issue or debate can be initiated by such organisations, which is generally aimed at molding the public option and launch agitations. This was the order of the day during 10 years of the UPA rule, which saw sprouting of a political party out of NGO activism.

Without passing any judgment on the recent moves by the government against NGOs- big and small- there exist an issue, which needs to be addressed and this can only be taken up by the government. Action against without giving opportunity for hearing is against natural justice. MHA passes the order against NGOs claiming that the entities have not filed their returns for three years, which is mandated under FCRA- 2010. But NGOs are not given opportunity to explain their position or a window to correct their mistake, which is provided in almost all the cases even in cases relating to Income Tax or Service tax returns.

There is dire need to provide a platform for the NGOs to interact with the government on the lines of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). Even well meaning NGOs have been asking for it. Many among them say wrong or right actions are being taken against them, but there is no place to approach and redress their grievances. They claim that actions are being initiated against them and they are not being told about their mistakes. Therefore under present situation good and bad entities are treated equally and thus good one suffers and overall image of the voluntary sector is dented.   

It is an experience that about 25 years ago the image of corporate was almost like the same as it is in the case of NGOs. But post liberalization, as the economy evolved and the MCA came into being, the corporate entities got a platform to interact with government and a regime of collaboration ushered in.

Similarly, need of the hour is that on the lines of MCA, the government needs to work out a mechanism for interaction with NGOs so that issues are discussed and well meaning solutions are arrived at. There is denying the utility and importance of voluntary sector activism, without which soul of society would be lost. Only government cannot bring about socio-economic changes in the lives of people. Long live India, its government and also NGOs! Together wonders can be achieved, but only in an environment of trust.

 

Heat wave conditions in India – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh worst hit

                                                         K R Sudhaman

Gone are the days when India is to witness starvation deaths. The 1942 Bengal famine is the one of the worst in the world taking thousands or perhaps lakhs of lives in India. We have come a long way thanks to green revolution that there are no starvation deaths for want of food.

While India has conquered this problem there are deaths in India due to cold wave and heat wave conditions and this seems to be a recurring problem. Lately heat wave has become a frequent problem in the country in most parts of hinterland during summer. The country witnessed the one of the worst heat wave recently killing over 2,300 people and worst hit were Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Global warming is said to be one of reasons and this year's heat wave in India is considered to be among the top five deadliest in the world. We may blame the global warming for it but this is preventable if only India moves rapidly towards providing shelter and drinking water for all. This is the mission, which has remained unfulfilled even after 68 years of independence and it speaks volumes about the callousness of the government in not valuing the importance of human life.

It, therefore, goes to the credit of the government that they have taken these two unfulfilled objectives as a mission and promised to provide shelter for all and drinking water in all villages by 2022. These two have been done on a war footing as this will prevent deaths in heat wave or cold wave conditions. We cannot fight nature's fury like earthquake, flash floods, cloudburst and the resultant and unexpected deaths. But we can certainly ensure there are no deaths on these score by providing shelter and adequate drinking water so that we conquer this problems as well just as we done in the case of starvation deaths due to famine.