Questionnaire on Capital Punishment

On 23 May 2014, the Law Commission of India has released a Consultation Paper on Capital Punishment. At the end of the paper, there is a questionnaire seeking views of the citizens of India on whether capital punishment should be retained or abolished in India. The Law Commission has given a window of 30 days (from the date of release of the above-mentioned paper) to the citizens to send their responses. The relevant information can be gathered from their website <http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/>.

Here's what I have sent as my response (the skipping of response numbers 2 and 3 is due to the nature of the questionnaire):

1.  I am not in favour of retention of capital punishment.

4.  Reasons for the abolition of capital punishment:

a. There is no conclusive proof that capital punishment acts as a deterrent for future crimes

b.  Capital punishment confuses the idea of retribution with justice and  society must move away from the conception of "an eye for an eye"

c.   Capital Punishment deprives people of the opportunity to reform

d.  Economically and socially backward groups will always have greater  chance of being subjected to capital punishment than the rich

e.   Capital Punishment is a form of state sponsored violence

f.   The State that has criminalized euthanasia as a form of suicide and hasn't permitted an individual to take his/her own life doesn't have any moral sanction (under the facade of bringing deterrence and imposition of law and order) to snatch away a criminal's right to life. If fake-encounter killings (State-action) are abhorred by human rights activists as well as sections of the media, the "perceived consent of the society" to permit homicide of a criminal (death penalty) is equally deplorable.  The Supreme Court has, time and again, re-interpreted Article 21 of the Constitution of India to mean a right to live with human dignity. It is unfathomable why the right to bodily life should be snatched away even if by the procedure established under law.

As has been said above, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot" can only create a disabled society. While the emotional appeals of the victim's/victims' families has to be listened to, it doesn't make sense to say that hanging a person by the neck/execution using poison/killing by a firing squad would bring any relief to the kith and kin of the victim(s). India doesn't hold its foreign policy—in inviting Pakistan's Prime Minister (PM) to the swearing-in ceremony of the Indian PM designate—captive to the emotional displeasure of the wife of a soldier allegedly beheaded by the Pakistan Army along the Line of Control. In the same manner, the Indian State should not get moved by jingoistic calls of capital punishment based on retribution.

Furthermore, what sanction the society has to determine whether or not a person has a scope for reformation is beyond my comprehension.

Another criticism that can be leveled against the abolition of death penalty is that it may cause an economic strain to the country to keep criminals within prisons for the rest of their life. It may be noted that when there's enough money in the country for a few individuals to pay 70 lakh rupees monthly electricity bills and for governments to provide subsidies to several unintended beneficiaries, there's certainly enough money to maintain the human capital in the country. Further, as experiments of vocational educational and work in Tihar Jail suggest, prisons are not just a source of disciplining. They can be a source of creativity and can add to the material well-being of the society as well. Hannah Arendt's concept of banality of evil has to be considered while any trial is being conducted by a court of law.

5.  As such, there is no evidence of capital punishment acting as a deterrent for crimes. The Shakti Mills gang-rape (counted as "rarest of rare" by a judge) incident of Mumbai was perpetrated long after the 16 December 2012 Delhi gang-rape case (again, a "rarest of rare" case) trial had begun. In addition, many incidents of gang-rape against dalit victims have been reported after capital punishment was awarded to the convicts of these "rarest of rare" cases. Given the extensive reach of the print media, it seems improbable that the news about these two (the 16 December case and the Shakti Mills case) verdicts would not have reached the ears of the perpetrators of crimes that were committed post the 16 December case verdict date. The presence of heinous crimes against women as well as terrorist acts point towards deeper problems in the society, e.g., poor socio-economic conditions, inequality, disillusioned youth, alienation by the State. Thus, imprisonment for full life can attain the very same objectives of deterrence as are envisaged by the society.

6.  The Criminal Law Amendment Act was made a victim to the populist stance adopted by the government as well as various political parties after a great deal of jingoism took on the streets. While awareness in the civil society is essential, the absence of such awareness in incidents of gang-rape being perpetrated against lower-caste victims in backward regions of the country clearly outline an urban bias present in the society as well as the media. The (late) Justice J.S. Verma Committee had recommended the abolition of the death penalty and that is the stand I personally subscribe to.

7.  In my opinion, homicide may be incidental or may even be the outcome of an act of self-defence. When such cases are not counted by the judiciary as "rarest of rare" and sometimes the accused are even set free in such cases, it is clear that murder cannot be equated with acts of terrorism.

8.  In my opinion, it isn't possible to categorize murders in such manner as to warrant the award of capital punishment to the convicts.

9.  I do not subscribe to the view that under normal circumstances the punishment of life imprisonment is adequate for murder but under aggravating circumstances, the Court may award death penalty.

10. Although a country may devise certain parameters to categorize offences into terror offences and non-terror offences, such a category may not be free of subjectivity and bias. In my opinion, capital punishment should be abolished for both the cases. Instead, systemic failures that give rise to heinous crimes should be curbed. While the supporters of retention of capital punishment may give the examples of Islamic countries of the Middle East in that heinous crimes are minimized if strict physical punishment is meted out, India doesn't necessarily need to follow such examples because such countries mostly don't have democratic political systems, which the Union of India swears by.

11. I think that the existing framework of police investigation and collection of evidence requires reforms to substantially reduce erroneous convictions. The use of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) is one of the positive steps that have been taken in this direction.

12. My opinion is based on the ideological opposition to capital punishment. Hence, there is no scope for talking about more proof or less proof for different categories of crimes.

13. Yes, the award of capital punishment does have the risk of being judge-centric. Given that the conduct of judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court is not to be discussed and debated upon in any legislative body and given that these legislative bodies are themselves prone to populist bent, there is a risk (howsoever small it may be) of judges getting influenced by pressure from society or of judges getting carried away by their inherent bias.

14. There should be a provision for rehabilitation of families of criminals sentenced to death until now provided that the convict was the lone breadwinner of the family and the family belongs to the lower rung of the socio-economic ladder.

15. There have been reports that in the US, there were delays in the execution even by poisonous injection. Such delays caused an inhuman treatment to the convict. Capital punishment itself should be abolished, leave aside the question of any other mode of imposing the death penalty.

16. No, there should not be any guidelines laid down for the President and the Governor to exercise their powers of granting mercy under the Constitution of India in death penalty cases. This is because such guidelines would again be vulnerable to subjectivity. Further, there should not be any time-limit for the President to decide on the cases of mercy petition being submitted to him. If status quo were to be maintained, this pocket veto would leave a scope for the President to not give his/her consent for the execution.

Narrative of a sojourn to Chandigarh

For those who have the honour of having a supportive financial background for a while, unemployment can be a boon as well as a bane. The (most obvious) downsides of it are the lack of financial autonomy and security. The positive associated with it is the vast amount of time that it places at one's disposal. If used constructively, this time can be helpful in personal development as well as for developing a keen power of analysis. Also, it teaches one to be an efficient financial manager. This can be explained in the following three ways:

• nececessity is the mother of invention; or
• one tends to ascribe greater value to those things which one possesses in scarcity; or
• the lesser the supply of a commodity is (or the rarer a commodity is), the more costly/valuable it is.

Recently, I had a sojourn to Chandigarh. The journey was an enriching experience for me because I observed many things throughout the trip. Also, it was a welcome relief for me since it was a break from the monotony of my usual routine. I nowhere claim that the data presented by me is statistically expansive, given that my sample space was very small. Notwithstanding the preceding caveat, the data presented by me is worthy to be contemplated upon.

My current job status—"unemployed"—confers upon me the honour of being a deliberative spender. I undertook my journey in a state transport corporation ordinary bus, which gave me some insights into functioning of the society. It's not that I haven't done this before; it's just that I've thought of writing about these things now. The very first thing that one notices is the almost ubiquitous dilapidated and many-a-time unclean condition of ordinary buses—of course, shouldn't that be so? After all, they are ordinary! Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) funding clearly doesn't seem to have been sufficient to curb this occurrence.

The next thing that I witnessed was a road accident on the NH (National Highway) 72 and the mangled front end of a car. What caught my attention was the reaction of most of the people sitting inside the bus which I was travelling in—an interesting field for a psychologist or a behaviouralist to research upon. Most of the people rose in their respective seats (as if in reverence) and tried to assimilate the view from the closest quarter that their erstwhile position permitted. Our  bus wasn't going to stop and the passengers weren't going to offer help. Anyway, that wasn't required either as an ambulance was already present to carry the victims to the hospital. However, the sight of an accident—a break from the normal surroundings and a potential topic of discussion—seemed too good to be resisted by the people. It is noteworthy how the topics of discussion of the people change on seeing such a sight. Most of the passengers, who are otherwise engrossed in casual conversations, shift the topic of their talks to vehicular accidents. Many people even start drawing conclusions based on stereotypical assumptions. Or perhaps I feel so, given that I don't have "adequate knowledge" to pass such dicta.

When Robert Frost wrote in one of his poems—"We dance around in a ring and suppose, But the secret sits in the middle and knows"—he perhaps had in mind that the solutions to our problems, the rays of hope for despairing hearts are all situated amongst ourselves. It is only that most of us fail to notice and acknowledge their presence. Many of the road accidents occur at night due to the drivers' using their vehicular headlight at high beam. In Chandigarh, I saw the solution to this problem. Within the city, vehicles are not permitted to use their headlights at high beam. I did not get to observe whether a significant number of people were following this rule or not. Nevertheless, the presence of a progressive rule was a cause of relief. The high beam causes a nuisance to the vehicles approaching from the opposite direction as well as to the pedestrians. Besides this, though there was a rule prohibiting honking by vehicles at many places, quite a lot of the people seemed oblivious of this.

Chandigarh city has been maintained quite beautifully. There was the usual presence of overcharging autorickshaw drivers. I stayed in a building which was substantially financed by the Government of Punjab to provide accommodation to farmers from far-flung areas visiting the city as also to the general public. The accommodation was very well-maintained and hygienic. Perhaps this facility was the result of the very influential and rich farmer lobby that has been created in Punjab and some other parts of North India by the Green Revolution of the 1970s. This became evident when I saw that though the accommodation was subsidized, the food in the food court wasn't.

On my way back from Chandigarh, two ladies (presumably from the same family) accompanied by a small child boarded the bus. One of them was quite older and the younger one seemed not to possess the gift of speech. The child seemed to be her son. Their woes were that they were carrying a lot of luggage. What irritated—I couldn't keep myself from using this strong word here—me was the apathy of one of the fellow passengers (a woman) in continually cribbing about these two ladies' luggage blocking her way. This was when that woman looked quite able in all aspects. It is disheartening to see some of the individuals from our society exhibiting such a behaviour towards persons with disabilities.

The midway halt of the bus gave me another insight—this time into the rights of consumers. The bus drivers seem to halt the bus at pre-decided locations, where they get a cheaper meal and other amenities. My bus stopped at a place where I couldn't think about having a meal as the place seemed to be festered with flies. Further, the person seemed to be selling packed goods at a 25 to 33 per cent sale price above the Maximum Retail Price (MRP). And this is usually done for accommodating the "cost of chilling" (beverages) and "for the place being on a highway or a bus station". One of the retailers was even selling water bottles, which were meant to be sold only at railway stations (as the text on the bottle neck clearly stated), at an elevated price. The union ministry of consumer affairs clearly specifies that a retailer cannot charge a customer a price greater than the MRP. The illiterate or unaware or unsuspecting people are duped by these retailers in the name of such excuses. Michel Foucault had stated that knowledge is directly related to power. The need of the hour is for the people to be vigilant and the government to be swift in meting out penalties to the erring retailers. It is not that the retailers are always the ones to be blamed as people hungry for profits. Many-a-time, these retailers have to overcharge because they in turn have to bribe policemen who otherwise harass them because these retailers are not authorized vendors or do not possess a license. A positive legislation in this direction is the Street Vendors Bill.

Another observation during the return journey was the loss of wildlife that happens due to vehicular accidents. Clearly, a step needs to be taken in this direction. Although vehicles are prohibited from speeding too much while passing through areas abounding in wildlife, the observed outcomes don't seem to be much convincing. The eroded hills at many-a-place presented a dismal sight and compelled me to think about climate change and its effects. I earnestly hope that we are not going to make anthropogenic factors the cause of extinction of species.

Lastly, I picked up a few excerpts from the conversation of a lady talking to someone else over her cellphone. Apparently, the lady had visited a few bugyals (a Garhwali term for high-altitude grasslands) and other adventure tourist spots in Uttarakhand in the preceding days. This greatly allured the adventurist in me, who has otherwise been kept subdued since a long time for want of time and funds. The lady was also narrating about a "Modi-wave" in context of the 16th Lok Sabha elections and about children from far-flung areas in Uttarakhand mentioning to her about their elders' going to cast votes "lest Modi would lose". So much was the effect of bad governance by the previous government combined with a splendid advertisement campaign by the (now) winning political party.

A political leader has claimed about a glass half-filled with water to be half-filled with water and half-filled with air. When it comes to matters in general about India, I'm not a doubter, a skeptic or a cynic. I believe that doubters do not achieve, skeptics do not contribute and cynics do not create. Notwithstanding this, I also believe that bringing improvement in the ecology is as much a responsibility of the citizens as it is of the government. On my part, I try to write and propagate awareness about the issues. If people are able to make a difference in any way after reading my articles, I will consider that my efforts have borne fruits.

Representative Democracy in India

Winston Churchill had once commented about democracy being the worst form of government, except for those that have been tried so far. This view has been reiterated by Amartya Sen, according to whom democracy remains the only form of government that commands global respect.

The forms of State and its institutions can be traced back to ancient Greece with city-states as the fundamental political units. Plato had advocated the rule of a single philosopher ruler with almost unlimited powers (subject only to a restriction by the 'law of the land' or the constitution). Aristotle (Plato's disciple) found this idea impracticable as too much power vested in the hands of a single man can cause the decay of a polity, howsoever wise the man might be ('man' has been italicized because Greece was a strongly patriarchal society and only adult able-bodied males fulfilling the criteria laid down in Plato's education system were thought fit to become philosopher rulers). This is because of the vulnerability of human nature/the corrupting influence of power. Aristotle proposed democracy as an alternative form of government. The word democracy has its origins in demos (people) and -cracy (rule), i.e., rule by the people. Later on, when the medieval period of Church-supremacy in Europe was about to end, Niccolo Machiavelli (in his book Prince) suggested democracy as the desirable form of government if people are virtuous (however, his assumption about human nature was that most people aren't virtuous, and thus,  authoritarian rule is the best one). The first democratic nation-state in the world emerged (the USA) after the American Revolution. Abraham Lincoln described democracy as the government of the people, by the people, for the people. Thereafter, other countries followed suit and by-and-by, democracy came to be recognized as a better form of government. According to Samuel P. Huntington, democracy visited the countries of the world in waves interspersed with reverse waves. Democracy came to symbolize the general will of the people (a term, which had been proposed earlier by Jean-Jacques Rousseau).

The Preamble to the Constitution of India describes India as a democratic republic (a country where the Head of the State—e.g., the President in India—is not a hereditary one/monarch but is an elected one; alternatively, where the government has representatives from the public). Thus, the Indian democracy is not a direct democracy (which is ruled almost directly by the people) but a representative democracy—people elect their representatives to the legislatures and the executive (the government) is formed from amongst those very legislators (in this, India has adopted the Westminster model or the Cabinet Model of government, borrowed from Britain).

In India, elections are held using the majoritarian system or First Past The Post (FPTP) system in each of the parliamentary as well as state legislative constituencies (now single-member constituencies). The candidate who secures the largest number of votes in a constituency is declared as the winner for a seat in the respective legislature. According to the first Chief Election Commissioner of India (Sukumar Sen) the FPTP system was suited to the needs of India after independence. Less than a quarter of the Indians were literate and the FPTP system was simple to explain to the first-time or illiterate voters.

The electoral defeat of the Congress and the victory of the loose Janata Party coalition after the national emergency period (1975-77) showed that the Indian voters are well-aware of the values associated with a democracy (e.g., freedom of speech and expression, freedom of the press). Nevertheless, the comeback of the Congress party at the central government in 1979 elections showed that the Indian electorate equally deplores unstable or temporary governments at the centre. 1989 onwards, successive governments at the centre have been coalition governments, and no single political party has been able to secure an absolute (50 per cent seats plus one) majority required for forming the government on its own.

The present state of politics in India is a mixed-lot. Whereas the procedural (theoretical) aspect of the democracy (i.e., free and fair elections) has largely been successful, the substantive (practical) aspect has been a cause of concern. The problems in the substantive aspect somehow leads one to question the democratic character of polity in India—whether India is still a democracy or a "deformed polyarchy". Deformed polyarchy signifies that the country has many persons or groups as power-centres. However, decision-making power for the most important tasks in the country still lies with a few elite persons or groups out of all these power-centres. Over the years, it has been observed that while the rural and poor voters have been more assertive in exercising their political franchise, the middle-class voter participation has been somewhat declining. This lackadaisical attitude of the middle-class seems to point towards an electoral fatigue or despair as to the nature of representative politics in India. Furthermore, political parties try to amass the votes of the poor people, illiterate sections among the rural people by announcing populist measures just before the elections. This particular section of the voters, which a scholar has described as "political society", has got very limited bargaining power with the government once the election-fever is over.

Compounding these problems is the use of black money for election campaigning. Critics point out that the lack of a election campaign-related expenditure limit for political parties is somewhere linked to the use of such money. Also, one of the uses of movie-actors' campaigning for political parties is to gather votes through appealing to the popular-sentiment. It is not a taboo for movie actors or famous personalities to contest elections and/or campaign for candidates—after all, democracy implies equality in political affairs. Still, questions can be raised as to their previous experience of social work.

A look at the statistics related to the MPs of the 15th Lok Sabha (given by Association for Democratic Reforms) revealed that over half of them owned assets worth crores of rupees. If one goes by the statistics of Institute of Applied Manpower Research, then the bottom 60 per cent of the Indian households own a mere 13 per cent of the country's assets, whereas a substantial fraction of the country's assets are owned by the country's elite. If these two facts are taken together, one doesn't need to be a genius to understand the level of representation of the aam aadmis (common people) in the representative politics in India. There are exceptions to this—but then they are exceptions.

In 2013, the Central Information Commission (CIC) had opined that a few political parties in India are substantially funded by the public. Thus, they should also be under the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. This opinion elicited strong disapproval by these aggrieved parties and now the bill seeking to reverse this dictum by the CIC is lying before a parliamentary standing committee. The political parties have their own concerns regarding this—according to them, this would severely interfere with their independent functioning, which does require secrecy. What is remarkable, though, is the consensus which was achieved among the parties—in a short span of time—whereas the institution of Lokpal (the national ombudsman) took so long to be given a statutory recognition. At present, political parties need not disclose the details of donations received by them that are below 20,000 rupees. There has been a demand for the parties to proactively disclose all the donation amounts, even if they are seemingly meager. This would ensure a complete transparency in funding. Further, more than one-third of the newly-elected MPs of the 16th Lok Sabha have criminal charges pending against them.

The Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and the Urban Local Bodies (covered respectively under the 73rd and the 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts)—the third-tier of government in India—have a mandate of reserving 33 per cent of the seats in their various sub-levels for women. It is usually seen that the women in these positions are just dummy candidates behind whom the real candidate is their husband or one of their close male relatives. Further, the women in these institutions seem to come only from an elite family background or a part of "dynastic politics". The representation of women in the Parliament and in the State Legislatures has been dismal till date. This issue manifests itself in the low ranking of India in terms of the Gender Inequality Index (GII) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report (HDR). Then, there is to be an adequate representation of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in the legislative bodies to ensure that their problems in the society are listened to and that curative action is taken on them.

Even though the polity of South Korea and that of India may be substantially different, at least at the surface level (disregarding the domestic politics of South Korea) the Prime Minister of South Korea has shown a great level of professionalism by resigning from his post after the recent ferry mishap. Could this be expected of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in reaction to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots (for which even the Supreme Court has expressed strong disapproval regarding the conduct of the state government)?

Many political leaders in India seem to have mastered the art of rhetoric—which becomes evident by the incomplete representation of the economic and/or historical facts by the leaders in their campaign speeches. Adding to the woes is the phenomenon of hate speeches and seditious statements by leaders. The ECI's Model Code of Conduct doesn't have a legislative backing and therefore, harsh actions cannot be taken by the commission. Furthermore, electoral reforms take a long time to be implemented. Thus, there are some steps that can ensure that political parties field better candidates in constituencies. The critics of FPTP system have contended (rightly) that such a system can make a candidate win a Lok Sabha or a State Legislative Assembly seat even when a majority (more than 50 per cent) of the voters from that constituency have not voted in favour of that candidate. This becomes possible due to the candidate's securing the largest absolute number of votes.

•      A Proportional Representation system would be a much better alternative  (compounded by an open-list system—a system where the list of candidates to be fielded by a political party is itself chosen by the people). In this system, political parties get seats in legislature in proportion to the fraction of votes that they have secured. Critics of this system opine that this will lead to unstable coalition governments at the centre. However, considering the history of electoral politics since 1989 (an era of coalition governments), the system seems to be a feasible  one. The only loophole seems to be whether this system can be swiftly accepted by the illiterate fraction of the electorate (26 per cent of Indians, as per Census 2011, are still illiterate) or not.

•      Another possible option can be to follow the methods of Referendum and Recall (used in Switzerland, which is considered as the polity closest to direct democracy). In this, the people decide important issues through referendum (voting by the people themselves). They also have the option to call back their representative from a legislature (recall) if he/she is not upto their standards. This, however, can be economically unviable, considering the large geographical extent of India and the large population of India's constituencies as compared to Switzerland.

•      A third approach would be to keep following the present FPTP system, but to bring changes in it. The Supreme Court had issued directions to the ECI to introduce a None Of The Above (NOTA) button in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). There has been very less use of this provision, though, in the 2014 general elections. However, such an option does not give the voters to express disapproval at individual candidates fielded by the political parties. Adjacent to the standard voting button present against the name of a candidate on the EVMs, the ECI can get placed red-coloured buttons for the voters to censure a candidate. The voters may be given an option to cast their vote in favour of a single candidate (positive-vote) or hit the NOTA and express as many censure-votes as they like. Further, the censure votes against a candidate's name may be counted to get an idea about the candidate's image. If the censure votes against a candidate exceed the number of votes secured by him/her, then action can be taken (e.g., cancellation of candidature, or the censure-votes can be assigned a fraction of a negative-vote). The benefit of this approach is that the political parties will be compelled to field honest and hard-working candidates for a constituency. This approach, however, can face two shortcomings. First, there can be groups of people who can falsely press the censure button to taint the image of a candidate. Second, though introduction of this button on the EVMs may be economically viable, the whole election process will be more time-consuming and so, expensive. The illiterate voters may take a long time to adapt themselves to this method. Further, the delays and expenses will be compounded for the polling booths where electoral malpractices are reported and subsequently re-polls are ordered by the ECI.

It remains to be seen how much the people are willing to get the representatives chosen on the basis of merit and not on money-power & muscle-power.

Till now, the ECI has played a commendable role in the conduct of the procedural democracy. Its innovations, such as the introduction of Booth Level Officers, Vulnerability Mapping of constituencies, Elector Photo Identity Card, EVMs and Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) have been successes. This can be seen from the increased voter turnouts (especially of the youth and the rural people) in the 2014 general elections, as well as from the popular fame (based on various surveys) that the ECI enjoys among the citizens of India. Nevertheless, the civil society too has to be vigilant to keep the shortcomings of the elected representatives in check. An efficient and clean government (leading to good governance) stresses on the education of the people and their increased awareness, which in turn sets up a positive feedback to reinforce the process of election of a good government. Indians have to remember that we the people have to be proactive (keeping in mind our fundamental duties) in the electoral process to ensure that the dance of democracy or the biggest festival of the largest democracy doesn't turn out to be a mere bonanza of vote-grabbing and power-seeking. The indelible ink marked finger isn't just an eye-catcher to be flashed around through selfies. The symbol is a reminder of the power of a citizen to decide how he/she wants to be ruled by his/her government.

Gar Firdaus bar rue zameen asto; Hameen asto, hameen asto, hameen ast

Even as the US gears up for attacks on Nigeria's Boko Haram militants, the crisis continues unabated in Ukraine, Turkey mourns the loss of its mine-workers and the world's largest democracy is about to witness the results of its recently concluded biggest festival, I feel quite contented with residing in my cubicle in the quaint town of Dehradun in the Shiwalik hills of Uttarakhand (the hill state carved out of Uttar Pradesh in November 2000). I call Dehradun a town, even when it technically fulfils all the provisions of being called a city and has a municipal corporation too, because it is still a town in its essence. The almost-deserted roads after 2130 hrs, the pristine blue sky, the vast variety of flora and fauna, and the mostly unassuming people are a testimony to this assertion. In the past, the unparalleled beauty of the mountains and the unpolluted ecology (largely untouched by the ill-effects of the anthropogenic measures of 'civilization') compelled the chhayavadis (romanticists) to write poetries in praise of Nature, e.g., Manbhaavan Saawan (Mesmerizing Monsoon) by Sumitranandan Pant.

The word 'Dehradun' (or Dehradoon) is composed of the two root words 'dera' and 'doon'. In the medieval times, Sikhs from Punjab (Sri Guru Ram Rai among them) migrated to this quiet 'doon' (the term for the low Shiwalik hills of the Himalayas) valley and set up their 'dera' (camp) here, hence the name Dehradoon (or Dehradun). Still, vast tracts of land in the town belong to Sikhs and Punjabis. These people are engaged in philanthropic activities too and have established educational institutions and hospitals in Dehradun and in some nearby towns as well.

Dehradun district is one of the most populous districts of Uttarakhand. Politically, Dehradun comes under the Haridwar parliamentary constituency. Being the erstwhile state capital of Uttarakhand (till the much-awaited hill capital at Garsain is established), Dehradun is the legislative as well as the executive centre of the state. Dehradun district also encompasses a portion of the Rajaji National Park (named after Chakravarti Rajagopalachari). The main town is home to some of the best schools in the country, such as the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), the Doon School, St Joseph's Academy. It also houses the premier military establishment—the Indian Military Academy (IMA)—of the country, which is the cradle of future warriors of the Indian Army. Dehradun also has the forestry establishment Forest Research Institute (FRI) of the Indian Council of Forest Research and Education (ICFRE), the zoological establishment Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the geological establishment Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. Mussoorie—whose sub-part Landour is the home to Ruskin Bond and Tom Alter—is a hill-station, which is located about 35 kilometres away from the Dehradun bus station. It is locally referred to as the queen of hills. The development body of Dehradun and Mussoorie city areas is the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA). During winters, the Dhalipur Lake reservoir of the Asan Barrage (which falls on the way from Dehradun to Shimla) becomes a temporary halting place for the migratory birds from Siberia and other colder regions of Russia. Agriculturally, Dehradun is famous for the production of basmati variety of rice and of Dehradooni litchis. Dehradun is also the seat of many Buddhist monasteries (the Mindrolling Monastery-in-Exile) and temples.

Over the past decade, Dehradun has witnessed increasing levels of demographic burden and pollution. The state creation in 2000 led to a large amount of investment—an exorbitant increase in the presence of industries and big showrooms in the state capital—which caused an escalation in the cost of land. This triggered a large-scale migration of real estate developers to the state. New offices started being established in the city, which again prompted a decrease in the supply of available land. The increased demand for the land led to a further rise in the prices of land which in turn made investment in land more profitable and attractive, thus setting up a positive feedback mechanism. This had its socio-economic effects—the migration of a large number of people from other states as well from the interior towns and villages of Uttarakhand (who came in search of employment and better residential places) towards Dehradun city. The rehabilitation of the people, affected due to the inundation of land by the reservoir of the Tehri Dam, in Dehradun district has aggravated the problem of shortage of land. There has been an increase in the number of slum-dwellers in the town. There have also been drainage problems due to clogged drains during the monsoons. Then, there has been an increase in the instances of crime in the city as a fallout of the unequal distribution of resources.

The sociological side-effect of this model of economic development is an increase in the consumerist mentality among the previously simple hill-people. The youth is attracted to the aggressively-marketed products offered by the fast-food multinational corporations, which becomes the underlying cause of a large number of lifestyle-related diseases. According to various studies, junk food consumption has the same effect on the mind as drug addiction—due to the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which gives a feeling of 'pleasure'. With time, the body gets conditioned to a certain level of intake of such foods, which induces more consumption for experiencing the same level of 'pleasure'. This leads to a cyclical action. These junk foods are high in salt and sugar content, a prolonged addictive consumption of which leads to hypertension and diabetes respectively, which ultimately has a high probability of culminating into Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)—the cause of a large number of deaths worldwide. Junk foods are deficient in the vital micronutrients needed for a healthy growth of the human body. Even if utilitarian thinking (and not the usually perceived 'westernization' and 'degradation of cultural values' discourse) is resorted to, the long-term utility of consumerism is much less as compared to simple living and high thinking.

The environmental ill-effects are in the form of the increased vehicular pollution (more so from the diesel-guzzling 'Vikram' autorickshaws plying on the roads) in the city as well as the strain on the present resources. Industrial air and water pollution is another cause of concern. There have also been instances of illegal sand mining in the district. In addition to these, the locals of the Vikasnagar town of Dehradun district have raised their concerns over the proposed govt. acquisition of land for setting up a Coca Cola factory—which (according to the locals) will pose an environmental threat to their water streams and ground water and will adversely affect their sustenance. Then, the city is witnessing higher levels of pollution from non-biodegradable waste. The littered garbage is responsible for a large number of diseases. A reduction in the forest cover due to pollution is causing wild beasts, such as guldaar (leopard), to stray inside human settlements and devour the cattle as well as the pet animals of the residents.

It is not that Dehradun is presenting a dismal picture. This vintage town is still one of the best cities to reside in India. However, to those from the older generation—the septuagenarians and the octogenarians—the town is rapidly losing its earlier charm. Even progressive measures, such as the ban placed by the district magistrate on the use of polythenes in the town, seem to fall on deaf ears. The school-going children and non-governmental organizations have set-up an example in front of the residents. They create awareness among the people through rallies and slogans aimed at protection of the environment. An initiative Making A Difference by Being A Difference (MAD) of certain school-going and college-going youngsters of Dehradun periodically tries to organize cleanliness drives, by volunteers, in various parts of the city. The government is also trying to sustainably rehabilitate the displaced people at places which are nearest to their original area of stay. Strict vigilance by the Dehradun Police is trying to curb the instances of crime. The industries being developed by the State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Ltd. (SIIDCUL) are helpful in providing employment to the youth of the state. The industries are being established outside the periphery of the main city to avoid pollution. However, for setting up new industries, a thorough environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment needs to be done.

It is to be noted that while the govt. is always made accountable for ill-occurrences, even the residents have some responsibilities towards the city. One of the fundamental duties enlisted in the Article 51A of the Constitution of India obliges the citizens to protect and improve the natural environment and the wildlife of the country. The residents can maintain cleanliness in their houses, workplaces, etc. by throwing their garbage only in the municipal corporation authorized garbage vehicle and by not leaving stagnant water bodies near their houses/offices untreated. The people can ward off lifestyle-related diseases by having a wholesome diet (those who can afford to have it but are not presently having it) and through physical exercise. Next, the residents of the city can lessen socio-economic problems by social recycling—giving old and unused items of clothing, stationery, furniture, etc. to the needy. Then, the town—which is famous for its reputed school education establishments—needs to set an example in front of other cities in India by de-ostracizing the transgenders and other sexual minorities. A slew of measures can be innovatively devised to solve the other problems, because self-help is the best help.

Amir Khusrau had once said about Kashmir—"Gar Firdaus bar rue zameen asto; Hameen asto, hameen asto, hameen ast"—if there is any heaven on earth, it is this, it is this, this is it! I can say with equal zeal that the same statement is applicable for Uttarakhand as well. We the residents of Dehradun must consider ourselves endowed with the responsibility of understanding the town's value and of protecting its rich and varied heritage.

School Education in India

There is a verse in Mundaka Upanishad—Sa Vidya, Ya Vimuktaye—knowledge is that which liberates. Knowledge pulls out one from tamas (darkness), which signifies ignorance, towards jyoti (light), which signifies enlightenment. This noble deed is achieved through education. The first step in the education of a person is schooling.

In ancient India (as mentioned in the epics), school education was imparted through institutions known as gurukuls. These were residential schools in which education was imparted in the guru-shishya (teacher-student) parampara (tradition). In such institutions, students belonging to all classes/hierarchical levels of the society used to study as equals. They helped in the gurukul in performing various day-to-day chores. Admissions to these schools were generally based on merit. The students were expected to adhere to a strict code of discipline, and equal emphasis was laid on practical education alongwith the theoretical aspect.

Just after India achieved independence from the British, the state of literacy in the country was dismal. Only about a fifth of the country's population was literate. The first education minister in independent India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, worked diligently to bring Indians on the same pedestal as the people of the developed world in terms of their educational skills. Due to the continued efforts of such men, (as per Census 2011) India has been able to achieve a 74 per cent national literacy rate. A sound education system is necessary to reduce social cleavages/disparities, to alleviate poverty, to curb the incidents of crime in society (a large number of which are perpetrated by juveniles or adults who had a poor educational background compounded by a poor socio-economic condition) and to strengthen democracy (as adult suffrage can be used more effectively by better-educated citizens).

As we move towards the path of faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth (as envisaged by the 12th Five-Year Plan), it is imperative that we look at the problems that ail the school education system in the country. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had opined that the real India lives in its villages. It is, therefore, pertinent that the state of school education in rural areas in looked into. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013, which is a survey for assessing school education in the rural areas of the country, India is progressing quite well on the path to attaining the Millennium Development Goal of Universalization of Primary Education by the year 2015. The primary school enrollment in these areas is more than 96 percent. However, what causes concern is that the dropout rates from school are not low. This dropout is more prominent in the case of girl students. Furthermore, almost half of the 5th standard students do not show any significant improvement in their reading-skills, basic arithmetic skills from the past year (2012). As such, they are not able to do the exercises, which have been set for a 2nd standard student. The dropout rates are due to the lack of incentives to the children/their parents for school education. These are—lack of basic sanitation facilities, lack of clean drinking water facilities, large distance of schools from residential areas of students, large opportunity cost (in economics, the opportunity cost of a good/service is what one pays/forfeits to procure it) of education as compared to working as labour, corporal punishment instances. The low standards of education of children, more so in the government-run schools, can be attributable to the lack of proper training given to the primary school teachers, low incentives to the teachers, low student attendance, etc. ASER 2013 also points out that the private-school enrollment in rural areas has increased as compared to 2012.

What are the steps taken by the Government of India in this regard? The government has initiated a series of schemes to realize Right to Education—a Fundamental Right (Article 21A) in the Constitution of India—inserted by the 86th Constitution (Amendment) Act, 2002. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, has been enacted to give a statutory basis to this fundamental right. The RTE Act provides for reservation of 25 per cent of the total number of seats in schools (whether they are govt.-run or govt.-aided or privately-funded) for children belonging to the lower rung of the socio-economic ladder. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan strives to achieve a universalization of primary education. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan is aimed at improving the school education at the higher secondary as well as the senior secondary level. Further, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme envisages improvement in school enrollment/attendance and elevation of the nutritional levels of children. However, incidents such as the monocrotophos-induced poisoning of a mid-day meal in Bihar and the subsequent death of school-children (2013) create a blot on the reputation of such schemes. The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (Total Sanitation Campaign) has a component which provides for construction of toilets in schools. ASER 2013 even points out an increase in the number of libraries in various government schools. Some states have also provided scholarships to boys/bicycles to girls/laptops to students to increase their computer literacy. Schools have also been equipped with health-centres for providing first-aid to children. To reduce health hazards to children, the sale of tobacco products is banned within a certain radius of a school. Further, the Delhi High Court is hearing a petition to mull a ban on the sale of fast-food within a certain radius of a school and to develop a uniform policy for school canteens in private schools throughout India. However, such a measure, though desirable, might face stiff opposition from the corporate lobby. Adult education schools are also being run by the government. Nevertheless, the largely unaddressed woes of primary school teachers in the rural areas are a reason for decreasing teacher attendance. It is ironical that a teacher, who is considered higher in status in India than the Hindu-mythological trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, has to fight for his/her right to an adequate pay for his/her service to the society.

It is equally relevant to look at the aspects of urban school education. Delhi has been in the news, of late, for the parents' anxiety over their children's admission to nursery class in various private schools. Excessive demand for securing admission in certain schools and limited supply of the number of such schools has led to a rationing mechanism—the lottery system to provide admissions. Another aspect of schooling in urban areas has been an increase in the number of pseudo-schools—schools which provide admissions without having any strict attendance criteria. This phenomenon is seen in North India, particularly in the state of Rajasthan, where students consider cracking an engineering/medical entrance-examination (conducted after 12th standard at an all-India level) as their topmost priority.This is taken care of by a coaching institute, which has affiliations with such pseudo-schools. At other places, students have started relying more on private tuition/coaching classes. All this negates the purpose of schooling, which is supposed to provide a healthy interactive environment for the students under the guidance of their school teachers. Private schools fare somewhat better in their academic records. This is attributable to the calibre of the students (the admissions to these schools are on strict meritocratic bases) as well as the better compensation given to teachers in these schools. However, a social issue that is seen in many urban schools is the class-divide among students. Children from a well-off background can afford to bring expensive items to the school premises and if a strict vigil is not kept on such occurrences, it creates peer pressure among the other children to follow suit in the same manner. Another aspect is the discriminatory treatment meted out by the 'rich' students to those coming from relatively-modest financial background families. A saying in Hindi goes like this—poot ke paon paalne mein hi dikhaayi de jaate hain—a child's future can be predicted even when it is in its cradle. The private schools proclaim themselves to be cradles of excellence/leadership. Thus, such discriminatory tendencies among students must be kept in check in these very 'cradles'. In this regard, the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun, the five Military Schools (one in Himachal Pradesh, two in Rajasthan, and two in Karnataka) and the 20-plus Sainik Schools in the country have been very effective institutions. These schools receive their funding directly from the Ministry of Defence. These schools had been conceptualized on their counterparts in the British-education system. Their raison d'etre is to reduce the class-divide, present in the armed forces, among the wards of officers and those of other-ranked personnel, as well as to reduce the shortfall of officers in the armed forces. Such schools have strict adherence to uniformity and discipline. However, there are some other problems in these schools. A few years back, a sainik school was in the news for the wrong reason—a video had leaked showing some senior students of the school physically assaulting their juniors by using leather belts. Such hideous tendencies among students need to be curtailed. Sometimes, caste-divide is also seen among school children from rural areas. It becomes the duty of the school management to curb such a malaise.

Another problem is the prevalent large disparities among the Indian states on the literacy front. The better performing states are Tripura, Kerala, Mizoram, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. Among the low-performers is Bihar which, ironically, was a seat of learning in ancient India—the home to university of Nalanda.

Ever since the Brundtland Commission report (1987) came out with the term sustainable development, this term has been repeatedly used in the parlance of the development strategies of the countries in the world. To start raising the consciousness of children towards environment-protection, there's no better place than school. This is done through rallies in which school-children shout slogans condemning the use of polythene, drives to dispose biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage littered in various places in a city and speech competitions/debates/poster-making competitions to spread awareness for ecological harmony.

It is noteworthy that the shortfalls in the supply side of education are taken care of (to a certain extent) by non-governmental organizations through various initiatives, such as Teach for India campaign.

India is set to achieve the millennium development goal related to primary education by the 2015 timeline. However, the shortcomings in the school education system need to be addressed to achieve India's 12th Five-Year Plan goals as well as Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar's envisaged vision of socio-economic equality alongwith the existing political equality. The ancient Indian status of the golden bird is not difficult to attain yet again. The requirement for that is a strong political will and dedicated work by the citizens to provide world-class education to the coming generation.

Some experiences that compelled me to ponder

Recently, I have had the opportunity of availing of the services of a "multispecialty" and "superspeciality" hospital (the quoted terms are self-proclaimed in the hospital's own website) within the premises of Dehradun main city. The hospital is administered by a trust created in the name of a philanthropic organization. I got this honour partly because of my own carefree nature–not going for a stitch in time during the last one-and-a-quarter year–because of which I had to undergo a minor surgery. This meant for me a stay for a period of four days at the hospital. During this time, I have had a few bitter as well as a few sweet experiences. An empty mind is mostly referred to as a devil's workshop. I, therefore, utilized my spare moments to ponder over some issues that are present in our society—malaise that the increasingly affluent middle-class many-a-time comfortably chooses to overlook, which leads to a plight of the lower strata of our society. For the efficiency that I perceived in a fraction of the staff, I acknowledged the hospital administration as well as the staff, both to the management as well as personally to the staff members–and I do not wish to go into the details of that here. What I discuss here are issues that I believe should not plague a good institution as well as our society.

On the very first day that I was admitted to the hospital, I experienced the seemingly ever-present rationing mechanism in the Indian society wherever there is more demand and less supply (using terms from economics) for a good/service—the mechanism of queues. A well-behaved person patiently waits for his/her turn. What caused a concern to me was that the cashiers at the counter took no heed to urge the people who tried to break queues (due to, perhaps, feeling an elevated sense of self-importance) to be in the queue and not break the protocol. Nevertheless, the other people in the queue were proactive in claiming what was rightfully theirs, and didn't allow the perpetrators to get their work done earlier than their turn permitted them. And that gave me a sense of satisfaction.

Next, some tests had to be administered to me. When I was taken to the X-Ray reception, which was being manned by third year MBBS students from the medical college run by this very trust, I experienced inordinate delays in getting my test done. I would have understood if this delay had been due to some emergency patient being given preference over me. However, what was disheartening was that it took almost half-an-hour for my nearly 5-minute test to be conducted and I was made to wait all this while, during which the X-Ray room was mostly unoccupied with the equipment working soundly. I got this feeling when one of the students at the reception told the other—"jaa kar de naa, chest ka X-Ray hi toh hai" (go and conduct the trivial chest X-Ray). Furthermore, when I had been repeatedly asking for my test to be done, I got to know that my test-conduction application-form was misplaced somewhere. And this didn't happen only to me. I got to know that some of these things happened with the other patients–who were waiting beside me–as well. The comparatively unskilled staff (ward attendants) were far more efficient, by many notches, than these students. When I told my attendant (who was just a twelfth-standard pass-out) about this, he said to me that if these attendants raised concerns about such issues, they were either chided or had to forfeit their jobs. Such is the condition of whistleblowers! This brought another irony of economics to my mind. According to N. Gregory Mankiw (a prominent American economist), if for some reason the wages are set above the equilibrium (of supply and demand) level there is a surplus of labour. Thus, the very cause that is intended to bring welfare to the workers brings distress to some of them. The employers get a better bargaining power over the employees and can remove the lower-level staff for misperceived follies.

Four days prior to my getting admitted to that hospital, I had experienced these unusual delays at the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reception as well. To collect my reports, I was told (and I quote) that I'll "have to wait for two hours, and if the report doesn't come still, then ...!" This ellipsis denotes an abrupt end to the receptionist's sentence. So much was the value being accorded to the patients' time! When I raised an alarm with the MRI staff, I got my report within an hour, only to be called back to the hospital the next day for getting a reprint of a "magnified-view" of the MRI sheets–which was apparently required for an effective surgical procedure. I raised all these concerns with the Public Relations Officer of the hospital on the day I got admitted to the hospital. I was assured of an action to be taken shortly, if I gave a written complaint addressed to the medical superintendent (which I duly did). What makes me think is that if this is the treatment meted out to patients, then the people who are illiterate would have been made to run from pillar to post to get their work done in the hospital. And these people have no recourse against such discrepancies due to their illiteracy/lack of knowledge.

The next surprise, which awaited me, was that there was no provision of food being provided to the patients in their wards. The ironic thing was that the walls displayed rate-lists of food items, which were actually procurable only from the canteen in the hospital premises. However, patients had to walk themselves/send their relatives to go to this canteen. This left a huge lacuna for the patients admitted in the general wards, if they happened to have no relative accompanying them. For the people staying in private wards (and hence paying much more for their stay), they could informally tie-up with the attendants to procure food for themselves. I was under the impression that the Indian polity strives to implement Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar's visions of social and economic justice!

A comforting thing was that the surgery was conducted in a very professional manner and for that, I expressed my gratitude to the management. However, on the night of the day on which my surgery was conducted, I couldn't sleep for almost half of the night—all thanks to the jaagar (all-night devotional songs) going on in the temple just outside the hospital premises and being spewed out in all directions by a loudspeaker. Apparently, the filmy-tuned bhajans (devotional songs) were being sung on the evening of Ram Navami to appease some gods/goddesses, while bringing distress to the patients who might have been in a critical condition (such as heart patients) in the hospital. In the morning, when I asked the nurse (who had been on night duty) what her views were regarding the issue, she supported my views. The Hindu chauvinists point towards the degradation of cultural values and talk about westernization badly-affecting the Indian culture/ethics when youngsters dance on disk jockey music (to which I am equally averse, but only if that is done in a residential area at odd hours, as it creates noise pollution). However, I haven't heard any criticism about the nuisance due to loudspeaker-based activities (even if religious) at night—which is also banned by law, if I am correct. Was Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (a German thinker) correct when he said—"God is dead"?

One evening, I witnessed a man (who seemed to be an educated middle-class fellow, if I were to judge him by his attire) dragging a vehicle-parking attendant by his collar—for (apparently) some indecent words that the attendant had used. I somehow couldn't convince myself on the right to assault, which was being exercised by this middle-class educated man on another socio-economically lower-ranked fellow, even if the other fellow was at fault. If my comprehension skills are sound enough, the Fundamental Duty in the Article 51A(e) of the Constitution of India states that "it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India...transcending sectional diversities..."

Lastly, I expressed my gratification personally to the nursing staff by distributing some chocolates. But what disheartened me (I got to know about it later) was that the nursing staff didn't share them with the safai-wallas (the cleaners), who had been cleaning my room (and ensuring that the floor shone almost like a mirror) from day one. I do not think that I should have told the nursing staff explicitly about sharing the sweets with the cleaners. The Constitution of India is based on the ideals of Fabian Socialism interspersed with Ambedkar's ideas of socio-economic justice through liberty, equality and fraternity. I believe that an institutional hierarchy needs to be slightly altered, in atleast the humane aspects, if we are to achieve the aforementioned goals. It has already been 64 years since India has adopted these goals.

Being a citizen of the country lays a certain amount of responsibility on my shoulders. If my article is able to make a difference to the status quo for the better, I would consider that the investment made by my parents on my education has, after all, paid some dividends. I, on my part, am an agnostic. But I strive to bring improvement to my home city and my home state—the so-called devbhoomi (abode of Gods)—as it is said that "Janani Janmabhoomishch, Swargadapi Gariyasi" (mother and motherland are greater than heaven).