INTERVIEWS
‘The cockroach has turned the tables on the ruling class’
Few activists have been a part of public life in the way Aruna Roy has. Over four decades she and her colleagues in the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) have tirelessly been a voice for the unheard. From working with communities in Rajasthan, they helped frame laws on the Right
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‘There was no need to set up the new committee on NEET’
Faced with students protesting in the streets and nationwide unhappiness over the leaking of examination papers, the Narendra Modi government did what most governments getting a barracking tend to do: it set up a committee. The government appointed Nandan Nilekani as the head of the committee, perhaps to win more
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‘Let this be the last photo-op for drought’
Two headlines on water have competed for mind space. The first was on a train carrying water to Latur, which has gone completely dry. The second was on an upcoming bountiful monsoon, which has already sent the stock market soaring in anticipation of rural demand. As India swings between these
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‘A fast is a soft and humble message’
As Sonam Wangchuk lay on hunger strike on the dais at Jantar Mantar, he spoke to Civil Society on the agitation and his involvement with the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP). Q: There has been no response from the government. Do you think a resolution is possible? Whether a resolution happens or not —
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‘We changed 574 hiring rules in one go to make them rational’
Most state governments in India shy away from shaping up by taking a fresh look at the usefulness of positions and departments. It is just too messy and complicated to begin reassessing what people do in their official capacities. Many have outlived their relevance, but who will actually get down
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‘Healthcare should be high quality at a low cost’
The hospital business is booming. Doctors are demanding and getting astronomical paychecks and commissions. For millions of Indians, however, accessible medical facilities with reliable and affordable services are still a distant dream. It is clearly time for a reset of the system. Several small hospitals with public-spirited doctors have shown
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‘We are asking states to register women farmers’
Women farmers have it tough. They work in the fields but they mostly do not have rights to the land they cultivate. Their names are invariably not included in land titles. What this means is that they cannot access bank finance or draw benefits accruing to them under government schemes.
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‘Survival after cancer is tougher for the poor’
When Dr Ravi Kannan signed up with the Cachar Cancer Hospital in 2006, he was an accomplished surgeon based in Chennai. The shift to a remote corner of Assam was a conscious choice to take his skills where they were needed most. The Cachar hospital had been set up with
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‘Law is not giving consumer speedy redress’
Companies eye the Indian market with great anticipation. It has been growing, for sure, but there is much more to come on the cards as incomes rise and the middle class expands. It is time then to seriously empower Indian consumers to make choices, protect their interests and hold producers
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‘The little guy has never been so safe in the stock market’
More ordinary Indians engage with the stock market than ever before. They are egged on by government policies, influencers on social media and television, bankers acting as agents for funds and the freedom to make instant decisions through apps. Technology makes it super easy now to put savings into shares.
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‘Artisans already have the skills. It is not a high cost to support them’
Almost four decades ago Poonam Muttreja was a co-founder of Dastkar, the iconic nonprofit that helps craftspeople come into their own with small enterprises. She now returns to the organization as chairperson to further strengthen its efforts to promote handicrafts in India and help artisans access the finance, marketing prowess
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‘Tech has to be teacher driven in schools’
MUCH store is being placed by online learning. Companies in the business of tutoring children are now being valued at billions of dollars. Word has been getting around that digitized learning is the way to bridge huge backlogs in education. But transforming the classroom through technology may not, however, be
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‘To implement NEP, teaching and learning must change’
WHEN campus recruitments begin to falter, particularly at prestigious institutions, it is a sign that all is not well with higher education. Degrees are meant to at least lead to employment. There are also elliptical goals such as advanced research and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. If
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ASER fine print: Figuring out the 14 to 18 year bunch
THE problems with school education are there for all to see. Children get enrolled and teachers are better paid, but learning outcomes are up in the air. Children reach the last few years in school with abysmal capacities in maths and reading and writing. It is a grim situation with
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‘The World Bank-IMF crowd has nothing new to offer India’
Anyone witnessing the presentation of the Union Budget would have noticed how much of an industry-related exercise it is. The government bends over backwards in pleasing corporations. Businessmen flood TV channels, trying to outdo each other in fawning over the finance minister and the prime minister. Since reforms began, India’s
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‘Labour Codes have missed opportunity for real reform’
Relations between employers and workers in India have for the longest time been governed by a bundle of opaque laws. Neither side has benefitted. Both have wished for more rational regulation. Recently, the Narendra Modi government introduced four Labour Codes to simplify things. Investors needed to be reassured that entering
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‘Political intrusions putting public varsities at grave risk’
A robust education system should be the foundation of a rising economy. Children need to get the basics in school and, as young adults, they should leave college with degrees that equip them for the jobs they will do. India struggles on both counts. Now, to improve higher education, the
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‘Science shows a major quake is overdue in the Himalayas’
From imploding glaciers to landslides, floods and torrential downpours, natural disasters have been happening one after the other in the Himalayas in recent times, making life in the mountains seem more vulnerable than ever before. These unsettling episodes have made news by leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
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‘I have always seen 24 Mantra as a people’s movement’
When Rajashekhar Reddy or Raj Seelam, as he is more widely known, set out to build a business in organic foods, it was with the vision that he could help farmers give up chemical farming and earn more for their produce and also deliver to consumers products that were healthy
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‘Rs 47,000 cr for construction workers lying unspent’
The construction industry is an important driver of the economy. Workers at sites, however, don’t seem to have a share in the prosperity they help generate. Arriving as migrants from rural areas, they cling on to employment in dismal conditions. For want of safety measures, accidents happen all the time.
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‘Judges are neither gods nor lords. It’s just a job’
IT is to the courts that citizens turn when all else fails. The standards of members of the judiciary therefore have a direct bearing on the quality of justice. How judges perform and the seriousness with which they take their role reaffirms the faith people have in democracy. Increasingly, however,
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‘To deal with pandemics, a global effort is important’
Even as a Covid-19 variant makes news in India and some other countries with a spurt in cases, a Pandemic Agreement has been endorsed and adopted by consensus by members of the World Health Organization (WHO). The agreement has taken all of three years to put together because of the
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‘Border villages should be given special insurance’
When the border with Pakistan heated up after the massacre of tourists in Pahalgam, people in villages on the Line of Control (LoC) were badly affected. They have long been accustomed to cross-border exchanges of fire and their lives have always been fraught with risk. But the drones, missiles and
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‘Sourced at Rs 85, we have glasses for everyone’
When The Nudge Institute first took up presbyopia as a public health issue it put out the startling data that millions of Indians have problems with near vision. It reduces the quality of their lives and makes them less capable of work. At that time, we interviewed Amit Gupta, the
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‘Nurses should be trained better and get more respect’
NURSES are as important as doctors in delivering healthcare, but look around in India and it may not exactly seem so. From the training of nurses to the roles they should be playing, much remains to be done. The failure to empower them finally weakens the health system as a
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‘High-speed rail should be the big move India makes’
MORE Indians are flying than ever before. But in the process is air travel getting too clunky and burdensome? Perhaps it is time to balance the emphasis on flying with fast and efficient train services over short inter-regional distances. An opportunity beckons in linking up cities big and small and
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‘300 doctors in districts trained as specialists’
When patients in rural areas need specialty medical care, they invariably have to seek it in cities. How then can district hospitals be upgraded to handle such cases? While improving infrastructure is important, it is equally necessary to enable MBBS physicians in rural areas to acquire specialized degrees where they
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‘Solar is now the cheapest power you get in India’
WITH global warming, pollution and wildly unpredictable fossil fuel prices, renewable energy is the answer. India has played a leading role in the International Solar Alliance, but how successful has it been in facing up to the challenge of increasing solar power production capacities and bringing down the cost of
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‘Urban heritage should have wide ownership’
As urbanisation spreads, how can heritage be saved? In the rushed transformation that Indian cities are undergoing can traditional homes, monuments, old engineering, rare water systems be conserved? One such effort in New Delhi has produced outstanding results. Humayun’s Tomb has not just been restored, but now serves as an
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