Letter from the Editor The Coronavirus continues its deadly march across India, from the cities into the countryside and now more half our 720 districts report infections. After three weeks under a countrywide lockdown it’s time to ask, how successful have our efforts been to contain the epidemic? And what can we realistically expect from more of the same? In our first story, we look at what the experience of other countries and current epidemiological models predict for India. The outcomes vary by a huge margin depending on a host of factors, effective ‘social distancing’ and quarantining being just one. A critical variable is the efficiency of the detection and containment mechanism, particularly our ability to trace, test, isolate and cure infections. Our second story describes the problems we face in even monitoring the spread of the disease in our slums, given the widespread distrust of government, the unpreparedness of our health system and the monumental neglect of our health workers. A legacy of the protests that rocked India over the controversial citizenship law changes, that were sadly overshadowed by the virus, is the emergence of a new leadership in the Muslim community. Homemakers and ordinary women from every walk of life spontaneously organized and led a movement that showed India what principled and peaceful protest can achieve. Other stories in this issue include the struggle of acid-attack victims to rebuild their lives, the challenge of menstrual health in rural India, the hazards in managing e-waste, the prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder and the enormous social and economic value of building all-weather rural roads. We also have a mix of sports, movie and music reviews, interviews and a heartfelt appeal to care for our furry friends in these times of uncertainty and want. Enjoy!
Chirag Dutta Editor
CONTENTS COVER STORY Covid19 Moment of Truth Unfair burden
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PSYCHOLOGY Living with OCD Rinse and repeat
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Wages of Neglect A ragged frontline
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FOCUS
Women Protestors Natural leaders
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ECONOMY Country Roads Paths to prosperity
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SPECIAL REPORT Acid Victims Never give in
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ENVIRONMENT Heavy Metal E-waste kills
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HEALTH Social Stain Women at risk
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ETHICS
Saving Strays Cultivating compassion
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SPORTS
A Star is Born Lakshya’s dream run
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ART
The Female Gaze New world online
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INTERVIEW
Soham Majumdar Stage to screen
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REVIEWS
It happened In Calcutta Taylor Swift
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COVER STORY
India’s Moment of Truth India is struggling to contain an epidemic it barely comprehends and is quite unprepared to handle, says Nissim Jacob
Security forces are having a tough time implementing the lockdown | Credit: PTI
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he Novel Coronavirus pandemic has shocked the world as the number of infections and deaths rise steadily with each passing day. Across the world, governments are scrambling to take appropriate measures to contain its spread and reduce the fatality rate. Several countries were initially lackadaisical in dealing with the outbreak, officially known as Covid19. Services and transportation facilities continued to operate normally even as new cases were emerging, and they are now paying a heavy price for their complacency. With over 30,000 deaths, the United States’ death toll has far surpassed that of China’s, where Covid19 had originated, and it is now the worst affected country in the world. Western Europe as whole has seen widespread infections, with Italy, Spain, France and Germany badly affected, leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare Europe as the epicentre of the pandemic. Taking a cue from the exponential rise of cases in countries like Italy, the Indian government announced a lockdown much early on to THE BEAT |3
prevent community spread. The prime minister announced a lockdown for three weeks stating that if we don’t, “the country would go backwards by 21 years.” This lockdown has now been extended until May 3. India has registered over 14,500 cases and close to 500 deaths. The importance of social distancing to prevent community spread of the infection is now the most widely accepted measure worldwide to contain Covid19. While the decision to impose a lockdown to contain the disease has been welcomed in most quarters, the implementation is posing a challenge and requires interventions using technology as well as community involvement. Based on a recent study, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) estimated that India can reduce its caseload by 62% if social distancing and quarantine measures are implemented effectively. Although India has followed the Wuhan model, several countries such as Singapore and Taiwan have limited themselves to contact tracing, testing, hospitalization and treatment.
South Korea and Japan, which were feared to become the next hotspots of Covid19 after China, have been able to rein in the number of new cases without imposing a lockdown. South Korea has significantly increased the testing of suspected patients. Aggressive testing has been integral to its efforts to contain the outbreak and it allowed health authorities to quickly isolate and treat the patients. The WHO has also recommended testing as the most effective way to reduce community spread and to “flatten the curve” of the rate of infection. Even in Wuhan, which had imposed a lockdown, testing of suspected cases remained a priority and was followed by hospitalization, to ensure that other members of the family did not become infected. India would thus need to combine the lockdown with other health-based community measures such as identification of suspected cases, testing and their subsequent treatment. India has a very low testing rate of just 5 per million population compared to South Korea’s testing rate of 5,200 per million. India
has a shortage of testing kits and facilities, and its health infrastructure is woefully unequipped to deal with an upsurge of infected cases. India has less than 100,000 beds in Intensive Care Units and, at best, 40,000 functioning ventilators. “There is a need to scale up testing exponentially if we want the lockdown to work,” says Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in Washington. While there is no certainty over how the disease is going to play out in India over the course of next few months, experts are making estimates based on the pattern of the pandemic across the world. Says Gautam Menon, professor of biology at Ashoka University in Sonepat and an expert on infectious disease models and their role in public policy, “Epidemiological models help in understanding the trajectory of the disease, rate of increase and the factors determining that increase.They also help in understanding the role played by interventions such as social distancing and lockdowns.” Scientists and public health experts are using SEIR models to predict epidemics.The SEIR model charts the flow of people between four states: susceptible (S), exposed (E), infected (I), and resistant (R). Based on the measures that are undertaken by the government and using an online tool created by Gabriel Goh, a machine learning researcher using the SEIR model, IndiaTodayTech, a tech news website says, “Depending on what measures the country takes, and what impact these measures have on Covid-19 infections in India, coronavirus may end up killing around 1,000 people to 5 million people in India, according to the Epidemic Calculator.” The huge range in possible outcomes depends on the efforts to flatten the curve, lowering the rate at which infections spread, and the stage at which the lockdown was enforced. The Epidemic Calculator by default assumes that the lockdownis imposed after the 100th day of the first reported case. At a death rate of 2%, the number of infected cases will be 1 million, and the number of deaths around 20,000. But as the lockdown was implemented much earlier in India, a better scenario can be hoped for. In a best-case scenario (an effective response, death rate under 2%, healthcare infrastructure holds up and quarantine successful), the coronavirus will only infect around 15,000 people. This estimate takes into consideration that the first case was identified on 30th January and the lockdown was enforced on 24th March. In a worst-case scenario (inaccurate data, quarantine fails, healthcare system overwhelmed) the calculator estimates 180 million infected cases and over 5 million dead. Experts also have differing opinions on when the disease might peak in India. While some like K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and
member of executive group of the steering committee of the WHO-led solidarity trial on Covid-19, believe that India’s coronavirus outbreak may peak in late April, others like Dr. T Jacob John, a retired professor of clinical virology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore say that it could peak in June-July.
India has a very low testing rate of just 5 per million population compared to South Korea’s 5,200 per million However, we must remember that epidemiological models provide only an approximation of the spread of a disease and countries across the world are showing different trends. There are also uncertainties regarding the rate of spread. Whether Covid19 can re-infect people who recovery is also unknown. There is also a lack of clarity on the period of infectiousness as well as the period of hospital stay. Says Dr Giridhar R Babu, an epidemiologist at PHFI in Bangalore, “Epidemiological models become more realistic when they are combined with the
efforts of those of people who have worked on the ground. If assumptions are not based on ground realities, you might end up with results that are exaggerated.” More than anything else, the pandemic has brought to the fore the stark economic disparities in our society. While the lockdown will have a devastating impact on the economy, affecting all sectors and all income groups, the worst affected will be those working in the unorganized sector, some 4 hundred million people, particularly migrants who come to work in the cities from rural areas. Following the lockdown, many daily wage earners found themselves without the means to support themselves and trapped in places far away from their homes. Several of them attempted to go back to their homes on foot, only to be stopped at the borders by the police forces.
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hile many in the middle class have been able to work from their homes and practice social distancing in some measure, the poor simply can’t do so when they live in congested dwellings in densely populated slums. Appeals to protect ourselves from coronavirus by regularly washing our hands ring hollow for people who have no regular water supply or even access to clean drinking water. India’s deep-seated callousness towards its poor has come back to haunt it.
Temperature checks have become a daily routine |Credit: The Hindu THE BEAT |4
COVER STORY
The Wages of Neglect A derelict public-health system has exposed its frontline staff to untold risk, writes Chirag Dutta
we have to constantly be aware of the health vices they deserve from the government. of a possible pandemic, their duties have been condition around the areas assigned to us. The “Arrangements for us to stay, travel, eat, increased drastically within just a few months etc, should be provided by the government. In main source of such information is the locals. without any additional compensation. CurrentIf we are not informed about health problems this emergency, we don’t even have a schedule ly, a single health worker has to visit two extra in an area, we can’t prepare ourselves, ending for work. Wherever a problem pops up, the areas upon completion of the report of their up in a very risky situation. Public compliance worker nearest to the area has to rush despite assigned area. is the only aspect that can keep us safe. We probeing in the middle of the work assigned to them. There is no method to our work. We duce the first update about the virus,” she adds. Local people are terrified of being quaranthought we would be able to handle the situation, but its slowly turning into a nightmare.” tined. “My son said there is a serious shortage of food supplies in isolation,” says Rinkle “We had problems with procuring PPEs Laskar, a 59-year-old fruit vendor whose son as there was a shortage of supplies,” admits was taken to a quarantine facility after being Kamalika Mukherjee, block medical officer, Thakurpukur-Mahestala block. “Since a week, suspected of contracting the virus. “They keep we are being supplied with adequate PPEs. The a lot of people, and the number of mouths shortage is mainly because these PPEs are to to feed is way more than the amount of food supplied. Abdul has to go to bed hungry every be used once and discarded. Hence, a constant night. They don’t even allow food from outside. supply is needed. Another major problem we are working to resolve is the unavailability of I wouldn’t want anyone’s children to suffer like transport. We had provided transport initially mine.” during the lockdown as we were able to find a If the state is unable to protect health few vehicles. But now, vehicles are not available workers from the hostility and abuse of the public, it fares no better in providing them with at all. It’s quite difficult as drivers refuse to visit personal protective equipment (PPE), like face Corona-infected areas.” shields and masks, gloves and shoes, let alone advanced gear like Hazmat suits. There is a serin every battle, resources and reinforceous shortage of PPEs. In many states, health ments are the crucial factors that decide its “If we have to work during such a crisis, workers receive PPEs only when they have to outcome. Without a well-funded support we should be provided with some facilities,” take a patient to a clinic or a hospital. Given system and a clear plan of action, health worksays Afruja Begum, auxiliary nurse (midwifery), how contagious the virus is, to work without ers are being forced to put their lives on the West Bengal Health Services. PPEs puts them at great risk. The shortage line and pray they don’t get infected. Already, at Health workers are tasked with doing the of PPE is, in fact, causing a huge obstacle to least 90 of them, including doctors and nurses, duty of doctors, nurses, nutritionists, and many conducting wider field visits. have been infected with Covid-19 and several others, which gives hope to rural India. They have died. Medical professionals, especially The World Health Organisation has set are the first to engage in action every time. frontline health workers, are the ones holding clear guidelines for the safety of health workHealth workers are the ones who act like a the line against the contagion. Once they fall, ers. They include providing adequate infection bridge between the poor and the health serevery Indian is at grave risk. prevention control (IPC) and PPE supplies (masks, gloves, goggles, gowns, hand sanitizer, soap and water, cleaning supplies) in sufficient quantity to healthcare or other staff caring for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients, so that workers do not incur expenses for their occupational safety and health requirements. Government has to familiarize personnel with technical updates on Covid19 and provide appropriate tools to assess, triage, test and treat patients and to share infection prevention and control information with patients and the public. And as needed, provide appropriate security measures for personal safety. But the government doesn’t even provide transport to its health workers. Some of them have ordered health workers to stay in the areas they visit and continue their work, but they are unable to provide accommodation there. The shortage of health workers in India has been a persistent problem. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), “Vacancies in sanctioned posts showed 18% of primary health centres were without a doctor, about 38% were without a laboratory technician and 16% were without a pharmacist.” In the face Health workers have the barest minimum protective gear | Credit: Reuters
Vacancies in sanctioned posts showed 18% of primary health centres were without a doctor, about 38% were without a laboratory technician and 16% were without a pharmacist.
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Fearful that health surveys might result in a quarantine, slum dwellers are turning on health workers | Credit: Scroll.in
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edical professionals are the first and last line of defence against any viral outbreak, and the global battle against the Coronavirus has proved no exception. Doctors, nurses, health workers, laboratory technicians, paramedics and others in the profession, are risking their lives to protect the rest of the community. The threat they face is way beyond what an ordinary citizen might face, as they are constantly at risk of being exposed to the virus. Despite knowing the danger, they choose duty over personal safety. But do we realise that their survival is vital to ours, and are we doing enough to protect them? Frontline health workers are assigned data-collection work in the most remote and inaccessible parts of the city, in outlying slums and villages comprised almost entirely of the uneducated and the poor. Fearful of the spreading infection but unable to comprehend or comply with the government’s demand for ‘social distancing’, they are turning their frustration on health workers.
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From simply being unresponsive, to lying about health conditions of family members, to verbal threats to stay away, to accusing them of deliberately getting people ‘arrested’ by the police, health workers have to face all this and worse. “The main problem we face is when we try to talk to local people to procure more information,” says Sadhana Dutta, health supervisor with West Bengal Health Services, whose team works in the Thakurpukur-Mahestala block of Kolkata. “Not only are they unresponsive but react angrily to any questions asked. They are not willing to talk to us about anything related to their health. They think we will call the police to take them away if we find out that they are having health issues.” Every surveyor is assigned to report on the health conditions and symptoms they find in a given area. These reports are sent to their heads presiding over blocks and are the primary source to determine the number of those infected. But with little cooperation, if not open
threats, they face tremendous difficulties in preparing these reports or just doing their job. In many cases, villagers who have health issues, especially colds, fever or cough, secretly visit hospitals seeking treatment but deny they face any problems to health workers. Some of them have subsequently tested positive for Covid19. Health workers dread having to work in areas that have been identified as ‘hotspots’ by the government. Police and health workers are tasked with tracing the possible spread of virus if a case is detected. They have to visit the infected, the areas where they have been, and people they came in contact with. In most cases, the infected do not comply. People who have come in contact with the infected choose to remain silent, making the tracing process the most difficult part of the job. This makes the job more complicated and very dangerous. “Locating suspected and potential cases are almost impossible for us from the kind of response we are receiving,” says Dutta. “But this is not the only problem. Being health workers,
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FOCUS
When Women Showed the Way The protests against the Citizenship Act amendment have unified the Muslim community like never before, says Tamanna Yasmin
Women were the backbone of the sit-in protests |Credit: Outlook India
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he Shaheen Bagh protest, which started as a blockade of a six-lane highway bordering the Muslim-dominated neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh in Delhi on December 2019 to protest the government’s controversial amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955, is the first of its kind in the history of independent India. A heroism of 15 ordinary Muslim women inspired thousands of others to take to the streets. In no time they were joined by men, people of other faiths, activists, and celebrities. After an uninterrupted 101 days, the protests was discontinued in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, but not before they had become the lasting symbol of opposition to the unholy trinity of measures designed to disenfranchise the community (CAA-NRC-NPR). Shaheen Bagh incited similar protests in various parts of the country, such as in BangaTHE BEAT |7
lore’s Bilal Bagh and Kolkata’s Park Circus. The uniqueness of these protests lies in the fact that there were no leaders; the protesters did not follow the instructions of any individual or group. Even the volunteers insist that there are no organisers; “All of us are in it together,” they say. What makes it even more remarkable is that in a patriarchal society, women were the backbone of these protests. Some didn’t face much trouble whereas others had to break family and social norms to participate. Whatever it took, they stood against injustice. Remarkably, these women helped unify the Muslim community as a whole like never before. As 16-year-old Alveena Aafreen from Park Circus’ Sadhinota 2.0 puts it in an interview with Firstpost, a news website, “Imagine if housewives have come out to protest on the streets, what else they are capable of achieving,
and how urgent the situation is.” These Muslim-women centric protests have, to a large extent, helped in casting off the stereotype that Indian Muslim women are uneducated, meek creatures wrapped up in burqas with no voice or views, confined by cruel husbands to the drudgery of housework and bearing children. Sifwa, a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) who had participated in Shaheen Bagh protests, told a reporter of India Today, “Just because we are Muslim women, we are not oppressed. We are very confident about the religion we follow, what we study, how we talk. Nobody has to be surprised at our political organisations and the slogans we raise.” Says Danish Iftekhar who had been actively involved in the Shaheen Bagh protest, “There has been a misconception that only Muslim women are oppressed, they don’t have the
transplant, refused to lose hope. Her fortitude permission to step out of their homes. These and zeal helped them obtain a permit to hold a protests have, in a way, changed that narrative. peaceful demonstration. In no time it sparked Muslim women led from the front and they a movement in the heart of the city, which has stood up for their rights and those of the been named Sadhinota 2.0 (Freedom 2.0). community. This is one fine blow to the claims made by the bigots about Muslim women. However, it’s not something that has happened overnight. The fact is that women were already liberated. It had been there throughout, but people couldn’t see it through their prejudiced lens. However, to say that there’s no oppression at all will be outright wrong. Muslim women face the same set of problems that most Indian women face. It has nothing to do with religion.” From young mothers carrying infants to grandmothers accompanied by their teen grandchildren; from homemakers who had never stepped out of their homes to office goers; from women wearing a burqa or hijab to some dressed in jeans, everybody gathered under the shamiana. The ‘culture’ of these protest sites was very different from mainstream protests. The walls around were ablaze in murals, graffiti, posters, and banners. With children running around, poetry recitals, singing and chanting Says Saika Naz, a student from West slogans of “Azaadi”, the ambience was not one Bengal pursuing MA in English,“CAA was a of anger but of peace and unity. political issue which didn’t concern the women Who would have imagined a 19-year-old specifically. In such a situation, we generally see woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy males taking the front line. But very unexpectwould visit a protest site and make a fiery edly, this time, the women not only raised their speech? Khatun Jannat did just that. Though voice but also took the lead. I don’t know if the hesitant at first, she took to the stage to recite: protests will have any effect on the political sit“Himmaton ko toda ja raha hai; Mulk se nikaalne ki uation but there’s no doubt women unshackled saajish hai” (Our courage is being broken; it is themselves. Now, it’ll be difficult to cage them a conspiracy to throw us out of the country). again.” Jannat says that she would not have dared to do such a thing if she didn’t have her husband’s support: he wrote the poem for her! “The culture of Bilal Bagh felt comfortable,” she recounts, and that boosted her courage. With only women and children allowed in the main gatherings and the men only allowed to encircle the periphery, these protest sites created a sense of safety and comfort among the women. Hence, a lot of women like Jannat gathered the courage to step out of their homes and participate in a public protest for the very first time. The protest in Kolkata’s Park Circus tells yet another inspiring story. On January 7, a day after the JNU attack, Asmat Jamil, a 45-yearold homemaker assisted by fellow members of Az-Zumar, an NGO she is associated with, assembled people and staged a protest at Park Circus Maidan. Soon after, the police arrived at the spot and ordered the protesting women to vacate the place. Jamil, Homemakers led the movement| Credit: Al Jazeera recovering from a recent kidney
Just because we are Muslim women, we are not oppressed. We are very confident about the religion we follow, what we study, how we talk. Nobody has to be surprised at our political organisations and the slogans we raise
The clarion call did not fail to reach the alleyways of urban India. Muslim girls started holding meetings in the streets to enlighten their sisters about the urgency of the situation. The courage and confidence that a lot of women gained through direct or indirect participation was palpable and will be hard to undo. These are early days, but already a subtle shift in attitudes portends bigger changes ahead. Says Jaforulla Molla, an author and West Bengal state president of the Indian Union Muslim League, “Muslims in India didn’t have a concrete platform to express their opinion and concerns. Shaheen Bagh and other similar protests offered it. When the Muslims realised the threat that CAA and NRC had brought, they had to fight back unitedly. The situation had increased the political awareness among the community, and the protests helped in the same. From Park Circus to Plassey (a village in West Bengal) Muslims held dharnas and meetings.”
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anish too says that as a result of these protests Muslims have understood the importance of political engagement and representation. However, had Muslims not already been awakened, Shaheen Bagh wouldn’t have happened. Muslims have become much more aware of the ground realities and their rights. It has increased their political awareness. They’ve realised the necessity of education like never before. Without education there’s no enlightenment and appreciation of the fundamental duty of every community to participate in the public life of their country.
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ECONOMY
The Road Less Travelled
India’s rural economy can be transformed by building a national network of all-weather village roads, says Meghna Das Chowdhury
A village road being concreted: Lack of connectivity has deprived rural communities of essential services | Credit: India Today
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agras would have lost his sister Taliba that day if a stranger hadn’t given his family a ride to the government hospital in the town of Maski in north Karnataka. It was almost dawn when Taliba fell on the road and started bleeding from her head. They rushed her to the primary health centre (PHC) in their village, Antargange, but the local doctor couldn’t stop the bleeding or stitch her forehead. He told them to rush her to the hospital in Maski. But there was no transport available and Nagras couldn’t possibly take her on his bike. “We had no idea what to do. My brain stopped working. My sister lay in my lap bleeding. The conditions of the roads con-
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necting the villages to the town are so bad that no doctor will visit us and the PHC has no supplies,” recalls Nagras. When they saw a car approaching, everyone rushed towards the it and begged for help. The driver agreed to take her to the hospital, where Taliba got 6 stitches and a blood transfusion that saved her life. This is life in rural India today. Due to the poor construction and maintenance of the roads more than half the government’s services fail to reach the villages. The problem of connectivity becomes obvious in times of an emergency, but the lack of roads has a huge effect on the economic and social development of rural areas. Most parents complain
that they can’t send their daughters to the good schools and colleges in the town because of the poor transport facilities. “My son can sit on anyone’s bike or rickshaw and come back home. It is not the case for my daughter. What if she doesn’t get any transport to come back home one day? Hardly any buses come to the villages due to the poor road conditions,” complains a mother of two. The problem in India is not the availability of resources but their distribution. Due to the neglect of rural road development, basic amenities fail to reach the villages. Roads could dramatically expand the local economy and bring social services to the doorstep of India’s poorest, as well as save lives in an
emergency. Poor connectivity is also a reason for the growing unemployment in rural India. Not only do they discourage local enterprise that could create jobs, but people can’t travel to find work in neighbouring villages either. The result is migration. People leave their villages and migrate to bigger towns and cities in search of jobs. They see no hope of a better life in their villages. As journalist Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar writes, “Connectivity enhances the value of every other rural investment since it empowers people through improved mobility and access. People can more easily buy agricultural inputs and sell their produce. Children can go more easily to schools, cattle can more easily get veterinary help, and the sick can get to health centres. Remote areas have, by definition, the worst connectivity. They are among the poorest and slowest-growing but accelerate when given connectivity.” To grow any economy, one needs adequate infrastructure and the most important is good quality roads. Health care, education, consumption, small businesses, all these can bloom in rural India if connectivity is increased. Good road connectivity can convert villages to towns. Government staff are willing to get posted at a place where they and their families can easily get to. And that often ensures that government facilities and schemes become available and efficient in reaching their intended beneficiaries. They improve rural administration. If roads are developed and maintained, it also reduces transportation cost. More buses and rickshaws will agree to travel on that road and this increases the communication between the town and villages and also amongst villages. Easy access to good agricultural goods and fertilizers will increase production. This, in turn, will increase agricultural activity and the requirement of labour. Business and markets from the town can reach the villages and small business from the village can flourish. Policymakers too, have long known that development of rural roads is strongly associated with the non-farm activity and the creation of additional sources of income for the farmer. As Aiyar notes, “Studies by the International Food Policy Research Institute in China, Vietnam and some African countries point to the same conclusion -- rural roads do more for growth and poverty mitigation than virtually anything else.” The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)—the Prime Minister’s Village Road Programme—was launched in 2000 to build all-weather roads to all the unconnected villages across India. The PMGSY website states, “According to latest figures made available by the state governments under a survey to identify (the) Core Network as part of the PMGSY programme, about 1.67 lakh
Unconnected Habitations are eligible for coverage under the programme. This involves the construction of about 3.71 lakh km. of roads for New Connectivity and 3.68 lakh km. under upgradation.” Economists Sam Asher and Paul Novosad, in their paper Rural Roads and Local Economic Development observe, “As the objective was to connect the greatest number of locations to the external road network at the lowest possible price, routes terminating in villages were prioritized over routes passing through villages and on to larger roads.” The PMGSY has shown significant results in improving the quality of lives in rural areas. It is still one of the best-run central government schemes.
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et, it has failed to connect the unconnected. The Controller & Auditor General’s report on the PMGSY points to its failures: “Ineligible habitations were covered under the programme while eligible habitations were either left out or incorrectly shown as connected...Execution of works was deficient as instances of inefficient contract management, non-recovery of liquidated damages and mobilisation/machinery advances, etc., were observed.” Work which was started in many parts of the country were left incomplete and abandoned due to unavailability of funds and a failure to acquire land due to disputes. The programme implementing authorities were made responsible for any delayed or faulty work. Despite this, very little care was taken and there were absolutely no
initiative to meet the deadlines. “I have been living in this village since my birth,” said Dalip, a resident of Digganayakanabhavi village in north Karnataka. “The condition of the roads is very poor, and a lot of accidents take place. Five years ago, the government started work on this road. Initially, they used to work regularly. As time went by, they stopped working and now it is worse with a half-constructed road like this. During the monsoon season it becomes very difficult to even walk on a road like this. We find it very difficult to reach the town.” Government officials in the villages have little say in these matters. According to the villagers, when they complain about the lack of road completion, they are fobbed off with one excuse or the other. Villagers say that the officials take their complaints very lightly and take no iniciative to improve it. “We too want the job to be done as soon as possible,” explains Balaram Kattimani, the tehsil officer of Maski. “It would do good to the villagers and even us. The problem we often face is the lack of funds and labour. We inform higher officials about every hindrance we face. Steps are taken definitely if not immediately. The entire process takes some time. It is not just about one road. We are on it and would love to see the work getting done.” As the saying goes, ‘The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.’ In the case of India’s rural road network, there is clearly no lack of appreciation of their benefits or urgency. The intentions are good, the delivery poor, and the roads are still a hell to drive on.
All weather roads connecting villages to nearby towns allow farmers to expand their market | Credit: Econimic Times. THE BEAT | 10
SPECIAL REPORT
A Double Betrayal
Victims of acid attacks are finding their voices though collective action but the law invariably fails them, says Ankita Mukherjee
Sheroes Hangout is a cafe managed by acid attack survivors | Credit: Conde Nast Traveller India
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ajnita, 23, was in her teens when a boy from her village in Meerut attacked her with the corrosive substance disfiguring her face. For rejecting his proposal of marriage, she paid with an eye, her nose and her ears and has undergone 23 surgeries. She refuses to cover her scarred face with a dupatta because she knows she did nothing wrong but nonetheless hesitates to meet people. She met a friend who used to work at the Sheroes café, set up by acid-attack victims like her, and joined them. THE BEAT |11
“Did you watch Chhapaak?” she giggles. “My friend acted there, the movie gave us validation and talked about our stories to the world. I want to graduate and study further. I have to put a full stop to all the question marks I have been facing since my attack.” In Deepika Padukone’s recent movie Chhapaak, the protagonist says, “Kitna accha hota agar acid bikta hi nahi, milta hi nahi toh fekta bhi nahi” (If only acid wasn’t sold, wasn’t available, it couldn’t be thrown). A bottle of acid, which costs just Rs. 20, can ruin one’s entire life.
According to research by the non-governmental organisation Make Love Not Scars, 20% of acid attacks are the result of of land, business and property disputes. But the vast majority are fuelled by unrequited love, rejection of sexual advances and dowry disputes. In 95% of cases, the attacker is very well known to the victim. He is either her friend, uncle, neighbour or husband, and can even be her father. Says Reshma from Kanpur, “I am a mother of five girl children and when I got pregnant for the sixth time, my husband beat me think-
ing I’d have another girl child. He didn’t stop there, he splashed acid on my face and left me there. My elder daughter called my parents and my father gave me his all his support. I filed a case against my husband, he got 11 years of imprisonment but after 6 years he got bail. I don’t think this is a way to punish them. I wish the same situation happens as a punishment for them, splashing corrosive substance on them.” “I am happy with my six children now. I joined Sheroes café in the year 2016 but I was connected with them since 2014, when Alok sir and Laxmi didi helped me to fight back my darkness. Now I do not cover my face and I want to join a tailoring class so that I can open my own boutique shop,” she adds.” Laxmi Agarwal was also attacked with acid when she rejected a marriage proposal at the age of fifteen. “It takes up a lot of courage just to come out of the trauma or darkness,” she says. “Even if you want to recover, society never lets you forget. I have been called a witch. Society is cruel and taunts even a normal person. I was the victim and I had nothing to be ashamed of.” Laxmi was one of the founders of the Chhanv Foundation, set up to rehabilitate victims and help them to come out of their trauma, which includes medical aid, legal advice, counselling services and vocational training. Sheroes Hangout is a café and run and managed by acid attack survivors and operates from two locations, Lucknow and Agra. In 2014, Alok Dixit, a journalist turned activist, set up the Sheroes Hangout in Agra, with the idea of rehabilitating survivors of acid attacks. They are a part of Dixit’s Stop Acid Attacks campaign, which he launched with his then partner, Laxmi. Preeti from Satyapur, a small village near Kanpur, was attacked when she was just 18. “I was being followed by an uncle from our mohallah for quite a long time, he proposed marriage but I rejected him. The next day he came while I was filling water and poured acid on my face,” she says. “I joined Sheroes in 2014, and after coming here I have seen this has happened to women who are mostly from lower or the lower middle class families. Now, I’m pursuing my master degree. Acid cannot put a full stop to my life.” Jaf Shah, executive director of the London-based non-profit Acid Survivors Trust International, estimates there are around 10,000 attacks annually worldwide. The numbers have dramatically increased in the UK in recent years where acid is used as a weapon in gang violence. He says there are acid attacks in the United States as well, but the rates remain lower, perhaps because of the easy availability of other weapons, including guns. The most recent statistics from India’s National Crimes Record Bureau record 283 reported acid attacks, with 307 casualties, in 2015.
Official figures show only a fraction of the actual number of such attacks, activists say, with “thousands of the cases” going unreported. The Orange café and restaurant is another café owned and managed by acid attack survivors in Varanasi’s Durga Kund area. Aided by the Care Today Fund, an India Today Group initiative, in partnership with the Action Aid Association (AAA), it has a library, a community radio hub and a boutique that showcases the artwork of the survivors.
In 95% of cases, the attacker is very well known to the victim. He is either her friend, uncle, neighbour or husband, and can even be her father.
she says. “The third is to give them skill training or education so that they can live independently without thinking twice that what my man or my father will say,” she adds. Tania says the fourth is the legal advice given to the victims and this what takes more time and energy because one needs to make sure that the attacker gets proper punishment and he doesn’t get bail soon.
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ndia has one of the highest rates of acid attacks, along with neighbouring Bangladesh and Pakistan. Though some victims are men, the vast majority of those attacked are women. That makes the pride on display at Sheroes particularly powerful,” says Jaf Shah. “If women that have been attacked by acid are banished behind a curtain and don’t come forward, then I think that’s part of what the perpetrator wants to achieve. To come forward and say, ‘Actually I’m going to carry on living my life’ … that’s pretty inspiring. Passing law becomes almost ineffective, meaningless, if there isn’t sufficient enforcement. You have to invest money, resources, training, equipment … to minimize acid attacks occurring, and that’s not occurring,” Shah added. Singh believes violence against women can only be curbed by implementing strict laws. Justice, she says, should be delivered fast and in public, not just to deter would-be assailants but to demonstrate zero tolerance such barbaric behaviour in our society.
Tania Singh, founder of Make Love Not Scars explains their work saying, “Hotline centres should be set up and there should be shelters for women who fear to stay alone. They need to understand that the acid attack is the last step taken by the attacker among the brutal series of violence. So after the acid attack has taken place, the first thing to look for is medical aid to save their life. Our organisation run a rehabilitation centre for the survivors and we pay for their medical treatment and we run a regular routine check up on them.” “The second thing what we provide is psychological rehabilitation or counselling. They go through trauma and society or their own family members often taunt them, which makes them sometime try to take their lives. So that’s needed to be prevented,” Senseless cruelty | Credit: The National
THE BEAT |12
ENVIRONMENT
The Poison in Our Phones The proliferation of electronic devices in our homes and offices is taking a deadly toll on our health and the environment, writes Chirag Dutta
Electronic devices being dismantled at a market in Delhi | Credit: Business Line
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lectronic devices are being produced on a massive scale without a thought for the environment. The industry’s business strategy is simple: keep the market vibrant with sales of new products by quicker obsolescence of yesterday’s products. The global electronics manufacturing business is expected to generate revenues of $1.5 trillion by 2023. The production of electronics goods on such a large scale will generate a mountain of e-waste and the remediation of that waste will be critical to the health of the global ecosystem. “To keep the electronic industry rejuvenated, one after another product is thrown at us. The real problem lies once we are finished using them,” says Sandeep Anirudhan, environmental activist in Bangalore. “We simply dump them, without knowing the damage it will do to the soil or how severely it will pollute
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the ground. It is the same land we cultivate for food and groundwater is what we drink. So, the process is cyclical, we get what we give.” India ranks among the top five electronic waste-generating countries in the world after the US, China, Germany, and Japan. Among Indian states, the largest contributors are Maharashtra (19.8%), followed by Tamil Nadu (13%), Uttar Pradesh (10.1%), West Bengal (9.8%), Delhi (9.5%), Karnataka (8.9%), Gujarat (8.8%) and Madhya Pradesh (7.6%). Currently, India generates 4.6 times more e-waste than it is capable of managing. A report by United Nations’ Global E-Waste monitor, 2017 states that in Asia, total e-waste generation was 18.2 metric tonnes in 2016 out of which 2 metric tonnes was produced by India. The global volume of e-waste generated is expected to reach 52.2 million metric tons
by 2021 from 44.7 million metric tons in 2016 at a compound annual growth rate of 20%, according to a study on Electricals & Electronics Manufacturing in India, conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India. Assocham predicts that India will generate about 5.2 million metric tons of e-waste by the end of 2020. E-waste mainly consists of hardware like computer parts, mobile phones, chargers and batteries, air conditioners, cathode ray tubes, disks, power banks, freezers, and many other consumer products. Chemical elements like lead, cadmium, chromium, bromine, mercury, PCBs, PAHs and PBDEs that are present in them can prove lethal for living beings. These elements do not require direct contact to do damage. Accumulated e-waste leaches these elements, which reach us through natural mediums like the air, water (surface and under-
ground) and soil, polluting our crops. Without proper knowledge, e-waste management can be very dangerous. Constant exposure to these elements can cause permanent damage to the nervous and circulatory systems, kidneys and brain, and may even be responsible for causing respiratory disorders, skin disorders, bronchitis, lung cancer, heart, liver, internal/ external organ damage, and spleen damage. “There are at least 16 types of hazardous chemicals and metals, which occur in e-waste, that need to be separated from the waste and treated, before further processing. Some of these elements start emitting radiation on aging. This radiation is severe enough to cause leukaemia if exposed to for a long time. The government should be extra careful to prevent these e-hazards from reaching the people, especially young ones,” says Anshul Rawal, project coordinator at Saahas, an NGO based in Bangalore More than adults, children face a threat. In their developing phase, exposure to e-waste, may cause stunned growth and other health issues. Recyclers who recycle, repair, or re-purpose e-waste in their homes are putting their children at serious risk. Children residing near e-waste dumps and areas with where it’s stored in large quantities, also face a serious threat.
Sixteen-year-old Mohamad Kadir has been working for four years in an electrical-repair shop in Kolkata. “Working in an electronic repair shop isn’t easy. There is heavy lifting, tiring and tedious processes of dismantling devices, sitting in a room stuffed with broken electronic parts. But it earns you a proper meal,” he says. His health problems started with the skin on his hands splitting a year after he started working in the shop, he recalls. Kadir is suffering from vitiligo and with each passing month, his hands turn more pale as their colour fades away. Guiyu in Guangdong province in southern China is known as the world’s largest e-waste site. More than 1,50,000 people reside in Guiyu, working on recycling e-waste. Research conducted Shantou University Medical College in 2009 showed that 80% of children residing in Guiyu have been poisoned by harmful chemicals from e-waste due to being constantly exposed to them. The study enrolled also 600 pregnant women from Guiyu and from a control site. The researchers measured metal exposures in the women and found out that all of them had an alarming level of harmful metal concentration in their systems. This would affect the neurobehavioral development of their children.
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he E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 introduced the concept of extended producer responsibility or EPR for the first time in India which made all the producers of electronic goods responsible for the waste they produced over the lifecycle of the product. The amendment to the e-waste policy, with the new E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, set stringent targets for the producers to collect and recycle their products when they ceased to be of use.
This radiation is severe enough to cause leukaemia if exposed to for a long time. The government should be extra careful to prevent these e-hazards from reaching the people, especially young ones But e-waste management regulations are not strong enough to deal with the sort of volumes the industry is generating. Preventing health adversities caused by long term exposure to e-waste is very difficult anywhere, but particularly so in India. There are two major reasons behind it. Enforcing EPR rules is very difficult as most e-waste managers and recyclers belong to an unorganised sector which is virtually unregulated market. Second, there’s a complete lack of awareness of the health hazards these waste products pose. People who handle and recycle e-waste are dawn from the urban poor, are mostly uneducated and have no idea of the risks they are taking or exposing their families to. But the situation is gradually changing for the better. India has been cautious about the amount e-waste being generated. Recently, private companies like E-Parisaraa and start-ups like Karo Sambhav have taken an initiative to collect and recycle the e-waste. E-Parisaraa Private Limited, India’s first government-authorized waste recycler has been operating since 2005 and recycles about 200 metric tonnes of e-waste on a daily basis to sell as raw material to manufacturers. The government has started funding more NGOs which deal with e-waste issues to control the damage. It isn’t a day too early. THE BEAT |14
HEALTH
A Stain on Our Society Sustainable sanitary pads are becoming popular in cities but are not available in rural India where they’re most needed, says Sanchari Ghatak
Poor menstrual hygiene takes a toll on Indian women | Credit: Better India
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eeru, 14, either skips school during her periods or uses rags as pads, while Ankita, 15, waits for her washable sanitary pads to be delivered. Neeru walks to the high school at Rastapur, in Shahapur taluk in north Karnataka, while Ankita’s father drives her to Orchids International School in Bangalore. Cloth pads, the sustainable alternative to synthetic pads are selling like hot cakes on various online shopping sites. But women in rural areas face health problems from using rags and unsanitary substitutes. The lack of awareness
THE BEAT |15
about menstrual hygiene is the cause of the various bacterial, yeast and other urinary tract infections (UTIs), and even cervical cancer, that many women in rural India struggle with silently. Says Chinmaya, the attending nurse at the Shahapur Public Health Centre, “Teenagers often come with various kinds of infections. They get so itchy, that at times we prescribe anti-allergy medicines.” Village Volunteers, an NGO that seeks sustainable solutions to community problems, says around 20% of girls drop out of school
after reaching puberty but and many more are absent for the entire duration of their periods. Missing around five days of school per month can affect their academic performance and can lead them to drop out. The main reasons for missing school during menstruation are a lack of toilets at school and the lack of sanitary materials that are discreet and absorbent enough. Says Dr. Jaya of Primrose Clinic, Bangalore, “Women, mostly those that belong to the rural parts of the country, avoid conversations about how negligence of personal hygiene can lead to various UTIs. These infections can lead
to major problems for underprivileged women in rural areas, as visiting hospitals and undergoing various procedures can be a tedious and costly task.”
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has introduced a scheme in 107 selected districts in 17 states and a pack of six sanitary napkins called “Freedays” was provided to rural adolescent girls for Rs. 6 The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has introduced a scheme for promotion of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 year in rural areas where girls are provided with pads free of cost. Girls in government schools in the villages of Shahapur taluk are, however, only provided with 3 packs of sanitary napkins for the entire year as opposed to the 13 packs that they are supposed to get. The scheme was introduced in 2011 in 107 selected districts in 17 states and a pack of six sanitary napkins called “Freedays” was provided to rural adolescent girls for Rs. 6. Says Nishitha, 16, “We’re a family of farmers, how can I even expect my parents buy me those costly pads that we get in the city? It’s an extra expenditure and I understand that. I make do with my mother’s old sarees. I cut it into sections, fold them up, and use them as homemade pads. It’s a bit tricky to go to school during those day, so I stay back home and help with the household chores.” Schools in rural India are however, provided with pad burning machines for safe and sustainable disposal. Says Nagaratna, a Hindi teacher and warden of Shahapur’s only high school that provides hostel facilities for girls, “Owing to the fact that majority of our students are girls, the authorities have constructed a hostel here too. We also have adequate supply of pads, along with a pad burning machine. We even have a separate toilet for girls. It’s really luxury here.” Although pad-vending machines are becoming increasing common in cities, pad-burning machines are still a novelty there too. A barrier to easy access to sanitary napkins is the high price of pads manufactured by large FMCGs. Says Brinda Adige, a Bangalore-based women’s rights activist, “Awareness of better
usage and ways to use them should be emphasized. Manufacturing of such products is easy and can generate employment among women. We should concentrate on optimum usage of resources which are eco-friendly, hygienic and affordable. The best way to help is by educating rural women. Accepting cloth pads is not the challenge there. It’s already what they use. Teaching them how to safely use them is the need of the hour.” A comparative study by three researchers from the department of Community Medicine, Calcutta National Medical College, Kolkata on menstrual hygiene among urban and rural adolescent girls in West Bengal, revealed that only 37.52% girls were aware of menstruation prior to their first period. It found 36% girls in urban and 54.88% girls in rural areas used homemade sanitary pads and reused the same in the subsequent period. In rural India, besides poor hygiene, menstruation also comes accompanied with myths and taboos. Menstruation is perceived as dirty, impure and even unholy, and is surrounded by a culture of silence and shame. These taboos, also present in urban households, sets restrictions on women during their periods, whether it’s not going to the temple or offering prayers,
not entering the kitchen or not touching certain foods. These taboos prevent women in rural India from washing their menstrual cloths in public and drying the in the sun. So, they frequently use damp cloth which is unhygienic.
K
athy Walking, an Australian who settled in Auroville, Pondicherry, took it upon her to make cloth pads cool again. Not only because they are ecofriendly but also cheap. “Initially, I was struck by the challenges Indian women had to face when it came to menstrual practices. We realised that setting this up would also bring about an opportunity to offer livelihood opportunities for rural women. Therefore, we came up with Ecofemme,” she says. ‘Wash and wear’ is a hit among urban women. With various awareness campaigns across the cities, women are now accepting sustainable options. Says Tuhina Chattopadhyay, a techie, “I mostly order cloth pads online. Even though they are initially costly, they last for a long time. We just need to wash them, as per instructions, meticulously. They not only save a lot of money but also save the earth.” They could also vastly improve the lives of her sisters in rural India.
The Sabarimala of Sandur The Lambanis of Sandur taluk celebrate Sevalal Jayanthi in the mid-week of February. But women of menstruating age are not allowed to step into the temple of Sevalal situated in Susheelnagar village as they believe he was a bal brahmachari (celibate). Sant Sevalal was a religious reformer who fought for the rights of the Banjara/Lambani community and the Lambnai people look up to him as a God. Says Santhi Bai, who works in the Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra, “On the day, we clean our house, clean ourselves, make sweets and offer it to Sevalal. We cannot cross the boundary but it doesn’t bother us as we can worship him in our home.” “Sevalal was asked to marry Mariamma or Kali, but he turned her down and became a brahmachari. From then on, no married women is allowed in his territory and only the men take care of the puja. This same thing happens in Kumaraswamy temple, 15 kms far from Sandur.” After a pause, she asks, “Did you
hear about the Sabarimala case? It’s the same here but just nobody knows about it.” The irony is that it’s the priest’s wife who cleans the temple. “I get the permission to enter this place only before his birthday to clean every nook and corner of it,” she explains.
Ankita Mukherjee
THE BEAT |16
PSYCHOLOGY
Rituals of Repetition Many of us experience obsessive thoughts but we don’t let them take over our lives, says Shivani Priyam
44 years. The report characterizes obsessions The cognitive theory, on the other hand, and chronic. as repetitive thoughts, images, or urges that lays focus on how people with OCD misinterHowever, OCD remains a mystery to us are found to be uncontrollable. A person with pret their thoughts. Most people witness unwelas the exact cause is unknown. Researchers OCD typically is aware of these intrusive come or intrusive thoughts at certain times, but identify some genetic causes. It is found that thoughts and feelings and does not want to for individuals with OCD, the importance of individuals with OCD could have family memhave these ideas. The person has uncomfortthose thoughts is exaggerated. As long as the bers displaying the same disorder. Cases where able feelings, such as fear, disgust, doubt, or a individual with OCD interprets these intrusive the disorder develops during childhood have feeling that things have to be done in a way that thoughts as cataclysmic and true, they will cona much stronger familial link pertaining to the is “just right.” tinue the avoidance and ritual behaviours. disorder as compared to cases which develop Says Dr. Hegde, “OCD is like a repetiduring late adulthood. Other than the genetic tive cycle which continues to proliferate until factors, a host of environmental and psychothe chain is broken. The person with OCD logical factors are related with OCD. develops a distressing thought, followed by OCD is a kind of an anxiety disorder obsessions and the urge to act upon those which is common to people of all ages. When obsessions. The compulsions lead to further a person is suffering from an anxiety disorder, distressing thoughts, and the cycle continues. If they develop anxious thoughts about an assoa person tries to avoid actions based on those ciated fear which results in lack of confidence thoughts or obsessions, then there is a likely and feeling of uncertainty. The fear and anxiety possibility that the chain or cycle of OCD can that occur due to an anxiety disorder are markbe broken.” edly different fromfleeting experiences of these feelings that are commonly related to normal, though stressful, events such as speaking at a eports by National Health Portal public event. of India suggest that the lifetime Adolescence is a critical phase in the life of prevalence of OCD in the general Moreover, a person with OCD spends an a youngster so it’s common to find teenage or population is 2-3%, which means 2-3 persons unwarranted amount of time on these obsesyoung adults trying to deal with challenges in in every hundred have OCD in their lifetime, sions, which interferes with personal, social, their own quirky ways. Unfortunately, for a few which affects men and women equally. OCD and professional activities. The behavioural teens, the habits take the form of a severe men- theory suggests that people with OCD associis often found to occur with other disorders tal health issue or OCD. Parents are often faced ate certain objects or situations with fear. They like depression, social phobia and Tourett’s with the trauma when it comes to deciding disorder. However, it is treatable and can be learn to avoid those things or learn to perform what is normal in their teen’s behaviour. cured if diagnosed in time. So, it all the more “rituals” to help reduce the fear. This fear and Says Rohan PV, a 21-year-old preparing imperative to look for symptoms and causes avoidance or ritual cycle may begin during a for his medical entrance exams, “I’ve had a period of intense stress, such as when starting a which might initially be mild, but develop into dream of becoming a surgeon right from my severe obsessions. new job or just after an important relationship childhood and while the time is so near, I feel comes to an end. the intense pressure to succeed which often makes me anxious. Spending around 10-12 hours daily during hectic preparations, the pressure often results in forgetfulness as I tend to repeat the terminology and write them down to remember better.” “People in younger age groups face pressure from all fronts, be it studies, work-related, or relationship based. Under such circumstances, the feeling of fear and anxiety adds to the cause of OCD,” says Dr. MS Dharmendra, a psychiatrist practising at NIMHANS, Bangalore. “Every possibility is directly or indirectly interconnected. We suggest counselling and medications, if required to treat patients with mild to extreme symptoms. It is important to identify the symptoms at the earliest as they continue to grow and create havoc if not controlled on time.” A report by Medical News Today on the disorder, its symptoms and causes states that OCD is a mental health condition that centres around a debilitating obsession or compulsion, distressing actions, and repetitive thoughts. A 2001 World Health Organization mental health report estimated that OCD was among the top 20 causes of illness-related Intrusive thoughts and feelings are often uncontrollable| Credit: Good Therapy disability worldwide for people aged 15 to
An estimated 40% of individuals who develop OCD in childhood will recover from the disorder by adulthood while for the remaining 60%, the disorder will be both severe and chronic
Frequent cleaning, checking, and ordering are common symptoms |Credit: Good Therapy
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ental illnesses like physical ones affect an individual’s personal and psychological well-being. It is mistakenly thought that physical wounds can be healed but mental and emotional scars last forever. But advancements in medicine suggest it’s possible to provide an effective cure to mentally ill patients and those with a history of trauma and depression. Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, is the constant urge to perform or repeat certain tasks referred to as compulsions, or certain thoughts recur in the mind of an individual, called obsessions. The affected person is unable to control either her thoughts or activities for more than a short duration of time. Obsessions are followed by compulsions which require the need to perform specific activities for durations which are longer than THE BEAT |17
the usual. People with OCD are found to wash hands repeatedly, cleaning surfaces frequently, counting objects, repeatedly checking to see if things are in order and not misplaced, ordering things in the right way, checking-rechecking doors to see if they are locked and so on. Apart from these, constant thoughts adhering to a particular object, image or a situation keep recurring in the minds of individuals with OCD. Most patients are aware these activities are useless or make little sense, but they are helpless to control against such urges. OCD is found to impact the life of individuals negatively and harms the daily routine, as patients spend up more than the required time to perform these daily activities or ‘compulsions.’ Says Dr. Anupama Hegde, a clinical psychologist based in Mysore, “It’s not uncommon to diagnose individuals with a history of OCD.
What’s important is to observe their modes of behaviour. A patient with symptoms connected to OCD displays the signs of ordinary compulsions which are difficult to avoid and cause a disruption to lead life in a normal way. Patients find it difficult to control their urges and simply perform it to satisfy their minds to assure themselves of the correctness of the situation.” Data suggest that OCD frequently starts in late adolescence or early twenties, although it occasionally begins in childhood. The onset of OCD occurs by age 14 in approximately 25% of cases and an estimated 1% of the population has the disorder. An estimated 40% of individuals who develop OCD in childhood will recover from the disorder by adulthood while for the remaining 60%, a childhood onset indicates that the disorder will be both severe
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THE BEAT |18
ETHICS
Police personel feeding strays: Article 51A(g) of the Constitution states it is the fundamental duty of every citizen of India “to have compassion for living things” | Credit: Indiatimes.com
All Creatures, Great and Small
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People are right to be fearful about their livelihoods during the lockdown, but spare a thought for our stray friends, says Yumna Ahmed
n the past few days, we have heard news about people being attacked for feeding or rescuing animals in the midst of the Covid19 lockdown. Not only are the critics misguided in their fear that animals might spread the infection but equally in their disrespect for other living creatures. Says Vishaka Chatterjee, who runs an organization called Pawsome in Lucknow, “People criticize me for feeding the stay animals. At first I use to react but one day I decided to just take a copy of the Constitution of India and paste it on the wall. Feeding strays is our duty and people just cannot stop us from doing it.” Article 51A(g) of the Constitution states it is the fundamental duty of every citizen of India “to have compassion for living things.” Especially during the lockdown, she says, a lot of animals go hungry as people are unable to go out feed them and also fear rumours that strays will spread Covid-19. But the World
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Health Organisation has clarified that the Novel Coronavirus is a human-to-human transmission and your pet or strays have nothing to do with it, as various tests have proved. In fact pets have an enormous therapeutic role to play in a world of ‘social distancing.’ Thousands people suffering from loneliness find relief in the company of animals. Says Nidhi Srivastava, an animal activist in Lucknow, “For the past three or four years I have been feeding animals. I also volunteered with an organization in Lucknow but now I am an independent activist. We face a lot of criticism from people for feeding them. We have also sterilized most of the dogs, both male and female, in our area so that they can’t reproduce.” “We feed 30 to 40 dogs in our locality every day. We even feed birds because in the summer season most of them cannot survive. We have kept water bowls and food bowls in our area so
that they do not go hungry,” she adds. Jeev Aashraya another NGO in Lucknow has taken the initiative to prepare food for stray animals and feed them. It was started in 2011 and they are doing what they can to feed animals through this lockdown. Rajesh N, an animal-rescue volunteer in Bangalore points out there are laws against animal cruelty but the enforcing agencies don’t take them seriously. “Previously a lot of eateries use to feed strays but due to this lockdown more than 70% of strays are unable to find food. People use to feed dogs and there was an emotional connection between dogs and humans but due to this Covid-19, this chain is cut as people are unable to feed them,” he adds. Says Nilkanth Iyer, volunteer at Dream a Dream, an NGO that works to empower underprivileged children, and country manager at a software company, “In this crucial situation the government should provide passes for
people to feed the strays. Government cannot change things overnight but they should make aware people about sterilization and adoption of strays to protect stray animals.” Meet Ashar, associate manager at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), says sterilisation and adoption are the only humane and effective options to stem India’s stray-animal crisis. In just six years, one dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies. In seven years, one cat and her offspring can produce a staggering 420,000 kittens. “Sterilization is the only legal recourse, too,” he says. “The Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rules 2001 stipulate that strays be spayed or neutered. The ABC and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act also forbid placing street dogs in shelters or pounds. Intense confinement can facilitate the spread of disease, and because it’s psychologically stressful, makes dogs aggressive and more likely to fight or bite.” The penalties for hurting animal are of little deterrence, he feels. “A maximum penalty of Rs. 50 for a first offense is an outrageously outdated penalty that today does not act as a deterrent against abuse whatsoever,” says. “Numerous cases of cruelty to animals have highlighted the need for harsher penalties under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, the main animal protection law.” Recent cases of extreme cruelty to animals
that made newspaper headlines include a Mumbai man who battered a kitten to death by hitting her with a bamboo stick and then smashed her against the wall, a Bangalore woman who killed eight puppies, Chennai medical students who threw a puppy from a roof and Vellore medical students tortured a monkey to death.
In just six years, one dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies. In seven years, one cat and her offspring can produce a staggering 420,000 kittens.
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ETA says investigations conducted by animal-rights activists to expose how animal cruelty has increased especially where animals have been used for to entertain people. Bullfight, bull racing, keeping animals in zoos, dolphin shows, circuses all permit systematic cruelty to animals claiming they have
traditional, cultural or entertainment value. PETA has taken the initiative to make people aware that these are a grave injustice to animals. Animals are exposed to a lot of cruelty and often mis-treated in places like these. Therefore it has become very important to make people understand why places like these are a problem in the society. “More and more people are realizing that animals are not ours to buy and sell, and are choosing to adopt a dog or cat in need from an animal shelter or one suffering on the street instead,” says Ashar. “PETA India has been creating awareness about the importance of adopting from an animal shelter rather than buying dogs using street theatre, demonstrations and other activities.” But there are other encouraging signs too. There was a recent news item about Karnataka chief minister B.S Yediyurappa taking the initiative to feed strays dogs and asking people to provide them food and water in this scorching heat, and specially during difficult times like these. But he also asked people to observe ‘social distancing’ while feeding them, to avoid any kind of transmission of the virus. All it takes is for a few prominent people to set an example, to help people overcome their fear and discover their compassion for all creatures great and small. THE BEAT | 20
SPORTS
ARTS
Making Women Visible
A Star is Born Lakshya Sen is a badminton prodigy who has the discipline and talent to go all the way, writes Bhavesh Purohit
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adminton in India has been on the cutting-edge over the past one decade. While our top women players, Saina Nehwal and P Sindhu have made their mark internationally, things have improved dramatically for several up-and-coming stars. One of these is the 18-year-old Lakshya Sen, who packed a punch at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 where he won a Silver medal and Gold at the Asian Junior Championship that year. Lakshya’s father, D.K. Sen, a former badminton coach at the Sports Authority of India, introduced him to the legendary Prakash Padukone and Vimal Kumar in 2010. Following his splendid performance at the trials, Lakshya was enrolled into the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy at the age of 10 and spent most of his teenage years away from his family. He is ranked 28 in the world right now and an entry into top 16 will confirm Lakshya’s ticket to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Lakshya is well-known for his passive aggressive gameplay. Capable of rapidly switching from defense to attack, he can outplay his opponent in a war of endurance, with stamina built through a childhood spent in Almora in the Kumoan Hills of Uttarakhand. One of his trademarks moves is the on-the-line smash, which gives his opponents no chance of a return. Lakshya demonstrated these skills when competing against World number 7, Jonatan Christie, at the recently concluded Asia Team Championships where he got the better of his higher-ranked Indonesian opponent. Lakshya’s heroics on the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) junior circuit earned him acclaim from the Indian badminton greats. His first career defining moment came in 2016 at the Asia Junior Championships. The then 15-year-old Lakshya cruised into the semi-final where he lost to Sun Feixiang of China in straight sets but won a Bronze medal. He
Lakshya can outplay any opponent in a show of endurance | Credit: Twitter THE BEAT |21
continued his fine run at the India International Series where he won his maiden title. By February 2017, he was regarded as the best junior badminton player in the World. 2018 was an equally impressive year for Lakshya, as he started competing in the senior international circuit alongside junior level tournaments. He performed extraordinarily well at the Youth Olympics and also won a Bronze medal from World Junior Championships held in Canada after losing to Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand. The Almora shuttler avenged his earlier loss against Vitidsarn at the Asia Junior Championships where he got the better of his Thai opponent in the finals. They squared against each other once again in the final of the Tata Open India International and it was Lakshya who again came out on top.
Ankita Mukherjee profiles a unique platform that seeks to empower women artists from around the world
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rt is still considered a male-dominated industry,” says Chhavi Singh, founder of DailyDesignist (DD), an online, global art platform that promotes women artists and showcases their paintings on its online art gallery. “Few women artists have their works showcased in art galleries and museums across the globe. Name any great artist and you will get male names.” The disparity between the two genders can be seen in the art world everywhere. In a recent report, Artsy, an online art market, says works by female artists comprise a small share of major permanent collections in the U.S. and Europe, while at auction, women’s artworks sell for a significant discount compared to those of male artists. Only two works by women have ever broken into the top 100 auction sales for
paintings, despite women being the subject of approximately half of the top 25. “Even if there are women artists they do not get that privilege to showcase their artwork,” says Singh. “To empower them, I have created this start-up for the women out there whose art pieces are lost under the thick dust in their garage or store room or in their cupboard. I call myself a Mompreneur.” Singh was pursuing MBA when she decided to found DD for the women artists of the world. “I founded this platform in April 2019. Till date, 100+ artists across the world have registered on the platform to display their artworks,” she says. Last December, DD organised a physical exhibition ‘All About Arts’ at the Taj Krishna in Hyderabad.. City based artists T Sujatha, Vinee-
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akshya won the Belgian International, Scottish Open and Bangladesh International in 2019. While all of these were challenger tournaments where a player of Lakshya’s caliber would be expected to win, the real test lay in BWF World Tour tournaments. Lakshya won two BWF world tour titles in 2019 - he claimed SaarLorLux Open and the Dutch Open. Except Lakshya Sen and Sourabh Verma, no other male badminton player from India managed to win two world tour titles in 2019, not even Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap or even B. Sai Praneeth, who is India’s number 1 ranked badminton player. The last decade has seen top shuttlers like Chetan Anand, Anand Pawar, V. Diju and Akshay Dewalkar eclipsed by the likes of Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, Verma, H.S Prannoy and Kashyap, who is still going strong at 36. While all of them have fared well in major international tournaments, none has the kind of spark at the age of 18 that Lakshya Sen displays. If he doesn’t succumb to injuries and keeps up his fitness, Lakshya Sen could very well become one of India’s greatest badminton stars of all time.
Chhavi Singh at the Hyderabad exhibition | Credit: Chhavi Singh THE BEAT |22
ta Sharma, Madhurima Devi Dasi and others had collaborated and showcased their creations. “We do everything through the app -- one for the artist and the other for the art lovers/ buyers. Using our app and uploading their artwork is free, that’s because artists don’t know how to bring their art out in the world or connect with an audience. We do that part of the job,” says Singh. There are several online platforms for showcasing artworks like Saatchi Art, Artsy and Society6, but DD is unique in that it offers online classes in art appreciation and technique to encourage women to learn to paint and maybe even pursue a career in art.
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ware is a non-profit organisation which archives women artists online. Its founders also believe women artists are under-represented, if not completely absent, in art books, exhibitions and museum collections. Its goal is the creation, indexation and distribution of information on women artists of the 20th century. Woman Made Gallery (WMG) is non-profit organization founded in 1992 to promote and support the work of female artists by providing exhibition opportunities, professional development and public programmes. More than 8,250 women artists have exhibited their work in 425 exhibitions through WMG. As Singh explains, “One can find online art galleries promoting women but we provide art classes too by experienced artists and skilled teachers. We do both the things. We have a fee structure set for our teachers too. Now mostly we are teaching in the US but we are trying to reach out to India and other countries soon.” In the context of COVID-19, online initiatives like DD assume great importance, not only in helping artists exhibit but helping people deal with the uncertainty. “To stay sane in this situation, we have started providing online classes to the kids, and we are concentrating on developing their life skills like patience, fine motor skills, time management and above all creativity. For adults, we are focusing on art therapy classes to relieve their stress and calm themselves in these uncertain times,” she says.
INTERVIEW
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“I really think society’s mind-set can be changed through these kind of movies with time” time. What are you trying to convey through your film Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti? This particular film is about the character Shabari, played by Ritabhari Chakraborty which is about a woman priest and how society deals with the fact that a woman can be a priest and can organise marriages effortlessly. I really think society’s mind-set can be changed through these kind of movies. And be it Tollywood or Bollywood, I think the directors are making effort to think out of the box.
oham Majumdar, a Kolkata boy in his mid-twenties, moved from the stage to the big screen a few years ago. Self-quarantined in his home after returning from a shoot in Mumbai, he sits on his couch with a coffee mug in hand, wearing a t-shirt and track pants. All his work schedules have been postponed due to the lockdown. He is currently shooting for Homecoming by Soumyajit Majumdar, an actor debuting as a writer and director. Soham has acted in two Bengali films and one Bollywood movie starring Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani. He’s excited having won a Zee Cine Award for supporting actor in the movie Kabir Singh. Ankita Mukherjee spoke to him. Excerpts: When did you realise that you wanted to become an actor? Mmm …. It was more of an epiphany that happened when I was young. I loved dancing and singing and used to watch a lot of Bollywood and Hollywood movies, and that’s what motivated me to follow my passion and not what the society wanted me to become. I have always been on stage, be it whether singing for my school band or performing in school theatre group. Did your parents support from your acting career then? Umm… basically none of my relatives is in this profession, (smiles) so they were unaware how to go about it. If I chose to become an architect, perhaps my father would have helped
me with it but I didn’t so they couldn’t help me to navigate this, couldn’t tell me what to do when things didn’t work out well for me. So they were a little nervous out of their concern, but they never discouraged me.
field? If I count my theatre years, then it is nine years and then in 2018, my first movie happened and I guess after that people start noticing me… (smiles) like, who is that guy?
How many years you have been in this
You have been seen in many of the MAD productions. How did you meet the MAD people to start with? I am the co-founder of MAD with two of my friends, they were from my same school and we used practise theatre in school together and they were some crazy people. I used to sing, and they used participate in debates and our common project to was theatre. We gave it a thought and back then our spirits were high and that’s how MAD was formed… and also that’s why we named it MAD, because we didn’t want to follow any norms and we still don’t, I guess… (laughs). How did Aladdin happen? I was selected for the Broadway musical which was under Disney’s production team and they leased it to Book My Show. It was
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Snippets from the Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti | Credit: Boxoffice offficial like a dream come true for me, as I was never been a part of a musical before. And you know, we used to rehearse for 18 hours a day for four months and it included singing, acting, acrobats and dancing and all of it was live, so we had to build our stamina to that point so that everything becomes muscle memory… so yeah that’s how Aladdin happened.. (smiles). It was primarily staged in Bombay but we also had a season in Delhi.
saying that weight loosing is only the key to be in front of the camera but my transformation helped. But two months went by after that meet up and nothing happened. Then, one fine day I got a call from the associate director and he said that I have been selected for a particular role and would I be interested... so yeah that is how it happened.
our debut Bengali movie was Drishtikone, share some of that experience. In one of our MAD productions I directed and acted with Ujan Ganguly, son of national award winner Kaushik Ganguly, and his parents came to watch that play and saw my acting and told me that I’m a decent actor. But back then I was 93 kilos so I didn’t think that he would approach me for a film. But when I lost a few kgs and met him again, he saw something in me and asked me would I be interested to act in his films, and I was like yeah, why not. So, I’m not
Your performance in Kabir Singh was widely praised, how did you react? Congratulations for the Zee Cine award. I was euphoric, I couldn’t really believe that it was happening to me. Thank you, thank you so much… the award is like cherry on the top.
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How is your Homecoming project coming along? Any other projects on the way? Umm…I do not know how much I can divulge, but I can only disclose that it is perhaps the most common yet the uncommon story, which doesn’t have a one particular language so we are terming it as a Calcutta film, neither a Bengali movie nor a Hindi one. Well, I cannot really talk about any of my next projects right now, but let’s just hope that I can work like this in the future also… (smiles). From a thespian to a mainstream actor, how would you define yourself ? I am living the dream, and I just don’t want to wake up, that’s all I can say.
The thought process of the directors are changing with THE BEAT |24
REVIEW
REVIEW
Victim or Victor?
Clueless in Kolkata
Taylor Swift is a lyrical genius who uses her sharp tongue to flay her critics, says Bhavya Kumar
Ekta Kapoor’s latest offering will test the patience of even her most ardent fans, says Nikita Gupta
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from scores of prominent faces in Hollywood, ’m so sick of running, As fast as I can, the music video of The Man is an over the top Wondering if I’d get there quicker, If I criticism of men in the business. was a man,”sings Taylor Swift in her latest single, an upbeat track about how she could achieve everything if she were a man. Swift has been in the news since the inception of her career for reasons right and wrong. She has been media’s favourite whipping girl, her love life has been scrutinised and her actions have been minutely dissected. Taylor has had tons of drama in her life, and she has always known how to turn the negatives to glory through her songs. She’s a lyrical prodigy, as her mega successful albums She literally transforms into a man for the like ‘Red’ or ‘1989’would testify. There she music video with layers of prosthetics and talks about love and heartbreak, in a language make up. You see ‘Tyler Swift’ on screen. He’s you could use with your significant other but everybody’s favourite in the office, parties exwouldn’t, until you heard her songs. She’s the travagantly on yachts with lots of bikini-clad good girl whose heart always gets broken by women around him, screams at his retainers self-centred partners. and charges at the umpire for losing a game. Last December, she turned thirty, three months after releasing ‘Lover’, her seventh album. Many say Taylor has gotten smarter with age.The years she has spent in the music industry have made her more vocal about the issues she stayed away from as a part of some calculative PR strategy. Before releasing the music video for her fourth single, The Man, Taylor released ‘You Need to Calm Down’, an anthem for the LGBTQ community with potshots at homophobes. That song and its accompanying video were welcomed by her fans and she sent the media in a frenzy over the fierce support to her LGBTQ allies. While the YNTCD video was a parade of colours with flamboyTaylor performed a medley of her hits at the VMAs | Credit: The Place ant guest appearances
Taylor Swift has had a clever marketing record, she knows her audience, she has played the underdog even when she was the puppeteer
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He’s a toxic, manipulative big shot who gets away with everything because of his gender. Taylor uses the song to scornfully portray how overrated men are. And she has good reason to. The concept for the video came from her dispute with Scooter Braun, a celebrity manager who now owns Big Machine Records, the company that Swift released six albums with. He and Taylor were never on good terms and he made things worse by denying her the rights to perform her own songs in public. The ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ singer took to social media and accused Braun of hijacking her rights as a songwriter and performer. She wanted to perform a medley of her hits at the VMAs to celebrate her winning of ‘Artist of the Decade’ award. After much conflict, she finally secured her right to perform ‘her’ songs and presented quite a memorable act. Taylor Swift has had a clever marketing record, she knows her audience, she has played the underdog even when she was the puppeteer.So, with The Man’s music video she throws the ball in her critic’s court. In all the scenes that play to present the quintessential villainous man in Swift’s imagination, there’s an exaggerated narrative, even cherry-picking, but her intentions are crystal clear.
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aylor Swift has a huge appetite for praise but she is also aware of the resentment she evokes. But she can handle that. In her own words, “l could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me.” And that’s the kind of attitude, you just can’t lose.
anyone cringe. And there is so much wasted potential. The story is set in truly momentous times, the birth of Bangladesh amidst unprecedented carnage and a massive refugee crisis, but the writers seem to be blissfully unaware of any of this.
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The plot proves it never happened in Calcutta| Credit: The Indian Express
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et in the 1960s and 70s, It Happened in Calcutta is the love story of Ronobir, a flamboyant and vain playboy, and Kusum, a sweet, simple, girl next door. With a dream of becoming Kolkata’s first female doctor, Kusum joins medical college where she meets Ronobir, falls in love, only to be betrayed by him. Produced by ALTBalaji, the tele-series star of Yeh Kaha Aa Gaye Hum fame, Karan Kundra and newbie Naghma Rizwan play the lead roles. As Ronobir Chatterjee, Karan just about pulls his weight while Naghma Rizwan as Kusum is brilliant. Ivan Rodrigues plays an excellent supporting role as Kusum’s best friend, Dr. Ranjan Dasgupta. The narrator of the story is our antihero, Ronobir. He takes you through his journey of deceit, where he tries to mask his cheating and adultery with love. This has been a recurring theme in Balaji Productions, where misogyny is subtly glorified and women are turned into pawns after initially suggesting something quite different, viz., that they have agency. The trailer of the show looked appealing, but the serial fails to live up to its promise. The THE BEAT |25
story is set at the time when India was fighting wars, both externally and internally: on the border with Pakistan and with a cholera epidemic
It’s just a conventional love story and has little of the edge or daring as promised by the trailer in the cities. If the inspiration for the story was the Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s classic Love in the time of Cholera, the writers clearly haven’t got past the cover. The cinematography is, to put it politely, a mess. The editing appears to be an afterthought. There is little connection between scenes and so many abrupt cuts that it’s impossible to keep track of what’s going on. The ridiculous recreation of war scenes would make
or has any effort been put into recreating the period with either sincerity or care, whether it’s the sets or the costumes – though one must admit they’re beautiful. Or for that matter the language. A few words like dada and ki used repetitively are supposed to persuade you that that the story set in Bengal. In fact, it would appear the writers haven’t put much thought into writing the script or the dialogues. It’s just a conventional love story and has little of the edge or daring as promised by the trailer. In truth, it’s a typically vacuous Ekta Kapoor potboiler but, thankfully, with a limited number of episodes. When Ekta Kapoor launched ALTBalaji, in an interview she said, “ALTBalaji’s shows will open new world of home-grown differentiated entertainment to the viewers with the best stories and artists.” According to her, ALT was an idea to break-away from Balaji’s same routine of dramas and add creativity to the content. It looks like they have failed considerably at their commitment to the audience with ‘It happened in Calcutta’. The music is pedestrian and some of the soundtrack is shamelessly recycled from old Balaji productions such as Dil Hi Toh Hai. Music has always been Balaji Productions’ strong point, but even that’s gone missing here. It Happened in Calcutta is an easy watch if you switch off your brain. The show comprises ten episodes or about a three-hour-long binge watch.