The Beat / Issue 2 / March 2017

THE BEAT

March 2017/ IIJNM Publication

Biometric Boondoggle

The Changing Face of Rural India

FROM THE

EDITOR’S DESK Welcome to the second issue of The Beat. Last year was an unusually good one for India’s farmers, with a normal monsoon that in fact helped to keep the whole economy afloat.

But the problems that bedevil Indian agriculture can’t be washed away with a few good rain showers. Falling productivity, agrarian distress and rising food prices, in recent years, have had a cascading effect on overall growth.

Today, we need more than large budget allocations to get the agricultural economy ticking. Innovation is the key, whether its source lies in expanding corporate investment in agriculture, finding more sustainable ways to farm or in promoting rural entrepreneurship.

large-scale contract our farms.

As we point out in our cover story, one of the ways of reversing the decline in agriculture is through farming. Targeted investment and technology would increase output and create both prosperity and jobs on

Organic farming approaches the problem from other end of the spectrum. Eliminating chemical fertilisers and pesticides, improving soil health and encouraging intercropping would promote sustainability and biological diversity.

Then there is rural entrepreneurship, which is another pragmatic approach to mitigate rural unemployment. One such success story is of an entrepreneur, Dinesh Bhatt, whose innovative ideas have brought about a change in the livelihoods of 200 families living in his village.

In a nation whose diet is dominated by cereals like rice and wheat, the tribal Kunbis point to alternative sources of nutrition by growing a variety of tubers using traditional agricultural methods.

But the bad news is that despite all the development we’ve witnessed in the past half century, India has little regard for, and even less to offer to its tribal population.

India can grow almost anything, and in volumes to meet our needs as well as those of others. But, as the story of cocoa suggests, we can’t seem to get our act together.

Happy Reading!

Ilona Dam 12th March 2017

TEAM

Layout editor: Ilona Dam and Romita Majumdar Aishwarya Iyer Shannon Ridge Court Cherry Agarwal Nivedita Naidu Manasvini Paul

Mahak Dutta Cathline Chen Karishma Jayapaul Ashima Chowdhary Phalguni Vittal Rao

Follow us on twitter @iijnmbangalore Instagram @the_beat2017 THE BEAT March 2017

CONTENTS 2 5

The Business of Farming

Increasing farm productivity

Law of the Seed

Sustainable farming to the rescue

8

Grassroot Entrepreneurs

11

Treasure in the Backyard

12

The Wretched of the Earth

14

The Chocolate Demographic A demand-supply mismatch?

16

Value-added agriculture

18

Same or Shame

Rural businesses create jobs

Tubers trump cereals

Counting the cost of development

A conversation with Mayank Jain

Beauty and the beholder

20

Incubating Athletes

22

The Pitfalls of Biometrics

24

Art as Therapy

Creative de-stressing

25

Film review: Nocturnal Animals

26

Walking in the Clouds

28

Lights, Camera, Anxiety!

Formula to produce world champions

False sense of security

March 2017 THE BEAT 1

COVER STORY

H

Large-scale contract farming holds the key to increasing investment,

anumant Rayappa, 60, lives in a cramped, airless room with his 50-year-old wife in Devagere, a village located on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Three decades ago, he began cultivating ragi on four acres of land owned by his father. The yield was barely enough to make ends meet. But when the family inheritance got divided between the four brothers, they found their individual holdings were too small to even meet cultivation costs. This is the story of many an agricultural household in India.

India’s agrarian economy is stalling. The steady decline in investments, public and private, in agriculture has resulted in a situation where barely a third of arable land is irrigated; where post-harvest, grain, fruits and vegetables worth a staggering Rs. 44,000 crores are wasted every year for lack of adequate transport and cold storage facilities, according to the Indian Council for Agricultural Research.

Despite its potential to grow large quantities of foodcrops, low productivity and poor agricultural infrastructure prevents India from meeting even its basic consumption needs. Currently India faces “serious hunger levels” and ranks 97 out of 118 countries in the International Food Policy Institute’s 2016 Global Hunger Index.

The stagnation of India’s agriculture is threatening the livelihoods of 56 per cent of India’s population that lives off the land. Worse, it has forced large numbers of its workingage population to migrate to cities in search of jobs. “The only way to keep farmers in the villages is a doubling of farmers’ income,” says Dr. P.G. Chengappa, former vice chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.

To prevent the collapse of India’s agrarian economy as much as to prevent our cities from choking on this large displaced populace, it has become vital to increase the productivity of agriculture. That alone will ensure new jobs and more disposable income in the countryside.

“There are three ways of making Indian agriculture work: cooperatives, corporates and contracts,” says Gokul Patnaik, chairman of Global AgriSystem, a leading group of agribusiness consultants. While all the three business models can revive the rural economy, commercial agriculture through contract farming is best suited to India’s current needs, Patnaik feels.

Contract farming—using agreements between farmers and private enterprises to grow a specific crop for a specific cost—holds the promise of generating significant quantities of produce and ensure higher returns for the farmer. This simple expedient can overcome the problem of fragmented land holdings which isn’t always possible in the case of agricultural cooperatives.

While cooperatives bring farmers together they are often unable to ensure uniform product quality due to differing agricultural practices across farm holdings. Their inability to create infrastructure such as warehouses, processing facilities and cold storages often doesn’t allow to capture the entire value chain. Moreover, cooperatives rarely invest in the R&D and innovation required to reap productivity.

2 THE BEAT March 2017

The Business

Commercial enterprises that enter into contracts with multiple farmers at a pre-determined procurement price are able to overcome these limitations, says Patnaik. By engaging with several famers using the same planting material and agronomic practices, these private enterprises are able to string together individually unviable farm holdings to create a single large farm with economies of scale. Such a model allows for easy credit, insurance and an assured market. It could be the difference between a life of relative affluence and penury for farmers like Rayappa.

“If a company gives me seeds, tells me about agricultural practices to improve yield and promises to buy my produce at a fixed price what could be better,” says Gajananda K, Rayappa’s 45-year-old neighbour, who gave up cultivation in order to work at a construction site as a daily wage labourer.

“I’ll come back to agriculture if that can happen.”

And that’s precisely what’s already happening, even if on a small scale relative to the potential. Food processing companies in India have been making their mark on the ground.

India processed food worth $258 billion in 2015. Processedfood product exports have grown by 11.74 per cent over the last five years, according to Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, valued at $1.3 billion in 2016.

of Farming

productivity and prosperity on India’s farms, writes CHERRY AGARWAL. The stagnation of India’s agriculture is threatening the livelihoods of the 56 per cent of India’s population that lives off the land. Source: IStock

PepsiCo India, one of the first companies to enter agribusiness is currently working with 24,000 farmers across nine states including West Bengal, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka. Currently the multinational food, snack and beverage company, whose operations span the Gangetic plain, central, north-eastern and western parts of India, procures 60,000 tonnes of potatoes from West Bengal alone.

Hindustan Unilever’s Kissan, India’s first fruit and vegetable brand, works with 3,500 farmers in Karnataka and Punjab to grow 40,000 tonnes of tomatoes. HUL, which is India’s largest consumer packaged goods company, also grows gherkins in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Similarly, the $16.2 billion conglomerate Mahindra procures 15,000 tonnes of bananas from Mumbai and Delhi, according to Business Standard. The company’s agribusiness which recorded a Rs.900 crore

turnover procures grapes, pulses, potato and fresh dairy produce from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Bharti enterprises, which requires about 200 cargo flights to export their fresh produce of okra, baby corn and sweet peas, according to a Business Standard, has 5,300 acres under vegetable cultivation in Punjab alone.

“Agriculture in India is viewed as a way of life,” Patnaik says, “but isn’t looked at from a commercial stand point as if we don’t have to make money from it.” But contract farming is already showing farmers a viable alternative. In its ability to create jobs, increase productivity and reduce market risks, commercial farming is proving a win-win for both the farmers and private enterprise.

“In order for commercial agriculture to be successful [in India] there is a need for changes in habit such as the shift from fresh produce to processed

food,” says Ramesh Vangal, chairman of Katra group and former president of Pepsi Foods, Asia Pacific. “In turn you require a value chain that extends from ‘farm to fork’—seed, factory, market to take it to the consumer directly,” Vangal adds. This infrastructure is there piecemeal but doesn’t exist as a network.

Commercial farming can successfully retain farmers on the field since it is a partnership that creates interdependence, Vangal says. While the farmers improve crop yield with technical know-how provided by the enterprises, uniform cultivation practices ensure the supply of volumes, quality and consistency of produce to the enterprise. “The biggest risks that have discouraged Indian farmers are increased unpredictability of the weather and fluctuations in market prices,” says Dr. Chengappa.

While insurance companies have been able to provide a degree of weather proofing, farmers still have to deal with market risk. “With private enterprises contracting to buy their produce, farmers have the guarantee of returns and there would be no need for minimum support prices,” Vangal adds. Thus, commercial agriculture not only ensu-

“Agriculture in India is viewed as a way of life but isn’t looked at from a commercial stand point as if we don’t have to make money from it.”

March 2017 THE BEAT 3

COVER STORY VICIOUS CYCLE: Hanumant Rayappa can barely make ends meet with his reduced holding. Photo: Keyur Joshi

res a steady source of earnings to individual farmers but also reduces the burden on state and central procurement agencies that guarantee the farmer a predetermined price floor.

This risk is mitigated because even as commercial agriculture, through contracts, cushion farmers against changes in market prices, it also provides regular employment to agricultural workers who would otherwise migrate to the cities. In order for India to bring down hunger levels, reduce losses due to food wastage and create jobs, it needs large investments to create agricultural supply chains, Vangal says.

“The lack of infrastructure discourages private enterprises from entering the market and from investing further,” he says. Even though private enterprises can set up infrastructure locally, they can’t do so in the total absence of broader government investments infrastructure including supply of electricity and irrigation.

Also, it is essential to rationalize and simplify the supply chain. “There are up to 12 middlemen between the farmer and the final consumer, with nests of vested interests and corruption,” he says.

“Until the entire ethos of the business is changed it won’t work. It’s a mindset, where liberalisation and infrastructure together can make agribusiness work.”

“While agribusinesses will open up employment avenues, setting up agroprocessing units near the farms will reduce wastage of food during the supply window, which is the time between the harvest and the produce reaching

the market,” says Dr. Chengappa.

This makes commercial agriculture mutually beneficial as it brings down seasonality associated with farming. “Availability of raw materials represent the major proportion of costs in agro-industries,” according to Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Commercial agriculture often accentuates income disparities as the enterprises can only engage with a limited number of farmers based on their handling capacity. Yet it is the most efficient way to make rural economy sustainable as it generates livelihoods in the villages itself. “The income disparities can be bridged by farmer initiatives,” Dr Chengappa says. “Farmers need to enter the agriculture market and agri-extension to be able to understand the demand of the consumers and then pitch their produce.”

Agribusinesses can definitely generate jobs and bring stability but in order for this to happen agribusinesses need to be deregulated and depoliticised.

“Relaxing land reforms and access to market will boost agribusiness,” adds Dr Chengappa. Vangal agrees, saying, “The market is over-regulated, so improving the ease of doing business will allow foreign investors to enter the market and set examples for Indian enterprises.”

“The only way to keep farmers in the villages is a doubling of farmers’ income.”

4 THE BEAT March 2017

“Also, private enterprises must be careful that they are procuring for themselves rather than looking to the end user because otherwise they will only replace the middlemen,” Patnaik warns, pointing to one reason why he believes the cooperatives failed. “Even with financial muscle and a critical mass of produce, contract farming can be successful only if you are the processor or exporter yourself,” he adds.

While Indian agriculture has traditionally been a low-input, low-output operation, commercial agriculture allows for a complete overhaul of the model to increase productivity, output and employment on a scale never seen before.

Even limited success would have huge implications for India’s economy.

Not only will it allow large numbers of working age people to be productively employed close to where they live, it will extend urbanization into the countryside, creating small towns that service the needs of an increasingly wealthy rural population, bringing conveniences as much as better social services, whether retail and communications or schools and healthcare.

A vibrant agricultural economy could solve the multiple challenges of poverty, unemployment, migration and urban congestion. But most of all, it would restore hope in India’s farming communities and bring her villages back to life.

COVER STORY

The Law of the Seed

Can sustainable farming rescue small farmers from the cycle of drought, crop failure and soil depletion, asks ROMITA MAJUMDAR.

T

he land overflowed with co- ing them find a foothold in the market.

The demand for organic products coa, cinnamon, arecanut, nut- Regular melas are organised across ma- has grown rapidly in the past decade. meg, colocasia and numerous jor cities like Bangalore. Online orders Organisations like 24 Mantra, Good other plants. No two species are accepted, products are quality con- Earth, Buffalo Back, Kaulige, SKP and trolled and packaged to make a corpogrew adjacent to each other. A gurgling other organic purveyors have a dedirate retailer proud. Only there are no stream of fresh water flowed through cated clientele. Kumara says farmers rows of sterile mono-cropped fields in the wooded patch and a whiff of earthy associated with SKP earn a monthly insight. khus khus hung in the air. The ground come anywhere between Rs.10,000 and “We don’t offer any organic certificawas strewn with dry leaves, grass, 60,000 based on what they produce. tion as it involves a considerable cost,” weeds and even ripe, pink A paper published by the rose apples. I couldn’t find Indian Streams Research the board that read Savaya Journal says the Indian orKrishi Pariwara (SKP). The ganic food industry is grow‘organic farm’ I was suping at 15 per cent per year posed to visit looked like a and exports are growing at patch of forest.

30 per cent. India is a leadOrganic farming is an ing exporter of organic herbs integrated farming system and spices with the business that strives for sustainabilexpected to grow 25 per cent ity, enhancement of soil ferby 2019. An industry study tility and biological diverestimates the organic marsity by avoiding the use of ket will touch $1.36 billion synthetic pesticides, antibiby 2020. otics, fertilizers, geneticalThe biggest fears that ly-modified organisms and deter farmers from switchgrowth hormones. Its core ing to organic farming are philosophy is to let nature low productivity, lack of fair take its own course with price and the initial financial minimum human interveninput. “There is no reason for tion, as opposed to forcing one to go completely organic the earth to produce crops before testing what crops are that it cannot naturally susbest suited for their land,” tain.

Organic farming is an integrated system that strives for sustainability by says Kumara. “We recomWhile organisations like avoiding the use of synthetic pesticides. Source: Economic Times mend starting with 20 per the SKP try to adhere by cent of the land and comthis definition, the national Organic says Aruna Kumara, director of Krishi plete conversion over five years.”

Farming Policy includes hybrid crop Prayog Pariwara (KPP), sister concern Ram Bhatt, an SKP member, has varieties and mild chemicals in it. The to SKP. “We do however ensure that the entire process of organic farming been successfully cultivating organic concept of integrated farming remains is audited.” KPP organises training propaddy for twenty years on the outconsistent though. grams for farmers registered with SKP. skirts of Thirthahalli. His light brown The Purushottam Rao Foundation, In his opinion, it’s important to ensure eyes crinkle with nostalgia when he parent organisation of the SKP, has that farmers start adopting the method talks about taking the big step. “I did been training farmers in organic farmfirst, certification can be obtained later not know how successful the venture ing since 1996. During the previous BJP when they are financially stable. would be. But today when I look at my government in Karnataka, the ThirAccording to a study by the Research family’s happy faces, I feel proud.” thahalli-based organisation received Institute of Organic Agriculture, SwitThe green revolution replaced huge grants to expand their training zerland, India has the highest number time-tested agricultural practices with and resource base. Consequently, their of organic producers anywhere, some chemical-intensive mono-cropping branches spread across the state to es- 6,50,000. Yet, they collectively cultivate even as local varieties were replaced tablish a cooperative of like-minded less than 3 per cent of India’s vast farmwith hybrid paddy and wheat varietcultivators. lands. India also has around 4 million ies across the nation. This was meant SKP encourages farmers to switch to hectares of land which supports wild to achieve food security and eradicate a chemical-free agriculture while help- collections of produce.

March 2017 THE BEAT 5

COVER STORY

Photo: Romita M

hunger. While hybrids aren’t themselves a problem, but when such strains monopolize cropping choices problems arise.

The national Organic Farming Policy says indiscriminate and excessive use of chemicals during the green revolution has put a question mark on the sustainability of Indian agriculture.

Rising demand has led to the promotion of crop varieties that depend on the availability of specific chemicals rather than seasons.

Instead of rotating crops regularly to maintain soil fertility, mono-cropping sucks nutrition from the soil, which then requires chemical replenishment each passing season. This unbalances the natural ecosystem making crops disease prone. A bigger problem with relying on a single crop is that crop failure or a fall in prices leaves the farmer without a backup.

Agriculture employs almost 51 per cent of the Indian population but contributes just 16 per cent of GDP. The 6 THE BEAT March 2017

reason for this discrepancy is our abysmal agricultural productivity. Despite being the second largest horticultural producer of the world, India produces barely 40 per cent of what China does per hectare. For all the rice we produce, we have been importing tonnes of pulses to meet domestic demands.

Karnataka had a large variety of local dryland paddy crops in the past.

The green revolution and projects like the Krishna and Tungabhadra reservoir prompted farmers to switch to highyielding varieties that fetched better prices. This resulted in growing crops that needed herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers and major water investments over the decades.

Dr. K V Subhash Chandra, senior geologist and advisor to Geological Society of India says, “Too much land in the country has been rendered saline due to excessive irrigation. It would be foolish to continue injecting chemicals without allowing land to replenish itself.” Dr. Chandra recommends

allowing nitrogen fixing crops like legumes for short periods to let the land “breathe”.

The most important requirement of sustainable farming is the need to plant multiple crops and have animals on the farm. This is something the government has started accepting. At the height of the green revolution, farmers were discouraged from mixing crops as it reduced the effective yield of the hybrid varieties.

Now, as climate change and water scarcity threatens the entire country, scientists have started recognising the benefits of having multiple crops and ancillary activities like animal husbandry, poultry and dairy farming.

What was practised by our forefathers has now been repackaged under the Integrated Farming System Demonstration (IFSD) project on a trial basis.

Sonnegowda, a small farmer from Nellukunte on the fringes of Bangalore used to grow ragi, tomatoes and

There is a growing demand for organic products and it can be the next big opportunity for sustaining rural livelihoods. possible that such farmers are indeed open to further diversity on their farm compared to those who are heavily invested in paddy, sugarcane or cotton.

The recent Agricultural Science Congress 2017 in Bangalore, themed Climate Smart Agriculture, highlighted the recurring drought conditions, crop failures and farmer suicides that have become alarmingly predictable. The Congress sought to provide farmercentric solutions to the problem.

Dr. David Bergvinson, director general of ICRISAT, stressed the need to invest in rainwater-harvesting techniques and cultivation of crops that can grow easily in dry regions like millets, groundnuts and pigeon-pea. “One must begin to question the waterprint of what (we) are eating. There is also an urgent need to go back to some oldfashioned foodgrains that will reduce the demand of water-intensive crops,” he said. Farming techniques from the green revolution era cannot sustain agriculture in tandem with global warming. Inter-cropping is as important as providing better storage and marketing facilities to farmers, he pointed out.

Photo: Views India

grapes on small patches of land earlier.

“I signed up for IFSD in 2010. Since then my income increased more than 60 percent. I was able to buy more land and animals with the profits,” he says.

He even has an apiary now, something, that helps his new marigold crop.

IFSD was implemented across Karnataka through the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojane (RKVY) as an experiment to show that the net income of farmers can increase through a combination of suitable crop, animals, other enterprises and recycling of farm waste and biomass. IFSD not only trains farmers through Krishi Vigyana Kendras but also provides market solutions to them.

Since inception, in 2011, roughly 25 districts have been covered under the project and has seen increases of as much as 1.35 lakh quintals of agricultural produce and 1,600 tonnes of fodder by the end of 2015. While it may work in a pilot study, it remains to be seen how far the government can spread awareness and convince farmers to switch over to these techniques.

Reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers by creating manure through vermicomposting doesn’t just save money; replacing inorganic fertilizers with organic manure has a significant impact on the carbon and microbial content of soil.

Natural manure formulations like Panchagavya can be easily prepared with very cheap farm produce without killing beneficial organisms. “Farmers are increasingly recognising the importance of allowing some natural pests to survive in the farming ecology,” the late organic farming exponent Dr. Nammalvar observed.

Ravishankar, another IFSD stake holder from Madanahalli in Kolar saw similar benefits. While he was already rearing mulberry for silkworms, the new approach has helped him add tomato, red grams, potato, ash gourd, mango and marigold to his inventory.

It must be noted that farmers who participated in the project were already growing at least three different crops, one of them usually being ragi. It is

Dr. Uma Lele, former World Bank advisor on food and agriculture, believes that there is a growing demand for organic products across the world and it can be the next big opportunity for sustaining rural livelihoods. “But, it’s also important to have a strong business model. The markets keep changing and hence it is important for the farmers to gain some training and support system to help them assess demand,” she said.

Dr. Lele also added that Indian policy makers should take some lessons from China which has heavily invested in developing agriculture technology.

“There is strong need to train local communities, especially women, on the implications of resource scarcity,” she says. Women’s empowerment will be an answer to greater ecological sensitivity in the grassroots, she believes.

At the end of the day, returns will depend on effective demand and market mobilization.

The case for rethinking ou approach to farming has been clearly made. The time has come to act. Nalini, a young researcher in the IFSD team says, “Once we submit a feasibility report to the policy makers, IFSD can be implemented on a larger scale across the country.”

March 2017 THE BEAT 7

COVER STORY

Grassroots Entrepreneurs

D

Small rural businesses could become the biggest source of jobs and growth, say ILONA DAM and NIVEDITA NAIDU.

inesh Bhatt’s family owned of work. The only way to reverse this oped with a just a few decaying indusabout 30 guntas (about two- process is to make rural areas more tries like tile-making, Dinesh Bhatt saw thirds of an acre)of land in productive by creating wealth and op- the potential in honey production and Honavar taluk of Uttara Kan- portunities for local people. Rural en- the opportunity it afforded villagers to nada on which they grew, barely enough trepreneurship makes the most of local become self-suficient. to support their family of four. After his resources by creating businesses that “It’s a lucrative business. Earlier, I father suffered a slipped-disc injury, his make the best use of them and thus did have difficulties in promoting our mother started selling kokum juice in benefit the local community. brand, but it is in great demand,” says a the local village market to earn a living.

As most rural industries are labour- satisfied Bhatt. One of the reasons why But she couldn’tsupport the family and intensive, the creation of employment his honey has an edge in the market is cover his father’s medical expenses too. opportunities in an area becomes not because it is completely natural with Bhatt, who was studying for his BSc, just a way to retain people who would no additives. The demand for honey hit upon the idea of setting up honey- have otherwise migrated to cities in has just escalated over the years. Bhatt making unit. He has now expanded started Swasthik his business to inGramodyog Malige clude the production in 2006 out of his of juices, like lemon, house. ginger and orange.

Raising funds Today, SwasthikGrawas a huge probmodyogMaligeor lem and the early SGM is known all days weren’t easy. over South India for Financing a honeyits products. making operation The produce was including the apiearlier sold to marary, extraction and kets within Karnaprocessing unit taka only. Now the was way beyond business has expandhis means. He bored to cities like Delhi rowed money from and in Maharashtra. friends and relaThe honey supplitives and took the ers get a 50% share plunge. He knew of the profits generhe needed volumes ated in the exchange to succeed and that Dinesh Bhatt and his mother at their juice-extraction factory in Honavar. Photo: Ilona Dam for their honey. Does depended on perhe have further exsuading others to pansion plans? Bhatt join him. says he would like to Bhatt’s vision was the development search of jobs but to draw migrants start exporting the juices and honey of his entire community through the back to their home towns and villages. produced here to increase his market. manufacture and sale of honey. How- Businesses range from processing local Besides being a purely natural prodever, persuading villagers to practice agricultural produce and manufactur- uct, what makes the business attractive apiculture in addition to full-time ag- ing value-added products like pro- is that it is labour-intensive. The busiriculture was a problem. People were cessed honey, coconut oil, coconut fi- ness today employsabout 200 villagers scepticalthey would earn enough to bre-based products and milk products, in Honavar. While the juices and honey take time out from regular farm work. to services like carpentry, construction, are mechanically processed, the final Reluctantly however, they became a automobile and electronic repair and packaging is purely manual. Bottling, part of the initiative. Today, they’re tourism. sealing and carriage has generated a lot more than happy being in the busiHonavar, a taluk in Uttara Kanna- of employment opportunities for the ness. da, is seeing a wave of first-time rural people. “So even if people aren’t able to Growing unemployment in the entrepreneurs, who are providing em- supply honey to us, they can do packcountryside has forced a large number ployment to their fellow villagers. In a aging work,” says Bhatt. of workers to migrate to cities in search taluk which has remained underdevelHis ten years of service to the com8 THE BEAT March 2017

www.gettyimages.com

munity earned him the ‘Innovative Farmer Award’ in 2016. Recently, he entered into a tie-up with the Honavar Bee Cooperative Society, the first of its kind in the district. It helps members sell their honey in the market and get the best price for it, without involving middleman. “After entering into a tieup with them, the burden of marketing, the most important for any business, has been taken off our shoulders.

We can now focus on producing the best quality of products for our customers,” says Bhatt.

Not too far from SGM’s factory, stands a solitary two story buildings by alonely road adjoining a car park,security cabin and a sign board reading Sharavathi Agrotech. The factory located behind the owner’s bungalow employs about 75 workers and processes 25 thousand coconuts a day.

This is Honavar’s sole coconut processing factory, producing desiccated coconut powder.

“We began in 1998 with 20 people and three thousand coconuts each day,”recollects Mr. Bhakta, owner and manager of the factory, as he sits in a compact cabin surrounded by a computer, telephone, files and a CCTV feed of the processing units. Desiccated coconut from this quiet taluk is sent all over the country. They have a bigger market in the northern states where

coconut is not grown. Desiccated coconut is mostly used in confectionery and biscuits. Sharavati Agrotech also exports its product. “We belong to the trader community and having our own business was only natural, we had a coconut farm and some land, so we began this business,” he adds.

They collect coconuts from all the villages of Honavar. All processing activity takes place within the premises of the owner’s backyard. The process begins with de-shelling the coconuts, manual peeling, cleaning, disintegration, drying and packing. The factory employs a large number of women.

In the Economic Survey report of 2015-16 the government of Karnataka announced the establishment of coconut product parks. These parks will economically strengthen coconut farmers by helping integrated processing, facilitate better market price for products and also create awareness about by-products and encourage exports.

The objective is to establish coconut parks along the lines of industrial parks with huge plots and facilities to attract entrepreneurs so that coconut processing industries can be established in one place.

The government also aims to provide employment opportunities through these industries. The government further aims to support these

industries financially by taking equity stakes in the business.An amount of Rs.1 crore has been spentin 2014-15 to establish a park at in Sira taluk of Tumakuru district.

Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institute is an NGO that trains hundreds of people every year to become self-sufficient through entrepreneurship. RUDSETI offers more than 60 types of entrepreneurship- development programmes in various fields. All the programmes are of a short duration ranging from one to six weeks.

Under the agriculture category they have programmes in areas such as horticulture, sericulture, dairy farming, poultry, piggery, bee keeping, cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants, commercial floriculture, pisciculture, plant-nursery management, rubber tapping, sheep rearing, and comprehensive agriculture and allied activities.

Under the product category they run programmes like apparel designing, paper cover bags, embroidery and fabric painting, flexi board andlamination, manufacture of utility items from waste, soft toys, jute products manufacturing, incense stick making, lambanikasauti and karnatakkasauti (embroidery), stained glass etching and painting, jardosi and maggam work, March 2017 THE BEAT 9

COVER STORY The Sharavati Agrotech plant employs villagers and procures raw material locally. Photo: Nivedita Naidu

food processing and bakery, gems and artificial jewellery.

Training for various other service sectors like beauty salon management, digital designing, videography, photography is also given.

Mr. Aruna V.J. executive director, RUDSETI,Ujire said men tend to opt for rubber tapping, dairy farming, computer courses, repairing appliances while women choose the computer and design courses. Between 30-49 per cent of the trainees are women. The institute not only trains people but also conducts a follow up programme two years after the trainee has set up his enterprise. He says some of the trainees are now even earning as much asRs. 50,000 a month without without having to leave migrate to other cities.

Of course not all rural entrepreneurs are success stories, Mr. Bhandari shared an incident where he said,” A student of mine started a tissue paper factory in Honavar but it did not work, the costs were not feasible and it was expensive to produce, it was cheaper to buy and sell, so he shut the factory down. But there are many others who have managed their enterprises well.”

The Shri Dharamestala Manjunatheshwara College (SDM) at Hona10 THE BEAT March 2017

var runs a programme for its final year students on entrepreneurship. The institution has an entrepreneurship cell that is headed by Mr. Bhandari, Head of Department of Commerce at the college. “There is no denying cities offer better jobs, but it is equally important to educate students on various other options available to attain become self-sufficient. The programme creates awareness among students on entrepreneurship.”

“There is no denying cities offer better jobs, but it is equally important to educate students on becoming self-sufficient.”

The Karnataka government also runs the Swavalambane scheme to encourage entrepreneurship, skill development and intellectual property rights (IP) awareness among the students. The scheme also gives financial assistance to would-be entrepreneurs.

If these schemes motivate people to stay back and create opportunities for themselves and for others, the out migration from these districts in coastal Karnataka could stop and even be reversed.

As migration drops and rural industries start creating new jobs and wealth, what we could see is the gradual economic development of the region. Rural businesses need a reliable transport infrastructure, whether roads, water or rail, for procuring raw material and transporting their goods. Reliable power sources need to be created. A growing workforce will create demand for social infrastructure like schools, colleges, hospitals, leisure and retail and thus help the overall economic growth of the area. It’s bound to be a slow process, but there’s no doubt it’s already begun.

COVER STORY

Treasure in the Backyard The Kunbi tribals of Uttara Kannada depend on tubers for their carbohydrates, says AISHWARYA IYER.

D

espite the sub-continent’s agro-climatic diversity, India’s food basket is dominated by wheat cultivation. Yet the Kunbi tribe, who protected their culture against Portuguese invasion in the 16th century, has successfully conserved their dietary and nutritional diversity. Living in the hamlets of Joida, a remote talk in northern Karnataka, the Kunbis grow a variety of tubers using traditional agricultural practices.

Vishnu Derek, a resident of Joida’s Waghbandh village, grows a variety of tuber in his backyard. “Tubers are an important part of our culture as they have been cultivated and consumed since the time of our ancestors,” Derek says.

Carbohydrate-rich tubers also known as mudli or taro among the locals are grown in backyards or kitchen gardens.“These are our favouritesduringmonsoons,” he adds.“When there is dampness everywhere, mudli is fried and eaten hot.”

Even though rice is cultivated across wide stretches of land adjacent to the tuber gardens, it doesn’t concern the Kunbis, who tend to their produce carefully. Always on the lookout for stray cattle and pets, these natives of Goa begin tuber cultivation just before the arrival of monsoons.

Wary of synthetic fertilisers, Kunbis use traditional farming practices to improve yield of tubers. To prepare the tubers for cultivation, Kunbis’ cut the node-bearing tubers into smaller pieces, and cover it cover with ash and soil for a few days. Once they begin sprouting, the tubers are sown in the backyards of the Kunbi households.

The tribals employ several organic practices during tuber cultivation.

These include use cattle waste and husk as fertilisers in their tuber gardens instead of burning the leftover husk. Also, in order to prevent rotting of their fresh produce, the Kunbis store their produce under the ground in a naturally cool environment.

Off the 20-tuber variety that is cultivated in Joida, yams and colocas-

sia are the most popular. The crop is unique as the stems and leaves are edible too. “Not one part of the crop is wasted,” Derek says. Therefore, it forms a large part of the tribals’ diet. Tubers are not only used in dal and sambhar but is treated as a staple food due to its use in preparations of sabjis and other dishes.

Apart from Joida, tubers are grown in Belgaum, Karwar and other villages along the western ghats. With women’s extensive role in cultivation and sale of tubers, the crop is popularly as the women’s crop among the locals.

Over the last few years, there have been several initiatives to improve farming practices and income through tuber cultivation. A young wildlife researcher and conservationist Jayanand Derekar, the first person to learn a post-graduate degree in the entire

tribe,set up the Joida Tuber Growers Association. In order to showcase the local diversity and improve market access, the association started an annual three-day ‘Tuber Mela.’

The mela is a platform for organic food consumers and is getting popular amongsttourists visiting Joida. The organisers of the mela are now encouraging development of homestays in Joida and Dandeli to cook tubers for their guests.

“There is a huge demand for the crop in Goa. A need for an integrated approach for conservation of biodiversity and market understanding is needed,” Derekar, secretary of the association andthe brand ambassador of ‘Tubers of Joida’,says.

The success stories of women’s role in Joida’s tuber is being studied by researchers. In 2015, a survey was conducted to understand the role of women in tuber cultivation. Professor Indira from Mysore University’s sociology department conducted the survey to develop a women empowerment module that would enable conservation of local biodiversity across the country.

Kunbis, who are also known for extraction of organic honey and beekeeping , migrate to Goa during the harvest season for better work opportunities.Showing the beebox, in which bee colonies are maintained, Derekar says, “Bee stings are good for health.

Though the pain is excruciating but it is the best way to strengthen your immune system.”

Therefore Joida has become treasure trove not only for its tubers but also for its residents who have conserved ecofriendly cultivation practices as much as women’s role in the community’s development.

March 2017 THE BEAT 11

DEVELOPMENT

The Wretched of the Earth Why is it that the most disadvantaged people always bear the real cost of development, asks MAHAK DUTTA.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan moblised thousands of displaced tribals

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n the past two decades, as the pace of economic development in India has quickened, the pressure on resources, whether land, water, forests, mineral wealth or wildlife, has rapidly increased. The consequences have been particularly harsh for people on the margins, those whose livelihoods depend on unrestricted access to these resources and who rarely have a say in what becomes of their lives. Economic development is equally cruel as it not only excludes indigent and tribal populations from its benefits but also 12 THE BEAT March 2017

destroys what little they already have.

Hence the protests all over the country where millions of people have raised their voices against the very idea of development, the unfairness of displacement, the uprooting of communities and the loss of their culture.

Development-induced displacement and resettlement is the root cause of most social unrest in recent times. It’s hardly surprising that tribal people account for 34% of the country’s “internally-displaced people”, as communities of adivasis and forest

dwellers residing in mountainous and resource-rich areas are forced to make way for dams and hydroelectric power stations, mines and smelters and roads and townships they have little to gain from.

India has seen massive investments in infrastructure since economic liberalisation in 1991. According to official estimates by India’s Planning Commission, nearly Rs. 20 lakh crore or $502 billion has been spent on infrastructure during the 11th Plan period.

Another Rs. 41 lakh crore in the current

12th Five Year Plan is being spent on infrastructure.

According to a report by Habitat International Coalition (HIC), apart from infrastructure projects that are being implemented, 582 Special Economic Zones have been formally approved across India. These SEZs have been responsible for the displacement of millions of rural families, most of whom have not received rehabilitation. Indian states, particularly, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and a couple of north-eastern states have faced large-scale displacement. In Arunachal Pradesh alone, 148 MOUs have been signed to construct dams.

Kashipur in Odisha is rich in bauxite. A joint international company called Utkal Aluminium decided to set up a mine in the village of Maikanch in Kashipur. Over the past ten years, the villagers have protested this intrusion and got nothing in return except violence. Arguing that this project will benefit the larger population of the state, the administrative authorities have turned their anger on these peaceful villagers.

The construction of dams is one of the most important causes of displacement. According to a Lok Sabha report: “During the last 50 years, 3,300 big dams have been constructed in India.

Many of them have led to large-scale forced eviction of vulnerable groups and notably, tribal people constitute 40-50% of them.”

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) is one of the most powerful mass movements against involuntary displacement. Launched in 1985 against the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River, which would uproot a large number of the people including tribal peoplein Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and villagers living along its banks are dependent on the river. The river was dammed to produce 1,450 MW of electricity and provide drinking water to 40 million people in thousands of villages and towns.

The dispute is over the promised rehabilitation of the affected population.

The official figure indicates that about

42,000 families were displaced due to the Sardar Sarovar dam. However, according to a report in IndiaSpend, a news website “non-government organizations such as NBA claim the figure is 85,000 families or 200,000 people. The Narmada Valley Development Project is expected to have affected the lives of 25 million people.”

This is typical of large projects in India where even the basic facts, for example the number of project-affected persons, remains in contention even well after work was complete! As a re-

sult, a large portion of the displaced population continues to face displacement threats even if they are being relocated by the government. “As of 2011, of the 2,808,494 claims of land titles considered, a staggering 1,577,831 claims (56.1%) have been rejected,” the HIC report states.

Land acquisition has always been controversial. As the 11th Five-Year Plan document states, “An estimated 13 to 18 million families in rural India today are landless, of which about eight million lack homes of their own. The tribal land has been alienated in such places through the means of compulsory acquisition. The present arrangements of resettlement and rehabilitation are detrimental to the interests of the tribal people.”

Unfortunately, we live in a country where almost 80% of the agricultural population owns only about 17% of totalagricultural land. Forcible land acquisition thus poses a threat to the food security of many rural communities. In spite of the existence of rural unemployment guarantee schemes, the growing unemployed rural population continues to move to urban spaces

in search of supposedly better opportunities. The increase in the proportion of the urban population can also be attributed to what is called “distress migration” which is one of the most striking findings of India’s 2011 census.

In what is known as the longest fought battle against displacement, the Dongria Kondhs still find themselves fighting for their land in the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha, under which lie 150 million tonnes of bauxite. The lush forests soak up the monsoon rains and are a source of perennial streams which in turn provide water for drinking, irrigation and other purposes for the Dongria Kondhs.

The battle began during the year 2003 when Sterlite Industries Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources signed a MoU with the Odisha Government to set up alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, Kalahandi. They wanted to mine bauxite at the top of Niyamgiri hills.

Large-scale protests took place when the Supreme Court cleared the mining project in 2009. Since then, the issue has grown more contentious. There have been increasing cases of violence where numerous Dongria tribespeople have been killed.

There is no dispute that economic growth is crucial for a developing country like India. But poor tribal people and destitute villagers have nothing to gain from the kind of development designed to meet the needs of privileged sections of the population residing in urban areas. They know their livelihoods are being sacrificed for others and as long as they have a voice, and as long as India is willing to listen, they will protest.

The common point of these longdrawn struggles is that these communities aren’t ready for the future. The truth is that they only know their way of life, a simple mode of living dependent on forests, streams and rudimentary farming. They lack the education and skills, or in fact the desire, to participate in the modern economy. Their case is simple: If you cannot provide us with the means to fend for ourselves in your world of education, cities and technology, then leave us be. That’s all we ask.

March 2017 THE BEAT 13

AGRIBIZ

The Chocolate

As Indians consume ever more chocolate, domestic productio

T

he UN Population Fund says India has the world’s largest youth population with over 350 million people in the 1024 year’s age group. The National Candy Association of the US estimates that 86% of children eat chocolate once or more times a week. By that yardstick, India is chocolate country.

Most of the world’s cocoa grown in West Africa; Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana together account for over 70% of the world’s cocoa production of 4 million tonnes a year. India produces less than 20,000 tonnes a year and imports 45% of its annual requirement of cocoa bean. That will increase as India’s annual requirements are expected to cross 40,000 tonnes a year.

Kerala and Karnataka are India’s major cocoa growers who, together

with Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, have over 33,000 hectares under cultivation. Cocoa can be grown up to 300 metres above sea level and requires a minimum of 90-100 mm rainfall per month and a temperature range of 15°-39°C. The crop requires deep and well drained soils, with most of it grown in clay-loam and sandyloam soil. Large stretches of peninsular India, especially the lower reaches of the western and eastern ghats make for perfect cocoa-growing terrain.

“There are multi-fold benefits of growing cocoa as an intercrop,” says KP Magudapathy, senior manager, Mondelez India (owners of the Cadbury brand). “A well maintained cocoa intercrop farm, gives more than double the income to the farmer from the existing land if he adopts the best ag-

ronomic practices for cultivation. Cocoa cultivation enriches farming land with organic matter and improves soil’s micro-climate, thereby enhancing productivity of the main crops like coconut, arecanut and oil palm.”

Mondelez India, through its Cocoa Life programme trains 5,000 farmers every year to grow cocoa as an intercrop. Over the past 50 years, the Cocoa Life programme has enhanced the livelihood of 1,00,000 farmers, he says.

The company currently runs 11 nurseries across 4 states in an effort to provide seedlings easily to the farmers. The seeds are provided at subsidised rates to the farmers and Mondelez also provides free technical know-how to farmers, conducting over hundreds of farm demonstration meetings every year.

Source: IStock

14 THE BEAT March 2017

Demographic

on of cocoa bean hasn’t kept pace, says CATHLINE CHEN.

Churning up a winner

Campco India, a cooperative of arecanut and cocoa farmers based in Mangalore, is another driving force behind promoting cocoa cultivation. The company entered the Indian cocoa market in the 1980s to safeguard the interests of its growers. Cocoa is bought in the form of wet beans from the farmers and uses state-of-the art methods of drying and fermentation to improve the quality of cocoa beans for export to Europe.

Campco operates a chocolate factory in Puttur taluk of Karnataka, 50 km from Mangalore.

Francis Desouza, assistant general manager, Campco says the cooperative came in existence to support arecanut farmers facing a major loss when prices crashed in the 1970s. Campco then had almost 1,40,000 members. “India has

“Our country can produce more beans for the world but we have to educate the farmers. That is because there are particular techniques involved in managing a cocoa plantation.” enormous scope to grow,” says Desouza. “Every year Campco distributes around 80 lakh seedlings to its farmer

members all across south India for cultivation. Our country can produce more beans for the world but we have to educate the farmers as well. That is because there are particular techniques involved in managing a cocoa plantation, for example the growing area needs 80% shade.”

Says Magudapathy, “Cocoa is a ‘women friendly’ crop as it does not involve heavy physical labour. The post-harvest operations which are very critical to the crop can also be managed independently by women. A large number of women farmers work on their family farms on a daily basis and the number of women in this sector is consistently increasing.” That sounds only fair, as women also consume far more chocolate than men.

March 2017 THE BEAT 15

INTERVIEW

Value-added Agriculture

Mayank Jain, 26 is co-founder of MicroX Foundation, a not-for-profit initiative that aims to create sustainable agrarian livelihoods. Currently working with farmers in Gaya, Bihar, Jain shares his story with CHERRY AGARWAL. What was the reason behind an agro-based startup in Bihar?

With my background in engineering and interest in public policy I was looking for opportunities to maximize my impact. Therefore I decided to explore healthcare and agriculture using technology as a tool to bring about social change. We chose Gaya because there are a lot of opportunities here and not much competition. Places like Bihar and Jharkhand are ideal because agro-based technological innovations haven’t reached these parts yet. Also, we had one of our friends on-ground, he is a local. Being a startup we had to think about cost effectiveness and that helped.

What was the on-ground reality in Badgaon?

We observed one of the crop cycles to identify gaps and opportunities that we could leverage. So we noted that the land was left fallow for approximately 16 THE BEAT March 2017

three-four months between two successive crop cycles. In the absence of hope from agriculture, farmers would either lease out their land or focus on other odd jobs. This made off-season cultivation a reasonable option.

What role is MicroX Foundation playing in changing the ground reality?

Our Foundation is working on twoissues: agriculture and public health and nutrition. We observed that poor income was a root cause for farmers leaving agriculture as well as their poor health. We observed that they lacked access to market, the ability to pitch their produce and were wary of new practices as they worked in isolation.

Through our end to end services including choice of seeds, land preparation and access to market, we are bridging this gap.

Our first intervention in public

health was with patients of tuberculosis (TB) who were largely farmers. The patients had to choose between losing out on a day’s wage and getting better.

The social stigma associated with TB didn’t help either. We followed a twostep process to address this issue. One was developing kitchen gardens, which would not only improve their own nutrition but the sale of the surplus would provide additional income as well. We came up with the concept of abundantly available crops (AIR) which required minimum investment and carried zero risk of failure. For example, palm and pumpkin. Pumpkin seeds are one of the healthiest choices and its potential remained untapped. We knew that value-added products were the solution but we had to earn their [farmer’s] trust first. So we chose a demand-driven product, onion, which hadn’t been cultivated commercially in Badgaon.

What kind of change is needed to boost Indian agronomy? Is it just the government’s prerogative?

No, it isn’t just the government’s mandate. There has to be a synergy between political will, bureaucracy and policy think-tanks. Then there should be a proper ground level implementation by having the necessary links in place. Until we can align the bureaucracy and the policy makers and put the connecting links in place, development will remain on a back foot.

How did MicroX begin? What is the need for such startups?

We are working on creating sustainable livelihood opportunities through agriculture. This is to make agriculture profitable for everyone while providing food security at the same time. This entire approach is based on creating value added agriculture systems. Agriculture should be a value added good such it creates net profitability for farmers.

There is need to move from primary sector to the value added sector such that there is space for profits that can sustain all the stakeholders.

What stops the farmers from adding value to their products?

The problem with farming is that farmers are too occupied with cultivation without focussing on good market returns. If we look at the trend of farmers who have been successful it has been those who have an understanding of market dynamics. Farmers who are unable to understand the market dynamics are unable to sell their goods.

Also, the absence of financial literacy is problematic. The inability of a farmer to account for input cost makes him vulnerable to decreased profits. While calculating their input costs farmers fail to account for soil management, labour, irrigation etc. Thus they fail to accurately plan for yield and profits.

Being able to account for inputs helps in determining the price. Thus, farmers need a basic understanding of market operations. Farmers need handholding to add value to their produce and get better returns.

What was a farming practise that you introduced in order to improve yield?

We introduced seed treatment to the farmers. Before sowing the seeds, we treat them with bio-fungicides in order to prevent rotting of roots, damping and to improve growth. We usually bring expert farmers on-board and use their learning to train the farmers in our region. We have defined critical interventions like seed sowing, transplantation, pest and disease management, pre-harvesting and postharvest process and through our interactive monitoring system. This system also ensures farmers’ cooperation and in turn successful implementation of these practices.

Aren’t farmers provided with training in these practices at the regional training centres?

Krishi Vigyan Kendras or the regional government training centres aren’t geographically accessible to all

the farmers. It becomes very difficult for a farmer to travel approximately 30 kilometres every day.

What has been the reason behind shifting cultivation pattern in India?

One of the main reasons for the shift in cultivation has been the volatility of traditional markets. Poor price for all the hardwork put in is discouraging. This was confirmed during my interaction with farmers in West Bengal.

They preferred shifting to tea plantations because it offers a surety of return even though the return turns out to be two rupees lower.

What are the main problems with agriculture?

There are several problems with agriculture but lack of access to market and investment in farm inputs are the two fundamental problems. When we talk about markets it refers to the inability of the farmers to get good returns for their produce. This is as much a problem as the willingness of the farmers to invest in seeds. These days the farmers prefer to invest in fertilisers over seeds. So the input costs become very high for marginalized farmers who have very small holdings due continued fragmentation of land. Other issues include water and labour management.

The gamble in agriculture is very high and net profitability is low.

What’s your current impact?

We began with 10 farmers in Ker panchayat’s naxal-affected Badgaon village. Now we are working in 25 villages. While initially we produced 100 tonnes of onions with 12 farmers now we are working with 100 farmers. We have also diversified into pumpkins and cultivated 35 quintals in our first cycle. With improved seed quality, we were not only able to increase the yield but also improve the shelf life of the agricultural produce. This gave us more space to wait for better market prices.

This has increased the profit margin by 3.5 times for all farmers. Lastly, through different training modules we have been able to increase productivity, improve input linkages and mitigate the farmers’ risks.

Mayank Jain is one of the earliest promoters of social entrepreneurs in India. Source: MicroX

March 2017 THE BEAT 17

SOCIETY

Same or Shame

What price do women really pay for trying to conform to conventional ideas of beauty, asks KARISHMA JAYAPAUL.

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eauty comes in all shapes and sizes. But young girls in India are taught to believe that’s a lie.

They suffer from eating disorders (ED), a psychological condition where a person is characterized by abnormal eating habits, thanks to culturally-defined body ideals that promote a slender frame.

From the movie Badhai ho Badhai where Anil Kapoor, the protagonist, is unable to woo the girl he loves, because he is obese to the recent 2015 movie Shaandaar which shows a plump Sanah Kapoor being fat-shamed by her fiancé, the mainstream media’s portrayal of an attractive body is most often unhealthy and unrealistic.

The problem doesn’t lie in losing weight or working out at the gym; it lies in seeing fat or dark-skinned people as unfit and abnormal. “Why can’t being fat be just a characteristic like all the other words we use like pretty, beautiful and tall?” asks 22-yearold Ashpreet Kaur.

The National Eating Disorder Association celebrated an awareness week from February 26 to March 4 2017.

The campaign went big on social media with people sharing pictures of their cellulite, stretch marks and doing the #donthatethatshake where women are learning to love the jiggle. The campaign was an initiative to bring eating disorders under the spotlight and make it a part of public health.

A n o r e x i a Nervosa(excessive starvation to aid 18 THE BEAT March 2017

weight loss), binge eating and bulimia nervosa (which is binge eating followed by forcefully purging it out) are some of the common eating disorders that have been linked to psychological tendencies borne out of societal expectations.

Eating disorders are real, complex and life threatening. It is not a mere phase or choice of lifestyle but a condition which needs serious clinical assistance. About 4 per cent of individuals suffering from anorexia die either due to excessive starvation or diseases arising from it.

Psychogenic vomiting is the most common ED diagnosis in India with approximately 84 per cent patients. “Eating disorders have definitely increased over the years,” says Dr. Lakshmi Vijayakumar, a well-known psychiatrist who is also the founder of NGO Sneha,

which works towards suicide prevention.

There are no national surveys conducted in India till now to study the patterns of these disorders.

Even in countries like Africa, where being buxom is beautiful, EDs are slowly on the rise. “EDs are closely linked to suicides. Even though there might not be many who are successful, a large number of those who suffer from EDs are close to attempting suicide,” adds Vijayakumar.

The term ‘Body Positive’ was coined in 1996 in California by the duo Connie Sobczak and Elizabeth Scott, when they shared a vision to build a society that doesn’t suffocate people with unattainable and unrealistic body images.

Connie lost her sister to an eating disorder, and she herself suffered with one which persuaded her to work towards improving the selfimage of youth and young adults. Their mission is to help people have more balanced lives by teaching them self-care which is supported by love, joy and humour.

The social media has gone all out in support of the ‘body positive’.

Megan Jayne, an Instagram celebrity and a body-positive activist from the U.K. went from starving herself and working out excessively to fit a certain size, to realizing that she needed to learn to love herself.

Her mental freedom came from gaining a few extra kilos and loving the rolls of fat on her tummy. Her video where she danced in front of her camera to Beyonce’s song, ‘We SOURCE: morethanflesh.wordpress.com Run The World’

SOURCE: THE ODYSSEY ONLINE

went viral and received much flak because people around the world couldn’t watch someone who wasn’t a size two, dancing in bikini briefs. She then got featured on various online platforms where she spoke about her constant struggle with her weight, and how she starved herself as a teenager. “The problem is not your body, the problem is how you have been taught to view your body,” she posts under one of her pictures.

Closer home we have more young people learning to accept their bodies.

Reshma Badi, a 24-year-old from Mumbai began her weight loss journey two years back and has lost 45 kilos since then. “People around me will never understand how I struggled with my body.” She assures that her health is her only motivation and she does not strive to fit a particular body shape. “The one thing I take back from my weight loss journey is my confidence and love for my body.” She says she will be happy even if she goes back to being the 115 kilos she started from. Reshma believes India is turning a blind eye to the growing problem of eating disorders. Her own neighbour’s daughter is suffering from bulimia and her parents are won-

dering how she caught the disease.

A suave fashionista and teacher at the Pearl Academy of Fashion in Mumbai, Neelakshi Singh also suffered from Bulimia. “I had thyroid since the fifth grade and had a huge craving for food.”

So she discovered a way to keep the weight off by puking everything she ate. Soon, she started gaining more weight. “I always wanted to be a fashion designer but the magazines made me feel that someone like me cannot be a part of the fashion industry.” Neelakshi now runs a fashion blog where she flaunts every style, including the absolutely appalling body con dress known to be a fashion faux pas for those who don’t have a waist 24. “I started my blog for myself and now it is an inspiration for many like me.” She still deals with distasteful remarks from passersby on her appearance and hates that it remains the same back home.

Vishakha Bhaskar, a 23-year-old from Delhi, started a blog called Love Them Curves to share her story about learning to accept her body. “I thought my lower body looks too heavy in this dress. Girls, obese or not, are so underconfident about their bodies and there is a seriously deep lack of self-love” she

says writing for Near Fox, a lifestyle and news platform.

She believes that the term plussize has become a taboo only because the society perceives it so. “The only motto is to make girls feel happy in their skin and never take any word from any human that demeans the values of selflove,” adds Vishakha.

Dove has recently launched its Real Beauty Pledge where it promises to never use models or retouch its images for its advertisements and campaigns.

Women from over 15 countries, including India, were asked what makes them feel confident. Vaishali, a business consultant from Mumbai speaks in the teaser released by Dove saying, “I was told that external beauty is important.

I was not taught about strength. I was not taught about how your brain can make you feel beautiful.”

Allison Kimmey, a global self-love advocate gives free online help to those suffering from a poor body-image complex inducing eating disorders. “Selflove is not a destination,” she says. “You don’t just arrive one day and don’t have to think twice about it.”

March 2017 THE BEAT 19

SPORT

Incubating Athletes

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Bengaluru’s GoSports Foundation has found a formula to produce world champions, writes SHANNON RIDGE COURT.

o dream is ever chased alone,” cricket maestro Rahul Dravid constantly reminds his protégés and the athletes at the GoSports Foundation (GSF) in Bengaluru, who have witnessed their careers, spring up like golden saplings, and would certainly understand the wisdom of that philosophy. GSF is a non-profit trust founded in 2008 to develop athletes in India by identifying top junior and elite sporting talent across Olympic and Paralympic disciplines.

“Talent must grab hold of opportunity,” counsels Nandan Kamath, managing trustee of GSF. “Otherwise potential athletes, who generally gear up to make their career choices between the ages of 18-22,giveup on sports. They don’t see it as a feasible career option.

GSF was born with the idea to nurture ability through assisting athletes with financial support for their training needs. We are striving to change the internal dynamics and functioning of Indian sports, by fuelling positivity and professionalism.”

GSF has put together a roster of eminent sports personalities who mentor its athlete-development programmes.

The list includes Dravid, ace shooter and Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra and Puellela Gopichand, chief national coach for Indian Badminton.

GSF programmes are designed in the shape of a pyramid, where each successive level pushes athletes to succeed at the sport. At the apex is the ACE management programme that offers sportspersons consultation services by the GoSports panel of experts, consisting of nutritionists, psychologists, fitness trainers, media and public relations experts. GSF also provides PACE Scholarships to promising junior athletes between 13-21 years of age, which comprise monetary and non-monetary support for Olympic and Paralympic disciplines. The PACER Projects are GSF’s special projects aimed at research, knowledge management and personalized athlete-oriented interventions.

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The GSF’s Para Champions Programme supports differently-abled athletes on their Paralympics journeys. Currently, the programme supports 15 elite differently-abled Indian sportspersons and highlights stories of achievements of Paralympians to promote sport as a medium of empowerment.

Ankur Dhama represented India as the country’s first visually-impaired athlete to participate in the Paralympics in Rio 2016. Though, he did not qualify in the first round of the men’s 1,500 metres, he raced against all odds and was supported every step of the way through the GoSports Para Champions Programme. Last year was particularly rewarding as four GSF athletes com-

“Talent must grab hold of opportunity otherwise potential athletes, who generally gear up to make their career choices between the ages of 18-22, give up on sports.” peted in the Rio Olympics and eleven in the Paralympics with three athletes bringing home medals in the latter.

One of the many success stories that GSF is proud of is shuttler Srikanth Kidambi. “He joined us in 2012 as a shy lad with a quiet demeanourwho needed self-confidence to break onto the international stage,” remembers Kamath.

“He was part of the National Olympics team that participated in Rio last year.

It is an amazing achievement. So close and yet so far, he almost took down two-time Olympic champion, China’s Lin Dan in a hard fought encounter in the quarter finals. He is an example for our current athletes who look up

to him.Pullela Gopichand had trained him for the Olympics and other Indian shuttlers too, such as Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu.”

Kidambi had won the 2014 China Open Super Series Premier beating Lin Dan 21-19, 21-17 in the final round, becoming the first Indian to win the title. In 2015, he became the first Indian man to win gold at the 2015 Swiss Open Grand Prix defeating Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. He defeated Axelsen in the finals again in the same year when he won the India Open Super Series.

In 2016, he won the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships Grand Prix Gold title, defeating China’s Huang Yuxiang. He also won two gold medals, in the men’s team and men’s singles at the South Asian Games defeating Prannoy Kumar in the singles final. He ranked 338th in 2012 and today he ranks 21.

GSF’s programmes such as the Athlete’s Conclave programme promote knowledge, provide inspiration and bonding among athletes through hosting seminars from leading sports industry experts and sportspersons.

The Foundation also gives weight and importance to Coach Education Programmes held every year in association with the Badminton Association of India. The partnership introduces badminton training programmes across India and conforms to the National Training Programme for all ages. The benefit for having these special programmes is that it produces skilled coaches and teachers who can innovate and transform the game.

“Our para-swimmer Sharath Gayakwad is another such athlete who has won laurels for India and inspired us,” says Kamath. “He came to GoSports in 2011 with a deformed left hand. Sharath became the first Indian swimmer to qualify in the 2012 Summer Paralympics hosted in London.”

While training for the 2014 Asian Paralympics Games, he had injured his shoulder in the process. He had the opportunity to meet Rahul Dravid throu-

gh GoSports Mentorship Programme.

“Mr. Dravid told me that I needed to be 100% sure (if I thought) of quitting and that I shouldn’t regret it later. The more I thought about it, the more determined I became in going ahead and participating in the Games,” recalls Sharath.F ollowing regular visits to the physiotherapist, Sharath went on to bag 6 medals at the Games, breaking P.T. Usha’s record of 5 medals.Sharath is also an Arjuna awardee who has won over 30 international and 40 national medals in swimming.

Girish Manimaran, a sports psychologist who works with GoSports, remembers Supriyo Mondal, a swimmer from a village in West Bengal.

“GoSports had given Supriyo support in 2012. We relocated him to train under the Dronacharya Awardee Nihar Ameen at the Dolphin Aquatics Cen-

tre, Bengaluru. He is currently preparing totake partat the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2018.”

GoSports decided to make a conscious choice to assist talented athletes from sports that are not promoted enough in India. The foundation focuses on training athletes in multisport events that take place in the Commonwealth Games or the Olympics. That way, the athletes are sent with the possible chance to win medals in events such as athletics, swimming and wrestling.

GSF’s strategy is to multiply the chances of winning medals by encouraging “our athletes (to) win medals in more than one event besides team events where we still win only one medal,” says Manimaran. “Fitness is a key area that we try to improve upon constantly. Each athlete is physically

different, as are their cultural backgrounds and diets. Likewise, our approach towards their fitness and their sports should be varied to be effective.

We train our athletes through yoga and martial arts to bring out the best in them.”

When asked about his view on what ails sports administration in India at the Times Litfest Bengaluru 2017, Kamath responded saying, “The job of sports administrators is to create a base, to create pathways for talent to flourish, to connect sports and fans and then to get out of the way. In India unfortunately, that pyramid is inverted.”

Raising and nurturing young talent requires hard work and dedication.

GSF’s efforts to help India produce quality athletes who can achieve and perform to the peak of their abilitieswill be tested once again at the next Olympics to be held in Tokyo in 2020.

GoSports’ Success Stories

•Devendra Jhajharia – Javelin Thrower – First Indian Paralympian to win two gold medals at the Paralympics in Athens in 2004 and Rio in 2016.

•Chikkarangappa S. – Golf - Two time winner at the All India Amateur Golf Championships in 2011 and 2012.

•Virdhawal Khade – Swimming – Youngest ever Indian swimmer to qualify for Olympics (Beijing Olympics 2008).

•Suyash Jadhav – Swimming – Only Indian Para-swimmer to have achieved the ‘A’ qualifying mark for the 2016 Paralympics.

Won 4 medals at the 2015 Winter Open Polish Championship.

•Srikanth Kidambi – Badminton – World Ranking 21, Gold medal at 2014 China Open Super Series Premier.

Srikanth Kidambi

•Amit Kumar Saroha – Para Athletics (Discus and Club Throw) – Gold medal men’s club throw at 2014 Asian Para Games, Incheon.

•Sandhya Winfred – Shooting – won a Bronze medal in 50m 3P at the National Games in Febuary 2015.

•Soumyajit Ghosh – Table Tennis – Youngest Indian player to qualify for London Olympics 2012, Gold medal in singles U-21 at Brazil Open Santos (2013).

•Sharath Gayakwad – Swimming- 6 medals at 2014 Asian Games, first Indian swimmer to qualify for Paralympics in London 2012.

•AnkurDhama – Athletics – First blind Indian athlete to compete at Rio Paralympics 2016, won 2 bronzes and a silver medal at 2014 Asian Para Games.

•Sameer Verma – Badminton – Runner up at the Hong Kong Open 2016.

•Varun Singh Bhati – High Jump – Bronze medal in men’s high jump at Rio Paralympics 2016.

•RMV Gurusaidutt – Badminton – First Indian to win Gold medal in men’s singles at 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games.

•Anjum Moudgil – Shooting – She won 4 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals at the 2014 National Shooting Championships 2014.

March 2017 THE BEAT 21

SCIENCE

The Pitfalls of Biometrics Biometric security is convenient but not entirely safe from prying hackers, writes PHALGUNI VITTAL RAO.

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magine you’re standing at the cashier’s in a store. Instead of fumbling with your wallet for cash or credit card you look into an iris scanner or place your finger on a scanner, either of which could use your biometrics stored in a database linked to your bank account, to make the payment. The use of biometrics, i.e. physiological identifiers, as a substitute for a password or a PIN in financial transactions and for surveillance, is gaining currency around the world. While using biology to ensure security is an enticing idea, it poses huge privacy risks.

When it comes to identity management, Pranesh Prakash, policy director at Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), says there are three separate activities involved. First is identification, where one has to provide their username. The second step is authentication which is the act of providing a password. The third component is authorization which permits or denies payment.

“Biometrics can definitely be used for identification as an equivalent of a username. However, biometrics should never be used for authorizing a transaction as it is happening currently with AadharPay,” says Prakash.

In its drive towards a cashless economy, the Indian government is preparing to launch Aadhar Pay, a system which will do away with the use of credit cards, debit cards, passwords, PINs and smartphones and instead use a person’s biometric data and fingerprints to make payments through Aadhar-linked bank accounts. India is home to the world’s largest biometric registry with nearly 1.3 billion citizens’ fingerprints, iris scans and other personal information thus creating an unprecedented security and privacy risk in the 22 THE BEAT March 2017

name of convenience and digital commerce.

The government has come up with an initiative called India Stacks, an applications program interface or API, which will allow Indian software developers, healthcare providers and other businesses to use the Aadhar database in apps and services. The aim is to create a centralized system of digital commerce where citizens can use just the Aadhar information for all transactions on their smartphones from purchasing a car to applying for health insurance.

Of all personal data cybercriminals can steal, biometric data is the most sensitive. “Biometrics are irrevocable. You can’t, at any point, say ‘My fingerprints have been scanned and put up online’ and so let a new one be issued. It is impossible,” says Prakash from CIS. One can change PIN numbers of debit cards, credit cards and forgotten passwords.

However, biometrics like fingerprints, iris, veins on our wrists etc. are indelible.

The dangers of using biometric systems to authorize transactions are not hypothetical. On 17th February 2017, Srinivas Kodali, a civil engineer and Internet researcher, stumbled upon a website containing Aadhar details of nearly 6 lakh minors. The website had published names of the children, gender, parents’ names, caste, signature and

While using biology to ensure security is an enticing idea, it huge poses huge privacy risks.

Of all the personal data cybercriminals can steal, biometrics are the most sensitive. Source: Reuters

photo of the child. It was a third party website storing this information along with Aadhar numbers. Kodali informed the authorities and the website was brought down soon after.

A day after, Dainik Bhaskar published a news report which stated that six salespersons working for Reliance Jio had been arrested for selling SIM cards using the Aadhar information and fingerprint scans of customers for between Rs. 300 and Rs. 1,000.

In 2015, a major cybersecurity breach took place at the Office of Personnel Management in the United States where 5.6 million people’s fingerprints were hacked and stolen along with the Social Security numbers and addresses of more than 21 million people. As fingerprints and iris scans increasingly replace passwords for day-to-day security measures, security experts are concerned that hackers might leverage such sensitive information which could reveal a part of the user’s identity and be used to falsify travel, legal documents and criminal records.

In 2016, Philippines became the target of the largest ever government-data breach where email addresses, passport numbers and fingerprint records about 55 million voters was stolen by a hacker group and uploaded online.Within hours it was mirrored and widely shared across the web.

In another instance, an unnamed hacker uploaded a 1.4 GB compressed BitTorrent file in May 2016 that contained personal information about 50 million Turkish citizens, including their names, parents’ names, cities of birth, addresses and national identifier numbers used by the Turkish government.

All one needs to access one’s biometric data is the Social Security number or the national identifier number in case of Turkey. “In India all you would need is an Aadhar number and one of the ten fingerprints of that person,” Prakash adds.

And it is not that tough a task to forge a fingerprint.

“There are videos online of people taking your thumbprint impression from a glass you just held and creating a model of it using wax and fevicol,” says Prakash. To demonstrate the threat, a security researcher at Yokohama National University, Tsutomu Matsumotu devised a process where he took a photograph of a latent fingerprint (say, on a wineglass), and recreated it in molded gelatin which is good enough to fool biometric scanners 80 percent of the time..

There is an ongoing debate in the security community about whether biometrics should be used for authentication at all. “Allowing PIN-less or password-less transactions is a green light for widespread identity fraud in financial transactions. However, around the world, be it in Apple Pay or Android Pay, it is not biometric based. Both of them suggest you do not use biometrics as the sole security lock for your phone,” says Prakash.

Proponents of biometric security argue that biological traits like fingerprints and iris are immutable physical properties which criminals can’t change or use. However, a 27-year-old Chinese Lin Ring proved them wrong in 2009.

Lin paid $14,600 to doctors in China to surgically change her fingerprints to bypass biometric sensors used by immigration authorities at an airport in Japan. The surgeons swapped her fingerprints from her left and right hands and re-grafted the finger pads onto the opposite hands. She successfully deceived airport officials but was caught a few weeks later.

Coincidentally,China is a world leader in biometrics research having begun its study of facial-recognition software in the early 1980s. The results were put to deadly use inidentifying student protestors at Tiananmen Square in1989.

Returning to India, after Srinivas Kodali exposed the Aadhar data leak of nearly 6 lakh minors’ details, Scroll.in reported that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) refused to share data on how many such attempts or breaches have been made before or if holders of the affected Aadhar numbers are even notified of the breach. Recently, UIDAI lodged an FIR in New Delhi against Axis Bank Limited, Suvidha Infoserve and eMudhra accusing them of performing multiple Aadhar transactions using stored biometrics in violation of the Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits, and Services) Act, 2016, which prohibits the storage of such data by third parties.

Clearly, security breaches are going to become more frequent as more data goes online. The question is why governments would want to expose their citizens to risk even before protective walls have been secured.

March 2017 THE BEAT 23

PSYCHOLOGY

Art as Therapy Psychiatrists encourage patients to explore multiple art forms as therapeutic aids, writes ASHIMA CHOUDHARY.

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arti Aggarwal is a home maker and paints when her husband and kids leave for work and school respectively. She has turned the lobby of her house into her art gallery. Tarinee Seth, a graduate from Pratt School, New York, says that it doesn’t really bother her when she gets negative feedback. “I create art for myself,” she adds. One of her projects which received mixed reviews is the Enemy-Friend-Lover project, which focuses on self image issues and general physical insecurities.

Psychiatrists have now started indulging their patients into different art forms which serves as therapies for their mental states.

Also, the ones with mental complex and insecurities are going the art way to boost their confidence levels.

“Art has the power to talk to the known and unknown. It is about getting away from stereotypes and through art that we can be a larger influence in any field. My perspective is very different from what the natural norm is and may communicate very different things to different people,” says Sadhna Prasad, artist and vice captain at Aravani Art project, Bangalore. She got into art when she was quite young as her mother reckoned she get into it. When asked how she feels while creating art, she responds, “refreshed, thankful and curious.”

Art therapy is a creative approach to therapy which allows the pursuer to release and harness his energy through art. It is widely used in psychotherapy.

The tenets of art therapy involve humanism, creativity, reconciling emotional conflicts, fostering self-aware24 THE BEAT March 2017

ness, and personal growth. “Demand for creative arts training is increasing in India. It’s only a matter of time before it catches up,” says Evan Hasting, a theatre artist and mentor residing in Bangalore.

“It helps release stress, alleviate phobias and anxiety,” says Saul Periera. Periera has been practising psychotherapy from the last 20 years but has started using art as therapy only recently.

“Since seeking therapy is such a stigma in India, I did my own research and decided to try my hand at art on my own. At first, it was a challenge finding inspiration but once I got the hang of it, it helped me tremendously,” says Renu Aggarwal.

Seth discusses her moment of inspiration. “Everyone I talked to had something which they disliked about their body. I came up with the project and named it thus to show that there are no restrictions to who I draw,” shares Seth. The Enemy-Friend-Lover project encourages people to share their naked pictures with Seth, who would then portray them on her canvas in her attempt to show that each and everyone is beautiful. “For me, you are desirable

when you feel good in your own skin.

If you walk out of your house feeling confident, that’s when you’re desirable. Nothing else really matters,” Seth adds.

“Art therapy is not therapy for artists. For example, in talk therapy, talking is the modality. Similarly when you use art as therapy, art is the modality.

You don’t need to have an artistic bent of mind to reap the benefits of art therapy,” says Anita Jacob. Jacob works at SMArT (Studio for movement arts and therapy), Bangalore.

Their mission is to bring together various artists and providing a stimulating experience for the artist as well as for the audience.

Gaurvi Sharma, artist and art therapy graduate shares her story when she created a series of drawings depicting bipolar disorder. “I created the series with my friend who is bipolar. She narrated and I drew her narratives,” Sharma shares. “It helped me know what she was going through while she was overwhelmed to see the visual form of her experiences. We are still working on this and in the next series I will be helping her give a visual form to her poetry,” Sharma adds. Sharma did a series of drawings depicting her experiences with post natal depression. “It helped me release my deepest emotions and gradually through art and visuals, I started to recover.”

“Art can be used as a therapy as it helps people to express their emotions in different ways as people who can’t express, start piling up their emotions and slowly those pent up emotions take an ugly shape of depression and other mental illnesses,” adds Sharma.

FILM REVIEW

Creatures of the Night

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Powerful storytelling using imagination that unsettles us, writes SHANNON RIDGE COURT.

n his second directorial venture, Gucci designer turned filmmaker, Tom Ford creates a finicky, over stylized and narcissistic Nocturnal Animals based on the late Austin Wright’s novel Tony and Susan.

The plot is embedded in the form of a novel within the action of the film.

In present day, Amy Adams, who portrays Susan Morrow, is a successful Los Angeles gallery curator who receives a manuscript written by her ex-husband Edward, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. She begins to read the book titled, ‘Nocturnal Animals’ and the audience visualizes her reading of the book and watches the story being re-created.

The book mirrors Susan’s estranged relationship with Edward. The narrative on-screen cuts open and splits between Susan’s present life, her past relationship with Tony (a character in the novel also played by Jake Gyllenhaal) and the recreations of other accounts from the book. The story in the book revolves around a young family involved in a carjacking on a ghostly and deserted Texas road as they run into a roving band of murderous savages.

The movie shifts back and forth to vividly showcase Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the vicious, dead-eyed redneck leader sadistically taking pleasure in

taunting and antagonizing Tony’s family. Nocturnal Animals soon becomes a cat-and-mouse story as Tony teams up with the hardnosed Texas Sheriff/Lawman Detective Bobbi Andes, played by Michael Shannon. Aaron-Taylor Johnson’s repulsive portrayal is fantastic but difficult and uncomfortable to watch.

The character of “Tony” as a father in the novel is a metaphor and an expression that slowly reveals how he lost the love of his life which simultaneously mirrors Susan’s role in the deterioration of their marriage. Haunted by the book, Susan realizes the weakness in her current loveless marriage to a cheating businessman played by Armie Hammer. Strangely, the book gives her relief and forces her mind back to her relationship with Edward.

Nocturnal Animals is a beautiful, stylish film. Director Tom Ford focuses on style, texture, colour schemes and design in his powerful visuals where emotions and a sense of humanity are dug up under elegant, aesthetic and sophisticated looking surfaces. While Susan’s extravagant lifestyle is surrounded with vibrant colours, art exhibits and paintings, the setting of deserts and rural areas stands out in stark contrast in the novel, giving Ford the liberty to use a range of cinematography techniques

and shot compositions. It feels like watching two different movies at once, with contrasts and reflections baked in the narrative.

Ford is competent in transitioning between the past and present through the novel and does not alienate the overall story for the viewers to grasp.

Ford’s artistic touches allows viewers to dive into Susan’s pysche while reading the novel. It makes the audience think about Amy Adam’s deep performance as a woman who is dreadfully afraid to commit yet another mistake in a life littered with bad decisions. Jake Gyllenhaal as the writer is bitter than forgiving, and clarifies the vengeful purpose of the novel by disguising his motives.

There are instances where Ford is a little sloppy in delivering the deeper themes of the film. There are moments where the film can be pretentious as the viewers begin to connect certain visual cues which happen in the past with the story book part of the film and also with the present part of the film, which doesn’t come together in a cohesive hold. However, Nocturnal Animals should be praised for being a movie that is brave enough to be strange and different even if it has some unanswered questions.

March 2017 THE BEAT 25

TRAVEL

Walking in the Clouds

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Surreal views, great food and solitude. SMRITI SURI explores Tosh in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh.

To me a mountain is a Buddha. Think of the patience, hundreds of thousands of years just sittin’ there bein’ perfectly perfectly silent and like praying for all living creatures in that silence and just waitin’ for us to stop all our frettin’ and foolin’,” wrote Jack Kerouac, Beat poet and novelist.

These words have been painted in neon green on the purple walls of a postcard house/cafe. There are many such houses cradled in accessible crags of the Himalayas. There is another one down the lane to the right. This one is nestled in the intersection of a fir and yew. Both these houses and many other similar ones down a small mud road had a few things in common, apart from also sharing the hundreds or so tourists pouring into Tosh from many parts of the country and world, everyday.

They all overlook a breathtaking valley that starts from an obscure nook in a mountain, invisible, yet soon spreading and abruptly disappearing under a blanket of golden green.

The sky is bright, faultless blue and the air is crisp, nippy and wakes you right up, much more effective than a cup of coffee. A stream originates from another concealed trail and plunges to certain annihilation, foaming white at the bottom of the valley.

As the stream regains new life at the foot of the mountain, it traverses a path its own creation, millennia old. It 26 THE BEAT March 2017

travels down the pristine bed of the valley, carrying with it, fresh water tapped from its very source. It soon sees, on its left and right, human attempts at binding it. There are the remains of a dam the river had disposed of in a fury on the left. Behind it, is a steep slope rising till it disappears into the clouds. This mountain also runs along with the river further into the valley cracking jokes on the way. On its left, the river continues greeting friendly faces that depend on its water for life. It nourishes them and they respect it in return.

These faces live in the small town of Tosh, a tiny hamlet in Himachal Pradesh, welcoming with open arms all those who wish to be their guests. They have even moulded their lives according to the need of their visitors. All restaurats here serve an eclectic mixture of hot thukpas, pepper mushrooms and many other items from a large menu with continental and Israeli food. It’s a weird mixture of foods to be honest, but is somehow very appealing.

There is pita bread to be found with chicken tossed with freshly cut tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, salt and pepper. Down the menu, you find lemon grilled chicken and pepper steaks. Hash balls take the cake, quite literally too! An earthy cake made of Oreo, Bournvita, ParleG, sugar and lots of marijuana. These sugary delights are set to slowly take you to a place quite inaccessible to mundane moods and people.

The food in Tosh is amazingly simple, well cooked and an amalgamated flavour of all the cultures that have embraced it as their own. People all over the world come and reside in this small town nestling a little above the river Chenab. One meets Portuguese, French, Israelis, British and Canadians amongst many others here. Yes, yes, Tosh is great but that’s the easy part. It’s the part where the stream comes from that’s truly worth talking about. It is this haven, the river’s path of descent from the glacier, hidden away from prying eyes that draws attention to itself throughout this journey.

Kutla is above Tosh and is a three-hour trek away from Tosh. It’s a resting camp for soldiers with just three huts stocked with basic amenities. People there keep sheep, sheep dogs and mules to help with transportation up and down the mountain. Half the hillside around the huts has lost the forest covering it. In the absence of electricity, firewood is the only source of fuel for the residents. Maggi, eggs, bread and milk are the only choices served here.

In between this stark haven and Tosh, the elusive glacier resides. Up till June 2015, the glacier was perennial. It had frozen the river in between, crossed over to the other side in the form of a fifty-foot bridge, twenty feet in diameter, the frozen slope of the adjacent mountain. In 2016, however, the glacier has receded alarmingly. Yet, the river flows on, through these slopes.

In between Tosh and Kutla is also a cluster of sibling peaks. It makes for stunning walks down narrow mountain

trails. A blanket of green covers everything that can be seen, except for a thick ribbon of white in the middle of the small valleys. These valleys form natural paths for the river to flow down and hence, are ferocious, bottomless pits of death at all times. However, only visitors have become prey to the hungry tide for ages. Locals themselves are too used to living at the whims of mother nature that they remain almost immune to it.

Tosh and Kutla are only two small examples of beauty that is quickly disappearing from the Himalayas due to a man-nature conflict, or rather, government/tourism-nature conflict. A zealous bid by the local government to increase footfall a decade back has backfired monumentally.

Perhaps, it is time to run to the computer to book tickets to Tosh to see it all, before it disappears? Tickets to Delhi are easily available and state transport provides transport till Barshaini. It’s a thirty-two kilometer trek or drive up to Tosh from there. These blankets of green, swirling ribbons of white and endless skies might very soon become an unobtainable dream.

Until then however, Tosh will continue its hospitality and the swirling Chenab will continue to rush down the hidden folds of the Parvati Valley in Himachal Pradesh. Till then, it remains a place to break away, gain perspective and wash spirits clean.

The sky is bright, faultless blue and the air is crisp, nippy and wakes you right up, much more.

March 2017 THE BEAT 27

PERFORMANCE

Lights, Camera, Anxiety!

Stage fright has its roots deep in people’s pasts, writes ASHIMA CHOUDHARY.

The scientific word for fear of public speaking is “glossophobia.”

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hallow breathing, sweaty palms and a spinning head, sound familiar? It’s time to perform. A staggering number of us, including professional performers recognize the signs very well. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, performance anxiety is an extremely common condition which about 75% of the population suffers from. National surveys of what Americans fear the most constantly show performing in public at the top of the list.

For Arudarata, 22, performance anxiety surfaced in the worst possible form. A graphics and design student, Arudarata has been acting professionally since the age of 17 and been a victim of performance anxiety ever since. “I would start having panic attacks 10 minutes before my show but I always had tremendous support from my crew. The human body cannot panic for more than 20 minutes. After my panic attack went away, I would feel further motivated to go out on the stage and give my best.”

The scientific word for fear of public speaking is “glossophobia.” It comes from the Greek words “glossa” (tongue) and “phobos” (dread or fear). Glossophobia affects men and women in equal numbers, although men are more likely to seek treatment for it. Many professionals, the likes of Carol Burnette and Carly Simon have been known to be afflicted by anxiety before their performances. Burnette used to get 28 THE BEAT March 2017

nervous enough to throw up before going on stage. Carly Simon abandoned the stage for 7 years after collapsing due to anxiety before a concert in Pittsburgh in 1981.

“Though I have never had to perform in front of a large audience, I still think I suffer from stage fright. Be it talking in front of three people or 30, it’s a struggle,” says Sonic who works with Campus Diaries’ Mental Health Mission, Bangalore. “I got a chance to speak to many different individuals as a part of this mission and I realise each one of us has unique experiences on the stage. There have been participants who have gone onto the stage, blurted out a sorry and gone away,” Sonic adds.

“For most people, stage fright has its roots deep down in their pasts,” Santha Kumari, a psychology major in Tamil Nadu opines. “A person with extreme performance anxiety either has had himself ridiculed for what he should have received positive attention or one of his performances has been so bad that he is terrified of performing again. The brain deciphers these situations as risks and thus our body comes into flight mode and is ready to flee,” Kumari adds.

There are numerous tips and tricks available on the internet to conquer stage fright. Imagining a naked audience, concentrating on a point in space while speaking and deep breathing are few of them. “The first time I performed at a poetry slam, I was terrified,” admits Sarah Kay, a spoken world poet from New York, who was in India for a Campus Diaries mission. “I was very intimidated but I managed to convince myself that everyone in the audience wants me to do great. There was this voice which kept telling me to run but I knew I had to scale that wall,” Kay adds. “I have been performing for a few years now and I still get extremely nervous before a performance,” adds Phil Kaye, another spoken word poet from California. “I ask the audience to not clap or snap their fingers while I am performing. That helps,” shares Kaye.

“We all suffer from an impostor syndrome. I can bet my as* that everyone on this planet suffers from stage fright,” chuckles Sonic. “In the end, it’s all about finding the right audience and knowing that it’s not the end of the world. After all, we have to tell our stories, and for that we have to speak up.”

GALLERY

The Future of Rural India

Photo: Leo Reegan

Photo: Leo Reegan Photo: Leo Reegan

Photo: Leo Reegan

Photo: Cherry Agarwal

For Private Circulation Only

THE BEAT March 2017

PHOTO: Cherry Agarwal