Showing posts with label Bhopal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bhopal. Show all posts

08 December 2009

IS INDIA GOING OUT OF WATER ?

In a city where clean water has become a commodity that is delivered to the highest bidder, the poor often have to go without.
Yet those who have money can easily get enough. In Mumbai's wealthy suburbs, large tankers delivering water are commonplace.
Every day more than 5,000 tankers deliver some 50 million litres of water to people who can pay, according to unofficial estimates cited by the newspaper Mumbai Mirror.
Water shortages
But even if the wealthy were to go without such top-up deliveries, there would probably not be enough water to go around.
Mumbai's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) delivers some 90 litres of water per day to the city's residents.
That is far short of the 135 litres of water the World Health Organization (WHO) says they require for their basic needs.
So in Mumbai, there is growing anger over the water shortages.
Last month, BMC hydraulic engineers' office was vandalised by activists. Over the weekend, a man died after violent clashes in the city between police and protestors who demanded better access to water for the disabled.
Global problem
But the lack of access to clean water is by no means merely a problem facing those who live in India's biggest cities.
In the central Indian city of Bhopal, people who live in some of the slums pump drinking water from groundwater contaminated by industrial pollution. Children who live in the slum play by the filthy and rubbish-strewn river that runs past.
Head out into rural India, and three-quarters of the population does not have access to safe drinking water.
As the population continues to grow the problem is getting worse.
India's water needs are set to double over the next two decades, according to consultants McKinsey.
Production of rice, wheat and sugar is set to push up demand from Indian agriculture, the consultancy warns.
And the problem is growing, both in India, as well as in China, South Africa and Sao Paulo state in Brazil.
By 2030, the four areas will account for more than two fifths of the world's water demand, largely thanks to a sharp rise in food production, McKinsey says.
By then, demand for water will be 40% higher than it is currently, the consultancy predicts.
Huge market
Many in India are looking to the industrialist Ratan Tata for a solution.
There are high hopes that he has delivered after Tata Group launched a water purifier that helps curb the spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid or diarrhoea.
Tata's purifier will cost less than 1,000 ($21.50; £13) rupees to buy, half the price of the popular Pureit purifier already being sold by Hindustan Unilever.
Tata Chemicals' managing director R. Mukundan insists its purifier is unique.
"It doesn't compete with any existing product."
Moreover, he says, "this is opening up a complete new market" - one that is huge and growing.
Although limited access to safe drinking water is a huge problem in India, this is a global problem that affects about a billion people, according to the WHO.
"For the vast majority... today's water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access," the WHO says.

As long as the only goal of India is to rise is population without considering the provide them a decent live the situation will go from bad to worse, ending in a collaps with civil war situations in the fight for essential commodities.

21 June 2007

INDOCRINATION, SMOOTH ADAPTATION OR BRAINWASH


Obviously the original family education is not sufficient anymore to make Hindi wifes behave like Hindi wives : A special school in Madhya Pradesh actually trains women to become ideal, obedient and submissive wives and daughters-in-law. Though it has many takers, it has drawn the ire of social activists and women's organisations.
Founded already in 1987, the Manju Sanskar Kendra in Bhopal teaches young women the art of being good wives by serving their husbands and in-laws, and thereby preventing splits in the family.
"The primary aim of the Kendra is to prevent Indian families from breaking up under the pressures it faces nowadays," says Bhau Ayaldas Hemnani, the founder and director of the rather unique school.
It offers a three-month course that stresses on the importance of "Indian culture" and the woman adjusting to her new family after marriage. While students spend the first month learning Sikh and Hindu scriptures, the second month has lessons in naturopathy and the third is entirely dedicated to domestic life.
"We teach women how to serve their husbands and win laurels and how to behave with in-laws. We also tell them to be tolerant while adjusting to their new home," Hemnani told IANS.

Chandna Arora of the All India Women's Council, says: "Thousands of women are doused with kerosene and set on fire by their greedy husbands and their families. Most of these dowry-related deaths are passed off as kitchen accidents. How will they resist dowry or other domestic abuse?"

Contrary to one's expectations, the centre is very popular with over 4,500 having graduated from it so far.

Says Sudha, another student: "The school not only teaches us to be polite and obedient towards our in-laws and the husband but also teaches us cooking, sewing and daily prayers without any fees.

"It tells us that these are the basic essentials an Indian girl must learn before marriage, regardless of whether she is a working woman or chooses to be a housewife."

Hemnani believes the education imparted by his school will go a long way in preserving the Indian joint family system - now being fast replaced by nuclear families, especially in metros.
"The joint family will remain intact if you imbibe Indian 'sanskars' (values) from our great religious books," he stresses.
The students not only listen to lectures instilled with religious and marital wisdom but are also taught devotional songs and practice household chores.
Shelly, however, maintains that girls should instead be taught to resist greed and violence on the part of in-laws. "Official figures show that the number of women killed by their in-laws over dowry is rising by the day, despite it being illegal," she points out.
An ideal Indian wife, according to Hemani, should have four virtues - obedience, a healthy lifestyle, be loved by her husband and attached to the household.
"A new bride is generally expected to win the hearts of all by her work and submission and we prepare her for that," asserts the director.
And it sure seems to have brainwashed many young minds. Said Bandana Raizada: "I'm confident that after this course, I shall not commit any mistake in my in-laws' house."


No comment, I just like to remind that India has one of the lowest divorce rates worldwide, therefore also has the highest suicide rate for women worldwide. But we should not forget that only one generation ago, some catholic educational institutes had the same goal as mentioned above.

The text out of Hindian Times

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