Maya Khankhoje just happened to be landing in New Delhi when George W. Bush decided to land as well
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George W. Bush whirled through India like a March wind, snarling traffic in Delhi, keeping the media busy with photo-ops in Hyderabad and making the “argumentative Indian” – as Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen lovingly calls his garrulous fellow-citizens- go ballistic, if not nuclear, over the merits or demerits of going to bed with the Americans. Nuclear energy for “peaceful” uses, defence procurement, Alphonso mangoes and outsourcing were some of the items on the official agenda. While Bush tried to save the region from itself – or rather his ratings back home-, ordinary Indian citizens quietly went about their daily lives, improving their own lot and in the process, that of their neighbours. Some of the following examples of homespun activism were reported by the media over the last year.
It did not take long for Hyderabad district collector Arvind Kumar to realize that “Cyberabad” famous for high-tech wizards and call centres, had also become a centre for high-tech female foeticide. Observing a significant correlation between ultrasound clinics and a low female birth rate in the area, Kumar carried out undercover inspections to ensure compliance with the law banning ultrasound sex-determination. A year down the road female birth rates have improved significantly but Kumar is cautious about these findings.
“Rickshawallas” provide affordable transportation for the common citizen, but their lot is dismal. Undernourished and over-indebted, they have problems making ends meet. Retired civil servant Meetha Lal Mehta, from Jaipur, negotiated with the Kuhad Trust, an NGO working on alternative policies for the underprivileged, to provide subsidies and small credits for rickshaw pullers to buy their own vehicles. He also sought technical expertise to build lighter rickshaws, thus lessening the load of rickshaw pullers.
Decent last rites should be everybody’s birthright. At least that is what Mohammed Sharif, an elderly bicycle mechanic from Faizabal, believes. When police handed him his son’s personal effects one month after the latter’s death under mysterious circumstances, Sharif vowed to spare others this ignominious fate. In his free time he ministers to the needs of patients alone in hospitals and has also performed the last rites -Hindu or Moslem - of 1,200 unclaimed bodies. The tools of his trade are a cell phone given to him by a policeman and a special fund endowed through door-to-door canvassing. He has received no official recognition but he cherishes the letters of appreciation sent to him by patients’ relatives.
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Pamohi is a tribal hamlet in Assam where the children of day labourers had no access to schooling. Today 41 children have a school thanks to Uttam Teron, a young college graduate who opened it with private donations and seed-money earned from tutoring affluent students.
Pensioner T.K. Mathai Kunju, nicknamed Sathyavan Kottarakkara, or the honest man from Kottarakkara – a town in Kerala- patrols the streets armed with a still camera. He wields it to obtain pictorial documentation of civil rights violations to be used as exhibits in Lok Ayukt Adalats, or roving people’s courts. If redress is not forthcoming, he then badgers the media. In this manner he has obtained public toilets for female street vendors, has forced village councils to publish audited accounts and has also set up eye-donor banks. Well-known poet and novelist Kamala Das, who became Kamala Soraiya after her conversion to Islam, presented him with a public service award several years ago. T.K. Mathai Kunju hopes to live up to his sobriquet.
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In a country where victims of sexual crimes are more often than not stigmatized and children’s voices are seldom heard above the din of the incontrovertible authority of their elders, child sexual abuse often goes unreported and unpunished. The Tulir Centre for the Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse in Chennai is trying to change things. Founded by Vidya Reddy and Lois J. Engelbrecht, this centre has been conducting workshops to teach children the concepts of body integrity and personal safety. It has also been lobbying for change in Indian legislation which limits the definition of rape to penile penetration and subsumes the abuse of male children under legislation that criminalizes homosexuality. Reddy does not wish a repeat of the case of a school-bus driver who managed to keep his job after paying a paltry fine for biting little girls.
Anand Arya is a bird-watcher armed with a powerful zoom lens. Last year he recorded 380 species of birds in the wetlands in the outskirts of Delhi, that is thirty more than in Bharatpur, the official bird sanctuary in that area. However, urban sprawl, bureaucratic tangles and other human encroachments have affected the avian population. Arya successfully spearheaded a movement against such encroachments, but is calling for better government coordination on this matter before conditions deteriorate further.
Traditional publishers issue a complete book run and then try to drum up sales. Small modern publishers print a limited run and produce further copies on demand, thus cutting costs significantly. Octogenarian Mahendra Meghani, son of famous Gujarati novelist Jhaverchand Meghani, has gone one step further. He first surveys interest in a given subject, then solicits small interest-free loans from potential readers to publish his books. In this manner he has managed to provide Gujarati translations of world literature at affordable prices.
Asim Sarode, a Pune-based lawyer activist, provides free legal assistance to sex-workers, sexual minorities, HIV-positive persons and other marginalized groups. He finances his pro bono work from his regular case load.
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Amith Hath Nazra is a “green warrior” who has spent the last twenty-six years greening Calcutta’s concrete jungle. He has single-handedly planted and nurtured thousands of trees with the support of ordinary folk because, he laments, rich people don’t always put their money where their mouth is. Thanks to him Calcutta residents can seek shelter from the sweltering heat under the green canopy of Vivekananda Road.
Laxman Singh is another green activist who helped devise the chauka system, a traditional watershed management system in his native Rajasthan. The wells of Laporia, his village, never run dry, a miracle in India’s most arid state. The combination of village cooperation, communal lands, holistic grazing methods and other traditional practices has been so successful that government authorities have felt threatened, a fact that does not bother Singh one bit, as he admires his healthy cattle and robust plants.
So while Mr. Bush made my plane circle over Delhi for fifteen minutes so that he could land safely far from the madding crowds, ordinary citizens in India went quietly about their daily lives improving their own lot and that of their neighbours.
Maya Khankhoje, New Delhi, March 2006.