“Be the Change You Want to See”:

“We got our homes and this land, the forests and all natural resources from our ancestors. We have to respect that and pass it on as it is, as we got it, to our children.”

It was humbling to talk to Dhan Singh Rana, the 60 years plus Sarpanch of Lata village in Uttrakhand. Lata and Reni villages are the seat of the famous Chipko Movement of the 1970s, where Gauri Devi along with other women surrounded the trees to stop them from being felled.

                                                                          (Ranaji with wife and grandson)

Travelling in Uttrakhand this time was a painful experience for me. From Rishikesh all the way upto Joshimath, I could only see signs of destruction (of the eco-fragile Himalayas). All those sleepy little towns, the beautiful valleys, sparkling rivers, traditional huts and humble people are all gone. Roads now are filled with landslides, vehicles (oh my god, so many of them!), random construction of bridges, concrete, grotesque buildings and dust everywhere. Electricity pole and wires hung from one mountain top to another criss-crossing each other as if placed without a thought. In a 150kms stretch I saw four dams being built. People have become rude, money minded and look at women with strange eyes. And this in just six years!

By the time I reached Chamoli, I was so desperate that I almost cried. A passing sadhu was commenting to somebody “O, jannat ke farishte, kabhi jameen pe aake to dekho!” and I burst out laughing instead. Later I thought, yes, that’s what it has become. Once a ‘Devbhoomi’ because only Gods could create and live in such pristine beauty, it is now just simply earth.

Leaving the highway and going further up was a relief.  The stunning snow peaks , thick forests and beautiful meadows were still there. The cancerous spread of ‘development’ hasn’t reached there. Yet.

                                                          (High mountains in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve) 

                                                              (Nanda Devi, the second highest peak in India)

After talking to Ranaji and few others, however, it seemed otherwise. For him and the people of the villages beyond Tapovan (the village), it’s been a continuous struggle since the Chipko days. In the 70s, they struggled to save their forests. In 1998, Ranaji led the Jhapto Cheeno movement to gain the right to access their forests and pasture lands after the region was declared a National Park and closed even to the local communities (to read more about this click here )

Now, he and his community is fighting what seems like a losing battle – the building of another dam on the pristine Dhauli (white) Ganga, a tributary of Alaknanda river right in front of their village. The community is now divided, Ranaji says. The younger generation is getting too influenced by easy money, so they want the dam to come as it will give them money and an opportunity to get work. “Our children who are getting greedy will someday sell off the land and their next generation will curse us, believing we let such a thing happen.”

                                                     (Dhauli Ganga, Lata Village and the winding road to Joshimath)

A friend asked me the other day; who takes the call and tells people in these remote villages that they shouldn’t get access to all the amenities that we have in the plains in the name of preserving environment. Isn’t it their basic human rights? Yes he is right, all people should. But with rights comes responsibilities especially in an eco-fragile region as the Himalayas, where you are not only responsible for your state but also the entire country. Blasting mountain sides indiscriminately to make roads that will join all villages is not development. Creating dams on all possible existing river systems for electricity is not development. Development is when you make the lives of your future generations better and environment liveable. (If Bhutan can do it, so can you)

                                                             (the beautiful village of Tolma at the fringe of NDBR)

“Everybody in this country wants the others to change. We all want to earn quick money, we all tell lies and yet we look at others and say they shouldn’t do it. If you want any kind of change, you have change yourself first”.

We need more people like Ranaji in our lives and more leaders to be like him.  

If you want to travel / trek in Uttranchal, do it with Mountain Shephards. They work directly with the local communities. They have a fantastic stay option in Auli (Devi Darshan) and can also arrange for lovely homestays in Lata and Tolma village in the fringes of NDBR.

If you want to give something back to the community, buy your next round of diwali/ Christmas gifts from Angwal and Kilmora

If you want to volunteer for an NGO who works on livelihood and natural resource management in Uttrakhand, you can join Chirag

If you love the Himalayas and environment, then you can support WWF-India by donating, buying their products, volunteering or joining any of their campaigns

And then God created Men.........in India:

It finally dawned on me why we are the way we are. Or rather why the Men of our country are so deeply rooted in the concept of patriarchy.

I have visited many villages in many states and have seen the same situation everywhere; however the penny had never dropped. Till the time I visited a few remote villages in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. These villages were located near beautiful and thickly forested areas, in close proximity to wildlife like tigers, leopards, bears and jackals. In certain parts, where the border with the Naxal area is a bit porous, the village people are extremely aware and curious of outsiders. Here they still use ‘laal salam’ to greet people associated with the movement. The roads that go through the forests are a rider’s delight – smooth, winding and empty - and in the evening one has to switch on the light inside the vehicle to indicate that you are from the region and not an outsider.

Ok, I have digressed.

So, we got to spend entire days in some of these villages watching the activities of the village folks as they went about doing their daily chores. I watched the women sweeping their houses, fetching water from the hand-pump, getting the children ready, cooking breakfast and then lunch, going off to de-weed the paddy fields, tend to cattle and other animals, help in ploughing their fields, attend meetings and training by our partner NGOs, do most work under various government schemes like attend to nurseries, plant trees, manual labour under NREGA, cook dinner, clean kitchen and utensils, make bed, get the children and husband to sleep!

PHEW! I almost fainted due to exertion just watching them go about their ‘daily’ work! And now ask me what the men did?

They sat around in the village square in groups chatting throughout the day. Oh yes, they did do some work – mostly work that required least effort and get money quickly – like making gutkha, running tea stalls, drive autos etc. And drink mahua from morning till night. And beat up the women. And disrupt any meeting or efforts to better their situation.

If you ever talk to NGOs who work at the grassroot level, they will all tell you that the only way to bring change is through the women. Though shy at first, they are the ones who are open to new things and are interested in change. With men it’s difficult to get through because they are just not ready to listen to anybody.

Here are a few examples of the difference between how women function versus men....

In a village in Kumaon, I had once met a woman who was the president of the village’s forest committee.  She told me that the women of the village take up duty in rotation to protect the forest, plant saplings and gather firewood and leaves. Men are not allowed because given a chance they would fell the trees just to earn few quick bucks.

In the desert districts of Rajasthan, women especially those who are from the lower caste, sometimes have to walk more than 7kms one way to get water. The men as usual sit at home or take their sheep or camel grazing.

In a village in Gadchiroli block, the Up-Sarpanch is a woman, all of 32 years of age. Despite a group of men who keeps disrupting the Gram Sabha, she ensures that everything in the village happens as per the plan. Ask her anything including laws and she will rattle off everything including dates.

In another village in Korchi block, male doctors assigned to the PHC (Primary Health Centre) hardly ever came citing excuses like its naxal prone area, there are no quarters to stay, its far away etc. Then a woman doctor was assigned. Not only did she stay in the village, she ensured that all medicines are there, she had the annual health strategy in place for the village and also as per rule visited the surrounding villages regularly.        

The situation is same wherever you go – from up north to down south. Us ‘urban’ folks also have ancestors who came from such a rural background; so it’s not difficult to see why the attitude towards women haven’t changed much anywhere.

Actually truth be told, if I was born a man in this country where women did all the work and I only got to sit, talk, drink and make the women feel inferior, why would I ever want to let my position in society go? I will fight tooth and nail not to let go of such an easy life.

Patriarchy, my friends, is here to stay.

A Love Letter to My Country:

My Dear Country,

Lately I have been thinking a lot as to why I was born here. What is it that I am supposed to give to you or what is it that I am supposed to get from you? What kind of karma has bound me to you for all these years, not letting me escape?

Sorry, I didn’t want to say it like this but it’s true that I now want to escape. Escape to a land, a place where I can live my life with dignity, in peace (perhaps I am asking for too much). I want to live in a land which will let me be free.

Freedom you say is the birthright of everyone here, so how much more freedom do I need? Yes, what you have given to everyone is one of the most beautiful concepts, to cherish and nourish. I grew up in a small town enjoying every moment of it, not knowing or understanding the hidden layers of a dysfunctional and discriminating society. The books that my father gave me and the education that I got promised of an ever improving and an open world beyond that small town. I grew up with lots and lots of hope and optimism in my heart of an ever happy future. It’s been many more years than three decades and now I am beginning to feel hopeless and scared.

I grew up at a time when life was simple, full of laughter, contentment and no greed. I did not know what discrimination or intolerance was –gender or community or religion or caste or colour or money. Now despite such an upbringing, why am I forced to think of every event, every comment, every movie and every job in relation to a particular group? In a huge land like yours, there is only one city that I feel safe in and that too I can feel is slowly eroding. If Mumbai goes, where will I go? Why do I have to struggle everyday to take the train to office and struggle everyday to return home? Why do I have to sit by the sea and pretend that it’s not filthy? Why has it come to a stage in your land that virtually nothing works in the manner it was meant to be or that virtually everybody has become intolerant and belligerent?

I want to be free. I want to have the freedom to run on the roads at night if I want to. I want to have the freedom to camp alone by a river or cycle on my own all across your place. I want to have the freedom to give up my job whenever I want to knowing you are there to help me to get back. I want the freedom to smile at strangers and get a smile back in return. I want my life to be as simple, full of laughter and content as it was decades ago.

Sometimes I feel that I should have been born 15 years before or 15 years later than I did. I know what I have lost which I can never get back and I do not want what you have to offer me as a sad excuse for a future. I hope I have given to you what I was supposed to because I know you cannot give me more than what you already have. I hope my karma with you is over.  

For, My Dearest Country, I love you a lot but I am finally giving up on you.

Yours,
Unknown yet one in a billion admirer. 

Power Over Power:

I can SO see it happening.

The rabid and one sided views are starting to raise their voices and soon it will become another ‘good’ reason to cut down remaining forests.

The two days of power outage due to different grid failures created world headlines making it the biggest power outage ever (well, with a population like ours EveryThing will be pretty big numerically!...so why the hypocritical surprise and shame?). But in the national dailies, there was one small section which for me stood out with a 72 font size effect – the fact that there is a coal deficit in the power sector.  Coal India, Ministry of Power and other mining companies have been saying this for quite some time. But NOW these outages give them a valid reason to push their agenda through by hook or crook (read one such rabid opinion).  I won’t be surprised if it turns out that all this was all done deliberately to prove a point (well, this shows my level of trust with our leaders)

So now I am scared, very scared.

Because the life of my favourite forests of Central and East India is really at stake. These forests are the last of the ancient forests of India and one of the three main watersheds of the country (Satpuda range). The forests here speak to you if only you know how to listen. There is an energy in the land that is so primeval, so raw and so beautiful that it will leave you spellbound.  The tribals and animals who live here are so connected with Earth and nature that you will be envious. Perennial rivers, streams and lakes are so pristine that you will not feel like touching them.

And with coal mining, the forests, wildlife and a water system will all vanish, a seemingly small price to pay if politicians and companies are to be believed.  But it has never been such a simple give and take. We here in India will continue to be served a four times environment whammy due to this. First, increase in air pollution due to burning of coal which releases lots of CO2. Second, it will destroy swathes of virgin forests (prime coal belt) to mine constantly and feed in to the growing demand. Thirdly, the fly ash from burning of coal is toxic and no care is taken to dump them or use them properly leading to health hazards (Fly Ash in India). And fourthly, combustion of coal for power takes up huge amount of water, surface or underground, which ideally means lesser water for people to consume (Water usage).

So, if the forests go, the people will get the much required power but at what cost?

Since the 1972 UN Conference, India has been making policies and laws for sustainable development and all the subsequent Five Year Plans have always had a good environment focus. Yet somewhere down the line, things have taken a turn and now leaders are asking Development or Environment.

It’s time that India sits and thinks long term with middle path cleaner solutions (read solar and wind) rather than going for band-aid symptomatic solutions. We have a lot many children to answer to in future.

But you, my friends can Start Here with Junglistan.
 

No Country for Women:

Despite being born and raised in a small town, never did my parents, school, friends or family friends ever made me feel that I was a girl and hence not equal to a boy. We were all raised together simply as human beings. Its only when we shifted to Delhi that everything came crashing down on me and I realised that I was a woman first and hence I have to be extra careful of what I do, say and where I go. Life became restricted.

Over the years, I have travelled to almost all the states of India. Things have changed where connectivity and accessibility is concerned. What hasn’t changed however is each state’s attitude towards women. Here is my list of how safe each state is for women (in ascending order).  The list is based purely on my experiences and observations while travelling. 

Delhi & Haryana – Well, it’s better not to be born as girls here.  These two places are way below rock bottom when it comes to treatment of women. Here I had to be constantly on guard whether I was home or outside. Right from your landlord who comes to your house in your parent’s absence on the pretext of checking, to a cyclist coming from the opposite direction, to autowalas who wants to take the secluded route home, to random strangers on bikes who would follow you for 10kms, to the uncle living next door who looks you up and down, this place will make you feel like shrivelling up and die or hide behind layers and layers of cloth. Even guys who are your friends or colleagues will never offer to drop you home at night once they know that they don’t stand a chance with you (in you know what...). I firmly believe that here if you drape a pole with a sari, somebody will still try and molest the pole thinking it to be woman.     

Kerala – Men on the street will look you up and down, slowly and deliberately making you conscious of every part of your body especially if you dress up differently than the women there i.e. in sari, salwar kurta and oiled hair in plait. The women looked mostly cowed down and even the woman in a business suit reading news on a local channel sounded and looked apologetic.

UP & Bihar (and now Jharkhand also) – The story here is of power and ego rather than lust (unlike the above). The same power and ego which makes them feel that what they say and do is right and they are above law. Everybody else should know their importance including of course the women. An example – when I asked one driver not to honk so much, he said it’s his car and he will do what he feels like.    

Punjab – I have never stayed here but passed it on my way north. People here are nice, warm and helpful but somehow the loudness and aggression never made me feel comfortable.

West Bengal – Apart from North Bengal, I didn’t find the rest of Bengal particularly nice. Yes, the women here are more equal to men than most other states, but the men are opportunists (for the lack of a better word in English).

Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, AP (in that order) – I feel that here people are attitude wise more progressive and disciplined than the rest of India. But they live strictly by traditional and societal rules and perceptions. If you can stay within that, you will largely be okay. For example – there were women ticket collectors and conductors in buses and train way back in 2004, something which you can’t see anywhere else even now; but dressing up in tight tops then was not considered right. AP was a pleasant surprise for me and I felt at ease most of the time there.

MP & Chhattisgarh – Apart from the naxal belt and the gun totting people of Gwalior, its quiet comfortable being here. People are very simple hearted and helpful.     

Gujarat & Rajasthan – Being born in a family in Rajasthan is perhaps not good because it’s steeped with prejudices about women and their roles. But as an outsider, you will never be shunned or man handled. This was something I had perceived way back in 1989-90 (on a school trip) and continues to hold largely true even now.

Assam – Yes, it is safe despite that horrendous episode with the teenager. I am quiet suspicious that most men involved were unemployed or semi-literate with heavy influence from the neighbouring states.

Maharashtra & Goa – One of the best states for a girl to travel alone. Here people will just let you be and you can be yourself without any fear.

All the Himalayan States – From the conflict torn Kashmir to Sikkim (especially Sikkim), people are just awesome and wonderful. You can travel to remote corners without even looking once over your shoulder. I can trust them blindly. Safety however becomes an issue sometimes - not from its people but tourists from other states mainly Delhi.

Arunachal – For me this state has been the best experience so far. It’s here that I have felt like a human being rather than being genetically defined. I am as equal as anybody else. People (read tourists) who have been there say it’s not like India. I whole heartedly agree. As a tribal state, the attitude and thinking of the people are way ahead than the rest of India. I haven’t been to any other NE states but I have a sneaky feeling, all of them are just as good as Arunachal in that respect.

(*Orissa – People say lots of things have changed now, but all I can remember of this state was its extreme and heart wrenching poverty)

My father had told us long time ago that only those families and countries prosper which respects its women. Considering that most states are way behind in this aspect, we as a country have a really long way to go.

Why is Development always at the cost of Environment and People?

Well, can somebody please tell me how razing down an entire ecosystem (also called the Western Ghats) and building more than 400 industries, mines, SEZs, power plants etc in a narrow strip of land equal to ‘development’?  

Lots of money in a few pockets, yes. But development?  No way.

Why, u may ask. India needs more industries, more jobs, more markets, more money etc etc. Plus we do have to look after the ‘poor’ communities who live in the folds of these Ghats, don’t we?

Let me give you two examples and then I will let you decide.

In the Lote Industrial Area of Khed Block in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, over 377 industries have been set up. Out of these, 177 industries are fully functional and 53 of these are chemical plants which have been using the Dhabol creek to dump its chemical waste in. Till a few decades ago one could find more than 120 varieties of fish from the river systems here but now none exists. According to local fishermen who once used to live a comfortable life, the creek and river system is so polluted that they themselves don’t eat fish caught from anywhere in the region. The pollution has spread to the fields where even the growth of alphanso mangoes has decreased. And these fishermen are traditional fishermen who have no other skills, hence no jobs in these terrible plants as well for compensation. So from a life of abundance, they are now struggling to cope.

                                                          (fishermen at the konkan coast)

Sindhudurg is a tiny strip of land, all of 5207sqkms just before Goa. It’s one of the 18 bio-diversity hotspots of the world and is an elephants’ corridor as well. For me, this place represents a perfect piece of paradise, a unique example of how humans and nature can live harmoniously each benefitting from the other.

Most villages in the region are self sufficient as they get everything from the forest and land itself. Their main sources of livelihood are cashew nut plantation, areca nuts, pepper and coconut. Vegetables, rice, millet, chillies, jackfruits etc is grown here for their own usage. The villagers here joke that apart from tea and sugar, they do not need to buy anything. And no, they do not cut down trees to clear land for farming. Instead, they look for flat land near water bodies or natural streams where they can farm. Cutting down trees is not allowed and each village has a sacred grove or ‘devrai’ where not even a leaf is plucked. Each grove has its own animal god as its reigning deity.

                                                             (a Devrai in Sawantwadi)

                                                                (Areca nut plantation)

The people of the villages have even demarcated areas for grazing of cattle in different seasons, so that a particular area is not overgrazed and gets time to regenerate. Here the forest is not owned by the state government but by the village community themselves. On an average, a village of about 350 members often earn around Rs. 1.25 crores every year. People here are well off, women are educated and all children go to school. Well, can anyone ask for more?

It seems the state government does.

60% of this tiny strip of fertile land with happy people has been notified by the state government as mining zone. There are 49 mining and 19 power projects planned in the region. Around 17 mines are already operational dumping waste in people’s farms and polluting crystal clear rivers, the regions only water source. The funniest part is that these companies (all of which have violated their Environment Impact Assessments) have approached the communities with offers of jobs!!! Why would anyone need a job when you are getting aplenty at your doorstep through nature.  

India has three main watersheds which provide water to the whole of the country. The first of course is the Himalayas, the second is the Satpuda Range in Central India and the third is our very own Western Ghats which provide water throughout the year to states starting from Gujarat to Kerala. The region is thickly forested with so many varieties of unique plants, trees and animal life that it’s virtually mindboggling. Yes, there are way too many people who are not bothered with what happens to these plants and animals. But you destroy this eco-system and the main sufferers will ultimately be us; because you are destroying a whole watershed region of the country.

Yes, mining and other power projects are required for ‘development’. But we as a country do not have enough integrity to distinguish between working for real development or just for money.  Each state government needs to think strategically about the future - of how much to take and how much to preserve.

On second thoughts, that might just never happen.     

A Fool’s Paradise:

Demographic Dividend.

How I hate the term.

To the uninitiated, this term was lapped up by politicians, economists and probably all rights based NGOs when they realised long ago that India can never be able to control the country’s population from growing despite setting goals. Taking advantage of the media brouhaha about the shining status of our country, they happily threw sand into people’s eyes by explaining how we are a nation of ‘young workforce’ who will lead the country to be the next superpower.
And we as a nation of gullible or rather hopeful lot, believed every word of it and happily added numbers to that ‘young workforce’.

If it were a country where all systems worked well, the rise in population could still work out to its advantage. However this is India, where most systems have failed, more than half its 1.2 billion population lives in rural areas and around 40% of its people are still poor, farmers who produce food for us are left with no food for themselves, children are still uneducated and grossly malnourished, youths have next to no option for any skill development or jobs, women are still not economically independent and old people have no safety net to live the rest of their lives with dignity. Now imagine adding more people to such a scenario.

Demographics in India is like walking on a knife’s edge...it’s just a matter of time when one slips and gets bloodied.  Anybody who doesn’t see it still, is living in a fool’s paradise. I do not understand the complexities of politics and economy, but as a worried citizen I feel that things will not improve unless we bring in drastic reduction in population growth, change in the way the country is governed and save whatever natural resources is left in this country. 

Our country’s wealth is limited and natural resources finite. The only person who seems to have understood this and its repercussions was Sanjay Gandhi. And perhaps we missed a great opportunity with him of setting things straight for this country.

There! Dear all (human) rights based NGOs, misguiding politicians and optimistic citizens, I have said it aloud and in the open.

Let the brickbats begin.