Apu’s World

I seem to spend a lot of time online, coming across all kinds of interesting reads. So I thought, why not share the goodies! Every Thursday, I am now going to share a few links that pop up on my radar.

Only Ash Knows The Experience of Burning - Dr. Jai Prakash Kardam, Dalit Writer and Second Secretary at the Indian High Commission, Mauritius, talks about the status of Dalit literature today and what the experiences of Dalits bring to literature.

The Indian government has come out with a plan to distribute pregnancy kits to women getting married, so that they can test in private and then decide how “unwanted complications can be curbed”. While the intentions are good, I doubt women can decide whether or not to keep the pregnancy, any more than they can decide to postpone conception using contraceptives, which would of course be an easier thing to do, with less implications for their health. The fundamental issue is still that many women will not have a say in when they want to have a child, nor is there awareness on options for contraception.

Nita has a lovely piece on why cooking (and any other non-money-making activity) has been devalued, the implications for health and why men should be doing more!

Happy Reading!

apu Women & Feminism

Religious leaders in India do their best to outdo one another - not in wisdom, compassion or charity, but in demanding concessions, sticking to outmoded ways of seeing and doing things, generally being intolerant of anything, etc. So, a few years ago, RSS Chief K.S.Sudarshan urged Hindus to have atleast 3 children. Now it is the turn of the Church in Kerala. Alarmed that Christians are having only 1 or 2 children, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council has now said it will support families that have more children.

And what may you ask is the cause of this alarm? The realization that the Christian population in the state has declined by precisely 0.3 percentage points over a 10 year period while that of Muslims has increased in the same period by 1.43 percentage points. (Percentage Data for Kerala state from 1991 and 2001 census below)

 

The motives could be many. A general desire to ‘Save as many souls’ as possible. Fear of dwindling church coffers. Some in the media have even claimed that this is because the Church is facing a shortage of nuns and priests, Kerala being one of the largest contributors of such resources. Fear of one’s community losing its political voice due to lower vote numbers. Whatever be the reason, religious leaders of course conveniently forget, or choose to ignore, that there are WOMEN involved in giving birth to children; they don’t just appear magically.

Women carry these children for 9 months and it is still largely women who take on the task of child rearing. The Church leaders believe that economic reasons are preventing families from having more children. Presto, offering aid will boost up the numbers of the faithful. They are forgetting a number of other reasons!

Kerala is one of the most educated states in the country. It has for long had a highly literate population. Educated families realise that they can focus better on children so long as there are fewer of them. It’s not just a question of money - most parents simply do not have the energy to deal with a large number of kids, especially as families go nuclear, and child raising is no longer shared with many people.

Women want to do other things too. Dear religious men (men, of course), this may be news to you, but many women now do a number of things outside the home. Whether or not they work, they have a number of other interests and activities. Having three or more kids might be great if they just grew up fine themselves, but since it takes a lot of time (and usually women’s time), perhaps you might let families, and especially women, decide on what number suits them?

The Church also forgets that the resources of the Earth are not inexhaustible. Just to keep up with another community’s numbers or make sure that one has a certain numerical strength, if everyone starts adding to the earth’s burden - pretty soon, this country won’t sustain any community at all.

And lastly, dear religious leaders, will you please stop thinking of women’s bodies as public goods to be used for the benefit of any (selfish or not) interests? Wombs are private property, not instruments available for use.

Data Sources: Kerala Census Data 1991, Total Census Data, 2001

apu Other Social issues in India, Women & Feminism

More than 20 years ago, gas leaks at the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal resulted in one of the biggest industrial disasters of the decade. Dow Chemicals, which later took over Union Carbide, disclaimed all responsibility on account of being a different legal entity - a very convenient way of brushing off the survivors’ demand that the company take full accountability. Now the protestors are beginning an indefinite fast as their demands over the years have gone unheard. Indra Sinha, author of Animal’s People, is joining in from France. More info here on how you can support them.

(News via Peter Griffin)

apu Other Social issues in India

Indian property laws (atleast so far as the Hindu Succession Act is concerned) have been amended a long time ago, to ensure that women get an equal share in property gained from parents, as well as in cases where the husband passes away. Much attention was not, however given to womens’ self-acquired property; probably because when these amendments were made (1954), not too many women had acquired assets on their own. Now of course, the situation is different. Accordingly, the Law Commission has suggested changes so that, if a woman passes away without a heir, the property would move to the husband’s as well as parent’s families. I guess this reflects a change in mindset - when a woman got married, she was seen as having “left” her parents’ family; the law is now recognising that women continue to have ties and obligations to their original families as well.

Personally, I am all in favor of this - along with adding on to women’s rights, I strongly believe women must share in certain duties as well. In this country, we place such emphasis on taking care of our parents and siblings. It will be good if more and more people acknowledge that this applies to women as well.

apu Women & Feminism

I recently watched ‘Horton hears a Who’, the new movie adapation of Dr. Seuss’ 1954 classic. The movie is delightful. Along with ‘Ratatouille’, this is one of the few animation movies I’ve seen recently, that focuses on the story and characters, without getting lost in fancy animation techniques.

(Pic courtesy www.smh.com.au)

It has a moral without being preachy, the characters seem so real, and the landscape looks amazing without seeming enchanted or fairy-tale-like. The dialogue is lovely too; it doesn’t rhyme all the way but retains the rhythmic quality of the book.

My only hitch - (without giving away too much of the plot), when the Mayor of Whoville has 98 daughters, why is he constantly wishing for the uninterested son to follow him as mayor ? Even if we accept that it is a role that passes from father to child, weren’t any of the 98 girls interested? I thought it sends across a poor message to kids, that it is boys who get to do all the important stuff; the father’s focus on the son was just that blatant. I can’t remember if this is the same as the book, which was after all, written in 1954…

I could even understand if the Mayor just had the one son and wanted him to do great things, but to have 98 other kids, and none of them even considered as worthy of ‘doing’ anything.

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