Representative democracy...

Of late, some mainstream media, few public spirited citizens and many political leaders including some cabinet ministers in karnataka are obsessed with poor voter turnout. The recently held elections in Bangalore for urban local bodies saw abysmal and pathetically low voter turnout of less than 45% according to official figures (but there is still some controversy on the actual number) .. This is a proof of sorry state of affairs in one of the most forward and so called "elite" cities in India.

More i read about elections, i feel sorry that we spend thousands of crores of money on electing a set of candidates who have at maximum 20% people supporting them (If the voter turnout is 45% and if this 45% is split between 4 candidates, the winning candidate will not be having the favour or more than 20% of the population). So, Strictly speaking its not democracy and no where close to it.

Some politicians and many individuals are suggesting that voting must be made compulsory as a remedy to this situation... Well, at the outset this idea looks good, but will it get the desired result. The desired result is not 100% voter turnout but its better governance. How are we sure that better governance is guaranteed by better voter turnout. It may work, but that will be in the very long run. In short to medium run, mandatory voting is unlikely to influence the quality of candidates or the quality of governance.

I believe in participative democracy.. According to me it does not mater if the voter turn out is 5% or 100%, whats important is at-least 50% participate in governance. Its only thought in insane high school textbooks that people participate in governance by voting. Paradigms and tools of participation has changed and is not limited to voting.And it should not be limited to voting in any elite democracy. One recent example is the ongoing road issue inside GKVK campus in Bangalore. The public opinion it has generated is phenomenon.Given the motive behind the project, its clear that whoever the corporator or MLA or CM who has come to power by how much ever votes and by whatever percentage of votes, it would not have mattered to the project. The project would have gone through if the people had kept quite.But the public has used other tools of participation like RTI and PIL to stall the project.. We have many instances like that...

An effective tool in participative democracy is RTI. RTI is a superb piece of ligislation. It is one of the many ways yet a very powerful tool in participating in democracy.Its easy , fast and well institutionalized.. I recently attended a talk by Aruna roy (Magsaysay awardee) . This lady is so proud of the constitution and yet she is in such fierce battle with certain institutions and people who work with the constitution.. We can see for ourselves the results of her struggle. She was instrumental in RTI as well.I am not saying that everyone must be aruna roy.. But being involved in working of the system and participating in governance is critical for better governance (and social change)

Changing the landscape of the country by better voter turnout can never be realized., atleast in my lifetime. My opinion is that, its immaterial if you have voted or not as long as you remain insensitive towards things around you.

We need public spirited citizenry and voting is a small part of it.

(PS:I have voted in every election since i was 18 and every-time, the candidate i have voted for has been victorious and still i have written some 1000 E-mails, 400 letters to the Secretariat, the administrative reforms department, made some 100 odd petitions to commissioners and politicians, have met the present and past MLAs and CMs on one or the other civic issue.)

Aam Aadmi, oil and fiscal policy.

The UPA government has come to power for the second time on the Aam Aadmi card. It still remains an open question that who is the Aam aadmi according to the congress party? Is it the 77% of the Indian population who earn less than 20 rupees a day (According to national commission for enterprises in unorganized sector headed by Economist Arjun sengupta published, set up by UPA government in 2007) or the remaining 20% or less who actually pay Income tax. According to the Budget presented last week by the UPA, it seems that for the UPA, the Aam aadmi is only the income tax paying population.

The last year's Economic survey tabled in the parliament on July 2, 2009 says that the government has to consider ending controls on fuel prices to curb demand. This is a very good recommendation and it is high time the government considers this seriously. Though not exactly in line with ending controls, the government did increase the oil prices in this year's budget. Let us dispassionately look at the rationality of this decision in the given economic scenario vis-a-vis other fiscal policies announced. 

According to many experts, the greatest economic problem facing us right now is the problem of food prices. This is very much true. Its sky rocketing and increasingly becoming less affordable to large majority of the population. The fiscal policy announcements in the budget should have focused on this primarily than on other issues. But quite the opposite has happened. 

Immediately, the oil prices, particularly the diesel prices should not have been touched.Hike in fuel prices, particularly diesel prices will have a cascading effect and reflect in hike in the price of every commodity. Most importantly its going to reflect very negatively on food prices..

Our country is not prepared to face this situation in the short run. We are still a very poor country with millions below poverty line. Lakhs of people sleep hungry every night. Hike in food prices in the short run will be disastrous for millions in our country.

We must note here that the year on year food inflation as recorded in Whole sale price index (WPI) is around 17% now (was at 8% last July). This is a year on year inflation and not with respect to a base year.Strictly speaking the food prices have gone up more than 17% from last year and income of the millions of people have stagnated or has slipped into the negative. This is evident from the negative growth recorded in the farm sector. Statistics show that more than 55% of the farmers are net buyers of food. With data on the net production of grains this year not very certain, the food inflation situation will worsen in the coming months. Climate change and dropping water tables in many parts of south India will only make the things worse. .

The budget did not have anything substantial to revive the farm sector, did not have any policy pronouncement to tackle inflation. Instead the decision on diesel price hike will only fuel inflation and push up the food prices.  

But the government has done quite a lot for "its" Aam aadmi by cutting down direct taxes and continuing some irrational exemptions extended to corporate sector. In this year's budget ,Revenue foregone in excise duty — Rs. 1,70,765 crores. Customs duty — Rs.2,49,021 crores. Together with the Rs.80,000 crore in direct write-offs, the total nears Rs. 500,000 crores. All this will benefit at maximum 20% of the Indian population. 

Coming back to rationalizing oil prices, was there no option for the government but to increase the oil prices. Or was this the only way to rationalize oil prices. It is agreed that the oil prices must be deregularized for better fiscal management. But given the status of Indian economy, it must be done in a more just and rational manner. 

Broadly the government has two choices.

1)A hike in diesel prices will have a cascading effect and reflect in hike in the price of every commodity. Petrol, on the other hand, will not have such a huge impact on the prices compared to diesel. Hence the government can consider dual pricing of diesel. The price for diesel for public transport, goods carrier and freight purposes can be pegged at rupees 38 or 40 for the next few years. This will not hurt the common man so far as essential commodities are considered.

On the other hand, the subsidy on petrol and diesel for private use must be totally de-regularised. This means that the price of diesel sold at retail level for luxury cars must be market determined. Of course his would be an enormous administrative challenge and opens up large windows for corruption. But considering our quite efficient bureaucracy at higher levels, this should be possible.This policy of dual pricing of diesel will have dual advantages.

As the prices of petrol and diesel increase steeply in the retail market, people will shift slowly to public transport at no increase in cost.This will consequently reduce congestion on roads and help in mitigating climate change.

2)Another alternative the government has is to de-regulate the prices of fuel in a phased manner. B.K. Chaturvedi committee has dealt this issue at length and has laid out a road map for de-regulation.

However, government can immediately de-regulate the petrol prices and slowly de-regulate the diesel prices.

Communicating generation................!!

In today's commercial world, Mobile phone is the most important tool that one has to have. At least for me the world will stop without the cell phone and Internet connectivity. I do most of my work over the mobile and lot of business happens over it. I normally share my work with a friend of mine. Today we had to call a very important guy to explain to him certain things. Me and my friend were sitting just after lunch and we remembered that we have to call this important guy. I said that i am not interested and he must make the call. He was also not very interested and finally i ended up making the call and striking the deal too!!!!

A few minutes back, my cell phone rang again may be the 100th call today and i picked it up cursing the inventor of the phone. Well, i really don't have a choice but i must say the cell phone has made the work so easy.

For a moment today evening, this stuff about phone receiving and calling took me to my childhood. I remember clearly that i was in fifth standard when we got the phone to our house. We were a large family in a big house in Basavanagudi. We were 11 people in the house with many people visiting us often. If i remember right, we had to wait for 4 years to get the connection after applying for it (A month back i got a second land line to my house just 3 days after applying for it). I was so excited with the phone that i used to stand next to it to receive the phone call. I was not going out of the house because i would miss lifting the phone. I had memorized all the relatives' phone number and whenever anybody in the house wanted to call anyone, i used to run to the phone and dial for them. I used to get tips from cousins and relatives on how to receive the phone. The phone was something very exciting. Whenever there was no phone call for a while, i used to call 161 and the phone used to ring after disconnecting. Sometimes i used to make the phone ring, lift it, pretend that it was my friend, disconnect and give missed call to my school the number for which was on my progress report and i had memorized it. Now all these sounds stupid but 16 years back that was so exciting and so much fun.

The cell phone is a exciting stuff today as well. I started with a borrowed black and white cell phone in 2004 and just six months later my cousin gifted me the latest phone with polyphonic ring-tones. A year later he bought me an expensive phone with camera, blue tooth and what not and just as i write this, my phone is ringing which now has wi-fi, Internet, multimedia and what not.

Only the cell phone is exciting but using the phone is not exciting. On the phone,People crib at me , i crib at others, people shout at me, i shout at others. Of course women don't call me.
Most times, i end up checking mail for no good reason and only addiction. For no good reason, i tweet saying that i am tweeting . I have a lot of information, but don't know what to do with the information.

I enjoy my work, i enjoy meeting and talking to people. I do lot of my work over the phone. All the coordination can be done with least effort.Project deals are done over phone. Payments are made and received over it.The phone and my outspokenness over it has taken me to people in power, earned some appreciation somewhere, have made my voice heard somewhere and at the same time on many occasions has got me into a lot of trouble.

All in all, the cell phone has made certain things really easy. But i feel somewhere something is missing. My father was a better engineer and even better manager than i am without any of these tools. With 3 mobiles, 2 landlines and two computers at home, i don't even know how much money i spent last week or last month.

Cought in Contradiction

A construction is going on in my neighbourhood from the last 4 months. Being immediate neighbours, we have to put up with all the noise and the dust from the place. Thankfully i am not at home most of the day. But my mother has to face all the music almost the entire day.

There is a father-son duo working there as unskilled labourers and sometimes they act as watchmen to the property. Both are descent and relatively clean for unskilled labourers in India.

I have been observing the duo for about four months now. They are very silent and whenever they dirty our roof or our premises, they promptly come and clean up the place even without we telling them. They are good people.

About couple of weeks back, i asked the son if he had ever been to school and his answer was "NO". He had never been there. I asked his father why his son was never sent to school. His father just kept quite. The son is not more than 12 or 13 years old. He does a lot of physical labour all day. He has been thought to tell his age as "17". He insisted that he was 17 on my repeated questioning. One can easily make out that he is not more than 12 or at max 13.

In India, Child labour is banned. Also primary education is every child's right. But this poor kid is denied of basic education and also has to put up with hard physical labour everyday. He spends his entire day with dust.

Having been involved in some sort of active citizenry, i know most of the local officials here very well. Thanks to my repeated petitions and complaints to the corporation and the CMO, the corporation authorities know me by name and face. I meet some of them almost every week. So i decided to take the issue of the boy to the corporation this week and get him enrolled in a school. Last week, i requested the executive engineer to help me and he put me in touch with the concerned eduction official. All this happened without the knowledge of the boy.

Today the story is different. The boy comes to my house at 8:30 PM and asks my mother for "Saaru"(ಸಾರು) (It is eaten with rice). Their normal practice is to cook/bring rice from home and buy saaru in a local restaurant(a cart like thing on the road) here. The boy tells my mother that " ಇವತ್ತು ಹೋಟೆಲ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಹತ್ತು ರೂಪಾಯೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟರು ಸಾರು ಕೊಡಲ್ಲ ಅಂತಾರೆ " (They are refusing to give saaru (sambar) even if i give ten rupees ). He did not have money to buy it and so he had come to our house.

My mother gave him something and i followed this boy to his place. He and his father had one big box of rice and thats all. I simply said that the boy must go to school and he will get free afternoon meal.His father in a soft voice said, put together he and his son earn 300 per day (more than 1 dollar) . Out of which 64 rupees goes in commuting. So they are left with 236 rupees. Apart from these two they have the boy's mother and boy's younger sister at home. So they are a family of four. The mother cannot work because of some trouble she had during the delivery of second baby. So here is a family of four with daily earnings of 236 rupees; out of which they have to pay for their house, fuel, clothing and food. Remember that there is no guarantee that they will be employed 365 days in a year. The father says, if his son does not work, then atleast one person in the house will have to sleep hungry everyday. I tried to convince him saying that the son going to school and having a free lunch there would compensate for this. But his immediate reaction was that, the schools are closed for 3 months in a year and if the son gets into a habit of not working, he would not work during the 3 months when the schools are closed. I had no answer to him. He asked me if i could atleast guarantee work for both of them during these 3 months. I again had no answer.

The second point is, this is a family which is struggling for 10 rupees. The boy says that he is not getting saaru EVEN FOR 10 RUPEES. One can make out from his tone what 10 rupees really means to him. At time when food prices are sky rocketing, its really difficult for the poor to afford certain basic needs.

Given this scenario, i am not sure if i will be doing any good by forcing the kid into the school. I am not sure if this would do any good to him and his family. This is a serious contradiction for which i am not sure if i can get an answer.

All this makes me feel how lucky i am to have been born and brought up in a well to do family, to have got education and many other luxuries in life. But at the same time i feel this world is cruel and totally unfair.

There are millions of such families in our country. There are many more who are worse than the this family. India probably has most number of dollar billionaires in the world but also has 830 million people earning less than 20 rupees per day. We, the educated young blood of the country must come out with innovative economic solution to these problems. NGO kind of activity or charity or romanticizing with these issues, in my view will take us nowhere.

A social Experiment

Yesterday i had been to Bangalore Central (A shopping mall and not railway station) for shopping with my cousin Pavan. Thanks to weekend and Christmas round the corner, there were plenty of people and pretty people around. A live band was entertaining the people around. Few good looking girls with red cap were entertaining the kids with tattoos, music, mehendi etc. There was also a Santa distributing chocolates to the kids around.

The band was playing some steppy bollywood numbers as we walked around the store. Soon the band stopped and a DJ took over playing some totally un-understandable music. For fifteen minutes i tried hard to follow the music but could not. I suggested pavan that we must go and ask the DJ to play kannada music. Pavan was game for the idea. We picked some stuff and headed towards the DJ. Pavan suddenly chickened off and said it was embarrassing to ask the DJ to play kannada music.

This is a pretty "Flashy place" and kannada music is not generally played in these places. I made up my mind to ask the DJ to play a kannda song. He told me that the management has told me that he has to play 80% English and 20% Hindi songs. He started giving me some rationale behind the choice of music. I insisted that he has to play a Kannada song. (I had serious doubts about him playing it). To my surprise he agreed to play.

From no angle, i look like a right wing kannada activist . As a matter of fact i asked him in English to play a kannada song. So he definitely did not fear me as a pro-kannada activist.

Within the next couple of minutes, he started playing a kannada song "Jinke mari na". I was in the ground floor and the moment the song started, almost everyone looked at the DJ. The customers and the employees there, almost all of them turned to DJ looking at him with some astonishment.

As i left the mall, i asked a few employees of the mall if they had heard a kannada song in the mall before. The answer was obviously "NO". It was the first time a kannada song was played in that mall.

I cannot draw any conclusive conclusion from this. But the reaction of the people in the mall for the kannada song did surprise me.

Gender Exclusivity??!!

The discussion i had with my cousin Pavan yesterday prompted me to write this blog. Most of it is directly copied in verbatim from Pavan's blog (http://thoughtpaisa.blogspot.com/2009/12/gender-exclusivity.html)

Whenever people talk of gender diversity ( people actually talk of 'gender inclusivity but since there are not too many diverse genders, let us stick with 'inclusivity') they most often mean the inclusion of women in hitherto men dominated spheres of work.

This in, late 2009, is passe. The march of women at workplace, in India, is slow but sure and is gathering pace to the (pleasant) point of no return. Which is to mean that the world (including corporate world) can choose to ignore women to their own peril.

However, the fate of trans-genders in India is deplorable. Disowned by families, abandoned by society and forced to fend for themselves, the national profession for transgenders seems to be petty extortion at traffic signals and railway compartments.

Their situation is pathetic. They simply have no means of livelihood because of their unpleasantness.

Of course, in some communities, there is a social accommodation in rituals involving transgenders to bless the social function. While this provide a source of livelihood, it does little to bring transgenders to the mainstream. In fact, having the opposite effect - furthering the myth of a transgenders' potency to bless and curse.

Society chooses to ignore them, because it is unpleasant to think of them. Anyway if you travel in air conditioned cars and coaches, it is very convenient to ignore them.

No mainstream enterprise hires transgenders. They have no marketable skills. But they are able-bodied and know that society is embarrassed by them AND have stomachs to support. Easiest way is to use unpleasantness and extort a price for it. They are not doing this out of choice.

The difficult and uncomfortable question is how to get them to mainstream and make them give them the dignity. Universal declaration of Human rights say that "Everyone is born with equal freedom and dignity". Unfortunately the problem of transgenders are never spoken about in any political or social forum/agenda.

When governments can have rehabilitation and skill development programmes for HIV infected people and differently abled people, why not a similar programme for the transgenders?

There are many thousands of transgenders in India. Their problems and the problems they create cannot be and should not be ignored. The social stigma associated with them will reduce once the society finds a way to rehabilitate them with dignity.

To start with they are able bodied people. They can be hired as unskilled jobs with minimum social interaction. Of course this is a humongous social engineering work and easier said than done. But one hopes that it will be done someday.