School dropouts and toilets

I yesterday (27 Dec 2010) watched the live webcast of IIMA Conclave, an interaction between Narendra Modi and IIM A alumni at Ahmedabad. It is no secret that Gujarat has made tremendous progress under Narendra Modi in the last 10 years. It could be highlighted by a remark by Mr Ratan Tata – “You must be stupid if you are not (doing business) here (in Gujatat)”. The speech today from Narendra Modi was as always, very inspiring and full of facts, rather than promises. After the speech, there was a Q & A session with the audience and there was one specific question and its response which I am going to share in this post.

The question was about school drop out rates in Gujarat. Interestingly, Narendra Modi answered this question by sharing the progress Gujarat has made in this regard. He said that when he took over the Gujarat governance for the first time in the year 2000, the drop out rate was 20% (from Std 1 to 5). After interviewing girl students, their parents and school staff, it was found out that the schools didn’t have separate toilets for boys and girls at that time. And sometime from Std 1 to 5, the girls started getting conscious about using the same toilets as boys, and they started to drop out of school instead.

School Children in a government school in Bangalore

School Children in a government school in Bangalore

What Mr Modi pointed out after that is he put up a huge plan of constructing separate toilets in schools at a massive scale. He used to supervise this himself and got weekly reports about how many toilets have been built since the last week. He mentioned they built some 40,000 toilets in the years to follow. And the results speak for themselves. The drop out rate fell to 5% in 2005 and 2% in 2010, which is nothing less than amazing. He further said he aimed to reduce this to zero very soon.

Whats commendable here are not only the results, but also the openness to understand that school toilets could be the reason for children dropping out of schools. Once identified, a plan was made and executed ferociously, unlike in other government schemes in various parts of the country. Kudos to Mr Modi and all the Gujarat government and education officials involved in this. It will make a huge difference to the prosperity of Gujarat when these students pass out and join the mainstream.

A Poem on Indian Railways – Chuk Chuk Gaadi

Read some of my other most popular poemsGo the Extra Mile, A Ripple of Hope and Why God made Mothers?

Often called the Lifeline of the Nation,
Indian Railways runs more than 14,300 trains!
It carries over 13 million passengers daily,
Across hills, tunnels, rivers, lakes and plains!!

With 1.6 million employees under its rolls,
IR is one of the world’s largest employer!
Traveling across the country in its 63,000 kms of tracks,
You are bound to have more adventure than Tom Sawyer!!

An Indian Rail

A Train in Indian Railways

Trains run from North to South, East to West,
Across the length and breadth of the country!
Jammu to Kanyakumari is 4751kms,
Is covered by Himsagar Express in 66 hrs, albeit slowly!!

The Railways was a legacy of the British,
And we have come a long way since then!
We have new tracks, trains and coaches,
And technology’s presence is felt even in the engine!!

But while the world has zipped away,
With the high speed and maglev trains!
We continue to live in the British era,
And our trains still run as if enslaved in chains!!

The TGV in France runs at more than 250 km/hour,
Chinese high speed trains exceed speeds of more than 350 km/hour!
Maglev trains are already being tested at 450 km/hour,
With our fastest running at 90, the experience really turns sour!!

My father points out that in the 80s,
Karnataka Express used to take 36 hrs between Delhi – Bangalore!
Now 25 years later it takes 40 hrs,
Surely not something worth writing about in Indian Railways brochure!!

Most stations are outdated and overcrowded,
Trains themselves are rusted, in gross disrepair and dirty!
People hang outside the windows and even on the roof,
Which makes for nice photographs, but at the cost of safety!!

Crowd on an Indian Train

A typical sight on Indian Railways

Communication and signaling equipment is outdated,
No surprises that 83% of all accidents result from human error!
The whole infrastructure is old and crumbling,
Add to that the problems of corruption, naxalism and terror!!

There is no doubt that Indian Railways needs to be better managed,
We need solutions, problems are not going to disappear if we just duck!
Considering the size and scale of operations its not going to be easy,
The authorities needs to tighten their belts, and let us wish them “Best of Luck”!!

Racism and Unity

It is after a long time I am writing a poem, and this is certainly my first since I started blogging. It follows below, read it and share your views as comments…

Our media say Aussies are attacking Indians,
But is racism really to blame…
In the race of getting more eyeballs and attention,
Isn’t it only a publicity game!!

Why do we forget to see,
What is happening in our own home?
When Shiv Sena hits out at fellow Indians,
It seems our unity and dignity are long gone…

Naxalites are killing policemen everyday,
Now active among 220 districts and 20 states..
Our armies might be one of the biggest,
But some problems are better solved with just opening our heart gates!

Is it not racism when we divide on caste,
Or hate a person for region or religion…
Why do we always forget that be it Biharis or Mumbaikars,
We are all part of the same legion!!

It is said every cloud has a silver lining,
And with the attacks on Indians down under…
Shiv Sena when they said would not allow Aussie players to play,
Saw the victims as Indians and not as Punjabis/Mumbaikars, which is a wonder!!

Whatever is happening to this country,
I can only pity…
We need to think that why it takes a disaster or calamity,
To bring us countrymen together in unity!!

The Idea of a Safe India

How safe are we?

How safe are we?

In the 80’s, there was terror in Punjab. Then there have been continuous terror incidents in Kashmir from the late 80s and early 90s. But the 21st century brought with it a new kind of terror in India. Terrorists now managed serial blasts all across India, and also carried out personal fidayeen attacks in many cities of India. Apart from the terror attacks, there has been religious violence in Gujarat and continuous attacks on Churches across states. There has been violence in Mumbai over North Indians, in Rajasthan over Gujjars demanding a lower SC status, in Punjab over Dera Sacha Sauda, and then there is Naxalism in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, and many other states. So what happened to the idea of a Safe India?

Terrorism have took a new turn in the last decade. Terrorists now dared to attack the Red Fort in 2000, the Parliament in 2001 and the Akshardham Temple in Gujarat in 2002. There have been bus/car bombings in Mumbai in 2003, serial blasts in Delhi in 2005, serial attacks in Varanasi in 2006, bombings at Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad in 2007, serial attacks in Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad in 2008 plus the 26 Nov Mumbai terror attacks the same year. Terrorists have managed to attack us by sea and land alike. They have come from across the border and there have been home grown Indian Mujahideen as well. There have been bomb blasts at popular markets and fidayeen attacks at religious places.

Apart from terrorism, we have seen the Gujarat riots of 2002, attacks on Churches in Orissa and Karnataka in 2007 and 2008 and many other small incidents. There has been caste violence in Maharashtra over the issue of North Indians and in Rajasthan when Gujjars wanted a lower status to get more reservation. It sounds strange somebody resorting to violence to get a lower status, but it is true. There have been incidents in Punjab over the Dera Sacha Sauda and later over the killing of a Dera leader Ramanand in Vienna. Attacks against dalits have also continued to take place throughout India over the last decade.

Naxalism is active among 220 districts and 20 states of India. According to RAW, there are 20,000 armed Naxalites in India. Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have regarded them as the biggest internal threat to India. According to reports, more than 6000 people have died due to Naxalism in the last two decades. There are regular attacks on police stations and slaughter of officials by Naxalites in these areas. Coming to the original question, is India safe as a state considering the violence in the last decade. Why can’t we feel safe even in our own country? There is fear of Pakistan based terror, home grown terror, religious violence, caste based violence and naxalism.

So what has gone wrong in the last decade as the idea of a safe India has gone for a toss. We have one of the largest armies in the world, yet we are the most unsafe country it seems. We are going places, our GDP growth rate is the fastest after China, yet we cannot guarantee the safety of our own citizens. Everything India has achieved over the last decade has been because of its private sector while the government has continued to be slow and disappoint ever since. We can only hope this situation will improve and our elected representatives take their tasks seriously before it is too late. I just want to be safe in my own country, Is this too much to ask?

An Open Letter to Shiv Sena

My Name is Khan

A MNIK poster on the roads

This is an open letter to the so called protector of Marathi rights, the Shiv Sena. For those who don’t know, Shiv Sena is a major political party in Maharashtra headed by Bal Thackeray, and fights elections normally in an alliance with the BJP. The letter starts below –

Dear Shiv Sena Members,

First of all, congratulations of being a responsible political party in Maharashtra who thinks that blocking the release of a Shah Rukh Khan movie is more important than working on other civic management issues in Maharashtra and Mumbai. These other “less” important issues like lack of safe drinking water which results in diseases like diarrhea, cholera which in turn leads to high infant mortality rates.

Mumbai, where most of you Shiv Sainiks work, is a city of 14 million people but over 60% of them live in slums. And the slum population is still increasing every year. There are traffic problems, lack of housing, poor water and power distribution system, and yet you attack Shah Rukh, Mukesh Ambani and Sachin Tendulkar for saying the obvious. And remember, every time you protest / attack, you are wasting money paid as tax by your own Mumbaikars!!

Only if you remember these are the same people who have brought pride to Mumbai and to India for the last many decades and continue to do so. You ask Shah Rukh Khan to go to Pakistan for supporting Pakistan players, yet your supremo Bal Thackeray invites Javed Miandad at his house. You blame Sachin Tendulkar for saying he plays for India and he is an Indian first, but have forgotten the fame Sachin has brought to Mumbai, India and Indian Cricket. You attack Mukesh Ambani for saying Mumbai is for all Indians, when most of Ambani’s (and Mumbai’s) business comes from all over India.

When India’s constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression to every Indian, who are you to consider yourself above it? You lost in the last assembly elections, and I hope you don’t think tactics like this would make you win the next one. And if you have to protest, what happened to the idea of peaceful protests? Where did you get the idea that disrupting public life, resorting to violence and attacking prominent personalities will do you any good.

Or maybe you are just in a race with MNS to grab the “most headlines in newspapers” award. Because you feel your own Mumbaikars don’t know what film to go watch, and what all you do is more important than the farmer suicides which are happening in rural Maharashtra unabated. Or maybe it is just frustration at continuously losing elections in Maharashtra that you choose to participate in a headline grabbing race with MNS.

Instead of doing all this stupid stuff, when will you wake up to what Mumbai actually needs. What about protesting for wider roads, an efficient rail system, and sufficient power and water supply? Why don’t you spend time with the youth of Mumbai training them, educating them, and make them more competitive to stand national and global competition? Why not be responsible for a change and go out and meet farmers in rural areas and understand their problems and search for solutions?

I think it is time for you to ponder over what you have been doing and what your city and state needs. Participate in active discussions in the assembly instead of disrupting assembly sessions or remaining absent. Being a responsible opposition party only can help you win the elections next time, and it’s high time you realized that!!