"Reason has always
existed, but not always in a reasonable form."
—Karl Marx (German
1818-1883)
Word for the day
Kerflooey (adv)
To cease functioning,
especially suddenly and completely. E.g., As soon as the storm hit, every
light in town went kerflooey.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Malice towards none
What should the government
aim for - "gender equality" or gender neutrality"?
First random thought this morning
Last week I received more than 20 "Forwards" of a
Whatsapp message celebrating announcement of our National Anthem as "the
best anthem" in the world by UN!
I was not surprised by this ridiculous claim or the celebrations
over it. I have been witnessing this hubris since my childhood. What bothered
me was the people who were spreading this message. These were CAs, IIM
graduates, senior bankers, principal of a prestigious private school, et. al.
On the positive side, I can now explain many election results
better and can forecast many more even better!
Governance by ambivalence - II
Last month, a village panchayat in Aligarh (UP) decided that
farmers already staggering under the burden of a bad crop and loans should not
be expected to continue the tradition of Mrityubhoj, the ritual feeding of
people on the 13th day of death. (see
here)
The Panchayat said that only 10% of farmers and villagers have 20
bighas (~1 hectare) and above of land, the rest have only 10 bighas (~0.5
hectare) or less. They should, therefore, be freed "from expectations of
feeding people, a ritual that often involves huge expenses.
The event, though not reported prominently in media, is very
significant in the overall socio-economic context of the country.
It is common knowledge that death, birth and marriages are three
most important reasons for household indebtedness in India. This is more true
in case of Indians living in rural areas, but also applies to the city
dwellers.
Many of these traditions and rituals have perhaps outlived their
relevance and have serious economic and social consequences.
For example on economic side, these practices have been seen
leading, inter alia, to (a) wasteful expenditure by way of elaborate and
unaffordable ceremonies and feasts; (b) misallocation of capital, e.g., by way
of buying gold and avoidable (often prohibitively expensive) debt; (c)
misallocation of labor, e.g., by way of bonded labor and unnecessary migration.
On the social side, malice like female infanticide, dowry deaths,
exploitation by money lenders and bonded labor, mindless migration to cities,
oppression of poor and lower caste people, human trafficking, could trace their
genesis in these practices and rituals.
I have no qualms in saying that any economic reform program cannot
be effective if it does not deal with these aspects of socio-economic milieu.
Unfortunately, so far political expediency and shortsightedness
has constricted our political establishment from addressing these issues. On
the contrary, we have seen many instances of elected leaders encouraging and
promoting such practices.
Another social issue that has serious economic consequences is the
issue of women rights. The recent agitations over women's right to enter places
of worship.
What I understood from my discussion with some administrators, law
enforcers and politicians is that (a) everyone is approaching the issue from
the three angles of religious sanctity, gender equality and social acceptance.
Whereas, in my view, given the modern context, the government should be working
towards achieving the goal of "gender neutrality".
So rather than providing for gender based reservation and
concessions, the ultimate goal should be to eliminate the Gender column from
all forms & documents; and obliterate all gender based references from the
statute books. In the interim a firm stand should be taken towards anything
that is found discriminating on the basis of gender (of course including the
3rd gender).
No comments:
Post a Comment