In India - we are still living in stone age
Chapter XVI, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises homosexual activity.
The legislation was drafted by Lord Macualay in 1860 durng the British rule, and was introduced to Indians. Even more than 150 years after - the legislation is a matter of disputes and discussions. However, the British themselves have reformed their legislation and have allowed same-sex couples to form civil partnerships. In England, homosexual behaviour between consenting adults, in private, was decriminalised in 1967.
Last December the legendery singer of England - who had been awarded knighthood by the queen of England - married his long-time partner David Furnish. Byt the way, Furnish is known to have helped Elton John to get rid of his addiction to drugs.
Who followed Elton's footsteps, was hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan, who boldly announced her future plans to live with her long time woman friend Samantha Ronson.
Both the stars made international headlines and their moves were lauded and celebrated by people who strongly believed that the age has come to take off the hypocracy cover from our faces, at least in the matter as intimate as our sexual preferences.
But, India - where epics like Kama Sutra - depicting various positions of sexual act and deliberating upon the topic telling how to make it more aesthetically enjoyable - and places like Khajuraho - where each every possible sexual act is etched on the walls of the temples - is still battling with this one and half century old legislation. the Indian Government still finds homosexuality ``an act of perversion'' and ``a social vice''.
The government of India - fighting a case against toning down of Section 377 of IPC to help prevent spread of HIV/AIDS among the homosexuals - filed an affidavit in the court in September. The affidavit read - ``Homosexuality is a social vice. Decriminalisation of homosexuality may cause breach of peace. If it is allowed, evils of AIDS and HIV would further spread and harm people leading to big health hazards. It would degrade moral values of the society.'' Phew.......
Incidentally, those fighting for a change in the legislation, are non voluntary organisations and civil societies - busy in raising awareness about safe sex to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS - have only demanded that ``homosexual act among consenting adults should not be treated as a criminal activity''. And why it should?
Director General of NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation) Sujatha Rao had stated at one of the international conferences - "Section 377 places a huge constraint on Government's HIV/AIDS programme. By criminalising any behaviour, we increase the chances of it going underground.''
Her statement was buttressed by famous Indian writer Vikram Seth and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.
Two years back a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, Anil Divan, in one of his articles, quoted the American Psychological Association - ``Despite historical views of homosexuality, it is no longer viewed by mental health professionals as a `disease' or `disorder'. But obviously, neither it is simply a matter of deliberate personal selection. Homosexual orientation may well form part of the very fibre of an individual's personality."
The big question is : Shouldn't we be allowed to pursue our sexual prefernces in our own way rather than being dictated by the government or being governed by the law???
In this 21st century that too in a free country we are allowed to follow any religion we want and we can pray anyways we think is the best. Same way a man/woman should be allowed to have sexual intimacy in wahtever way he/she likes it. What happens between two consenting adults should not be a problem for others and also it should not be decided by any third person - especially not by the government or by any law.
Of course, the rider is : a man/woman is free to follow any religion and free to adopt any sexual prefernce as long as he/she is not offending his fellow human beings. I think its high time when we should treat sexual preference in the same vein as we treat religious preferences.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
From pollution to politics, Ganga has travelled a long way
From pollution to politics, the Ganga has travelled a long way
The river Ganga – a symbol of India's culture and civilization – descended to the earth from heaven at Gangotri. It is said that to reduce the impact of its fall, Lord Shiva allowed the river to fall through his locks.
Over the years, the river became prey to severe pollution and raised a cause of concern among the environmentalists. However, today, Ganga has rounded off into a political issue, being cashed on by politicians.
The 21st century Yoga guru Baba Ramdev volunteerd to save Ganga from pollution and is attending meetings of several organisations. He also formed a Ganga Raksha Manch. Baba Ramdev stated that all organisations working to make the river pollution free, would now make joint efforts in the direction. The Yoga guru also said that he would be pitching in his contemporaries, like, Murari Bapu and Asa Ram Bapu for the cause.
The Baba's campaign also forced the Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri to shelve two Hydel Power Projects Pala Maneri and Bhairogahti.
Nevertheless, ironic facts emerge if one goes deep into this sudden awakening towards this Indian legacy dying a slow death.
The first one to rant about Ganga was Mayawati, the Chief Minister of India's most populous and one of the most backward, poor and illiterate state - Uttar Pradesh. Last year, Mayawati announced the construction of a 1,047 kilo metre long eight-lane expressway along the banks of Ganga from Ballia to Greater NOIDA. The aim was to join Eastern parts of the state with the nation's capital.
Thus, Ganga became cause of concern for all.
Suddenly pollution in Ganga became a major issue for the national political party Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) - "Ganga is a sacred river for Hindus and the project entailing development of industrial pockets along the river bank, will aggravate pollution in the river," BJP state president Ramapati Ram Tripathi came out with his statement. "Till now, industrial units and leather tanneries in Kanpur were dumping pollutants into the river, now industrial pockets along the expressway will result in more industrial effluents flowing freely into the Ganga," he was underlining facts that his party never touched before. What followed was similar statements by other political parties, colouring the newspapers.
Incidentally, no politician or organisation talked about the multi-crore Ganga Action Plan (GAP), an ambitious government project, which could have changed the pathetic face of river – provided it was implemented with an honest political will.
When the former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi launched the first phase of GAP at Rajendra Prasad ghat in 1985-86, the objective was to set up sewage treatment plants, electric crematoria and toilets in over two dozen cities of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Generous grants and loans from Netherlands, World Bank and other Development banks in the US, England, France and Japan poured in - all in vain.
However, the holiest of all rivers, Ganga shrank due to rapid industrial growth, increasing human habitation and of course, religious practices, which converted the river into a drain of floating carcasses, factory effluents, sewage and plastic.
Even today, pharmaceutical units in Haridwar and tanneries in Kanpur unabatedly continue to ravage the river with the release of toxic cadmium, chromium, lead and acetone. The faecal contamination in Varanasi is so high as to register a coliform count of 80,000 per ml, whereas the safe limit for drinking water is 10 per 100 ml, a report says.
An electric crematorium at Kanpur, set-up under Phase I of GAP, never functioned due to power crisis. The GAP also envisaged cleaning the river naturally by releasing 30,000 turtles to feed on the organic waste and corpses, but the plan failed due to rampant poaching.
Many organisations spoke for the cause in the meanwhile – religious leaders like Jagadguru Swaroopanand and Chinmayanand used their positions to appeal to the public and tried disseminating importance and urgency of cleaning the river.
A professor of hydrolic engineering at the Institute of Technology of Banaras Hindu University, Veer Bhadra Mishra, who is also the Head Mahant of Sankat Mochan temple, started independent water testing in his laboratory, Swatchha Ganga Research Laboratory - set up in collaboration with a Swedish Society for Nature Protection.
Unfortunately, despite heavy investments and efforts by the government, various independent organisations and individuals, Ganga, even today, remains as polluted as ever and the cleaning of the river simply becomes a fight of words amongst the politicians.
The river Ganga – a symbol of India's culture and civilization – descended to the earth from heaven at Gangotri. It is said that to reduce the impact of its fall, Lord Shiva allowed the river to fall through his locks.
Over the years, the river became prey to severe pollution and raised a cause of concern among the environmentalists. However, today, Ganga has rounded off into a political issue, being cashed on by politicians.
The 21st century Yoga guru Baba Ramdev volunteerd to save Ganga from pollution and is attending meetings of several organisations. He also formed a Ganga Raksha Manch. Baba Ramdev stated that all organisations working to make the river pollution free, would now make joint efforts in the direction. The Yoga guru also said that he would be pitching in his contemporaries, like, Murari Bapu and Asa Ram Bapu for the cause.
The Baba's campaign also forced the Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri to shelve two Hydel Power Projects Pala Maneri and Bhairogahti.
Nevertheless, ironic facts emerge if one goes deep into this sudden awakening towards this Indian legacy dying a slow death.
The first one to rant about Ganga was Mayawati, the Chief Minister of India's most populous and one of the most backward, poor and illiterate state - Uttar Pradesh. Last year, Mayawati announced the construction of a 1,047 kilo metre long eight-lane expressway along the banks of Ganga from Ballia to Greater NOIDA. The aim was to join Eastern parts of the state with the nation's capital.
Thus, Ganga became cause of concern for all.
Suddenly pollution in Ganga became a major issue for the national political party Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) - "Ganga is a sacred river for Hindus and the project entailing development of industrial pockets along the river bank, will aggravate pollution in the river," BJP state president Ramapati Ram Tripathi came out with his statement. "Till now, industrial units and leather tanneries in Kanpur were dumping pollutants into the river, now industrial pockets along the expressway will result in more industrial effluents flowing freely into the Ganga," he was underlining facts that his party never touched before. What followed was similar statements by other political parties, colouring the newspapers.
Incidentally, no politician or organisation talked about the multi-crore Ganga Action Plan (GAP), an ambitious government project, which could have changed the pathetic face of river – provided it was implemented with an honest political will.
When the former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi launched the first phase of GAP at Rajendra Prasad ghat in 1985-86, the objective was to set up sewage treatment plants, electric crematoria and toilets in over two dozen cities of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Generous grants and loans from Netherlands, World Bank and other Development banks in the US, England, France and Japan poured in - all in vain.
However, the holiest of all rivers, Ganga shrank due to rapid industrial growth, increasing human habitation and of course, religious practices, which converted the river into a drain of floating carcasses, factory effluents, sewage and plastic.
Even today, pharmaceutical units in Haridwar and tanneries in Kanpur unabatedly continue to ravage the river with the release of toxic cadmium, chromium, lead and acetone. The faecal contamination in Varanasi is so high as to register a coliform count of 80,000 per ml, whereas the safe limit for drinking water is 10 per 100 ml, a report says.
An electric crematorium at Kanpur, set-up under Phase I of GAP, never functioned due to power crisis. The GAP also envisaged cleaning the river naturally by releasing 30,000 turtles to feed on the organic waste and corpses, but the plan failed due to rampant poaching.
Many organisations spoke for the cause in the meanwhile – religious leaders like Jagadguru Swaroopanand and Chinmayanand used their positions to appeal to the public and tried disseminating importance and urgency of cleaning the river.
A professor of hydrolic engineering at the Institute of Technology of Banaras Hindu University, Veer Bhadra Mishra, who is also the Head Mahant of Sankat Mochan temple, started independent water testing in his laboratory, Swatchha Ganga Research Laboratory - set up in collaboration with a Swedish Society for Nature Protection.
Unfortunately, despite heavy investments and efforts by the government, various independent organisations and individuals, Ganga, even today, remains as polluted as ever and the cleaning of the river simply becomes a fight of words amongst the politicians.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
my heart says...
if you are restricted in writing it doesn't project the real you..because then your brain works and your heart doesn't.
this blog is to give words to what my heart feels for different things on this planet.
so here i go........
this blog is to give words to what my heart feels for different things on this planet.
so here i go........
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