CIO-Is your Eye on the Ball? Cover Story Dataquest 31st March 2013

 

 

Rape a Societal Malaise

My latest story on the Canadian travel and culture magazine- www.travelculturemag.com. This is my tribute to the oppressed Indian woman.

Rape in India: A Symptom of a Deeper Societal Malaise

Nirbhaya along with her friend got into a local bus that would take them home in an up market part of South Delhi on that fateful evening of December 16^th2012 when five occupants in the bus violated, tortured the girl, beat up her companion and threw them out on the street to let them die. Nirbhaya passed away fighting her injuries in a Singapore hospital.

The middle class conscience of the youth in Delhi was shaken by this brutal incident that was carpet covered by the media. Demonstrations by young educated Indians shook the political establishment from its stupor. The movement spread across the length and breadth of India and the government was forced to acknowledge the poor state of women safety in the country.

A reluctant and often misogynistic politician class’s hand was forced. They had sensed that the vote of the youth in India is slipping out of their hands. A new women’s protection law was enacted and passed in Parliament in record time. This law seeks to bring about seminal changes in the legal and administrative framework of the country. This was India’s noisy democracy at work.

In spite of this horrible crime and all round national revulsion, such crimes continue unabated leaving a trail of victims- children, girls young and old, urban and rural, rich and poor, Indian and foreign. In due time, more courts will get set up, maybe the hand of the indifferent and corrupt police machinery could also be forced and perpetrators against Nirbhaya’s will be brought to book a bit more definitively and maybe faster too.

There are, however, larger and more seminal questions on attitude of Indian society towards its women that need urgent answers.

What lies behind this display of intolerance towards women? Do all men or the majority of them view women as inferior partners? Is exploitation of women a phenomenon restricted to urban, poor and less educated sections of Indians or this a nationwide phenomenon? How has Indian society viewed its women over its long and chequered recorded history of over 4000 years? Is there hope for change and if yes, how soon will this change come? Perhaps some of these questions are relevant, maybe in varying degrees, to other parts of the world too.

It is widely accepted that India continues to be largely a patriarchal society where the male is the inheritor of property, head of the household, bread winner, decision maker and family arbitrator in nearly all major and minor decisions. This attitude is seen across society irrespective of status and sex. Women in many cases are surprisingly reported to be more, or at least as, misogynistic then men.

However to be fair, there do exist matriarchal communities in the North Eastern and Southern parts of the India where the roles are reversed. Their number is albeit quite small.

Historically and traditionally in India, Hindu women had played and even today continue to play a major role in religious and cultural aspects of life. Over the centuries the status of women has undergone ups and downs. But at the core lies respect for the mother, wife and daughter who spiritually speaking, continues to be regarded as Devi- the female incarnation of God. Hindus continue to worship Goddess Kali and Durga as embodiments of power, death and destruction; Saraswati as the Goddess of Learning and Laxmi the Goddess of wealth. In spite of this widespread and deep rooted religious belief men continue to regard women inferior.

Patriarchal communities in the Northern States of Haryana, Punjab, parts of Western Uttar Pradesh in particular and rest of India, barring the North Eastern states, regard women as inferior family members. Discrimination against girls and women starts at a very early stage- female infanticide is commonly practiced. Interaction between the two sexes is minimal, separate schools for boys and girls are more common than co-educational schools, dress code for girls in the name of Indian culture is imposed, male child takes precedence over girl child in education, food, clothes and all activities from birth to death.

Informal community groups of men composed of village elders settle disputes within people in the same village. (Local name for one of the most notorious of community groups in the state of Haryana is khaps). These khaps adjudicate in their kangaroo courts, are widely reported, to pass one sided misogynistic rulings against girls and women. They give social approval to sexual exploitation of girls, maltreatment of women by men, disapprove and declare null and void marriages within same social sub group etc. These khaps continue even today, despite their being declared unconstitutional and illegal.

This is because khaps form pressure groups and influence local voting patterns. Politicians drawn from such societies do not hesitate to provide covert support to the illegal diktats of such groups.  The local law and order machinery, drawn from the same societal milieu, also views women in the same light as khaps.

Women daring to speak up against atrocities perpetrated against them find themselves ranged against their families, society and the machinery of the State. No wonder, even though, discrimination being as rampant as it is, according to government statistics in 2011 only 23,582 rapes were reported to be committed in the country. Given the depth of society discrimination against girls and women, these figures could just be a tip of the iceberg.

In this rather depressing state of affairs, there emerges hope. Information, education, opportunity, demographics favouring youth, urbanization, exposure to information, vocal media, telecom and internet, economic development, rising aspiration levels is supported by the power of universal suffrage. Sections of communities that include women, minorities, backward communities are increasingly feeling empowered and have started fighting for their dignity.

Increasingly larger numbers of women are speaking out and publically raising issues that hitherto were taboo like marital rape, freedom to choose their life partners, freedom to love, freedom to wear clothes of their choice, freedom to work at the place of their choice and freedom to travel unaccompanied. There are increasing demands on the state to perform its duties to provide effective security, maintain law and order and to reform the colonial governance system to make it more responsive to the citizen.

This demand is still largely restricted to the bigger cities but girls from smaller towns are also joining the chorus. There is happening a clash of cultures. Politicians who largely represent the older misogynistic traditions are finding themselves at odds with the young electorate. Those who will be unable or unwilling to keep pace with this demand for change will find themselves pushed out of power. A new set of leaders with more egalitarian ideas on governance will emerge.

Till such time that this change is thrust, via the ballot, by the governed on the governing class, women will need to take care of themselves, get whatever support they can get and continue their struggle for equality, freedom from being raped, exploited and discriminated against. Global citizen support to India’s Devi is required. Democracy and constitutional freedoms that hitherto existed only on paper are aiding this change. This is democracy at work.

THE AUTHOR

Sudhir Ahluwalia moved out to the Corporate world after spending over two decades in the Indian Forest Service. He headed multiple consulting groups in Tata Consultancy Services and spent over a decade with them. He now operates as a business consultant and is advisor to multiple companies. He does a bit of freelance writing with focus on Information technology and nature: www.sudhirahluwalia.com.

Saving the Palamau Tiger Travel Culture Magazine Canada

Call To Save The Tiger in Palamau Tiger Reserve, India

The official head count of tigers in the Palamau Tiger Reserve is five, the camera trap pictures reveal only three, the average age of the extant tigers is between ten and twelve years, there are no tiger cubs sited or captured by camera traps. In short, the Tiger reserve is as well as bereft of all tigers. Palamau Tiger Reserve is 1014 sq kilometres of prime sal forests and is part of the near continuous belt of forests spanning multiple states starting in the East with West Bengal and to the West by Chattisgarh and UP.

Palamau Tiger Reserve lies in the western part of the Chotanagpur plateau in Jharkhand state of India. The forest stretches from the edge of the Netarhat hill range in the south to the Auranga river in the north and from the Latehar-Sarju road in the east to Madhya Pradesh border in the west. The forest of Palamau is the catchment of the river North Koel. Palamau is the land of the sal (Shorea robusta) Palas (Butea frondosa) and Mahua (Madhuca indica) and represents the biological riches of the dry and moist deciduous eastern peninsular forests. The tract is undulating and the important hills are Murhu, Netarhat, Huluk and Gulgul. Gulgul is the highest hill. Hill slops are steep in southern part and gentle in the northern part of the Reserve.

Palamau Tiger Reserve was constituted as a Tiger reserve in 1973 when Project Tiger programme was first instituted in the country. The tiger population was estimated to be 44 as per the census conducted in 1993.

The current state of affairs is a consequence of deteriorating ecosystem supported by overall apathy towards the state of wildlife in the state and the region. The Naxal movement that is still strong in the region, the near absence of tourism, lack of security that inhibits wildlife researchers and enthusiasts to come and spend time in the area, the geographical location of the place are all additive factors to the current state of affairs of the reserve. Indeed, Jharkhand is moving to acquire the dubious distinction of becoming the first tiger free forest area of the country. Jharkhand is a state of political uncertainty, a land poorly governed, where miners hold their sway and not too many city dwellers from the political metro of Delhi or the business metro of Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai like to visit.

The deterioration of the ecosystem has been happening over several decades and it is only that things have to come to a head now. While development appeared to reach the majority of the poor in this country, moving them out of starvation to a state of semi starvation, the tribal’s residing in dense forests are left behind. Their isolation from the rest of society only aggravated their condition. We left them alone on the premise that their unique lifestyle and culture requires to be respected. So, the tribal survived on what the forest gave. The only source of protein available to them came from the meat of the wild animals, the vitamins from forest fruits, the medicines from forest species and their life revolved around the forests.

While the average age of an Indian is now over sixty six years, the tribal rarely survives beyond fifty five. At twenty five the tribal woman reaches middle age. As more and more forest land was opened up for mining, the total available forested area came down and the natural balance between wildlife and the tribal got disturbed. Slowly the wildlife has been depleted and the prey species dwindled to the point that the average tiger territory that is normally around twenty square kilometres has increased to seventy square kilometres. The animal moves from one part of the forest to the other, covering large distances every day, in search of food. Survival has taken priority over breeding.

While the tiger population is moving towards extinction a similar story is happen at the forest guard end too. As against the sanctioned strength of 96 people the current level of staff in Palamau is just 11. Average age of staff is 55 years. The tiger and the forest guard population are both becoming old and the trend is the same- both are getting extinct one as a result of steady ecosystem degradation the other due to official apathy.

It is not that the current state of affairs is not known to forest managers and other decision makers in the State or at the Centre. The managers of the forest, the forest department do not publically raise the red flag. Everyone wants to protect his chair, no wants to state the facts as they are, afraid of being made a scapegoat. Bringing development to the tribal was not part of their mandate but in the government food chain, the pecking order of the forest departments is fairly low and their scalp is easy to be taken. The intent to protect may be there but survival has overtaken the intent of the forester.

I am sure the National Tiger Conservation Authority at the Government of India level is too aware of the current state but except for a stray report in a newspaper, things continue to be the same. The first phase of tiger monitoring across the country took place in 2008. The results came out in 2010. The verdict on Jharkhand forests and Palamau Tiger reserve was “insufficient data and therefore no inferences can be drawn”. The fourth national tiger monitoring is now due to be held in 2013. The result for Jharkhand again will be insufficient data and no inferences can be drawn.

The reason for not procuring the requisite infrastructure for undertaking a monitoring is a simple guess. Sufficient data captured and analyzed will bring out the inevitable result- it will put an official seal on the dire state of the tiger in the State. No one wants this to happen and therefore everyone drags their feet in essential procuring monitoring equipment. No one wants to bell the proverbial cat. The number of camera traps available in the park is 100 against the requirement of 565. Camera traps remotely record the movement of animals and are the best tool for wildlife census. This equipment has to be supported by Range finders and GPS that will help pinpoint the location of an animal.

Steps to reverse the degradation of the ecosystem need to be undertaken urgently. While the shortage of equipment can be easily overcome and generation of baseline data can be quickly accomplished the challenge lies in re-building the lost biodiversity of these forests. If concrete steps are not taken to reverse the rapidly degrading wildlife ecosystem in these forests, it is just a matter of time that herbivores, prey species and tiger will be gone and a new natural balance will emerge in which the leopard will be at the apex and elephants the major herbivore. The leopard is hardy and can survive on village dogs, cats, chicken and goats. A new man animal conflict will emerge in the area. Early warning signs of this happening have been visible for some time now.

A holistic approach to wildlife and ecological management will be required. This will require collaboration with the key stakeholders- the tribal and the forest department on the one hand and on the other wildlife specialists, media and the State. I understand that the three villages located in the 714 sq kilometres of the extended core area are voluntarily willing to move out of the forest centre to the fringe. Someone has to take the initiative to raise the decibel level and force the hand of decision makers to act. Tiger conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts are urged to raise their voice and demand action from both the national and state governments.

THE AUTHOR

Sudhir Ahluwalia moved out to the Corporate world after spending over two decades in the Indian Forest Service. He headed multiple consulting groups in Tata Consultancy Services and spent over a decade with them. He now operates as a business consultant and is advisor to multiple companies. He does a bit of freelance writing with focus on Information technology and nature: www.sudhirahluwalia.com

State of Tiger in the Palamau Tiger Reserve India

http://www.travelculturemag.com/

This is another of my stories published in the online Canadian Travel Culture Magazine  whose link is given above. I hope readers will enjoy it.

Transformation through IT- summary of talk

Dataquest and Cybermedia organized a conference for Indian public sector entities on 1st of March 2013 in New Delhi. The conference was sponsored by Panasonic and Tata Consultancy Services. I delivered a small talk on technology supported transformation to the audience, that had in addition to Dataquest correspondents, senior Public sector entity representatives, Panasonic India brass and TCS senior functionaries from the Manufacturing and GIS domain.  Key points touched upon are summarized below:

Technology supported transformation in the public sector, as in other entities, is a play between people, process and technology. Transformation is a difficult and often painful process that entails change, challenges existing ways and pushes an organization into new processes and modes of doing work. This is often a difficult and delicate exercise and requires to be handled with care.

Successful transformation goes through three distinct phases:

Pre technology introduction preparation:  Before introducing a new technology the organization needs to be prepared and oriented towards accepting this change.

The business requirement specifications should be created and placed within an overall business architecture. Procurement of vendors to build and implement technology should be undertaken only when these two actions have been concluded.

Technology implementation phase: Process re-engineering exercise is undertaken by the vendor as the first step in implementing new technology. This should be a joint exercise in which teams from the public sector entity and the vendor. This will help in getting the as is and the to be processes absolutely right.

As the project goes through the various stages of project implementation- requirement definition, design and then implementation, clients and vendors should hand in hand work as a team.

Managing change is a critical component and this requires training, orientation and re-orientation of organization people and teams.

Post implementation phase: Change management, and technology maintenance and implementation support is undertaken at this phase.

As long as the exercise of transformation is done in a spirit of collaboration between the PSU and the vendor, chances of successful implementation is high and change happens with minimum hardship.

Business expansion ideas for mid sized IT companies- Dataquest

Outcome Based Planning- Article Published in Dataquest 31st Jan 2013

Outcome Based Planning

By

Sudhir Ahluwalia Ex Indian Forest Service officer who in the past has been head of Government Consulting in TCS and is now a freelance business expansion consultant

(www.sudhirahluwalia.com)

Amartya Sen has singled out Kerala as one of the States in India which has Human Development Indicators comparable to those prevailing in middle income developed countries. Of course we have our West Bengal, Bihar, UP, Rajasthan and many others that are vying with sub Saharan Africa for the bottom rank on HDIs.

Kerala was also one of the first states in India that sought to bring about outcome based planning and monitoring in India. In most states and in India overall, planning and monitoring is output linked. Outputs are quantifiable physical achievements against money spent. For example Rs x crores is allocated to build y number of low cost houses for the weaker sections of society. Outcomes ask the question on usage, if the house is occupied, what the occupant feels about the quality of construction and infrastructure created etc.

Result Linked Outcome based Planning and Monitoring:

The social sector allocation and planning was restructured and a planning and monitoring system was created to quantitatively improve quality of governance in Kerala. Restructuring entailed dividing Government functions into themes, sub themes, initiatives for action and results.

One of the key government function identified was access to quality services. Access to quality services were divided into sub themes:

1.     Minimum needs program

2.     Local self government

The Minimum needs program was divided into a number of sub themes. For illustration sake some of the sub themes identified was:

1.     Standardizing health services

2.     Selected initiatives in Education

3.     Community level interventions

4.     Integration of Water and Sanitation into water resources

Initiatives for action in each of the subtheme like community level interventions in Health would include among other things:

a)     Greater financial autonomy for health institutions

b)     Community led health audit

c)     Training of health professionals as institutional managers

d)     Strengthening of health extension interface with Self Help Groups

Against every initiative for action a plan is prepared collectively by all stakeholders. In the plan effort is made to clearly define, as far as possible, quantitatively answers to the following questions:

–       Who will benefit

–       What are the benefit /outcome they will receive?

–       How can the outcome be verified?

–       What are the outputs required to deliver this outcome?

Monitoring of these outcomes is done with the help of an IT program and performance monitoring system that is implemented down up to village Panchayat level.

The movement to outcome based planning was part of the   Modernising Government Program approved by the Government of Kerala in November 2002. The Asian Development Bank funded the program in the initial stages. Outcome based plans were prepared in eight departments - Revenue, Food and Civil Supplies, home, health, Local Self Government,             Education, Social Welfare and registration. These plans formed the basis for the grass root service delivery framework that was implemented by Village Panchayats. This led to the creation of a truly grass root planning and delivery program. The Rs1195 crores World             Bank funded local self government project started in 2011 is the successor to this project. This is one the successful initiatives in India and is a contributory factor to qualitatively better grass root governance in Kerala and the continued highest Human Development Indicators in the country.

Many States have tried to emulate the Kerala example to move to outcome based planning but most have not been able to bring about structural changes critical to implementation of such a program.

Out of the total annual Central Sector Plan outlay of Rs651509 crores nearly 40% of this amount is spent on social sector programs. These impact the poorest segments of society and leakages in each of the programs are well researched and commented upon. Outcome based planning and monitoring forces implementation agencies to look at results. This change leads to improved governance, better program targeting and improved HDIs.

The IT in support of governance is a critical element of governance reforms. The current National E Government Program of the Govt of India aims to provide the implementation framework to implement major IT initiatives in government. NeGP is focused more on service delivery programs than intra government reform.

Maybe this is because deploying IT to improve intra government functioning would entail substantial restructuring of the budgeting, planning, implementation, supervision and measurement processes. The latter is tough to do and tougher to sustain. Teaming up of the Department of Administrative Reform and Public Grievances (DARPG), the department charged with helping in bring in administrative reform, the Department of IT in the Ministry of Telecom and IT and the Planning Commission is required to usher in this fundamental change in governance.