Smoking Doctors

At last the home truth is out. What do you do with the fire alarms in a hospital if the doctors smoke? Switch it off! This is what had happened in AMRI hospital in Kolkata. As mentioned in my story Hell of Fire a fire that broke out in that hospital had consumed more than 90 persons since the early morning of 9th Dec 2011. The initial inquiry shows that because there were several doctors who did not adhere to the national law against smoking in public places (hospitals are considered public places), the hospital management had to keep the fire alarms switched off so that people will not be disturbed too many times, and the doctors can smoke and do their duty freely. 

I believe, the doctors have a moral responsibility in this incident, and must be held culpable. Unless the smoking doctors are not punished, it is not going to send any serious signal to any doctor who smokes in work places. This is time for teaching people. Along with the management action must also be taken against such doctors because of whom the alarms were switched off.

Knowing that the doctors are a big lobby group, they may stop working! The government must invoke Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), if doctors resort to such. One thing is clear. This scar of the fire cannot be healed unless it teaches everyone a true lesson, including those in government.

On the Shores of Digha

On 5 Dec morning I traveled from Bolpur to Digha via Durgapur, picking in the ABSK team on the way. We were traveling for a training of Block and District Coordinators of the Polio Eradication Project supported by UNICEF and CORE India, of which I am the State Emergency Response Coordinator. 


A very long and tiring journey followed as we traveled through Purulia and West Medinipur districts. The road between Durgapur and Kharagpur, and between Belda and Digha via Egra was extremely bad. We reached at 5.30 pm.  As I reached the trainer team and I had to sit down to plan for the rest of the days. 6th and 7th December went very quickly as we mazed through the training module. I had two sessions in which I shared my views on Strategic Planning and Working Together through two animated stories. It was very interesting for all.

On 6th evening we also managed to walk down to the sea shore that is so crowded even in this non-tourist season, The unkempt roads, the poorly lit, shabbily kept shops and eateries are miles from making this destination into a good tourist destination. The way back was worse! Our vehicle kept getting a flat tyre repeatedly. We had to stay at last in Kolkata on 7th night, and travel back on the early morning of 8th. 

Overall, the training went good. The journey wasn't.

Hell of Fire

A fire that broke out in a prestigious hospital for the rich and famous in the heart of Kolkata, known to all as AMRI hospital had a major fire breaking out on 9 Dec early morning and ending up killing 93 people, including 4 staff, and the rest being patients who came to the hospital to get well! RIP.

The government is blaming it on the hospital not having followed safety norms. The directors of the hospital are put behind bars and charged with homicide not amounting to murder. The government says they are revising policies relating to safety standards. But who shall bell the cat? In the case, the cat is the government. The disaster management department and fire services department have less interaction, and in spite of the fact that the civil defense department, the fire services department and disaster management department are under the same minister, the coordination has been less than expected. The State Disaster Management Authority is less than functional. At this point one thing must be said: it is time that all these three departments are merged, as all the three of them look into emergency situations.

The media reports say that the initial fire tenders went to the hospital to put out fire without any hydraulic ladders that can reach them at least to the fourth floor of the building. Whom to blame it on? Fate? Or, callousness? The ladders reached two hours late.

Finally, what about the hospital staff on night duty. The fire reportedly started around 1.30 am. But the security staff did not allow anyone to get it to help them, nor did they call for any assistance. This is absolutely unethical, unlawful, and amounting to murder. And must be treated as such.

Dry and Long - Huge Rainfall Shortage in India

Northern India in general is going through a long dry spell. The report of the Indian Meteorological Department has shown that there has been a huge deficit in this year's rain fall. Whereas the usual North-Eastern monsoon period for western, eastern, north and north-eastern states of India stretches from 1 June to 15 October each year, the South Western monsoon starting from 1 October to December facilitates rainfall in the east coast of India. Looking into the available data and maps, the early rainfall in June was excess in many states, and normal in July. But, after that there has been a huge drop in rainfall. Though the cumulative rainfall for the period looks normal in most counts, in actual terms there has been very little rainfall since August in most states, and huge deficit in north-eastern states. 

The data available till date for the October to 7 December 2011 period shows further deviations, as the state of Andhrapradesh in south, several northern, north eastern, eastern and western states are under severe shortage of rainfall. The Gangetic belt is showing signs of stress as the average rainfall shortage for this period is above 80% in most cases. Although not much of rain is expected during this period, it is important in terms of agriculture, arrival of winter and warding of pests! The lack of rainfall has the potential to push up input costs on agriculture for small farmers who hold less than one acre of land, and increase debts for medium farmers who often take big loans. This could also hit production of vegetables, cereals and pulses of the winter crops and summer crops. On the one side the winter has set in very late. On the other side, the Indian agricultural industry is looking at deep drops in the coming summer.

Body Shop and Animal Testing

Early morning I had reached Mumbai airport to leave for Kolkata. As I looked around for gate A7 in terminal 1A, I found next to it a shop called the "Body Shop". It had a lot of things that the affluent need for pamper their bodies. I was looking around to see how many things are there in life without with I still remain contented. As a background of the shop there was a huge wallpaper which had these words, "Against Testing Animals".  "What does this mean?", I asked the lady who was "manning" the shop. She said she didn't know....may be it had something to do with the commitment of the company against testing of animals for medical research and cosmetics etc. I began to wonder then what are we supposed to test on? Humans? 

How can we test on humans for possible adverse impacts of medicines in research? How can we test if a medicine would work or not in the first place? Not utilizing animals for tests in certain critical areas can actually push certain researches backward by decades. 

I believe Body Shop did not educate its staff as well on what else is in the shop, other than the materials that they were selling for the well-being of people who can afford. The philosophy behind it, literally, is however not the appropriate one per se.

Sphere - Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response

The new Sphere Handbook released in April 2011 has several new insights and better view of the crisis situations. The fundamental approach in the book is to look at standards in humanitarian response from the perspective of affected population, in stead of the humanitarian agency, as previous two versions of the book had done. The book also has the revised Core Standards, Protection Principles and several other new features. The Key Action in every standard is really a good guide for organizations to understand what type of activities can be taken up and the Guidance Notes are elaborate and well-written.

I am in Pune since last Sunday to understand and learn this wonderful document, (I have been trained in the previous versions of the book twice before.) under the guidance of two senior trainers in RedR India. The four days long training which started on Monday has helped me understand the new standards in emergency response and how the assessment and response mechanisms can be improved, better coordinated and response to the needs of people can be with strong humanitarian imperative. Thank you RedR India!

Singing a New Song

There is too much of hue and cry about this song “Kolaveri di”. I listened to it thrice in YouTube, and added to the already 12.2 million hits in just about two weeks. It is neither a song nor a prose. It is not even worth a song that can be “sung” in bathrooms. Yet it seems to have an untold mystique to raise something deep down in the mind of people. It seems to have certain elegance and simplicity, and yet complex enough to play a tongue twister. Unless you know how Tamils use the “U” sound in most of their words, you cannot appreciate the rhythm of it. It just lets to tap your legs and enjoy the beats. Its just a group song. It is written in group, sung in group, danced in group. The meaning of the song makes no sense, well, hardly any sense. But who said any song should make any sense? Did someone say, music is a matter of heart and not of meanings?

Power and the Powerless

A few kilometers south of my home town in Tamilnadu lies Kudankulam. Not the most picturesque spot. But, as you travel along the coast from Tiruchendur to Kanyakumari, via Uvari, you just cannot miss this little village dotted by palm tress that scale high – Idinthakarai. And as you reach Idinthakarai, from your vehicle you can see the sea, and move down, Kudankulam is visible. Kudankulam is less populated, and is now the place of controversy. People of Idinthakarai, led by some local nonprofit organizations, people’s groups and supported by church leaders are fasting and protesting the Nuclear Plant that is under near completion in Kudankulam. The construction has been on there for more than six years, and the land acquisition and initial preparation of the place had started long before that. But there was hardly any muffle. There was no objection to the land acquisition or building till date. But, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan changed all that. People feared the safety of the nuclear plant. Someone poured oil into the fear, and soon the people were ignited. Protests, hunger strikes, road blockades followed. Still the stand off continues.

Lots of efforts have gone in: the former president of India, a nuclear scientist himself, visited the place and spoke to villagers; both the central and state governments sent several teams. No one seems to be listening….why?

1. Predominantly Christian community that lies along the coast did not get much job opportunities in the power plant.
2. Due to the construction and need for technical people, due to need for large number of work force, including cheap labor, there is huge influx of people from several northern and eastern states of India. This has lead to : decrease in labor cost in the area. Tamilnadu laborers charge higher than those from outside.
3. There is a fear of increased crimes with sudden “disturbance” social fabric of the society which is now suddenly multi-lingual (from colloquial Tamil)
4. Till last six months the DMK ruled which had huge support among the Christian minority, and the Kudankulam power plant was a brain child of DMK government. Besides that, any little dissatisfaction in the community was immediately responded to by the DMK government. But, on the other hand, the present incumbent, ADMK, is seen as anti-Christian in general. (This could be a reason why the agitations are being held within church complexes and supported by church leaders.)
5. The cost of food supplies and other items have gone up, since the settlers from other states are moving in. Because these people are salaried, as central government employees, they are able to pay. But the poor of the area, the fishermen and the palm candy making agricultural community are not able to afford at the cost. This increases dissatisfaction.
6. And finally, no one has guaranteed 24x7 electricity supply to these villages, as nearly 50% of electricity will be sold to other states, and rest will go to feed the State grid. The people of the area need fish processing, cold storage for fish packaging and transport for export to other parts of the country and globe. This need of the people has not been responded to.

So, the powerless have become powerful: by using their right to protest. And the powerful are not able to add power to the national grid. Powerless have their own ways of lighting up power !

Diapers and New Age Children

The other day I was talking to a senior lady. She is only educated up to the primary level, and was married off in her teens, and had three children, all of them settled now in life. I saw this lady forbidding her younger daughter when she was tying the diaper for her son. I asked the lady why is she stopping her. She had this logic: These days there are so many children who get quickly discouraged and take to extremes. We hear of young students committing suicide. (West Bengal has highest student suicide rate in the country.) We also hear of young children taking up arms against their own friends for frivolous things. This is because these children have not learned "control" when they were young. What do diapers do? The diapers teach children that they need not control! And as young kids, even before they learn to speak properly, they know that they need not control their own basic instincts: instinct to excrete and urinate. The parents are not concerned about when the child urinates or excretes. So, the child need not be concerned about it either. This gets into the child as part of its basic trait: uncontrolled behavior following uncontrolled body and emotions. Naturally, you end up with children who cannot control anger, failures, success, and disappointment. 

Well, it makes sense, when it comes from very senior citizens. Someone said, the problem is children get fixated at the anal stage, as Freud would put it. It is right what that woman is saying. Time to reflect folks! Get rid of diapers!

Retail and FDI

India is looking at allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail markets. India also hopes that this would lead to creation of at least 4 million jobs, and the investment has to be to the tune of a minimum of 100 million US $. So, with this India expects huge inflow of foreign retail marts to start huge stores across the country-- from Wal Mart to Burger King, everyone will be looking into tapping the 600 billion $ Indian retail market ! Although I am personally in favor of opening up the Indian market, certain things seem to hit hard the Indians. And I am afraid of this one too.

Let us start with the first assumed benefit: 4 million jobs in the country, with possibility of another 4- 6 million jobs in allied services. Well, but how many will lose jobs because of this? That one is answering. Few years back, when Pepsi and Coca-Cola where allowed into the country, initially they were allowed to sell drinks in a bottle of 500 ml or more. Now, that meant, keeping the local companies live, including many who were making cool drinks from their own homes, and were selling in the local market in container bottles of 180 ml and 300 ml. Then the law allowed these giants to sell 180 ml and 300 ml bottles as well. Suddenly, the home based entrepreneurs and small vendors vanished! Even my own brother lost business! When I asked him three years ago why his business was going down, he said this as the reason. Now, his business is fully closed, and is unemployed. I do not know how many extra people Coke or Pepsi employed. But I know that some people lost their livelihood too.

During my trips in Eur0pe and the U.S. I have heard some of my friends saying how small shops cannot do business because everyone goes to the big shops, the super-markets to get things cheap, make their own choice and ultimately....leaving the small time vendors heart-broken. I am apprehensive of this move of the government.

The second presumed benefit is, if more money flows in, then inflation would come down! That is really funny. How much of inflation came down with the first round of reforms in India? 3 - 4 percent? But then it went up again. It is now hovering around 10-11 % Cost of basic goods have gone up. Gone up skywards....

What we need today is agricultural reforms--a second green revolution, that benefits both the farmer and the consumer. There are too many middlemen surviving on the farmers' plight and consumers' woes. This must end. Now.