Thursday 12 June 2014

Who Is Responsible for Violence in Kashmir?

Who Is Responsible for Violence in Kashmir?


The article “Fuelling the Rage in Kashmir” (EPW, 10 July) by Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal has given some hope that there are persons in the media who observe things closely. Otherwise you would only have national news channels like Times Now calling the stone pelters “rented mobs”.
Just hours after the recent all-party meeting conducted in Srinagar, 36 youth were booked under different acts; some of them under Section 307 of the CrPC (attempt to murder) and most of them under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Does it not show that the meeting was held for some other purpose?
The words of the Congress spokesperson are revealing in this regard. He said to Mehbooba Mufti on CNN IBN on 12 July in a televised debate “We have seen cycles of violence in the past in Kashmir, our coalition will complete its tenure”. These words were appreciated by Mehboob Beg of the National Conference which is heading the present government in Kashmir. Does it not prove they are committing mistakes as in the past and are blind when it comes to Kashmir?
The chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance publicly condemned the death of Amman, who died due to delay in receiving medical aid because of the security arrangements for the prime minister when he visited Kanpur. Why does not Sonia Gandhi speak out when there are deaths of innocents in Kashmir – whether about the horrifying act of Shopian in which two young women were raped and killed or the deaths of 15 young men in just a month, in June.
It is not the Lashkar-e-Taiba or separatists who instigate the youth to pelt stones in Kashmir, it is the union and state governments together which are responsible for the violence. It is the centre and the state which alienate the people of the Kashmir Valley by making absurd statements and conducting staged commissions and investigations. Being so-called educated, I am infuriated by the approach of the government and want to pelt stones myself.

http://www.epw.in/letters/who-responsible-violence-kashmir.html

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Interview Published in Eurasia Review

India school children


FAYAZ BHAT: ‘I’M NOT PESSIMISTIC ABOUT REVIVAL OF RICH EDUCATION SYSTEM’ – INTERVIEW


Fayaz Bhat hails from the Sonawari region in India’s North Kashmir. He is currently working on his doctoral dissertation titled ‘Primary Education in a Kashmir Village’ at the department of Sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia, India, a prestigious and renowned central university in New Delhi. Bhat completed his basic education in a conflict torn Kashmir valley. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Masters Degree in Sociology from Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi and also did his Masters Degree in Political Science from the University of Kashmir. Later he completed Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) from Baraktullah University under the supervision of Prof. Gautam Gaynendera, a learned academic and renowned sociologist of India. Working at Jamia Millia under the guidance of Dr. Azra Abidi, a renowned scholar on sociology of education and Gender, Bhat learned the art of critical engagement with the question of primary education in developing world. Additionally he writes on a range of socio-economic and political issues in India particularly in Kashmir valley in various local, national and international newspapers and media groups.
Fayaz Bhat
Fayaz Bhat
Fayaz Bhat as a sociologist has developed some new concepts and theories in social sciences as well. Concepts like, Hidden Steering, Self-Syndrome, Triple Burden, Multi-grade Holding, Ensemble Education, Education Shepherd, Mal-education, Modernization of Social inequalities, etc, go to his credit.
Influenced and inspired by the cultural theory of Ogburn’s concepts of “material and non material culture” and “cultural lag”, Bhat has divided schooling into material and non material and coined the term Schooling Lag, Islamic Lag.
Peter Tase: How do you see education empowering in developing countries like India?
Fayaz Bhat: Education is the only weapon in the hands of developing countries to respond to the sweeping changes of globalization and the knowledge economy. Through education developing countries can assure sustainability of growth, competitiveness, job creation, up-gradation of skills, eradication of poverty and empowerment of marginalised sections of society.
Looking at the long term ends, the education has the capacity to act as an effective instrument of poverty reduction, social and occupational mobility and thereby improvement of equity in the system in developing countries including ours.
India constitutes 17.5% of world’s population and is projected to be the world’s most populous country by 2025. It is estimated that average age of an Indian will be 29 years in 2020, which will be important work force of the country. As per National Sample Survey of India 92.4% of India’s workforce is in the unorganized sectors. In order to compete in the globalized economy there is need for regular up-gradation of skills of the workforce. India needs to arm its labor force with relevant skills that implies the need for creating a variety of learning and training opportunities. Is there any alternative other than education?
Peter Tase: Since you have been working on education in Jammu and Kashmir State, what are some of your first hand experiences?
Fayaz Bhat: Time and again I have been maintaining that education in Kashmir valley is a state of crisis. The prolonged conflict devastated the basic ethos and basic structure of education. Therefore, education in Kashmir is at a double disadvantage. One set of concerns pertaining to education in Kashmir are the ones that are common to education in India, e.g. teacher absenteeism, decreasing learning achievements, infrastructural crunch, exclusion on the lines of gender, caste and class, etc. Armed conflict has brought with it specific and additional challenges that remain specific to valley, e.g. occupation and destruction of schools, frequent strikes that disrupt school functioning, creation of an environment of fear and uncertainty.
Peter Tase: Could you shed some light on primary education in India’s Kashmir?
Fayaz Bhat: Unlike other states of the country, the right to education is not a fundamental right of the children of Jammu and Kashmir State and that needs a serious rethinking. The state has its own education Act known as Jammu and Kashmir School Education Act, 2002. The Act mandates that “Government shall work on a sustained basis, for enlargement of access to elementary education” i.e. up to class 8th. However, it does not make elementary education a fundamental right in the state.
Like rest of India, there is “Education lag” in Kashmir. That is in material aspects primary education of the state is shining. The literacy rate of the state is jumping. There is almost cent per cent enrollment, every village has primary school at door steps and almost every school has now a building, teachers, and other material things available. But in non material aspects whether it is learning achievements of children, teachers’ perception about students (especially in public schools), gender sensitivity and other non material dimensions, it is lagging.
Primary education in Kashmir is unheeded, ignored and brushed aside. Teachers of a primary school are mostly low salaried, academically less qualified and enjoy low social prestige and status. The so called best brains are seldom posted at primary schools. Also administration engages primary school teachers for census, updating of electoral list, surveys and other administration related jobs, etc. that adds to the existing problems.
This is the stage where I think all problems of school education evolve. Currently we are anything but a quality primary education provider.
Peter Tase: What are main impediments you think education is beset with prevailing conflict in Kashmir Valley?
Fayaz Bhat: The outburst of political unrest in the State especially since 1989 has hit education of the State both materially and non-materially. Shutdowns, sieges, curfews, protests and demonstrations are now a regular fashion and at times ‘separatists’ even come up with calendar of strikes. This has devastating effects on the basic functioning of education system and the “quality” of education in Kashmir valley. I would rather prefer to call it mal-education. Because there is no consensus among scholars on what ‘quality’ constitutes in education.
Peter Tase: What do you mean by Mal-education?
Fayaz Bhat: Mal-education like malnutrition is a situation when our educational system is deficient and lagging in a particular aspect or dimension. The various aspects of education are infrastructure, interaction pattern, moral education, gender neutrality, value neutrality etc. Like deficiency of Vitamin A in the food causes night blindness in humans the deficiency of moral education in schools causes waywardness in society. The deficiency of gender equality causes gender discrimination. The deficiency of critical education, independence, and freedom may lead to taming and domestication and may promote culture of silence. The deficiency of value neutrality leads to ethnocentrism. This is the debate which is not possible nether feasible to discuss here.
Peter Tase: How do you see education as an agency of peace in a peace deficit zone like Kashmir Valley?
Fayaz Bhat: Who says there is no Peace at all? I believe the real issue is based on the sustenance of peace which every citizen wants. There is no denying that education is a potential remedy for various social, political, economic and other ailments of the society. Whether it is the economic problem, technological lag, techno handicap, low income, unemployment, psychological disturbances, social pathology, political disturbance, ethnic conflict, war or other dissonance, education has a promise especially in reconstruction of society and building peace. Since it is rightly said that “war begins in the mind of men, it is the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed” and there is no mechanism to construct it other than education.
But what needs to be taken care of is that it should be equitable and inclusive education otherwise it can have repercussions that not only hinder peace but lead to a situation that breeds violence and conflict and I would maintain that education is not so inclusive in the valley We have many instances across the world where mal-education germinated seeds of hate and war. The civil war (1990- 1994) and genocide in Rwanda was off shoot of mal-education. Various scholars locate the roots of violence in Pakistan in the faulty educational system that leads to frustration of larger masses as they don’t possess the required skills to be absorbed in the larger structure of the society and hence take to violent means to demonstrate their agency.
Peter Tase: What are your suggestions to improve the holistic education system in Kashmir?
Fayaz Bhat: Solutions come by pondering over the problem seriously. I am not pessimistic about the revival of a rich education system even in the least bid provided a political will and a serious consultation of eminent scholars of education is undertaken. The basic problems which our education is beset with are not monsters and can be amply resolved.
We need to revive the institution of teaching which a lost tradition is and check corruption especially moral corruption in education system besides giving equal access to all. Not only this, the children of war zones need a special attention by the State which unfortunately has never been given.

Peter Tase

Peter Tase is a contributor, freelance journalist and a research scholar of Paraguayan Studies and Latin American Affairs in the United States; he is the founder of Paraguay Economic Forum in Milwaukee, United States. Educated at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and Marquette University, Tase is the author of "Simultaneous Dictionary in Five Languages: Guarani, English, Italian, Albanian and Spanish" and "El Dr. FEDERICO FRANCO y Su Mandato Presidencial en la Historia del Paraguay."
Tase has written many articles on Paraguay's current Foreign Policy, Latin American Affairs and MERCOSUR regional trade issues for Eurasia Review and the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, D.C.. Peter has appeared on SNT Cerro Cora, Asuncion and appeared in “Tribuna Pública” in TV Publica Paraguay, as well as given interviews for Diario 5 Dias in Paraguay, ABC Color, Ultima Hora, IP Paraguay, Revista PLUS+, Radio Ñandutí, Radio Nacional del Paraguay, www.datamyne.com and Spero News.
Tase completed a Congressional Internship in the Office of Congressman Richard Pombo (CA-11), U.S. House of Representatives, and studied U.S. Government and International Affairs at the Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington, D.C.. In 2012 he was an adviser of Foreign Affairs and International trade Issues to the Chairman of the Committee on Trade, Tourism and Industry in the National Congress of Paraguay. Peter Tase is fluent in Guarani, Italian, Spanish, Albanian and mainly writes in English and Spanish.

Mid-Day Meals and Beyond

Mid-Day Meals and Beyond

Siddheshwar Shukla’s article “Mid-Day Meal: Nutrition on Paper, Poor Food on the Plate” (EPW, 15 February 2014) was insightful. It highlights some pressing concerns through facts and f­igures on an issue which deals with the physical well-being of children. Nutritious food to schoolchildren is an internationally-identified dimension of quality in education.
It is now established that the mid-day meal scheme has played an important role in increasing enrolment at the elementary level of schooling, which is now almost 97% at all-India level according to the 2013 Annual Status of Education Report. But the question remains, is mere filling of classrooms with children enough? The answer too remains, a big “No”. Despite making strides in enrolment, education quality, especially in government schools, is slipping.
Though the concept of “quality” itself is vague and contested, there are some dimensions of quality in education which are generally agreed upon globally and one of them, identified by UNESCO, is nutritious food, something which the mid-day meal scheme provides in a context where malnutrition and hunger remain widespread.
Shukla deserves appreciation for his contribution which highlights the low quality of mid-day meals, low protein contents and bureaucratic disregard of the issue. When one transcends the maze of quantitative figures it is possible to see and say more. I am reminded of Krishna Kumar’s remark in his 2005 paper for the EFA Global Monitoring Report that “looking at observable parameters of quality exacerbate the problem that the discourse of quality is trying to solve”. There are certain issues and concerns which remain hidden and which cannot be understood only by mathematical, economic and other quantitative models.
While these models help us in some aspects, what really works is inspection of the mid-day meal scheme on the ground. Experience shows that where government agencies are regularly inspected the supply and quality of mid-day meals is far superior to where there is no such inspection. Further, the burden of this scheme has to be shifted from the shoulders of teachers. Teachers get involved in arranging the food and fuel and teaching suffers, often very badly. Not only this, it gives teachers a formal excuse to be irregular, late and absent from teaching.
Fayaz Ahmad Bhat
Jamia Millia Islamia,
NEW DELHI
http://www.epw.in/letters/mid-day-meals-and-beyond.html?ip_login_no_cache=a310572ffeedb88755b6e16dcf67a85d

Saturday 7 June 2014

Justice

  Why People misinterpret word Justice? It is "Just - ice" which is superlative degree of "Just chill". Freez you body, self, emotions, everything!
The deconstruction of "Justice" is " "Just- ice" that is superlative degree of "just chill"