ACCELERATE POLICY AND COMMUNITY-RESILIENT MEASURES

ACCELERATE POLICY AND COMMUNITY-RESILIENT MEASURES
Monday, 16 January 2017 | NABA KISHOR PUJARI | in Bhubaneswar

India is highly vulnerable to various natural hazards such as droughts, floods, heat waves and cyclones. The effects of climate change are adding a new and more intractable dimension to the existing risk profile of vulnerable areas. It is believed that climate change will alter the number, severity, frequency and complexity of climate-induced hazards. With this uncertainty, and more importantly, with new areas experiencing extreme events, it becomes critical to adopt an integrated climate risk management approach.  Odisha is evidentially vulnerable to multiple disasters. Due to its subtropical littoral location, the State is prone to tropical cyclones, storms, surges and tsunamis.

According to the source of the OSDMA (Odisha State Disaster Management Authority), the State has experienced cyclones 12 times till now. Also the 482-kilometre-long coastline of Odisha exposes the State to floods, cyclones and storm surges. As a result of this, many people have lost their lives; live stocks perished; and houses were washed away; roads and other means of communication and transportations damaged and the livelihoods like agriculture were lost, causing a huge burden to the State’s economy.

Odisha has also experienced heat waves that caused losses of people’s lives. Heat wave refers to an exceptional increase of temperature in the atmosphere; is frequent especially in the western and south-western part of the State. If we take an example, the State had to face an unprecedented heat wave in 1998 when 2,042 persons lost their lives. The poor people were the worst affected.

Counting the adverse impact of climate-induced disasters in Odisha, cyclone has been a major devastation blow. The seashore villages are suffering with increasing salinity of their firm lands. It poses damage to standing crops in the lands and severe littoral deposits, waterlogging due to river surge. Crop loss, decrease of wetlands, sand casting and parched lands due to drought have made people of the State suffer with nature’s worst impact in their lives.

It is needed to consider the impact of climate change and climate-induced disasters on existing programmes and activities, but adding the considerations of its vulnerability to existing programmes and activities is very necessary if adaptation is to take place in a way that affects the population and development. Unless these linkages are not considered, people’s development cannot be addressed properly.

Adaptation and coping mechanisms

Various adaptive measures and coping mechanisms have been taken to minimise the vulnerability during the occurrence of a disaster in terms of damage and destruction of lives and properties. Odisha was in many ways a pioneer in drafting the climate plan that includes nearly as many mitigation and adaption plans driven by financial and economic considerations.  The State Government has implemented SRI (Systematic Rice Intensification), aggressive plantation in degraded areas, construction of multipurpose cyclone shelter, promotion of water use efficiency and climate-resilient crop varieties to improve the sustained ability of a commodity to utilise available resources to respond to, withstand and recover from the adverse situations.

Future policy implications

It is known that the geographical and climatic conditions of Odisha pose a constant challenge of natural disasters, which cannot be stopped but can only be minimised through both immediate and long-term planning. There has been a growing awareness on the disaster impacts and its consequences among people, especially the commendable evacuating and messaging work done by the State Government during the cyclone Phailin. However, in most of the cases, the disaster response has remained as an instant humanitarian support in many ways. There is need of reviewing the development planning of the State wherein the disaster and climate change issues get priorities and actions and related strategies must be reflected in the line departments including the responsible department.

To come up to the expectation of affected communities and to steer the local economy go on, there are some of the policy implications that can help the State prepare and mitigate climate-induced disaster in a more capable manner. First of all, there is a need of proactive, pro-people, timely and effective disaster response with a dedicated leadership and political willingness. This includes coordination, preplanning and effective implementation of disaster preparedness action plan and climate change action plan. Secondly, the State Government should prioritise and make available infrastructures, road communications and transport systems, ensuring of essential services delivery like food and clothing,  health and hygiene and drinking water.

Community resilience is also as important as other priority sectors to deal with the disasters. Therefore, actions must be strategised to capacitate people’s existing knowledge to adapt and develop coping capacity on disasters through training, handholding support as well as include all the disaster-affected people through various social safety nets and social security schemes. Last but not the least, there is a need of better coordination and joint efforts of GO-NGO, inter-departmental coordination and use participatory vulnerability analysis as well as community-driven disaster response plan to minimise the devastations and damages by disasters to the communities who are frequently being affected by these catastrophes.

This Article was published in the Pioneer, a premier National English daily. Readers can see the published post in :
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/accelerate-policy-and-community-resilient-measures.html

CHILD SERVITUDE MUST END ONCE AND FOR ALL

CHILD SERVITUDE MUST END ONCE AND FOR ALL
Monday, 26 December 2016 | NABA KISHOR PUJARI | in Bhubaneswar

India is home to about 19 per cent of the world”s total child population and the country has the uncertain distinction of being home to the largest child labour force in the world, with an estimated 30 per cent of the world”s working kids living here.

According to the report of the Education International, of the estimated 21 million slaves in the world today, an astonishing 26 per cent, or more than one in every four, is a child under the age of 18, with some being as young as five. Forced to work for up to 18 hours a day, these children are sold for less than the price of cattle. They are deprived of their right to education and other human rights. This must stop.

Despite several laws, Acts, guidelines and directives for children in India, we as a country have not been able so far to protect the childhood of the children of our country. The state of Indian children draws a very sorry figure in terms of their development, education, health, participation and protection. Indian laws only say that those below 14 years of age cannot be employed in “hazardous” industries. The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Bill, prohibiting the employment of children below 14 altogether, was introduced in Parliament in 2012, but has not yet been passed.

Studies show that 60 million children work for approximately 200 days a year at an average cost of Rs15 per child per day. This amounts to Rs18,000 crore in one year. Now, these 60 million child labourers, when substituted with 60 million adult labourers, would earn Rs1.38 trillion at a minimal rate of an average floor wage of Rs115 per day per labourer for 200 days. This difference in the total earnings works out to Rs1.2 trillion. This straight profit of Rs1.2 trillion is a significant loss to the economy.

The major occupations involving child labour are pan, bidi and cigarettes (21per cent), construction (17 per cent), and spinning and weaving (11 per cent), which qualify as hazardous processes/occupations. Domestic workers constitute 15 per cent of the total child workers.

The Government of Odisha has its commitment in the State Plan of Action for Children 2009-2012 that the Government would reduce and eventually eliminate entirely the practice of child labour in the State. But this has not been ensured.  For years now, the State Government has not carried out any comprehensive survey to find out the population of child labourers in the State.

Data (from the National Sample Survey Organisation, January 2014) now puts that the number of child labour under the age five to fourteen in rural Odisha as  24 and 41 in urban areas per 1,000 population. The total number of child labour in the State as per the report is 2, 22,953. The State Government has enacted Orissa Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules, 1994, the Bonded Labour System (abolition) Act, 1976, The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986, The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act of 2000 and The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009. This apart, the State Government is also implementing 24 National Child Labour Projects (NCLP).

According to a study report on child labour, 31 per cent of the working children are dropped out from the school. Moreover, about 29 per cent of the working children have never attended school; only 40 per cent are those who currently attending school. Out of the total children currently studying 3 per cent is in primary. The Economic Survey report 2013-14 of the State Government also reveals that during 2012-13, 39,409 child labours were admitted into 812 special schools opened under NCLP but these initiatives would not suffice the cause against the magnitude of the problems prevailing in the State. The relentless effort of Kailash Satyarthi and Malala and the recognition for their fight against child servitude and education must add enthusiasm, spirit and commitment in us to continue our fight against the slavery. After all, we need a country where there are no practices of child servitude and children enjoy their fullest form of rights. Recently, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has revealed that the Centre plans to bring a long-pending key amendment Bill that seeks to ban employment of children below 14 years of age in any occupation in the coming session of Parliament. This is a good move but are we not missing opportunities again and again when we have with us several laws, acts, policies and pro-active measures of the Government. We could not even meet the target of Education For All (EFA) Goals, Millenniums Development Goals (MDGs).

This article was published in the Pioneer, a premium National English Daily newspaper. Readers can see the published post through:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/child-servitude-must-end-once-and-for-all.html

LET’S HAVE CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS

LET’S HAVE CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
Wednesday, 04 January 2017 | NABA KISHORE PUJARI | in Bhubaneswar

Democracies need active, informed and responsible citizens; citizens who are willing and able to take responsibility for themselves and their communities and contribute to the political process. In a country like India, which enjoys the world’s largest democracy, our roles and functions should not merely be limited to awareness about our rights and responsibilities but we also are informed about the social and political world and we articulate our opinions and arguments as active citizens. To do so, we need to know about our socio-cultural ethos, historical background and our rich tradition of our secularity and sovereignty as well as religious diversity.

We all have a notion that the citizenship education develops in a person through ordinary experiences; maybe after we are eligible to cast our votes or the older we grow. We believe our jobs as limited once we have already chosen political representatives to do on our part. But the capacities needed to be an active citizen do not develop singlehanded. We need to learn it. While citizenship may be picked up through ordinary experience in the home or at work to some extent, it can never suffice us to equip as citizens for the sort of active role required of them in today’s complex and diverse society.

If citizens are to become genuinely involved in public life and affairs, a more explicit approach to citizenship education is required. Because there are numerous citizenship issues that warrant people to know and react to.

Citizenship education essentially stresses upon increasing people’s capacity or enabling them to make informed choice or have their own decision as well as to take responsibilities for their own lives and communities they live in. Very importantly, citizenship education helps build our character and the required skills to communicate, intent to initiate, improve our social interaction and teamwork.

While it is commonsense-wise relative to have citizenship education for adults, there are experimental evidences that ask for introducing citizenship education for children and youths. Because that would help them develop self-confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes and challenges such as bullying and discrimination. Also, it enables them to make a positive contribution by developing the expertise and experience needed to claim their rights and understand their responsibilities.

Schools being the core platform of nation building tasks, education on active citizenship would yield motivated and responsible learners who relate positively to each other, family members and to the neighbourhoods. For society, it helps create an active and responsible citizenry, willing to participate in the life of the nation and the wider world and play its part in the democratic process.

Even though several topics on the Constitution, political processes, laws/Acts and roles and responsibilities of a citizen are taught through social science subjects in schools and sociology/political science subjects in colleges. But citizenship education involves many more than that. It teaches them the knowledge and understanding, skills and aptitudes, values and dispositions  which helps them understand their rights and responsibilities, diversity, social justice, adherence to rule of law, environmental conservation and gender equality and empower them to be change-enablers who meaningfully participate in the decisions of the society. Also, it teaches on our national values.

We have successful examples of active citizenship education being incorporated in European, African and other several countries. In our country also, such initiatives by nonprofit organisations like the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness are being undertaken to prepare young children as active citizens. Now, it’s time to replicate and universalise in the school curriculum in our country to cherish a more inclusive society. All that we need is to emphasise the importance of citizenship education and make effort to create a critical mass of citizens who have the knowledge, skill and confidence to participate in our democracy as effective citizens.

See more at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/lets-have-citizenship-education-in-schools.html

With my beloved mother