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| Hot issues of Today |
- Apr 06, 2007
- Apr 05, 2007
- Apr 04, 2007
- Apr 03, 2007
- Apr 02, 2007
- Apr 01, 2007
- Mar 31, 2007
- Mar 30, 2007
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| Apr 07, 2007 |
Six killed in Naxal attack in Jharkhand
RANCHI: Six persons, including two CISF personnel, were killed and six others injured when Naxals launched attacks on a CISF picket at Khasmahal coal project in Bokaro district and a police station, a senior police official said on Saturday.
The two CISF personnel received fatal bullet wounds in the attack on Friday night on the picket near the project under Gandhi Nagar police station of the district, Superintendent of Police Priya Dubey said.
Four civilians died when the Maoists fired at Kurpania Bazaar nearby, the SP said.
Two other CISF jawans and four other civilians were injured in the attack.
The Maoists, who exploded landmines at several places to create panic in the area, also tried to storm the Gandhi Nagar police station but the police repulsed their move.
Both the security personnel and the Maoists traded several rounds of bullets.
A cleaner of a dumper was injured when a separate group of extremists exploded a landmine in an attempt to blow up a bridge leading to Khasmahal to stop police movement.
Soon after the attack, the Bokaro SP rushed to the spot with reinforcements. The encounter lasted till the early hours.
The injured were being treated at a nearby hospital.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Six_killed_in_naxal_attack_in_Jharkhand/
articleshow/1868668.cms
We need quacks
By the time Bijola reached the house where Savitri was groaning with labour pains, the village 'doctor' had already reached. Savitri had sent a neighbour to call Bijola, whereas Savitri's husband had called the 'doctor'.
The 'doctor' came on his mobike, Bijola came on her feet. He had pulled out his needle and syringe and was about to load the magic medicine to hasten the birth. Bijola — an empowered (and trained) 'dai' — told the family members, "If you allow this doctor to give her injections i will leave this house".
Bijola has been working in the villages of Chandankiari, in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand, for more than 30 years. She knew Savitri well.
She had helped deliver her first three children and had referred the fourth one to a hospital for a caesarean, since she had a crooked foetus. She already knew that this fifth one was crooked too.
She quickly wore her gloves and examined her, and found what she was expecting: the cervix was hardly dilated, and the head was nowhere to be felt from below. But Savitri was having very strong, regular contractions.
Bijola told the family to get her to a hospital fast if they wanted to save the mother and the baby.
The village 'doctor', however, offered no such advice. His role during delivery is only to administer 'hot' injections.
These are usually oxytocin, a drug that stimulates the uterus and produces stronger contractions. It should never be administered intra-muscularly before a baby is born, and never, ever, to a mother that has already undergone a caesarean section.
It can cause birth asphyxia and death in the newborn, and can lead to a ruptured uterus and death of the mother. Bijola understood this, the doctor did not. Fortunately, the family listened to Bijola and took Savitri to the hospital.
It wasn't easy to get the system to work in a government hospital, but Bijola prevailed upon the doctor to operate on Savitri. The mother and baby survived.
However, Savitri's husband was not a happy man. His sister-in-law had a caesarean section in her first pregnancy, and had a normal, home delivery in the second, so why couldn't his wife?
It must be Bijola's fault, he told her. The village doctor had told him that a couple of injections would get the baby out in no time at all. And now he was stuck in the city for a week, arranging food and medicines for his wife.
Not only is Savitri's husband unhappy with Bijola, but the government is too. The current thinking in India, with perhaps feedback from beyond the seas, is that the only way to bring down maternal mortality is to ensure insti-
tutional delivery for all.
The traditional birth attendants, so the argument goes, cannot help reduce maternal mortality. In Savitri's case, as we have seen, it was the big doctor of the big hospital that saved her life, wasn't it?
Officially, traditional birth attendants are out of favour. In Jharkhand, the Janani Suraksha Yojana, a scheme to give financial inducements to push poor women to deliver in ill-equipped and inaccessible hospitals, has not been a great success.
In Bijola's district, one of the better performing ones, the scheme is more successful in the town — where services are nearby — but has hardly made an impact in remote villages, where women continue to die during childbirth.
Most women who have received the first instalment of the scheme, during pregnancy, still go on to deliver at home.
The Rs 700 given for an institutional birth is hardly enough for transportation costs. The expenses for a normal delivery in a private nursing home in Bokaro is not less than Rs 2,000.
In any case the government health centres are hardly equipped to deal with institutional delivery for all.
And since all women are supposed to have safe deliveries in hospitals (when they have been built) the government need not waste valuable resources training traditional birth attendants any more.
The focus is on training government nurses, or ANMs, to become skilled birth attendants. It matters not that ANMs do not conduct deliveries, that they do not reside in the villages, and more than 90 per cent of deliveries in Jharkhand take place at home.
As for Bijola and the village doctor, they will, and should stay, as long as hospitals remain inaccessible and ANMs stay in towns and cities.
The writer is a village health worker.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Editorial/We_need_quacks/articleshow/
1867485.cms
Metro model for two cities
Ranchi and Jamshedpur would soon turn into cities of malls, multiplexes and residential complexes.
The Jharkhand housing board, in a joint venture with private players, will soon build over 2,700 reasonably-priced flats in Ranchi and Jamshedpur. Besides, the board has also given the go ahead to build malls, multiplexes, hotels and shopping complexes in the two cities.
Superintending engineer Diwakar Singh said the board has given its approval to enter into an agreement with private players to develop 17 plots of land in Ranchi and Jamshedpur into multi-storied residential complexes.
Of the total plots, nine are in Harmu, two in Argora, three in Bariatu, Ranchi, while the remaining three at Adityapur, Jamshedpur, he said.
The board would sign the agreement with the successful bidders shortly. The interested private players include Nagarjuna Constructions, Orbit and Simplex.
According to Singh, the construction is likely to be completed within two years.
Though the board had advertised for 71 acres, it could not find any takers for 20 acres in Daltonganj, 12 acres in Bokaro and 2.5 acres in Hazaribagh, said Singh.
The board has fixed a rate of Rs 800 per square feet for lower income group (LIG), Rs 900 for middle income group (MIG) and Rs 1300-1400 for high income group (MIG) flats.
A mall and a multiplex at Harmu Chowk, two shopping complexes and a community hall at Sahjanand Chowk, Harmu, and a hotel and malls at Argora are on the cards.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070406/asp/jamshedpur/story_7613258.asp
Kidnappings continue in Bihar
Patna, April 7 (IANS) Two people were killed after being kidnapped and six other abductions were also reported within a span of two days in Bihar, indicating that little has changed since a new government came to power last year.
The kidnapping industry is still thriving in the state, say residents.
Armed criminals abducted Umesh Jha, a 51-year-old farmer, and his nephew Rajaram Singh, 25, from Rampur Thuthi village in Khagaria district late Thursday night and later killed them.
Police recovered their decapitated bodies from a field and sent them for autopsy.
Four people were also reported to have been abducted in separate incidents in Siwan district. Police said they were abducted for ransom.
Of these, two victims were a father-son duo. Lalan Pandey was abducted along his son Pappu when he was returning after a marriage negotiation for hiss daughter.
An 11-year-old school student, Pitamber, was abducted in Samastipur district. His father Ravishankar Pandey is a rich farmer who also owns a business. Police suspect that the abduction is for ransom.
A bus owner, Shalendra Singh, was also kidnapped Friday in Danapur near Patna.
Last week, police recovered the body of an abducted 10-year-old student in Munger district. The same week, a youth was reported kidnapped in Patna and another in Nalanda district. Later both were released.
The Patna High Court had early this year directed the state government to trace 144 children and 581 women who had been reported missing since 2001. The court also took note of reports that 44 of the abducted children had been killed.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1288331.php/Kidnappings_continue
_in_Bihar
Father poisons daughter to death in Bengal
BURDWAN (WB): Driven by poverty, a daily farm labourer in West Bengal's Burdwan district poisoned one of his daughters to death and was himself in a critical condition after consuming poison, police said on Saturday.
Sanatan Majhi of Ketugram was not getting any work as he was ill and was finding it difficult to run his family of two daughters, wife and himself.
According to an FIR lodged by Sanatan's wife Jyotsna with the police on Friday evening he took his elder author Jaya (4) with him and went to a sweet shop. After purchasing some rasogollas he mixed poison with it and asked his daughter to eat it and also himself consumed them.
Jyotsna found both of them in a critical condition. They were rushed to Katwa Sub-Divisional Hospital where Jaya was pronounced brought dead while Sanatan was admitted to hospital in a critical condition.
Jyotsna said here husband had become sullen and dejected as he was finding it very difficult to find work due to his ill health and was always short of money
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Father_poisons_daughter_to_death_in
Bengal/articleshow/1869984.cms
Solar power boon for villagers
BOLPUR, April 6: Switching on electric lamps or watching television was some sort of a dream for them until a few days ago, but today the dream has come true, illuminating their lives.
The villages like Mohuli and Geatgram, situated on the bank of the river Ajoy along the border of Birbhum are regarded as the most underdeveloped villages in the district.
The floods in 1995 wreaked havoc in the area, wiping out these two villages completely. Thereafter, it had been a long and bleak battle for the villagers to earn their livelihoods.
At a time when the villagers cannot afford electricity, they have got it because of a novel project taken up by Santiniketan Sriniketan Development Authority.
With the help of the West-Bengal Renewal Energy Development Agency, the SSDA arranged for solar electricity in these villages. The project, funded by the ministry of renewable energy, the state government and the SSDA, has provided about 127 families with a solar panels connected with two lamp sets and a plug point.
The chief executive officer of SSDA, Mr Ashoke Das, said: "The development authority has been working in these villages for the last two years. We found out that the villagers were so poor that they could not bear the cost of electricity.
"So we were in search of an alternative way. The WBREDA helped us to implement this project. And now we are looking forward to carry on this project smoothly in these villages." "Villagers have been trained in maintenance work by the experts of the the WBREDA and a distilled water plant has also been set up near Dhannosara village so that villagers would not have to face any difficulty in using the distilled water for the maintenance process", said Mr Das. "Under this project, the villagers will have to pay Rs 20 per month for five years to the agency and that agency would be responsible to run the project smoothly for around 20 years", said Mr Das.
The project was inaugurated by the Lok Sobha speaker and MP of Bolpur, Mr Somnath Chatterjee and Mr Santi Pado Gon Chowdhury, director of the WBREDA in presence of other dignitaries.
In his address Mr Chatterjee also assured the villagers that in the near future the SSDA would help the villagers by providing solar lights in the streets free of cost.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=23&theme=&usrsess=1&id=152355
Invest for a healthy HRD
BHUBANESWAR: Investment in industries, mines, IT hubs and infrastructure development has taken the centre stage in the current time of globalisation, but human resources development (HRD), which needs the basic input of a healthy workforce, still remains neglected as investment in health sector has taken a backseat.
While the slogan of World Health Day this year as coined by World Health Organisation is 'Invest in health, build a safer future', it is time for introspection to see what is on agenda to address threats to health security including emerging and rapidly spreading diseases like AIDS, cardio vascular ailments, humanitarian emergencies caused by natural calamities and man-made disasters like road accidents, bio-terrorism and pollution.
Given the health landscape in our State the continuing inadequacies of both public health and causative health is almost threatening the stability of the community.
With Orissa being the leading state in India with highest road accidents and oral cancer cases, a lot has to be done at planning stage, says Major General (Retd) Bikash Kumar Mohanti, Medical Superintendent with Kalinga Hospital here.
Rising threats to public health could place our development plan and economic growth in peril. The communities are yet to adopt an appropriate health response to disease outbreaks and other concerns.
The State Government and all the stake-holders must build a common capacity to prevent, detect, report and respond to health threats, he adds.
Admitting that the acute shortage of trained and committed health workers from primary to tertiary level of care is a cause of concern in the State, the expert says public-private partnership, non-government organisation and corporate houses must focus on various aspects as the State sees a surge in industrial sector.
Emphasising mutual support to enable people protect their health standards, Dr Mohanti also advocates setting standards in public health strategies and providing technical co-operation and financial support for health-care related research in the State at the national and regional research laboratories.
'The need for more continuing medical education (CME) on various specialisations and intra-specialisation topics are important with emerging health emergencies', says Dr SC Dash, Professor and HOD, Nephrology and Principal, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences here.
With fast lifestyle, natural calamity and other man-made conditions giving rise to complex diseases, doctors need to adopt a holistic approach on the treatment process and update their knowledge base through CMEs, he adds.
Role of telemedicine, public lectures, awareness rallies, health camps and talk shows by experts should be tried to popularise health topics, the former Nephrology HOD with AIIMS, feels.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070407025859&Page=Q&Title=
ORISSA&Topic=0
Impunity for gang-rape in India
Victims of gang-rape and other violence against Christians and other minorities in India shared their testimony with an independent tribunal. The media were denounced for inciting anti-minority violence.
For the first time an all-India picture has emerged of anti-Christian violence from a people's tribunal.
Victims of Christian persecution from across India shared their horrific stories and highlighted the denial of justice to them before an independent people's jury.
According to International Christian Concern (ICC), the depositions were part of "The Independent People's Tribunal against the Rise of Fascist Forces in India and the Attack on the Secular State," a three-day program which concluded here on March 22.
In its report, ICC said the independent jury was organized by non-profit organizations Anhad and Human Rights Law Network, and supported and attended by a plethora of rights groups, including Christian organizations, like the All India Christian Council (AICC) and the Christian Legal Association.
Of the 100 victims who submitted their statements, about 40 were Christian. The rest were mainly were from Gujarat state, which witnessed a wide-scale killing of members of the Muslim minority community in 2002.
Impunity of perpetrators of gang-rape
"I was gang-raped by my fellow tribal villagers, including the brother and father of the local legislator in January 2004, and I named everyone in my police complaint, but no one has been arrested till today," lamented Taramani, a school teacher from Madhya Pradesh state's Jhabua district.
Taramani's village, Alirajpur, was one of the worst affected villages during the spate of anti-Christian violence that followed the infamous January 11 incident, in which a young girl was found dead in the compound of a Catholic school in Jhabua district. Hindu fundamentalist Hindu Jagran Manch (Forum for Revival of Hindus) blamed the murder on the church, and instigated a series of attacks on Christian individuals and their institutions. This was despite the fact that a non-Christian admitted to the crime.
"A crowd of about 250 people first launched an attack on my house and set it on fire and then some of them took me to a jungle and outraged my modesty," said, Taramani, a widow.
With tears in her eyes, she added that when she returned she found the house completely gutted. "Even the police initially refused to register my complaint which they did only later and reluctantly.
"All that I have received from the government is Rs.30,000 ($700 USD), but no arrests. The perpetrators still tell me that nothing will happen to them, as they are very powerful," she said.
Attackers remain at large
Another victim, Shobha Onkar, also from Alirajpur, could not help crying as she narrated how she was attacked by a mob in the aftermath of the January 11 incident. "About 300 people surrounded our house in the presence of the local police inspector and started breaking in. I thought I should open the door before they vandalized my house, but when they entered into the house, one of them hit me with a stick on my head. I started bleeding profusely," she said.
"My son ran to the police and bent on his knees to plead them to rescue me, saying, 'They will kill my mother,' but they did not budge," she added.
Onkar also said that relatives of the local legislator belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were among the crowd.
Onkar's house was badly damaged and completely looted. "The government gave me only Rs.6,000 ($140 USD) as compensation. And justice, which matters the most, was denied, as the perpetrators were not brought to justice," she added.
There were also victims from the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir.
Lessons for the church
Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the AICC who was one of the jury members, told ICC, "From the Christian perspective, the hearings were memorable and important. Christians of all denominations, and both men and women, came forward to depose for the first time in a major way. In my experience this is also the first time that an all-India picture has emerged of anti-Christian violence from a people's tribunal."
The all-India pattern of violence has lessons for everyone, and particularly for the church whether it is Catholic, Protestant or Evangelical, he said, adding that urgent steps needed to be taken. "Clergy and church workers have to be trained in human rights and basic law."
Another memorable witness, said Dayal, was the compilation by the Rev. Madhu Chandra of AICC to prove the massive activity of Hindu extremists in the north-eastern Hindu majority states of Manipur and Assam.
"For me, the most heartening testimonies were of women -- Muslim and Christian."
Madhya Pradesh a daylight church
He also said it was obvious that "Hindutva pressure" was working. "The church in Madhya Pradesh is fast becoming a 'daylight church' with mission activity in the evening and after sun down -- which is how outreach programs can work in forest villages when people return home after sunset -- has stopped. Only in full daylight can some work be done. And yet, the church hierarchy seems not too worried."
In other areas, church activity is now confined to tribals alone, who constitute just a third of the population even in the so-called tribal belt of central India, he said. "This has serious ramifications."
Dayal thanked the civil society, including "well-meaning Hindu Activists," for their "unstinted support" to the Christian community.
No help from the State
Based on the statements of the victims and presentations by human rights activists, the tribunal noted that "demonization of minorities, both Muslims and Christians, and their consequent marginalization and physical attacks have been noticed all over the country, particularly in the states where the BJP is in power, like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat."
In these cases, the victims have failed to get any help from the State. The role of the police is particularly dubious, as in most cases, the victims were not even able to file an FIR (first information report). It is often noticed that the victims are turned into perpetrators of crime. As a result, there is a sense of helplessness that the minorities feel."
Rights activists also deplored the role of the media, mainly local newspapers in vernacular languages, in inciting anti-minority violence.
The tribunal was an initiative of Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad and attorney Colin Gonsalves of the Human Rights Law Network.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=8809
Keep It Skimmed
Before the quotas, identify the OBC. That is the new wisdom
The National OBC Commission set up in 1993 had refused backward status to 456 castes and subcastes.
The Cream Of The OBCs
As per the National Backward Classes Commission, children whose parents fall in these 7 categories are ineligible for job reservations...
Those who hold constitutional posts like the President of India, Vice President, Supreme Court and high court judges, chairman and members of the UPSC and state public service commissions.
Class I officers of central and state services; international organisations like the UN, IMF or World Bank
Group B/Class II officers of the central and state services
Class I and II public sector employees;
armed forces and paramilitary personnel of colonel and above rank.
Professionals like doctors, lawyers, CAs, income tax consultants etc.
Agricultural land owners whose holdings put them in the higher income bracket.
Every time the government pays obeisance at the altar of social justice and invokes reservations, it's the same old demons that return to haunt.
Who are the actual beneficiaries of reservations? Is it the really deserving among the Other Backward Classes, or a 'creamy layer' that skims all the benefit from the reservations bucket? Has the government, ever eager to pull the reservations rabbit out of the hat, made any attempt to identify those who have already availed of quota benefits, and moved on to balance the social stakes at the lowest rung? How desirable are reservations anyway in this era of equal opportunities? Even as the nation continues to get exercised over the issue, and emotions run high within both the pro- and anti-reservation camps, there is still little reflection on which castes need reservations and which don't.
It was precisely for this task that the National Commission for Backward Classes was set up in 1993. Its mandate was to identify socially and economically backward castes/communities, and delist those which had already made use of reservations and moved up. Though guided by the political compulsions of the government of the day, the commission attempted to correct the anomalies of the Mandal Commission report, mainly its exclusion of several subcastes. It has periodically conducted social audits to determine the status of various castes. Not every caste that has staked a claim on reservations has made it to the national OBC list; as many as 456 castes have failed to convince the commission of their social/ educational backwardness.
Of course, the commission's work is far from complete. Some of the dominant backward castes, like the Nadars of Tamil Nadu, remain on the list. Good old politics keeps them there: no political party wants to upset powerful OBC lobbies; those in power would rather that the commission maintain status quo instead of dislodging the government. However, if the commission is given a free hand, it has the infrastructure to provide a comprehensive status report on OBCs.
And the conclusion it arrives at on the basis of various studies and public hearings is that reservations are necessary. The commission's current chairperson, Justice S.R. Pandian, has noted: "That a few of the seats and posts reserved for backward classes are snatched away by the more fortunate among them is not to say that reservation is not necessary. This is bound to happen in a competitive society like ours. Aren't unreserved slots snatched away by the creamy layer among forwards?"
And so the debate has moved to the next level: should reservations be made without ascertaining the extent of backwardness among the beneficiaries? The OBC groups weren't too happy with the Supreme Court stay on the government's attempt to implement the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu led the pro-reservationist charge: both states witnessed bandhs for the quota cause. But the apex court in its interim stay order sought a more realistic basis for reservations and asked for a headcount of OBCs and identification of the creamy layer.
The ball is therefore back in the commission's court, with the government seeking its help in answering the apex court's questions. On its part, the commission has already spelt out the parameters to identify the creamy layer; it is now up to the government to zero in on the already-benefited and ensure they are derecognised. Says constitutional lawyer Rajeev Dhawan: "The creamy layer mechanism, which provides the guidelines for disentitlement, should be followed to ensure that those not deserving are kept out." It is the only way to make reservations more credible, and ensure its benefits accrue to the truly deserving. It should also go some way in appeasing the anti-reservationists who cite the example of individuals who have benefited unduly to point out the lacuna of reservations.
But reservations for politics' sake is something even staunch votaries of reservations like D.L.Sheth caution against. Says the former member of the OBC commission: "If the Mandal policy has prevented a huge turmoil in checking subaltern marginalisation, the time has now come for a relook." However, he realises the enormity of the task when he asks: "But who will bell the cat?" He is referring to the hard decision that will have to be taken to "put out of the benefit system" communities with political and economic clout.
But whether for or against the reservations motion, the opposing sides are agreed on one thing: that the issue has to be sorted out, one way or another. Collating real data would be a first step in that direction as that alone will help one put a finger on the extent of backwardness in the country. Such an exercise may exclude the forward minority among the backwards. But that would not dilute the 27 per cent reservation fixed for OBCs in IITs, IIMs and other institutes of higher learning. As P.S. Krishnan, advisor to Union HRD minister Arjun Singh, puts it: "There can be no doubt on the 27 per cent. If a real headcount is done, you know who will be having the last laugh..."
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070416&fname=OBC+%28F%29&sid
=1&pn=2
Multiple Entrance Examinations Work As "Entry Barriers"
It appears that our Honorable HRD Ministry and its even more Honorable Minister Mr. Arjun Singh are hell bent on providing justice to the real needy, poor and socio-economically marginalized sections of the society. However because all his noteworthy efforts towards OBC reservation have come to a temporary halt due to the unfavorable Supreme Court verdict passed recently, as responsible citizens we must help our Ministry to find alternate means to achieving its broader goals.
Here is a suggestion that the Ministry should look at to keep itself busy, one which should receive no confrontation from most of the students or guardians, or the broad society in general.
The daughter of one of my colleagues is in the final year of +2 this year. The board exams now being over, what awaits her now is a run of competitive exams like IIT-JEE, AIEEE, various state level JEEs, few private engineering and medical college exams, the AIIMS test, ISI ... the list can be indeed long.
The picture is no different after graduation when most young students aspire for an MBA degree. There are CAT, JMET, XAT, MAT ... no difference here either - the list is equally long.
If one wants to apply for even a few of them, it may cost one tens of thousands of rupees in terms of application fees alone. Add to that the process of application and lack of infrastructure in rural areas, one immediately understands how difficult it is for good rural students to compete with their urban counterparts. For MBA admission, there are interviews again.
Irrespective of the justifications on costs incurred by respective institutes and specific knowledge/aptitude they seek from their entrant students, when one examines how a student from rural or semi-urban place faces the economic and other burdens, one can easily concur that these separate multiple exams are nothing but an effective "entry barriers" that favor students from metros and relatively well-off families.
We know that people in Mumbai or in any major metros won't like distant relatives from rural places to come and stay with them for a few nights - because space is too precious. As most of these exams have centers in major metros/state capitals, any student from smaller towns or villages needs to take on the additional burden of travel - which adds to physical exhaustion along with the economic costs. Many even may not have relatives at these exam centers, and as most of them can't afford hotel-stay multiple times; they therefore may have to directly come to the exam centers without even having the opportunity to arrive fresh for the exams. The urban students at least don't face these additional traumas.
Irrespective of the USPs these exams offer (or as claimed by the organizers), one simply can't ignore the basic obvious monetary benefits they accrue to the different institutes. The costs are multiple for the end-consumer, the stress is multiplied to students and guardians and in the name of uniqueness, this has indeed been taken too far stressing all students in general and, particularly, economically marginalized students from remote areas.
In the name of freedom and competition, many of us mostly forget the basic infrastructure, policies, systems that the U.S. offers through standardization. Irrespective of boards or school, there is one SAT, one GRE, one GMAT. And true, in case a good student accidentally badly performs in any of these critical exams, s/he can take that again without even losing a year.
We saw some developments on this front from government in regulating and controlling number of exams - limiting to two or three for MBAs couple of years back. The proposal eventually had a natural death as there was opposition from vested bodies. One isn't ruling out possibilities of genuine oppositions; however with adequate representatives from these various institutes in an apex body like the formal Educational Testing Service (ETS) or its present form the GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council) adopted through ACT Inc. and Pearson Vue, most of the genuine grievances against retaining only one admission test in India should get addressed.
Otherwise it's a criminal offence we are practicing by stressing all students and guardians unnecessarily, and putting an enormous economic and physical burden to students who come from rural backgrounds, who are the worst sufferers.
A true reservation was to be meant for them - wasn't it? Well, till our government works out the basis for controversial reservation, one can always expect a speedy action from our Honorable Minister and his Ministry so that these types of effective "entry barriers" that act against these bright rural students from economically poorer families are removed.
http://desicritics.org/2007/04/04/041245.php
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| Hot issues of Today |
- Apr 06, 2007
- Apr 05, 2007
- Apr 04, 2007
- Apr 03, 2007
- Apr 02, 2007
- Apr 01, 2007
- Mar 31, 2007
- Mar 30, 2007
- Mar 29, 2007
- Mar 28, 2007
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