Decimation of a child's world

AS usual, the onset of winter in the capital was marked by the seasonal rituals of the very rich and the very powerful. It was hard to decide what was more embarrassing: the book-readings where the rum and gin drinkers began by calling each other by their names, and ended up calling each other names; or the opulent fashion shows with anorexic models, ex-Miss Indias and photogenic wives of diplomats, all buying designer wear for six figure sums and donating some of it to starving street children or AIDS victims in far off rural areas; or the schizophrenic galas organised to ring out some superannuated mover and shaker; where the crowds milled around, not the chief guest, but the new VIP. Certainly the least appealing of all the above spectacles was the annual amoral conversion of school children into little sycophants, dancing and making precocious speeches at 7, Racecourse Road, on Chacha Nehru's birthday, also known as Bal Divas.

As in the age of Devaki and Vasudeva, the real message of the year 2000 lies not in these glittering functions. It comes from reports that firmly underscore a slow but alarming decimation of the children's world. Malnutrition among young mothers and children remains rampant (as high as 48 per cent in Orissa and 44 per cent in West Bengal), and the number of girls and women is registering an alarming decline everywhere, particularly in the BIMARU states up north. After conducting a survey of around 90,000 women between 15-49 years in 1998-99, the Second National Family Health Survey (NFHS-II) has revealed that there is little to feel happy about the health and social status of mothers and children. Fifty per cent of women are still married off illegally before the age of 18. Over 60 per cent are unemployed, but remain overworked and undernourished in the households to which they are yoked while still immature. Only four out of 10 women surveyed knew about HIV/AIDS and the threat it posed. More than 75 per cent of the women surveyed confessed that they wanted only two children. But since the crucial decision-making still lies with the men, more than half (51.8 per cent to be precise) of these women cannot use any form of contraception, and have large families, frequent miscarriages and abortions (mostly performed in back rooms by untrained dais).

The nutritional status of children is even worse, with three out of four suffering from anaemia and two out of four from moderate to severe forms of anaemia that stunts growth and finally kills. Little wonder then, that one out of 11 children dies before the age of five. And girls (who are perennially neglected), we are told, have a doubly higher chance of dying in infancy.

As for violence against women and girls, the survey reports that at least one out of five women has been beaten or physically mistreated since the age of 15, the biggest culprit being the husband. Around 17 per cent of the urban women are beaten up regularly for "sins" ranging from "disobedience" to complaining of being frequently sick and weak. What is sadder still is that given this sort of upbringing and lack of power, most women surveyed still believed that the husband has a right to beat them, if he thinks they have neglected "his" house or "his" children, or gone out without "his" permission, or shown disrespect to "his" parents.

Can a polity, currently dominated by desires like achieving 6 per cent growth rate, a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, or teaching Sanskrit and retrograde religious rituals to school going children, deal effectively with these problems? The answer is: probably not. Yes, it was acknowledged, in a vague sort of way, that Bal Divas should be a day when we should think about what we have done for our children during the year. Also that the mothers are to be venerated and the children are our future.

But we find, as the leaders from various parties express these noble sentiments, they are usually sitting on decorated podiums on plush chairs surrounded on all sides by security guards. Many sport eye-catching headgear and angavastrams resplendent with gold thread. They look, and probably are, more like well-fed powerful potentates receiving the poor in their durbar. Their minds and priorities, we feel, lie elsewhere.

Human and development issues occupy only the fringe of their attention, if at all, as they nod and applaud the meek singing for their supper. Governments and parties that form the government of the day may change but attitudes are the same: Us and Them.

Actually the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has been no worse than its predecessors in dealing with the challenges of developmental issues, affecting the weaker and poorer sections of our society, and in failing to come up with alternate plans of action to counter the challenges of globalisation.

Meanwhile guess who seems to have got it almost right? Surprise, surprise, it is not the official Left, but the Congress(I) (Sonia Gandhi) and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch. One could, as Ghalib said, die of joy if only one could believe them. But the tragedy of these new look pro-poor, pro-women perceptions in the Congress(I) and the ultra Right is that they are still largely rooted in an ethos that treats the enemy's enemy as a friend; or at least less of an enemy.

To Sonia Gandhi's Congress(I) friends and sympathisers of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, within the NDA, their assertion that there is more to economy than politics, may sound rather delightful, but if the latest civic poll results tumbling out of Uttar Pradesh, are anything to go by, voters like Asadullah Khan Ghalib are not so easily convinced of their stance. After the rallies and the speeches were over, they decided to vote for the non- partisan Independents including a eunuch, from their own backyards. Their logic was: They may not be as gender-sawy or as verbally facile, but at least they do not offer ancient and inapplicable solutions to modern worries.

MRINAL PANDE

The author writes in English and Hindi and is a freelance journalist.

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