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'Down with hartals'
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Recent hartals have thrown life in the city out of gear. Students have been among the worst affected. Do hartals serve any purpose, except give some political mileage for parties? City residents speak...
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THIS MARCH 11, it was demonstrated again, if proof were needed, that the public has been neutralised. They subjected themselves, meekly and mutely, to the hartal (didn't you know, the b-word is taboo!). No untoward incident was reported. The parties that gave the call for the agitation gloated over the fact that the CBSE exam was conducted smoothly that day, thanks to their decision to spare the students, as if it were a special privilege accorded to the young citizens.
"Do we wait for another such exam to wake up to the fact that political parties try and seek political mileage on issues that will wait eternally for solutions, even at the risk of causing inconvenience to many families?" asks septuagenarian Subhalakshmi, whose grandson had to travel to an exam centre in Nettayam from Manacaud.
Public memory is short. Last year too, there was a similar situation and several students appearing for the examination stayed overnight in schools. "With due sympathies to the Adivasi problem, how much closer to a solution are we after this hartal?" asks petty trader Sudhakaran.
This is the third consecutive year that a dislocation of this sort has taken place during public examinations, recalls a mother of three. Parents of students appearing for the public exams are directly affected. Perhaps the internal examinations or even those of the Kerala SSLC could be postponed in deference to the hartal, but the dates of the CBSE and ICSSE exams that are conducted on an all-India basis are not flexible. We often forget that a chunk of students in the Kendriya Vidyalayas are children of Army personnel whose families reside in places as far off as Attingal or Thonnakkal. Till the child returns from the exam, the parents are tense.
Schools have made every effort to accommodate students who want to stay overnight in the school. "All comforts cannot be provided in this makeshift arrangement. Even the relaxation that is necessary for alertness during the exam is often not there in such circumstances," says a teacher whose school is a major exam centre in the city.
"Appearing for examinations in an unfamiliar classroom itself can be unsettling for many. As adults, our effort should be to see that they are provided a stress-free environment at least on the day of the examination," she adds.
"In States that cannot flaunt cent per cent literacy status, parents come together forgetting their political affiliations and sympathies and protest against moves by the parties to thwart education and throw civilian life out of gear. But, we in Kerala, do not react," laments a parent, a large part of whose working life was spent outside the State.
Justifying the call for hartals, overlooking the dislocation it involves, are S. Gopinathan and K. Mohankumar, Government employees and committed leaders of an employees' union. "Hartals are a means to create awareness among the public regarding the high-handedness of the party in power," they say.
Countering this point of view, Anandam Bai says, "Hartals thrill political parties and are a curse for the common man. Elected representatives must sort things out within the Assembly and not take issues to the streets."
Somewhere along the way, the administration has failed to take the interest of the common man into account. "How many people have their own vehicles to take their children to examination centres?" asks S. Radha Bai, an aggrieved parent. "On the pretext of protecting Government property and avoiding a confrontation with the Opposition, the common man's interests have been totally ignored."
If the state finds itself ill-equipped to face such a hartal, then who do we turn to is the question she and many others ask.
Even those of us who do not perceive the magnitude of the body-blow hartals deliver to the economy experience the inconvenience they cause; they also witness the aftermath of agitations. Why are we not willing to stand up and protest. Why?
BHAWANI CHEERATH
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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