The Beautiful Life

The Reserve Bank of India surprised the market with its first monetary policy review, after demonetisation, by keeping its repo rate unchanged at 6.25%. Noted Ajit Ranade, economist and political analyst spoke on impact of demonetisation on growth and the possible upside risks to inflation. Ranade in his interview stated that the goal is not to move to cashless, but use less cash. There was big expectation of a rate cut from RBI. But the central bank has surprised everyone. Are you disappointed that RBI did not cut the policy rate this time? Not at all, there are at least five reasons for caution that I can think of: (a) The US rates are going up, and a Fed hike is almost certain. Most developed country bond yields are also going up. So gap between Indian and US rates is narrowing. (b) Oil prices are up after OPEC decision to cut output that may lead to some inflationary pressure. (c) GST will also be inflationary in the beginning period and might warrant...

Four more people have been arrested following the suspension of all the teaching and non-teaching employees of Nimbaji Kokre ashramshala in Buldhana district, for their alleged involvement in the rape of minor tribal girls of the school. Chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Women, Vijaya Rahatkar spoke with Chitra Sawant on the importance of having proper monitoring system in place to keep a check on such incidents and the need to run these ashramshalas as pure social activity. Excerpts from the interview: What are the mechanism to keep check on such unfortunate incidents from occurring in ashramshalas? Though we have proper policy in place for functioning of ashramshalas but they don’t have a monitoring mechanism in place, there have been reports of mismanagement in ashramshalas. The superintendent or warden appointed to take care of the children is supposed to reside permanently at the ashramshala and take responsibility for their safety. Though presence of a female war...

Of late, the dominant and influential Maratha community has been taking out silent rallies across the state over making changes in the Atrocities Act and reservation in education and employment.  Prakash Ambedkar, party leader of Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh spoke on why reservation is not the answer for development of the Maratha community and stressed on reviving the cooperative movement which has played a significant role in addressing the concerns of the farmers, who are primarily Marathas. Some edited excerpts of the interview: One of the demands made at the Maratha rallies is the modification of the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Do you think there is a misuse of Atrocities Act? They are not clear on what needs to be modified in the Atrocities Act. There was a discussion in Parliament on the Atrocities Act, where the necessary changes were sought. I checked the papers but neither the Maratha MPs nor the NCP leaders have mad...

Pavan Amara, a student nurse based in London, was raped when she was a teenager. The incident turned her life upside down and it took her a long time to come to terms with it. She started to look for support but found few useful options. Amara contacted several women in a similar position to discuss how they felt about sex, body image and healthcare after the trauma. To her surprise, she was far from alone. She found that every single one of these women was seriously affected. Following which she set up ‘My Body Back’ in London, a project that supports women who have experienced sexual violence, focusing particularly on issues of body image and sexuality, helping them to reclaim their bodies as their own. Recently she started the first maternity clinic for victims of sexual assault and rape. In an email interview, Pavan states that the UK and other developed countries are still relatively backward and blinkered when ...

Pradeep Purandare is a former Associate Professor (Irrigation Management), Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI), Aurangabad and has worked as an expert member on the Marathwada Statutory Development Board. At present he is a member of the committee on Integrated State Water Plan, chaired by K P Bakshi, additional chief secretary. In an interview with Chitra Sawant , Purandare warns of an ecological disaster in the offing, if the present uncontrolled exploitation of rivers continues unchecked. Edited excerpts Maharashtra has enacted nine irrigation-related water laws. Of these, only one has formulated the required rules. Maharashtra has adopted a State Water Policy in 2003. It was supposed to be revised every five years. However, that revision has yet not been done. Meanwhile, National Water Policy has been revised in 2012. In the absence of rules for the other eight acts, there is hardly any implementation of the acts. The work of issuing necessar...

The festival of Ashadhi Ekadashi will witness the Warkariyatra enter the Vithoba temple at , marking the culmination of the auspicious pilgrimage to the abode of the Lord Vitthal. The Warkaris, devotees of  Lord Vitthala trek   to see their very own ‘Vithaimauli’, putting up cheerfully with all the difficulties and inconveniences of a long journey. The stress on enhancement of knowledge, though has come out strong in the past decades, can be traced back more than 700 years to Sant Dyaneshwar, the poet saint, who brought a revolutionary change by spreading spiritual knowledge to all including the downtrodden. Dyaneshwar, himself a devotee of Vithoba, was instrumental in introducing this practice of Warkari  pilgrimage  to the common people, breaking the barriers of caste and creed. Through the centuries, he has been one of the main attractions of the Warkari Panth or Bhagwat Dharma. Dyaneshwar rejected the caste system and reinforced the belief that everyone ...

A new study by the University of Toronto found that the lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts among adults who had been exposed to chronic parental domestic violence during childhood was 17.3 percent as compared to 2.3 percent among those without this childhood adversity. Dr Shubhangi R Parkar, Prof. and Head of the Department of Psychiatry of KEM Hospital, has been working in the field of suicide and mental health for the past thirty years. She spoke about the need for early identification and intervention of children exposed to domestic violence.  Dr Shubhangi Parkar spoke on the impact of exposure to domestic violence  on children Dr Shubhangi R Parkar Q: Are children exposed to domestic violence prone to suicidal tendencies? Dr Shubhangi Parkar : More than imitating their parental violent behaviour, these various adversities affect children’s socialisation process. Children encode negative beliefs in their memory and they often start believing, feeling ...

Adv Smita Sarode-Singalkar is a practising socio-legal lawyer and is an executive member of the National Green Tribunal Bar Association (West zone). Adv Smita spoke on the need to break the nexus between officials, politicians and the garbage mafia which is proving to be a serious hindrance in development of smart cities in the state. How severe is the issue of solid waste management in the state? A: Though the state government has plans to develop some big cities in the state as smart cities, the idea can be seen facing challenges because of management of solid waste. Garbage poses a new challenge in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Dombivali, Nashik, Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Sangli-MirajKupwad, Nagpur and Latur. What are the major issues related to solid waste management? A: The constant neglect towards the management of garbage has already created a big threat and without tactfully handling this threat we cannot develop any city in the state as a smart city. Nexus between poli...

Women all over the country are increasingly falling prey to cyber violence and vulgar messages, which can be as damaging as physical abuse. In such cases the perpetrators are not limited by geographic or physical boundaries. Voicing concern over the fact that even educated people fall in the trap of processing messaging containing wrong and misleading information on the social media, noted human rights advocate and analyst Asim Sarode said that people are now becoming used to sending insensitive messages, a trend which started during the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.  Are women soft target on the social media? It has been observed that world over women have been the first victim of technological development or scientific advances. The pre-natal diagnostics techniques were invented to check the growth of the foetus but unfortunately it is used to check whether the foetus is that of a girl or a boy. Milenda Gates while talking about lesser p...

Students under exam time pressure  It is that time of the year when board exams are on and children crumble under intense pressure to give their best. The number of adolescents committing suicide increases during this phase of the academic year. Experts explain that out of the multiple reasons for students committing suicide, one of the major causes is the inability to handle stress. There are many students who handle stress effectively, many learn from their failures and move ahead in life. The possibility of suicidal tendencies is likely to occur in combination with several circumstances that seem to over-load teens with stress and hence make them unable to cope with the challenges of adolescence which lead to increase in stress. Multiple factors are held responsible for a person’s suicide and that failure in exams need not be a single cause. Many students are under increased pressure due to multi-tasking as they are expected to remain attentive and perform in scho...

Sahitya Akademi winning author Jayant Pawar has been a writer, critic and playwright for the past three decades. He spoke about how intellectuals can go beyond art and generate awareness among the masses against the ongoing situation of intolerance in the country in an interview with Chitra Sawant. Q What would you like to say on blatant attacks being carried out on writers and students? A: BJP considers the secular social fabric of this country as a major threat to its governance process. For them, there is no threat from the Islamic fundamentalists. Their idea is that if the secularists are controlled, then it is easy to control the minorities, Muslims and Christians. BJP wants to rule in the name of religion. We have people from different groups, sects, religions residing together in our country, and this is possible because of the principles of our Indian Constitution. Hindu culture is very vast there have been several sects, groups which were not following the Vedic-Hinduism...

The State Government’s decision allow government and private medical colleges in the state to issue the specific learning disabilities (SLD) certificate, will make it easy for students from the remote rural areas to obtain this crucial document.  Currently, these students spend considerable time and money on acquiring the certificate, as only a few centres in Mumbai offer the certificate. With rising awareness, demand for the SLD certificate has increased putting pressure on the few institutions in Mumbai that offer the certificate.  Dr Ashish Deshpande, President, Bombay Psychiatric Society, did his graduation and post graduation in Psychological Medicine from King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College, Parel, Mumbai.  Dr Ashish Deshpande  spoke on the incidence of specific learning disability among children and the available remedies.  Edited excerpts.  Q What are the common learning problems found among scho...