VOL. 7 NO. 09 JULY 2010 www.civilsocietyonline.com Rs 50 A PEOPLE’S REPORT ON GOVT bhopal cloud over upa-2 A sttrreett pllay iin Dellhii afftterr tthe rrecentt courrtt verrdiictt on tthe Bhopall gas lleak ‘boost incomes bigger battle awaits mamata Pages 10-11 of small farmers’ reva’s moment arrives Page 23 Food security means availability, access and absorption, says rural bpo trains village women Pages 24-25 Dr MS Swaminathan Pages 6-7 hotel with vertical gardens Pages 29-30 CONTeNTS reAD u S. We reAD yo u. A People’s Report he UPA-2 submitted a “Report to the People” on its first year in office. Our cover story this month is a “People’s Report on UPA-2”. It is based Ton a cross-section of opinions from all over the country. These are peo - ple who you won’t see on TV as talking heads. But they make a significant contribution in what they do and are real enough. We believe their opin - ions are important and should matter to any government in power. While the government’s ceremonial report made no mention of Bhopal, it is the accountability of companies, pollution and depletion of resources that worry people the most when they look at the performance of their government. People want growth with equity and justice and the expectations from bhopal cloud over upa -2 the UPA are huge with it being emphasised that the UPA was brought back to office because of the empowering and inclusive policies that it had ini - The UPA-2 government has acted belatedly on Bhopal. But tiated. on the whole it has much to do to prove that its aam aadmi People are in many ways far ahead of their government. They have a agenda is on course. 16 modern and globalised view of the rights of the citizen and the consumer. cover PHoToGrAPH: LAKSHMAN ANAND They don’t look kindly upon leaders who barter away these rights in the name of getting investment or who spend too much time on the same page with the corporate sector. Coke, Pepsi have deadly record . 9 Bhopal is of course a case in point. This magazine has reported on Bhopal from time to time. More than a year ago we did a story headlined: ‘Will someone please clean up the mess in Bhopal?’ We also had occasion Pahalgam glacier is vanishing . .12 to cover the Bhopal victims when they came to Delhi to ask for something as basic as clean drinking water. It amazed us then that they couldn’t get a hearing in Delhi when they were really the victims of the world’s worst Super Six get ready to fly . 13 chemical disaster. how was it that the UPA government couldn’t see the aam aadmi in the people of Bhopal crying out for justice? An attempt at damage control has now been made through a Group of Govt, VHAI run health facility . 14 Ministers. Providing compensation, cleaning the toxic waste lying in the Union Carbide factory and ensuring clean drinking water should rightly be priorities. It is necessary to know how this is going to be done quickly. States can attract investment . 26 We believe the toxic waste should be cleaned if necessary by the govern - ment because it is doing too much damage by lying around. It has long-term consequences for public health and the people of Bhopal have suffered Myth of a public hearing . 28 because of the toxic waste for far too long. But simultaneously, Dow must be held responsible and it should pay as it would in the US for such an acci - dent. It can’t be allowed to get away because of some corporate fiddle. A larger message of corporate accountability must go out. It is not diffi - Green fashion diva . 30 cult to see the kind of problems that are being caused by industrial pollu - tion. An official report lists 80 plus really bad locations. The damage that is being caused is not very dissimilar from what happened in Bhopal. The . 31 The curse of coal scale could be smaller, the process of poisoning slower. If the UPA is seri - ous about development, this has to stop. The rights of people to health and livelihood have to be respected. The draining away of common Across the Great Wall . 33 resources like groundwater has to end. Guide to happiness . 34 Publisher Photographers Nagar, New Delhi-17. Printed at umesh Anand Gautam Singh Thomson Press (india) Ltd, Advisory Board Get your copy of Civil Society from Lakshman Anand 18/35 Delhi-Mathura road, ANuPAM MiSHrA Editor Delhi: Bahri Sons, Mercury, the Forum Mall, rita Anand Layout & Design Postal Registration No. AruNA roy central News Agency, stalls Koramangala. reliance virender chauhan DL(S)-01/3255/2009-11. NASSer MuNjee at Green Park market. Timeout. variety Book House Editorial Consultant on St Mark's road. Write to Civil Society at: registered to post without AruN MAirA Gurgaon: The Music Store, Saibal chatterjee DLF Phase 1 Market. pre-payment u(Se)-10/2009-11 DArSHAN SHANKAr Chennai: Landmark e-2144 Palam vihar reliance Timeout at New Delhi PSo HArivANSH Mumbai: Laandmark, News Network Gurgaon, Haryana 122017 Gangtok: citi News on reliance Timeout Shree Padre, jehangir Ph: 9811787772 registered with the registrar of juG SurAiyA MG Marg. rashid, vivek S Ghatani, Printed and published by umesh Newspapers of india under rNi SHANKAr GHoSe Kolkata: oxford Bookstore, Lucknow: ram Advani No.: DeLeNG/2003/11607 Bookseller at Hazratganj. Shreyasi Singh, Anand from A 53 D, First Floor, uPeNDrA KAuL classic Books. Gautam Singh Panchsheel vihar, Malviya Total no of pages: 36 Bangalore: Landmark at Chandigarh: The Browser VOICeS IN The LIGhT by SAMITA RAThOR also delivers timely justice. umented’ babies. In schools, the vil - should have details of birth, place, LETTERS Shikha Mishra lage Masterji can enrol them with - name of parents etc. This would Congratulations to this group of out a birth registration certificate or help document all children and pro - lawyers for doing great service to a document. Newborns in the age vide them an identity. Why should humankind. Mediation should group, 0-3 are most vulnerable. a child wait to become an adult to spread across the country. We need In Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and get his or her Aadhar card? lawyers like you! Gujarat more births are taking place The architects of UID claim that Ashish in public health centres and hospi - their process is all about inclusion. The basic idea behind mediation is tals so birth registration does takes Then why not include children to open the path of communication place. Despite Maoist threats in from the time they are born? which gets blocked after differ - Chhattisgarh, the state is doing well Dr Manu N Kulkarni, Senior Fellow, Institute of Social ences creep in. We open up com - in reducing infant mortality through Sciences, New Delhi munication and get the parties to sit their grassroots programme, [email protected] across the table and talk. ‘Mitanin’ by which a health worker Rekha Thaliyani helps the pregnant mother to deliv - CORReCTIONS er in a public health facility. In the interview with JP Sengh The UID should be able to track a Baby Aadhar in the June cover story, it was child’s birth and growth till adult - wrongly stated because of a The architects of the UID/Aadhar hood. A three-year-old child is sup - transcription error that Justice project should realize that the most posed to join an anganwadi centre Katju is a believer in ‘arbitra - Mediation critical phase in a person’s life is for nutrition support and schooling. tion’. he is in fact a leading childhood. India’s record in nurtur - A five-year-old child is expected to champion of mediation. Your cover story, ‘Stuck in court? Try ing children is not a good one. enrol in primary school and, after mediation,’ was very useful. The Despite several conventions on 15, join high school. story illustrates what a group of child rights and a universal birth Today, large numbers of children In the story, ‘Radical doctors’ dedicated lawyers can do. Most peo - registration system, many children drop out of school for reasons like published in the May issue, Dr ple who approach courts are wor - are not registered because of cultur - migration of parents to urban areas Swarup Jana’s correct name is ried and tense. They have to show al and delivery norms. especially in for jobs, for seasonal work and so on. Dr Swapan Jana and Dr Ashish amazing patience in their search for rural India, mothers fail to ‘name’ Instead of giving Aadhar cards to Kundu’s correct name is Dr justice. Mediation, with a healing their newborns and register them. adults, the UID should provide the Ashok Kundu. touch, is a humane and rational There is no penalty for not register - Aadhar card to the newborn or at Editor approach. As your story shows, it ing. All these babies become ‘undoc - any stage of childhood. The card CIVIL SOCIETY, JULY 2010 5 INDIA ‘Future belongs to nations who have grains, not guns’ The first step in food security is to boost small farmers and increase their purchasing power, explains MS Swaminathan Civil Society News New Delhi e is best known as the Father of India’s Green Revolution but Dr MS Swaminathan hhas travelled a long way since then. he has worked devotedly on agriculture down the years. As a result, he has seen the rise and fall of Indian farming in all its aspects.