Jamshedpur Rebuffs Status Change Can Yes Bank Walk the Talk?

Dr DEVI SHETTY : IT TAKES A HEART TO SPREAD JOY PAGE 21 www.civilsocietyonline.com VOL. 3 NO. 5 February 2006 rs 50 GOOD JamsHedpUr rebUffs statUs cHanGe LIVING Page 4 Pages 30-31 can yes bank walk tHe talk? drinks for Page 15 diabetics redUcinG infant mortality in india & assam Page 25 recipes arUn maira on workinG toGetHer Page 19 vIEWS PEOPLE CAMPAIGNS NGO s SLOGANS CONTROvERSIES IDEAS vOLuNTEERS TRAINING BOOKS FILMS INTERvIEWS RESEARCH Jubliant AD contents CIVIL SOCIETY February 2006 3 COvER STORY Cancer and all of us n keeping with our mission of profiling change leaders pitted against complex problems, we have devoted this month's cover story to IHarmala Gupta and her nGO, CanSupport. The importance of palliative care, as yet largely ignored in our country, cannot be stressed enough. Cancer has become a huge problem and if we look around us it is difficult to find a family which has not been touched by the disease in one way or the other. Harmala is herself a survivor. Her decision to go out and help others is the result of her own experience in which she went from denial and disbelief to acceptance. It was her good fortune that she happened to be in HEALING TOuCH FOR CANCER Canada at that time and therefore could avail of more evolved medical At CanSupport, Harmala Gupta shows that talking about responses than she would have found in India. During her treatment she cancer helps patients come to terms with the disease. discovered palliative care. And palliative care takes away some of the pain. 9 During the 10 years that CanSupport has been around, cancer has continued to spread at a pace that should be cause for concern. But there is COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY LAKSHMAN ANAND no corresponding increase in systems for helping patients. Palliative care improves the quality of life of a patient, particularly in the last stages. It can be used for cancer and several other diseases as well. It can save families from blowing up their savings in hospitals. Delhi residents put Palliative care helps families who have to cope with the stress of seeing a politicians on the mat, loved one die in pain. It recognises death as a part of life. It provides say yes to demolitions . 4 counsel on simple and yet effective ways of managing physical discomfort. It also involves working with families after a patient's death. In Kashmir, finally, a It is important that doctors and hospitals and society at large recognise rehabilitation centre the importance of palliative care, particularly because the number of for drug addicts . cancer cases in India is going to keep growing and there aren't hospitals 7 and medical practitioners enough to take care of them. The cost of hospitalisation in India is also something to be considered. A lot of the time hospitalisation is not the answer. We welcome on board with this issue Dr Devi Shetty who is not just In Orissa’s Bolangir India's best known cardiac surgeon, but also a devoted medical district herbal hospital practitioner seeking practical solutions to challenges in public health care. takes plants as fees . 8 Dr Shetty will do a column for Civil Society and has also kindly agreed to be a part of our peer review group. Business: Rana Kapoor An important story for us is the "referendum" in Jamshedpur. The looks at a new decision to change the steel city's status from an industrial township to a municipality has met with loud protests. naturally so. It is the only city in investment paradigm . 15 Jharkhand, perhaps all of India, with drinkable water in its taps and roads you can drive on. The Jamshedpur protests reveal a deeper disenchantment with services provided by the government. People would much rather have a privately-managed utility so long as it is accountable Only ethical India will and efficient. This is the same message that comes from the residents' be a shining India, says welfare associations of Delhi. Ram Gidoomal . .22 Our Insight section focuses on infant mortality and the relevance of breastfeeding. It is difficult to find a better informed professional in this Insight: Feed babies area than Dr Arun Gupta whose Breastfeeding Promotion network of India when they are born, (BPnI) has soldiered on for several years. says Dr Arun Gupta . .25 Review: In Kolkata, a theatre group creates Printed and published by Umesh Anand on behalf of Rita Anand of A 53D, public awareness . First Floor, Panchsheel Vihar, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi-17. Printed at Kaizen 29 Offset, 19 DSIDC Scheme 3, Phase-2, Okhla Industrial Area, New Delhi-20. Notice Board: Write to Civil Society at E-2144 Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, Haryana 122017 Ph: 9811787772, E-mail: [email protected]. Editor: Rita Anand Friendship at Wagah, RNI No.:•DELENG/03/11607 Webwatch etc. 32 Get your copy of Civil Society from any of the following stores: The Corner Bookstore at Baristas and other locations across cities. Delhi: Bahri Sons, Mercury and The Bookshop at Khan Market. Central News Agency at Connaught Place. Stalls at Green Park. Gurgaon: The Music Store, DLF Phase 1 Market. Quill and Canvas at Galleria. The Music Store at Big Bazaar in the Sahara Mall. Kolkata: Classic Books at 10 Middleton Street. Bangalore: Landmark at the Forum Mall, Koramangala. Gangaram's Book Bureau on MG Road, Variety Book House on St Mark's Road. Lucknow: Ram Advani Bookseller at Hazartganj. Chandigarh: The Browser, Sector 8 Market. india 4 February 2006 CIVIL SOCIETY Delhi residents Jamshedpur says loud no to municipal status put politicians on the mat Civil Society News New Delhi S the municipal authorities acting on the Delhi High Court's orders continued to pull down illegal constructions, politicians Acutting across party lines closed ranks to win a reprieve. But were they speaking for themselves or were they really appealing on behalf of hapless citizens tyrannised by a harsh court? Leaders like Ram Babu Sharma of the ruling Congress said that 80 per cent of Delhi had illegal constructions of one kind or the other. He claimed to be speaking for the "toiling class" that would be affect - ed if the court's instructions to demolish were implemented. But Delhi's residents, represented by their residents' welfare asso - ciations, had a different story to tell. They were fed up, they said, of politicians who had connived with builders and brought several neighbourhoods to the brink of civic collapse. There isn't a neighbourhood in Delhi that is free from zoning vio - lations. Whole residential buildings have been transformed into offices and showrooms. The problem, residents point out, is the absence of governance. Politicians have worked with builders and the engineers and officers of the municipal corporation have taken their cut. It is the middle class resident who has had to cope with the lack of clarity in a cor - rupt system that has more often than not become a part of it. The Delhi Residents' Welfare Associations Joint Front has taken the plea that there should be an end to corruption in the municipal corporation and that big offenders should be punished. Anuj Kumar Sinha Intimation of the minister's intentions to People's Action, an nGO which works with RWAs under the ban - Jamshedpur change Jamshedpur's status from an indus - ner of United Residents' Joint Action (URJA), has suggested that the trial township to a municipal corporation Delhi Municipal Corporation be abolished and replaced with sever - T is tough to find another Indian city that came towards the end of December with the al bodies specifically responsible for different parts of the city. is as apparently perfect as Jamshedpur. low-key issuing of a notification. January 18 The Joint Front wants demolitions to go on. " When nobody else IIts roads are well maintained. The parks was set as the cut-off date for public objec - listened to us the courts listened. Today at last the MCD, police and are splendid. Power rarely goes. And, lo and tions and most people were caught government are under pressure to implement their own law, which behold, you can drink water from the taps. unawares. so far they have cynically disregarded and lined their own pockets." In case you need medical care, the Tata But as the deadline loomed up, some Pankaj Agarwal, secretary of the Joint Front, told Civil Society that Hospital provides it at a fraction of the cost 600,000 of Jamshedpur's 1,000,000 resi - the problem lay in the absence of clarity in how the system works. at an equal facility in Delhi, whether you dents lodged their protest, saying they did Residents were often at the mercy of municipal officials who would happen to be a Tata employee or not. not want the city to go the way of other use their discretion as they pleased to sanction properties and selec - Why would anyone want to disturb this urban areas in the state of Jharkhand which tively demolish others. happy balance? But in recent weeks the are collapsing because of political corrup - People's Action's view is that the 18,000 illegal con - industrial township, which tion and the absence of any effective admin - structions listed before the high court cannot be has developed around istration. demolished without voluntary compliance. "But peo - CITIES IN Jamsetji Tata's dream of an With the majority of the residents raising ple will only come forward when they know that the TURMOIL Indian steel plant, has been objections, it is unlikely that the change in law is applicable to all,” says Sanjay Kaul.

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