VOL. 8 NO. 6 APRIL 2011 www.civilsocietyonline.com ` 50 BBBOOOLLLDDD NNNEEEWWW CCCIIINNNEEEMMMAAA DOCuMENtAry fILMs ArE tELLINg thE uNCOMfOrtABLE truth ‘We are rti celebrates five years looking for Pages 8-9 people from birth of a modern nalanda Pages 26-27 the trenches’ Dileep Ranjekar on sholay’s rocky trail the Azim Premji Pages 33-34 University’s plans Pages 6-7 getting infrastructure right Pages 36-37 CONTENTS ReAD U s. We ReAD yo U. Getting to the truth democracy is as strong as the number of diverse voices it encourages. For all our problems and inequalities in India, growing public debate Aand exposés of people in the establishment are signs that we have a lot going for ourselves. The fact that we can worry aloud about the dangers to our democracy is in itself proof that it is alive. But that is not all. The past five years have seen a surge in citizen initiatives. Technology has given us mobile phones and blogs and websites on the Internet. It has also put cameras and editing capabilities in the hands of people who earlier would not have dreamed of becoming filmmakers. Similarly, the Right to Information Act has made it possible for just about anyone to challenge bold new cinemA the government. RTI is now being employed widely in the country by ordi - Makers of documentary films are taking up themes that nary folks who are fed up with corruption and want better governance. have been mostly outside the purview of Indian cinema. From Itanagar to Mumbai, Srinagar to Chennai, RTI is being used to bring And they are earning applause for their brave creativity. 20 scandals into the open. Our cover story on documentary films in this issue shows how technol - coveR PHoToGRAPH: lAksHmAn AnAnD ogy very quickly overtakes old fashioned controls. Films with strong social messages are redefining cinema’s concerns. They are being produced on Count homeless again, say NGOs . 10 tiny budgets. Innovative marketing and distribution strategies ensure that they get seen globally. The stranglehold a few entrenched interests have had on the film industry has begun to loosen. More importantly, such The politics of fatness . .11 films represent a new creativity. They challenge and embarrass govern - ments and corporate interests with an independence which is difficult to define. Their honesty is unpremeditated and can’t be ignored. Beautiful Delhi and ugly Bawana . 12-13 The RTI national convention held in Shillong in March gives us an idea of how the movement has grown. People undertook long journeys from 23 different states to get to distant Shillong. Many of them came from remote Kerala mechanises straw picking . 16-17 corners of the northeast where news of the convention reached by word of mouth. It is also interesting to see the sophistications that the RTI movement has acquired and the new leadership that is taking it forward. Villages get change leaders . 18 Its strength is in disaggregated initiatives – people using RTI in their own backyards. Centralised movements are easily weakened. But how do you silence a multiplicity of voices on issues as diverse as the Adarsh building in Mumbai and the public distribution system in Itanagar? Jobs unlimited with CAP . 28 People believe they can demand and get greater accountability and trans - parency. Politicians and bureaucrats have begun to slowly accept this real - ity. The Indian corporate sector, long accustomed to having its way, hasn’t . 29-30 Budget for a dream city quite figured it out. It will have to if it wants to build businesses that are relevant in the markets of the future. Sikkim dams on the horizon . 31 Birth is death for India’s women . 34-35 Products: Jingle paintings . 38 Publisher Photographer new Delhi-17. Printed at Umesh Anand Gautam singh , lakshman Anand Thomson Press (india) ltd, Advisory Board Get your copy of Civil Society from 18/35 Delhi-mathura Road. Layout & Design AnUPAm misHRA Editor Delhi: Bahri sons, mercury, Bangalore: landmark, ARUnA Roy Rita Anand virender chauhan Postal Registration No. central news Agency, stalls Reliance Timeout, variety on Cartoonist Dl(s)-01/3255/2009-11. nAsseR mUnjee at Green Park market. st mark's Road, Higgin Editorial Consultant samita Rathor Registered to post without ARUn mAiRA Gurgaon: music store at Bothams, odyssey. saibal chatterjee pre-payment U(se)-10/2009-11 DARsHAn sHAnkAR DlF Phase 1 market, Chennai: landmark, Write to Civil Society at: Reliance Timeout, P3 odyssey, landmark News Network at new Delhi Pso HARivAnsH e-2144 Palam vihar, Gurgaon, Galleria. Mumbai: landmark, shree Padre, Registered with the Registrar of jUG sURAiyA Haryana 122017. Ph: 9811787772 Gangtok: citi news on Reliance Timeout. jehangir Rashid, HAnkAR Hose Printed and published by Umesh newspapers of india under Rni s G mG marg. Lucknow: Ram Advani syed Basharat, Anand from A 53 D, First Floor, no.: DelenG/2003/11607 UPenDRA kAUl Kolkata: oxford Bookstore, Bookseller at Hazratganj. susheela nair Panchsheel vihar, malviya nagar, Total no of pages: 40 classic Books. Chandigarh: The Browser. VOICES IN THE LIGHT by SAMITA RATHOR wasted their energy in useless fight - witnessing a critical migration of If a detailed study is done, it will ing. All scriptures whether it is the labour. Farm workers, 80 per cent of reveal that the biggest source of cor - Gita, Quran or Bible teach us the whom are women, now prefer to ruption is the government. All dis - LEttErs same good things. The problem is work under the National Rural cretionary powers given to govern - when we start owning religion and Employment Guarantee Scheme ment officers and politicians should create divisions. Fighting for eco - that pays much better. be taken away. nomic gain is understandable and [email protected] Isha solutions can be found. But fighting for religion is mad and sad in these Police reform gay rights modern times when we have access The people of Jammu and Kashmir I am inspired by the work and the to information. have pinned a lot of hope on the struggle of the transgender commu - [email protected] state police to get their grievances nity of India. Dr Santosh was indeed Riots have had a definite impact on redressed. It is the primary duty of an inspiration for all Sanam fellows Muslims. Never before have we wit - the police to protect the lives and during our study programme on 11 nessed Muslim women coming for - property of people while dealing February, 2011. Keep up the good ward in such large numbers to work. with all kinds of situations. work Mamma. [email protected] Zaheer Abbas, AMAL Human One such person is Firoza Sheikh. Development Network, Islamabad She is 23 and was recently elected to I would like to highlight the fact the local municipality of Saonli, a that the J&K police is one of the few small town in the Godhra district of Jackfruit government bodies to release its Life after riots Gujarat. Thanks, Shree Padre, for the piece [email protected] information booklet under Section on non-stick jackfruit. I would like Thanks for the cover on the after - 4.1.b. despite all kinds of negative to plant 100 grafts this June. math of the Gujarat riots. It was well publicity. NrEgA [email protected] researched and written. It also [email protected] clears many misconceptions. Given NREGA has brought higher wages the scenario in Gujarat (and most of for labourers across the country. Corruption City and citizen Farmers and landlords in Tamil India) where the majority communi - India needs reforms in the judiciary I agree with V Ravichandar's assess - Nadu have begun to feel the pinch ty is the most important vote bank, and bureaucracy. All political parties ment of who is a citizen of a city. I following its huge success. They I doubt the victims will receive the are two sides of the same coin. am working in Delhi. Although I am don’t get labourers to work in their justice they seek in its entirety. Nothing will change unless the judi - originally from Patna but I am more Ashish fields for the low wages they offer. ciary and bureaucracy are made to of a Delhiite than a Bihari. Thanks Will the new choice force landlords work. for the article. Our people in India have already to hike wages? Rural Tamil Nadu is [email protected] [email protected] CIVIL SOCIETY, APRIL 2011 5 INDIA INtErVIEW the Azim Premji university wants to develop change leaders in education ‘we are looking for people from the trenches’ Civil Society News New Delhi HE Azim Premji University in Bangalore has begun the process of admitting its first tbatch of students. The setting up of the university follows almost a decade of work with government schools by the Azim Premji Foundation. The foundation’s mission has been to spon - sor systemic and large-scale change in the pub - lic education system. The university will sim - ilarly seek to train people who want to teach or become administrators at the grassroots in India. Government schools cater to the majority of Indian children but lack well-qualified and motivated teachers. In the absence of political will, investment in education is inadequate and the administrative structure is in poor shape. The Azim Premji University has put togeth - er a small outstanding faculty drawn from people with real experience in development. It offers two-year Master’s degrees in educa - tion, development and teacher education. Dileep Ranjekar, CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation, spoke to Civil Society about the ideas driving the university. What made it necessary to think of a universi- ty? Isn’t it a rather big commitment? The concept of a university really came up in 2007.