Friday, December 25, 2020

रूपरेखा वर्मा का स्त्री सम्मान दिवस पर बलात्कार की अपसंस्कृति पर वक्तव्य

                                            बहुत विनम्र महसूस कर रही हूँ, मुझे शर्म भी आ रही है, मैं आपकी इस लंबी-चौड़ी तारीफ़ को इस अर्थ में ले रही हूँ अगर मैं कभी आराम करना भी चाहूं और अगर शरीर और दिमाग चल रहा है तो मैं आराम न करूं, आपका यह आदेश सिर आँखों पर. आज की जो आपने थीम चुनी है उसके लिए मैं स्त्री अधिकार संगठन ( पूर्व में स्त्री मुक्ति संगठन इस नाम से भी काम किया है) शुक्रिया करना चाहूंगी, जबसे यह बना है तब से मैं इसके काम को जानती हूँ , बहुत अच्छा काम आप लोगों ने किया है आगे भी करेंगे पूरा विश्वास है. आपने मेरा जो सम्मान किया मैं उसका भी और आज जो बुलाया है उसका भी शुक्रिया करती हूँ. आज के लिए जो आपने थीम चुनी है निश्चित रूप से कुछ समय से जो बलात्कार की संख्या बढ़ी है और उसका जो रूप है वह भयावह हुआ है तो यह एक सही बात है कि हम इस विषय पर जब कोई ख़ास मौके हों तो इस पर ज़रूर चर्चा करें.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Older Women And Mental Health

 - Nighat Gandhi 

Image credit Guardian

Let’s compare 2 case scenarios. Bothare older women with challenging life situations:

1.        A retired University professor in her 60s with a comfortable pension,  unmarried, living alone, owns her home, has poor vision and other health problems, has access to reliable health care services, has few friends and relatives.

Mental Health Challenges: loneliness, depression, anxiety, limited mobility, by poor health, limited opportunities for travel and recreation.

2.       A homeless woman in her 60s, widowed, homeless, has worked previously as domestic worker, has primary school education, is hard of hearing, has impaired vision, has a married daughter but son-in-law doesn’t let her live with them.

Mental Health Challenges: loneliness, depression, financial anxiety, restlessness, poor emotional stability, lack of income, no housing, poor hearing and vision, no friends, no access to medical care, no opportunity for travel or recreation.

Whose shoes would you rather be in?  The retired professor’s or the homeless widow’s? Or neither?

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Why Hitler is Popular in India ? By Subhash Gatade

Image courtesy- Holocaust Encyclopaedia  

“History teaches, but has no pupils,”

- Antonio Gramsci 1 

J’admire .....

An innocent question sometimes comes up with very troubling answer(s).

J’admire( I admire)... a simple exercise given to students to know from them whom they appreciate as a great historical figure or a hero, became a great learning experience for a teacher who taught French at a private school.

Writer and Journalist Dileep D’souza, who has authored many books, and writes on social-political causes shared the experience of his wife who posed the said question before them during a discussion. What she was expecting that they would mention Gandhi or Bhagat Singh or other luminaries of India’s struggle for freedom and progress but none of her predictions came true. There was a lone student whose choice was Mahatma Gandhi but nine out of 25 students in her class admired Hitler as hero or as a great historical figure.

Explaining his choice the 10 th grader talked of Hitler’s ‘fantastic oratory’, how he loved his country, how he was a ‘great patriot’ and how he helped restore ‘a sense of pride’ to Germany which it had lost after the defeat in the first world war. He had not much sympathy for the millions he slaughtered, his response to it seemed to rationalise it, that ‘some of them were traitors’. 2

There are n number of reports which tell you that this particular school is no exception.