http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/fix-our-cities-chennai-floods-turned-out-to-be-a-great-deal-harder-for-people-with-disabilities/article8005418.ece

disability in Chennai flood



The no warning of the impending floods in Chennai made it especially difficult for people with disabilities, who were left to fend for themselves. While some needed rescuing, others lost essential implements like hearing aids, crutches and calipers, leaving them more vulnerable than ever before.
The disaster, however, did bring to the fore incredible stories of courage and grit, where ordinary citizens became heroes as they helped save lives.
 One such story is that of physically challenged teacher K.S. Mariappan, who rescued four mentally challenged students from a special school as water gushed into the campus.
December 1 seemed like just another rainy night to the students at the Annai Special School, located on the banks of the Adyar river in Saidapet. The inmates had retired to bed after dinner, as had Mariappan, who also lived on the school premises.
Around 9 p.m., Pratap, one of the students who noticed the water seeping into the school, rushed to Mr. Mariappan’s quarters to wake him up.
Jolted into action, Mr. Mariappan took a call to move the students out of the school to the home of a teacher who lived a kilometre away. By the time they had collected a few essentials and started out of the school on Mr. Mariappan’s retro-fitted bike, the water in the school campus was ankle-deep. Since he suffers from polio, and depends on his crutches to move about, the swirling waters posed a huge challenge for Mr. Marippan, especially as he had to escort others to safety.
“To reach the house, we walked around half a kilometre. Walking through the flooded streets on my crutches meant that the progress was slow, and I had to accompany each student individually,” he said.
After he escorted the last student, Subhash, to safety, Mr. Marippan went back to his bike to collect the certificates and other essentials that he had managed to save from the water. “By this time the flood waters had reached my chest, and I could no longer walk through the swirling waters. I somehow managed to hold on to my crutches, but I had to be carried by bystanders to prevent me from being washed away,” he explains.
For the next three days, the group was forced to live with one of the teachers, with very little food, almost no medical care, and two special instructors to manage four distressed students.
A similarly harrowing situation played out in Nandambakkam, where the students of MGR School for Hearing Impaired were stranded on their campus, and were rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Many of the students lost their hearing aids and certificates.
Official figures state that 11.7 lakh persons with disabilities live in the State (around 1.7 per cent of the population). Estimates suggest that the Chennai metropolitan area alone has over 1.5 lakh disabled people. About two months ago, Vidyasagar, a city NGO working with the disabled, wrote a letter to the State Disaster Management Authority headed by the Chief Secretary, asking it to include the needs of people with disabilities when making a disaster management plan.
“The letter, which was sent in October, asked that persons with disabilities be included on the panel of the authority so that they could better explain the issues faced during natural disasters,” Smitha Sadasivam from Vidyasagar said. So far, there has been no response from the authority.
In a disturbing coincidence, the floods ravaged the city soon after the letter was sent, and seemed to only emphasise the need to include the disabled when coming up with a strategy for disaster management.
The case of Bhavana, who has cerebral palsy and lives in Sriram Nagar Colony with her parents and caregiver, is one example which highlights the crucial need for rescue teams to have adequate training to deal with people with special needs.
Bhavana is wheelchair-bound, and is unable to speak. When the river water started flooding her house, her caregiver managed to signal for a boat to rescue them. But when the team arrived, they realised that Bhavana would have to be transported in her wheelchair. One of the members of the rescue team says, “After trying several different methods, we had to ask her mother and her caregiver to wade through the water and help carry her on to the boat, since none of us had the training needed to undertake such an operation.” The fact that civilian-led rescue teams, even though they meant only good had no experience to anticipate such situations, compounded rescue efforts.
Amba Salelkar of Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability Law and Policy, emphasises the need for disaster management policies to ensure people who are visually or hearing impaired receive warning messages, and that people with mobility impediments are rescued. Only then will these policies be comprehensive, she says.
Trapped in the floods
While people in danger were rescued from their homes, a majority of the city remained indoors for a few days, with telephone lines failing, no electricity and the streets continuing to be flooded with water.
Many of the inmates of Vidyasagar were in a similar situation. With no electricity, and many of the people on wheelchairs, they were all forced to stay on the third floor of the school building. This dealt a blow especially to those who got around using electronic wheelchairs, which could not be charged, due to the prolonged blackout in the area. As a result, they were unable to even use the toilet without someone carrying them. Since there were very few caregivers, the situation became dire.
Medical care for people with special needs also became a problem during the floods. Ms. Sadasivam herself was stranded in her house with viral fever. “I have multiple sclerosis, and I am on immunosuppressants, which means that I cannot take many over-the-counter medicines,” she explains.
Attempts at rebuilding
 Now that much of the water has receded, the focus is on the city and its people trying to rebuild themselves. K. Manivasan, Commissioner, Disabilities, government of Tamil Nadu, says, “The government has ensured that all the camps have a special officer who is taking care of people with disabilities. Wherever possible, we are issuing certificates immediately.”
A disaster that was termed as a leveller, in terms of its effect on people of all social classes, was still a great deal harder on people with disabilities, who have, in the past, lobbied for better accessibility in the city. Activists and people with disabilities alike hope that the floods, disastrous as it was, would jolt the government into finally taking their cause more seriously

ten amazing tips to increase your wealth through vastu.

1. Five elements or Panchtattva and the 16 Mahavastu zones determine how you think, react.

2. Vastu-perfect homes attract wealth.

3. In the north vastu zone, ensure that blue is the main colour; avoid red shade, designating space for kitchen and toilet. Also, don't place a dustbin, broom, washing machine, mixer-grinder here. The kitchen represents fire and with wrong placements, you'll end up diluting money, opportunities and career.

4. Keep a money plant in a green vase, or hang a scenery showing a lush field or thick forest in north zone. These will attract money and better career opportunities.

5. The north west vastu zone is the one which gets you support (financial) of banks and relevant persons in your ventures.

6. A beautiful entrance brings happiness and prosperity, and helps in appreciation of an individual's value in the society. If it is a sloppy and unkempt one, troubles will hound you.

For instance, the south-west door will bring in debts, loans and financial problems. A north vastu entrance brings good career opportunities and money. The east vastu entrance brings peace. The west entrance brings in wealth and prosperity. The south entrance is also a beneficial one.

7. Keep the kitchen in the south east or south south-east. The main colour should be pastel shades of red, orange and pink. Keep the safe, work table, drawing room in the northern areas for a healthy money flow.

8. In the West, the main colours are white and yellow. This is another location for the safe. Use round shapes as these represent the earth element here. The west south-west is the zone of savings. Keep this clean and use as a place for studies. Keep money and valuables in an iron safe in this area— this will ensure your wealth remains safe.

9. Overall, see if there is a harmonious and balanced energy cycle in your house.

10. Get your house thoroughly checked using the 4-Step Mahavastu method. Discover which areas have an imbalance and whether zones are cut, extended or missing. These areas can be
treated with simple vastu cures using colours, lights, symbols, rangoli and plants.

If you experience the loss of someone else, what does that do to your health?

In a first of its kind study on the motivations for suicide, published in the official journal of the American Association of Suicidology, two were found to be universal: hopelessness and overwhelming emotional pain. Heartbreak, divorce, the loss of a job, terror attacks, communal riots and accidents — the modern world is fraught with incidents that leave you grieving. The reaction to it tends to be commonly marked by anguish, numbness, guilt and deep sorrow. Health professionals are concerned about the absence of adequate support the urban resident faces to cope with grief, thus jeopardising not just his mental but physical health, too.

Hidden risks
While anxiety and depression have been associated with grief, doctors warn that life-threatening diseases like obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are possible fallouts, too. An Italian study published in 2011 in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine suggests a link between the death of a parent in childhood and obesity in adulthood.

Holly G Prigerson has spent more than 20 years studying grief. The director at the Centre for Psychological Epidemiology and Outcomes Research, Harvard Medical School says that empiricalevidence demonstrates that intense grief (yearning for a dead loved one, dwelling in the past and failing to reengage with life) that persists for more than six months is an invitation for an adverse health outcome. "It can include a significant increase in alcohol and tobacco consumption, changes in eating and sleeping patterns, skipping work, high blood pressure, and even the incidence of cancer," she says in an email interview. In extreme cases, she has seen it leading to hospitalisation after a heart attack. "There is some evidence that grief affects blood clotting and predicts high blood pressure, which explains the heightened risk of heart attack," she says.

The mortality project
Dr Toni Miles, director at the Gerontology Institute at University of Georgia, is heading an initiative called the Mortality Project, which trains the spotlight on life after death — more specifically, health after death. "Our project asks, 'If you experience the loss of someone else, what does that do to your health?"

Grief is now a public health issue, Dr Miles warns, in much the same way that infectious diseases are. "It is a mistake to separate negative emotion from physical illness. Depression causes changes in our body, and these are measureable. I suspect that being depressed for an extended time causes the injury. In our survey, we found that newly bereaved persons are more likely to be hospitalised during the year after a death." Which is why her claim that "(grief) kills people" has been recognised. Prolonged grief will now be listed as a new disorder in the International Classification of Diseases 11 (ICD 11). "Prolonged Grief Disorder is essentially a social attachment disturbance where those separated from a highly significant other feel intense emotional pain, abandonment and a yearning, craving to be reunited (explaining the suicide risk)," she says.

Call in support staff 
Social support is one of the most important factors in recovery from grief. This can come from partners, family, friends, relatives, a spiritual leader or a support group. "Indians shy away from seeking professional help. Seeing a behavioural expert is not the first move they'd consider. That's a mistake. If you sense you are unable to deal with your grief, and even close ones can't help, it's time to look outside," says Nagpur-based psychiatrist Dr Tushar Shinde.

Confirming perception that men and women handle grief differently, research suggests that men, who are used to emotional restraint, are more reluctant to address feelings of pain than women. In a paper published in The Review of General Psychology in 2001, psychologists at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands revealed that widowers display a higher incidence of mental and physical illness, disabilities, death and suicide than widows. Women who lost their husbands spoke of "feeling abandoned or deserted", while men spoke of their loss as "dismemberment".

The way ahead
What will help cut down the sense of loss? The answer to that one lies in identifying the 'accurate' process of dealing with grief. Dr Shinde says processing grief needs time, patience and care. "Accept the loss, work through the pain, and learn to be without (the person, circumstance)."

Dr Miles raises a red flag when she says, "Often, people say there is nothing new about loss and depression. That grief is natural. There is nothing to be 'done'. Our research proves there are several strategies to diminish the ill health effects of loss. Our goal is to identify effective ones."

Do it like Kia
Kia Scherr was in Florida for Thanksgiving when she heard that the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai had been attacked by terrorists. Her husband, Alan, 58, and daughter, Naomi, 13, were staying there. Hours later, she heard that both had been killed. A few days on, she stunned the world by saying in a press interview that she had forgiven the terrorists and felt compassion for those "so separated from humanity that they would kill". Scherr shares her 4 steps to tackling grief guideline.

I was open
Find support. I had multiple levels of it — I family, friends, and so many people whom I had not met, but empathised. Everyone's wishes were sincere and heartfelt, and I felt connected to the world as a family. Even the funeral was taken care of for me. Things hit me only after everybody went home. I was left to deal with the pain.

I didn't let it linger
Lingering grief is a private matter; unless you have gone through it, no one completely understands it. Emotion has a life of its own. Grief can fester. You can numb it through alcohol or drugs, or you can try distraction (work, television etc). I understand why people go down that path. But repressing painful feelings does damage — it may seem good in the short term, but over the long run, it's deadly.

I sought professional help 
Grief doesn't go away on its own. You have to seek help. I went in for counselling sessions and meditation. My healing process started with setting up One Life Alliance, a peace organisation, but pain continues to engulf me at times. That I decided to return to Mumbai was part of the healing process. My mother died of lung cancer two years ago, and I was with her through it. This may be an experience that almost all of us go through — a parent's death — but that doesn't mitigate the pain or loss.

I connected with others like me 
Support groups are helpful because they bring together people who have suffered loss. Life goes on for others, but someone who has experienced terrible grief needs support and encouragement. Often, the loss is so immense that you have no words to express it. It's someone's presence that makes the difference. Be there for the person, show your love. Love makes all the difference; it has the power to make you sail through the roughest times.

ENOX

enox(evilnoxious). the most deadliest embodiment of human form. when he sees s person he will suck all his mind, soul and thought through his pale looking eyes like monalisa and put it in a picture of a n angel is holding in a dollar note , that he has in his pocket. Then his friend would draw what he sees it. if he sees it good it will come out good. If u r angry with him , he would draw u in the most uglist form one would ever imagine. He would seeu naked and draw u naked. if u r good he would draw u in the most beautiful form. or u will be the most ugliest form with all cancerous cells all around you. He would draw each part of your body in zoom and it may be good or bad.

note: this story was a dream I inspired it after seeing musee de louvre. If christopher Marlowe was there he would he would have integrated in his master piece Dr.Faustus.

The title is also orignal coined by me.

MONEY IS IMPORTANT BUT HOW MUCH DO YOU NEED IT?

Money is important, but how much do you need?

How much money it costs is not the issue, but how much the money costs us is crucial

Once you get basic human needs met, a lot more money doesn’t make a lot more happiness

Money is not everything, but money is something very important. Beyond the basic needs, money helps us achieve our life’s goals and supports — the things we care about most deeply – family, education, health care, charity, adventure and fun. It helps us get some of life’s intangibles – freedom or independence, the opportunity to make the most of our skills and talents, the ability to choose our own course in life, financial security. With mone y, much good can be done and much unnecessary suffering avoided or eliminated.

But, money has its own limitations too. It can give us the time to appreciate the simple things in life more fully, but not the spirit of innocence and wonder necessary to do so. Money can give us the time to develop our gifts and talents, but not the courage and discipline to do so.

Money can give us the power to make a difference in the lives of others, but not the desire to do so. It can give us the time to develop and nurture our relationships, but not the love and caring necessary to do so. It can just as easily make us jaded, escapist, selfish, and lonely. How much do you need? What is it going to cost you to get it? It is keeping these two questions in mind that gives us a true sense of money’s relationship to happiness. If we have less than what we need, or if what we have is costing us too much, we can never be happy. We need money to eat, sleep, dress, work, play, relate, heal, move about, and enjoy comforts. We should remember in choosing our style that it comes with a price tag.

Evidence of the psychological and spiritual poverty of the rich and famous fills our newspapers, magazines, tabloids, and television programmes and hardly needs repeating here. “We always think if we just had a little bit more money, we’d be happier,” says Catherine Sanderson, a psychology professor at Amherst College, “but when we get there, we’re not.” “Once you get basic human needs met, a lot more money doesn’t make a lot more happiness,” notes Dan Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University and the author of the new book Stumbling on Happiness.

Yes, we get a thrill at first from expensive things. But we soon get used to them, a state of running in place that economists call the ‘hedonic treadmill’. The problem is not money, it’s us. For deep-seated psychological reasons, when it comes to spending money, we tend to value goods over experiences.

Money can help us find more happiness, so long as we know just what we can and cannot expect from it. Many researches suggest that seeking the good life at a store is an expensive exercise in futility. Money can buy us some happiness, but only if we spend our money properly. We should buy memories.

How much money it costs is not the issue, but how much the money costs us is important. Money should not cost us our soul, relationships, dignity, health, intelligence and joy in simple things of life. People who figure out what they truly value and then align their money with those values have the strongest sense of financial and personal well-being.

powerlessness on actual lives is the hurtle justice must clear

The ongoing theories of justice in mainstream political philosophy are very strongly dependent today on a way of thinking largely initiated by Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century, with an overwhelming concentration on a hypothetical “social contract” that the people of a sovereign state can be imagined to have endorsed. This presumed contract is supposed to identify the “just institutions” needed. This “contractarian” approach is the dominant influence in the contemporary political philosophy of justice, and its limited focus has narrowed the analysis of justice unduly, and in particular distancing the theories of justice from the actual lives of people.

In contrast with the contractarian tradition, a number of other Enlightenment theorists (Adam Smith, the Marquis de Condorcet, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill, for example) took a variety of approaches that shared a common interest in the people’s actual lives, rather than on institutional perfection. What happens to people depends not merely on the institutions that exist but also on other influences, in particular people’s behaviour and social interactions. This alternative approach has much to offer to contemporary political philosophy and also to our actual practices and policies.

If our concentration has to be on the actual lives of people, the question that immediately arises is how to understand the richness and poverty of human lives. The approach I have tried to pursue has largely focused on the freedoms, in various forms, that people enjoy. This differs sharply from many other approaches to assessing the demands of justice: for example, looking for the fulfilment of certain formal rights that people should have, and whether or not these rights can be actually exercised. Many of these rights can, of course, have an instrumental rule in advancing more free social lives, but the pursuit of justice can hardly stop there. Individual freedoms can be seen to be a social commitment, and this requires the state to play an active role in advancing the substantive freedom of the people to do what they have reason to value, as well as to know what is feasible.

If it is important not to be restricted by the reading of freedom within institutional libertarianism, the need to go beyond the utilitarian concentration on the mental metrics of utilities in the form of pleasures or desire-fulfilments is no less strong. Even if chronically deprived persons — the hopelessly poor, or long-term unemployed — learn to come to terms with and accept cheerfully their deprived lifestyles, that cultivated cheerfulness will not eliminate the real deprivation of freedom from which they will continue to suffer.

Freedom has many aspects, and it is necessary both to distinguish between them and to choose the focus of analysis depending on the nature of the problem being addressed. For example, in dealing with the issue of torture and its unacceptability as a means to other — allegedly more important — ends, what would be particularly important is to see the relevance here of the classical libertarian aspects of freedom, arguing for the immunity of every human being from forcible infliction of pain by others.

When, however, the focus is on issues of economic and social inequality in the lives that different people lead, the relevant aspects of freedom can be captured better by a fuller assessment of what is called, in the new literature, “capabilities”, which reflect the actual opportunities of a person. It is easily checked that means such as incomes and other resources, while valuable in the pursuit of capabilities, are not themselves indicators of the capabilities and freedoms that people actually have. The real opportunities that different persons enjoy are very substantially influenced by variations of individual circumstances (for example age, disability, talents, gender, maternity) and also by disparities in the natural and the social environment (for example epidemiological conditions, pollution, prevalence of crime). An exclusive concentration on inequalities in income distribution cannot be adequate for an understanding of economic inequality.

Consider an example. Being disabled has a double effect, in reducing the person’s ability to earn an income (the “earning handicap”) and in making the conversion of income into good living that much harder, thanks to the costs of assistance, and the impossibility of fully correcting certain types of disadvantages caused by disability (the “conversion handicap”). A person who happens to be physically disabled may need to pay for assistance, and even then may not become able to move around freely. The conversion handicap is routinely missed in poverty relief programmes that concentrate only on the lowness of incomes.

As Wiebke Kuklys, a brilliant young student at Cambridge, has recently shown (she died tragically shortly after completing her work), the conversion handicap for British families with disabled members is four or five times as important as the income handicap, in terms of their respective impacts on deprivation. A system of poverty removal that concentrates only on the lowness of income, in particular whether a person’s — or family’s — income is below the poverty line, will catch the earning handicap, but not the conversion handicap, and this could make the poverty relief programme fundamentally inadequate.

What about power — a concept that closely relates to the idea of freedom? To say that a person is powerless in reversing the kind of neglect that they have been experiencing can also be expressed in the language of capability: they are not capable of reversing the neglect from which they suffer. And yet there is some evocative strength and rhetorical force in the language of power, particularly in dealing with powerlessness, that the word capability, which is really a term of art, cannot really match. Analysing power and powerlessness can help to generate a better understanding of the divided world in which we live. Mary Wollstonecraft’s wrath and bitter irony about the subjugation of women complemented her cool reasoning against gender hierarchy in her 1792 classic, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

Or take Steve Biko’s remarks on “powerlessness” in the apartheid-based South Africa in the 1970s. “Powerlessness breeds,” Biko said, “a race of beggars who smile at the enemy and swear at him in the sanctity of his toilet; who shout ‘Baas’ willingly during the day and call the white man a dog in their buses as they go home.” If capability failure of any kind is a matter of concern, those related to people’s inability to act freely or speak openly because of the power of others have special urgency. This is an important concern in the advancement of freedom and capability, since societies involve conflicts as well as togetherness and mutual support. The pursuit of justice in enhancing freedoms and capabilities in peoples’ lives has to be alive to both. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

(Amartya Sen, a Nobel prize-winning economist, teaches philosophy and economics at Harvard and is author of The Idea of Justice. The article above is based on his Demos annual lecture.)

Keywords: justice, power, Nobel prize, economist, Harvard, Thomas Hobbes, freedom

reservation and implementation

RESERVATION POLICY AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION ACROSS DOMAINS IN INDIA: Niranjan Sahoo; Academic Foundation, 4772-73/23 Bharat Ram Road (23 Ansari Road), Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 595.

This slim volume is an attempt to assess the seriousness with which the Indian state has implemented programmes of affirmative action. The emphasis is on detailing the various components of such programmes and examining their effectiveness through published data. While the aim is laudable, it needs to be said at the outset that the work has fallen between two stools — its analysis is not incisive enough to hold the interest of an informed reader, nor does it serve as an introduction to the interested but essentially lay audience.

Data

First, let us see what the book’s strengths are. There are data on a spectrum of issues relating to affirmative action such as the status of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes in political institutions from the local bodies to the StateLegislatures and Parliament, and in relation to parameters like literacy, education, and employment. The information is collated from authentic sources. In this sense, it will be useful for any student who wants to have a quick access to data. Of course, there are other such books. But this indeed is a positive feature.

Another positive element relates to the questions it raises for further inquiry. But then, the work has important limitations here. Principally, Niranjan Sahoo makes no attempt to situate his analysis against a large canvas such as the changes that have taken place in the economy and the role of the state, which is getting diluted.

With the state ceasing to be the main employer of the educated classes and with the market-friendly paradigm quite firmly in place, the policy of ‘positive discrimination’ (a term that is, at least in the opinion of this reviewer, more appropriate for the Indian context than ‘affirmative action’) confronts new challenges.

To be fair to him, the author does make a reference to this aspect as well as to the relative neglect that the various other forms of positive discrimination have suffered compared to reservation in employment, which has occupied the centre stage for too long. The work would have turned out to be much more impressive, if only the entire analysis had been housed in this framework.

There are other problems as well. The author rightly discerns a north-south divide with respect to the policy of reservations. But he fails to observe that in Karnataka, for instance, the displacement of Brahmins as the hegemonic class led to the emergence of ‘hegemony’ by the dominant among the backward classes, which in turn triggered a protest movement of sorts in the late 1960s — and this was utilised astutely by Devaraj Urs.

Also difficult to comprehend is Sahoo’s bland assertion that in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala the OBCs outperform the upper castes in higher education and in accessing jobs. The root of the problem must lie in the author’s inability to make nuanced distinctions among the OBCs. In States like Karnataka, this is a major issue.

Observations

There are some interesting, indeed sometimes insightful, observations. One such is that the STs perform better than the SCs in higher education, although, disappointingly, no attempt is made to take a closer look at it. This also goes for the data on enrolment in higher education, course-wise and caste-wise. Elsewhere, some of the information provided is difficult to digest. For instance, his statement that the IITs have been providing reservation for the SCs and the STs “since 1973 as per the constitutional provisions of 15 per cent for the SCs and 7.2 per cent for the STs”. There appears to be some confusion here, between a constitutional mandate and (presumably) a government order, since the percentages are not constitutionally mandated.

Among the interesting issues raised for discussion is the one relating to the woefully small number of SCs/STs securing positions in the non-reserved category — therein lies the “true test” of empowerment.

open source education resource (OER)

The availability of free/open educational resources is radically changing the pedagogic landscape. NetSpeak revisits this theme and discusses the latest developments.

Regular readers of this column need little introduction to the concept of open educational resource (OER) — a pedagogic resource that can be reused, modified, remixed and distributed universally.

The OER movement is spreading like wildfire and it is almost impossible to spot a subject that remains untouched by this exciting movement, unleashed by the Net’s innovative/liberal forces.

OER-Handbook

In case you wish to lean more about the OER movement, take a look at the OER-Handbook at: http://wikieducator.org/OER_ Handbook/educator.

In the past (http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/24/stories/200811245220 1600.htm), we have featured several ventures meant for generating free and open educational resources (like Connexion — http://cnx.org/-), the collaborative infrastructure that facilitates the production/distribution of free educational materials. Open learning initiative (http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/index.php) is another wonderful resource from which you can access complete course materials on popular subjects such as economics, statistics, physics, chemistry, engineering statics and so on for free.

Educational content

OER movement encompasses a variety of educational content. It can be a complete course on a subject or a lesson plan or a subject-specific book or a short animated video explaining a complex concept. Open books (books that can be freely used and modified by anyone without any restrictions) form a significant component of the OER spectrum.

An excellent open book production centre, where you can access a wide array of open books, is ‘Flat World Knowledge’ (http://www. flatworldknowledge.com/).

As per its site, while publishing a book, FWK adopts the traditional book publishing model — authorise an expert to write a book and publish it following the rigorous peer-review and editing process. However, once published, the open-book takes a different lifecycle.

The books published by FWK can be read on-line for free. But, if you wish to obtain a desk copy you need to pay. On this count this service is a commercial open textbook publisher. The significance of this service is the facility that lets the reader customise a book. One can edit/delete/add content, add annotations to the relevant paragraphs/chapters and save a copy of the customised book.

Open textbooks

The open textbooks published by the non-profit CK12 (http://ck12.org/flexr/) is yet another great initiative, where one can find quality textbooks on subjects such as science, technology and mathematics. The books published by this service (called Flexbooks) can not only be viewed on-line but also be downloaded as a PDF document.

If you are a science/mathematics teacher or a school going student you may find the ‘Free High School Science Textbook’ (FHSST) project useful (http://www.fhsst. org/). The project that aims to provide free science and mathematics texts for high school students hosts physics, chemistry and mathematics text books (for grades 10-12).

Students can use these textbooks to further their knowledge without incurring any cost. Global Textbook project (http://globaltext.terry.uga.edu/home) and Assayer (http://www.theassayer.org/) are a few other places to hunt for open books.

The OER content is exploding all over the Net and to help us easily filter/find the appropriate OER content, several special search services like OCW Finder (http://www.ocwfinder.org/), discus sed in the past, are in place. OER repositories are turning out to be yet another means to locate appropriate open educational content. These repositories host OER content/its metadata and help us find/download the relevant educational resources with ease.

Curriki (Curriculum Wiki), a repository that focuses on school curricula, is an excellent example of a service of this kind.

The service (http://www. curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome) helps you easily contribute/find/share/access high-quality educational materials such as teaching plans and other subject-specific teaching/learning content.

DiscoverEd (http://discovered.creativecommons.org/search/), the search engine that indexes different OER repositories, is yet another OER search tool worth a test.

For instance, OER players such as Curriki, OER Commons, MIT OpenCourseware, Academic Earth and the like have Twitter (http://twitter.com/jmurali) presence. Following them on Twitter could be a good idea if you wish to keep up with the latest news on OER in general and on the facilities offered by these services in particular.

reservation policy

RESERVATION POLICY AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION ACROSS DOMAINS IN INDIA: Niranjan Sahoo; Academic Foundation, 4772-73/23 Bharat Ram Road (23 Ansari Road), Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 595.

This slim volume is an attempt to assess the seriousness with which the Indian state has implemented programmes of affirmative action. The emphasis is on detailing the various components of such programmes and examining their effectiveness through published data. While the aim is laudable, it needs to be said at the outset that the work has fallen between two stools — its analysis is not incisive enough to hold the interest of an informed reader, nor does it serve as an introduction to the interested but essentially lay audience.

Data

First, let us see what the book’s strengths are. There are data on a spectrum of issues relating to affirmative action such as the status of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes in political institutions from the local bodies to the StateLegislatures and Parliament, and in relation to parameters like literacy, education, and employment. The information is collated from authentic sources. In this sense, it will be useful for any student who wants to have a quick access to data. Of course, there are other such books. But this indeed is a positive feature.

Another positive element relates to the questions it raises for further inquiry. But then, the work has important limitations here. Principally, Niranjan Sahoo makes no attempt to situate his analysis against a large canvas such as the changes that have taken place in the economy and the role of the state, which is getting diluted.

With the state ceasing to be the main employer of the educated classes and with the market-friendly paradigm quite firmly in place, the policy of ‘positive discrimination’ (a term that is, at least in the opinion of this reviewer, more appropriate for the Indian context than ‘affirmative action’) confronts new challenges.

To be fair to him, the author does make a reference to this aspect as well as to the relative neglect that the various other forms of positive discrimination have suffered compared to reservation in employment, which has occupied the centre stage for too long. The work would have turned out to be much more impressive, if only the entire analysis had been housed in this framework.

There are other problems as well. The author rightly discerns a north-south divide with respect to the policy of reservations. But he fails to observe that in Karnataka, for instance, the displacement of Brahmins as the hegemonic class led to the emergence of ‘hegemony’ by the dominant among the backward classes, which in turn triggered a protest movement of sorts in the late 1960s — and this was utilised astutely by Devaraj Urs.

Also difficult to comprehend is Sahoo’s bland assertion that in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala the OBCs outperform the upper castes in higher education and in accessing jobs. The root of the problem must lie in the author’s inability to make nuanced distinctions among the OBCs. In States like Karnataka, this is a major issue.

Observations

There are some interesting, indeed sometimes insightful, observations. One such is that the STs perform better than the SCs in higher education, although, disappointingly, no attempt is made to take a closer look at it. This also goes for the data on enrolment in higher education, course-wise and caste-wise. Elsewhere, some of the information provided is difficult to digest. For instance, his statement that the IITs have been providing reservation for the SCs and the STs “since 1973 as per the constitutional provisions of 15 per cent for the SCs and 7.2 per cent for the STs”. There appears to be some confusion here, between a constitutional mandate and (presumably) a government order, since the percentages are not constitutionally mandated.

Among the interesting issues raised for discussion is the one relating to the woefully small number of SCs/STs securing positions in the non-reserved category — therein lies the “true test” of empowerment.

bhavsar kshatriya samaj

The Bhavasar (Gujarati:ભાવસાર, Marathi: भावसार) are an ethnic group in India. They belong to the traditional Kshatriya varna in Hinduism.^[1].

Contents

[hide

]

• 1 Kshatriya History and Saurashtra Origin
  • 1.1 Culture and Demographics
  • 1.2 Languages Spoken
  • 1.3 Surnames of the Bhavasars/Bhavsars
  • 1.4 Bhavasar Samaj
• 2 Notable individuals
• 3 See also
• 4 External References

//

[edit] Kshatriya History and Saurashtra Origin

The Bhavasar/Bhavsar is an ethnic group originating from the Saurashtra^[2][3]. Tradition has it that was formed by Bhavsingh and Sarsingh, two young princes from North Western India. Hinglaj Mata or Hingulamba is regarded as the Kuldevi or the Clan Goddess of the community. The princes sought protection from Lord Parashuram, who had vowed to destroy all Kshatriyas. The shrine where Bhavsingh and Sarsingh had prayed to the goddess is located near Karachi in present day Pakistan. In fact, the Bhavsar samaj is now negotiating with the Pakistan government for regular pilgrimage to Hinglaj^[4].

[edit] Culture and Demographics

Today, Bhavasars are found mostly in Maharashtra, southern Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka and other South Indian States and Madhya Pradesh^[5] all adapting to their local culture and traditions to varying degrees. However, Gujarat and Maharashtra are the primary regions from where the more recent migrations have occurred. For instance, the Maharashtrian Bhavasars have migrated to South India since medieval period. They have settled in the South for several generations. However, they have maintained their Maharashtrian cultural ties to this date. Bhavasars are known for their simple, tolerant and integrating lifestyle. Traditionally, their diet has been vegeterian consisting of items prepared in ghee and jaggery. Curds is another indispensable item in their diet while liquor is strictly prohibited, thus maintaining the traditional Malwa culture. This community has been engaged in trade and merchandise activities for generations and with time they have also made a mark in Higher Education.

[edit] Languages Spoken

The Bhavasar community in Rajasthan speak Bagri, a Rajasthani language^[3]. Further south, a very large number of Bhavsars have either Gujarati or Marathi as their mother tongue. Migrants to states other than Gujarat or Maharashtra invariably continue to speak their native tongue while being multilingual with the local language. For example, migrants from Maharashtra to the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu speak marathi, while being multilingual with the local language.

In Gujarat, the community has two linguistic divisions Gujarati and Marathi, which are endogamous (but slowly opening up) in nature. There is also a creole of Gujarati and Marathi called Bhavsari spoken in certain areas near Gujarat.

[edit] Surnames of the Bhavasars/Bhavsars

Some families from the Bhavasar Community apply Bhavasar(Bhavsar) as their last name, for the purpose of identity. The bhavasars originate from the Sanskrit language and aryan decent. Most of the them are found in Gujarat and Maharashtra. However, the Bhavasars from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have surnames in the Maharashtian tradition (with an adnav) and speak a dialect of marathi (Bhavsar Marathi). Most of these populations are concentrated in British cantonments where they found jobs. This indicates that Maharashtra has been their second home after Gujarat for a very long time and it preceded their migration further to south. Gujarat has the biggest majority of Bhavasars. Achalkar, Amathe,Astikar, Bangre, Bagle, Bakre, Bartakke, Basutkar, Belamkar, Bhavsar, Bhope, Bibekar, Bodke, Bomale, Bulbule, Dantkale, Dhayafule, Dhongade, Doijode, Gadale, Ghanathe, Githe, Godde, Gojje, Gondhale, Gondkar, Gujar(Gujjar,Gurjar), Hambar, Hambarkar, Havle, Hibare(Hebbare), Hiraskar, Hirave, Ijantkar, Jadhav, Jawale, Jawalkar, Jirafe, kakade , Kalekar, Kapadiya, Karne, Karmuse, Katare, Katyarmal, Khamitkar(Kamithkar), Khandetod, Khokhale, Khole, Kolekar,Kokney Kunte, Limkar, Lingarkar, Lokare, Lokhande, Mahindrakar, Malwade,Malve,Malwe, Malwadkar, Mankuskar, Maandhare, Mirajkar, Mulay, Musale, Oturkar, Pakhare, Patalay, Patange (Pathangay), Perkar, Pesay,Pissay, Pukale, Rangdal, Rakhonde, Rao, Rampure, Ransubhe, Relekar, Sarode, Sarvade,Shintre, Shamgule, Sutraye, Sulakhe, Tandale(Tandulae), Tandulekar, Temkar, Telkar, Tikar, Tikare, Torane, Urankar, Vutharkar(Uttarkar/Vuttarkar), Vaijwade, Vaikunthe, Zingade(Zingure) are few of the surnames in Bhavasar community.

[edit] Bhavasar Samaj

Bhavasars have their traditional caste council known as the Bhavasar samaj or Bhavasar Kshatriya samaj^[4]. This is a common denominator of all Bhavasars irrespective of the region they have migrated to. The main function of the jati panchayat is to settle inter-family feud, quarrels, etc. The office bearers of these panchayats are elected.

[edit] Notable individuals

• Swetha Temkar, youngest Woman pilot in India (hails from Mysore, born in a South Bhavasar family)
• Chunilal Asharam Bhavsar “Pujya Mota”, (1898-1976) : Saint
• Raj Bhavsar, (1980-) : Olympic 2008 bronze medal winner (born in America)
• Shashikala Jawalkar, Bollywood Actress
• Suryakant and Chandrakant Mandhare, Marathi Actors

[edit] See also

• Hinglaj mata
• Kshatriya
• Raj Bhavsar
• Pujya Mota

[edit] External References

• Bhavasar Kshatriya Samaj - Community Portal
• Bhavasar Kshatriya Matrimony - Matrimonial portal exclusively for Bhavasars. Register your profile for FREE
• Portal related to Matrimony and Counseling for Bhavsars
• Social Cause Help Desk for Bhavsars
• Social Networking Site for Bhavsars
• Hinglaj Mata Mandir
• Bhavasar Matrimony website

[[ ^[6]== Link title == Culture and Demographics ]]==References==

1. ^ Yadav, Neelam (2006). Encyclopedia of Backward Classes. Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd.. pp. 257. ISBN 8126122293. 
2. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh, Anthropological Survey of India (2003). People of India: Gujarat. Popular Prakashan. pp. 206. ISBN 8179911047. 
3. ^ ^a b Singh, Kumar Suresh, Anthropological Survey of India (1998). People of India: Rajasthan. Popular Prakashan. pp. 146. ISBN 8171547664. 
4. ^ ^a b Singh, Kumar Suresh, Anthropological Survey of India (1998). People of India: Rajasthan. Popular Prakashan. pp. 148. ISBN 8171547664. 
5. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh, Anthropological Survey of India (1998). People of India: Rajasthan. Popular Prakashan. pp. 206. ISBN 8171547664. 
6. ^ Advanced communities among the Kshatriyas of Malwa and Western India - Shankar Patwardhan, Arvind Vyas Paper no. AS056/2007 submitted to Anthropological Survey Of India

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavsar” Categories: Kshatriya | Social groups of India

inclusive education : policy and practice

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION - International Policy and Practice: Ann Cheryl Armstrong, Derrick Armstrong, Ilektra Spandagou; Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., B 1/I-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110044.

“Inclusive” is one of the most fashionable words in use especially in the context of governance and development. In education, initially, it referred to children with disabilities (the medical model) who could not join the mainstream because of the impairments and had to be taken care of separately, often in special schools, and given what is classified as ‘special education’. Later, the term was expanded to include all those children who were involuntarily excluded from the mainstream education for reasons that have to do with their economic, social, or cultural status or life-style.

This book argues that, though historically related to special education, the term ‘inclusive education’ goes well beyond it in terms of social integration and that it should be understood in the context of social diversity that is the result of such developments as the end of World War II, the end of colonialism, and increased labour force mobility.

Contradictions

It says, there are continuing contradictions between policy and practice as education systems attempt to manage the social and economic complexities of the national and cultural identities in societies that are highly diversified internally and interconnected globally. Again, it makes the point that the growth of inclusive education in developing countries reflects two factors: one is the attempt of those countries to promote the access to schooling and educational resources, and the other is the export of first-world thinking which reinforces dependency and what Paulo Freire calls “the culture of silence.” Flowing from these are the questions: What is meant by inclusive education? For whom is it meant and why? What are the existing practices that it challenges? What are the common values it advocates? How to judge its success? The book seeks to answer these questions by looking into the policies and practices obtaining in the developed as well as the developing countries and analysing them in the context of various related documents such as Education for All and the Salamanca Statement of UNESCO, and the Millenium Development Goals Report, the World Declaration on Human rights,and the Rights of the Child of the United Nations.

In narrow sense

The survey finds that inclusive education is interpreted and implemented mostly in the narrow sense of individual disabilities of children and it does not cover sections of children who are disenfranchised on account of economic deprivation or social discrimination. The authors pitch strongly for a whole range of groups, besides the disabled, to be brought within the concept of ‘inclusive education’.

To cite some examples: those who are experiencing difficulty of a temporary or permanent nature or repeating their school years or are forced to work; those who live far away from school or on the streets; and those who suffer abuses or are victims of war or are out of school for whatever reason. As far as the developing countries are concerned, they are trying to bring into the education system a large percentage of the excluded children. But many of them are following a Western model either on their own or because they are being forced to do so by the Western funding agencies. Thus a kind of intellectual colonialism persists, although these countries have managed to throw out colonialism of the political variety. A case study from Trinidad provides an example of the teachers rejecting a West-imposed model and evolving one that is rooted in native wisdom and culture — a phenomenon not much in evidence in the developing countries.

In conclusion, the book spells out the real purpose of education as something that draws lessons from real-life experience of the people and aims at the liberation of the mind, the raising of the critical consciousness, thereconfiguring of the traditional teacher-learner relationship, and the transformation of the classroom into a place where creative, and actionable ideas are generated.

At the cross roads of identity

At the crossroads of identity

KALPANA SHARMA It is 150 years since the first boat carrying Indians arrived on the shores of South Africa. How do South African Indians view themselves today? KALPANA SHARMA finds out that while the older generation is torn between their multiple identities, the gen next knows where it really belongs… This “Indian part” and the extent to which it is still important and relevant is just one of the many issues that the South African Indian community is debating today. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY: THE GANDHI-LUTHULI DOCUMENTATION CENTRE, UNIVERSITY OF KWA-ZULU-NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA

In a strange country:(Clockwise from top) The arrival of Indians in South Africa by boat Until they begin to speak, South African Indians could be mistaken for Indians from India. Yet, their journey to South Africa and their lives since then is a fascinating chronicle — of oppression, suppression, self-assertion, struggle and now a renewed search for an identity.

On November 18, 1860, a shipload of Indian workers — “indentured labourers” — landed in South Africa. This was a new form of slavery, six years after slavery had been officially abolished. They had travelled the distance not out of their free will but out of the compulsions that crushing poverty imposes on people. They thought they were escaping poverty. Instead, they landed in a country where their “Indianness” would determine their place in society for more than a century.

Later, others who were “free”, or paying passengers, followed. These were traders who chose to go to South Africa from India, Mauritius and other countries. Still later, post-1994 and the end of the system of apartheid, more people from the subcontinent chose to move to South Africa, people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

These waves of migration together make up the complex, diverse and fascinating population of over one million South African Indians. This year, which marks 150 years since the arrival of that first boatload, has seen a series of events to “commemorate” and remember the presence of this community in the “rainbow” nation of South Africa.

Early settlers The Gandhi connection

Indians know of South Africa and its racist past and of the Indians who lived there because of Mahatma Gandhi’s struggles and experiences in that country. What is not so well understood by Indians is how the descendants of those early waves of migration view themselves today when South Africa is a free, democratic country and not one ruled by a small white minority that enforced separate development and apartheid. Do they consider themselves as overseas Indians, or non-resident Indians (NRIs), part of the Indian diaspora or are they South Africans of Indian origin?

This was one of several questions that came up for discussion at a two-day meeting in October organised jointly by the University of Johannesburg, the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa of the University of Witwatersrand and the Indian Consulate in Johannesburg titled, “South Africa and India: Dialogues on Social Justice and Contested Transitions”. It provided for many of the Indians who attended this meeting, a nuanced and insightful understanding of what it means to be a South African Indian today — 16 years after the country threw off the oppressive and cruel yoke of apartheid.

Indian immigrants at the Bluff, Durban. I personally got a hint of the significance of the question even before I landed in Johannesburg. A much-delayed flight allowed me to engage with several South African Indians on the way back home from holidays, visiting relatives and various ashrams. In fact, a significant number of passengers had spent time at an ashram near Bengaluru — a ritual which some of them said they followed every alternate year.

A couple told me how they had only recently traced their ancestry — prompted by the 150 years celebrations. A prosperous doctor from Pietermaritzburg said he had visited Faizabad/ Ayodhya from where his family originated and that ideally he would like to have dual citizenship. Why, I asked. “Because you never know how things will turn out in South Africa,” he said.

Younger people, on the other hand, were quite clear. A young woman, who works in government, said, “We are South African Indians. Of course, I love India, I love Bollywood and I love the fact that I can move around freely without fear of violence in your cities. But I am a South African. There is no confusion in my mind.”

An escape from poverty?Indian labourers in South Africa in the 19th Century Between these two responses lies the story of the South African Indians, a group who were lumped together under one racial category during apartheid. Since 1994, Indians are now free to assert their multiple identities — regional, caste and religion. There are also strong differences in attitude between the post-1994 migrants from the subcontinent and descendants of the original Indians.

Of the many papers that discussed various aspects of this issue, one that addressed, at least partially, the question of how Indians in South Africa identify themselves was a study of a place called Oriental Plaza in Johannesburg. It is located in the Indian-dominated area of Fordsburg. As the name indicates, it is a shopping centre but one with a distinct history.

The traders in Oriental Plaza, which is now a buzzing and popular shopping centre, once lived and worked in a mixed neighbourhood called Fietas, now called Vrededorp. Under the government’s rules, they were not permitted to own property. So they established their shops in rented property and much as Indians do in many parts of this country, lived on the same premises. The entire family was engaged in the business.

In 1942, the Johannesburg City Council asked Parliament to allow Indians to buy property and by 1943, many Indians had become owners of shops and homes. Their neighbourhood, Fietas, comprised Africans, Indians Coloured, Malay and Chinese people following many different religions. There were mosques and churches and Indian traders dominated the 14th Street bazaar. All this came to an end in 1950 when the government imposed the Group Areas Act that marked specific areas for specific races. The people of Fietas were forced to move to distant residential areas allocated according to their race while the locality that had been home to them for decades was redeveloped for whites only.

A painting that celebrates their labour… For the Indians, this meant separation of home and business. They were moved to “Indians only” residential neighbourhoods while their shops were relocated to Oriental Plaza in Fordsburg. Oddly, even though the law gave people no choice once the government decided they had to move, it also laid down that the government had to provide an alternative site to traders. Although some shopkeepers resisted, over time the majority moved, as they had no choice.

But, as the study presented by Pragna Rugunanan, Mariam Seedat-Khan and Letitia Smuts shows, the problem the traders faced was not just being forced to move, but also to radically change their style of trading. Traditionally, Indian traders would keep a little of everything in their shops, much as our kirana shops do even today in India. But under the new law, they were forced to sell only specific goods. So a person who sold men’s shirts could only sell that and not men’s socks. The traders were also not allowed to choose their shops; the authorities allocated these.

Net is necessary for lecturer job

Higher education teaching faces a huge shortage of faculty as the UGC regulation making NET qualification mandatory for teaching posts leaves thousands of M.Phil candidates in a quandary. PHOTO: A. Muralitharan

The yawning gap: Will there be enough NET and SLET-qualified candidates for the thousands of vacancies that would keep arising, given the ever-increasing number of universities and colleges? The recent observation of the Madras and Delhi High Courts on National Eligibility Test (NET) is clear. A pass in NET or State-Level Eligibility Test (SLET), as mandated by the University Grants Commission, is necessary for appointment as assistant professor (lecturer) for teaching in colleges or universities.

To upgrade and standardise teaching in colleges, UGC introduced NET as a basic qualification. The latest development is a cause for motivation for candidates appearing for NET on December 26. Universities and colleges had, so far, exercised the relaxations the UGC provided in recent years in appointing candidates with M. Phil qualifications. They now have to strictly confine their appointments to candidates with a pass in NET or SLET or a Ph.D as per UGC’s new norms.

Such a scenario would be a blow to the thousands of M. Phil degree holders in self-financing arts and science colleges. They are in a quandary since there is no way they could hereafter bank on their qualification or service-record to join teaching careers in government colleges and universities. “In fact, M. Phil degree holders after a regulation in 2006 were discouraged from taking NET as they already had the qualifications,” says Prof. C.R. Ravi of A.M. Jain College. Now, the recent HC judgments mandating NET/SLET has shocked thousands of lecturers who plan to move the Supreme Court next week.

The issue now is whether the there would be enough NET and SLET-qualified candidates for the thousands of vacancies that would keep arising, given the ever-increasing numbers of universities and colleges. This calls for efforts on the part of higher educational institutions to facilitate serving teachers to clear NET. However, the reality is that the self-financing colleges where they work in would rather prefer them to remain in a state of perpetual dependence.

Estimates show that there are just 12,500 NET and 15,000 SET certificate holders in the country. In Tamil Nadu alone, an estimated 45,000 candidates with M. Phil qualification are serving as teachers in the several hundreds of self-financing arts and science colleges as also government-aided colleges that offer programmes on a self-financing basis.

Prof. Sailapathy says the contradictions in the policies of UGC and the AICTE in making teacher appointments are causing enormous discomfiture to postgraduates in subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry. On the one hand, the AICTE permits candidates with B.E. or B. Tech. to handle these subjects, and on the other, the UGC forbids postgraduates in these subjects with additional qualifications of M. Phil from serving in arts and science colleges. A clear directive from the MHRD, he believes, would enable the M. Phil and Ph. D qualified candidates in these subjects to pursue teaching careers in engineering colleges.

According to S. Hariharan, the Director of the UGC-Academic Staff College in Puducherry, NET does not take into account the fact that capacities and awareness levels of those from smaller centres may vary largely due to their educational backgrounds. “This is the reason why so many opt for SLET where testing is different and yet it sets a benchmark for the lecturers,” he says.

Need for training

In order to help such candidates cope up with the standards of the NET, a mechanism should be developed to include training for such examinations from the graduate level. Also, there is lack of awareness about the exam itself among the large sections of the population, he said. “During training, I see students who cannot grasp the very idea of this examination though most of them are bright enough to become good teachers,” he says. He further adds that performance of students from Puducherry at the examination has been below par.

Dean of the School of Social Sciences at the Pondicherry University D. Sambandhan says that in the name of selecting “a creamy, intellectual class among the candidates,” common examinations such as NET deny opportunities to a large number of students to be part of the mainstream.

“There is no guarantee that passing in NET would ensure good teaching quality though people who pass the exam cannot be disregarded. The policy-makers should first put in place a system where candidates are trained for such an entrance examination right from the lower levels of their education to negate disparities in economic and educational backgrounds.”

Prof. Sailapathy advocates a system of equalisation between the ranking for seniority in acquiring higher qualifications and the merit-based on marks given for performance in qualifying examinations like NET and SET for the purpose of appointments in colleges and universities. Weightage for experience should be dropped in view of the hostility that self-financing institutions are prone to exhibit towards the candidates with the requisite seniority in qualification among their faculty, he adds.