Let there be light

ASEAN- India FTA; India Vulnerable?

2009-08-17T01:31:00.005+05:30

India has signed a Free Trade Agreement with the ASEAN countries, which would lead to the waiving off of import duties on about 80% of the imports from the ASEAN region.

This article tries to share some concerns about the deal and its implications to the country in general and Kerala in particular.

ASEAN consists of 10 countries- Thailand, Burma(Myanmar), Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam , Cambodia and Brunei. The collective population of the ASEAN bloc is about 56 million, while in India, its 1.07 billion. So in business terms, the FTA opens a customer base of 56 million for India and a huge base of 1.07 crore for the ASEAN bloc.

According to the deal, signed by the Minister of Commerce and Industries, Anand Sharma and by the Economic Ministers of ASEAN, the import duty of about 80% products-including agricultural products- that these countries export to India would enjoy near zero import tarrifs. Its interesting to note that nowhere it says about the number of goods India would be exporting to these countries.

Poor Negotiation Skills?
An article which was published in Economic Times, says that the deal effectively opens more market place in India for the ASEAN bloc, while India gained nothing significant. About 75% of the Indian goods entering the Asean countries currently attract zero duties, the effective additional market access that India has secured out of the FTA with Asean is mere 21% of its export. While ASEAN gets an import tariff cut of about 80% of the products. The FTA, which will come into force in January 2010, will phase off the import tariff of about 320o proucts by 2013. tariffs on an additional 800 products would be brought down to zero or near zero levels by December 2016

The government claims that India got a good deal by including 489 products in a high sensitive 'negative list', in which there will be no tariff cuts until a level playing field is achieved. But the truth is that the Indian negotiators agreed for one consolidated negative list of 489 items for all Asean countries put together, which means India has about 50 items in its negative list for each Asean country. And India had to concede to each ASEAN countries to come up with a negative list of high sensitive Indian Imports into their countries. In effect, the idea of setting up a negative list back fired; weakening India's position further. This move would also force India to compromise a lot on the Doha Rounds, in which the former Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath had put a great effort in defending India's right in imposing duty on agricultural imports. This clearly raises disturbing questions on the integrity, vision and negotiating skills of the Indian delegation who carried out the deal.

There is also another danger lingering behind the deal. With the ASEAN's FTA, any country, especially countries like Australia, who already have an FTA with the ASEAN, can use those countries as transit points to export products like wheat to India, by bypassing tariff payments.

Although the government claims that the annual trade between the two parties is forcasted to touch 60 billion dollars after the deal comes into effect, the question lingers... who get the benefits? What would this deal do to a 26million who lives under poverty.

Impacts on Kerala's agrarian sector

The ASEAN FTA was vehemently opposed by ruling left government of the state. The Chief Minister, followed by a ministerial delegation met the Prime Minister to share the apprehensions and concerns on the deals negative impact on the state's agrarian system.

Many of the ASEAN countries share the same climatic conditions as of Kerala, which means those countries produce more or less same crops as the kerala farmers. Kerala was always famous for its spices. But today, countries like Vietnam took over the prime position in international spice markets. Kerala spices can no longer fight with the cheap produces from these countries. They have clear advantages, both in labor cost and productivity.

Rubber still forms the backbone of Kerala cash crops. The stability in rubber prices have contributed a lot in the stability of a robust economy- especially in southern kerala. Even a minor price fluctuations in rubber would lead to a drastic breakage of the existing economic system. Southern kerala had seen the negative effects of rubber price drop before, when the rubber prices came down to 26 a kilo in the late 1990s. A lot of small firms was thrown out of business during those years. The domestic comsumption of natural rubber has seen good growth in the last few years. The combined ASEAN bloc is the world's largest rubber producers, which explains why India is a lucrative market for them. There are many huge corporations working on agricultural sectors in these countries. Even though many agricultural products are included in the negative list, the apparent presence of loop holes would make it difficult to control the agricultural products, which forms a big chunk of ASEAN's exports. For example, natural rubber is added in the negative list, but the tariffs of synthetic rubber is to be waived to a near zero level, which will fire up competitions in which Kerala will have a very vulnerable position.

The deal becomes all the more relevant, when the state is slowly recovering from scary days farmer suicides. A loss of confidence again would make it harder for the agrarian sector to revive from the abyss and fight back. This calls for an expeditious administrative and diplomatic level action in finding a solution to the issue.

Finding ways to instill confidence and helping the farmers in developing optimised cultivation technologies through which they can atleast stand up to an influx of foreign goods is the need of the hour. The government shall, at the same time, re negotiate the terms in the FTA, keeping in mind of the farmers' plights.

Flow: an update

2009-06-29T21:46:00.000+05:30

As everyone says, life is flowing...and the sad part is that it doesn seem to have an ocean to meet... its flowing aimlessly...not even shaping round stones in the way... a lot of things come to mind.. and its cluttered..been thinking about taking a break from this aimless flow and settle down for sometime to rejuvenate and to instill concrete aims to flow...God willing, within a few months i will try again to consolidate the thought process...

Rain
Its monsoon time.. and the rain is nowhere...waiting for the rain to drench myself...may be to wash away something which i'm still not sure of...it showers in the night.. when i'm sleeping...i hear the sounds in the back of my mind... it forms a background score for my vague dreams.....and in the morning, its all gone... just like the dream..

life in ernakulam
since the flow is not free, i went out in search of work...
and i got one in ernakulam....to talk to school children about robots...
and i stayed with my high school mates... people who'v studied with me for 10 whole years.. we still dont know much about each other..but the relation has always been warm...we spent nights reminiscing those times in school..our shaping years.. i was sad because we were living in periphery...we were like the dry leaves flowing in a stream...dead and flowing in the current....not knowing the depths...but as everyone does..we still cherish those days...and some of them just want to stick back to the old times..

then we shifted to a dingy room in the middle of cemetries...muti storied graves sorrounded us.. so we started our life along with a lot of dead dreams...and we lived in a room which do not have much oxygen...it reminded of impending dangers... it showed how vulnerable we were.. the civiisation is counting its days... only some of them are keeping the count...rest are already dead....their minds...i mean

Kashmir is burning.

2008-08-26T20:55:00.003+05:30

Zaffar was sad yesterday. He is my classmate and he is from Kashmir. The events that are happening in his home town are not pleasant. The town is under a curfew. Atleast 5 people have lost their lives in the police firing at the protest march to Lal Chowk, the centre of the town. Zaffar is not very political. He is a sort of happy go lucky guy. When people asks him whether he want independence or want to secede from India or join Pakistan, he used to answer that if people wanted freedom, he'd also support it. He was not much agog about the opression and occupation.
We were both reading from the library when he suggested we have a cup of tea from the canteen. we sat with our cuppas on the verandah. he said that he had got a call from home. and then he started talking and me listening. his brother had called to inform him that a deaf and dumb person in his neighborhood got brutally beaten up by the force since he didn move out of the street at the announcement of curfew.
Then he started talking about the history of the Kashmir problem. He blamed Sheikh Abdulla and his family for all the ruins that had come upon the Kashmimris. Sheikh was never a champion of democracy and had again and again rigged election results to clinch on to the power.

Then he started talking about the amarnath land issue, which is now the burning issue in the valleys.
The Gulam Nabi Azad Govt decided to transfer 100acres of land to the Amarnath Shrine Board. Amarnath is a famous hindu pilgrimage centre. The cave was discovered by a Kashmiri muslim nomad and since then thousands of hindu pilgrims have been visiting the place. one third of the annual profit was given to the family of the muslim nomad who found the cave. The Govt. decided to stop that also.

Initially the govt. claim was that the land id being transfered on a temperory basis, but the document said otherwise. The samiti was free to construct and lay tunnels and drainages if need arises. One asks whether the samiti will construct anything for just the pilgrimage period of 2 months? The Kashmiris were being hosts to thousands of pilgrims every year and not a single case of communal tension had registered during these years. Now the politics behind the sudden decision of the Govt. to transfer the land to the board is dubious. Kashmiri land was always occupied since independence. Nehru had promised a referendum regarding the independence long back and it is still to happen. 671 batallions of army and reserved police are stationed in the valley. There is, on an average, one Indian 'security' person per 10 Kashmiris.(Imagine how terrifying it would be for the people) Each battalion require some 150acres of land for themselves. So that much of land was forcefully grabbed them already. The military acquired orchards, fields, schools et al for their operations. The ethics record of the army in Kashmir was never good. The atrocities and brutalities that they have unleashed are uncountable. Kashmiris were always living under the guns of occupation forces. The latest issue of land transfer was bound to invite resistance from the already occupied people. Morover they have never cried for the blocking down of Amarnath yathra

Once the protest started, the army stepped in and started firing against virtually unarmed-except for the stones- masses. That is when NN Vohra took charge as the governor of the state. He decided to make the land transfer null and void. This sparked off furious protests from the Hindu dominated areas of Jammu. Hindu Fundamentalist forces took the issue into their hand and gave it a dangerous religious overtone. People took to the streets and destroyed schools, ransacked government offices and et al. The softer attitude from the army was appalling.

Meanwhile an economic blockade on the Kashmiris were already in place. The Jammu-Srinagar Highway, the only road which connects Kashmir to India, was blocked by the samiti protesters. Being the harvest season, tonnes of fruits were packed and ready to be transprted. But the blockade meant that any truck going through that road will have to face attacks from the protesteers in Jammu. Till today worth fruits crores of rupees are getting rotten due to the blockade.

The mainstream media portrayal of Kashmir as pro-pakistan was scoffed at by Mirwais Latif, a leader from Kashmir. He said the use of pro-pak and pro lashkar slogans are just means of their protest against the indian state and its army. They are aware of the political developments in Pakistan and they dont want to give themselves away to a highly unstable and corrupted state apparatus of Pakistan. Even pakistan seemed to have lost its interest in Kashmir and its problems. Even pro-pakistan people blame the pakistan media for the lack of interest in covering the current issue

The cry for azadi(freedom) is growing day by day, that too in a never before way. Thousands of people are joining the protest marches. They are unarmed, which makes it difficult for the army to "manage" the situation as they had done before. The people now thinks even if India is prospering, even if the independence means going backward in time, even if they couldn manage to support infrastructure, even if they are heading to darkness, they would still prefer independence rather than the integration with India. Why are still clinging on to Kashmir. All independent referundums strongly declares their will to be free. We all thought we're living in a democracy. How foolish we were.

A rendezvous with another food security expert

2008-07-13T18:42:00.003+05:30

Ironies never seem to cease!Last day I met this guy from one of the country's best universities. He has just completed his Mphil in development economics. And yeah, he did his bit of research in food security along with a well known "intellectual" from the same university. I met him from a restaurant in the campus. We both were waiting to get a seat in the busy place. So we had a small chat before getting seats at the same table. I asked him what he was doing, and he said: “food security”. By the time his order was served. It was a plate of noodles and a chicken hot garlic sauce; a bit too much for a guy of that size- he had this lean and hungry look!- I was hoping for an offer from him. I had some logical reason for my hopes. He had six pieces of spicy chicken and we were already on a talking terms. But I had to be satisfied with my fried rice! And that was not all. Once he was half way through the noodles, he took the menu card again and ordered chicken fried rice!! First I thought he might be taking food to one of his friends. But his plan was to have it for himself once he’s done with the noodles! And the guy was being quite articulate and authentic about the falling consumption rates. As someone pointed out, the word ‘irony’ has lost its power and appeal already.

The Irony of food security

2008-07-10T15:14:00.006+05:30

How more ironic can it get? The G8 summit happening in Japan was touted as the global leaders meet to analyze and find solutions for the declining food security, especially in third world country. And what happens after the day long meetings, seminars and blah blahs.. naturally the who's who of the world were famished.. and then.. an exuberant 8 course dinner with 19 dishes, cooked by 25 chefs..!! Now that is some big time contribution to the food security issue.

Malayalam Font

2008-06-22T23:28:00.002+05:30

If anyone is having a problem in reading the posts written in malayalam, a link to download the unicode font is provided on the left pane of the blog window. Save it in ur windows/fonts folder and restart the browser.
Peace

പുക

2008-06-22T21:32:00.005+05:30

ശ്വാസകോശം പുകയാല്‍ നിറഞ്ഞു
ഒരു റീകൊയില്‍ നടന്നപ്പോള്‍ എഴുപത് ശതമാനം
പുക ഒരു സ്ട്രീമായി പുറത്തേക്ക് വന്നു
കാറ്റിന്റെ ഗതിക്കൊപ്പം അത് വളഞ്ഞു
ഇടത്തേക്ക് നീങ്ങി, അന്തരീക്ഷത്തില്‍ ലയിച്ചു
മുപ്പത് ശതമാനം പുക ധമനികള്‍ വഴി ശരീരമാകെ
ഓടി നടക്കുന്നു- ഇന്നും

Manufacturing Consent

2008-05-02T10:09:00.006+05:30

राजा बोला रात हैं
मंत्री बोला रात हैं
सब बोला रात हैं
ये सुबह सुबह की बात हैं।

free translation
the king said it's night and dark
the minister said it's night and dark
everyone said it's night and dark
when the sun was high and bright

source: indian people's theatre association(ipta) graffitti board

http://iptamumbai.org/

കുഞ്ഞുണ്ണിക്കവിത

2008-03-31T13:36:00.005+05:30

ഒരു തീപ്പെട്ടിക്കൊള്ളിതരൂ
ഒരു കൂടു തരൂ
ഒരു ബീഡി തരൂ
വിരലു തരൂ
ചുണ്ടു തരൂ
ഞാനൊരു ബീഡി വലിച്ചു രസിക്കട്ടെ

2008-03-05T00:21:00.005+05:30

Farmers' debt waiver package: an analysis

On February 29, P Chidambaram, the oh-so-long finance minister of India, presented his fifth consecutive budget. He was second only to Dr. Manmohan Singh, the current prime minister, to present all five budgets of a single government. The media went agog with analyses, discussions, public opinion et al. One interesting headline was "Politically Correct", alluding to the minister's initials! The budget was politically correct.

There was huge waivers for farmers to the tune of 60,000 crore INR. Women and children's development was given high priority.
Health and education was provided with generous funds.

Income tax exemption was raised to 1.5L from the existing 1.10.

cenvat was brought down to 14% from 16%.

From farmer suicides to the waiver

Of course, the debt waiver to the farmers was the center-point of the discussions and debate. The farming sector was going through grave crises. The rate of suicide rates among the farmers was alarmingly high. Debt related problems lead may small scale farmers to suicide usually leaving a helpless family behind them. according to official records, there were 1.5lakh farmer suicides in the nine years from 1997 to 2005. Intensity of suicides were the highest in five states: Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. In these five states, Maharashtra was the worst hit with it's Vidharba region's cotton farmers took it to killing themselves out of helplessness and frustration. The scene was equally bad in other four states where cash crops were farmed in large scale. Credits taken from higher interested money lenders coupled with a fall in prices and failed crops made the life of the farmers a hell.

Main stream media were by and large oblivious to the plights of farmers. You can't be when you've got more important and newsworthy events like the Lakme Fashion week and of course the bollywood and it's colours. The only probable exception was The Hindu. With it's compassionate and good humoured Rural Affairs Editor, P Sainath, they covered the issue with all due respect and truth. Sainath- a Ramon Magsasay awardee- was passionate, logical in his arguments, lethal in his criticism. Each articles pricked the conscious, attracted passion filled responses from the readers and died off giving space to other issues at hand.

The political aspect was equally iniquitous. Opposition criticised the government incessantly, even the Left parties who are supporting the UPA government criticised the government for not taking any action. But no one did a contionous political campaign by looking at the issue from the right perspective. They couldn't, because each of the criticising parities were having the same negligent attitude in the states being ruled by them! They all tried to cash in on the vast farmer vote banks. The government kept on announcing piece meal packages to contain the crisis, but they all tumbled upon each other. Either because the packages were short sighted or because of the inefficiency in distributing the benefits. Anyways none of the packages convinced the farmers of a better future, and so the rate of suicides went up unabated.

The Budget Game and the Trump card Named Debt Waiver

The last full budget of the UPA government was, for sure, the most awaited event in the country. The pressure to get it right was palpable. More so when verdicts of the recently held state assembly elections in Himachal, Gujarat, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh had given a NO to the UPA lead coalition. Scenario was not differnt in the States were Congress ruled, especially with Maharashtra with it's crises in agriculture and the anti North Indian sentiment that took root in the recent days. The state government was and still is almost proving to be helpless.

And thus came the Budget 2008-2009. The FM stated that this year was to be a year of consolidation. With this statement, which augured a lot of populism in the offing, started the generosity. The trump card was yet to be thrown in. After announcing big packages for health, education, infrastructure development, came the magnanimous waiver package. 60,000 crores was set aside for the waiver package. 40 million farmers were expected to benefit from the package. 50,000 crore was to be used for complete waiver of debts for farmers holding less than 2hectares of land, and the remaining 10,000 crore for a OneTimeSettlement(OTS) for farmers having more than 2hectares but less than 4 hectares of land. The news came through amidst much fan and fare.

The response was mixed. UPA coalition celebrated the move. Left was skeptical of the cause, Opposition, of course with a losing feel that they couldn't claim such a move which will ensure an avalanche of votes, started criticising about the waiver being "too little, too late". Genuine analysts from acroos the spectrum also had a mixes responses too. MS Swaminathan, eminent agriculturist who made the Green Revolution into such a mayhem, said the measure was a "major step in recognising the indebtedness of the country to farm families who are safeguarding national food security and sovereignity". He had also suggested that the criteria to demarcate small farmers from big shoould depend upon whether the area is irrigated or dry.

The analysis

The move, even after being a poll oriented measure, is a positive step towards resolving the crippling crises that has made the agricultural sector's performance abysmal. But there is more to it under the celebrated upper crest. The case of Vidharba for example. Being country's worst hit area in terms of suicides, Vidharba has not got many things to cheer about. The reason being the way "small farmer" is defined. Majority of the farmers there hold more than 2 hectares of land since the crop is largely dependent on monsoon, the relative income these farmers get out of there is smaller than the amount a farmer with 2 hectares in any other part of the country where he/she is provided with irrigation. So even when a Vidharba farmer is hit harder, he/she will not be benefitiing from the waiver package since he falls out of the criteria to be eligible.

The Problem with Money Lenders

Another overlooking aspect is the presence of private money lenders. The waiver is only for the people who have taken loans from Commercial Banks and RRBs. Again a majority of the grief stricken farming families had not borrowed from a bank, they did it from the local money lender who usually charge exorbitant interest rates. Again a large number of farmers will fall out of the waiver criteria. When asked about this, the FM was furious. All he would say was "Which private moneylender do I identify and compensate?” The politics of this response was understandable. The "poll"itics of the budget was clear. The government wanted a feel good budget which fits into everybody's needs. and if you question the prospects and failures about the waiver, you were against the farmer. as the FM himself puts it.."If you’re against the farmer, have the courage to stand up and be counted; don’t duck the issue.” Now that is a real Trump card.

Some Interesting Views

Mr Yoginder K Alagh, economist and former union minister offers an interesting perspective. According to him, there are some other points mentioned in the health and education proposals that will prove to be a greater boon to the agricultural sector.“The Rs 30,000 insurance scheme for unorganised workers, many in the agricultural sector, the 24x7 primary health centres, the schools and colleges in rural areas, particularly for poor children and girls, have great possibilities. Also, the knowledge networks, if scaled to village needs and implemented in a manner that the villages can maintain them, with models already available.” Now that seems to be some kind of a relief and a more pragmatic step towards rescuing the agricultural sector.

We'll have to wait and see how the ambitious project is going to realise and how good it will be in containing the agrarian crisis.

care, convention

2008-02-25T06:24:00.000+05:30

Care. convention.
this is not an advertorial for the upocoming "customer care" or "health care" convention.
this is about care and this is also about convention. taking the two phenomenons separately and then clubbing them together.
who cares? conventional care takers seldom care.

Notions

2008-02-25T06:13:00.000+05:30

About Life, Universe and Everything

It’s quite a difficult task to reach the conclusion of this stupendously important question. The computers that the organic creatures-the humans- used for almost 5000 years reached, after going through impossible and at the same time incredibly complicated algorithms, an answer, and that was 42!! Imagine, that is the way things work. After reaching that milestone of an answer, the ones sitting in front of the computers were so baffled that they forgot what the question actually was. Generations of patient research- bhum-just like that!

Now some thoughts:

These are so very random that you’ll be in utter peace reading them

I was walking through the by lanes in the middle of the night, with a cigarette in my hand. There was this guy who was coming against my direction on a bicycle. He was humming a song. I stood there for 20 minutes, trying to remember which song it was.. and after 20 minutes I, once again restarted my journey home.

I could hear the sound of the heaves from the next bed. He is my room mate and he’s sleeping oblivious to my wakefulness. He might be in a different time frame. People say that they have seen a big(time wise) dream and science say that a typical dream session lasts only for some seconds. What does that mean. That we are living in a different time frame altogether. Some seconds in this mundane world is equivalent to hours, days or even years of that world. He is still heaving

I walked and walked. I was tired and I sat, again I was tired, I walked again and collapsed

a tree. A shot gun. A cup of water

I kept my words on the riverbed. It kept flowing slowly gathering all the silt that it could and at last got dumped on to the bank. some part of it was lucky enough to escape to the ocean crossing the estuary. Imagine, words getting stuck in the estuaries. Prolific.
sound of silence, I have heard that often. It’s the echo of silence.

I am typing I, and all the time the I becomes capitalized

let peace be upon you

Buying my new sony ericsson w810i

2007-11-07T17:40:00.000+05:30

When my Nokia 6230i was 'worn out' of extensive usage-at an average of 42 minutes per day, thanks to the free calls offers by my service provider- I thought oof changing the phone. I always ha this rebel thought of chucking nokia for soething else. I for some human reason, didn't like the popularity that nokia had among the crowd. everyone was blah blah about it's user friendliness, vast and wide ranges of models et al.. this user friendliness thing always made me to thinko-though it is supposed to be otherwise. Yes, by making a product user friendly, you are making them not to think and lo! the genetic mutations that this could bring is a dumb generation who'll forget what to think. a reverse evolution if you wanto call it that way! To the subject now..so i was confronted with choices. as nokia waz not there on the list, it made the selection process easier.my options were motorola and sony ericsson.. i chucked motorola because of it's relatively low sound quality and yea, i didnt like the way they made mobiles a fashion statement with all thosefunky designs.. so it was to be ericsson...now the choices were from p,w and k series. i wanted a phone which will be small and smart.like my old nokia 6230i.. it was small and was fully loaded.. so i chucked the p series.. it was smart, but had it's share of weight.. now it was K n W.. i naturally chose the w, because it shared the legacy of the walkman platform and i wanted a sound specific phone... now the choices were from w200 to w900i.. i chose the mid right range.. that is from w550 to w810i to the extreme.. after some 'goin thrus' i was stuck up between w 700i and w 810i.. i was in a shop in dubai.. i looked at each of them for a long time contemplating on which to lay my hads on.. ofor one mad moment i thought of tossing a coin and to decide...i was more inclined toward the 810i because i siply liked everything about it.. the desoign was smart.. the curves were elegant! but the 100Dhs differnce between the two restrined me from going on straight away.. that's when the guy at the counter came as messiah and told me that i'll get a 512 MB memory stick with o810i and that u wont get one with 700.. when i asjed at the next counter the price oof memory stick, lo!~ it was 105Dhs for a 512MB pro duo.. i was relieved and made the purchase right away..it was a great machine to have.. small and smart.. will lie in your hand as small baby but is also powerpacked.. the sound quality was awesome.. and the inbuilt 2mp camera deliverd great images in those standards...the walkman utility is the one that'll make u rock n roll.. the inbuilt equaliser has a mega bass(tm) option that'll make ur experience worth the money u spent on it.. omore later..Peace

Crazy Life

2006-12-17T01:46:00.000+05:30

Getting up at noon is the best way to avoid the protests of stomach to put something to it in the morning. Thinkng the financial crunge i was going thru at that time, even the prospect of having a packet of double toned milk seemed far fetched. i checked the cigarette packet laying on the table. there WAS a cigarette inside, the last one. i lit it and poured some water in the electric kettle and left it to boil. my plan was to have a cup of black tea. ofcourse there was no sugar left. anyways brunch was done. for my great surprise, there was some corn flakes left in the packet. no milk, no sugar, yet it was delicious. as the saying goes- peas are sweet when in hunger..
i was wondering from where on good earth was i going to have something fro dinner. the immediate idea was to go to a nearby family, with whom i had a good record and to have the dinner from there,,

Pravah and SMILE an Intro

2006-11-08T06:19:00.000+05:30

About Pravah

Pravah is an Indian non profit organisation founded by a group of young professionals with a view to influence societal issues. Our experience in diverse fields like Human Resource Development, Theater, Psychology, Management and Social Sciences has helped us in developing innovative training methodologies in the field of citizenship education.
We are dedicated to equipping young people with skills essential to building sensitivity and responsibility towards the society we live in, and developing them into positive Changemakers of the future. We have dedicated our work to the meaning of Pravah - which simply means to FLOW. The free flow of knowledge, ideas, experiences and expressions among people to bring about change. The flow also represents the life journey of every individual from self to society.

SMILE

SMILE, Students Mobilization Initiative for Learning through Exposure, our youth program focuses on providing diverse, action-oriented learning opportunities to young people about social issues. Its emphasis is on promoting youth volunteerism. The program encompasses
Direct mobilization and sensitization of privileged and underprivileged young people through presentations and orientation camps
Taking selected student-volunteers for exposure visits to rural NGOs
Coordinating youth groups such as the theater group, media club, action research group
Providing a platform to young people for learning, sharing and acting for change
Making fellowship grants to promote social action among youth
Creating newer processes to promote and build social responsibility among young people.

courtesy: Pravah website. www.younginfluencers.com

Orientation to the exposure

2006-11-08T03:50:00.000+05:30

Joining Pravah

Mazin, my room mate and friend came back one day saying that he's joined an NGO called Pravah and they have selected him to be a part of a 10 day exposure camp to be held somewher in Gujarat. I was immediately attracted to the idea and asked him whether I could join him. The next day we went to the Pravah office and I joined the organization which'd prove to be a really interesting place to be. They were not sure about my chance of getting into the Gujarat team at that time. I would wait for Neha-our co-ordinator- to call me. She did call that too with the good news that my ticket is booked. I was excited. I've always thought of visiting that place where hundreds of people were killed in a gory communal riot in 2002. I wanted to know what really happened and most importantly why it all happened. How could a man kill another man so brutally. The level of brutality was that horrible, I couldn't just imagine that kind of a violence in real life. So my excitement was natural. I was told that we're going to have an overnight orientation camp on 30th September. I was also supposed to do a presentation on two NGOs-Yuvshakti and Janvikas- which were hosting us in Gujarat. I prepared a bit for that and waited for the 30th.

The Team

Me and Mazin reached Pravah office by around 3.30. I was about to meet some really interesting people who'd be cherished forever in my life. Oblivious to this particularly interesting fact, we knocked at the door of the office. Neha was there waiting for us with her trade mark smile. She was co-ordinating this trip. She was from Gujarat, which made sense!! She had this talent of making people realise that what they thought of many issues were wrong. She knows how to correct people without hurting their ego. She was a good photographer too. Next their was Kapil, he too was from Pravah. He was a wonderful guy with a lot of knowledge and a great temperament. He was someone who had a strong determination to bring about changes. fact we followed Neha to a room where some quilts were At one corner of the room there was this girl, who was keenly reading a book and making notes. Neha introduced us to her. She was Sheena, who'd later turn up to be a funny little girl whose absent minded utterings would make me cry out of laughing!! She'd also prove to be a fantastic communicator who could easily make a connection with people and to make them talk without any apprehension. She was doing her graduation in Psychology. Then came Rajani, who'd turn out to be the sweetest and most mature person of our group. She was visibly excited about the whole thing. She was a post graduate student in political science. We both happened to be from the same state, Kerala. That made me more comfortable with her. Then came Kamal, another fantastic guy who came to this camp from the middle of his hectic MBA classes. He also had a part time job in a bank. The first inspiration came from there. There are people who wanted changes to happen in the society and no tight schedules is going to restrict you if you've the will to do something. Then it was Harish Bhai, a very inspiring elder brotherly guy who was doing his degree in mass communication. He was with us for this trip despite the physical challenges he faced. That was also a great inspiration for me. I was overwhelmed. I was never inspired this much in such a short span of time!! Then there was Vineeth, who was not coming with us. He was going to some other place for exposure. He was a really cool guy. Most of the time he seemed to be absent minded. Being a student of physics, it was quite a desirable quality. Newton's absent mindedness which lead him to think- rather than to eat -about an apple which fell in front of his eyes, lead to some of the sadest academic tragedies!! Even I was a victim..! Now that 9 of us was there including Kapil and Neha, we started the first session. We played some small games and did some energizers. I was still apprehensive about talking to everyone. My Hindi was pretty bad, and I didn't exactly know the vibes of urban youth, on what to talk and what not to. So I remained in a serious mode which made'em think I'm an intellectual!!!Looks can really deceptive, I thought!! After this warm up session, two more guys turned up. One was Ankur whom I've met once. He was a genuine guy. He was cool, smart and a good artist. He was doing his graduation in English. The other one was Ravi, the most down to earth guy I've ever seen. He was a good analyser too. Like me, he was also an economics student. After their arrival, we started a session on Violence. The theme was " Violence is Justified". We were told to be divided into three part. One which supported the statement, one which opposed and one which was confused over where to go. I was in that, ofcourse! There was a good debate on the issue. I was of the opinion that violence is justified in some conditions, but what confused us was what level of violence was justified and who decides right and wrong. It was a really insightful discussion. Neha and Kapil-both from Pravah, and our co-ordinators- interjected accordingly to clear our misconceptions about some facts. The night has started falling by then.. We went outside to a nearby park and played some really cool games. After that came the last two members of our Gujarat team. One was Karishma, the naughtiest-in almost best possible way!!- girl of our group and also very sensible. I would tie a rakhi on her defying conventions! The other one was Amrita, a very caring,sweet, fun loving and very easily confusable girl!! I bet she'll be confused if she reads this!! Both of them were doing their gaduation in Sociology.

Starter

2006-10-14T06:06:00.000+05:30

so atlast I created a blog..the way in which I hated typing,that too with a keyboard whose "Y" key needs a hammer to work, I always knew blogging was not meant for lazy guys like me. But now the situation has changed. I've been to Gujarat-a state in India notorious for calamities,, both natural and man made- for a 10 day exposure trip. The kind of experience I had, both socially and personally was shocking and incredible. I couldn't resist my deep desire to share those in a platform like this.

pEaCe