More than 5 lakh posts are vacant in Police forces- Report

 Findings of Data on Police Organizations (DoPO) by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR-D). 

Over 5.31 lakh posts in police forces of different states have been lying vacant, according to the BPR&D report.

Releasing different aspects of policing in the country as on January 1, 2020, the BPR&D also said a total of 1,19,069 police personnel were recruited in 2019 in various police forces across India.

The figures include civil police, district armed police, special armed police and India Reserve Battalions.

दादी के राम

 दादी की कहानियों में,

दादी के हर गाने में,

बस था एक ही नाम,

वो था राम।

जब वक़्त नहीं कटता था,

तो कलम उठा कर लिखती थी,

और राम नाम से पूरा पन्ना भर्ती थी

एक छोटे से मंदिर में राम का पोस्टर चिपका कर,

मन ही मन रोज़ कुछ मांगती थी,

अगर इच्छा ना हो पूरी तो मुंह नहीं फेरती थी,

दोबारा वहीं जाके राम नाम जप्ती थी।

जब मंदिर बड़ा हुआ तो भगवान का जैसे सैलाब अगया,

पर राम नाम तब भी सबसे पहले जुबां पर आया। 

और आज जब मंदिर वहीं बन गया है,

तो टीवी देख कर हाथ जोड़ती है।

बोलती है मन में हो राम तो कुछ नहीं चाहिए,

मंदिर जितना बड़ा करलो, भेद नहीं होना चाहिए।

कहानियों के राम को आज में ढूंढती हूं,

जब दिखते नहीं है लोगो में,

तो खुद से प्रशन करती हूं,

क्या कहानी तक सीमित है राम,

या असल ज़िन्दगी में भी होते हैं राम।

बचपन की मासूमियत कुछ ज्यादा ही सीखा गई,

राम नाम को बस मन में ही बसा गई।

लोगो की इज्जत करने से खुश होते हैं राम,

गलती मानकर सुधारने से खुश होते हैं राम,

इंसानियत का नाम है राम,

ये था दादी की कहानी का सार। 

तो मंदिर के जशन में ये मत भूलना,

शबरी के झुठे बेर खाने वाले थे राम,

दूसरों के दुख को समझने वाले थे राम,

गलती भी करने वाले थे राम,

ऐसे थे त्रेतायुग के राम,

कलयुग में बाद रह गया है उनका नाम। 

Photo story: It rained in Dehradun

It rained in Dehradun today and the view couldn't get better. The roads were muddy, the sky was clear, the sunset looked beautiful and the mountains were clearly visible.

While going on a cycle ride I thought why not post a photo story about today. So here it goes - An ode to the first winter rain of Dehradun.

The Ugly Side

Let me start with the ugly side of the rain first. This road was dug for some pipeline work and even after many months (I cannot remember how many probably more than 2 months) the road is still not repaired. 

The hand which didn't grow them

A sarso flower for the ongoing farmers' protest. We cannot survive without them. 

"I am constant"

The perfect sunset point near Subhash Nagar. During the lockdown, I came to this spot every evening just to see the sunset. This spot never disappoints.

The cloudy affair

                                 

It is a rare sight. The mountains are only visible when it rains or some other day only known to scholars and God.

Hanging there

The droplets are hanging on the wire because the clothes cannot. 

Hope

We hope for the sun after it rains. We are hoping for a vaccine. We hope to live happily. Hope is what we need right now. This picture represents hope. 

Fact: Do you know Dun means a longitudinal valley

The Journey of a Deceased Man

Legs dipped in the holy water of river Ganga, she blames God for making her a girl. "This is your fault, you made me a girl," she complains. 

Haridwar Ghat

A little before she was on the bus en route Haridwar. Her mind is occupied by many things. One of them is patriarchy. 

The journey has just started when one of the patriarchs disgusted by the presence of two women claims- ONLY MEN ARE ALLOWED.

"This is not our culture," says the patriarch.

The woman sits there calmly listening to the jibber-jabber of the patriarch with other 20 patriarchs in the bus.  

He tells her that she must have learnt this from YouTube and television. 

"Oh, they didn't know about Netflix yet," she thinks.

"This is Christian's tradition. We are HINDU BRAHMINS," he says.

In a bus of 23 people, no one stood up to tell the patriarch that he is wrong. 

"Calm down. Be quiet," responded the other patriarchs.  

As the patriarch continued to spur venom, two liberals stood up. One of the liberals was a male. To reiterate one male out of 20 and one female out of two stood up. 

The patriarch's argument is -"This is a man's job."

As she hears him, she smiles and thinks, "What if I was a boy? The society wouldn't have questioned me for my presence at my father's funeral."

"What if I was Christain, life would be much simpler."

And sitting beside the Ganga she questions God, "Why did you make me a girl?"

The patriarchs

PS: Why women not allowed to perform last rites of a deceased?

"We have to look at the fractured parts and see how to reconnect them:” Akshay Kaul

Since evolution human being has been dependent on its surrounding for food, water, air, and other necessary materials required for sustenance of life. In the pre-historic period, people were described as hunter-gatherers who would kill animals for food and devised ways of vegetation. They didn’t settle in one place but kept on moving in search of a suitable place where they can survive. Since nature was their provider, they worshipped it and kept it safe. 

With the advent of time and technology, the dependence on nature increased which led to more demand. The demand was marked by excessive use of raw materials from nature but without any replenishment. This has resulted in what we see today- haphazard constructions, climate change, deforestation, global warming, man-made calamities, and the list goes on. 

The damage is done and some say it is beyond repair but many people are working to restore the balance in nature with the use of technology and spreading awareness about it. Akshay Kaul is one of those persons who are trying to bring balance through environmentally sustainable landscape planning.

Akshay Kaul

Recently ‘Design with Nature and Not against it’, an online workshop on on-site planning and urban ecology was started in Kashmir for professionals, architects, students of architecture and civil engineering professionals and students, by Kaul, founder of Delhi-based architecture firm ‘Akshay Kaul and Associates.’ 

The workshop was aimed at bringing awareness amongst people about natural processes and systems, principles and tools of site planning and site design, how to locate a building on-site with minimal damage to natural processes and systems. The notion of ‘Design with Nature’ would help participants to understand site and landform through contour plans, google maps, and its study and analysis. 

In this interview Kaul speaks about the workshop, Kashmir's landscape, and ecological planning in the valley. 

Edited excerpts:

1.       How did the idea behind the workshop originate?

I have been actively involved in Kashmir since the 2014 floods. I travelled the whole length of the valley and met many stakeholders, engineers, and common people to understand why the floods happened. 

Kashmir Floods 2014

After researching for six months I started presenting about the natural ecological fragility of the valley and why the floods happened. The ecosystem is on a threshold and until it is actively engaged, we will keep losing it.

 

We teamed up with young people and started a cafe talk over architecture. We even started one of the first story walks in the downtown to engage with people. In 2016 the office of the chief minister called us and after that, we were very actively engaged in doing one of its kind multidisciplinary workshops and conferences. We also initiated a solid waste management dialogue.

 

For flood relief we wanted the government to adopt alternate practices which have been done globally for designing with nature so that if it rains it is absorbed on the side itself and slowly percolates into the ground. Therefore, only some part of the city is inundated.

 

I kept going to Kashmir and then I had friends who were teaching in the school of architecture. They invited me and I did 2-3 workshops with architecture students on how to document lakes and what are the issues.

 

People were restless due to COVID and even the architecture community understands very little about larger issues of geography, climate, and designs that are responsive to nature, so I started the workshop with two modules where I teach architects of the country on how to do sensitive planning. If you have to construct a building on a 50-acre site I demonstrate from my projects of the last 25 years, what are the parameters that must be taken care of.

 

2. Do you think there is a change in the landscape planning in Kashmir post-2014 floods?

I think some people are talking about ecologically sensitive urban planning but not enough. There might be a slight iota of increase in the awareness but on the ground, it doesn't get translated into action.

If we look at Kashmir’s environmental history, flood was a recurring process but there were smaller floods. During the Maharaja reign when the floods came, he invited a French engineer who created a diversion channel which helped to reduce the yearly floods in the valley. Certain areas would get inundated but they were primarily agrarian areas but now those areas are inhabited by people. 

Kashmir Floods 2014

The whole connectivity of the lakes and sub-ground connectivity is completely fragmented due to the construction of rails, roads. Lakes have been encroached and shrunken.

 

The project proposal floated by the then Jammu and Kashmir government sought to create another channel that would straightaway take water into the Wular Lake from where it would drain off. This proposal was not an ecologically-based solution because Wular Lake is shrunk completely and the volume of water coming in the lake would have backflow.

 

3.       What interventions are required for wetlands and rivers in Kashmir?

It's not a big deal for the government to save the water bodies. With a clear mandate and support, they can take waterbodies one by one. If I have to work on the Jhelum river, I would take a smaller watershed and then another watershed and so on. The government can also follow this pattern.

 

The watersheds of Anchar lake are completely dried up because water is not coming from the catchment areas which means that the catchment is disturbed and fragmented. Another reason is the discharge of sewage into the water bodies which have a huge amount of nitrogen. This results in the growth of plantation which converts it into a marsh. A huge amount of pesticides also make their way into the rivers causing contamination of groundwater.

Anchar Lake

 

An alternative to chemical farming is organic farming but the organic farming content is minuscule in Kashmir. The level of education and awareness required for organic farming is not sufficient in the valley.

 

4.       What are the environmental challenges in urban planning in Kashmir?

We are not responding to climate emergencies and changing weather patterns. If you look at it historically Kashmir is a lake of bed which drains off from just one point and it is very prone to earthquakes and much more prone to flooding.

 

There is sprawl in terms of taking over land-use change over the years from agrarian to plantation, marshy to plantation, and agrarian to build.  After the 2014 floods, the building typology hasn't changed so are our planning bylaws.

 

For instance, when we're building in low lying areas like Bemina where it got flooded the most in 2014, the building typology should mandate at least 10 feet of stilted buildings which are also being followed in the outskirts of Kolkata where the Hugli river inundates every year. This type of responsiveness is missing in Kashmir. It can only handle a certain amount of people and there is no room for expansion.

Bemina Area

Many proposals came after the floods but people are building on the same place as it is never going to flood again but if it rains for two days in Kashmir people are frightened.

 

5.       What do you think is missing from the current education system of landscape planning in India?

The curriculum in India is only Masters for landscape architecture and we don't have any undergraduate curriculum per se where you can go through the rigour of landscape planning.  Another serious problem that exists in our landscape architecture curriculum is that only those students who have done specialization in architecture can apply for it. If we include people from other professions it will add more to the course.

 

For example, a person with a sociology background will help us to understand human behaviour in open spaces which will help in making more responsive designs for public spaces. Since people from other fields don’t join the courses there is a very little breadth of the course.

 

When I was studying landscape architecture from State University, New York, we had students who were from different fields thereby expanding the breadth of the subject. This helped us to understand the whole profession and other people add on the expertise of their domain and each of these domains then picks up issues of the environment and embraces it.

 

6.       Which cities/states in India come under the category of well-planned in terms of ecological planning and landscape design?

Sikkim has a turnaround story from being a plastic dumped state to a litter-free state. While travelling to Sikkim as soon as you cross West Bengal, you see there is not an iota of plastic in the state. With whatever minimal infrastructure they have, I would say Sikkim stands way far in comparison to other states.

Sikkim

There are many other isolated places on high altitudes in India on which I've been doing some research where individual efforts are merely heartwarming.

 

7.       What steps should be taken by the government to have environment-sensitive planning?

Some of the work done by us is being implemented by the government. For instance, about four-five years back we talked about connecting greenspaces in Delhi so that they become places for water resilience, wastewater management, biodiversity and once you put this green infrastructure into place, they also become recreational space. 

We have to look at the fractured parts and see how to reconnect them whether they are water systems or green systems.

 

We have an administrative boundary under the jurisdiction of some authority and then there is a political boundary which is under an MLA and then there's an administrative boundary which is that of the district. Half of the rivers which are a part of two-three boundaries are cleaned in one part and the other part remains as such. We're not looking at it comprehensively.

 

 If we don't look at it from a holistic management principle then we will be running into a problem. There has to be a correlation between all the boundaries for better results.

A lost paradise for non-Kashmiri minors

Rohan (name changed) was brought to Kashmir with the promise of a high paying job. Little did he know that he would end up as a household worker in Pulwama. Rohan was living in an ashram in Assam before he came to Kashmir. He used to work at weddings to earn his livelihood. One day while returning from a wedding at night, he met a person who asked him if he wanted to earn more money. Rohan who had no one in his family except his little sister, so he decided to go with the man in search of work. Exhausted by the work, he slept on the train, unknown of the place the man was taking him. When he woke up he was on his way to Jammu.

“Rohan was brought to Pulwama through a consultancy firm who told us that he was an adult,” said Tawseef Ahmad Ganai, a member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Pulwama. When the CWC got information about Rohan they informed the District Child Protection Unit (DCPO) who brought Rohan to the CWC. On examination, the CWC found out that he was a student of eighth class when he was brought to Kashmir which means that he was around 13 years old, said Ganai.

The consultancy firm was given a warning and since then it is under the scanner of the CWC, Ganai stressed.

People believe that there is no human trafficking in Jammu & Kashmir but they are wrong, said Mohd Sharif Bhat, J&K and Ladakh head of Save the Children, a Non-Government Organization (NGO). As a person who works in the field, Bhat has seen many people having minor non-Kashmiri servants.

Three years back Bhat came across a minor girl from Kolkata who was found on a farm in Kupwara. Bhat was informed about her by the Information District Social welfare officer. When he met her, she was traumatized and didn’t say anything, recalled Bhat.

“I took her to the hospital and informed the concerned authorities,” said Bhat. It was later found out that the girl was suffering from tuberculosis.
According to the social worker, a majority of minors come from Jharkhand through agencies that lure them for jobs.

Picture Courtesy: India.com

Most incidents of missing children are reported from Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, and Bihar according to a study by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2019. The common causes of trafficking were forced marriage, child labour, domestic help, and sexual exploitation, mentioned the study.

As per the data of the 2011 Census, India had 10.13 million child labourers, between the age of 5-14 with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh being the most affected states.

Kashmir receives many minors through consultancy firms who are employed as house workers and a majority of such helpers are employed in Srinagar, said Farooq Ahmad, a Srinagar CWC member. According to Farooq, the number of female minors is more in Srinagar than male minors and the number is increasing.

Recently he came across two-three minors who were brought to the valley through consultancy agencies. One of them was a minor girl from West Bengal whose mother has died and his father, a drunkard, sold her to the agency which brought her to Kashmir, said Farooq.

Due to the pandemic, the minor girl is kept at a shelter in Srinagar and once the conditions improve, she would be sent to the West Bengal CWC.

The condition in other districts of Kashmir is not the same as Srinagar. According to Fahmeeda Maqbool, Chairperson CWC Ganderbal, the number of cases of non-Kashmiri minor helpers is quite less in Ganderbal, and in most of the cases, the number of male minors is more than female minors.

One being asked how the CWC handles such cases, Maqbool said that at first the date of birth is checked and if it does not comply with the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, the child is taken under the care of CWC and strict action is taken against the offender.

The Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 states that children below 14 and 15 years in certain prohibited employments have been prohibited by various Acts but there is no procedure laid down in any law for deciding in which employment children are banned. The Act was amended in 2016 and in 2017. The current Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 but they can work in family business/enterprises only if they are non-hazardous.

Advocate Shah Faisal, J&K director of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) admitted that he comes across numerous cases of minors who are being held by people without their will. He came across the case of a child from West Bengal who wanted to go back home but the household where he was working didn’t let him leave. Faisal filed a complaint against the family to the Chief Magistrate. The child was brought immediately and proper action was taken against the family, said Faisal.

Another case which the advocate recalled is of a 15-year-old Rohingya girl who was sold in Delhi at Rs. 70,000 to a Kashmiri who married her when she came to Kashmir. The girl’s uncle contacted Faisal and a writ petition was filed by the advocate to rescue the girl.

According to Faisal, the consultancy agencies which bring minors to Kashmir violate many norms. They provide a fake list with numbers of fake parents of the minors, informed the advocate. “Most of the agencies claim that the child does not have a birth certificate and they consider them above 18.”

Even the families hiring minor helpers justify themselves by saying that without the family’s assistance the child would not even get food, said Faisal. Moreover, the money paid by the families is not paid to the minor but to their agents, asserted the advocate.

क्या आज़ाद हूं मैं?

 आज़ाद हुए कई साल हुए हैं,

पर आज भी आज़ाद नहीं हूं मैं।

सूरज की पहली किरण से,

सूरज की आखिरी रोशनी तक,

आज़ाद नहीं हूं मैं।

शरीर ढाका हो या ना हो,

नज़रों की मोहताज हूं में,

आज भी आज़ाद नहीं हूं मैं।

पूछो उन नज़रों से जो पीछा करती हैं,

पूछो उन लोगो से को घुरा करते हैं,

क्या आज़ाद हूं मैं?

घर के अंदर भी बंदिश हैं,

बाहर तो अलग ही रंजिश हैं,

तो क्या आज़ाद हूं मैं?

फुक फुक कर कदम रखती हूं,

अंधेरे में घर से निकलने से डरती हूं,

क्या ये हैं मेरी आज़ादी?

कुछ गलत हो तो दोष मेरा हैं,

छोटे कपड़ों से तो आकर्षण बढ़ता है,

अगर आज भी ये सुन ने को मिल रहा है, 

तो क्या आज़ाद हूं मैं?

आंखे

कुछ ना बोले भी बहुत कुछ बोल जाती है,

आंखे हैं, कभी कभी आयना भी बन जाती हैं।

सब चीज़े देखकर भी अनदेखा करती हैं,

आंखे ही हैं जो भेद करती हैं।

रंग के नाम पर तोड़ती है, और रंगों को ही पसंद करती हैं,

आंखे हैं, कभी गलत आयना भी बनती हैं।

Kumaoni Wedding Rituals: Aapdev, Purwang, Pratima Vivah, Dhuliargh, Suwal Pithai

Effigy of mother-in-law and father-in-law

Kumaoni weddings are quite long. As a person whose roots are Kumaoni, I have attended many Kumaoni nuptials.

Therefore, in this blog, I uncover the traditional Kumaoni wedding ceremony like Aapdev, Purwang, Pratima Vivah, Dhuliargh, Suwal Pithai and many others.

The effigies covered with a yellow cloth and tied in a basket. As the priest recites the rituals, both the bride and groom’s family exchange these effigies. 

“Exchange of effigies is a common tradition in Kumaoni wedding. Moreover, marriage is not only about the acceptance of the bride and groom but also of their families,” says Chandru Joshi, a priest who performs Kumaoni weddings.

Women applying turmeric on the bride

Ganesh Puja

Kumaoni wedding starts with Ganesh puja. Tied to a knot in a yellow piece of cloth are areca nut (supari), raw turmeric, soaked rice (akshat), roli (a mixture of turmeric and lime) and the coin. This is called Kankan. “Till the wedding ceremony completes the bride and groom must wear it. Kankan is a sacred element of the marriage,” says Joshi. 

Suwal Pithai

Following Ganesh puja is suwal pithai, an old Kumaoni ritual.

During suwal pithai the elder ladies clad in pichora sings marriage songs. Pichora is a traditional dupatta with saffron color base, covered with red polka dots. Married women drape pichora over a saree or lehenga .

Suwals are like puri. Milk and flour kneaded together to make suwals' dough so that they remain fresh for a long time. “Earlier the bride had to travel a long distance after marriage so the suwals kneaded in milk remained fresh during the journey,” says Joshi. 

Suwal Pithai

Aepon

In Kumaoni wedding rituals aeopn designs decorate small wooden seats. Aepon is a red and white color design made by Kumaonis for festivals, puja and ceremonies. “Nowadays people use paints, earlier aepon prepared with red earth powder and rice paste decorated the wooden seats. Even stickers are available in the market for aepon,” explains Joshi.

Stool decorated with aepon

Ladies Sangeet and Mehendi

“In villages, during the wedding ladies sangeet was never such a big affair as in the cities these days,” says Manorma Pant, who belongs to Kumaonicommunity. Earlier only female relatives and neighbors sang songs and dance to the tunes of dholaks and manjira, recalls Pant. 

Nowadays men also come to the ceremony and it is not a small ceremony, unlike earlier times.  The application of henna to the bride and groom is also new to the culture. “I did not apply henna on my wedding. During that time, we didn’t have this ceremony,” says Pant.

Ladies Sangeet

Apdev and Purwang

Many ceremonies take place on the day of Kumaoni wedding. “Ap-dev and purwang are very important ceremonies in Kumaoni culture,” says Joshi. Aap-dev is performed by the males in the family to pay homage to the ancestors and seek their blessings. Aapdev is followed by purwang in which both families along with their priests perform this ceremony. The priest is given rice, pulses, five kinds of dry fruits, milk, curd, clothes, and an amount that the family finds suitable.

Engagement Ceremony

Another peculiar thing about the Kumaoni wedding is the engagement ceremony. A small number of people from the groom’s side go to the bride’s place. The groom’s brother slips the ring into the bride’s ring finger. Meanwhile families exchange sarees, sweets, fruit baskets, and dry fruits. “Nowadays most of the people don’t follow this custom. The engagement ceremony is a big affair that takes place on some other day,” says Pant.

Pratima Vivah

“Kumaoni weddings fixed by matching the horoscope of the bride and groom,” explains Joshi. If it is not done, the bride ties knot with Lord Vishnu at first. This ceremony is called Pratima Vivah. “It looks like people have moved forward but when it comes to superstitions, they still believe in it,” says Joshi.

Dhuliargh

On the eve of the wedding, unmarried girls welcome the marriage procession with urns filled with water and leaves placed on their heads. This ceremony is called Dhuliargh. Meanwhile, the bride’s brother uses an umbrella to escort the groom to the place where the ceremonies are taking place. 

“In villages the groom used to walk till the bride’s place on foot. Before performing the ceremony the bride's father cleaned the groom's dusty feet,” says Pant, adding, "people still follow this ritual." The bride’s father cleans the groom’s feet and bride’s mother applies tilak on the groom’s forehead and performs aarti. The families from both sides, their priests and an Acharya perform the ceremony. The acharya could be the groom’s brother in law or nephew. 

Jaimala

The bride and the groom perform Jaimala on the bride’s arrival. In this both the bride and groom exchange garlands which signify mutual acceptance. The bride and groom have dinner after the jaimala.

Kanyadan

The bride and the groom head to the mandap for kanyadan after dinner. 

Kanyadan is a Sanskrit word which means ‘giving away the bride’. During Kanyadan the bride and groom sit on the opposite side. 

The bride’s father and mother perform kanyadan. “People who are doing Kanyadan have to fast for the whole day,” emphasized Joshi. 

There is an exchange of clothes, sweets, fruits and ornaments between the families. The bride adorns the ornaments from groom's side. The father puts the palm of her daughter over his palms. Other members of the family pour water from a small pot. “It is the most emotional ceremony in the Kumaoni wedding in which the parents have to go through,” says Pant.

After kanyadan the bride sits beside the groom. “Adorned with a crown, the rituals acknowledge the bride and groom as God. The bride wears a crown depicting Radha and Krishna and the groom wears the crown depicting Ganesha,” explains Joshi. 

Bride and Groom with the crown

Aanchal Bandhan and Saptawadi

Following kanyadan is aanchal bandhan. Interlocked by Aanchal (a long yellow cloth), The bride and groom perform saptawadi in which they take seven rounds around the holy fire promising vows. After this, the groom ties mangalsutra (necklace) on the bride’s neck and applies vermilion to the bride’s forehead. Following the ceremony, they are pronounced as husband and wife.

“You will not find people following the Kumaoni wedding these days as they are more tilted towards the big-fat Indian wedding, not the minimally styled wedding,” says Pant. There is a decline in the traditional culture and rituals as more people are moving away from rural areas. Maybe the future generation might not be able to experience the alliance in the mountains.

Events in Kumaoni Wedding