StoryWeaver, an initiative of Pratham Books, a not-for-profit publisher, will creat hyperlocal libraries for children to promote and preserve children’s literature in Konkani, Bhoti and Haryanvi, to mark the International Mother Language Day.

World over, around half of the seven thousand spoken languages are feared to die by the end of the present century. In India alone, 197 languages are classified as vulnerable or endangered. Cognizant of the threat of extinction looming large on many leading languages, International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity, and promote multilingualism.

Commemorating this day, StoryWeaver is working towards nurturing the children’s book publishing ecosystem in minority languages that have limited or no children’s literature. In 2017, StoryWeaver celebrated IMLD through the Freedom to Read campaign by adding stories in 13 new languages to the platform, including stories in endangered languages such as Kurdish and languages spoken in increasingly smaller circles, like Alemmanisch and Jerriais.

Extending the spirit of the campaign to 2018, StoryWeaver is facilitating the creation of joyful, supplementary reading material in three minority Indian languages on its platform. The StoryWeaver platform currently hosts over 7000 stories in 105 Indian and global languages. Each of these initiatives will marry digital and print mediums together to create a repository of early reading literacy material in mother tongue languages. While the translations of stories to the three languages will happen on StoryWeaver, the dissemination of the books will be through print and digital modes.

Speaking of the initiative, Suzanne Singh, Chairperson, Pratham Books said, “When a language dies, with it a wealth of knowledge is lost forever. It is a death of a culture. Having rigorous discourse on this issue, and implementing mindful efforts to preserve endangered languages and its cultural capital is a requisite of every publisher and language warrior. Through Pratham Books’ open source platform, StoryWeaver, weaving stories of communities in their own languages, and increasing access to quality reading resources for children has been made possible like none other. We are also grateful to collaborate with our passionate partners whose primary mission, just like ours, is to nurture multilingual languages and take it to every child in the country.” 

StoryWeaver partnered with The Konkani Bhasha Mandal, an organization that constantly works for the language Konkani, to translate over 100 books to Konkani on StoryWeaver. Through the collaboration, 25,000 copies of 50 books in Konkani will be printed and distributed for free among more than 250 schools in Goa, impacting over 25,000 children.

Similarly, StoryWeaver collaborated with 17,000 Ft Foundation, an organization that works to improve the lives of the people of remote, high altitude mountainous villages of Ladakh, to translate 10 books to Bhoti on the StoryWeaver platform. Jointly, more stories will be added to the repository over the course of the year.

In the run up to International Mother Language Day, a translation hackathon was conducted for 25 educators from across 20 districts in Haryana. The two day residential workshop saw the translation and inbuilt peer-to-peer review of up to 70 level-1 picture books for children to Haryanvi.  The workshop was organised with the support of the Education Department of the Haryana Government.

Pratham Books is a not-for-profit children’s book publisher in 2004 with the mission to see „a book in every child’s hand?. Its key objective is to publish good quality, affordable storybooks in multiple languages to support reading acquisition among children. Since inception, Pratham Books has published over 2500 books in 20 Indian languages. The books cover a range of genres including early readers, fiction, nonfiction, and storybooks on science, history, mathematics and nature. They have had the distinction of working with many of the country’s renowned authors and illustrators and their books have won several awards as well.

StoryWeaver is an open source, digital platform of multilingual children’s stories from Pratham Books. Launched on September 2015, on StoryWeaver users can read, create, translate, download and share stories for free. By creating a collaborative framework where the creators and consumers of children’s content could interact with one another, it is an attempt to address the scarcity of multilingual, joyful reading material for children. StoryWeaver was launched in 2015 with 800 stories in 24 languages. The platform offers over 7000 stories in 105 languages of the world.

New Delhi:  Veteran diplomat Talmeez Ahmad, who has served for long in West Asian countries,  has made a  strong case for India playing a role in bringing estranged neighbours Saudi Arabia and Iran at talking point, saying vital Indian interests would be at stake in case of conflagration between the two Muslim nations.

“I am not talking about mediation, but some behind the scene diplomacy to make the two estranged countries talk to each other,”Mr Ahmad said while answering questions from the audience during the  annual lecture organised by the Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents here . The topic of the lecture was ‘India and the Islamic  World: New Challenges in Turbulent Times’.

The veteran diplomat said he had been pushing for this initiative by India for quite some years, but there were a lot of people who would simply rubbish it saying that India did not have a clout  in the region, it did not have any experience, it had not done it before etc.

In Mr Ahmad’s view no other country either West Asian or European has so much credentials  with  Saudi Arabia and Iran for taking up such an initiative. He pointed out that there were eight million Indians in the Gulf each of whom supported four persons back home,  remitting 35 billion dollars  annually, thus benefiting in total 40 millions Indians.

In such a scenario,  one just could not say that India would not care if these two countries went to war, because the future of these eight million people would be at stake. Besides the livelihood  of its people, India’s  security in energy and so many other respects hinged upon peace in the Gulf, he said.

In fact, he said there was a strong desire in these countries for India to play a political role in the region. He pointed  out to the joint statement of India and Saudi Arabia issued during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2016 visit to the Arab country which said the countries wanted their partnership to go beyond their bilateral relations. ” We will  contribute to a regional order that reflects  our shared interest in stability, prosperity and tolerance,” it said.

Mr Ahmad pointed out that similar intent was expressed in the joint statement that was issued during the visit of UAE crown prince  last year. Mr Ahmad’s remarks come  in the backdrop of  India’s close relations with Saudi Arabia  getting strong  reflection  in the series of high-level visits between the two countries over the last two year. After the just concluded visit of  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani,  Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is also expected to visit India later this year.

Mr Ahmad  said it was high time that India did something substantial to encourage these countries to start dialogue to lessen the tension that threatens the peace  in the region with disturbing implications for India. Answering another question, the veteran diplomat rejected the view that India’s growing proximity with Israel might prove to be a stumbling block for its relations with the West Asian countries.

He  pointed out that some of the Arab countries like Saudi Arabia themselves were engaged with with Israel , and  even Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat encourged  India to play some role in resolving the conflict with Israel.

Mr Ahmad said  India’s relations with Israel were something not unique to the Modi government. It all started in 1990s. Mr Modi had in fact not changed  anything qualitatively  on the ground with respect to West Asia, he said, adding that the present government had rather made the engagements more robust.

Mr Ahmad, however, also said that today there was a  divide between India’s external engagement with the Islamic world and the world of Islam at home,  meaning that the composite culture of the country  was under threat and valuable heritage of a thousand years of shared history between Hindus and Muslims, which was more a cultural, ethnic and linguistic engagement was being disastrously seen through the prism of religion.

NEW DELHI : Several health groups have expressed their strong disappointment with the Supreme Court of February 12, 2018, in which the Apex Court refused to review or recall an earlier order disposing off a case against the mala fide suspension of the vaccine Public Sector Units (PSUs) and government’s tendency to pamper private sector with public money.

The court relied only on the Government’s claims regarding the revival and modernization of the suspended PSUs and did not take into account the last rejoinder of the petitioners that highlighted the increasing diversion of purchase orders to private sector at ever increasing prices. The groups are considering filing a fresh petition, as the court also said “in case there is any deficiency or neglect on the part of the Government…, the petitioner shall be free to seek appropriate redress in appropriate proceedings at the appropriate stage.”

The decade-old public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by former Union Health Secretary, S. P. Shukla and representatives of the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), Low Cost Standard Therapeutics (LOCOST), Medico Friend Circle (MFC), and Society for Scientific Values (SSV).

The public interest litigation, S. P. Shukla and Others vs. Union of India, was triggered by the sudden suspension of the last three surviving public sector vaccine manufacturing units under the Union Health Ministry in 2008 by one of its own arms (Drug Controller General of India) citing non-compliance with good manufacturing practices (GMP), while another arm of the same ministry failed in its responsibility to invest in their modernization and GMP compliance. These units are: Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli; Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonor; and BCG vaccine laboratory (BCGVL), Chennai. Prior to suspension, they were jointly catering to 85% of the vaccine requirements of India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP).

This PIL was admitted in the Supreme Court in February 2009. Over the years, the case highlighted the lack of a national vaccine policy and the government’s tendency to drift along the path laid by the private industry, such as in the introduction of dubious new and combination vaccines into the universal immunization programme at exhorbitant prices. Under the pressure of this court case, in June 2009, the then UPA government set up a Committee headed by Javid Chowdhury, former Health Secretary, who insisted on the revocation of the order suspending the PSUs and their revival for domestic production as well as modernization for GMP compliance within 3 years (i.e., by 2013). As of today, only CRI became GMP-complaint and went into production in 2015. BCGVL just became GMP-compliant and is still in trial production, whereas PII-Coonor has not even built its GMP-compliant unit, a statement issued by the petitioners said.

The chief petitioner S. P. Shukla said, “We won half the battle with the revival of the suspended PSUs and their modernization for compliance with good manufacturing practices (GMP), under the pressure of our court case and the report of the governmental Javid Chowdhury committee. But their production is yet to be restored to pre-suspension levels, the responsibility for mala fide suspension was not fixed, and even the recommendations of the Javid Chowdhury Committee have not been fully implemented.”

According to S. Srinivasan of LOCOST, one of the petitioners, “The union government has not been buying vaccines from the public sector even after their revival. Government data show that the purchase orders to PSUs are declining and those to private companies are growing despite increasing prices. We highlighted all these issues in our last affidavit of 2016 to show that the Central Government is misleading the Supreme Court, but it was not taken into account before disposing off the petition.”

“We neither have a rational vaccine policy nor rational use of vaccines – for example, selective immunization has disappeared from government policy. New vaccines and their combinations of doubtful efficacy and safety are being introduced in the universal immunization programme. By shifting its procurement towards irrational cocktail vaccines made only by the private sector, the government is systematically reducing PSUs into component suppliers to the private sector”, said Dr. Mira Shiva of AIDAN, another petitioner.

N. Sarojini from MFC remarked, “Due to lack of government orders, the revived PSUs are forced to find private buyers for survival. Prior to suspension, the public sector supplied 85% of all universal vaccines procured by the government. Today, over 90% of the government purchases are from private sector.”

On behalf of the SSV, Prof. N. Raghuram stated, “Vaccines are prescription drugs but are being promoted like consumer goods through private immunization camps. It is unethical that all these dubious practices are being done in the name of children as they cannot decide the vaccines they need. Someone must give a credible answer to helpless parents’ question as to how many vaccines are adequate for a child.”

Under pressure from this PIL, the UPA II government also formulated a vaccine policy that legitimized its ongoing practices favouring the private sector, which continues to be followed by the current government, the statement said.

Both UPA and NDA governments dragged on the case in the Supreme Court for over 7 years by seeking date after date. On October 2016, a three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice disposed the case saying that the Government has revived the suspended units and made them GMP compliant. On this day, a junior lawyer had requested a passover because Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves representing the petitioners was occupied in another courtroom but this was not granted. The last affidavit filed by the petitioners which showed that the government’s claims were half-truths seemed not to have been considered by the bench.  The judgment simply stated that “in case there is any deficiency or neglect on the part of the Government in doing so, the petitioner shall be free to seek appropriate redress in appropriate proceedings at the appropriate stage.”

The petitioners filed petitions for review and recall of the order, by reiterating the substance of the last rejoinder affidavit against the Government’s claims and providing the cause list to show a genuine clash requiring the Senior Advocate to be in two courts at the same time. However, on 12 February 2018, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reiterated the earlier order and said that the court is not inclined to review or recall the previous order but can consider a fresh petition.

New Delhi: With over 3 million registered users on Testbook.com and over 4.5 million registered users on Current Affairs App of Testbook, and 3 lakh + daily visitors, Testbook.com is emerging as India’s largest online test prep community. Testbook is catering to aspirants preparing for government exams such as SSC CHSL, CGL, GATE, RRB, Bank PO, Bank Clerk, Railways and Insurance examinations. Taking this forward Testbook has also launched Testbook Online Centres and Testbook Learning Centres in 30 cities of Bihar, Delhi, and Rajasthan where a student can visit and practice exams in a Real Exam Environment. 

The founders had noticed that a large proportion of the government job exam aspirants are from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and they often face the problem of non-reliable internet connectivity and many do not have access to computers. So, Testbook came up with a hybrid model and it launched branded Online Centres with computers, internet connectivity and power backup facility for its students. It also tied up with local teachers to start ‘Testbook Smart Labs’—Computer infrastructure and Online Learning facility at institute itself. Keeping in mind that a student who comes from tier 2/3 cities, “Testbook Pass” facility has been provided by Testbook which has made easy for students to buy the online test series as cash solutions for them. Students can purchase the Pass either from Testbook Online Centres (TOC) or Testbook Smart Lab (TSL) or network Bookstores and can activate the unique code printed on it in a single step on Testbook.com or from the Testbook Mobile App.

Testbook mobile App is widely loved by students all across the country. With a rating of 4.5, it is the highest rated e-learning education app on the google play store to prepare students for Govt. Jobs. The team behind Testbook.com is already working on leveraging the massive data that is being collected on the platform to make learning more personalized for students so that they can seek better guidance and improve faster. 

Amit Jain, SSC CGL 2016, AIR 1 said  Â“Constant improvement is possible only when we keep a track of our performance. Testbook’s detailed analysis along with high-quality questions made me better and better with each test that I attempted”

“Testbook test series was very important to my success. I am benefitted by live tests, too. I have never missed a single live test and given all test series. This helped me really in time management as you can create exam-like conditions in your home. I also appreciate the quality of questions. Daily streak kept me motivated.” Said Divyesh Vaghela who has cleared SSC CGL 2016 exam

“My whole preparation was based on the test series of Testbook. I relied on it completely, solved mock tests and then prepared the areas in which I lacked, “ said Deepshikha who has completed IBPS PO 2017 mains exam

According to a report by Google and KPMG, the online education industry in India is poised to grow eight times to become a USD 1.96 billion industry by 2021 as an increasing number of students consume content through e-routes. This sector, however, faces high drop-off rates as many online courses are self-paced wherein there are no points of engagement, which in turn result in lower completion rates. 

Our awareness level of jobs and careers are very low.  So, our job selection is often very poor. You will find that 1 million people applying for 100 open positions to hire clerks in Railways or some Govt organization.

“The lack of knowledge in terms of regarding formal education, awareness, internet etc. and also underdeveloped nature, especially in rural parts of India, people are less qualified for current Online Mode of exams. We as an organization believe in empowering each and every student who is aspiring for Government Job. Computer literacy is an important key aspect of this area. We are providing students Real Exam Environment along with computer infrastructure so that when a student sits for the online exam they should be experts with the interface used during the real exam.” said Ashutosh Kumar, Co-Founder, Testbook.com.

Education has been regarded as an end in itself. It has been considered by societies from time immemorial as a means to grow for an individual as well as for the society as a whole. It has been recognised as a human right as it is an indispensable obligation to preserve and enhance the inherent dignity of an individual.

“Education is the movement from darkness to light.”

–Allan Bloom

Right to education is a socio-economic right. These rights are formulated to protect the interest of the individuals. These rights entitle the individuals to have sufficient access to certain socio-economic resources. Cecile Fabre argues that these rights are not simple moral rights, rather they are worthy of being constitutionalized since the interest protected by these rights is significant enough, that it becomes important to legally incapacitate the members of the legislature to enact laws that violate such moral rights. Therefore, these rights are significant enough and should be given the colour of constitutional rights. Putting forward by David Bilchitz’s argument, there are two kinds of rights, socio-economic and civil-political rights. And it cannot be said that interest protected by socio-economic rights is any less than that protected by civil and political rights. It is important to respect both the set of rights in an equal manner thereby, treating individual lives as of equal importance. As argued by Frank Mischelman, the significance of socio-economic rights can only be realised in a political system when diverse individuals who are free and treated equal, assent to it. 

For decades, the universal goal of national governments, civil society, intergovernmental organizations and civil society has been to gain educational attainment every year.This commitment has been exemplified by various human right treaties and global efforts such as the education for All movement and the Millennium Development Goals. As per the goal of human rights-based approach to education, every child should attain quality education, that enables him to promote his or her right to dignity and achieve optimal development.  In last four decades,  it has been observed that focus on education has resulted in huge gains; worldwide primary school enrolments have increased from 418 to 702 million pupils, secondary from 196 to 531 million, tertiary level enrolments have grown from 33 to 184 million. The International  Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was the first international treaty to create universal Right to Education for all the people. The most important feature of Article 13 is that “education shall be directed to full development of human personality.”As per Human Rights Council Resolution, education requires constant improvement and is never fully improved. 

POSITION OF RIGHT TO EDUCATION 

Indian Constitution

The Supreme Court of India, in Mohini Jain’s (1992) case held that “Right to Education is concomitant to the fundamental rights”. This brought a legal revolution, which was later reconsidered in Unnikrishnan, J.P. v. State of Andhra Pradesh, where it was held by the Supreme Court that right to education is an inherent part of Right to Life under Article 21. Though it is not explicitly stated but is implicit under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Thereafter, article 21-A was inserted, by 86^th amendment, in the Part III of the Indian Constitution, making ‘right to education’ a fundamental right for children between age group 6-14. Prior to 86^th amendment, FCE was only a part of the policies of the State, finding its place as a DPSP under Part IV of the Constitution of India. The amendment reformed the education provisions and lead to the insertion of Article 21-A (FCE, 6-14 years). 

Also, Indian constitution lays down fundamental duty under Article 51-A(k). It also brought an amendment in Article 45 (DPSP).

RTE Act had a very ambitious nation-wide plan, but till date, the country is not able to fully implement it. Experts believe India is nowhere near of achieving its dreams of complete literacy. RTE Act has huge implications, it deals with issues like minimum standard of infrastructure in public and private schools, reservation of seats for economically weaker sections in private schools and at the other end of the spectrum, it talks about curriculum and teaching learning process in the schools. Some of these aspects are aspirational, they are about a vision and don’t seem to be about immediate implementation.

Sri Lankan Constitution

The Right to Education is not a fundamental right, enforceable under the constitution of the Sri Lanka. Article 27(2) (h) under Chapter IV of the constitution of 1978, provides for Directive Principles of State Policy, which states that State shall work for “complete eradication of illiteracy and the assurance to all persons of the right to universal and equal access to education at all levels.” But it does not lay down specifically for free education, nor the right to non-State education. Also, it doesn’t specify the content and quality of the education. But Article 27(13) states that State shall ensure ‘full development’ of children and youth, including education in its widest sense, ensuring reasonable quality of the same. Although, there’s a clear manifestation under Article 29 of the constitution of 1978 that these principles are not justiciable in nature, nor do they create any legal right or obligation. These rights are not enforceable in any court of law or tribunal.

The Judiciary in Sri Lanka has played an indispensable role in the field of education, through judicial activism. This was first reflected in an important judgment delivered by Supreme Court in 2007, where Supreme court exercised the fundamental right to equality as guaranteed under Article 12 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, to prove the violation of the child’s right to education by the State authorities, since there is no explicit fundamental right to education in present Sri Lankan constitution.

The achievement of the Judiciary in Sri Lanka can essentially be realized by its activism in demarcating new dimensions of the fundamental right of Equality. The provisions of right to equality as guaranteed under Article 12 of the Sri Lankan Constitution (1978) find their reflection in the provisions of Equality as guaranteed under Article 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution, to a significant extent. 

The initial phase of the Supreme Court jurisprudence of Sri Lanka was based on the traditional doctrine of ‘reasonable classification’ evolved by US Supreme Court. The Supreme court of India adopted the new doctrine on Equality which was subsequently embraced by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, which brought new dimensions to equality, where right to public administrative justice is devoid of any executive or administrative action. 

In E.P. Royappa v. State of Tamil Nadu. Bhagwati, J. held that:

“Equality is a dynamic concept with many aspects and therefore, it cannot be ‘cribbed, cabined and confined’ within the traditional and doctrinaire limits. Equality is antithetic to arbitrariness. Equality and arbitrariness cannot exist together, this is evident from the fact that where an act is arbitrary, it will be unequal both according to political logic and constitutional law and is therefore violative of Article 14.” Subsequently, this decision was unanimously approved by the Supreme Court in Ajai Hasia v. Khalid Mujib.

In Sri Lanka, the beginning of the Fundamental jurisprudence was marked by the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment, Palihawadana v. Attorney General & others, where the Supreme Court held that, Article 12 denotes equality before the law and equal protection of law. It has been stated by the Court that it is not possible to attain equality in strict sense. It is legitimate to have a reasonable classification, for application of law and for operation of an administrative scheme. What is outlawed is class legislation and not the Reasonable classification. The main principle on which Article 12 rests is that all persons in likewise situation shall be treated alike both in terms of privileges conferred and liabilities imposed. The cardinal rule is that classification must be reasonable and not arbitrary. The idea must be to establish a just and reasonable relation to the object that is required to be achieved. 

Therefore, the Sri Lankan Supreme court held that any questions relating to admission of the students to Grade 1 in National and other schools fall under Article 12(1) of the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka.

As per Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, the limitation imposed by Article 29 cannot block the way of Article 27. Though the provisions laid down in Chapter IV are only the principles, non-justiciable in nature, but they shall be the source of directing the State for effective governance of the country in order to develop ‘free and just society.’ These principles are to guide the Parliament and Ministers for making the laws aiming progressive achievements in field of education and development for all the children of Sri Lanka.

In, Seneviratne v. University Grants Commission, (1978-80)

Wanasundera J. referred to Kesavananda Bharti v. State of Kerala, where the Supreme Court emphasized on the significance of the Directive Principles of State Policy, stating that “they hold a place of honour in the Indian Constitution and constitute the conscience of the constitution.”

Despite of not having ‘Right to Education’ as a fundamental right in 1978 Constitution, through whole of the South Asia, Sri Lanka is having the exceptionally highest literacy Rates worldwide. The statistics of 2012 and 2013 shows that the literacy rate of children aged 6 years and over was 95.6% (2012) and for adults, i.e., 15 years and over, it was 91.8% (2013). Despite being in lower group countries, Sri Lanka has achieved considerable developments in the field of education in a span of 60 years. In 1946, just when Sri Lanka got Independence from Britain, the literacy rate was only 57.8%. Almost 20% of the country’s population fall below poverty line, still it has succeeded to achieve such higher rate of literacy. The prevailing circumstances in the country did not affect the imparting of education process in the country. While the global adult literacy Rate is 86.3%, the Rate is higher in Sri Lanka. And Sri Lanka had been successful in bringing down illiteracy rate from 43% to 8%. Despite of the fact that the country had undergone a civil war that began in 1983 and sustained till 2009, by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) demanding an independent Sate for Tamils in the north and East of the country, more than 2500 people died and more than half a million Tamils left the country to seek refuge in India and other countries. However, there is lack of discussion about the impact of civil war on the education system in Sri Lanka due to its shift on dominant global neo-liberal ideology. Institutions like world bank, aim at implementing neo-liberal ideologies as universal norms. Whereas the understanding of education should always be the central focus within the socio-political context as what is formed is a social right.

When we compare things such as military, technology, space exploration and geo-political influence, India stands head and shoulders above rest of the South Asian Countries. But when it comes to Standard of living, Sri Lanka has proved itself far better than its SAARC peers. Sri Lanka’s per capita income is 12,262$, which is more than every south Asian Country, including India (7153$). Sri Lanka also has the highest literacy and the lowest poverty rate. Sri Lanka and Maldives are the only South Asian Countries with high Human Development. There are many reasons for success for Sri Lanka, first being high rate of literacy. Researchers have found a direct co relation between women’s literacy and the number of children in the country. Female literacy in India is only 65% compared to 92% in Sri Lanka. Therefore, family planning has been much more successful. India will keep growing its population till 2070. Smaller populations are easier to manage and the resources get split among fewer people. 

As asserted by Harsha Aturupane, Senior Economist at the South Asia Region of the World Bank, the world bank finds the education system in Sri Lanka ideal. As claimed by Aturupane, the education system in Sri Lanka, now, is the most complete and advanced form of what it has been in the history, if taken as a whole. He says that the country must compete with more advanced and developed education systems as he appreciates the leaning outcomes of Sri Lankans in Math and English. 

With the growing literacy, there had also been some shortcomings in the education system of Sri Lanka. It has been reported, that although there is a National Policy on disability, a high number of disabled persons are not given priority for special needs in government schools, whereas in India, government schools and colleges grant “reasonable accommodations” to documented disabled students. Disabilities Act, 1995 provides a right to free education to every disabled child, till the age of 18 years in integrated and special schools. 

In the aftermath of independence, the government deemphasised the teaching of English and stressed on a system of ‘vernacular education’ by beginning with educational reforms in 1956. These reforms made education accessible for all, irrespective of race, gender, religion or caste. The Kannangara reforms introduced ‘Swabasha’ which made it mandatory for all the school systems to impart education in ‘mother-tongue’. As a consequence of which, the Sri Lankans lack English Language skills which are required for qualifying exams for various government as well as private jobs. Apart from this, English has served as a ‘link language’ between Tamils and Sinhalese, the decline in the learning of English language has been one of the reasons for ongoing conflicts between both the ethnic groups. Therefore, in 1983, the President Jayewardene announced to take steps, which a special focus on English language. The President Jayewardene government also established a system of free education in government schools which continues to exist even now. There have been several demands of right to education being made a fundamental right. A Draft Constitution has been prepared and was released in 2000 by the government. The chapter of fundamental rights has been drafted making considerable improvements as compared to 1978 Constitution. It includes Right to access to free education for children between 5 to 14 years of age. It also confers the power of Judicial Review, which was first inferred under the Soulbury Constitution of 1947.

In this changing and challenging world, it should be the goal as well as the responsibility of the State to provide children with best quality of education as it is one of the most significant governmental domestic function. As we’ve gone through the entire setting of Right to education in India and Sri Lanka, we can conclude that standing provisions with no practical implementation subsist only as bare meaningless letters of law. 

(The author Anushka Gupta is student of  LL.M.,(2017-2018) National Law University, Delhi)

[Directed: Gulzar/ Produced: N C Sippy, Raj N. Sippy and Romu N. Sippy / Story by: Indra MitraScreen lay & Dialogues: Gulzar/ Edited: Waman Bhosle Gurudutt Shirali/Camera: K Vaikunth / Lyrics: Gulzar/ Music: Salil Choudhury /Playback: Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey,Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar / Cast:  Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna,Shatrughan Sinha, Paintal, Asrani, Danny Denzongpa, Yogesh Chhabra, Dinesh Thakur, Sudhir Thakkar, Sumita Sanyal, Deven Verma, Ramesh Deo, Abhi Bhattacharya, Asit Sen, Keshto Mukherjee, Leela Mishra, A.K. Hangal, Master Chintu, Baby Geeta, Kamaldeep, Shyamlal Malik, Amina Karim, Mehmood and  Yogita Bali.]

Gulzar’s first directorial debut was literally a frame by frame remake of the National Award winning Bengali film Apanjan  by Tapan Sinha. Apanjan  was based on a story of Inder Mitra, and the film was both a commercial and critical success. Gulzar had been called to Kolkata to translate the script for a Hindi remake under Tapan Sinha, who most obdurately insisted on using the same cast, and then dropped out of the film. Gulzar bought the rights, rewrote the screenplay, lyrics and displaying a master’s stroke chose Salil Choudhary as the music composer. 

Mere Apne might have been a remake but it remains one of the few original mainstream Bollywood films in 70s highlighting disgruntlement among youth when it was reaching its peak and would find a safety valve in the JP Movement three years later. The Nehruvian years of heady idealism were gone and the largest employer in the nation, the government was beset with waffle, favoritism and red tapism. The film was Gulzar’s first stab at political realism and it would take him another quarter of a century to attempt it in Maachis (1996).

An ailing Meena Kumari remained the steadfast lead despite her bad health in the film. Mere Apne was released on 9^th November 1971, the shooting was completed in 40 days, and Meena Kumari died four months post its release on 13^th March 1972. Her dedication to the craft later brought effusive praise from her young co-star Vinod Khanna,“I learnt so much. She was in poor health but completed the movie. We would be happy sitting at her feet and just listen to stories of her experience in Indian cinema. She was an institution,” a rare case of reel life merging into real life!

Danny Denzongpa, Asrani, Paintal, Sudhir Thakkar and Dinesh Thakur – all fresh from the FTII, Pune – added lustre to the cast with their senior Shatrughan Sinha from the institute chewing scenery most compulsively in a short but effective role. Other veterans in the cast’s muster roll were- Deven Verma,  Asit Sen,  Keshto Mukherjee, A. K. Hangal Yogeeta Bali and Mehmood, making Mere Apne the most cast heavy film in the filmography of Gulzar. 

Shatrughan Sinha in 1971 had 13 releases including guest appearances but Mere Apne was coup d’grace for him. Chetna had heralded his rise that year but Mere Apne as the year closed consolidated his place as that rare villain who was cheered and clapped at his entry on screen or when he pulped the hero. He was perhaps was the first villain to have college girls as fans and songs were filmed on him despite being a blackguard in films like- Rampur Ka Lakshman, Bhai Ho To Aisa, Babul Ki Galiyan and Blackmail.

Debutant director Gulzar provided the opportunity to Vinod Khanna for his switch to hero roles from Mere Apne onwards. Interestingly the role of angst ridden Shyam was offered to FTII gold medallist of the acting class, Navin Nischol, who after the success of Sawan Bhadon, was on a signing spree and did not have the required dates for Gulzar’s project. 

Vinod Khanna brought a rare sensitivity to his role of the brooding leader of street gang in his Mere Apne (1971) who is jilted by his lady love. The audience enjoyed the sparring between Vinod and Shatrughan Sinha as rival street gang leaders with Allahabad — the birthplace of India’s first Prime Minister — as the theatre or rather boiling cauldron of their frustrations, campus politics, unemployment, ennui and the culture of violence and gangsterism. 

Vinod Khanna led a more urbane and more educated street gang in the film whereas his rival is illiterate and understands only the language of violence. His college degree gone waste as a petty clash with his friend-turned-rival Chhainu (Shatrughan Sinha) lands him in jail thus negating any chances of having a professional life. Gulzar crafted Vinod Khanna’s with a blend of sesnsitivity and toughness in direct contrast with rough and hewn Chhainu portrayed by Shatrughan Sinha.

Vinod Khanna it is rumoured had once complained that the majority of the cast comprising of FTII graduates had ganged up against him and he felt like an outsider.  Vinod Khanna however formed rock solid bond with Gulzar leading Shatrughan Sinha to comment, “Gulzar has adopted Vinod and disowned me,” as the poet- director helmed in as Achaanak, Meera and Lekin. Gulzar and Vinod worked as father and son in the film called Jallianwala Bagh (1977) helmed by Balraj Tah. In a role reversal of sorts, Gulzar faced the camera for the first time, and Vinod Khanna was a big help.

Asrani would go on to do some of his most memorable films with Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Gulzar. He recalls that Gulzar was nervous because he was making a debut and Vinod Khanna already a hit villain was making an entry as a hero in the film. At the film’s premiere in Delhi. Gulzar seated next to Asrani gripped his hand the moment the film started, and the applause after the film ended moved Gulzar to tears. Asrani told his senior at the institute Shatrughan Sinha that it was the first time in his life that he had noticed the audience clapping when the villain bashed up the hero! Shatrughan Sinha was ecstatic!

Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand was wonderfully seeded in Mere Apne, Meena Kumari’s character is called Anandi Bai, the sponsored programme of Anand on radioand the film’s poster on the wall abovewhen the rival gangs clash, was a homage to his mentor Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand for which Gulzar contributed dialogues and lyrics and which released in the same year as Mere Apne.

The two out of the four songs that have become synonymous with Mere apne are- Koi hota jisko apna hum and Haal chaal theek hai both written by Gulzar and set to tune by Salil Choudhury. Salil Choudhury went on record crediting S.D. Burman for having spotted the spark in Kishore Kumar early in his career. Salil Choudhury realized the tremendous potential of Kishore after having had dismissed him in Naukari (1954) seventeen years earlier and then have the maverick playback render the haunting- Koi hota jisko apna hum apna under Chaudhary’s baton. The lyrics of satirical Haal chaal theek hai indict the post-independence euphoria of a just and better India having fizzled out leaving a ruling class are knee deep in corruption and the educated youth who remain unemployed –circumstances which are evergreen even today!

Mere Apne was released during a year that saw films like Anand, Amar Prem, Guddi, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Tere Mere Sapne and Caravan hit the marquee! Mere Apne, a classic well ahead of the times, one of the landmarks of Indian cinema and one of few films to present the dilemma of educated unemployed youth, a turbulent issue relevant even today, got no nominations nor any awards at the Filmfare or National Awards. 

Shivratri—is celebrated across the country as Shiva’s night! But, in the Kashmir Valley it is `herath’ meaning `utter surprise’!

There is a story behind `hairath’ or `herath’ or `hearth’ or even `hayrath’ – the last three being the corrupted forms of a Persian word `hairat’ which means `surprise’ in an extreme form. Hayrath is a commonly used word in Kashmiri. 

The story behind it is as follows: The Pathan governor of Kashmir, Jabaar Khan, prohibited Kashmiri Pandits from celebrating Shivaratri festival in winter in the lunar month of Phalgun (Feb-March). It is said that the Governor relished the Kashmiri Hindu non-vegetarian cuisine comprising fish and many varieties of mutton, and suggested that the festival should be celebrated during Aashaad (June – July).  

Jabbar Khan knew that heavy snowfall always marked the great event as is evident from the following refrain of a song usually sung during Shivaratri: “Suna sheen volun daari daare: Maharaza raaza kumaar hai aav ‘’(Flakes of gold snowed slow and steady when prince Shiva arrived to marry!). 

The people obeyed, but it snowed in July that year! The miracle startled everyone, the Pathan ruler, in particular, who expressed utter surprise, hairat. Hence the new name for Shivaratri celebrations. 

Since the untimely snowfall resulted in crop failure and resultant famine, the people of the Valley faced untold misery. The forced alteration in the timing of the festival, therefore, brought innumerable curses upon the ruler. The people cried out in despair: Wuchhyon Yi Jabbaar Jandah, Haaras Ti Kurun Wandah! (Look at this wretched Jabaar in rags; he turned summer into winter!). 

Shivratri is a longish affair for Kashmiri Pandits and barring a few, most families made non-vegetarian food on this day which was offered to Shiva during prayers. But, many things have changed after migration. A majority of the families have turned vegetarian and do not offer non-vegetarian food to `Vatuk’ which is, perhaps, `Batuk Bairav’ form of Shiva. Walnuts are offered as Prasad, probably, in old times nothing much was available during winters.

Herath begins with spring cleaning that sounds irrelevant now. Cleaning huge houses after a severe winter was a massive task then. This was followed by shopping and families would come together for puja and feasting. `Vatuk’ – a line up of specific earthen pots was done in which were put walnuts. The pots were decorated with spring flowers and prayers were offered in the night. Earthen pots have now given way to steel and other metals and puja is now based on audio tapes instead of `family pandits’ who are now extinct clan. 

Salaam, the day after the Shivratri puja is the most important day which in Persian means greetings. The day is for greetings and feasting. The visitors usually were non Kashmiri Pandit families, friends, and neighbours who would stay behind for sumptuous meals. For years now, salaam is confined to greeting calls from friends from Kashmir. No more visitors and no more days of cooking for women in the family. Not only is the cuisine dying, even traditional `Vatuk Puja’ is now a mere ritual than a meaningful, rich religious exercise. 

The elders would also give money to children for celebrations and `herath kharach’ was the most attractive part of the festivities for children. This was mostly cash and in addition to the new clothes children would get to wear.  

The celebrations conclude with `doonya maavas’ when walnuts kept in water on the night of the puja, are eaten with rotis (chotzchi vor) made of rice flour, after a small offering to Shiva. Walnuts never taste so good!!!

Madras : Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has developed the algorithm for the country’s first medical-grade, wearable device for deriving vitals in a non-invasive manner. The algorithm is being called “VinCense.”

Developed jointly with MedIoTek Health Systems which works on mobile health technology, VinCense can be used for unobtrusive monitoring. Vital signs including pulse-rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, skin temperature, blood pressure and others are duly recorded through this device. The real-time data are stored in the patent-pending secured cloud from where healthcare providers can access vitals using an intuitive interface.

VinCense can be deployed for home healthcare delivery, insurance/analytics and corporate/ industrial occupational health screening. It also has applications for Non-Communicable Diseases Screening and Surveillance, general public health, and community health.

The device was developed by a team led by Prof M. Manivannan, Head of Touch Lab, Biomedical Engineering Group, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras. Speaking about VinCense, Prof M.Manivannan said that his team is developing algorithms that provide more accurate vitals from the wearable device.

With the focus on preventive health, India has potential to become a Global Healthcare Hub. Only with a fraction of NIH budget, India can double the efficiency in delivering healthcare services to its population, added Prof Manivannan.

Health screening and monitoring towards preventive and curative care are becoming easier using technologies including from virtual reality, gaming, data-sciences and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Sophisticated algorithms combined with latest technologies for accurately deriving vital parameters at an affordable cost is the need of the hour.

MedIoTek has been working on this wearable platform for past four years and the Touch Laboratory at IIT Madras has been working on medical simulation technologies providing haptic feedback for past 13 years. This collaboration would further lead to algorithms for medical simulation applied to wireless health monitoring systems. The outcome of this collaboration could lead to early intervention reducing risks and complications and improving clinical outcomes, a statement issued by the IIT-Madras said.

NEW DELHI: Blaming the Central government for messing up things in Kashmir,  former IAS officer Wajajhat Habibullah, who has spent several years of his career in the state, has said the use of Army will not bring about peace in the Valley.

The solution of the problem required only winning the confidence of the youth through sincere dialogue with all stakeholders,” he  said in a wide ranging interview over the situation in the Valley.

”The fact that three divisions of one of the finest armies of the world  are deployed to fight militants whose number is not more than 300, as per government’s own figures,  itself speaks about the efficacy of  the present policy and strategy,” he said,  adding that  if this strategy was not working and was leading to huge loss of lives, then one should think of some other way.

Mr Habibullah was  of the view that if the agitation against the killing of Burhan Wani would  not have been suppressed with so much force, the situation would not have come to such a pass.

On a question about the use of Armed Forced Special Powers Act (AFSPA), he said, ”If we want to use the Army and if the Army feels the need of  Armed Forced Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to deal with a certain situation, so let  it have it, but here the question is whether the situation in Kashmir required deployment of the Army, and my view is that it was not needed at all” .

The former civil servant and also first chief information commissioner of India, who has served as Divisional Commissioner in the state, said that the local police was capable of dealing with the situation but  the then governor Mr Jagmohan had no trust in the state police, because of which the Army had to be brought in but the experience has shown the total failure and disastrous consequences of such a step.

Mr Habibullah said he did not believe in the theory that of the Army was  withdrawn, the state would go with Pakistan.

He is of the view that the more talks are delayed and force used in the state, the greater will be the radicalisation of the youth.

”Let me make it clear here that this radicalisation is not the root cause of the problem but rather it is the result of the failure to resolve the problem.”

The new generation has come to the conclusion that so far no result had come out of the efforts made to resolve the problem and they believe that the government of India is not interested in addressing their grievances and sort out their issues.

”They are saying that they don’t have a feeling of ‘azadi’  in India, and I think it is our failure that we have not been able to create this feeling.”

He said originally they wanted  azadi from Maharaja’s rule and  align with India. Sheikh Abdullah had told chairman of the UN Commission on India and Pakistan that that he wanted to remain with India.    

”We have failed to convince the youth that they can’t have their azadi  in the face of Pakistan, China, Russia and Afghanistan, and that they can have true azadi only by staying with a free and democratic country like India, and we have just tried to fix a political issues by the use of force,” the former IAS officer said.  

He pointed out that the Army has launched Operation Sadbhavna and the civilian government was spending huge money but things have remained here they were.

Mr Habibullah said that by this he did not mean that force should not be used where required but along with the force sincere efforts should be made to engage the people.

He strongly advocated dialogue with all stakeholders, including Hurriyat. ” If Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee wanted talks with all of them and if Mr Advani, who was home minister in the Vajpayee government, was talking, and Dr Manmohan Singh took that forward,  then I fail to understand what is problem with the Modi government?’

”If the Prime Minister was also swearing by ”Insaaniyat”, then he should listen to others,” he said.

Mr Habibullah said one could not justify not holding talks with kashmiri youth and leaders by blaming them for a negative response. ”First we have to convince them of the sincerity of our intentions.”

He said he had publicly appealed to Hurriyat for talks and  was part of the unofficial delegation that went to the state to talk with the people and their leaders.

Welcoming the appointment of a new interlocutor  by the Home Ministry, he hoped that something fruitful would come out, but added that some the Central ministers had given confusing signals about his role.

The Central government has been committing mistakes upon mistakes and adopting an approach which was lending support to the Kashmir youth’s feeling that the Centre had no sympathy with them and cared least about resolution of the issue, he said.

On a question about the recent controversy over the  lodging of FIR in the Shopian filing incident, he said,  ”If you lodge FIR against a person, it does not mean that the person is guilty but lodging of FIR is required under law if some people have been killed. In some cases in the past, the Army has itself conducted an inquiry. 

Such attitude leads to further alienation of the people as it indicates to them that the system was not working in a just manner. 

Replying to a question, he said that the current violence in Kashmir does not have much of outside elements. It is a home grown violence a creation of our own actions.

On a question regarding the problems in the working of the PDP-BJP coalition government in Kashmir, he said they had drawn up a common minimum programme and a major element of which was talks with all stake holders, but that had not happened.

And only now they had started realising that dialogue should be started, but concrete steps are yet to be seen, he added. “It is our responsibility to go to talks them, to tell them that they can have azadi only by staying with a democratic country like India,” Mr Habibullah said.

(The writer is a senior journalist.) 

Hyderabad : If anybody can become a dancer as depicted in 2013 Bollywood dance drama, Anybody Can Dance (ABCD), directed by choreographer Remo D’Souza, why can’t anybody become an astronomer and make new discoveries? 

Yes, says Dr Ananda Hota, radio astronomer at the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences (University of Mumbai-Department of Atomic Energy) in Mumbai, and he has shown how. He is the founder of a unique citizen science project, RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory, which trains lay citizens to analyse radio astronomy data from professional telescopes so that they can make discoveries. 

Members of this project have made discoveries using data from radio telescopes in India and abroad. These discoveries have been announced at scientific meetings of astronomers and even published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. 

Any undergraduate science or engineering student or lay person can join the group to get basic training which is provided over Facebook. Face-to-face training camps are also held in different cities. The group’s activities go under hashtag #ABCDresearch – anybody can do research – and are widely followed. Since 2013, Hota has trained over 100 e-astronomers.     

This week, members of this group presented their findings at the 36^th meeting of the Astronomical Society of India in Hyderabad on “three intriguing cases of jet-galaxy interaction as laboratory for AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei) feedback in galaxy merger”. Past discoveries from this group include new Speca-like galaxies, episodic radio galaxies, relic-lobe radio galaxies, a few Z- and X-shaped radio galaxies, intriguing cases of jet-galaxy interaction, bent-lobe radio galaxies tracing cosmic accretion onto clusters through filaments. 

Radio telescopes gather enormous amount of data and it could take professional astronomers decades to analyse every bit collected. At the same time, this data may contain clues to important objects and events on the cosmos. Therefore, observatories make this data available for use to anyone interested. The primary data for the citizen-science project comes from sky surveys done by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. 

“Ours is a unique, zero-infrastructure, zero-funded collaboratory of trained e-astronomers, which has made several new discoveries by analyzing GMRT data using open access tools such as NASA Skyview,” Hota explained while speaking to India Science Wire. 

“This model possibly can convert the Big Data problem in astronomy into a prospect. Citizen science can contribute to knowledge creation in never-seen-before speed and in approach. Since it is based on internet, it can provide an equal opportunity of academic growth to people in under-developed regions where our optical and radio telescopes are located ,” he pointed out.

Unlike conventional education programmes, those who get involved with RAD@home not only learn but also directly contribute to astronomy research from initial one-week face-to-face interaction. “Citizen science can be particularly useful in discovering certain events where features are fuzzy which can be detected more efficiently by human eye than a machine. Radio interferometry images are more complicated than optical and need citizen-scientists to be trained to read them,” pointed out Hota. 

The citizen scientist team which presented its findings in Hyderabad included Akanksha Manojkumar Tiwary, Megha Rajoria, Viswajith Govinda Rajan, Avinash Kumar, Sumanta Kumar Sahoo, Lavanya Nemani, Sagar Sethi, Arpita Misra, Mitali Damle, Shilpa Dubal, Karuna Gamre, Pradeepta Mohanty, Anjali Amesh, Gitika Mall, Alakananda Patra, Charitarth Vyas, Aikya Shah, Ankit Vaghasiya, Ankita Das, Ashutosh Sharma, Bhargav Reddy, Debaiudh Das, Devanshu Shrivastava, Dwiti Krushna Das, Joydeep Naskar, Kavil Mehta, Raveena Dandona, Rohith Sai Shashank, Ronaldo Laishram, Sushrut Mane, Sayali Kulkarni, Pratik Dabhade, Sravani Vaddi, Chiranjib Konar. (India Science Wire)