#harpalsingh

[darpansdiary]

Turban Tadka - This show is all about maa ki daal and Indian desi cuisine! Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi, known as the most entertaining and energetic chef, takes you on a gastronomic journey in a fun and lively manner. Rustic and rooted deep within Indian traditions, Chef Sokhi cooks up some mouth watering desi cuisine! He teaches the viewers the true art of Indian cooking. A show with lots of Namak Shamak and oodles of fun. Harpal style!

[nanhichhaan]

Women Are Working, But Who’s Counting

Most women in our lives would be working long hours without rest and our homes would be dysfunctional without them. However, neither is their contribution nominally measured nor is there sufficient, if any, recompense for their efforts. 

By Harpal Singh

  THE inadequate recognition and decided disadvantage that girls and women experience in the economic life of our country is staggering. In no other instance would the imbalance between contribution and benefits be as sharply mismatched as with the female gender in India. Girls and women neither enjoy economic power nor adequate voice, a fact that is embarrassing in its magnitude. Why is this so? As Alice Walker once argued, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Clearly the female voice needs to be heard louder and with greater import.

Unquestionably, the time has come to change the equation and to restore some balance, even more so when contributions to the GDP in the future are much more likely to come from knowledge power rather than physical superiority. In making the shift all means need to be adopted from changing laws to changing social and cultural norms that suppress (if not suffocate) the voice of girls and women. New platforms of the “Nanhi Chhaan” variety need to be promoted to accelerate the pace of change. Loud and effective advocacy combined with actions on the ground is the need of the hour. Let’s examine a little more about today’s reality.One would be hard-pressed to find any other strata of society anywhere on earth whose recognition and contribution to society is wholly at odds with their presence in it. Indian women make up nearly 48 per cent of the Indian population (7.5 per cent of the global population, or 614 million in actual number) but India ranks 113 out of the universe of 135 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index.

While overall there is some progress (significant only if one accounts for a low starting point) on many major social indicators for women — mortality rates, literacy rates, access to sanitation, food and healthcare — there remain significant questions on their economic impact in society, especially in a country where girls and women are often seen by their own families as an economic burden. Intriguingly this is at considerable odds with the great Indian family tradition. After all, women are the edifice around which Indian families are usually built. Most women in our lives would be working long hours without rest and our homes would be dysfunctional without them. However, neither is their contribution nominally measured nor is there sufficient, if any, recompense for their efforts.

The UNDP Human Development Report says that while 67 per cent of the world’s work is done by woman, merely 10 per cent of global income is earned by women and only 1 per cent of the property in the world is owned by women. One may not be wrong in saying that the position is even worse when it comes to calculating our very own Indian GDP. Women may work hard behind the scenes to maintain the house and children so that the husband may concentrate on his job and earn money but since there is no monetary value ascertained for her work, it has no bearing on the computation of the GDP. Ironically, if two neighbouring women were to work at each other’s homes and be paid identically, our GDP value would appreciate dramatically! Quite apart from earning an income, the fact that their contributions would be valued will have a salutary effect on their status as also on the seriousness with which their voices are heard. In the same spirit, to do honour to girls, Nanhi Chhaan invokes all citizens to plant a sapling for the women in their lives. Through such simple yet emotive acts the agenda for the uplift of women will gain momentum as it enters the home of every Indian family.

  A recent report by Booz & Company, a consultancy, stated that if female labour participation rates in India were to match those for men, the Indian GDP would resultantly increase by more than 20 per cent by 2020. A similar study by the Evangelical Social Action Forum valued the unpaid household work performed by women throughout India as upwards of $ 612.8 bn — more than a third of our current GDP! A good starting point could be that in computing household income one-third of the total household income of all Indian households is ascribed and credited to the account of the homemaker, a majority of who are women. By recognising her contribution and crediting her account, society will harvest innumerable benefits on issues like education, health, hygiene and nutrition with all the attendant multiplier effects.

  The need of the hour is to educate and create awareness about the extent of the economic contribution of women to our society and to do so on an ongoing basis. While everyone realises that what women do is important, very few realise the amount of their contribution. And this change would have to start from women themselves. After all no one realises your value if you don’t. Can the ‘Nanhi’ please stand up.

    — The writer is chairman of the Nanhi Chhaan Foundation and Save the Children, India

[nanhichhaan]

Every second Indian child is malnourished: Report

Every second child in India is malnourished; 79% children across the country are anaemic; and the child sex ratio is at the lowest ever with 914 girls for every 1000 boys. These are some of the findings in a report, released by Child Rights and You (CRY), that dwells on the abysmal state of children in the country. 

Every second child in India is malnourished; 79% children across the country are anaemic.

  According to the report, the national dropout rate at the elementary level is 40% despite the enactment of the right to education.  "Children are invisible citizens of this country. We have the largest population of kids in the world and yet there has been no national data to check the nutrition level of children since 2005. We are talking about various laws and policies that are being introduced as rights for children but are they availing the same?" asked Puja Marwaha, CRY CEO, after the report was released.  The report also highlights other problems —11.8% of children in India are engaged in some form of child labour and nearly 45% girls still get married before the age of 18 years. "We had to struggle to get national data on nutrition or child trafficking. Nobody has bothered to find out how and where kids are being sold for various reasons," she said.  Take the case of Maharashtra where almost half of the children under five years are stunted and nearly one-fifth are severely stunted. The child sex ratio in the state stands at 883 girls for every 1000 boys. According to the official estimate by the state education department in July 2012, close to 2.3 lakh children were out of school and this group primarily composed of children with disabilities and other disadvantages. "Even in a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai, the child sex ratio is very skewed," said Marwaha.  On the eve of the Children's Day, CRY launched a nationwide "Vote for Child Rights" campaign. It also unveiled the Child Rights Manifesto that calls for all political parties as well as voters to give top priority to children and commit to improving the plight. "We analysed the manifestos by various political parties during the last elections ... Our campaign calls for the citizens to show zero tolerance to any form of violation of child rights," said Kreeanne Rabadi, Regional Director, CRY.  The NGO has approached political leaders with an appeal to give priority to children's issues in their respective party manifestos.