Socially Screwed

It seems a new 'fad' has spread among  India's primary occupation. This bizarre trend was first noticed in the early 1990s by an empathic journalist 'P  Sainath ' and was quickly silenced by the often loved and sporadically hated government of the upcoming and self-titled superpower of the world- 'India' because of its emotive nature. Perhaps our all-knowing and little fearing leaders shook in their knees and wet their Dhotis in mock anguish at seeing Indians becoming aware of their fellow Indian's pitiful  conditions? As this worry gained momentum, the government finally relented and released its underplayed statistics which after being studied by experts conveyed that more than 17,500 farmers a year killed themselves between the years 2002 and 2006. Maharashtra,  Andhra   Pradesh ,  Karnataka ,  Madhya   Pradesh , and  Chhattisgarh  account for over 2/3rd of total farmer suicides in the country. With  at least  16,196 f...

Media is a technology that facilitates the distribution of news, ideas and perspective to a large number of people. Newspaper, Radio, Television, and in modern times even the Internet have become an aspect of communication media. It is rightly said that media is one of the four pillars of Democracy as, without an impartial media, citizens of India would have no way of discerning truth from fallacy. And soon we would find that the government has a free reign. We have numerous examples of this happening. For example, most of the news channels on the television constantly fight over TRPS and overly sensationalize news. And a lot of people lose complete awareness of what is happening in India, let alone the world. We do also have examples of impartial media who have not forgotten their role. The Hindu is a wonderful role model as a print media that focuses on telling the news as it is, allowing the reader to decide for himself what is happening in the world. And for that reason, social...

In a democracy, the party winning by the majority number of votes becomes the government and the rest become the opposition. In a successfully running democracy, both the government and the opposition are of equal importance. A government without any opposition would soon become autocratic with no one to question its choices. Thus the task of the opposition is to consider itself as the voice of the common man and to constantly be aware of any bills and laws passed by the government that may not be in the best interest of the people. At the same time, they must endeavor to keep the government at its toes by questioning them in case they do not fulfill the promises made at the time of elections. And to bring to notice issues that the ruling party might not have paid heed to. It is, of course, possible in certain cases that the opposition instead of focusing on the betterment of people starts to focus only on deposing the ruling government through malpractices and then the governance ...

Ganga, the auspicious river that is deeply embedded in our culture and mythology, has over 40 percent of India’s population dependent  on it in one way or the other. Over the years, due to the rampant industrialization, lac k of focus on cleanliness and general misuse, it has found itself growing increasingly polluted. The dirtiness is apparent to all those who make their renowned yearly pilgrimage to Rishikesh or Haridwar yet nothing with any pronounced effect has been done . As of 2015, when Shri Narendra Modi was elected, the first step he took was to start up a 5-year project costing an incredible 20,000 crore focusing on cleaning our Ganga and returning it to its almost sacredly clean state by the year 2020. The project is to be divided into three tiers, beginning from short to medium term and finally long term goals. The goals range from cleaning the surface, building crematoriums near the ghats, building toilets to prevent open defecation, and spreading awareness in the sho...

The namesake of this virus is a small village in Malaysia called Sungai Nipah. Way back in the late 1990’s when pig farming became a rampant activity in Malaysia, a few farmers got infected by the pigs, which were just the intermediate carriers. The pigs were in turn infected by fruit bats, also known as flying foxes. The fruit bats are the host carriers of the Nipah Virus and are unaffected by it. This virus is a zoonotic pathogen, which means that it can transfer between different species. The symptoms of the infection are similar to encephalitis, which are fever, headache, disorientation, mental confusion, coma, and death. Soon after, the same pigs were exported to Singapore, which is where the pathogen spread further. Very recently it was discovered in India as well, killing 18 out of the 19 infected. The reason this pathogen is considered dangerous is because it has a fatality rate of above 40 percent and it can transfer through contact. Furthermore, no vaccine has been inve...

The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, once declared that cleanliness is even more important than independence. Keeping that in mind Shri Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. The purpose behind this mission was not of a political but rather a patriotic nature. This mission has two components. At one level, it is aimed at cleaning 4041 cities and towns all over India. The focus is on cleaning the roads and streets and on efficient disposing of the municipal wastes. And on a rural scale, the mission is focused on the prominent issue of open defecation in rural areas. The government is making efforts on constructing both personal toilets and toilets for public use. In programs at such a large scale, it is even more important that each individual takes the success of the mission as his prerogative. We must stop littering the streets, making sure our society or community disposes the garbage properly and similar measures. The government has allocated a portio...