People with disabilities India

Inclusive Education in India
-Priyanka deSouza
During my term in Oxford, I have met many strong, interesting people. Two of them stand out for me in particular.
One is deaf. Although she is an adept lip reader, and has learned how to speak; the different accents in Oxford make understanding the people around her difficult. She relies on an interpreter during lectures to translate what is being said to sign language.

The other, has muscular dystrophy which has led to the weakening of her muscles, preventing her from walking. She navigates the cobbled streets of Oxford in a wheel chair, which is no mean feat! She has to contend with accessibility issues in a thousand year old university, where a great deal of effort is spent to ensure that nothing changes (very much).
Both girls are Rhode Scholars from the US and are extraordinary women.

Until I met these two women, I hadn't given the concept of 'disability' much thought. It was only after I got to know them, and really SAW them for themselves- bright, beautiful, kind girls that I realized how artificial the idea of 'disability' is, in many ways. 'Disability' arises from the lack of ability to perform an activity. If these two girls had existed in an environment which incorporated their needs, they wouldn't be 'disabled'. They'd be just fine.
Why had it taken me so long to think about this? The answer came to me in an awful realization. I had never personally known anyone in my immediate surroundings before who was disabled. How could this be?

I have lived my entire life in the city of Mumbai. I have gone to school, college and university there. Different reports have estimated that 4-6% of the population of India suffers from some form of disability. There is a great deal of debate about the definition of disability and its measurement, and therefore, this number varies. Why had I not studied with a deaf child, or a child with locomotor disabilities? Or, even if I had studied with someone who had a disability, without knowing they were disabled; why hadn't we created an environment for them to speak about this issue? In my opinion, the lack of visibility of people with disabilities has led to a dearth of discussion around this topic, resulting in it being ignored.

In developed countries, discussion about disability centres around independent living and improved services. In India the issue is one of survival. People with disabilities are stigmatized, and discriminated against by society. They are seen as helpless and dependent on the able members of the community. They are thus, in most cases, the poorest of the poor. Few have access to education, and thus to opportunities to improve their lives. The 58th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) of India highlights this, by revealing that only 9% of the literate population of people with disabilities have had more than nine years of education. The literacy levels of disabled persons are much lower than that of the general population across all disability categories. Almost 75% of those with severe disabilities are illiterate, and even for those with mild disabilities, literacy rates are a mere 50%. The very idea of having a person with disabilities winning the Rhodes Scholarship in India is a distant dream.

How did this come to pass? Education for children with disabilities in India was initiated in the late 1800s with the establishment of special schools, such as those for the deaf in Bombay in 1883, and for the blind in Amritsar in 1887. Until the 1970s, special schools became the dominant means for the providing children with disabilities education. The separation of society into able members and disabled members was responsible for institutionalizing disability, pushing people with disabilities into the periphery of society. It was only in 1986, that The National Policy on Education in 1986 highlighted the need for equality in education. It stated that the "objective should be to integrate physically and mentally disabled people with the general community as equal partners, to prepare them for normal growth and to enable them to face life with courage and confidence." The Government gave teeth to this policy in the 1990s by integrating this objective in their 1992 Plan of Action. The 1992 Plan of Action said, that if children with disabilities could be taught in a general school, then they should only be taught in a general school and not a special school.

By the mid 1990s, the Government had kick started the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and its subcomponent the Integrated Education of the Disabled (IED). The main aim of this was to universalize primary education, while ensuring that children with disabilities were also part of the expansion. Following this, The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 came into force. It is the most important legislation in the history of special education in India, covering seven disabilities: blindness, low vision, impaired hearing, loco motor impaired, mental retardation, leprosy cured and mental illness. An important stipulations of the Act is ensuring that every child with a disability has access to free education in an appropriate environment, until he/she is 18 years of age. It promotes the integration of students with disabilities in general schools, and the creation of special schools for those in need of special education. Finally, it endeavours to equip special schools for children with disabilities with vocational training facilities. This is important, as many organizations do not provide accessible environments for persons with disabilities to participate in, and thus people with disabilities find it hard to find jobs.

At the moment, governmental statistics reveal that the overwhelming majority of children with disabilities attend regular school rather than special school. This means that the choice faced by most children with disabilities is between attending a regular school and not going to school at all. Thus the government has to do its best to go on promoting an inclusive education system, with schools that do their best to integrate the needs of children with disabilities into their core curriculum.

What is holding India back?

People (including school personnel) are unaware of the fairly recent Persons with Disabilities Act described above. They are also unaware of the funding available for children with disabilities in general schools. Attempts to disseminate this knowledge by State Governments have been limited. A focused campaign to spread awareness is needed.
School personnel are not trained to implement or design educational programs for students with disabilities in regular school. Universities that train teachers fail to provide them with proper training. This has to change. The lack of teachers/infrastructure and poverty mentioned above, are acute manifestations of broader challenges to the education system of India.

Societal perception of persons with disabilities, as mentioned before, is another huge barrier in India. Persons with disabilities are looked down on and are treated as outcasts. It is to be hoped that this attitude will be dispelled over time by continued advocacy and campaigning.

In the last decade, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) has been a major catalyst in changing the perception of disabled peopled from objects of charity, to full and equal members of society, enjoying the same fundamental rights, on the international front. The Convention made a paradigm shift from the 'incompetence law' of disability to the socially empowering, 'universal capacity model'. Some of the most celebrated stipulations of the Convention were the concepts of: 'Reasonable Accommodation (1) and 'Universal Design (2) to make society as inclusive as possible; and the Right to Inclusive Education.

The Government of India was one of the first to ratify the UNCRPD, fully and without reservation seven years ago. However, it has been criticized for doing little to follow through on its commitment. The recent Rights of Persons with Disability Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament) in Feb 2014 has been described as 'anachronistic welfarist' legislation. It promises to seek to increase reservation for disabled persons in public sector jobs from 3% to 5% and reserve seats for them in higher educational institutes. This kind of legislation propagates the existing perception of disabled people. It is also meaningless, if not accompanied by a complete overhaul of the current system. For example, all IITs have seats reserved for people with disabilities. However, IIT does not offer its entrance examination in braille. In 2013, a blind student, who had scored 95% in his CBSE board was denied writing JEE. Thus without creating the right accessible environment, increasing the number of seats for people with disabilities will not lead to their empowerment. It is to be hoped that more progressive legislation will arise from current deliberations.

1) "Reasonable accommodation" means necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;
2) "Universal design" means the design of products, environments, programmes and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. “Universal design” shall not exclude assistive devices for particular groups of persons with disabilities where this is needed.

Early Childhood Care in India

UNESCO defines 'early childhood' as the first eight years of a child's life. This period is characterized by tremendous brain development. Research has shown that early childhood care and education are very important in laying a foundation for future learning and growth. The following graph shows the growth gap of children who do not receive early childhood education. (source: Hult Challenge of 2015)

Professor David Johnson in his talk at Oxford University on November 6th, 2014 provided concrete examples of studies that exemplified the benefits of Early Childhood Education (ECE):
1) Improved health of children who received ECE in Brazil
2) Increased intelligence of children in Jamaica, Columbia, Peru and Turkey who received ECE
3) Higher enrollment in school of kids who received ECE in Columbia
4) Less grade repetition of kids who received ECE in Brazil and Argentina

Organizations such as the World Bank, UNICEF and UNESCO are heavily invested in developing Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)/Early Childhood Education (ECE)/ Early Childhood Development (ECD) schemes around the globe.

What is the current state of children below the age of 6 in India?

63 infants of every 1000 born alive die before the age of one in India (ref: UNICEF). The under-five mortality rate in India is 93. This high rate of infant mortality is closely related to the high rate of maternal deaths: 540 deaths per 100,000 live births. This is because few women have access to skilled birth attendants, and to quality and emergency obstetric care. Skilled attendants handle fewer than half of all deliveries.

Childhood illnesses pose a serious threat to infants that do survive these odds. One in three children do not get a full course of DPT(diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus immunization). More than two million children are known to die every year from preventable infections (including measles and tetanus).

Compounding this, is the problem of malnutrition, which severely impedes growth. One in every three of the world's malnourished children live in India. 50% of all childhood deaths in India are attributed to malnutrition. Although the major reason for malnutrition is inadequate food intake, the availability and access to health services, the access to healthcare for children and pregnant women, the quality of that care (are hygienic practices being followed) are important factors as well (ref: UNICEF).

Due to their lower social status, girls are at a much higher risk of malnutrition than boys of the same age. Up to one third of all adult women in India are underweight, partly because of this cultural bias. Inadequate care of these women, especially during pregnancy leads them in turn to deliver underweight babies who are vulnerable to further malnutrition and disease, causing a vicious cycle to develop.

The following image has been taken from the Slum Census of India, 2011. All the problems described above are acutely present in urban slums. The table shows the abysmal sex ratios that exist (~920 females/1000 males). This is highly problematic.

What has the government done?

The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in India is the world's largest integrated early childhood programs, with over 40,000 centers around the country. Started in 1975, with financial and technical assistance from UNICEF and the World Bank, the program has the dual aim to improve the health and nutritional status of children between 0 and 6 years of age, laying the foundation for their future development; as well as to help mothers look after the nutritional and health needs of their children.

The Integrated Child Development Services has developed a package of services to achieve its ambitious goal, as the outcome of one service depends on the outcomes of the others. The services offered are health, nutrition and hygiene education to mothers, non-formal preschool education to children aged three to six, supplementary feeding for all children, pregnant and nursing mother, growth monitoring and promotion, and links to primary health care services such as immunization and vitamin A supplements. This comprehensive scheme replaced the Balwadi Nutrition scheme that had been started by the government in the 'to provide food supplements to children of the age group 3 to 6 years in rural areas.

The platform of delivery of all the services of ICSD are the 'Anganwadi Centers (AWC)' (loosely translates to village courtyard). Each center is run by an anganwadi worker and one helper, who undergo three months of institutional training and, four months of community based training.

AWCs have been set up in every village in India (~1.4 million in total). Today the program covers 4.8 million expectant and nursing mother and over 23 million children under the age of six. Of these children, more than half participate in early learning activities. A number of evaluation studies of ICDS have been conducted. Broadly, community leaders were positive about the functioning of the AWCS (>80% in all states) while >70% found the program to be beneficial to the community.

What are the challenges of the scheme?

Although the ICDS policy is excellent on paper, it suffers from several implementation challenges. Professor David Johnson in his talk at Oxford, said that one of the biggest issues is maintaining a minimum quality standard in the centers. Centers are dark, housing too many children. The National Council of Applied Economic Research 2005 survey data reveals that >45% anganwadis have no toilet facilities. An appraisal conducted by the NIPCCD in 2006 revealed that 59% of the AWCs studied had no toilet facility. The appraisals also noticed breaching of procedure at the centers. For example, 36.5% of the mothers at the centers did not report weighing of new born children.

One factor that could be responsible for this, is the inadequate training of the anganwadi workers(AWWs) and their helpers. Although 84% of the AWWs are reported to have received pre-service training, in-service training has largely been neglected. One in every two AWWs in the country have been educated at least up to the matriculate level in the country. Due to this limitation, AWWs may not appreciate the importance of continuously engaging with the children and facilitating their development. Compound this, with the fact that workers are paid a pitifully low wage (Recently the government increased their wages by an honorarium of Rs 500 over their previous wage of Rs 938- Rs 1068/month) and have very little incentive to do their job well.

In addition due to the inefficient streaming of funds from various State governments, many AWCs reported forced disruption to the services due to the lack of availability of supplementary nutrition and teaching pack materials. The AWCs employ play based learning techniques. Each AWC is supposed to be provided with a kit costing Rs 1000 that contains items such as building blocks, balls etc that are supposed to facilitate this kind of learning. The government has recently tried to redistribute funding, with more onus now being on national cash flows, rather than state cashflows in order to ensure a reliable supply of such material.

Finally, on an average 66% of eligible childre and 75% of eligible women were registered at the AWCs. The participation of beneficiary women and girls has been low. This inequality needs to be addressed in order to achieve true development in this sphere

Who am I? - Just a bunch of statistics

In April 2008, my family sat in front of our old family desktop computer. My mother feverishly clicked on the 'refresh button', waiting for my scores to appear. My father and sister stood behind her clutching themselves in agony. I decided that I couldn't bear to watch, went into the next room and flung myself on my bed.

And then I heard my mother scream. My family rushed into my room and hugged me fiercely. I had cleared the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and had qualified for a place to do my undergraduate in engineering at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

From that day forward; family, teachers, friends, Quora, and everyone else who knew about the JEE, never let me forget that I belonged to the privileged One Percent.

What is the One Percent, you ask?

JEE is the admission test for the 15 IITs, ITBHU and ISM Dhanbad. The total number of seats available in all these institutions is about 10,000. Many of the IITs are new, and have come into operation recently. 5 IITs- Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras are well established and have about 5000 seats in all.

Approximately 24,000 candidates of the ~500,000 who write the JEE every year, meet the subject cut offs required to clear the exam. Of these 24,000, the 5000 top ranked candidates get admission in one of the old, well established IITs (~1%). The other qualified candidates who do not get a seat in one of the 17 institutions mentioned above, can get seats at other institutions which also use the JEE rank as their criterion for admission. None of these institutions are as well known as the IITs however, and are usually a candidate's second choice.

I will gloss over the problem of the scarcity of good institutions in India, which make getting admission into one of the IITs (which provide a great education at an affordable cost) so coveted; and go straight to question that I want to discuss in this article:

Was the probability of me being in the top 5000 really 1%?

This report, produced by IIT Kanpur says not. The report is an analysis of the 2012 JEE. It provides details of the background of candidates who sat for the exam, and of those who cleared the exam. The results are striking!

The assumption I will make here is that the 2012 statistics reported is representative of the general JEE result.

The following pie chart shows the percentage of General Category (GE), Scheduled Castes(SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) that registered for the exam, and the percentage that qualified in the common merit list; and with the different criterion. SCs and STs are historically disadvantaged people that are recognized by the Constitution of India. They form 16.6% and 8.6% of India's total population. OBC is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally and socially disadvantaged. They form 52% of India's population according to the Mandal Commission of 1980. This number is under dispute. Seats are reserved for SCs, STs and OBCs in order to level the playing field, and make up for the injustices they have suffered in the past.

The qualifying criteria for GE candidates are at least 10% in each subject (Physics, Chemistry and Math), and a 35% in total. The qualifying criteria for OBC candidates was at least 9% in each subject and 31.5% in total. The qualifying criteria for SC/ST candidates is at least 5% in each subject and 17.5% in total.

The image clearly shows that the percentage of GE candidates giving JEE is greater than their actual demographic percentage. In addition they do much better in the exam than other candidates. The probability of a registered GE candidate appearing in the Common Merit List (CML) is 5.2% as compared to the 2.5% for OBC candidates, 0.7% for SC candidates and 0.5% candidates for STs.

The report also examined the gender demographic of the candidates who wrote the exam, and those who cleared it. The following image shows the number of male and female candidates in different categories that registered for the exam. It can be seen that percentage of OBC candidates of both genders that qualify for the exam is disproportionately smaller than the candidates that registered for the exam.

The number of female candidates that register for the exam is half that of the number of male candidates. The number of female candidates that qualify are even fewer. Defects in the primary and secondary education system for girls due to societal reasons could possibly account for these highly skewed ratios.

The report also looked at the educational qualifications of the parents of the students who wrote the exam. The following pie chart shows the percentage of registered and qualified male and female candidates whose parents belong to one of the listed professions.

It can be seen that this is also an important factor in determining the success of a candidate. This may be because of several reasons such as: Perhaps the average salary of people engaged in agriculture is less than that of people who work in law. This means that lawyers could afford to send their children to better schools and this could give them an edge over other children. In addition, studies have shown that highly educated parents set high expectations of their children. This could be another factor contributing to the success of their children.

The report also examines the parent's income of candidates that registered for the exam, and that of those that qualified.

The inverse relationship between parents income and a candidates success rate is clearly seen.

Another important factor the report considered was the type of primary schooling of candidates. The primary education system consists of several different boards with different syllabi and different exams. The following pie chart shows the number of candidates belonging to each board that registered and qualified for the exam.

A shocking result is that the number of students from State Boards that qualify is half that of students from the CBSE board in spite of more children from State boards registering for JEE. This indicates a real problem in the primary education system in India.

The final factor considered in the report is that of place of residence. The pie charts below capture the percentage of candidates from different places who registered for, and qualified for JEE.

It can be seen that candidates who live in cities, perform much better than candidates from other areas. A possible reason for this could be that schools in cities are better than schools in other areas.

As a girl, educated in an ICSE school in Bombay, whose parents are doctors and earn > 4.5 lakhs a year, I belong to a privileged section of society. The probability of someone like me getting into IIT is much higher than say, a girl living in a village, going to a state school whose father is a farmer. What is this probability? If I knew the number of girls from cities whose parents earned >4.5 lakhs a year, and who studied in an ICSE school, I could use Bayes Conditional Probability Theorem to come up with the actual probability of someone like me qualifying for the JEE. However, I need more rigorous breakdown of the actual numbers to make this calculation. In my opinion, the pie charts in this post already provide compelling evidence that this probability is more than 1%. This privilege needs to be recognized and spoken about. The education sector of India has to be evened out so that all children, regardless of their background have an equal shot at clearing JEE.

Effect of Ebola on children

Ebola has ravaged West Africa, leaving about 4500 people dead out of more than 9000 registered cases. Three of West African's poorest countries: Liberia (>2000 deaths), Guinea (>800 deaths) and Sierra Leone (>1200 deaths), have borne the brunt of the epidemic. Of the total number of deaths caused by Ebola, 22% have been that of children. An estimated 8.5 million children and youth, under 20 years of age live in Ebola-affected areas. 2.5 million of them are under the age of five.

Apart from the death toll and the number of people hospitalized, Ebola has also had a crippling effect on the children left behind. Thousands of children have been orphaned by the epidemic. They have had to undergo the trauma of witnessing their family members taken away by health care workers in protective suits. The fear of infection has led to neighbors and families shunning these orphans, which in some cases even involved the use of violence. With the growing number of Ebola deaths, increasing numbers of children will be left destitute with their lives shattered.

As hard as it to believe, the indirect effects of Ebola might actually might prove to be more deadly than the virus itself. After the end of the civil war in Liberia in 2003, the under-five child mortality was 110 per 1000 live births. By, 2012, this figure had dropped to 75. This improvement is now threatened by the epidemic, as the outbreak of Ebola has left fewer hospital beds for women to safely deliver their babies. This is just one improvement that is at risk.

Rumors have been flying around Liberia that hospitals have been injecting people with the Ebola virus. This, combined with the closing of many health care facilities has led to a dramatic decrease in childhood vaccination rates. Before Ebola, 97% of babies were getting their routine vaccinations. This number has fallen to just 27%, resulting in children dying from diseases that could have been prevented. The vast amount of money that has been siphoned into fighting Ebola has left less money available for tackling the problem of ensuring timely vaccination.

Ebola has also wrought havoc in the education system. In Liberia alone, the closure of public and private schools as a result of the outbreak, has left 1.4 million children without access to education. Little has been done to encourage the continued education of school children while schools remain closed. Small community initiatives have sprung up in some regions, but no official government program exists. UNICEF has recently partnered with Liberia's Ministry of Education to broadcast educational programs via radio. It is hoped that this scheme will prove effective.

Schools in Liberia fulfilled other purposes apart from providing education. Many schools provided children with security, food, medicine and counselling. Children out of school are more vulnerable to sexual abuse and illness. Discussion have recently been initiated to decide what protocols need to be in place for schools to reopen. Compound all this uncertainty with the fact that the education sector in Liberia was slowly recovering from the effects of a civil war that ended a mere 14 years ago. The Ebola epidemic could undo all the progress that has been made in the interim.

All is not lost, however. Organizations such as 'More Than Me' are putting up a heroic fight against Ebola. Before the Ebola outbreak, 'More Than Me' transformed the lives of girls from the West Point slum in Liberia, by providing them with education, health and social services. The outbreak of Ebola, however, forced the school to shut down. Instead of remaining passive during this dangerous time, 'More Than Me', recognized the danger to the education system caused by the epidemic, and put itself in the front line of fighting the disease.

It has partnered with the Ministry of Health to observe children who have been in contact with Ebola, for a quarantine period of 21 days. It then reintegrates the Ebola-free children into the communities from which they have come. The children who show symptoms of Ebola are transferred to Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs).

More than Me also supports local leaders with information and materials they need to share health education, and identify Ebola cases within the community at an early stage. Katie Meyler the founder has said, "If awareness workers need rain boots, we’ll get them rain boots. If another team hasn’t eaten that day, we’ll feed them. And we’re expanding our work to five additional Ebola hot zones in and around Monrovia." It has partnered with the Ministry of Health to make sure people who show symptoms can be taken to ETUs as soon as possible.

It also manages home health care teams to provide care for people who suffer from ailments other than Ebola. Finally, More Than Me tries its best to meet an important life-saving or dignity-giving need through financial assistance and rapid supply disbursements that cannot be filled through regular channels. The following article provides more information about what it's doing: http://www.vogue.com/3306747/ebola-crisis-liberia-photo-journal

Given the enormous risks and opportunities of working in Liberia at this time, it is wonderful to see organizations like 'More than Me' making such a difference!

'Responsible business means business first, responsibility second'

Yesterday, the 2014-2015 MBA students at the Said Business School, Oxford were invited to the Oxford Union to attend a debate on 'Responsible Business means business first, responsibility second'. The speakers were professors at the School, and successful business women and men.

The proposition stated that the purpose of business was to do business first and be profitable. They further stated that businesses were firstly and fore mostly responsible to their stake holders, and their responsibility to wider society came second. The opposition on the other hand, stated that businesses did not operate in a vacuum but was part of society and therefore had a duty to society at large in their day-to-day operations.

In my opinion, the debate last night did not have any clear points of clash due to the ambiguity in the definition of 'responsible' and 'stakeholders'. The proposition seemed to be saying that a business had to be 'responsible' to its 'stake holders' (shareholders/customers/people affected by the business??) in order to be profitable- it didn't seem to have an ambitious definition of 'responsibility'; while the opposition provided example after example of how 'irresponsible' businesses fared far worse than other companies operating in a particular sector.

I thought that it was really the last speaker for the opposition that presented the issue as having two sides by being clear about what he meant by 'responsible business'. For one, he talked about the 'business' of prostitution and how the application of the proposition's definition of 'success' in terms of immediate profitability to this business was repugnant. He further made the point that no business operated in a vacuum. Decisions taken by businesses affect a wide section of society and therefore businesses are obligated to be responsible to society at large. Although I thought these points were interesting, I felt that the arguments made needed to be broken down further.

During the audience-question answer session an interesting point was made about how big IT companies such as CISCO were only able to give their technology away for free for a good cause (to the Government of India in order to develop the Aadhar Scheme that would enable policy makers to identify people in need of aid) BECAUSE they put profits first and therefore had the resources available to 'do good'. This begs the hypothetical question- if CISCO had given more importance to their responsibility to society, would the good/impact created be more than by giving away technology as charity? Should this question be asked? Does this CSR act as a smoke screen and divert attention away from the real rotten core of the business? Does this kind of CSR really benefit shareholders- in making investing in the company attractive? Or should a CSR strategy in keeping with the fundamental business strategy of the company be developed with the ultimate motive of increasing profitability? Do businesses need to take a larger ethical stance? Is the debate really about the rationalization and kind of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that needs to develop rather than if CSR is needed per se? How should small businesses approach CSR?

When I looked up the definition of 'responsible' online, I found the following definition: 'Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.' The Organization of Responsible Business which provides this definition is very clear when it states that it is pro-business and it is essential that remaining profitable is a business' first responsibility. However, it goes on to say that profitability should not be the be-all and end-all and that the 'how' question is also vitally important. But CSR was not always rationalized in this way. An article in the Harvard Business Review implicitly defines 'responsible business' as businesses which worry about long term impact. This definition of responsibility has come a long way from where it started in the early 1900.

This article Lee(2008), traces the evolutionary history of Corporate Social Responsibility. In 1917 Henry Ford tried to defend reinvesting Ford Motor's accumulated profits on plant expansion while slashing the price of Model T vehicles, stating that 'Business is a service, not a bonanza.' This view was not received well by shareholders,or the court. 80 years later when Henry Ford's great-grandson made the same argument, he not only was NOT slapped with a law suit, but also received wide spread support from share holders. What changed?

The article suggests that in 1919 the concept of social responsibilities of a business was couched in a vaguely moral framework so that shareholders could not see how it served this served their interests. In keeping with Adam Smith's market philosophy, businesses saw no reason why they should produce public good services. Intellectuals such as Milton Friedman also strongly opposed CSR because of the danger perceived in shareholder funds being misappropriated in the name of social responsibility. Friedman also did not believe that businesses had the skills or the knowledge to be able to solve social problems.

What changed post 1919 was the rationalization of CSR in terms of the tight coupling between CSR and the financial performance of businesses. The article goes on to state that in a survey conducted by The Conference Board, nearly 90% of corporate managers reported that their companies treat CSR as a core business principle and 70% reported that their company had a corporate foundation that advocated social causes. This change happened because of the number of environmental and safety regulations that came into effect in the 1960s as well as the growth of consumer rights movements. It was in the 1970s however when a clear linkage between CSR and the financial performance of businesses was established with the growth in empirical research. It is to be noted that a greater spending on CSR does not ALWAYS correlate with a better financial performance.

Frederick(1994) posits an interesting theory of how the past morally embedded framework of CSR which led to all sorts of tough decisions ( 1) The kind of operational framework for CSR 2)The institutional mechanism of CSR, 3)Trade-off between economic and social goals and costs, 4) The inherent vagueness of the moral underpinning of CSR) has given way to something he terms as 'corporate social responsiveness' (which he terms as CSR2), where businesses respond to social pressures. This is sometimes termed as soft law. With this idealization, businesses need only worry about how far they have to give in to these pressures, the tools they can use (the micro in-firm strategy and the broader macro/institutional strategy). This thus serves to take the moral heat of businesses, and allows them to think in terms of strategy etc. Simon Zadek in an article in the Harvard Business Review cited earlier says that businesses usually go through a cycle of 'defensive measures, compliance, managerial, strategy, civil' when responding to change. Each stage of this response cycle is interesting. Sometimes businesses can 'comply' with standards and move further in the cycle in spite of the public believing a stronger commitment is required. An example of this provided in the article is the debate on what food companies need to do to tackle the problem of obesity. Michael Porter has written that the problem with this approach is that responding to societal pressure puts businesses on the defensive. This is not always a positive thing.

Clearly, however, social responsiveness is not the same as social responsibility. Some sections of society could be left behind. In addition social movements do not always result in change. This article provides 6 reasons why change is so difficult. Some of the problems lie with consumers. Consumers dont like paying more and that is something that needs to be addressed. Thus in my opinion, the usefulness of responsiveness as opposed to responsibility could have been a question around which the above debate had been framed.

Where in this debate do B-Corporations and social entrepreneurship ventures come in? B Corporations state that environmental and social goals are important to them and that profits are not their ONLY driving force. It is extremely interesting to see how they fit in, into this current debate.

Working with MCGM

The latest facebook fad is to check in at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (because everyone always seems to be either coming to, or leaving from Mumbai, with a status: 'I *heart* Mumbai' or something equally generic.

And everytime I read these generic statuses, I feel my heart burn with 'Mumbaisickness'. Mumbaisickness: a virus that attacks everyone who encounters this city and eats away at its victims' hearts until the victim is forced once again to return. No vaccinations have been invented, no medicine prescribed; Because even though the term is Mumbai'sickness', it isnt really a disease! Oh no! On the contrary it has an opposite effect. It gives soul-weary, heart-hungry people rootlets, a base, a home; With Dreams/without Dreams, the city sucks you in. And as you disappear amidst the lights and become one of its 13 million, quite suddenly, rather strangely, the micro comes into focus. You find yourself recognizing individual acts of charity and compassion. And either you find YOURSELF becoming more charitable and compassionate, or absolutely callous and indifferent- and thats when you know you're through. You cant struggle against 'Mumbaisickness' any longer. It has become part of you.

Yet, anyone who has stayed in Mumbai knows its terrors; The infrastructure bursting through the seams as it tries to hold the ever increasing population, the scores and scores of 'informal housing'- a polite term for slums. Mumbaisickness in its manic focus on the micro, loses the idea of the city as a whole. We- The Infected, fail to see the less sexy, absolutely necessary Mumbai projects that affect our lives, and everyone-we-know's lives, for better or for worse.

In a wild moment when I sought to unearth all the implicit assumptions in my life I decided that I had to learn more.

This led to me coming back to India for a week to work on the waste water disposal system. The next few paragraphs will describe what I learned.

I need to fill in my opening paragraph with a more detailed description of the water piping infrastructure during the British rule. For the time being, dear reader, bear with me and allow me to just say that until the 1980s, Mumbai had a combined water piping and sewage system. By the time the sewage reached the sea, the BOD had decreased and it had become diluted. However, as the population expanded, it became clear that a separate waste water collection network along with water treatment plants were required. Note- that until the 1980s we had no water treatment facilities. The original combined system is now only used for storm water drainage because of the large diameter of the pipes.

Current waste water collection covers 40-45% of the city. Though it is easy laying separate waste water collection pipelines for buildings and cooperative housing societies, it is incredibly difficult to lay such pipelines for slum dwellers. This is because of the density of the slums and the lack of toilets. A scheme funded by the World Bank was dreamed up to provide toilet blocks for slums with an underground drainage system. However, the World Bank had 'local participation' as a criterion and hence each household was expected to pay Rs 100 in order to use the facilities. Unused to having to pay for services, very few households complied and the scheme failed. To learn more, read this article.

Currently some toilets have septic tanks attached and the waste water after a give retention period is then washed out through the nullahs into the uncomplaining, misused, abused Mithi river. Current schemes to a) Treat the nullahs themselves b) Divert the nullahs into a huge waste water treatment plant. If the nullah is to be diverted then care must be taken that adequate disaster management precautions must be taken.

Mumbai has been built on reclaimed land - For a history of land reclamation in Mumbai refer to this- Don't think reclamation has stopped either! The link I've embedded in this post describes the current aggressive land reclamation strategy for development projects the city desperately needs! The Bandra Worli Sealink is one such project. (Land reclamation for this project may have had an adverse effect on tides in some parts of Bombay. Refer to this link for more details.) And when are we reminded of this the most? When the monsoon and high tides hit the city simultaneously the sea reclaims what it has lost for its own. Why only a couple of weeks ago in Dadar, high tides caused severe flooding

Such a situation might result in either the water nullah backflowing and flooding the city or water overflowing into the sea without being adequately treated. Flap gates and other precautionary measures must be taken for both situations.

It could be said that solutions a) and b) proposed above are a tacit acceptance of the de facto status quo. Now, now the last was a snide and uncalled for remark. I have to add that there are still vast efforts being put into building public toilets in Mumbai- the following is an example. No I wasnt being serious again- a dreadful habit I've fallen into! But honestly- forget the over hyped? 35 lakh public toilet. Just imagine providing sanitation to the 8 million slum dwellers who live back to back, a hand to mouth existence in the midst of this city! Isn't it an awesome and terrifying proposition?

So lets skim over it and hope that in time solutions will be found and concentrate on the next step of the problem- Water treatment! A topographical study was carried out in 1995 that divided Mumbai into 7 zones- Colaba, Worli, Bandra, Ghatkophar, Bhandup, Malad, Versova. Treatment plants were proposed to be built in the low lying areas of these regions in order for a gravity driven procedure to collect sewage. At the time this survey was carried out- the importance of maintaining the mangrove coverage in Mumbai was not factored in. Therefore single stage aeration lagoons were built in these areas to treat sewage. Why aeration lagoons? They were state of the art technology at that time. In addition they generated very little sludge. The disposal of sludge is very difficult. However, aeration lagoons occupy a large surface area- this means that several mangroves were cut down at that time to build these aeration lagoons.

Now, the quality of the waste water at the outlet of the aeration lagoons does not meet the BOD/COD standards prescribed by the pollution board of India. I am still unclear now as to why a single stage aeration lagoon was built and not a double or triple stage process. Did the standards increase over time or did the quality of the sewage deteriorate as the number of people expanded?

Whatever the answer to that question might be, the water treatment facilities need to be improved. Multi stage aeration lagoons were considered, however, as they would occupy a much larger area, and in several of the sites entail further clearance of mangroves, an activated sludge process was recommended instead. Clearly, in this new scenario, the disposal of the sludge will be a problem that will have to be contended with. The process will also require vast amounts of energy. Simultaneous generation of biogas from the sewage has been proposed which can partially cover the energy costs.

A major problem is that no lagoon/nothing exists in Malad currently for waste water treatment. Therefore, whatever be the process, a waste water plant has to be built in Malad and this will involve the cutting down of a lot of mangroves- 35 ha to be precise! Can an alternative site be chosen? It would be very energetically expensive- in terms of pumping to choose another site. This is a tradeoff that will have to swing one way or the other. There are other problems with the other sites as well. For example, in Bandra, the land on which the facility was going to be built is in the hands of Reliance. This is because Reliance had got the contract to build the second proposed sealink (an idea which has now been shelved). The land has still not been transferred back.

Why do these waste water treatment facilities take such a long time to build? This is because field work has to be carried out to survey each site. Most of this field work is done in areas which are covered with mangroves. Special permission needs to be taken to do work within 50 m of mangroves and this takes time. In 1995, a GIS database of manholes in Mumbai was built up. However, over the years roads have changed and this database has not been updated. Therefore, it is impossible to reply on this database for information and field work is a necessity. In addition prior to the execution of any project an environmental impact assessment and a disaster management plan need to be in place. The approval of such plans takes time

What is the administrative process for the design of this plant? MCGM comes up with a design for the plant with an estimate of how much the plant costs. MCGM then throws the process up on accepts tender offers- basically contractors then pitch their offers to build the plant. They are not constrained to use the MCGM design but have to ensure that the plant meets certain standards. An interesting improvement in the process is that now the contractor not only has to guarantee that the plant will work but also that he/she will take care of operating the plant. This is a positive step to ensure the plant runs at an acceptable standard.

The current work that I am doing in Mumbai is carrying out an independent review of the Bhandup waste water plant. I have seen that the uncertainty analysis carried out for many projects is not rigorous. During the first monsoon the Ghatkopar aeration lagoons were overflowing as they had not been designed to accommodate large flows of water during the monsoon. I hope to make this analysis more rigorous.

Another thing that I noticed was that most of the plans are based on the fact that Mumbai has adequate water- no water recycling of sewage has been thought about. Mumbai gets most of its water supply from dams located out of the city. I am not sure about the status of this water supply. I do know that rain water harvesting has been made compulsory in the city- but there has been very little follow through. Some colonies have been procative about recycling gray water but otherwise not much has been accomplished.

The above is a detailed description of the waste water disposal projects going on in Mumbai

Environmental Education

John Parry conducted an Environmental Education workshop for us ECMers on the Friday of 5th week in the Hilary term.

Just like that, Oxford presented us with yet another opportunity of contributing to the environment that we were not previously aware of.

The workshop ran for the entire day and covered a whole vista of topics. The one thing that really stuck with me however, was how the environment could be used a fulcrum to leverage the capabilities of all members of society. Dr. Parry told us how he had taught a group of disabled adults to take photographs of the UK coastline and upload the photographs online, in order to document coastline recession. Geologists had found these photographs extremely useful in their research. This project had made that band of adults feel useful, and included, in a by and large rather indifferent society. It had changed their lives for the better.

How could I make use of this lesson? Fired, I wrote to ADAPT, an NGO in India which aims to provide an inclusive education to disabled, and abled children. I asked them to give me permission to conduct an environmental workshop for their kids. I hoped that I could, when I got back to Mumbai, after my stint at Oxford, collaborate with this organization on projects to document environmental considerations in Mumbai just like the ones Dr. Parry was conducting in the UK. I felt that by establishing contact with ADAPT and seeing how they ran, I would be able to think of ways I could make my plan possible.

For a long time, I received no reply to my email, and I eventually forgot about it. Time flew on at Oxford and then it was time to go home for a brief 2 week vacation. While I was lolling around the house one morning, my mother asked me what had happened to my workshop plans. I told her ruefully that I had received no reply and that I guess that meant I was stymied.

My mother snorted. 'If you really want a reply, you'd call them instead of hemming and hawing using emails,' she said.

And that's what happened. I called, and found myself invited to give a talk on the environment to about 30 kids between the ages 8 and 16 on Tuesday!

I had the biggest, baddest, meanest butterflies carousing around in my stomach for the next 4 days.

It's all very well, giving a talk to a room full of adults, but talking to children is vastly different! How on earth was I going to convince a bunch of 7 or 8 year-olds that climate change, and the environment were important?

Most of the kids of ADAPT lived in slums. Why would they care about seemingly abstract, existential threats?

I decided, that I had to make my lecture pertinent to their lives. I had to tell them how environmental degradation affected THEM. I decided to focus on environmental degradation that they could actually see in their (and my) home city- Mumbai.

On Tuesday my aunt Del and I left 2 hours ahead of schedule and took a train to Churchgate station. (I had successfully roped my aunt in to give me moral support, and translation of words I didn't know the Hindi equivalent of!) We arrived at the ADAPT headquarters near the Afghan church. I nervously made my way inside the building to meet the Director I had been in touch with on the phone.

The school was charming. It overlooked the sea and had the kind of playground at the back that should feature in every person's childhood.

ADAPT provided Std 1 to 8 education. It also provided vocational training to 17 and 18 year olds. I peeped into the classrooms which were gaily covered with art and craft. I saw a little kid who was mute, typing out an answer to his teachers question on a computer. I saw kids on wheel chairs lustily shouting out encouragement to their friends running around the classroom. I felt a terrible sadness suddenly come over me. Surviving in India is a struggle for even the most able of bodies. After these children left ADAPT, the world would not be kind to them.

I set up my laptop in a classroom. I felt a little silly already. It had been so long since I was 7, that I forgot that a powerpoint presentation was really not the right way to engage a child! I wanted to turn and run. Luckily my aunt put her foot down and I sat down on the mat next to my laptop sick with fear. All of a sudden thirty 7-8 year old kids had swarmed into the room and were clustered around me.

I needn't have been afraid of getting this lot engaged!

As soon as they saw my opening slide (a picture of the earth, from space) I was besieged with questions on all sides, asking me if I had any accompanying music, where India was on my image and specifically where ADAPT was located, and what my name was! I laughingly tried to answer all questions in my questionable hindi.

I wanted to start my presentation by asking the kids what challenges they felt the earth was facing. I didn't want their answers to be limited by the environment.

Unfortunately, the kids were too interested in the satellite image of the Earth itself to bother answering my question. In despair, I tried bringing up a few problems that I thought they would relate to. I talked about the 26/7 floods in 2005. The kids looked at me with blank faces. I realized in horror, that these tiny tots were too young to remember the ravages caused by the floods.

I moved on to the terrorist attacks on the Taj Hotel in 2008. But alas and alack! All they wanted to know was how that image of the Earth had been taken! I felt a deep, violent hatred for satellite imagery.

I pressed ahead. I gave them a brief over view of green house gas warming in as simple a manner as I thought possible. I paused after my explanation for questions. One girl raised her hand. 'Are green houses, the same as polio houses?' she said.

As far as I knew, polio was a disease! Had I not only managed to NOT convey the concept to the children, but had I actually managed to confuse global warming and a disease?! I kept my cool, and asked the girl to tell me what a polio house was.

She told me that she had lived in Uttarakhand when she was a child and there they grew certain plants in structures- that they called polio houses, which looked exactly like the Green House in the photograph I had on my slide. Listening to this explanation, I thought it were possible that the two could be the same. Just to be sure though, I repeated my explanation of what a green house gas was twice or thrice in order to remove any confusion.

By this time, most of the kids were yawning and looking out at their playground wistfully.

'That's okay, Priyanka!' I whispered to myself. 'The worst is over. The green house gas effect hath been explained!'

I moved on to air, water and noise pollution in Mumbai. I showed them images of Mumbai in the past with vast plantations of mangroves which acted like natural sluices and kept the Mithi river clean. I then showed them recent images of Mumbai where construction of Essel World (an amusement park), the Bandra Kurla Complex etc had led to the clearing away of most of the plantations. The kids cheered when I showed them a picture of Essel World and then seemed rather doubtful about how to react when I told them how many acres of mangroves had been cleared away to build it. I felt I was pushing it with that one.

I then told them about Sanjay Gandhi National Park and how encroachment was leading to increased leopard attacks in Powai.

I finished my lecture with a flourish!

I then stepped back and confidently asked the class. 'So who can tell me what they have learned?'
Utter silence.
I panicked. The kids must have seen my face, because one of the boys tentatively answered, 'Terrorism is a big problem?'

I explained the green house gas effect another couple of times.

This time when I ended, I was too smart to repeat my mistake. I asked the kids. 'What can you do about saving the environment?'
I got the answers I was looking for: Using dustbins, public transport etc.

I regained my popularity (which had gone down markedly after the final explanation of the green house gas effect) by distributing sweets to the kids who answered my questions correctly.

I left the lecture feeling that I had aged a decade.

A moment or two in the warm, comforting sunshine and I had jumped on to my next project. I decided to write a textbook on the environment for school children. Anyone who is mad enough to want to collaborate with me, or who knows how one can go about doing something like this is requested to please drop me a line!

Driver of Life Decisions

Hi.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if everyone on the planet suddenly vanished and you were the only one left?

Maybe you havent, in which case now would be a good time to think about it.

Let the thought sink into your brain. You, just you, are left. Trains are probably crashing into each other as we speak. Planes are nosediving towards the earth and cars lie whirring helpless against obstacles. Now, silence.

What do you do?

Do you have the skills required to survive?

Can you plumb/cook/fix a car/weld your way to survival?

Yes, dear Reader. This is my worst nightmare. Its a vision that has plagued me for as long as I can remember.

I've really tried to do something about it. I really have!

I tried my best to pick up carpentry skills from my grandfather. I remember trying to clumsily operate his fretwork machine in order to shape a block of wood.
My aunt gave me a dremel set when I was 11, and I remember watching in awe as my grandfather skillfully changed the bits, and made all manner of clever little wooden figures, puzzles and knick knacks.

I'm sure I can theoretically operate a dremel. I understand the functionality of each bit; But when it comes to actually picking up a piece of wood and DOING something I'm afraid I'd be utterly inept.

I even got my aunt to teach me how to knit at some point (Just in case I had to make my own clothes). Well that didnt work out well either (Big Surprise)

Could I EVER do anything useful?
I gave up in despair.

And then a light dawned.
What would be my biggest problems if the world actually ended
1) Nuclear powerplants: It'd be rather pathetic to survive something which had killed off everyone else and then die in a nuclear explosion (OR, would it be the kewlest thing evaaah?)
2) What would the point be of my life if I didnt have any friends?

Because of reason 2) I became obsessed with wanting to understand quantum mechanics. I felt that if I understood it, I would be able to explain to myself clearly why God did/didnt exist and therefore understand the purpose of existence. It is for this reason, that when I entered IIT, I decided to take as many physics electives as possible.

Because of 1) I took as many nuclear courses as possible as well. Surely if I understood how a reactor was controlled, I would be able to drive to BARC in Mumbai, storm into the nuclear fission center and turn off the damn thing (not that simple as I now understand)

Looking back, this was the real driver of all the choices I made.
Yes, my decisions were driven by supplemental reasons, but this was the driver that triggered my interest in Physics and Nuclear engineering in the first place.

What a childish way of making life decisions!

I mean, it couldnt ever be possible that I would be the only one of a population of 7 billion people left on Earth.
(Or then again, Could it?)

Cooking

The problem is I'm an optimist. Not the happy-go-lucky kind; But the kind who takes the role of being an optimist very seriously.

Show me a gray sky and I promise to scour it carefully until I find the tiny spot of blue in it! Tell me your pet fer-de-lance died, and I'll reassure you that its in a better place (and well there are always dogs), etc. until I convince myself, and hopefully you, that things are better than before.

So when I told K that I would arrange a delicious cultural night for his mother when she visited Oxford; And then sat up all night worrying how I would ever cook ANY of the things I had promised to; I managed to convince myself that BBC recipes and an understanding of heat transfer was all that I required. Did it matter that Id never made an omelette in my life? 'Course not! Nadia Giosia, at some point, must have scrambled an egg for the first time too! And it must have been a pretty good egg for her to have made a career of it. Hence proved. I could totally, without any experience at all, make a 3 course authentic Indian meal.

Finally Sunday arrived. I had spent the whole of Saturday buying everything that I thought would be useful, from good ol garam masala to obscure herb things. I felt I had done a pretty good job! PB was kind enough to say she would help me and we had planned on making a Konkan prawn curry and rice.

We started well in advance.

We lugged the prawns out of their neat Tesco cases and mixed them with coconut milk in a handi. We put the rice in the pressure cooker and allowed it cook.

'Pdez, wheres the salt?,' PB asked.
I triumphantly opened the cabinet drawer and showed her the vast array of masalas I had bought the previous day.

'It's right in here,' I said. 'Arent I well organized?' (I always feel very grownupish when I pronounce myself to be 'well organized)

We painstakingly went through each of the neatly labelled containers in quest of the salt.
I painstakingly went through them again.
I was about to start going through them for the third time, when PB said (a trifle irritably)

'Its not here dude. Though why on earth you have Slovakian wild gnarl essence and Icelandic wagawaga powder and NOT have salt is beyond me!'

I was about to expostulate. Why maybe the absence of salt would inspire us with some sort of molecular gastronomy idea, and perhaps we'd prepare a meal that would be in culinary textbooks. Maybe this was Fate _thrusting_ greatness on to us! I sniffed at PB's rebuke, and when she wasnt looking added a mix of spices to the prawns. I was sure shed thank me later because OFCOURSE I would share credit!

K and his mother arrived soon after. K had with him a large frozen pizza, a chicken and plenty of drinks. 'Just in case the Indian food doesnt work out' he said. I snorted.

'Ye of little faith! Not only are you going to have the greatest Indian food of your life, but you're also going to have to eat all this pizza and chicken yourself because no one will want to eat it after our concoction!

K rolled his eyes. Its a pity he knows me a tad too well.

'Well put the pizza in the oven and I'll eat it if I have to' he answered.

I assented and popped it in. I turned the dial until I saw the light come on and stepped back muttering curse words that sounded like 'unnecessary' and 'useless'

It was meal time! PB and I took the prawn curry and rice off the stove. I bore the handi to the table, feeling like some kind of high priestess.
PB and I had cooked an awful lot and I gave everyone a generous helping!

K took the first bite and a peculiar expression came on his face. He and his mother sat quietly, chewing in grim, determined silence. I instantly knew something was wrong! I took a bite.

Dear Reader, I have never tasted anything as horrible as that mixture in my life. It tasted like- Oh I cant even describe it! I whipped everyones plates from them. I was nearly in tears. I rushed to the oven to take out the pizza. It was still frozen! PB came rushing after me.

'Dont worry Pdez! Isnt it great we have a lovely pizza! -- Oh you silly girl, why havent you turned the oven on!'

'I did!' I gulped. Look at the light!

PB pushed past me and did something. All of a sudden, a warmth filled the room. 'Oh dear, didnt you know there is a separate button for the light?'

Everyone burst into a cloud of merriment. In 15 minutes we were cozily eating hot pizza in the kitchen.

After everyone left, I quietly went back and tried a teaspoon of the prawn curry. Ugh, it actually WAS as bad as the first time.
I sighed.

Well, next time I'll probably try something simpler!