Editor,
As of today, hawkers and vendors are occupying every space possible, spreading their wares just about anywhere. They have invaded the main roads and the footpaths and are creating a lot of inconvenience for vehicles and pedestrians alike. There is a convergence of the hawkers, the vehicles and the pedestrians which is not a happy coexistence but a very inconvenient and risky one as well.
Hawkers deserve to have a place and space of their own in order to carry out their businesses and earn their livelihoods but certainly that space must not be a parking lot. Shillong has way too many vehicles plying on the road with little to no parking area. As an example, the parking space at Dhanketi point is the only space that people can park their vehicles while visiting Woodland’s Hospital or picking up their children and wards from Loreto Convent or going to any other offices in the vicinity. To convert the parking lot to a designated space for the hawkers and vendors is no solution at all. This has been a problem for a very long time. The government must act quickly and wisely and identify a place for the hawkers that will not create any inconvenience and hassle for anyone.
Yours etc.,
Jenniefer Dkhar,
Via email
India’s misplaced priorities
Editor,
A few days ago, the Indian Space Research Organisation announced that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which was launched on September 2 last year, had successfully reached the halo orbit, located roughly 1.5 million kilometers from the earth. It is expected to provide fresh insights into solar mechanisms, solar storms, solar flares and mass ejections from the corona.
The scientists should be congratulated for their success. But the question is: have we got our priorities right? It is indeed necessary to send rockets for weather predictions, searching for oil, natural gas and minerals and for strengthening communication network. But missions to the sun, to the moon and to Mars do not have any remote connection to those requirements and to the solution of burning issues, such as child stunting, child wasting, hunger, lack of health care, lack of educational infrastructure, unemployment, lack of social security and high rate of suicide among poor daily wage workers, unemployed youths and farmers. Simply put, these missions cannot meet people’s immediate needs.
The last century witnessed a competition between the United States of America and the Soviet Union for exploring the moon. This was a product of the cold war. Science was made to serve the vanity of superpowers. However, the common people did not get any benefit from it.
It is pertinent to recall a stinging satire in John Stewart’s famous song, “Armstrong”, “Black boy in Chicago/ Playing in the street/ Not near enough to wear/ Not near enough to eat/ Don’t you know he saw it/ On a July afternoon/ He saw a man named Armstrong/ Walk upon the moon.”
India has fallen to 111th position out of 125 countries in the 2023 Global Hunger Index. Just like that black boy in Chicago in the song “Armstrong”, millions of hungry children of our country must have heard the deafening cheers of the crowd on the day of Chandrayaan-3’s successful soft-landing on the moon.
On that day, perhaps the most forwarded post on social media was the one where under the flags of ten countries, it was written that these countries had the moon on their flags. Then under the flags of the USA, Russia, China and India, it was said that these countries had flags on the moon. But let’s remember that the first fifteen countries in the Human Development Index do not have their flags on the moon because they want to use their resources to meet their citizens’ essential needs.
Some may argue that the sun and moon missions would enhance the prestige among our neighbours. But we must not ignore the reality. India has slid into a horrific rank in the 2023 Global Hunger Index. We are behind China (at the top bracket that includes 20 countries), Sri Lanka (60), Nepal (69), Myanmar (72), Bangladesh (81) and Pakistan (102). Also Bhutan (127) and Bangladesh (129) which have overtaken India (132) in the Human Development Index. What would be more fruitful to ensure the health and education of our children or the vanity of such missions?
India should give top priority to education, health care, food and employment. Spending public money on such missions amid poor condition in these sectors, seems like putting on a brand new costly coat over a pair of tattered trousers. If parents go to a foreign country on a holiday trip after cutting spending on their children’s food and education, can we call them wise?
Our policy makers must pay heed to what the former World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim had said on hunger and child stunting in India, “This is the bottom line: if you walk into the future economy with 40 per cent of your workforce having been stunted as children, you are not going to be able to compete.”
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata