The Valmiki community's protest against empty political gestures — and an oppressive occupation
By Manisha Mashaal, Mar 04, 2019 22:22:51 IST
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India denied visas to Pakistani pilgrims who want to visit Ajmer Sharif Dargah for Urs celebration, claims minister
By Asian News International, Mar 05, 2019 09:37:23 IST
- Every year, around 500 Pakistani pilgrims attend the Urs celebration at Ajmer Sharif Dargah, considered to be one of the holiest Muslim shrines in India
- The Pakistani minister further claimed that this is the second consecutive time when India has refused visas to Pakistani pilgrims
- In March last year, India had reportedly refused to issue visas to 503 Pakistani pilgrims visiting the Urs celebration, he said
Islamabad: Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sahibzada Noor Al Haq Qadri on Monday said India has denied issuing visas to the Pakistani pilgrims who wanted to attend the Urs celebration of Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti.
The celebration is slated to be held in Ajmer Sharif Dargah in India this month.
Dawn quoted the minister as saying that around 500 Pakistani pilgrims were supposed to leave for India on 7 March.
The remarks by the Minister come amid escalating tension between India and Pakistan following the Pulwama terror attack on 14 February that killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and a series of air strikes by both the neighbouring countries since the past few days.
"India's extremist face has come forward," Qadri said in a statement adding that "India is held hostage by religious extremists."
The Pakistani minister further claimed that this is the second consecutive time when India has refused visas to Pakistani pilgrims.
In March last year, India had reportedly refused to issue visas to 503 Pakistani pilgrims visiting the Urs celebration. However, only 190 of 400 visa requests had been approved by the Indian Embassy during the Urs of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia in New Delhi, he added.
Qadri further noted that the Indian embassy in Islamabad had informed the ministry regarding the cancellation of visas of the pilgrims.
The embassy has yet to return the passports of the visa applicants.
Every year, around 500 Pakistani pilgrims attend the Urs celebration at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, considered to be one of the holiest Muslim shrines in India.
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Narendra Modi's insensitive remark on dyslexia reaffirms India's narrow understanding of mental health concerns
By Divya Srivastava, Mar 05, 2019 10:26:13 IST
- PM Modi has been criticised for seemingly taking a jibe at the Gandhis by making a reference to dyslexia and children who have been labelled as dyslexic.
- Modi’s statement is an apt picture of all that’s wrong with our education system and our country in general.
- Policy-makers themselves need to receive proper education, knowledge and training before rolling things out to the masses.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticised for seemingly taking a jibe at the Gandhis — Rahul and Sonia — by making a reference to dyslexia and children who have been labelled as dyslexic. Modi’s passing remark was insensitive, but it’s made worse by the occasion on which he made it: a competition called the “Smart India Hackathon”.
The stigma associated with mental health and associated diagnostic labels is still strong in India. Before one addresses Modi’s comments, it is important to note that a few things were wrong with the student’s presentation.
The BTech student from Uttarakhand said her project will help “dyslexic children”. One of the major hurdles in fighting the stigma surrounding mental health is the manner in which individuals are reduced to nothing but labels. In everyday conversations, we do not make passing remarks about that “diabetic friend” or the “asthmatic boss”. We just acknowledge that there are individuals diagnosed with diabetes, asthma, or some other chronic, physical condition. So, why are children with the label of “dyslexia” not considered to be anything else but that?
Diagnostic labels help individuals access public services and gain access to communities of individuals with the same label. However, ongoing research indicates that getting a diagnostic label does not guarantee getting the right treatment, and it often does more harm than good for it is often associated with worry and stigma (Corrigan, 2004). Many-a-times, people fail to see beyond labels. Moreover, two people with the same label may not require the same treatment as their cluster of symptoms may differ.
Unfortunately, a lot of mental health professionals and educators overlook the damages that a disempowering label can cause, and choose to use it liberally — without realising that under the garb of providing an explanation for certain symptoms, they are actually making that individual more vulnerable to negative biases and stigma.
Coming back to the student’s presentation, in an unintended irony, she mentioned the film Taare Zameen Par — a movie that raised awareness among audiences and drove home the message that children should not be defined by their disabilities, and that any disability should be viewed as being integral to a child’s identity. However, by laughing at Modi’s remark along with the audience, the student failed to practice what she was preaching, and reduced a child to a mere label.
How can one build a product to help a group when one does not display a basic level of empathy for that group in the first place? We are aware of the ridicule students with special needs are often subjected to by their peers, teachers, parents and society at large. Modi deserves no accolades for the statement he made, but the audience’s reaction was equally loathsome.
Another important point to note is that dyslexia is no longer a preferred term of use. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or the DSM-V) that was published in 2013, dyslexia is now sub-categorised as a “specific learning disorder”. Specific learning disorder is now an umbrella term for mathematics, reading, and writing expression disorders – previously, the DSM-IV classified these as separate diagnoses. Specific learning disorder with impairment in reading is the alternate term for dyslexia, and it includes possible deficits in word reading accuracy, reading rate or fluency, and reading comprehension. It is unfortunate that Smart India Hackathon, a nationwide platform of innovation for young minds, does not encourage its participants to stay up-to-date with the right vocabulary.
An individual no longer needs to be subject to IQ tests or neuropsychological assessments of cognitive processing skills to receive a diagnosis of specific learning disorder, which means that there is no link between this processing disorder and intelligence. Most parents struggle to understand that. They make the mistake of attributing the child’s inability to perform tasks of reading or writing to traits like “laziness” or “stupidity”, and they end up feeling frustrated when their child is not able to perform as well as his or her peers. Educators and school psychologists find it really difficult to work through these issues because, by and large, we are living in a world where everyone has a high drive for achievement and no one wants to be left behind in the competition to reach the top.
Modi’s statement — that if the student’s presentation helped a 40/50-year-old man, then that would make the mother of such a child happy — is an apt picture of all that’s wrong with our education system and our country in general. Things that are wrong with the Indian education system could be a debate for another day, but drawing simply from that one statement of Modi’s, it is evident that appreciation is always for achievement and not for effort.
Children, with or without special needs, must obtain a certain rank or achieve certain marks in order to make their parents proud. Rather than being happy with the amount of time and effort the child is putting into any activity, the focus is on how well the child has performed. It is, therefore, no surprise that 37 percent of students across colleges in India are diagnosed with depression or other mental illnesses (Deb et.al., 2016). Managing expectations is a struggle that only intensifies as individuals move to higher levels of education.
This is not the first time our government has displayed its narrow understanding of mental health. In June 2018, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare faced a lot of flak for putting up a poster on depression that not only attempted to over-simplify the condition, but also conveyed insensitive, misleading information. Modi’s recent statements reaffirm that adoption of new innovations or implementation of new policies cannot bring about any significant change unless we invest in changing the mind-sets of the people in society. For that to happen, policy-makers themselves need to receive proper education, knowledge and training before rolling things out to the masses.
The author is a Mumbai-based counsellor and psychotherapist.
***
References:
Corrigan, Patrick. “How stigma interferes with mental health care.” https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2004-19091-003 American Psychologist, Vol 59 (7), October 2004, pp. 614-625.
Deb. et. al. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876201815301179
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Narendra Modi's gaffe in Gujarat, says 'Karachi’ instead of ‘Kochi’, claims ‘mind is occupied’ with Pakistan
By Press Trust Of India, Mar 05, 2019 10:29:37 IST
- Narendra Modi on Monday got 'Kochi' in Kerala and 'Karachi' in Pakistan mixed up in a slip of the tongue
- He quickly covered it up by saying that his mind these days is preoccupied with Pakistan
- Modi was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a 750-bed annexe building of Guru Govind Singh Hospital
Jamnagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday got 'Kochi' in Kerala and 'Karachi' in Pakistan mixed up in a slip of the tongue but quickly covered it up by saying that his mind these days is preoccupied with the neighbouring country.
Extolling the virtues of the Ayushman Bharat health scheme, Modi said it allowed a resident of Jamnagar to avail treatment anywhere in the country, be it 'Kolkata' or 'Karachi'. Almost in the same breath, the prime minister set things right by telling the gathering he meant 'Kochi' and not 'Karachi'.
"Under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, if a resident of Jamangar has gone to Bhopal and falls sick, he need not come back to Jamnagar for treatment. If he shows his (Ayushman Bharat) beneficiary card, he will get free treatment even in Kolkata and even in Karachi," Modi told the gathering.
He, however, added, "Not Karachi but Kochi. Nowadays my mind is preoccupied with the thoughts of the neighbouring country." "But that (air strike in Pakistan) was also necessary. Should that be done or not?" he posed to the crowd which replied its assent with a round of applause.
Modi was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a 750-bed annexe building of Guru Govind Singh Hospital.
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Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba warns of 'serious threat of state-sponsored terrorism seeking to destablise country'
By FP Staff, Mar 05, 2019 10:58:14 IST
- 'We have reports of terrorists being trained to carry out operations in various modus operandi including through the medium of the sea,' Lanba said
- The navy chief said that India faces a far more serious version of this state-sponsored terrorism
- Lanba also said that the Indo-pacific region has witnessed multiple forms of terrorism in recent years
Naval Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday highlighted the threats being faced by India in the Indo-Pacific region as well called out the 'state' seeking to destabilise India by aiding the perpetuation of extremists-led violence in the country.
"We have reports of terrorists being trained to carry out operations in various modus operandi including through the medium of the sea," Lanba said in a media briefing.
He, however, said that India faces a far more serious version of this state-sponsored terrorism. "We have all witnessed the horrific scale of extremists attack on the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, just three weeks ago," he said.
Lanba said that the Indo-pacific region has witnessed multiple forms of terrorism in recent years and few countries in this part of the world have been spared by this cause. "Global nature which terrorism has acquired in recent times has further enhanced the scope of this threat," the chief of naval staff said.
India had carried out air-strikes on 26 February in Pakistan's Balakot on to target a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) training camp at Jaba top after a JeM suicide bomber-led attack killed 40 CRPF jawans in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February. Thereafter, an aerial dogfight on the LoC had ensued between the two nations on 27 February in which one MiG-21 and a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet were shot down.
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