Report on primary education seeks curriculum reform

PRIMARY SCHOOLING: I - A report on improvements and problems in West Bengal schools AMARTYA SEN Pratichi Trust (India) was established a decade ago, along with its sister across the border, Pratichi Trust (Bangladesh) [1]. The Bangladesh centre has been concentrating on the social progress of girls and young women there (it has worked particularly on supporting and training young women journalists reporting from rural Bangladesh), whereas here in India, the work of the Trust has been mainly focused on advancing primary education and elementary health care, along with a few other selected activities (such as providing disaster relief). Even though Pratichi Trust (India) has a programme of establishing new schools (the Pratichi School in Orissa is already functioning actively and well), our main work in the field of education has been to examine, assess and scrutinize the schooling system in operation in the east of India, beginning with West Bengal and a part of Jharkhand. We have surveyed a number of schools across the region, and even though the overall picture cannot be called, in any rigorous sense, representative of the region, there is enough information in these studies to arrive at some general judgments about successes and failures, and, most importantly for us, to form an understanding of the principal problems that face primary school education in this region and how they can be addressed in order to attempt remedying the adversities [2]. Empirical Surveys and Repeats Our first set of surveys of randomly selected primary schools from six districts of West Bengal were done for the year 2001-02 [3]. Recently we have resurveyed the same schools in the same districts to check how — and whether — things are moving forward, and where they stand seven years later in 2008-09. This report presents our latest findings, along with a comparative assessment of the situation today compared with what we had observed seven years earlier. The first set of studies led us to offer recommendations about necessary changes for the enhancement of primary education in the region. The action plans were based, among other issues, on the following diagnoses: — the critical need for working together with the teachers' unions to advance the role and effectiveness of school teachers (including the reduction of teacher absenteeism and helping teachers to pay special attention to children from disadvantaged families); — the importance of regular and constructive use of parent-teacher committees (particularly to increase communication of teachers with parents from economically and socially disadvantaged families); — the necessity of serving cooked midday meals both for advancing elementary education and for improving child nutrition (the reasons for the often-neglected complementarity of child nourishment and elementary education were investigated in our earlier reports); — the need to reverse the decay of the inspection system for schools (which is severely underused and sometimes almost entirely defunct); — the importance of providing more educational facilities in some schools and particularly in the Sishu Shiksha Kendras (SSKs) and making sure of prompt payment of salaries and making other administrative improvements; — the need for discouraging the growing dependence of school children on private tuition to supplement educational arrangements in the schools (various means of achieving this were suggested). Cooperative Efforts and Collaborative Understanding A number of our recommendations — though not all — have in fact been carried out in the intervening period, and we are grateful for the attention that our work and assessments have received from the government, from the media, and from the general public. While some of our recommendations broke fresh ground, others provided reasoned support for independently developed — but new — efforts by the state and Central governments in these fields (for example, the provision of cooked midday meals and the use of parent-teacher meetings). Our approach has been one of collaboration with, as well as mutual critique of, the work of different agencies dedicated to the improvement of school education, including Central and state governments and teachers' unions, and we have been rewarded by the engagement and cooperation of all the parties involved [4]. Since we have been privileged to work together with the primary teachers' unions (in particular with ABPTA and WBPTA), we have had the benefit also of exchanging our views and analyses with the union leadership in pursuit of a fuller understanding of the problems and prospects of primary education in this state. The Pratichi Trust has held several joint meetings with the unions in which large numbers of primary school teachers have actively participated. Our understanding of the problems has greatly benefited from the cooperation of teachers' unions, and they in turn have done a great deal to help implement a number of our recommendations. We have also held every year a fairly large meeting of teachers, parents, educational activists and experts. These meetings have generated a number of important suggestions for improving school education in West Bengal, on which we have drawn for further enquiry. We are particularly grateful to the parents and teachers who have joined us, often involving considerable travel, in these regular meetings to present their own analyses and to enrich our understanding of the problems involved. Curricular Overload The regular meetings we have had with the different parties (including parents, teachers, unions, government servants, and NGOs working in similar or related areas) have also helped us to pay special attention to critically important features in the ongoing schooling arrangements that need re-examination and reform, and to supplement the findings of our own surveys and investigation. For example, one of the important issues taken up more fully in this report deals with the content of the official curriculum, and the heavy load that very young children have to bear in pursuit of elementary education. The official demands typically require — and insist on — home-based study of children after school hours, often in excessive and unreasonable ways (particularly unreasonable for families in which the parents have not, in their own childhood, had the benefit of going to school themselves). As is discussed in the report, the apparently unshakable dependence on private tuition of primary school children has a strong connection with the unrealism of the overloaded curricular content. Class Disadvantages Imperfectly Captured by Caste Analysis A second issue that has repeatedly emerged in our discussions is the importance of recognizing the class barriers that divide the school-age population. Problems of first-time school education are enormously larger than those faced by children from families with an educated background, at various levels. Also, lack of economic resources as well as low social standing in established stratification can make it much harder for children from disadvantaged groups to get the facilities and the attention they need for successful pursuit of their studies. Class divisions have a clear connection with caste distinctions but actually go much beyond what is caught in conventional caste-based categorization. It is of course right that Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) are seen as being, in general, disadvantaged, with very few exceptions (the exceptions come mainly from particular SC groups and hardly any from STs). However, to that has to be added the category of the Muslim poor, which — for historical reasons — is substantially larger as a proportion of all Muslims in West Bengal than in many other states (for example in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh). So, even though Muslims as a category cannot be seen as being a disadvantaged group (indeed a lack of adequate class analysis has been responsible for some very misleading recent statements on the subject), a very large proportion of Muslims in West Bengal do indeed fall in the category of being economically and socially disadvantaged in terms of their class background. Any detailed investigation of the empirical situation brings out the need to go well beyond the SC-ST characterization of social disadvantage to taking note of the historically conditioned economic and social disadvantages from which most Muslim families as well as SC and ST populations historically suffer in this region. These disadvantages make children from those families particularly in need of greater attention and support. Even in interpreting the findings of our surveys, the broader issue of class disadvantage has to be kept firmly in view, as we have tried to do in arriving at our conclusions and recommendations. Repeat Surveys and Our Findings The recent resurveys give us an opportunity (i) to assess the present state of affairs in primary schooling in West Bengal, (ii) to see whether there have been advances or not, and what remains to be done, and (iii) to examine the effectiveness of the reforms that have been carried out and the changes that have occurred. It gives us particular pleasure to share our findings with the public as well as the media and the authorities responsible for schooling, including the government as well as the teachers' unions. Significant Improvements The main findings in terms of the comparative picture between 2001-02 and 2008-09 are: (1) there have been significant improvements in the performance as well as coverage of primary education in West Bengal over these seven years, and (2) there still remain defects and infelicities that must be overcome. There is certainly no case for despondence, and it is particularly important to recognize this fact both because despondence can lead to despair and resignation, and because there are good reasons to see, on the basis of the empirical data, that reasoned efforts, when properly executed, do lead to the achievements at which the efforts cogently aim. However, there is no room for smugness either. Things have moved considerably forward (often related to the reforms that have been carried out by the governments involved, and the cooperation of the unions, which have often substantially supplemented official efforts). However, much more needs to be done. To note the improvements first, there is not only a higher rate of student enrolment, but also a significantly larger average attendance of enrolled students (75 per cent both for primary schools and SSKs — up from 58 and 64 per cent respectively). Second, even though the problem of absentee teachers remains, there is in fact a noticeable fall in the percentage of absentee teachers on the randomly chosen day of our visit (14 per cent in primary schools, down from 20 per cent, and 8 per cent in SSKs, down from 15 per cent). There is also some increase in the number of teachers per school. Third, the level of parent satisfaction with the performance of teachers has also gone up (from 52 per cent to 64 per cent for primary schools and from 70 per cent to 75 per cent for SSKs), even though it is still far from perfect. Parents' satisfaction with the progress of children is up significantly (from 42 per cent to 71 per cent for primary schools, and from 49 per cent to 73 per cent for SSKs). Fourth, we were really depressed with the 2001-02 results of independent testing of students' achievements, for example, the fact that 30 per cent of the students in classes III and IV could not even write their own names. There has been considerable improvement in this area, and the proportion of students who could not write their names is now down from 30 per cent to just 5 per cent (that proportion should of course be zero per cent, but it would be silly not to see the progress that is observed). Fifth, midday meals are now being served in most primary schools and SSKs, and there are clear indications of the benefits of that initiative both in educational and nutritional terms. Indeed, even the increased attendance of students in schools partly reflects the attraction of the school meals, even though the efforts of the teachers' unions, particularly in reducing teacher absenteeism, has also greatly helped, in many regions. Sixth, parent-teacher meetings are now much more in use, mostly in the form of mother-teacher committees, even though we still have specific suggestions for improving their reach. Things that Remain to be Done Significant as the progress has been, there are still big gaps to meet. Even in those fields, already mentioned, in which there have been significant advance, the absolute numbers of the performance indicators bring out the fact that there is still quite a distance to go for the primary school system to be considered really satisfactory. While some reforms have been carried out, for example, in having arrangements for midday meals (even though they can be — and must be — further extended), in other areas (such as, having a functioning inspection system and remedying the dependence on private tuition), the achievements have been very little, if any at all. The need for going further forward is strong and urgent. To be concluded Notes 1. Pratichi Trust (Bangladesh) has been working under the leadership of Professor Rehman Sobhan, with help from others sharing our objectives, particularly BRAC, led by Fazle Hasan Abed. Both the Trusts were set up with the help of the Nobel money that came my way in December 1998. 2. The research work, including empirical investigation and analysis, for this project has been very ably led by Kumar Rana, the Project Director, who has also largely authored this report. His initiative and stewardship have been important at every stage of this work. 3. The 2001-02 surveys were conducted in two instalments, beginning first with Birbhum, Puruliya and West Medinipur, and going on later to cover Barddhaman, Murshidabad and Darjeeling in the second instalment. The findings from the first instalment were published in The Pratichi Education Report I, (2002), and the combined results of the two sets of surveys were included in a Bengali publication, Pratichi Siksha Pratibedan (2004). In the comparisons presented in this report with the later 2008-09 surveys, the two instalments of the first round of surveys in 2001-02 have been aggregated together. 4. I should particularly mention here the exemplary cooperation we have received from the District Primary School Council of Birbhum, led by Gautam Ghosh, who has also given us valuable advice on the analysis of our findings and recommendations. Class lesson from Sen trust - Report on primary education seeks curriculum reform

OUR BUREAU

Calcutta, Dec. 18: Curriculum reform and removal of class barriers in primary education are the two major tools that can improve Bengal's record, a trust set up by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has said. In its second report on primary education, Pratichi says: "There is, first, a particular need to recognise the fierce urgency of curricular reform at the primary level… "The importance of recognising explicitly the role of class barriers in educational underachievement — a second point of focus — also stands as being in pressing need of recognition," observes the 21-page report. Sen, who will formally release the report tomorrow, said: "First, we have to recognise that such problems exist. We can't offer any formula solution…. The policy makers will have to take cognisance of the fact that such barriers do exist." Under the guidance of Sen, the report has been prepared on the basis of the findings of a survey conducted in randomly selected 36 schools in six districts — Birbhum, Purulia, West Midnapore, Burdwan, Murshidabad and Darjeeling. Over 400 parents and representatives of teachers' unions were consulted. Researchers from Pratichi had visited the same schools in 2001-02 during the preparation of its first report. The latest report — The Pratichi Education Report II, Primary Education in West Bengal: Changes and Challenges, with an introduction by Amartya Sen — is a comparative assessment of the situation today vis-à-vis the findings of 2001-02. Although the report has identified several lacunae in the primary education system, it has also recorded "significant improvements" in the performance as well as coverage of primary education since the first report. It reminds policy makers that "there still remain defects and infelicities that must be overcome". The report notes that dependence on private tuition has grown over the last seven years. Unlike the first report, where a set of recommendations was offered to achieve the objective of enhancement of primary education, the second report has focused extensively on the content of official curriculum and class barriers that divide the school-age population. The report highlights how these two factors have contributed to underachievement by disadvantaged sections like the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims. M.K.A. Siddiqui, a researcher on Muslims, echoed the findings, adding that the condition of Muslim children was equally bad even in Calcutta. "In one of my surveys in the Rajabazar slums, I found that only 4 per cent of Muslim children of schoolgoing age were actually going to school," said Siddiqui. The report presses for curriculum reform in the light of the observation that dependence on private tuition has a connection with the heavy load the children have to bear in pursuit of elementary education. Sen said: "We have to start the process of bringing about a change. The problem of excess load for kids in primary level is a pan-India phenomenon." The message is to do away with homework, which force children to study after school hours and seek the help of private tutors. "Private tuition divides the student population into haves and have-nots…. It makes teachers less responsible and it diminishes their central role in education," the report says. Curriculum reform will also help reduce the class barriers. The report recommends greater facilities for schools or Sishu Shiksha Kendras with higher proportions of class-disadvantaged children. School education minister Partha De said he was trying to find out how homework could be banished at the elementary level.

Climate meet emits lot of gas World leaders settle for words, not action

JAYANTA BASU

Barack Obama (top) and Manmohan Singh at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen on Friday. (AFP) Copenhagen, Dec. 18: World leaders scrambled to patch together a non- binding political stateme- nt late tonight after fail ing to agree on the Copen hagen summit's key objec tive of taking urgent ac tion against climate change. A weak statement, touted as the Copenhagen Accord, ap peared on its way after Presi dent Barack Obama's meeting with Prime Minister Manmo han Singh and leaders of Ch- ina, Brazil and South Africa. "We are close to seeing a legally non-binding Copen hagen outcome after 36 hours of gruelling, intensive negoti ations," environment minis ter Jairam Ramesh said. A US official claimed that Obama had reached a deal with India, China, Brazil and South Africa. "It is not sufficient to com bat the threat of climate change, but it's an important first step," a late-night New York Times report quoted the official as saying. The draft statement falls far short of the aims with which the leaders gathered here: to set new and ambitious emission cut targets for indus trialised countries and for malise financial and techno logical assistance for develop ing nations. The draft, leaked to non- government observers at the summit, indicates that the de veloping countries would have to list their own domestic tar gets through an international process, a proposal India has resisted in the past. Sources said the political pledge by the leaders is expect ed to be accompanied by two drafts from negotiating gr-ou- ps — one on emission reduc tions by the industrialised co- u-ntries and the other involv ing long-term cooperative ac tion. "I won't say the Copen hagen talks have completely failed — there is certain progress in discussions," said Shyam Saran, India's special envoy on climate change. "However, as the Prime Mi-n- ister said, we expected more from Copenhagen." An appendix in the leaked draft of the proposed political statement suggests that the de- veloping countries would have to list their domestic emis sion-curbing actions, known as nationally appropriate mit igation actions, just as the in dustrialised countries would have to list their own emission reduction targets. Senior Indian officials have in the past argued that this violates the principle of the 12-year-old Kyoto Protocol that imposed legally binding targets only on the industri alised countries. India has in the past resisted attempts to open domestic actions to inter national scrutiny. Despite compromises by countries like India and China over the issue of monitoring review and verification and the US pledging funds for poor countries, there was no agree ment on fundamental issues like the fate of the Kyoto Pro tocol and the Bali Action Plan after Copenhagen. There was no consensus on common but differentiated mechanisms of responsibility, either. Negotiators and ministers from across the world sat thr- ough the night seeking to sal vage a meaningful agreement. The position of India and China had hardened as news spread of a late-night meeting involving 40 countries appar ently to produce an umbrella text to be signed by the lead ers. Neither India nor China was invited there.

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2020 date for bullet train

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

india bound? New Delhi, Dec. 18: Bullet trains running at up to 350km an hour, a railway-run TV channel, multi-lingual magazines for passengers, punctuality and zero accidents — they could all become reality by 2020, according to the railways. Bullet trains running at 250-350kmph between Howrah and Haldia, Pune and Ahmedabad, Delhi and Amritsar, Delhi and Patna, and Hyderabad and Chennai are part of the Vision 2020 document tabled in Parliament today. The railways also aim to raise the speed of regular passenger trains to 160-200kmph from 110-130kmph. If this happens, the document says, "Delhi-Calcutta and Delhi-Mumbai will become an overnight service". It looks at the possibility of increasing advertising revenues "using freight and passenger trains (both inside and outside), multi-lingual magazines for passengers and merchandising opportunities for… ticket to foodstuff and other materials served on trains".

Advani steps up, so does loyal Sushma RADHIKA RAMASESHAN New Delhi, Dec. 18: Sushma Swaraj took over as the Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha after L.K. Advani stepped down today and assumed a new position as chairman of the BJP parliamentary party. The BJP constitution was amended at a meeting of its MPs to create the post. Unlike in September 2005, when the RSS pushed him out as the BJP president for praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the changeover this time, scripted by new Sangh sarsanghachalak Mohanrao Bhagwat, seemed less painful for Advani. Not only was he rehabilitated, his proteges were promoted or left untouched. The show at the Parliament annexe was choreographed to dispel the perception of a party at war with itself and its paterfamilias in Nagpur. Some in the BJP had been spreading the word for the last five months that Advani's exit would see the "Dilli Four" cabal of Arun Jaitley, Sushma, M. Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar, considered his "loyalists", scurry to the boondocks. But Sushma's elevation and Jaitley's renomination as the Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha was the RSS way of saying it had no intention of overturning the hierarchy or playing factional politics. When Advani admitted to a "sense of relief and satisfaction today", it was construed to mean that he believed the parliamentary party would function exactly the way he wanted. Sushma said she was not worried about her new job because Advani was around as a "guide". "Arun (Jaitley) is like my brother," she said to quell speculation over their alleged rivalry. In the past, Advani has said the Lok Sabha leader is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, but Sushma is not being seen as one. "The real drama will unfold closer to 2014 when we expect some of our regional satraps like Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chauhan to reveal their hands," a functionary said. Advani recalled his association with the Sangh, going back to when he was a 14-year-old in Karachi. "I was an RSS pracharak (propagandist) then and if I had not been one, I would not have come into politics when the Jan Sangh was formed." The tangential acknowledgement of the Sangh's role was in contrast to the bitterness that marked his speech at the Chennai national executive five years ago. He had then asked Sangh leaders to stick to their "greater mission of man-making and nation-building" instead of telling the BJP what to do. Cloud of contradictions A week has passed but the climate conference at Copenhagen is yet to attain common ground. T.V. Jayan reports To do or not to do. That may be the question Indian negotiators participating in the UN climate summit in Copenhagen are grappling with. India and other major developing countries were under pressure from all sides to put their domestic climate actions up for international scrutiny, after the first week of negotiations ended at Copenhagen. Thousands of diplomats, scientists and environmental activists from 192 nations descended on the Danish capital to find a lasting solution to the warming of the planet. Though there are many proposals, nothing so far suggests a deal will be struck by the closure of the summit on December 18, despite the long official deliberations as well as backroom manoeuvres to stitch up one. A common meeting ground has remained elusive, with different groups clinging steadfast to their already stated postures. The Annexe-1 countries (that is, the rich nations) which had agreed to reduce emissions by 5 per cent under the Kyoto Protocol by 2012 but did precious little so far now want big developing countries like India and China to allow international scrutiny of their climate mitigation actions. The developing countries, on the other hand, are asking the rich ones to make deeper emission cuts and make available enough resources and technology to help them cope with the adverse effects of climate change and set themselves on the path of low-carbon growth. "Progress has been very disappointing," said Indian negotiator Chandrashekhar Dasgupta at the end of the first week. The major developing countries are resisting the move to make available for public scrutiny their plans of reducing emission intensity, saying their domestic actions are voluntary and not part of any international agreement. While New Delhi continues to hold the rich nations responsible for the current climate mess and states that emission cuts are not an option for India as it has to tackle poverty and underdevelopment, it recently announced steps to voluntarily reduce its emission intensity by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020. China and Brazil have offered to take similar steps. The wealthy nations, however, want India and the others to do more. They say the emerging economies have to commit themselves to these stapes on paper and make them available for the world to see. "A press release domestically" won't do, thundered US chief negotiator Todd Stern at a press conference in Copenhagen on Wednesday. "There needs to be transparency so that everybody can have confidence that everyone is undertaking what they said they were going to do, and to know where the whole world is going with respect to emissions," he said. Stern's remark, however, invited sharp criticism from developing countries. Talking on behalf of G-77 and China, China's senior negotiator Yu Qingtai said, "They should not always focus on what the developing countries should do; they need to fulfil their commitment." Referring to the US directly, he said some parties may not be part of the Kyoto Protocol, but are in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process. The US has so far refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, saying that it will hurt growth. "The same countries that failed to honour their emissions cut commitment are now preaching," said Jayaraman Srinivasan, senior atmospheric scientist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The developed countries have postponed meeting their targets by 10-15 years without penalty, worsening the climate impact and pressures on developing countries, Srinivasan said. The UNFCCC had stipulated that emissions by the rich countries should peak by 2000, but now it appears that the deadline will be shifted to 2015 or 2020, depending on what is agreed upon at Copenhagen or later. "I do not think India needs to succumb to pressure. We have resisted such pressure (in the case of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) when we have concluded it is not in our national interest," Dilip Ahuja, Indian Space Research Organisation professor of science and technology policy at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore, told KnowHow. India has iterated that there was no question of subjecting its domestic climate mitigation actions to international scrutiny. However, India can make conditional commitments. "We could make our commitments on lowering energy intensity (or emissions intensity) conditional on the lowering of emissions by the rich countries," said Ahuja. There has also been a well-orchestrated move to drive a wedge in the G-77 and China, the grouping that represented 120 developing countries. Out of the blue, Tuvalu — a small Pacific island nation and member of the G-77 and China grouping — proposed a new treaty, similar to the Kyoto Protocol. The ostensible reason was to make the US — which hasn't ratified the Kyoto Protocol — accountable through an international treaty. It also proposed that major developing countries that "voluntarily elect to do so" can become part of this new arrangement to take "verifiable, nationally appropriate mitigation commitments or actions". The G-77 and China group rejected the proposal outright on the ground that it was flawed. The summit may witness a renewed effort to clinch a deal when the heads of many countries, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barak Obama, reach Copenhagen this week. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091214/jsp/knowhow/story_11859609.jsp

Baby boom, baby bust

India's Rs 25,000 crore surrogacy industry is caught in a legal quagmire. And foreign couples run into trouble when they try to take their babies out of the country. Reena Martins looks at the travails of the wombs-for-rent business

BIRTH PANGS: (Above) Manji Yamada and a poster of Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, a Bollywood film, which dealt with surrogacy Little Manji Yamada arrived in Osaka last October to be united with her father. Manji, born in India of a Japanese father and an Indian surrogate mother, was luckier than the 23-month-old German twins Leonard and Nikolas Balaz. The boys' parents are still waiting for the Indian courts to take a decision on their nationality. Last week, the Supreme Court stayed a Gujarat High Court order directing the granting of Indian citizenship to the Balaz boys, by virtue of their being born via an Indian — a 22-year-old surrogate mother called Martha Kristhy — in India's surrogacy capital Anand, Gujarat. According to the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, a child is born an Indian if one of the parents is Indian. The twins' parents, Jan and Susanne, had sought Indian citizenship for their boys, to get them passports to facilitate their entry to Germany, which like most European countries does not recognise surrogacy and had therefore refused them visas. The central government questioned the Gujarat High Court verdict. The apex court is set to take the matter up on December 15. The twins, however, have been issued their travel documents, as directed by the Supreme Court. The case represents a dramatic problem many couples are now waking up to — the trouble that arises when they try to take their babies out of the country. As a result, India's burgeoning surrogacy industry is confronted with the prospect of losing considerable business. No statistics exist on the number of foreign couples that head for India in their quest to obtain a child. But doctors confirm that the numbers have been growing by leaps and bounds. Dr Nayana Patel, whose infertility centre in Anand put India on the world surrogacy map, says she had six foreigners in 2007, 21 in 2008 and another 21 in 2009. She recruits 30 surrogates a month and her centre can house 54 expecting surrogates at any given time. The Law Commission estimates in its 228th report released this August that the assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry in India is worth about Rs 25,000 crore. But the industry operates without legal sanction in India. The Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2008, has yet to become law. The industry is caught in a legal quagmire. First, the Law Commission is not in favour of commercial surrogacy. It talks of the need to adopt a "pragmatic approach by legalising altruistic surrogacy arrangements and prohibiting commercial ones." But the ART Bill, 2008, seems to favour commercial surrogacy. It goes to great lengths to detail the number of instalments a surrogate should be paid by a couple that has a baby through her. The second problem, of course, is the one that foreign couples now face. Many European countries do not recognise surrogacy as a legal form of parenthood. And the UK accepts altruistic surrogacy — that is, someone offering her womb for humanitarian reasons and not for money. "... No matter what the genetic make up of the child, UK law sees the woman who carried and bears the child as the legal mother," the UK Home Office said in its inter-country surrogacy and immigration rules issued in June this year. "This remains even if the surrogate mother is a foreign national living abroad." Other legal questions abound. Is a child born to an Indian surrogate mother, an Indian citizen, as the Gujarat High Court held? And what if the foreign father of the child becomes single? Manji Yamada was born to a surrogate mother a month after her Japanese parents divorced. Her Japanese father could not adopt her, because the Indian law does not allow a single man to adopt a baby girl. Another British-Indian couple (names withheld on request) shares an uncertain fate, as the civil court in Anand, has dismissed their plea for confirming the status of the commissioning mother, a British national, as the mother of the child. The ART Bill, 2008, defines a surrogate mother as a woman who agrees to have an embryo generated from the sperm of a man who is not her husband, and the egg of another woman implanted in her to carry the pregnancy to full term and deliver the child to its biological parent(s). Typically, doctors advise surrogacy when couples are keen on having their own children but cannot for a host of reasons. Mostly it is because the woman does not have a uterus, or has no ovaries, or has a damaged or defective uterus, says Dr Duru Shah, infertility specialist in Mumbai. As the industry grows, raking in money, infertility specialists are making a quick buck by advising patients to opt for surrogacy without weighing the pros and cons, says Dr Anjali Malpani, infertility specialist in Mumbai. Recently, a British-American couple in their late sixties approached G.R. Hari, a partner in the Chennai-based law firm Indian Surrogacy Law Centre, saying that they wished to have a baby through a surrogate mother. Hari says he had to dissuade the couple, who had adult children from previous marriages, from doing so. "Before coming to India to have a baby through surrogacy, intended couples must understand their own laws," says Hari, whose firm has represented commissioning parents from the UK, Italy, the US and Australia, who wish to have babies through surrogates in India. Many parents run into trouble. After the Manji fiasco, another Japanese couple had trouble taking their baby born through a surrogate in Anand to the US where they lived, says Dr Nayana Patel. "The mother (of Japanese origin) was a US citizen but the Japanese father was a US green card holder. The US embassy did not grant a visa to the baby, and they had to go to the US via Japan." The US, Dr Patel says, is "baby friendly" and allows its citizens to bring home babies born through surrogacy in India. But Australia and some American states do not recognise commercial surrogacy. Would-be parents, however, continue to throng India for surrogacy because of the low costs involved. Hospitals and clinics in India offer couples a package deal, which involves the treatment, surrogate, housing and legal assistance — for Rs 10-12 lakh. This would cost up to 10 times as much in the US, says Dr Kedar Ganla, infertility specialist at Hiranandani Hospital in Mumbai. "But we deserve to be paid more," says Lalita, 33, a middle class housewife in Mumbai, who was a surrogate for a non resident Indian couple two years ago. "The couples that hire us can afford much more. They would spend this amount on shopping." Most surrogate mothers earn around Rs 2.5 lakh. If Lalita agrees to lend her womb again, it will be for not less than twice the amount, she stresses. The first time she needed the money to tide over a domestic crisis — this time it will be to buy a one bedroom flat. Experts believe that a law has to carefully address the needs of women who rent out their wombs. After all, it's not easy carrying somebody else's child. The first time Lalita was pregnant with her own twin boys — now aged 10 — it was a happy affair. "I trusted in God to look after them," she says. But being a surrogate mother was tough. "It was stressful. I waited for the pregnancy to end and to hand over another couple's treasure." The Law Commission believes it is just a system that encourages women to rent out their wombs. "It seems that wombs in India are on rent, which translates into babies for foreigners and dollars for Indian surrogate mothers," it says. The commission recommends altruistic surrogacy but that may not be a solution, either. "It will be very difficult to get altruistic surrogates and relatives could end up being pressured to become surrogates," says Dr Hrishikesh Pai, infertility specialist at Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai. Worse still, he adds, is the risk of a woman refusing to part with the baby if she is not legally bound by a financial contract. "It would help to have a law so that the interests of both the surrogate and the commissioning parent are protected. Without a clear cut law, there is confusion and one has to go to court if there is a problem," he says. But Mumbai lawyer Amit Karkhanis points out that of the 150 surrogacy contracts he drafted last year — for couples coming from "Japan to Alaska and Finland to New Zealand" — only one surrogate threatened to abort the baby she was carrying if she was not paid what she demanded. But even that one case highlights the need for a law on surrogacy. Till that happens, babies like little Manji and the Balaz twins will have to do the rounds of the courts.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091213/jsp/7days/story_11857133.jsp

Real shockers

REALITY SHOWS ARE BECOMING EVEN MORE ADVENTUROUS THAN BEFORE IN THEIR BID TO GRAB VIEWERS, SAYS SUSHMITA BISWAS

Rahul Mahajan will select his life partner in the show Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayega; (top) a contestant on Big Switch sells milk on the road as one of the tasks on the show Who says that reality shows in India are only about song and dance contests or even politicking housemates? Take a look at NDTV Imagine's latest show, Raaz — Pichhle Janam Ka, which takes reality TV into a new direction. The show, which is hosted by actor Ravi Kishan, is putting its participants through regression therapy to unravel their deepest past-life secrets. Or cut to the forthcoming Splitsvilla Season 3 on MTV. Now that shows like Sach Ka Saamna have shown that some Indians aren't shy of baring their dirtiest secrets in public, here's another show that will set a new standard of boldness. Splitsvilla Season 3 will be about casual dating and break-ups for the five unmarried couples and 10 singles. Yes, there'll be oodles of oomph where women will be bitchy while the men will get to dump some of them. All this for a prize bounty of Rs 10 lakh. Welcome to the latest edition of reality television, where washing one's dirty linen on prime time has become big business and where outrageous content is catching on like never before. Bold is the new beautiful on reality shows. And television channels are becoming more adventurous in their bid to grab those all-important eyeballs. "There's an innate voyeurism in every person that gets gratified through such shows," says Shailesh Velandy, vice-president, strategic planning, at media planning firm Mudra Radar. The channels are eager to provide these "kicks". Says Ashis Patil, vice-president, creative and content, MTV: "Young people today are looking for unlicensed vicarious pleasure, and such shows (like Splitsvilla) are driven by social trends, where casual dating and break-ups have become common." Dadagiri goes to great lengths to check the resilience of the contestants; (top) Ravi Kishan is the host of Raaz — Pichhle Janam Ka, which is based on past-life regression Meanwhile, Trupti Jayin, the clinical psychologist who's part of Raaz — Pichhle Janam Ka, believes that "a show on past-life regression (using techniques like hypnosis), where contestants recount their past lives, can be shocking, surreal and captivating all at the same time." Reality show producers too feel that Indian viewers have matured. After all, they've had a taste of juicy moments with shows like Bigg Boss (currently in its third season) on Colors, or Sach Ka Saamna on Star Plus, or even the more recent Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao on Sony TV. So they're ready for bolder acts now. Channels too feel that viewers are receptive to experimentation. "Viewers are willing to accept and enjoy edgier content," says Shailja Kejriwal, executive vice-president (content), NDTV Imagine. NDTV Imagine has got bolder ever since its Rakhi Ka Swayamvar became a hit. Outspoken item girl Rakhi Sawant turned into a coy bride on this show and held the entire nation in thrall — while pushing the channel's rating skywards. (The grand finale garnered a TVR of 8.4). Up next, then, is season two with 'bad boy' Rahul Mahajan. The show will be titled Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayega, and Mahajan will choose his "perfect life-partner" from 16 contestants. Others are playing the marriage theme too. There's Perfect Bride on Star Plus, which takes a cue from arranged marriages. The show will end with a grand wedding — and a prize of Rs 25 lakh for the winning couple. "It's peppered with high drama featuring conflicting opinions between the mothers and their sons in selecting the right soulmate,"says Anupama Mandloi, senior creative director, Star Plus. Dare 2 Date is a funky show which pairs youngsters who are complete opposites On the other hand, there's Channel V's Dare 2 Date, an anti-mush show in which, VJ Andy pairs youngsters who're complete opposites. "It turns the very idea of romance on its head by highlighting how one man's chocolate can be another man's poison," says Prem Kamath, general manager, Channel V. If you don't like relationship-based shows, there are other daring reality shows too. There's Big Switch on UTV Bindaas, which is aimed at a younger audience. Hosted by Genelia D'Souza, it's about 10 rich brats, who're dropped into a claustrophobic Mumbai slum where the cameras track their every move. The winner will get Rs 10 lakh. Or check out the second season of Dadagiri, also on UTV Bindass. Here, the 12 contestants face the wrath of two dadas, who give them physically daunting tasks to test their mental strength. Again, the prize is Rs 10 lakh. Heather Gupta, head, UTV Bindass, says: "Today, young people are an impatient lot. We need to come up with exciting shows to attract their attention." So is the trend of bolder reality shows here to stay? Says Mudra Radar's Velandy, "From exotic locales to showing sensational stuff to devising abnormal situations, the possibilities are far greater than what any soap can ever provide."

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091213/jsp/graphiti/story_11853985.jsp

Palash Biswas
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