Sir — The three wise monkeys of Mahatma Gandhi have been given new meaning in India. Speak no evil, hear no evil and see no evil are now wrongly interpreted as not speaking up against wrongs, ignoring the pleas of those who are being wronged and turning a blind eye to injustices. The incidents that shook the nation around the birth anniversary of Gandhi — be it the clean chit to the accused in the Babri demolition case or the rape of a girl in Hathras and the shocking behaviour of the police afterwards — are proof that New India has forgotten both the Mahatma and his teachings.
Reshma Ferozie
Calcutta
Special needs
Sir — The problems of online education have been discussed to death. But less is being said about the plight of students with learning disabilities. A restriction on screen time — the amount of time spent on gadgets — is one of the primary stipulations of children with ailments like autism, Asperger’s syndrome or even ADHD. How will these children cope with the new reality when they have to spend increasing amounts of time with gadgets? While students with ADHD can find themselves distracted with a passive and distant mode of education, children with autism can retreat further into themselves and become more socially aloof if they spend greater amounts of time online away from direct human contact.
Now that schools are finally thinking of reopening, how will these children fit back into the schedule after just getting used to the new normal following the massive disruptions earlier this year? Routine is one of the ways in which such children can hope to lead a life where they can keep up with their peers. These facts must be kept in mind when schools reopen. Children should not be burdened with the backlog created during the pandemic. This will only add to their stress. A lot of extra care must be taken to ensure that each and every student is treated as per their needs. This requires a workforce of teachers who are not overworked.
Kakoli Das
Calcutta
Wasted chance
Sir — A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General reveals how the former dispensation in Maharashtra botched up what was an opportunity to efficiently switch cropping patterns in the drought-prone Marathawada region. Back in 2016, two consecutive droughts had led a segment of the farmers to shift from cultivating sugarcane to growing tur. They had a bumper crop and had the government compensated them adequately perhaps some of them would have stuck to farming crops other than the water-guzzling sugarcane.
The CAG report records tur production in Maharashtra at 20,89,000 metric tonnes in 2016 — a 370 per cent increase from 4,44,000 metric tonnes in 2015. But because of delays in setting up procurement centres and payments to farmers, only 37 per cent of tur was procured, and 64 per cent of farmers had to wait between one to four months for their stock to be procured.
A crucial opportunity to start a conversation around water conservation and alter wasteful cropping patterns has been missed. The State washing its hands off a minimum support price in the latest farm bills is unlikely to encourage farmers anywhere to experiment with age-old patterns. This can be disastrous in more ways than one. Not only do outdated farming patterns waste more water, they also return less yields and are more vulnerable to insects and pests who have grown used to the farmer’s almanac. This is also killing off the diversity of the Indian palate. Crops like wheat and rice are taking over the menu while cereals and millets are getting lost. It is not a little ironical that millets that were once the poor man’s staple can now only be afforded by an elite few who consume these ‘superfoods’.
Climate change is tied closely to land-use and cropping practices. Steps should be taken towards changing them for a more sustainable future where there is food equality and land has not been exploited to a point of no return. Land and water are not the infinite resources they were once thought to be.
Pratyush Sinha
Patna