Round-up of regional news

Sex on the BBC

BBC is into sex. The bastion of propriety, after spending years broadcasting on all conceivable issues, has finally waken up to what is possibly the most popular subject in the worlds.

Now, before you reach for your dia1, it is not sexually explicit audio- drama that The Beeb is presenting. Instead, Bush House is running a series of radio documentaries on sex and reproductive health in eight South Asian languages plus English. The largest sex education class ever is being run by the BBC, beaming to 52 million listeners in the region.

The programs have been commissioned by the Education Department of the BBC World Service, supported by the International Planned Parenthood Federation. (IPPF). For most languages, this is the first sex-education program ever to be aired. "The national broadcasting outlets would never have done it. Most do not even dare use the word 'condom': which is why, coming straight out, the BBC has done something tremendously useful,' says Afsan Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi journalist who is producer of the series in Bangla.

Working both in Bangladesh and West Benga1, Mr Chowdhury took six months to complete the fifteen episodes, each 12 minutes long, which began broadcasting on 6 March "Not just on radio, there is no such thing as sex education in Bangladesh,, so you can imagine the value of the programme," says the producer.

"There was some concern about the series getting a hostile reception from a traditional Bengali society but that hasn't happened yet," says Manoshi Barua, the Bush House-based producer of the programme "We have been cautious but not leashed by fears of controversy Response reports are good".

Mr Barua says a large number of people worked together to get the series off the ground – experts, health workers, journalists and entertainers. Most felt that sex-education programme was long overdue, more so as a possible AIDS pandemic is increasingly becoming a reality in South Asia.

"When I first heard the programme, I turned it off because I didn't want my children to hear it" said Abdul Haque, a development agency worker in Dhaka "Now, when the program starts I walk ou so that the children can listen" Mr. Haque says his wife still feels uneasy about the programme but neither does she stop the children from listening.

There have been some complaints, however, that the programme is sometimes too explicit for family listening. "There may be some complaints. but the overwhelming response is positive", says Mahbubul Alam, Assistant Director of Information and Communication of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB) which, as the IPPE's Bangladeshi counterpart, is doing the follow-up work related to the sex programme.

FPAB's main responsibility is to respond to letters requesting for more information, much of which is contained in a specially produced booklet, says Mr Alam. 'We are receiving on an average a hundred letters per day, which is phenomenal. In fact, it is almost beyond our capacity to manage. Bengalis from as far as Singapore and the Middle East have written to us Many organisations have asked for bulk copies, and there is keen interest to follow up this with more of the same."

Mr Chowdhury attributes this kind of response to the lack of reliable Information on sex in a conservative South Asian society. "There is a mountain of misinformation that is in social circulation, which has resulted in an overload of fear and guilt when it comes to sex and sexuality. We are no more or less promiscuous than any other society, but sex is a big secret, the ultimate taboo. Consequently, the population is highly vulnerable to both psychological and physical ailments. The only treatment is education, which explains the response to the programme.'

The issues covered in the Bangla series include puberty, pregnancy, sexual dysfunction, child abuse, homosexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and contraception. It is BBC for now, but hopefully the, national broadcasters will follow suit after they see that there has been no adverse reaction to the BBC effort.

Apart from Bangla, the sex series is also being aired in Hindi, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Sinhala, Tamil, Urdu and English.

SAARC Pakistan and Druk Yul

WHILE THERE ARE enough bilateral issues that make South Asian governments froth at the mouth (Kashmir. Farakka etç), it is rare that a South Asian country pointedly criticizes another on a problem relating to a third SAARC member.

Call it honest opprobrium or opportunistic posturing, but the Islamabad overnment last month: using diplomatic language criticized the Thimphu authorities by raising the matter of Lhotshampa refugees.

In a press release issued on 11 April, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad expressed its concern at the refugee problem between two of its friendly neighbours and co-partners in SAARC." Referring to refugee exporter Bhutan and host country Nepal, who have been engaged in desultory negotiations for the last four years, the Pakistani government hoped "that this problem would not be too long drawn out and that the two countries involved will be able to put this issue behind and end the sufferings of those forced to live in refugee camps."

"We as a SAARC country urge India, common neighbour to those two countries, from whose territory the refugees have been pushed into Nepal, to exercise, wisdom and restraint in this matter," said the Pakistani government. Further, it added, "The number of Bhutanese refugees is put at around 110,000. Going by the population figure cited by the Government of Bhutan, these refugees represent more than 1/6th of the population of Bhutan."

Well, one thing that we will say for the chutzpah that went into drafting the press release in Islamabad. While bilateral (or trilateral for that matter) issues are not all owed by the SAARC Charter, here is a loophole that may be used. You can evoke the SAARC spirit, and who is to deny a government that right"!

The Wayward Uncle

Now, there is a SAARC bone of contention if ever there was one, except that no one is bothering about it. Subhas Ghising, the lion that roars from the Darjeeling hills, says that Kaliinpong belongs to Bhutan and Darjeeling is no-man's land.

For long, Mr Ghising has picked on the matter, going over the head of the West Bengal government to gain attention from New Delhi. The justices of the Supreme Court in New Delhi dismissed his petition some time back, but Mr Ghising was ready and willing to raise the issue again in the run-up to the Lok Sabba elections. The supremo of the Gorkha National Uberation Front asked the largely Nepali-speaking voters of Daijeeling to boycott the polls.

His call, said Mr Ghising, was "to register our protest against the criminal silence of India and all national parties on the incorporation of our region into the Indian Unions' Elections cannot be held in the Darjeeling hills and the adjoining Doars, he told the Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshän, until the commission is able to provide documents proving the constitutional status for the region.

As reported by the Calcutta Telegraph. Mr Ghising pretty much accused everyone 'The government of India aid parties like the Congress, the BJP, the janata Dal, the CPI (M) and the CPI are criminals as they have failed to integrate our region into India They have betrayed the nation created by Gandhiji.

Mr Ghismg, presently head of the Darjeeling Hill Development Council claims that Kalimpong was on loan from Bhutan, during British times and its status in India was never regularized. Similarly, he claims that Daijeeling's standing is ambiguous because the British took the hill station from Sikkim on lease but did nothing about it when they left in 1947. Both Kalirripongand Dirjeling; therefore, hanging limbo; says Mr Ghising.

What is more important than the legalism advanced by Mr Ghising—for Bhutan professes no interest in the restitution of these lands and. Shikkim is now a part of the indian union-is the fact that the Darjeeling boss is using the argument for its nuisance value He wants to use it for maintaining his own profile; while presumably furthering the interests of the Nepali-speaking hills of 'Darjeeling.

What is most interesting about Mr Ghising's daring is that he has not been hauled over the coals by the Indian establishment or the media for being anti-national" There is an almost indulgent air among would be critics, as if Mr Ghising were a wayward uncle who should be allowed to have his say but not be taken too seriously.

No analyst HIMAL South Asia spoke to had clear answer as to why Mr Glising was thus being humoured/ignored by North Block and South Block Obviously, a subject for a seminar, preferably to be held in Darjeelig in mid-summer.

Powerless in Sri Lanka

WHILE A SELECT committee of the Sri Lankan parliament discusses devolution of power to the various provinces, another kind of power crisis has crippled the country. A prolonged drought in the central highlands has dried up the giant reservoirs of the Mahaweli Scheme, and what little water they held was used up two months ago to provide continuous electricity to feed television sets during the World Cup Cricket.

Rather than become unpopular islandwide by mandating power cuts while Sri Lanka achieved cricketing glory, the government of Chandrika Kumaratunga decided to allow the turbines to spin away. Today, the country is paying for splurging all that electricity, with daily powercuts that last for six hours at a stretch.

"As long as we're depending mainly on hydro power, we have to depend on the weather," said Tilak Ranaviraja, acting Secretary of the Power and Energy Ministry. There may be no real respite until the southwest monsoon arrives in late May. The northeast monsoon also brings intermittent thundershowers, but that rain is inadequate to fill reservoirs.

Sri Lanka has a total power generating capacity of about 1,250 MW, 80 percent of which come from hydroelectric plants—mostly from the ambitious Mahaweli Scheme which also stores water to irrigate a massive resettlement area in the dry northeast. The country's drive to open up the economy and attract foreign investment has driven demand to grow by 10 percent per year. No new power plant has been built in Sri Lanka in the past six years.

The government has also urged consumers to conserve electricity, which could save the Central Electricity Board about 40 to 50 gigawatt hours. With scope for hydroelectricity being limited and dependent entirely on the weather, the government plans to more than double its thermal power generation capacity, an expensive proposition as it will drive up the oil import bill.

A few years ago, everyone had thought that the Mahaweli was a long-term answer to the island's energy and irrigation needs. And today you have electricity managers fearing another Sri Lankan win in cricket. At that point, the country would go into total blackout.

Desi Spin Doctors

If you thought bussing babies, waving with your arms rather than only your hands, and dressing to please specific vote banks were the preserve of slick American political candidates, think again.

All these techniques became part of the rough and tumble of Indian politics with the latest Lok Sabha elections. Reeling from a Hawala-hangover, and with credibility at an all-time low, Indian politicians turned to 'image management agencies' to improve their electoral prospects in the late April and early May general elections.

Perfect Relations, the pioneer image agency in the country, says it was approached by two major political parties, eight individuals, and two state governments to sell themselves to the electorate. Delhi-based Dilip Cherian, who left his job as an economic journalist to start Perfect Relations, says a confidentiality code prevents him from revealing the names of clients.

Mr Cherian says his company streamlines the strategy and communication skills of clients. "We help them in communication planning like telling them when they should, for example, give a message on the minorities. We also advise them on what kind of speeches they should give and the best way to frame their manifestos." Perfect Relations, and other image-makers who have joined the fray, also train politicians on how to speak to the media, the use of sound bites, and what kind of message to give to different kinds of audiences ("tell them what they want to hear").

The confidentiality clause helps to enhance the success of the programme, says Mr Cherian, since "no one knows who is using you and how". At least 18 people from his agency travelled and worked closely with the candidates to discover their strengths and weaknesses during the elections. They helped build on the strengths of the candidates, while weaknesses were either removed or tucked away.

This is the second time the agency has worked at refurbishing the image of politicans. The first time was in the assembly elections last year when, Mr Cherian claims, their communication strategies and training proved highly successful.

Indian image-makers are departing from the wholesome "mom and apple pie" tack of their American counterparts. They have to take into account the country's complex caste hierarchies, inter-religious sentiments, and its multitude of languages, cultures and idioms.

All said and done, the image managers have arrived on the Indian campaign trail. Whether it will do the Indian public good or bad, is to be seen from the crop of parliamentarians that the latest elections have produced.

Yaks Die in Tibet

It was the worst disaster in half a century. The snowstorm that lashed the Yushu region in Tibet earlier this year left 400,000 to 700,000 yaks dead before it lifted. A third of the 80,000 Tibetan herders in the region saw their entire livestock wiped out. For a people whose life is totally dependent on the yak, the implications were numbing.

All this happened in February, but other than scattered coverage in the international media, the world was unaware of the scale of the devastation in a remote north-eastern corner of Tibet, 800 km from Xining, the capital of Qinghai province.

Yaks provide the inhabitants of this area with practically everything needed for daily sustenance—meat, milk, butter, fuel, wool, and skin. With the beasts all dead, people are staring at starvation and, if that is stalled, hard times, for years to come. Herds built up with care and patience are no more.

"The bodies of dead cattle can be seen everywhere, even the vultures are not in the mood to eat," one government official told Reuters. Most of the yaks and their herders were caught unawares by the heavy snowfall and temperatures that dropped down to minus 47 degrees Celsius. Yaks simply froze to death, while thousands of men and women suffered from frostbite and snow blindness.

Relief efforts began in earnest with the Chinese army working with local monasteries to distribute supplies. Money is being sent from China's coastal cities, and Hong Kong. The Dalai Lama made a donation of USD 15,000 and called for international assistance to help raise the estimated USD 37 million needed to rebuild the herds. It is doubtful, however, that the money will be raised. If there was a devastating snowstorm on the high plateau, and nobody heard, who is to say that anyone will feel the obligation?

Women, Children and Religion

A very differentiated group of religionists, scholars and social critics gathered in Kathmandu in late March to discuss "Religion, Ethics, Rights of Children and Women in South Asia". Organised by the Unicef Regional Office for South Asia, the workshop provided an opportunity to evaluate the present stage of intellectualism among the "Buddhist, Christian, indigenous, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism faiths."

Said the Secretary of the Special Commission for Cultural Affairs of Druk Yul: "Bhutan, being basically a Buddhist country, social discrimination against women and children is not known." The Nepali representative, a professor at Tribhuvan University, said, "In Nepal, there is religious harmony, peace and equality because of tolerance and broadmindedness of Hindus towards the whole human being."

Quoting from Manusmriti, the ancient Hindu code of conduct, the professor maintained that Hinduism had always respected women. Warming to his subject, he went on to state that there was no discrimination in Hinduism even between male or female deities, "as Durga, Mahalaxmi, Mahasraswati, Mahakali, Kumari, Astamatrika, Dashmahabidya (are) equally worshipped as Vishnu or Shiva."

Compared to the bland Nepali and Bhutanese representations of "all's well in our part of the world", there were others given to a more analytical bent. The venerable Bhikkhu from Sri Lanka criticised the lowly position of "women in India". Placed on a high pedestal by the Rig Veda, women were brought down by the time of the Dharma Shastras, and stigmatised as being ritually impure, he said.

At times, accusations flew across the table, particularly between Hindu traditionalists and Dalit representatives. A Dalit journalist went about proving that only 15 percent of India's population were 'Hindu', the other 85 percent being made up, he said, of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Castes, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. Taking liberties with the demography of a neighbouring country, he stated that "it is a minority of Hindus who are ruling in the Buddhist Nepal." For good measure, he added, "Buddha was from Nepal" and that, "Bombay's red light areas are packed with Nepali Dalit girls".

Those who seemed capable of scholarly detachment and self-criticism, and did not feel the need to put down other creeds, were the three-member delegation from Pakistan. One delegate commented on the tendency to look for all answers in the Quran, which was not "an encyclopaedia". The Holy Book, he said, provided an ethical framework, and you cannot "impute to it a nature which it does not claim."

Another Pakistani scholar's thesis was that there are discrepancies which exist between Quranic ideals and Muslim practice with regards to women's issues. "While the Quran appears to be weighted in many ways in favour of women, Muslim societies, in general, appear to be far more concerned with trying to control women's bodies and sexuality than with their human rights," she said.

Similar levels of introspection were not forthcoming from most of the other participants at the Unicef-organised meeting. A UNICEF representative said that the meeting had had the modest goal of bringing together disparate groups to discuss the well- being of women and children in South Asian societies.

Whether they might have learnt something or not, the inter-faith group certainly went away with an earful of each other's pet agendas, which did not always include children and women.

Happy New Year

ONE OF THE many things that brings Subcontinentals together, without doubt, is their native calendars, which continue to hold their own cultural significance against the onslaught of the Gregorian invader. Mid-April was when many South Asians celebrated the new year by the lunar calendar.

In Nepal, where the government actually runs on the Vikram Sambat (the year dawning as 2053), Baisakh One (13 April) was celebrated with a holiday. In Kathmandu offices, clerks did "khata puja", meaning they burned incense and prayed over their ledger books. Meanwhile, constitutional King Birendra came on air over Radio Nepal to wish his subjects well.

In Rangoon, authorities blocked the road leading to Aung San Suu Kyi's home in order to keep her pro-democracy supporters from celebrating the Burmese new year on 16 April. Ms Suu Kyi had planned to walk to the city's most venerated temple, the Shwedagon Pagoda, to release fish in a pond.

In Sri Lanka, Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte was being given a hard time at a press conference by reporters who recalled a forecast he had made back in December that the war in the north would be over by the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. That day was 12 April, which led a young reporter to ask the commandant of the Sri Lankan armed forces, "Do you believe that the war will be over by the next new year?"

Meanwhile at the northern curve of the Bay of Bengal, 14 April saw Pahela Baisakh, the first day of the Bangla New Year of 1403. Marked as a holiday in both the Indian state of West Bengal and Bangladesh, the noboborsho (new year) was celebrated with Baisakhi melas (fairs). In the words of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengalis "let the old and the decaying be swept away" on this day.