Maid and MaYed in Mumbai

 Maid and MaYed in Mumbai

I was talking to my Kerala friend about encouraging the MSMEs when he interrupted and asked if I was  talking about MaYde in India policy. It took me only a second to understand that he meant Made in India policy because the Malayalees pronounce Blade as BlaYde and Table as TaYble adding a nasal Y accent to these words.  As I was already thinking of writing a blog on the iconic institution of the Maids of Mumbai, I decided to extend the scope of the blog to include the goods  of MSMEs which are  MaYde in Mumbai. 

  Dharavi in Mumbai ,with an area of 535 acres and  a population of more than one million, is considered as one of  the world's largest slums and a highly diverse settlement religiously and ethnically.   It has also the distinction of being the Maximum city's MSME hub  of a 1 billion dollar economy  with its  5000 businesses in some 15000 single room factories. The products manufactured are primarily garments, rexin and leather goods , soaps and detergents, potteries, furniture and food items. Additionally there are units engaged in tannery, tailoring, plastic recycling . In the case of leather and rexin goods , there are units making  hand bags of international brands , belts, shoes and and their imitations at a lower price. its products are exported to USA , Europe and the Middle east.  The congestion and lack of infrastructure here  has necessitated a plan for its  redevelopment .

  The Maids of Mumbai are the thousands of Kaam Bais working as part time cooks,  house-keeping karmcahris , care providers for children and the old and the infirm and a score of other ad-hoc jobs.  . They are mostly second or third generation Mumbai  Maharashtrians and are known for their honesty , sincerity and worth ethos. They undertake the work on a jab by job basis like sweeping and dusting , washing, cleaning utensils , each considered as a job and a wage  rate specific  to each. Regularity and  punctuality is their hall mark ,  mansoon or no mansoon. 

The cooks among them learn the different cuisines desired by the employer . Very presentable in  colourful sarees and well -fitting blouses or kameez and pajamas , oiled and groomed hairdos with some flowers tucked on the bun ,  they project a picture of good health and  hygiene . Some of them  look  even more sophisticated  and polished than perhaps their lady employers making some husbands leer at them.   They send their children to good schools, have the saving habit and not dreaded to discipline their men if  the need arises.  They may be servants in  others homes but they are certainly the  masters in  their own  homes. They are not shy of asking for a raise in their wages every year , a months salary as bonus on Diwali and 2 days leave with pay every month. Though not unionised, one can not sack them without their consent. 

What would life  be  in Mumbai without  Dharavi and the Kaam bais is hard to imagine.

 

Dr. A.V. Raman. Ph. D (Pune) B.A. (Hons), AICWA

Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow.

 

                                                       Board Barrier

 As one who has spent around three decades in the field of higher education, I was happy to read “Board Results don’t Impact one’s Larger Academic and Professional Journey Prof. Bijayalaxmi Nanda in Mumbai Times on May 18. She hits the nail on its head when she observes “It is the collective responsibility of society to stop judging children based on board examinations. Let me add some more thoughts.

The joint responsibility begins in the child’s home where more often than not the child is coerced   to believe that board results are the be all and end all through inducement or threat or even punishment. This should stop forthwith. The argument that in a highly competitive process of admission to professional education, board examination results coupled with an even more tough common entrance test score is counter-productive as the child may develop a morbid fear of examinations and tests. A student getting 98.9 % in Biology and comes within the first 100 ranks in NEET need not necessarily be suited for pursuing a curriculum of professional education in medicine unless an aptitude test to assess his/her capability to practice medicine is administered and evaluated. Similarly, within the MBA scene, a person somewhat shy and withdrawn may not be suitable for a sales job requiring an outgoing personality.

The second   entity involved in executing the joint responsibility is the print media who publish interviews of students scoring unbelievable high scores and the preparations they made for their high performance, with photographs of their parents to boot!  It is quite in order if the schools they passed out from recognize their merit in special functions and award them prizes but what good is the advertisements except the commercial interests of the Coaching Institutes. A recent film” All India Rank” highlights the travails of a student being subjected to unceasing pressure by his father to make it to admission for a private coaching institute in Kota for IIT entrance examination.

The third entity is appropriate policy for reducing competition faced by students due to demand- supply mis match particularly in undergraduate professional courses. The National Education Policy is sadly silent in this regard  except saying that the policy for college admission is “” based on the pillars of Access, Equity, Quality “, Affordability and Accountability”., As for professional course in Medicine it states “Given that people exercise pluralistic choices in healthcare, our health-care education system must be integrative meaning thereby that all students of allopathic medical education must have a basic understanding of Ayush and vice versa.”  ...

The fourth entity is the employer, both government and private. It is not clear how these agencies would redefine their qualification requirements for jobs.  With the graded system up to secondary school and curriculum designed to include knowledge and skills, the student now has the option to drop out at the end of the first and second years with certificate and diploma respectively, the employer should stipulate qualification/experience requirements. This may further include clarification on issues like the student dropping out will get preference to rejoin his employer .

 It is fervently hoped that issue raised here draws the attention of all concerned with children and their education

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Crowd Management  : An Alternative Perspective

 Huge crowd gatherings are  not new to  India. Any occasion is good enough ;  fairs and festivals,  religious discourses  pravachans , sporting events etc. Massive crowds from all over the country gather like  at Kumbh Melas. Political parties too gather huge crowds providing  free transport and other incentives. In recent times,  the national passion for cricket has also become  a big crowd puller.

Organisers of these events obtain permission form Local Administrations and the latter  provide facilities like   drinking water, toilet , temporary accommodation in tents, special buses and   trains to and from the site , first-aid,  general medical and sanitary services to control spread of diseases like cholera, etc. Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering ,a 2014 publication of National Disaster Management Authority is replete with details of precautions and provisions for managing crowds.   These only represent the strategy  in crowd management from the ""Supply" side.  

    With a growing population , increased per capita income and improved transport services,  crowds swell in large numbers every year  posing enormous problems for Local authorities to provide these facilities adequately .   Further , there is the unpredictable risk of the crowd getting into a frenzy to rush to the temple, river or the spiritual guru to have darshan, the holy bath or blessings of the Guru. . If there is lack of any of the arrangements, heaven forbid,  the catastrophe of human misery of death and injury of hundreds of people.  Added to these is the problem of law and order when  anti-social elements get into the fray. 

    No matter how adequately or efficiently they are provided , there would always be a gap between what is required and what is provided. Therefore, it is time to address the crowd management problem from "Demand" side. .In a nutshell,  this would comprise policy initiatives to curb the crowd attendance in fairs and festivals. At best,  encouragement  by providing incentives for travel to the sites should be stopped forthwith.as some State governments announced  free  trains and buses to Ayodhya after the Ram Mandir consecration.  Instead,  some additional fare could have been levied to transport the devotees in safety and  comfort.  ..Another option could be to stagger the fairs in two or three segments spread over a month. For instance,  the Shahi Snan (Bath) in Kumbh Mela could be on two days of the   same Shukla/Krishna Paksha   "Thithis" occurring at monthly interval... 

    These ideas  may not be brushed aside even if they ruffle the feathers.in  some sections of the people  A dispassionate  understanding and cooperation of Heads of religious and social groups should dispel any objection if  they realise  the implication of an unrestricted  crowd   the limited resources for  provision of safety and comfort  and the grave risk of damage to life and property if  crowds are not restricted in number..