[Urbanstudy] Re: Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 26, Issue 4

Fri Apr 7 11:02:31 IST 2006

I share your concern for quality education for all. Please open attachment to have a look at a paper I published in University Today, dated 15th Nov,2005.
Regads,
V.P.Jain

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 Bijulal M.V. wrote :
>dear friends
>
>Yesterday 27 activists from urban bastis, working on education met at mobile
>cretches to discuss a shared strategy on ensuring right to education to
>children living in the slums
>
>Some basic concerns shared were
>
>the increasing threat to meaningful education through policy suggessions
> from authorities (like the  Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs on making
>Maths, Science anfd English Optional subjects after 8th standard)
>
>Increasing non-institutional means of denying admisions and free/ equal
>learning opportunities for the urban poor-maily the dalits. Negative
>attitude of teachers and increase of physical punishment were highlighted in
>this regard
>
>Failing of children in the said subjects in large nos. A survey from Vazir
>pur suggests the school related factors are the most important reasons for
>this toi happen
>
>A mass campaign folowed by specific interventions in different places in the
>city are envisaged in the meeting, strategies and details of which would be
>finalised after hearing from organisations and individuals
>
>The gathering was attended by activists, Academics and was chaired by Dr
>Anil Satgopal
>
>Please send your responses . also send a copy of your responses to
>mosadrel at yahoo.com. You can also call up 9868078123 for further enquiries
>
>thanking you
>
>Bijulal
>ISI
>
>On 4/6/06, urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net <
>urbanstudygroup-request at sarai.net> wrote:
> >
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> > Today's Topics:
> >
> >   1. Is that female a contractor? (mythri )
> >   2. [Fwd: Citizen intaraction meeting under JNNURM] (ESG VSNL India)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: 5 Apr 2006 10:29:57 -0000
> > From: "mythri " <mythriprasad at rediffmail.com>
> > Subject: [Urbanstudy] Is that female a contractor?
> > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
> > Message-ID: <20060405102957.24728.qmail at webmail17.rediffmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
> >
> > I am currently part of the Sarai Student Stipendship Program.Focusing on
> > the road construction sites in Trivandrum city,Kerala, my research attempts
> > to understand the political economy of urban infrastructure building in the
> > context of a regime of privatization. Pieces of legislation concerning
> > roads, documents of international lending agencies and the public works
> > department, conversations with workers and visits to their living quarters
> > and work sites, and interviews with local contractors, engineers and workers
> > are the major sources of this study.
> > What are the implications of the movement of global capital represented by
> > companies like Punj- Lloyd for local capital?
> >
> > I attended a two-day construction summit organized by All Kerala
> > Government Contractors' Association in November 2005 organised in Hotel
> > Windsor Palace in Kottayam. Listening to Varghese Kannampalli , the
> > association's president one gathers an urgency in his voice.
> >
> > "We are standing on the footboard of a super deluxe bus, not allowed to
> > enter the bus. We pick up and eat the orange peels thrown out of the bus. We
> > have to rush forth into the bus. We need to take initiative for a liberation
> > struggle (vimochana samaram)"
> >
> >
> > In the construction summit held at Kottayam, local contractors realized
> > the importance of possessing expensive machinery. They were contemplating
> > the formation of equipment banks whereby five or six of them pool in money
> > to buy expensive equipments. In fact, as part of the summit there was an
> > exhibition of equipments and a presentation of their various uses and
> > functions by representatives of Larson& Toubro Case Equipment Private Ltd.
> > The presentation consisted of a promo of a few road-building equipments and
> > an offer of discount of Rs. 40, 000 for the participants of the summit. The
> > advertising jingle of a loader backhoe (L&T Case 851) heard in the summit
> > makes for an interesting read.
> >
> > This is world's latest technology
It is technology that is proven in work
> > sites across the world. Now it comes to you.
> >
> > Eight Five One is the One
> > It is strong and sturdy
> > Working all day long

> > L&T Case.
> > It gives you more
> > It helps you soar

> > Eight five one is the One.
> >
> > The L&T Case 851
> > Is the brute with brain
> > The marvel with muscle
> > Its High-tech Hydraulics

> >
> > The appeal is to the listener's masculinity and it explicitly invokes the
> > man-machine relationship and a certain technical sociability which usually
> > excludes women. But the lone woman contractor in the meeting and an engineer
> > by training, Ms.Lata Kumari seemed to be the only participant who could
> > comment in detail about these equipments. As she participated in the
> > discussion, I overheard a contractor asking another: "Is that female a
> > contractor? (Aa pennumbilla contractor aano?)".
> > What I witnessed was a subversion of the terms of man-machine
> > relationship, immediately recognized and acknowledged by the men with
> > surprise and suspicion. To confront and negotiate global and big capital and
> > the regime of gigantic machines in road building, the local contractor had
> > to graduate from an individual entrepreneur at the mercy of a Kafkaesque
> > bureaucracy of the public works department to a businessman who can summon
> > men, machine and materials at short notice. The local contractors, most of
> > whose entrepreneurship was shaped in an agrarian setting, seem to be
> > struggling in this respect.
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> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 16:25:31 +0530
> > From: ESG VSNL India <esg at bgl.vsnl.net.in>
> > Subject: [Urbanstudy] [Fwd: Citizen intaraction meeting under JNNURM]
> > To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net, ECwatch <ecwatch at yahoogroups.com>
> > Message-ID: <4433A223.1060405 at bgl.vsnl.net.in>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
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> > ------------------------------
> >
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> >
> > End of Urbanstudygroup Digest, Vol 26, Issue 4
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> >
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