The Turn of the Decade

With the New Year come not only resolutions but reflections too on the year that was. The new year's day in '79 was not a pleasant one for me to indulge in such reflections, and indeed, to even look forward to the year just born, with any confidence.

However, daily life went on – the kids, office, home, and friends. The major preoccupation was the International Year of the Child that the UN had decided to observe that year. Being one of the two focal points in the ROSA office for the Year, I had, along with Razia Ismail, the Communication & Information Officer and the other focal point, a lot of meetings and discussions on policies and programmes to commemorate the Year. I also got into discussions on advocacy, a new area for me. Three incidents related to this work stand out in my memory .
The two of us had gone to the Jt. Secretary, Women and child Welfare Dept. to discuss some issues. As we stood before him, he looked theatrically above and beyond us and exclaimed pointedly, ' Oh, there is no Sr. Officer who has come from UNICEF for this meeting?'
Razia, always the quicker-witted one, riposted, “Mr. R., if you quickly look back and forth from Padmini to me and back again, you will see one Senior Officer between us two!”

We had quite a different experience with Dr.Vidyasagar, then Tribal Commissioner, Madhya Pradesh [a state with probably the largest tribal population in the country] when we met at his request. He first just said he wanted UNICEF assistance for the tribals, who were the most vulnerable sections of Indian society. As we began apologetically to explain that we were long on interest but short on funds, he abruptly intervened, “ I am not interested in your funds; I have plenty. I want UNICEF involved only for two reasons. You can help us sharpen our programming and bring in rigour into our planning and monitoring. And, if it is known that an international agency like UNICEF is involved, my own officers will be more on their toes”.

We did work on ideas with him, but finally nothing saw the light of day due to some bureaucratic holdups at the Centre.

During this meeting, he also referred to the controversy that raged and still does about the role of Christian missionaries in tribal areas. “I am not worried. So they most surely are proselytising in many cases. But then what have we Hindus done for the tribals all these centuries? What right do we have to take umbrage at either the missionaries who at least give them education, health and a better chance in life, or the tribals for being lured with these or even material gains into converting?”

Not politically correct then, or even now. But looking at events since then too, the exploitation of tribals goes on by both unscrupulous traders and moneylenders and by political parties, unless in some areas it is benign neglect in the name of protection by the State. On the other hand, neither the tribals nor the others who convert from the lowest rungs among the Hindus seem to have shed the stigma of their old caste or untouchability for the irony is that even the Christians and Muslims in India observe these distinctions and barriers in marriage, eating and social intercourse. As for the Neo-Buddhists, they are not recognised as just Buddhists as for example, the Tibetan Buddhists are, but as a separate group [and lowly in the eyes of the traditional Hindu].

IYC brought up among many civil society groups and in UNICEF the saying “India is a poor country with many rich people”. Razia and I had launched some initiatives based on this idea. In Rajasthan, we had some success in convincing the government to encourage donations by the rich Marwaris, a community of traders who are usually very well- off, to build rural schools, health centres and anganwadi centres, the payoff for them being that the facilities would be in their names.

Another move was to have run-down urban parks and playgrounds developed by better-off communities and rich people, into child-friendly ones by clearing and installing some simple play equipment. Further, we tried to get NGOs to provide simple health checkups, aid and counseling to the street children and other poor kids who might need them. As far as I know, this did not take off.

If I recall correctly, this was the year when the region had a regional mid-decade review of the UN decade of Women and Development in Kathmandu. It was a very interesting meet, my first regional event. Apart from the animated meetings themselves, the visit was memorable for the delicately lovely temple and palace towns of Bhatkapur and Patan. but the most thrilling experience was the Mountain Flight along the Himalayan range. This was courtesy our hosts. I went from left window to right window, clicking away as the pilot or steward announced one peak's name after the other – the famous ones, Kanchenganga, K2, Annapoorna, the great Everest too. But, sadly, when i printed out the photos, I could not make out one from the other! still the memory was great and photos not bad.

There were other national and regional events and in one of them I got a lovely hanging with the IYC logo, in a shepherd's coarse woolen weave. For years it used to hang in any office I had.


Meanwhile, in Afghanistan.....
Meanwhile, major political events in Afghanistan were impacting upon my life. The king was overthrown and the new regime was ushered. Things were in turmoil and the Great powers on either side of the Iron Curtain were baring their teeth! Egger sent the RD a message that I was not yet to be sent to Afghanistan, but to wait and watch developments.

So the months passed and then suddenly Egger gave the green signal for my assignment. By now, it was near the summer vacation and we had already made plans to go to Kodaikanal for a ten day holiday after a few days at Bangalore with my family.
Well, a brief discussion with the RD and it was agreed he should let the Kabul office know I would join within a month after my return to Delhi.

We had a very enjoyable holiday in Kodi with some false starts. We first went to a place that was for rent during the summer, the season, as it was termed. But it turned out to be badly maintained, with the household help either away or lazy, and too far from the lake, the shops etc. So we moved to the STC's holiday home for its staff, and were then able to really experience the hill station. Meera quickly mastered roller skating, but Adit was not too interested. I managed to renew my boating for a day or two, but mostly we walked and played with the children.

What startled me towards the end of it however was a telegram from Harry Lucker, the Deputy RD at Delhi informing me that the Kabul move was off- OFF! The Soviets had moved in from the north, with their tanks and whatnot trundling across and the country was in uproar. Of course, soon enough, the mujahadeen rose up and there was fighting all over the unfortunate country.

The UN has a system of phased emergency declarations when a country is in turmoil. The first couple of phases are of alert and then evacuation of families of international staff and the last few are of all non-essential [sic] such staff, and finally the office might close with only one national staff member holding fort for all the agencies together.

What happens to the national staff and their families, you might ask. Unfortunately, not much can be done for them though if they are political asylum seekers, or manage to escape from their country on their own, they are often posted temporarily in other country offices.

So it was that the Kabul office went through these various phases and there was no question of my transfer for some time to come! Then came another internal decision that paid put to the transfer even if the situation calmed down enough. The RD, Glan Davies, told HQ that since the Delhi office was starting the new country programme preparation for the period 1981-86, he would place an embargo on transfers till end of 1980.

Meanwhile, our section decided to continue the series of planning training workshops for more support staff. We had two during the year – In Ooty and Udaipur. Both were well attended and appreciated - we had been good learners. This was excellent preparation for the country programme work too, so the training was standing the ultimate test. [another note – many of the India support staff sooner or later went on to get promotions and/or international postings].

The country programme preparations were now on in full swing. Our section was in the thick of it – gathering data, analysing it ourselves as well as hiring consultants, meeting key officers in the government to get their views and plans and bounce off some of UNICEF's ideas...The preview was due in mid-1980, and we had to work at a frantic pace.