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Bangalore: Imagine your kid or nephew or niece or a friend’s kid stranded outside the school on a stormy afternoon because he or she missed the school bus. All the roads in the city are choc-a-bloc filled. The streets are flooded with water. There are live wires hanging from uprooted electric poles, on the roads. Your kid needs your assistance, but can’t communicate the same to you. Why? The government has banned them from using mobile phones.
Last month Karnataka government banned the use of mobile phones by anybody under the age of 16. Now, the Tamil Nadu government has banned the use of mobile phones in schools. It seems that it is not enough to keep the phone switched off in the class; the students’ bags will be checked to see if they carry a mobile phone – they can’t carry the device on them, period. What prompted the to come in to action here? I concede that children probably text message each other in the class, which is a distraction and obviously impermissible. Of course, there could be other menaces also like the kids playing games, listening to music etc while the class is on. The mobile phones could also posse a problem of more sinister nature, as we witnessed in a Delhi school in the multimedia messages (MMS) case, not so long ago. I accept that there are distractions and other detrimental aspects when we hand mobile phones to kids. But aren’t we pushing ourselves into an old era? To me this knee jerk reaction looks more akin to the ostrich burying its head in the ground and wishing away the problem. While our Nation harps on the big strides we have made in mass communication; while we pat ourselves on keeping the traditions of democracy alive; and while we pride in our constitution and judiciary – is it right to curtail the right of a child to the communicate via mobile phones? The pity is that there are parents & teachers vouching for this action. Like I said, this at best is a knee jerk reaction. There is a problem – acknowledged. But, is the current solution optimum? No. Other avenues haven’t been explored at all. Can we put in a control at the point of sale? – Kids can have only phones without camera. Can we put in a control at the place of contention, the classroom? – All children to place their phones at the front of the classroom, in a designated stand or compartment, while the class is in progress. There could be hundred other things that could be done instead of banning kids from using mobile phones. We should explore them prior to imposing this kind of a retrograde diktat.

There is only one word that comes to mind instantly when I hear this action – Ridiculous!

(c) Suresh Damodaran,2007

The bane of our nation is not population, neither is it the lack of education nor lack of resources, but a complete lack of ability to plan and stick to the roadmap. The current standoff between the traders and the MCD officials in New Delhi is typical case in point. This situation would not have arisen had the urban development laws been adhered to. This is exactly the reason for our backwardness; if one of our steps is progressive there are ten others which are retrograde. The courts have rightly said that the government should not allow a handful of citizens to hold the entire city to ransom. On the other hand, a strong point in favor of the traders is that the government had taxed them all these years for the revenue they generated out of these establishments. A solution to this impasse would be to legitimize these shops and outlets! Yes, if the drive to dislodge them from their current locations is a detrimental step for the people involved, the solution could be to legalize their holdings on the condition that they pay a hefty penalty first. They could also be allowed to pay such a penalty in a staggered fashion spread over many years; the exact amount of the penalty could be so decided that they are commensurate to a certain percentage of the market value of the shops.

It looks like a viable option to break the stand off, unless the government is bent upon having the land for some other purpose.

(c) Suresh Damodaran,2007