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- INDIA
The devout spent the last few days adoring the gods. Some friends however, took to the streets to distribute blankets and food packets to countless homeless people in Lucknow as temperatures plummeted nine degrees below normal.
Lucknow is in the grip of a severe cold wave and the forecast is for a few more freezing days ahead, with little or no sunshine. There are about 53 shelter homes in Lucknow but they are not enough for the city’s countless homeless people. According to the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) it runs 25 permanent and 28 temporary shelter homes.
Lucknow is one of the most developed cities of Uttar Pradesh, and the third most populated. It is a city with the second largest district in terms of number of households.
However, the growth of slums is also legendary here. More than 56 percent of slums are more than 50 years old. The total slum population of UP adds up to nearly 6.24 million people, which is 14 percent of the state's urban population.
Considering its huge concentration of slum population, which is characterised by a low asset base, and poor strategies, many deaths occur during the winter months. According to studies, households belonging to backward castes and minority communities face a higher level of vulnerability throughout the year, with sustained inequality and exploitation.
Cold And Hungry
Meanwhile, both humans and animals continue to bear the brunt of the cold wave sweeping across UP. A male elephant died in a drain in Meerut district last Wednesday. People suspect that the elephant was weak with hunger, and slipped into the narrow drain where he was unable to survive the cold.
In yet another incident a few kilometres away from the elephant’s dead body, a leopard was found dead in a jungle area of Bijnor district last Tuesday. Forest department officials blamed the cold weather for the big cat’s death.
In the same area about 20 people lost their lives after being attacked by leopards in the past and more than 50 villagers have been injured. In the past one year, the forest department had caged some 40 leopards to release them in zoos and safaris in Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Etawah.
The Women Of UP
January 24 is celebrated as the National Girl Child Day and claims are made that UP has made great strides in curbing the rate of dropouts of female students. However, the latest report of the Ministry of Family and Health Welfare titled the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for India has a different story to tell.
The report indicates a marginal drop in the number of women with higher education in UP. The percentage of women with over 10 years of education in Lucknow has declined from 56.3 percent to 51.9 percent. The last data was collected in 2021 and the next report will be released in 2024.
The maximum number of out-of-school children at the elementary level are in UP. It is bad news for the country’s poorest and most backward province that children here continue to opt out of elementary education, and girls are unable to complete their secondary school studies.
Some areas of improvement show that 88.28 percent of girls enrolled for upper primary after completing primary education, while 79.74 percent of girls who passed Class 10 took admission in Class 11. Over 14 percent more girls opted for higher secondary education after completing their secondary education than in the year 2019-2020 is the other good news.
Crimes against women continue to be high in UP. According to the National Commission for Women (NCW), there was a 46 percent rise in complaints of crimes against women in the first eight months of 2021 in India. More than half of these complaints were from UP.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows that out of the reported 3,78,277 cases of crime against women in the country in 2018, UP reported the maximum with 59,445 cases. Following this trend, UP recorded 59,853 cases in 2019 which was yet again the highest in the country.
This way, a section of the female population of UP continues to suffer in more ways than one. Only recently a 14-year-old girl from Mirazapur went missing for 12 days. She was finally found last Tuesday at the Prayagraj Railway Junction from where the police sent her to a children’s shelter.
The child was abducted on January 19 allegedly by a stranger who offered to show the mother and the child the holy sites of Prayagraj along the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Jamuna.
Back To Ayodhya
After last Monday’s puja in Ayodhya over nine metric tonnes of floral waste was collected. The plan is to recycle the floral waste into incense sticks.
That is good news for all those employed in the process of recycling the floral waste. Women are engaged by self-help groups to collect the floral offerings to the gods and to transform them into certified natural incense sticks.
The anticipated influx of devotees is expected to touch over 20 lakh every day, and the increasing amount of floral offerings are part of an environment friendly initiative to turn Ayodhya into a self-employed city of perfume.
In UP, no occasion is complete without the auspicious offering of the betel leaf wrapped in delicious goodness. Therefore the “paanwala” in the temple town is engaged in brisk business today.
Last Monday, just one “paanwala” alone sold 551 packs of betel leaves stuffed with the aromatic “gulkand”, and 50 varieties of spices to wake up the senses.
The “halwai” is not doing too badly either. One sweetmeat vendor had supplied over five kg of “peda” for the main event last Monday. The other sweetmeats in demand were “laddoos”.
The “mahaprasad” or the main offering of sweetmeats was prepared with more than 5,000 kg of ingredients by a team of some 200 people. The ingredients used in the main offering meant for the ‘very important’ devotees included pure ghee, gram flour, sugar and five different dry fruits.
The other devotees were offered free meals at various community kitchens hosted by different organisations. The hot meals and tea offered throughout the temple town were most welcome to wade away both hunger and the cold.
