The Hindu : New Delhi News : Reader's Mail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Reader's Mail

Over to CBSE

The new academic year for school children has just begun and a fresh batch of students are getting ready to face the stressful Board examinations in March 2006. The markets are already flooded with so many so-called reference books whose authenticity no one is sure about in the absence of the textbooks prescribed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Some of these publishers claim that their books have been recommended by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as textbooks. These books contain certain topics/chapters which are not part of the CBSE syllabus. Different schools recommend different authors. CBSE conducts seminars for school teachers to add new topics or delete certain chapters from the syllabus. The all-important follow-up action is not taken. As a result, many of the students/schools in Delhi are deprived of the latest syllabus, what to speak of the schools located in other parts of the country. The worst sufferers are the private candidates appearing at the Board examinations through the correspondence stream.

In all fairness, at the beginning of the academic year itself CBSE should come out with the latest syllabus and prescribed textbooks. This information should also be posted on the Internet. There should be no addition or deletion of topics in the middle of the year. NCERT books should also be updated promptly with the latest syllabus. Many teachers/students are uncertain about the latest syllabus till the Board examinations. They keep their fingers crossed till the time they see the question papers. To avoid all this confusion, CBSE must make available the latest syllabus along with sample papers at the beginning of the academic year itself and not at the eleventh hour.

S.M. Hussain,

Director, Vision Academy,

D-1, Amar Colony,

Lajpat Nagar-IV,

New Delhi - 110 024.

Girl child

Over the years, there has been a considerable decline in the child sex ratio in India. The phenomenon is not limited to rural areas alone; an equally alarming trend is discernible in the so-called "educated" urban areas, especially Delhi, as well. I would like to commend the Delhi Government's Directorate of Family Welfare for starting a widespread campaign against female foeticide, but I find its approach, evident through its advertisements, posters and hoardings, objectionable.

Sample this: "Female foeticide means less of mother, sister and wife's love, forever". (This is what the advertisement published in many national newspapers on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8 said.) Or this: "Agar beti nahi hogi, to bete kee bahu kahan se laaoge?" (If there are no daughters, how will there be daughters-in-law? -- Caption on hoardings near some government hospitals).

Though the intentions and motive of the Directorate are undoubtedly good, the captions are stereotypical and in keeping with the age-old patriarchal notions.

Why is it that to realise the importance of a girl child, society always tends to see her in relation to others, particularly men? She is always pictured as a sister, a wife, a daughter-in-law or a mother! Sexual dimorphism exists in homo sapiens, then why can't the girl child be protected for her own sake?

Sneha Banerjee,

B.A.(Honours) Political Science 1st Year,

Miranda House,

University of Delhi,

Delhi - 110 007.

Train, please

With effect from October 9, 2002, the Railway Board introduced a day train, Garhwal Express, between Delhi and Kotdwar for the travelling public of district Bijnor and Kotdwar. This train leaves Delhi Junction at 6-55 a.m., proceeding via Ghaziabad, Hapur, Gajraula, Chandpur, Bijnor and Najibabad, but does not stop at Basi-Kiratpur in district Bijnor, which causes a great deal of inconvenience to passengers of Kiratpur. They have to go all the way to Najibabad or Bijnor to board this train. Similar is the problem from Kotdwar to Delhi. We are unable to understand why this step-motherly treatment to the passengers of Kiratpur. There are hundreds of passengers who are working in Delhi and living in Basi-Kiratpur. If this train stops at Basi-Kiratpur just for a minute or so, it will not create any difficulty for the railway administration. On the other hand, hundreds of passengers will benefit and so will the Railways with the consequent generation of additional income from these passengers.

The Railway Board is earnestly requested to provide a stoppage of this train at Basi-Kiratpur with immediate effect.

M.B. Dubey Bijnori,

Secretary, Dainik Yatri Sangh,

1/10459, Mohan Park,

Naveen Shahdara,

Delhi - 110 032.

RBI's ways

The Reserve Bank of India claims to have sent to me by courier a deposit interest warrant which it says was received by someone signing as KS. There is no one with that name or those initials in my two-member household.

RBI has now advised me to wait up to July 1, on which date the validity of the interest warrant would expire, and then submit an application for a new warrant. I would like to know why a depositor should have to wait beyond the due date for money that is legally due to him, lose interest on it for six months and more, and be subjected to bureaucratic procedures for no fault of his. And what happens if someone manages in between to cash the warrant?

I thought RBI was an exemplary institution. Is it one really?

T.N. Madan,

MD-6 Sah Vikas,

68 I.P. Extension,

Delhi - 110 092

No show

One of the leading cable operators in South Delhi is a nuisance. Almost every month he stops telecasting a few channels and changes his bouquet of channels altogether as he has continuing problems with the operator from whom he gets all the channels for his telecast.

So for all practical purposes it is the cable operators who call the shots and not the TV viewers who have no control over the channels they watch. They cannot get the channels of their choice. Who says TV-watchers have the choice of watching the channels they like? At least the new DTH network proposed by Prasar Bharti must telecast all the channels of the world?

Mahesh Kumar,

Kolaba Business Centre,

C-25/5, Connaught Place,

New Delhi - 110 001.

(Letters for this column may be sent by e-mail to wsins@thehindu.co.in. They must carry the full postal address of the writer and should be marked

"Readers' Mail".)

Director, Vision Academy,

D-1, Amar Colony,

Lajpat Nagar-IV,

New Delhi - 110 024.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi