The Hindu : New Delhi News : Some puzzling issues

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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New Delhi

Some puzzling issues

Students of Delhi University’s Anthropology Department will later this week embark on a new study under the guidance of senior faculty member and former Dean of Sciences, Surinder Nath, to find out why Delhiites and what percentage of them urinate and defecate out in the open.

The students will be required to observe the areas near their residence for a couple of days and then try and speak to people as to why they exhibit such lack of civic sense.

“This is something that has been troubling me for long. Two weeks ago, when I was driving on a flyover in the Capital I saw some men coming out of their fancy cars and urinating there. That really affected me as a citizen. Since then I have been wanting to find out why someone would act like that in public. I want to highlight this behaviour,” says Prof. Nath.

“The fact that there are not enough public urinals in the city has got a lot to do with such behaviour. There are areas where there is no toilet within a stretch of 3-4 km. And then what about women? It can be so tortuous. Also, the existing toilets are not managed well. It is not just the underprivileged areas of the Capital where such things are common, even in many posh areas people can be seen easing themselves in a corner. Is this a sign of a city that desires to be world-class?” he asks.

Through their observations and informal interviews the students will analyse if there is a specific pattern in such behaviour. The study would be completed in a month.

“We do not have a grant to carry out this project, but I feel strongly for issues like this. We can speak to the Delhi Government after completing the report and see if they are interested in doing the study on a larger scale,” says Prof. Nath.

Aligarh Muslim University will soon have its own community radio, announced Vice-Chancellor P. K. Abdul Azis while inaugurating a production studio at the Department of Mass Communication on the campus earlier this week.

The Department has set up a studio at a cost of more than Rs.1 crore.

In an interaction with Mass Communication students, the Vice- Chancellor said the University wanted to bridge the communication gap with students for which a community radio would be started soon followed by a community television.

AMU will provide all the necessary infrastructure, staff and facilities to the department to go ahead with the project, he added.

Prof. Azis also informed that AMU would start some new job-oriented courses like bio-informatics, disaster management, agriculture and retail marketing.

Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida, has joined hands with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to offer Master’s level programmes for capacity-building of the financial market.

“This joint effort between BSE and BIMTECH will help in promoting research in capital market and exchange of resources regularly. This agreement will extend help and cooperation in developing curriculum of academic and continuing education progr ammes. This partnership will offer joint seminar, conferences and other such activity for the benefit of the academia and industry,” said Rajnikant Patel, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BSE.

The Campus Law Centre of the Faculty of Law at Delhi University will be hosting the fourth K.K. Luthra Memorial National Moot Court Competition-2008 from this Friday to Sunday.

The competition is the only exclusive criminal law moot court held at the national level.

Since 2005 the contest is being held annually in memory of K. K. Luthra, a senior advocate and leading criminal lawyer whose legal career spanned from 1949 till his demise in 1997.

This year’s moot problems will focus on “The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002” and will raise issues relating to online financial fraud.

Parul Sharma

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