ANTYESHTI – The Funeral Rites

From the book " Fundamentals of Indian Culture"

The last sacrament of the Hindus is Antyeshti or the funeral rites. Like the phenomenon of death, rites and customs connected with the disposal of the dead body are also universal. Man consciously realizes that death is an inevitable end of every human being. As such it is but natural that every actual occurrence of death should provide an occasion for the living to react to this fact by appropriate behavior.
After death, a sentiment of dread is created in the survivors. There is a belief that even the deceased continues to have some kind of interest in the family property and relatives whom he is unwilling to quit. It is also believed that although after death the man is alienated from the survivors, he may cause some harm to them. In the formal farewell given to him he is requested to depart and is provided with all the articles considered necessary for a traveler, so that he could complete his journey comfortably to the next world. As the Pitriloka. The world of ancestors which is located between the heaven and earth- is considered a replica of the world everything for starting a new life is provided to him.
The object of the suitable disposal of the dead body and the accompanying rites and ceremonies are meant to protect the survivors from the defilement of death. It is believed that until these rites and ceremonies are properly performed the soul of the deceased hovers around the house and haunts its relatives as a preta and does not find its proper place in the company of the ancestors. This kind of belief is found almost universally among Hindus and also the ancient Greeks and Egyptians.
It is not surprising; therefore, that funerary customs in most of the societies exceed the practical, rational minimum required for the mere disposal of the body. It is ritualized with, sometimes very elaborately, but it is also accompanied by a great variety of predisposal and post disposal rites, some of them continuing over a long period after the death, cremation or burial etc. as per the prevalent custom.
The variety of funeral customs is immense. It is due to many factors and influences, geographical, cultural and historical. It is a peculiar combination of these factors which is distinctive and decisive. Thus mummification could originate only in areas having a dry climate (Egypt) and necessary preservative material. In Northern areas where the ground is frozen for most of the year burial is impractical. Beliefs concerning the individual’s destiny and after life also play an important role
Cremation or burning of the dead body is the most recognized mode of the disposal of the corpse among the Hindus.
For more to read contact author at mns1926@gmail.com

Inefficiency and corruption hit the poor most

Can we afford to waste one lac crores a year just because of corruption and inefficiency when two million children die very year , that's about 6,000 deaths happening everyday, where daily income of 20 crores people is less than Rs.16 , where thousands poor people die every year, from hunger, starvation, severe malnourishment and the lack of livelihood.
There is no denying to the fact that corruption is the biggest problem this country faces today . Corruption is not only anti national but anti poor also. It is indeed not the lack of money, but the siphoning of it that is the problem. Corruption is, perhaps, the biggest reason why the most deprived sections of society continue to stay in inhuman conditions . Despite a drop in the number of people below the poverty line, the number of those who go to bed hungry is rising. Government spends thousands of crores rupees every for povery eradication programmes but very little of it reaches to correct place. The main problem is not fund allocation but poor delivery system . Rahul Gandhi recently said only 5 paise out of one rupee reaches to poor. His father Rajiv Gandhi once said that only 15 paise out of one rupee reaches to poor . It means situation is deterioating day by day. There is a cost to be paid for corruption, which is again reflected in higher prices and higher taxation. Over the years, corruption has entered our body politic to the extent that it has become second nature with a majority of our people. We seldom pause to think that this personal gain can have bad effects on the economy. In fact, corruption is visible in almost every deal. If somebody wants his tender to be accepted he has to pay a bribe. . If somebody wants his ration card prepared he has to pay a bribe. Loans cannot be raised from a bank without greasing the palm of the concerned officer. You cannot get your child admitted in a particular school or a course without paying some kind of consideration, euphemistically called a donation or capitation fee. Corruption is prevalent everywhere and it is there just because of lax admisnitration and slow judicial process .To eradicate corruption lot of things need to be done.
And the second most important problem is inefficiency . We are loosing thousands of crores of rupees every year just because we are inefficient in our operations. So far, no systematic study has been done to quantify the costs the individual or the country as a whole pays for the inefficiency. However, if such a study were to be done, the costs of inefficiency would run into thousands of crores of rupees every year. Our bureaucracy is the most inefficient work force in world. Cost of collection of income tax is just double of the cost of any European country. There is surplus work force in every section of bureaucracy . Ironically this work force is corrupt too.
Let us take public sector units for instance. There are hundreds of public sector units which are running in losses for many years. Government is spending hundreds of crores on them every year without getting any thing in return, In fact, public sector steel units are over-manned- where one worker can do the job there are three or four employed. Indian labour laws make it very difficult to lay off an inefficient worker. Those familiar with the recruitment practices for public sector undertakings (PSUs) would know that most of its workers and employees are recruited not on the basis of their skills or qualifications but on recommendations of politicians who in order to nurture their constituencies go on recruitment spree recklessly. It is true that over-manning provides employment to more people, but in the long run it turns those surplus people into parasites. The over-manning of business and industry only signifies a stagnant economy. A growing economy would generate more employment, which would be more productive. This is what is lacking in this country. In a competitive environment most of these PSUs should have been closed down or taken over by healthier units. But just because of political consideration these defunct units are still continuing and salaries being paid to lacs of employees for sitting idle.
Nothing in this world comes free. When a consumer pays for something he or she gets something tangible in return like bread or butter, or intangible, like the services of a lawyer or a doctor. This is the positive aspect. There is also a negative aspect to costs in the sense that a consumer gets nothing tangible or intangible in return but increased cost. This negative aspect of cost is nothing but the cost of inefficiency at various levels inside and outside the government, within organisations as also within the system itself . The result is higher prices and higher taxes.
Let us take steel for instance. India is rich in iron ore and many countries especially Japan buys large quantities of iron ore from India to turn it into steel. It pays the freight charges for importing Indian iron ore and also pays relatively much higher wages to its steel workers, but still Japan is able to sell steel at a relatively competitive price than India. Why is it so?. Since this is not possible in the existing circumstances, therefore, to keep the steel mills running or for that matter any PSU running, the government raises the prices to cover up a part of its losses, increases taxes to cover another part of the costs and raises the countervailing duty on imported steel to protect the steel industry.These relatively higher prices of steel and higher taxes are in fact, the costs of inefficiency, which the Indian consumer as well the Indian nation as a whole is forced to pay.
The country must get out of this vicious circle of inefficiency and corruption at the earliest. It is for the people to understand this and come out openly against inefficiency and corruption. Citizens should ask political leaders what they have done in these past six decades to root out corruption and improve the efficiency in the country!
The Right to Information Act has armed the people with the weapon to question public investments and to figure out if the money was actually spent for the intended objectives or budgeted projects. No longer will we have a situation where a project is completed only on paper, and the money pocketed by the politicians, bureaucrats and contractors. For all we know, the quantum of public money that's siphoned off may come down drastically. But only if the act works in practice will officials be forced to part with details. Anyways, Indian citizens now realize the enormous power they possess to make governments and its employees accountable

Registrar fined for withholding information

Chief information commissioner of Maharashtra State has fined the Public Information Officer(PIO)/deputy registrar of the co-operative department Rs5,000 for failing to give information sought under the Maharashtra Right to Information Act. RTI application was filed by Sunil Godbole, a resident of the Glittering Star Co-operative housing society at Worli, seeking to know whether members of the managing committee of his housing society had submitted indemnity bonds. However, the PIO failed to provide this information for a year despite an order by the appellate authority. RTI activists feel that the order is significant because managing committee members of thousands of societies in the city do not submit indemnity bonds. As per the model byelaws and a Bombay High Court ruling in 2002, members of the managing committee of a housing society have to submit indemnity bonds of being legally and financially responsible of the society’s working within 30 days of their appointment with the registrar.

Forces to disclose officers' ratings

In what could open the floodgates for Right to Information (RTI) application in the armed forces, the Central Information Commission has allowed disclosure of approach papers and notings that are placed before the review selection board of the defence services.

The notings, which include comments by superiors on officers being considered by the board, have been treated as confidential so far.

In the light of the CIC order, there could be a spurt in RTI applications as well as litigation by disgruntled officers who might differ with a poor rating. The information commission has ordered that the documents be made public within 10 days

Corruption in Registrar of Societies Office

We are a group of people consisting of professionals , retired and serving government officials and house wives . Recently we thought of doing social work and therefore started a NGO called ANUBHAV . When we started NGO we considered proper to get it registered .We decided that we would not take any help of so called agent or advocate to get our NGO registered. Luckily a website was available from where we got basic information about the requirements for registration of NGOs and accordingly we prepared the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association of society and incorporated all requirements required as per law in our application .
Our representative approached the Registrar office at Patparganj area to submit the papers relating to society . Instead of receiving the papers at the receipt counter of Registrar office , the receiving clerk asked our representative to get papers checked by a another counter clerk . Our representative objected to this method and insisted for a proper receipt. After a long arguments the will of the receipt counter clerk prevailed and as per his wish our representative approached another clerk to get the papers checked . The concerned clerk saw the papers briefly and asked our representative to submit some more papers . After long arguments the clerk did not receive the papers and returned them to our representative . After a week time our representative approached the concerned clerk again with all necessary papers . This time also the clerk did not receive the papers and asked him to submit more papers. This new requirement was not told to us on previous visit . Like this our representative was sent back four times and every time with new requirement. We knew why our registration papers were not being entertained . The reason was not payment of bribe. As main objective of our NGO is the exposure of corruption at various level we decided that we would not indulge in corrupt practice ourselves and would not give any bribe to these clerks. When our patience crossed the limit our representative approached the Registrar of society directly and narrated the whole story to him It was good to see that registrar was kind enough to give a patient hearing and promised to deliver the registration papers after a week time . He kept his promise and handed over the registration paper on due data.
Now the question is why a simple thing like registration takes so much time for completion in a government organisation . In Registrar office we found loopholes in the system which these corrupt officials exploit to their advantage. In Registrar office there was no system of receiving and despatching the dak . Everything has been left to the mercy of clerks who exploit the situation to their advantage and take bribes to get the things done in faster way.


In order to know the real position in Registrar office and to what extent the corruption has infiltrated in this office we filed an application under RTI Act asking the various questions relating to the working of registrar office . The reply from Registrar of Societies though its letter no RFS/RTI/2007/Misc./253 Dated 29th February 2008 in respect to each query is mentioned below:

Query 1: How many applications for registration of societies received during 2007. Out of them how many applications were received in person and how many through dak.
Reply: Total 3388 applications for registration of societies were received during 2007 and all applications were received in person and no application was received through dak.

Query 2: How many applications for registration of societies rejected during 2007 and what were the broad reasons for rejections . Are rejected applications communicated the reasons in person or through dak.
Reply: No application was rejected during the year 2007.

Query3 : How many Registration certificates were dispatched through dak and how many delivered in person during last three years.
Reply : Registration certificates were not dispatched through dak and approx. 9500 certificates were delivered in person during last three years..

Query 4: How many societies were penalized during last three years for non compliance of various provisions under Society Registration Act 1860.
Reply: Information may be treated as nil.


The replies from the Registrar are quite interesting and surprising . I thought there would be at least some cases that would have been done in proper manner through dak. During 2007 , 3388 applications were received and during last three years 9500 Registration papers were delivered all in person. Not a single registration paper was dispatched through dak. Once I asked one of friend who applied for registration of society how did he get his society registered. He said that he paid Rs 5000 to a agent to get the registration. If we believe Rs 4000 was paid as bribe Rs 4 crore might have been paid to registrar office as bribe .
In order to regulate the societies there are various provisions like intimation of names of office bearers on yearly basis to registrar office etc. in Society Registration Act 1860. The registrar office intimated that not a single society has been found faulting on this account . It is clear that Registrar Office instead of regulating the societies is busy in taking bribes only. There is no time to see the files and regulate them .





At the end I would like to mention and stress that in all offices where public dealings are involved , efforts should be made to avoid person to person dealings. Applications should be allowed to be submitted through dak or through a properly regulated receipt counter . In modern technological world the application should be submitted on line and till this is done the practise of taking applications in person should be discontinued . If objections are to be raised it should be raised in writing and in one go . All registration papers should be despatched through dak only. No person to person contact should be allowed. At the Reception counter a sign board mentioning the procedure of filing applications should be available. No tout should be allowed to enter into the office .
We did not pay any bribe because we were determined not to do so but it does not happen in other cases. People are made to pay bribe because that they are ignorant of rules and procedures. If government is sincere and tries to make its action transparent as per suggestion given above corruption can be curtailed to a large extent.

Ajit Kumar
29, Vigyan Vihar
Delhi 110092
Mobile - 9868278984

India’s Economic Rise: Need for Inclusive Growth

Despite relatively comparable economic success, the wealth generated by our growing economy has been slow to impact the dire situation of its country’s poor and has in fact broadened it’s already gaping inequality. This situation is, of course, compounded by massive population. Of 1.15 billion people, 70 crores Indians strive to live on Rs.60 a day or less and few have access to indoor lavatories or sanitary water. Of those, 22-23 crore Indians live below the country’s poverty threshold of Rs. 16 day. The obstacles facing the country’s leadership concerning its rampant poverty are immense and numerous. India’s decades of socialist-type aspirations did little to change the economic landscape of India. Market protection led to little growth and years of stagnation. Economic growth has been slowed in India due to a complex bureaucratic apparatus, which has in the past been plagued by corruption, fractious party system, and the idea that economic growth alone is not enough to eliminate poverty.
The economic liberalization that took place in the early 1990’s reversed this trend and jump started the success that we are witnessing today. India now has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is expected to be among the top three by as early as 2025.
Though ending poverty has been on the lips of Indian leadership for decades, many promises and policy expectations have not come to fruition and in some cases have hindered further development. But there are many reasons why India’s success is not felt throughout society. One being that 2/3 of India’s population depends on agriculture for its livelihood. Yet its agricultural sector is growing at a rate of 1.5-2% a year and contributes only 28% to its GDP compared to, for instance, its manufacturing, service, and information technology industries which are expanding at upwards of 10% a year. The poverty of those millions reliant on agriculture is perpetuated by their low productivity and the fact that many of them have no education and no other vocational skills. This leads them to be forced to make the decision of whether to continue their fruitless labor in the fields or move to a city where they will, no doubt, work as low skilled laborers making little to nothing. Either choice seems to guarantee poverty.
It is plain to see that the economic growth has not been inclusive. The wealth being made at the top is not being reinvested . India is ripe for investment, both foreign and domestic. However, the prospects are made unattractive by the overall state of public services, lack of basic infrastructure, and by discouraging government policies like regulatory and foreign investment controls and restrictive labor laws.
Because of these impediments, many Indians prefer to invest in, and acquire firms abroad in order to gain access to wider channels of distribution and to take advantage of technology and infrastructure. If India’s economy is to continue to grow at a rate of 8% plus per year there must be massive investment in infrastructure and other vital retail ventures. There have been grand schemes proposed to introduce railways to connect metropolitan cities, build power plants, and construct modern highways. These goals, though long-term, are essential to creating a more attractive impetus for investment and improve the overall efficiency of the country.
Comprising around 15% of the global population, India is also home to a disproportionate, 22% of the world’s poor and surprisingly ranks 126th out of 177 countries listed in the World Human Development Index. Its growing population can easily be seen as a cause of India’s perpetual poverty, yet it has been found that in many cases, poverty, and more specifically, the lack of access to basic education, leads to population surges in underdeveloped regions.
Most would agree that investment must not be confined to the corporate and the structural in India but must also be allocated for education, healthcare and sanitation. The acceleration of economic growth is of utmost importance in the overall progress of India as an emerging global entity, but without a concerted effort on our part to attack the issue of poverty at all levels including the most basic, the process of development will be much more arduous and to many millions, unrecognizable.

Right to Information: Spread Awareness , Simplify procedure

Even today around 90% people are not deriving the benefits of right of information. Even though there is quite a change during last two and half a years of its implementation. Still, the percentage of people who know about this Act is very less. The main reason being heavy charges and lack of awareness. Concerning officials/employees of departments are found to adopt go-slow methods in providing information. This keeps people away from exercising their right. Several times the official reply is that the information sought comes under the criteria of confidentiality. Sometimes these officials charges so much for documents charges that information seekers thinks it wise rather not to seek information. Sometimes these documents are not useful or say rather irrelevant to seekers purpose.
The biggest problem is that the governments themselves do not understand the importance or better say do not want to understand.
Around 80 per cent queries sought under the Act are personal, whereas some people use it with an intention to take revenge. People do not ask questions related to social issues. Though this Act has proved to be beneficial yet as it ensures freedom of information, there is still a lot to be done to make it useful in a big way. Information, be it any, should be given to the persons who seek them. Where is the question of confidentiality when a different system is in place for confidential matters. What are the subjects in general which could be called confidential. Information should be given to the point, to the person who wants it. If the RIT is implemented in real earnest then it is sure to create awareness among the masses and also bring desired improvements in the government departments.

R in RTI now means redressal

The Right To Information Act, in its second year, can well be christened the Redressal Through Information Act. For, in an unrecorded trend, the 2005 law, meant to empower citizens with details of Government decisions, is now being increasingly used as a means of redressal of grievances.
Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah says that the use of RTI as a grievance-redressal mechanism was not totally unexpected, at least by activist groups. “We have noticed that RTI now is being largely used by the people of Delhi for, say, getting details of delayed passports, ration cards, land allotment, denial of pensions and so on. And while the CIC is clear on the purpose of RTI, in such cases where there is a violation of rules or law, we can certainly help. Now, we notice the pattern of redressal grievance is picking up in other states as well.”
Information Commissioner O P Kejariwal cites the example of the 18-year-long wait for compensation of land acquired by the Government in pre-Independence years being resolved recently by the CIC via an RTI application. A fine of Rs 50,000 was imposed on the errant Department.
Says Kejariwal, “The RTI was also aimed at bringing in systemic changes in Government functioning and this has begun to happen since so many people are appealing before us for settling their long-pending grievances. We have already noticed this in functioning of universities like Delhi University and Aligarh Muslim University and functioning of passport offices where scores of complaints have been attended to.”
Consider some of the orders passed by the CIC in the last quarter of 2007 and the pattern is clear:
• A resident of Jhansi got details of what he alleged was the forged DNA fingerprinting report of his 5-year old son, which his wife had got done.
• An appellant got details of the computation of his pensionary benefits denied to him for the last 10 years.
• The National Hydroelectricity Power Corporation was asked to locate 20-year-old employment records of an applicant, which had been denied to him by court
• The North Eastern Railways was asked to furnish all information to an applicant relating to recruitment and promotion of Engineers, since he had alleged malpractices in promotion of staff.
• The Municipal Corporation of Delhi was asked to respond in 10 days to an applicant who had for long been seeking information regarding permissible limits for construction on a plot.
• A group of appellants from Varanasi filed a compliant against the Ministry of Textiles since they were aggrieved with non-implementation of health-insurance scheme for weavers. The Ministry was asked to settle the grievances within a month.
• The CIC made a “strong recommendation” to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to allot a plot under the Janata category in Rohini since the applicant’s allotment number was wrongly quoted by the bank and the allotment cancelled. “This amounts to denial of the right of a member of the public and also denial of natural justice,” the CIC order noted.
• The Employees Provident Fund Organisation was ordered to return Rs 265 deducted from an applicant’s subsistence allowance to be paid to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund since it was done without taking his consent.
In this past year, the CIC, has, in fact, been coming down strongly on Government Departments when a case of apathy and neglect has been highlighted while settling an appeal.
Take the case of a 90-year old woman who wanted her passport extended. The CIC asked the Ministry of External Affairs to attend to her case within 15 days and in its order demanded:
“Could there be a more callous and apathetic attitude of a Government servant towards not only a member of the public but also a statutory body like the Information Commission?”

Centre must give info on firms with minority govt stake: CIC

NEW DELHI: In a significant decision, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has held that the Union Government has to reveal information about companies even if it does not hold a controlling stake in them.

A three-member bench of the Commission held this while hearing an RTI plea that challenged government's refusal to disclose details on fixed assets of BALCO saying it had no managerial control on the company after its disinvestment of 51 per cent stake to Sterlite Industries.

"Being a shareholder of the company, with representation on its board of management, the information must be available with the Ministry of Mines, and what is available with it can not be denied under Right to Information Act," the bench headed by Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said in an order passed yesterday.

The Commission also directed the government to reveal details of its investment, if any, in the company's 540 MW captive power project set up at Korba in Chattisgarh.

"The argument that the information is not available with the Ministry is untenable. If it has made any investments, it should be so stated. If no investment has been made, then also reply to that effect must be given," the CIC said.

The Commission was hearing an application of Korba resident Laxmi Chauhan, who sought the information to find out as to whether BALCO had received any government investment in its power project that was operationalised in 2005.

Chauhan's RTI plea filed last year was refused by the Ministry on the ground that it was a minority stakeholder in BALCO and did not have a control over the company's management.