Indian Americans encounter discrimination and polarization

Revelations of the 'Social realities of Indian Americans' report

Indian Americans form the second-largest settlement group in the United States of America. The Indian American Attitudes Survey and YouGov, a research and analytics company, surveyed 1,200 Indian Americans. The result was published jointly by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). 

Swearing in as the President of the United States, Joe Biden stated “Indian –of-descent Americans are taking over the country.” President Joe Biden mentioned the brining of ‘solitary culture’ in the United States of America. Many key roles in Biden’s administration were given to the Indian Americans including Kamala Harris and Vinay Reddy.

The Indian American attitudes survey highlighted that thirty per cent of Indian Americans identify discrimination as a major issue in America. The skin color and gender were identified as the major factors contributing to discrimination. Interestingly, ‘country of origin’ also rooted as a factor for discrimination.

Religion and caste system impose a divide, not only in India but also in the United States. Religion, caste and specifically race pose a serious threat to humanitarianism. According to the survey, a higher number of Indian Americans believe that religion plays a key role in their lives. Interaction or communication of Indian Americans is homogenous. They tend to stick with their social communities.

The marginalized communities in the US, based on their caste, are vulnerable to inequality or bias. In contrast to the appointment of officers for administration, marginalized communities in the US are subject to discrimination at the workplace. The report highlighted a lawsuit against Cisco systems filed in the year 2020. An employee belonging to a marginalized caste community was victimized by his colleagues, who were Indian Americans.

Speaking of education, the majority of the Indian Americans either completed their education or had their undergraduate degree before immigrating to the US.

The individuals are confined to their culture and norms, just like tracing the times of history. Endogamy is largely found in the first and second generations of the Indian American population in the US. However, the survey also revealed an increase in inter-community marriages in the second generation population.

Although the population is said to have diverse cultures or religion, the majority of the respondents belonged to the Hindu community. Muslims, Christians and others were a religious minority. When questioned on ‘self-identity, the term ‘Indian American’ and ‘Indian’ has gained a large number of responses. Self-identification also based on their religion. The report showed that Hindus would prefer to be identified as ‘Indians’ while Christians are likely to identify as ‘Americans.’

The report also revealed that civil and political engagement was higher among the US-born. Networking of individuals or socialization continues to be homogenous in the US, politically, economically and socially.

Click Art Museum: In Communication with Kala Shreethar

 

Have you ever considered posing for a photo with a Chimpanzee? Can you imagine clicking a picture when a crocodile is about to trap you? Would you be grinning by then? What if a villainous character, Joker, approaches you with funny tricks? Click art museum facility is exciting when you want to spend fun time with friends. It is under the roof of VGP Snow Kingdom, Injambakkam.

A renowned artist, A P Shreethar, conceptualized the museum with interactive 3D and optical illusions. The Click art in Chennai is the first of its kind in the country.

Know why Click Art stands unique? A billboard about Shreethar at the museum quoted, “This museum is not like other exhibitions where you cannot touch the exhibits. Here, you can have your pictures clicked, touch the exhibits and bring out the actor or director in you.”

Madhu Balaji is in conversation with Madame Kala Shreethar, COO of Click Art Museum.

We couldn’t use the same name. The concept is the same, Trick Art and Click Art. Since we focused on ‘clicking pictures’, we came up with a new name.

Where was the first Click Art museum opened?

We started working on our project four years before we established the museum in Chennai. We started on April 14, 2016.

Chennai and Bengaluru are people of mixed culture, and we also belong to Chennai. So we implemented our project first in Chennai.

How did the idea originate?

We are not the first to open worldwide. But, we are the pioneers in India. We started it first in India. But before us, there was a Korean company focusing on Trick Art. The concept we work is also Trick Art. The company ventured the same thing, and they started five years before our project took shape. They are operating in various places, exhibiting the same paintings.

It is hard for the painters. They will have to relocate and work for eight to nine months. It takes a year to complete a painting. From then, a focus on commercialising is also vital. This practice will not work for a country like ours, India. They charge around 11 crores. Investing huge money in crores, taking one year time and also they charged thirty percent of royalty on the collections. The company registered a patent for the ‘Trick Art Museum’ in India also.

What distinguishes Click Art Museum from the Korean Company ‘TRICK ART’? What’s our ‘trick’?

We are digital-driven and it is unique. The other company had their painters visit the venue and paint directly on the wall. It is time-consuming. All these eight years, they only had the same paintings. If they have to change the collections, they have to close the museum for at least one year. That’s the issue.

There is another issue. In foreign countries, if we tell the people not to touch the wall or the painting, they never do. But here in India, even if we tell them not to touch the painting, they will.

We thought of an alternative to all these issues. This is how the idea for digitalization emerged. To go a long way, we had a tie-up with 3M people. That technology worked, and we went with them. We managed to come up with paintings in a week. If someone is looking to open a museum as a franchise also, having a place of 1000 or 800 sqft., they can set up a museum within a week.

When a kid visits our museum and scribbles on our paintings, we have the technology to undo the same overnight. Our business would not be spoiled because of that.

Tell us more on the collaboration with 3M People

3M People does the lamination for our paintings. It is a type of paper that we use. When they scribble on a painting, we can wash it with water. Whatever we did was unique, be it the technology, the paper we used and the artwork itself.

We never feel art like foreign and we never auction as they do. Almost all of us are more connected to various forms of art.

We have just given a new form to the already existing one.

 

How has Click Art grown over time?

Right now, Click Art is operating in around 23 venues, including both permanent and temporary museums. We are looking forward to some international collaborations too. Presently, we have our establishment only in Singapore. We are trying to reach other countries also. So after two or three months, when things start settling, we will go ahead. We are not in a position to travel anywhere due to these covid lockdowns.

The situation won’t work for ‘CLICK’ ART because here people come to take photographs. ‘With mask,’ it is not possible.

 

How are the responses to Click Art museums?

Considering every gallery and permanent museums of Click Art, Chennai has had an enormous reach. Chennai received the BEST. Among our temporary museum set-up, what we found surprising was the one held at Kannur during 2019. It was a week-long exhibition before the Onam festival. Around twenty-five lakhs of people visited on the day of Onam. However, on other days too, it had continued to be between fifteen to twenty lakhs. It was a temporary museum, and we did not expect this much response. It was a super-duper hit.

As far as permanent museums are concerned, Chennai is the place that is well-received. People in Chennai easily connect to art and culture. Probably that would be the reason for success.

 

Are we operational in other cities in India?

Right now, we are closed due to the pandemic and lockdowns. Otherwise, we are operating in Mumbai (Ghatkopar), Bengaluru, and Delhi (Rohini).

Are the art collections the same as in Chennai?

Click Art has around 400 paintings till today. Our idea is to change the paintings every year. We will not be able to attract a regular crowd with the same paintings. We also work on customized paintings. Certain universal concepts are always the same. But culture-oriented ones, we customize them based on the venue.

What are the other initiatives/ activities by Click Art?

Other than Click Art, we have another concept called Live Art Museum. Have you heard of Madame Tussauds pioneering wax statues? We work on Silicon statues. A demerit of wax statues is that they do not suit our temperature. The mould also changes after one or two years and wax is also not consistent with our temperature here. These are the reasons why Madame Tussauds could not reach here. The cost involved in making a statue is 4 crore. It does not work for a country like us too! We wanted to bring that margin lower. We managed to bring it around 15-18 lakh with silicon mould and fibre finish.

Shreethar is both creator and painter himself. When it comes to statutes and structure, it is a team work by 14 members. We will complete a statue in three to four months. We have a museum for the same here in Chennai containing statues of known personalities.

Shreethar has also worked on two silicon statues of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam which are kept at his memorial in Rameshwaram. One in standing posture, and the other like he is at the President desk. 96 paintings by Sreethar were displayed.

How is Click Art Museum coping up with Covid lockdowns? 

Except for the footfalls, it is not impacting us. We have to hold hands and overcome them together. Even if we don’t earn this year but survive, we win. 

What are the future projects lined up for Click Art?

We are working on a Goa tourism project. We have not travelled so far. It will be for museums and also exhibiting a collection of vintage cameras. We already have one vintage camera museum in Singapore. We are working on many museum projects. We hope to stand unique. 

 

IT seizes 80 crores of unaccounted cash ahead of elections

 

As part of election surveillance, the Income Tax Department has been conducting searches across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

On March 16, the IT department conducted searches in five premises belonging to five entities acting as cash handlers beyond their regular business leading to the seizure of ₹5.32 crores in cash.

On the following day, search and seizure operations on businesses engaged in yarn trade, PPE kits supply, bags, and baby care kits to various state governments. Unaccounted cash amounting to ₹11.50 crore and unaccounted income in a total of ₹80 crores were seized by IT. Investments in lands and expansion of the business were made using the unaccounted income.

In contrast, financial distress and the coronavirus has impacted 32 million Indians pushing them out of the middle-class slab. Our country has seen a sharp increase in poverty during 2020 than in other countries due to lockdowns. According to a report by Pew Research Centre, around 57 million people joined the middle-income group between 2011 and 2019.

Covid imapct: Seafarers stranded at the sea

 

Around 400 shipping companies have signed the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change. The outbreak of pandemic has impacted every individual. Restrictions imposed by the government to control the spread of Covid-19 did toss the lives of seafarers. Crew changes were restricted. It left more than four lakh of them stranded as per the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).  

IMO established Seafarer Crisis Action Team (SCAT) to support the stranded seafarers and supporting their family/ friends by providing relevant information about their status. The Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change is ahead with four key points being 

• Recognition as the key workers,
• Access to covid-19 vaccine
• Increase collaboration between ship operators and charterers to support crew changes 
• Ensure air connectivity between key maritime hubs for seafarers

Companies that signed the declaration include, AP Moller-Maersk, oil firms BP and Shell, consumer giant Unilever and mining groups Rio Tinto and Vale, maritime transporters, unions, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and other supply chain partners. 

The Maritime Union of India urged to consider seafarers as the key workers. It followed the announcement on Maritime India Vision 2030. The vision focuses on establishing a regulatory authority under the Indian Ports Act and developing Maritime Development Fund (MDF). 

 

 

 

Mention of Aajeevika Mission in Mann Ki Baat

 Backgroud of Mann Ki Baat

The radio programme, Mann Ki Baat, was introduced by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. Radio was chosen as the medium of communication since not many households have television connection.  Through this medium, 90% of the population is reachable. The first broadcast was on a Vijayadashami day in October 2014. The programme also featured an episode with former US President Barack Obama in the year 2015.

The programme has been well-received among the urban population in the metropolitan cities. A survey conducted among six cities in India has revealed that 66.7% listen to the radio programme and find it's content useful. It widened the scope for All India Radio, the cost of ads being the major source of revenue was higher during this programme. The programme was well-received in Bihar, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh while Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh marked the lowest awareness, a survey by AIR in 2017 revealed.

Aajeevika Mission

 

Among various things mentioned by our PM in the January 2021 episode of Mann Ki Baat, let us discuss on Aajeevika Mission. He stated that tribal women who were daily wage workers at a rice mill in Jabalpur used the scheme to capital along with savings and started a rice mill. The Aajeevika- National Rural Livelihoods Mission was launched by the government in 2011, succeeded by Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana in 2015, for promoting self-employment of the rural population. The World Bank supports the programme.

 

Schemes include Rural self-employment training institutes encourage a trainee to take bank credit and commence a micro-enterprise; Start-up village Entrepreneurs Programme; and Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana to support transport facilities thereby providing self-employment. The target is to cover seven crore rural households, across six lakh villages in the country, through the set-up of Self Help Groups in eight to ten years. 

A minor study on the Mid-Day Meal Scheme

A report on Household Social Consumption on Education in India for the year 2017-18 was released by the National Statistical Office. It dispersed various facts on education, internet facility, and literacy rate in both the rural and urban sectors through a survey. A table on the mid-day meal scheme was exposed.

It effected that 52.6% of students in the rural area between the age of 3 to 35 attend pre-primary and above level of education as they were provided mid-day meal/tiffin/nutrition. Whereas in urban, 30.2% attend for the same factor. Rewinding the history of the scheme, Tamil Nadu has notably been its pioneer.

Kamarajar was the man behind the introduction of the Mid-day meal scheme. The main objective of the scheme is ‘to enhance enrollment, retention, and attendance’ among school children and thereby improving their nutritional standards.

Talking about the positive aspects, it has contributed to an increase in education enrollment, especially in the rural sector. It is also a major relief to low-income group families. On the other hand, the scheme has also generated employment to support the preparation of food, transportation, supervision, and others.

With respect to the funds for meeting expenditure, the two main sources are the gross budgetary support and a cess. A study has claimed that the majority of expenses were met through the cess collected. However, there has been a gradual decline in the budget allocation for this scheme over years. Only in the recent past, there was a 5% raise.

On the contrary, the quality of food was subject to controversy. Perhaps, the outbreak of coronavirus has largely effected this scheme too. Although the government claimed to make arrangements for the distribution of food to those children, some rural households were also informed that they will be issued money under this scheme. While some officials claimed to issue the grains through PDS or ration cards. Not all rural households own a ration card. This again is a drawback in managing the issue which thereby leaves the main objective unaddressed. Lockdown, closure of schools, digitalization, and online education has further increased the gap between the rural population and basic needs.

EIA 2020: ‘Nothing disturbing’

A secretary in the environment ministry, RP Gupta has recently responded that nothing is disturbing in the clauses of the EIA Draft Notification 2020 in an interview.

Nevertheless, the issue has had a massive public outcry. The ministry has received enormous objection mails out of which over 95% of them were found repetitive. It was exposed that the ministry is also developing a monitoring mechanism of projects which will come as a second part to this draft notification. Quoting one of his response, “To discourage violations, the best way is to ensure fast-tracking of clearances.”