Un-abled

Umpteen high-end malls, five-star restaurants et al, yet Delhi takes a backseat when it comes to making infrastructure suitable for wheel-chair ridden people. India is home to an estimated 70 million disabled persons, most of whom are restricted to the confines of their four walls because hanging out in the Capital is still a distant dream for them. Nidhi Mittal tells you how, for builders in India, concern for the handicapped is zilch .

Ritika Singh (name changed), a 30-year-old single girl, plans to catch a film in a multiplex in the Capital. Although there are numerous cinema halls where the film is running, yet it becomes a herculean task for her to find desirable tickets. Not because the film is drawing housefull, but because there is limited choice. Instead, she decides on a quiet dinner. Even though Delhi has hundreds of restaurants where one can binge, yet there are limited choices for Ritika and she ends up going to the same places over and over again!

This may sound strange but is a usual disappointment which the disabled people in the Capital face, Ritika Singh being one of them.

From high-end malls to five-star restaurants, Delhi still takes a backseat when it comes to making infrastructure suitable for wheel-chair ridden people. With more than 75 malls and entertainment hubs, hanging out casually in Delhi is still a distant dream for the disabled. “The PVR in the Select Citywalk mall sells the most expensive tickets and I still can’t think of watching a film there because the hall doesn’t have provisions for ramps,” says Singh who has to make-do with either PVR Priya or PVR Anupam audi 4, as they make her wheelchair mobility easier and she can conveniently enjoy a movie.

Spread over six acres and housing six screen-strong PVR Premier, Selectcity Walk mall is the most urbane structure in the Capital attracting maximum footfall during weekdays as well as weekends. While no lift directly leads to the cinema hall, a flight of six to eight narrow stairs is what one has to struggle with to reach the entrance. And then the audis are again not wheelchair convenient with no ramps, only stairs and narrow leg space between the rows. “The state-of-the-art DT Cinemas in DLF Saket is worse. There is a ramp at the entrance of the cinema hall, but when it comes to the audis, there are at least 15 stairs to reach the sitting area. And if you plan to enter the audi from the exit door, it’s too narrow for a wheelchair!” Singh tells you.

Bukhara, the in-house restaurant of ITC Maurya, has been rated among the top 50 restaurants in the world and the finest one in Asia. People throng the rustic looking dining area only to have its trademark Dal Bukhara available for ` 1,000 a plate. However, for a person on a wheelchair, being in this restaurant is a nightmare, with stairs and congested arrangement of tables all around. “We had to disturb other guests before we could finally take my sister to the table reserved for us. Our mistake was that we assumed that it being a five-star hotel, we don’t have to worry about wheelchair movement,” recalls Amit, adding that a lot of thought has to go into a family outing — all because despite so much development, making infrastructure disabled-friendly is still not Government’s priority.

From ATMs — whose gates are highly located and are too small — to big private sector banks which are all without ramps and elevators, concern for people with disability is visibly zilch. Even popular auditoriums like Siri Fort, Kamani and Pearey Lal Bhawan don’t have lifts or ramps. “Even if they have them, they are inaccessible. At Siri Fort, there is only one area till where I can go. FICCI is an exception in this case. It has full facilities for the wheelchair,” Bansal tells you.

For muscular dystrophy patient Aman Rastogi, going to his classes is a daily hurdle, made more difficult by the inhospitable city. “At places, such as the Noida-Delhi link road, the pavement is almost two feet high. Even a normal person would find it difficult to climb on to such a steep pavement! Just try wheeling down Ajmeri Gate towards the Paharganj-end of New Delhi Railway Station and you would know what a person with handicap faces in the city at public places,” he tells you.

India has an estimated 70 million disabled people, most of them confined to their homes due to a complete lack of accessible infrastructure. Starting from going to the local market, park, cinema hall, railway station or airport, a person with handicaps is forced to depend on an escort. As activists point out, no amount of reservations in educational institutes or jobs and policies or schemes would be of any use to people with disabilities, if they cannot access the outside world independently. With increased awareness though, even private developers are trying to incorporate disabled-friendly features in their malls or cineplexes. But despite their best intentions, these features are hardly serving the purpose, as builders are not aware of the universal design or specifications.

“Any private sector player will tell you they are not aware of specifications or don’t have the money but they are all cutting corners. In the US or Europe, you will not find any McDonalds or Pizza Hut without a ramp et al. They can’t afford to ignore all this because of the strict policies of the governments there. Here, in India, the same outlets don’t give a single thought to such basic needs of a disabled person,” Javed Abidi, director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled Persons (NCPEDP), tells you.

The NCPEDP has been fighting for the disabled people’s cause for last 15 years when its director Abidi, a spina bifida patient, who is on a wheelchair since the age of 15, decided to take it up with the Government himself. A year-and-a-half back, Abidi also went to an extent of staging a dharna outside then Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy’s house and making him agreeing on setting up a committee to look into the fresh set of guidelines which NCPEDP had compiled. The 69-page long document was put together after going through the international standards maintained while construction of buildings, footpaths and other public infrastructres.

“In name, there are three sets of guidelines available. One issued by the CPWD, one by the office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) and the third by the National Building Code. Apart from them being irrelevant and incomplete in nature, they are not binding on the builders. So we framed a fresh set of guidelines and were promised action within three months. But it’s been a year-and-a-half and nothing has happened,” says Abidi, adding how he felt much more mobile on his chair while he was abroad, “specially in Rome”, than he feels anywhere in India.

The new infrastructure like bus stops and modern toilets that were introduced in the Capital during Commonwealth Games are again a half-hearted effort of the Government towards making the city disabled-friendly. “The bus stops which have ramps on both the sides are a bigger slap on our face as the entry from both sides is blocked by the big advertisement steel panels. Same is the case with footpaths which would suddenly have a tree in the middle of it against which a blind person will definitely bang his head,” Abidi points out.

Recommendations to make infrastructure more accessible

Almost any building can be made accessible to disabled people by planning the site such that the terraces, retaining walls and winding walks are used effectively.

Site development is the most effective means to resolve the problems created by topography, definitive architectural designs or concepts, water table, existing streets, and typical problems, singularly or collectively, so that ingress and egress to buildings by disabled people may be facilitated while preserving the desired design and effect of the architecture. 

The relative levels of the principal entrance to the building and the entry point to the site (as well as walks across the site) should be designed to, as far as is practicable, provide level access, thereby eliminating the need for ramped and stepped approach.

Public walks should be at least 1200 mm wide and should preferably with level or have the gentlest possible gradient that does not exceed 1 in 20.

Obstacles such as lighting columns, bollards, signposts, seats and trees, should be located at or beyond the boundaries of walkways. Where unavoidable, protruding objects should not reduce the clear width of an accessible route or maneuvering space. 

Bollards should be at least 1000 mm high, provide a wheelchair passage width of at least 850 mm, and should not be linked with chains.

Parking spaces for individuals with physical disabilities when placed between two conventional diagonal or head-on parking spaces should be 3.6 m to 3.8 m wide, including a 1200 mm wide wheelchair transfer space on one side, and the length of the aisle should 7.3 m, 6.1 m and 6.5 m for head-on, 90º and 60º parking, respectively. These minimum dimensions include provision of a 1,200 mm wide wheelchair loading/ transferring space along the side and at the rear of the parking bay. 

Where there are two accessible parking bays adjoining each other, then the 1200mm side transfer bay may be shared by the two parking bays. The transfer zones, both on the side and the rear should have yellow or white cross-hatch road markings.

Beyond a certain height, ramps become too tiring for the user, even if a number of rest landings have been provided. It is therefore recommended that no series of ramps to a building should rise in total more than 2 meters. If a series of ramp flights rise more than 2 meters an alternative means of access, such as a lift, should be provided.

A ramp shall have handrails on both sides, that are at a height of 900 mm measured from the surface of the ramp, and extend 300 mm beyond the top and bottom of the ramp.. Where major traffic is predominantly children, the hand rails should be placed 760 mm high.

For visually impaired people, ramps may be colour contrasted with landing.

If a door has a closer, then the sweep period of the closer shall be adjusted so that from an open position of 70 degrees, the door will take at least 3 seconds to move to a point 75 mm from the latch, measured to the leading edge of the door. Buildings should preferably have sliding automatic doors.

(As published in The Pioneer on August 27, 2011)

Go the sunnies way this summer

Don't we have too much to brag about?

• My latest big fat 'investment' in the labelled bag
• The number of sunglasses I have
• How much can I match my shoes with my bags/belts/accessories
• Isn't my diamond big enough?
• Oh my next international vacation...

And where does it end? Or does it?!

Fashion consciousness is increasing, and so are the Divas. And the easy availability and accessibility of fashion for one and all has only made it better!

With ecommerce today sending out each and everything you could ask for, it's all at your fingertips - quite literally!

The recent one I tried was Lenskart.com, that sells eyeglasses, sunglasses and contact lenses. 

I was pretty impressed with the collection and variety of brands. I just kept browsing down and was amazed at the number of options they had in sunglasses - and all price ranges starting from Rs 499!!

While brands such as Ray-Ban, Vogue, Maui Jim, Tag Heuer, Oakley, Boss Orange have found their ample space at Lenskart, there was no color or design or style I was left asking for. The huge range completely satiated my palate for eyewear fashion. 

From Aviators, to Wayfarers, Cat-eye, mirror, and even power sunglasses, these people are selling everything. I had the freedom to choose from colors, shapes, sizes and could even try them on my face. That's technology at your service:

Now, Howzzat!

The virtual studio is something really great.

Their Facebook page is quite active too and gives a lot of information. A look at it tells you how much these guys are passionate about eyewear. Gosh, there's just everything on the page - from products to videos to nice stuff like See More, Do More...

Over all, a very pleasant experience browsing through Lenskart.com. They're definitely doing a great job.

Crossing the border

Could Sania Mirza’s wedding to banned Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik be an inspiration for many others to look for a match across the border? It defies the very Indian question as to why anyone would want to marry a Pakistani, but going by a recent survey conducted by the popular matrimonial website Shaadi.com, the trend seems to be changing. Almost 61 per cent of the survey takers said they wouldn’t mind looking for their spouse in neighboring Pakistan. Nepal came in second with 28.9 per cent votes, followed by Sri Lanka at 26.4 per cent and Bangladesh at 9.9 per cent.
The survey titled Love Across Boundaries, taken by over 9,500 Shaadi.com members over three days, brought about these astonishing results. Of the total respondents who took the survey, 12.7 per cent said cross-border marriages were all hyped up and 77 per cent said, in reality it is the compatibility between the two partners that matters.
Does this mean people are opening up to finding a life partner across the border? “We have to keep in mind that the declared response is always very different from the actual behaviour or preference. Every interaction with a person from another country may not culminate in marriage. Though the levels of openness have changed, we are still not expecting the above results to take actual shape,” Gourav Rakshit, business head, shaadi.com, said.
Inspired by the furore over the Sania-Shoiab marriage, the survey also asked members their view on the hyped wedding that hit headlines. 59 per cent saw this in a positive light and thought it would help bridge the distance between India and Pakistan. Surprisingly, only 7.4 per cent said it would be a rough ride for the two of them while 33.6 per cent said it wouldn't make a difference either which way.
With 20 million members on board in its portal, 75% being from India, shaadi.com also claims that its not as if a majority of survey takers were Muslims. “It’s all about the changing value system. Though marriage decisions still depend on compatibility, people may be able to get over the border barriers in next 10 years,” said Rakshit.

Natural instinct

Man who gave Nature back to Delhi

Who thought that the site of barren mining pits could actually become a treat for the senses. You may want to go there as an escape from the maddening city life and take your children to educate them about our ecological system. This has been made possible by a retired professor at the Delhi University who has not only brought back life to the mining ravaged Aravalis, but has also shown Government the way. NIDHI MITTAL reports

When he came to Delhi 35 years ago, neither did he nor anyone else know the difference he would eventually make to the city. He started off as a professor in Delhi University. Over the years, Dr C R Babu progressed to become the pro Vice-Chancellor before retiring.
But sitting at home was not on the cards of Babu, now Professor Emeritus at the School of Environment Studies in DU. He followed his urge to find a solution to the depleting eco system of the national Capital. At 69, this professor has achieved what the Government had been gasping to do for many years. He has brought back Nature to a city polluted to its roots.
Cut to 1997: Asola and Bhatti areas were nothing but vast stretches of barren lands with no water, plant, birds or animals in sight. The reason? The Aravalis had been exploited for minerals for over 100 years, and life had thus gone out of this once green terrain. Huge mining pits, as deep as 250 feet, were what dominated the site.
Cut to 2009: Same place but with a sea change. Gone were the gaping mud pits, the dirt tracks and the ugly face of mutilated hills. In their place were endless grasslands, lush trees as high as 20 to 30 feet, colourful flowers, restless butterflies, creaking insects, chirping birds and dancing peacocks. Yes, thanks to Babu and his team, a large part of the bare and barren Asola and Bhatti mines are now a wildlife sanctuary.
As the professor — old in health but not in stride or enthusiasm — took one around to show the labour of his love, he insisted that he be known not just as an environmentalist but also as a researcher. You end to grant his wish immediately for it is he who changed how Delhi breathes now, thanks to the one of the three ecological lifelines he has created for the Capital — one being the Asola/Bhatti wildlife sanctuary, the Yamuna biodiversity park and the third being the Aravali biodiversity zone.
Report after report has exposed the political lobbying and business interests in the extraction of minerals, leaving the entire range sapped of everything it was once rich in — magnificence, water, natural vegetation, wildlife and birds.
Clouds of dust, drilling sounds and coughing human machines dominate the sight of a mining pit on which work is still on. Moving on to the one that is now seemingly ‘breathing easy’ as no mean diggers haunt it anymore since it is not left with even an iota more to offer. ‘Seemingly breathing easy’ because though men have left it alone, the deep pit, which was once a part of a high rising hillock and was home to many flora and fauna, frequented by herbivores like the beautiful Nilgai or Blue Bull and deers, and carnivores like leopards, is now struggling for survival.
The hope for a greener future has come from the restoration of a 100-year-old Aravali mining pit, touching Vasant Vihar in New Delhi. Now known as the Aravali Biodiversity Park near the Air India Colony, the serene and green area was a barren land of multiple pits extracted of clay, red stone and other minerals. This was just till four years back, when Former Lt Governor of Delhi asked Prof Babu to restore the pits, so that they can be brought back to their pristine glory.
“Former Lt Gov Vijay Kapoor asked me some five years back if I could develop a Biodiversity Park on a piece of land. I immediately said yes. I was already looking for an opportunity to bring back the lost vegetation to Delhi. Within a week, he called back to say that he has 150 acre land along the river Yamuna upstream. He told me ‘You start developing the park and we will add some more land to it.’ I submitted a plan within weeks which was approved. I then told him about Aravalis and he instantly told me he has 670 acres there. I was excited and saw it as a change-making moment,” recalls Prof Babu.
From the look of it, the park gives an impression that it has been in place for many years and was always inhabited by vegetation and was a dense forest. The extensive grasslands that spread till the eye goes and the trees spread out in a way that they form canopies tell a different story. However, the reality is quite different.
As barren as any other mining pit and inhabited by a big weed called Prosopis Juliflora or Kabuli Keekar, the 670-acre uneven area with many pits bereft of even ground water, presented a bleak picture. But what now one sees is a tropical rainforest, an orchidarium, a fernarium, a butterfly park, a herbal garden, not to mention vast stretches of huge trees, wetlands and grasslands.
All this on the soil that was completely infertile and sodic in nature which meant not even a blade of grass could grow on it.
Prof Babu and his team of scientists developed a technique using which they not only made the soil fertile and have brought back the native vegetation but also attracted huge Government interest, all without further tampering with the topography of the area. That is why the Eco Task Force of the Army is carrying out the restoration works in the Asola and Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuaries, which was also initiated by the same team.
The highly degraded Delhi Aravalis, owing to anthropogenic activites like mining, are spread over nearly 7,770 hectares which is, by law, protected from encroachment and all kinds of developmental activites, and is a declared reserved forest. Most of this area is either barren or invaded by the exotic species Prosopis, seen all over the ridge area.
While explaining the technology, Prof Babu says that the pits are desertified sites and just planting trees would bear no fruits. To make the soil fertile again, microbes have to be introduced to it, along with the germinating seeds. Under natural conditions the plants acquire nutrients from microbes, “so we need microbes, not one but different kinds of them. We isolate and culture them in the laboratory to see how these microbes should be added to the soil or should be brought in close contact with the plants. If we put the microbes in the soil alone and not grow the plant, then they will die. The microbes and plants are closely associated because the plant grows and synthesises food, giving it back to the microbes. The microbes take up the nutrients and give them to the plants. They exist mutually,” explains Prof Babu.
Now when these plants die, they produce litter and this litter then forms food for some other microbes, leading to more plants. This is called the nutrient cycle. In these pits where the land or the soil is dug to a large extent, there is no nutrient cycle. To establish this nutrient cycle, scientists collected different groups of microbes by taking the soil from a forest and then isolated them in a laboratory, cultured them to make them in large numbers, which is in millions. “Then we use a technology in which you take the seed which is germinating and then coat it with a gel in which we have immobilised the microbes. The gel also contains nutrients for microbes to multiply, so that they do not die. These microbes then help the seed in germinating and the plant eventually comes up. That’s a critical step in the restoration of Aravalis,” points out Prof Babu.
He also tells you that the process takes three years and in a cycle of five years one can bring back the original native vegetation. What took them 12 years in bringing up the Asola and Bhatti areas was the fact that they had to develop them into full-fledged forests, natural to all wildlife. Of the entire Delhi Aravali range, Asola and Bhatti sanctuaries form 4,000 hectares of the area. The reason why Asola site was called desertified before restoration was that on the surface there was some soil but beneath that there was a salt pan or a concrete pan which is almost like a stone and no plant can survive in that content.
Bhatti on the other hand was a 100-year-old morum mined pit till 250 feet deep. “We started there with about a two hectare plot and thought of restoring it to the original vegetation consisting of Acacia woodlands used by the wildlife and grasslands inhabited by herbivores,” says Prof Babu. The team selected vegetation like Acacia woodlands and grasslands after studying the first communities of vegetation from all along the Aravalis and how they were vanishing. The group used eight species of Acacia and about 10 to 12 species of grasslands which are brought from different parts of Aravalis. Now the same morum mined pits have been developed into a forest with 40 species of plants and the density of the forest is such that no light reaches the ground.
Prof Babu and other team members insist that the whole idea behind restoring the mining pits is to make them into self-sustaining forest lands. The areas restored by them have been made in a way that they require manual watering in just the first year. After that they maintain themselves, provided the local people keep away from these sites, says Dr Suresh Babu, research scientist, Centre for Excellence Programme, Ministry of Environment and Forest.
He adds that if seeds are sowed in the three monsoon months, namely April, May and June, then even lesser water is required. The technology used to restore the morum mined pits at Bhatti and the desertified site at Asola are simple, cost-effective and provide rural employment. They then ultimately provide a series of ecosytem services and ecological boost to the plant communities. And Prof Babu insists that the cost for such a restoration work is minimal at Rs 70,000 per hectare.
“This is nothing as compared to the Government’s aforestation and deforestation programmes which fail in Haryana, for which even the World Bank has given a huge amount of money. We also have a big project in Orissa where we have restored, in four years, 200 acres of mined area. This is in Pornapani, 40 km from Rourkela. We have also restored one water body which was formed as a result of deep mining. It is about 150 meters deep. There was nothing in that water body, but today we find fishes varying in weight from 2.5 to 3 kg. The local villagers, about 60 in number, harvest fish and earn their living. The mine was used for supplying Limestone to the Rourkela plant. The forest that we have developed is much more richer than the forest found in the neighbouring regions,” says the 69-year-old professor who initiated it all.
The two life-supporting systems — Aravalis and Yamuna — perform a number of ecological functions. However, over a period of time they have depleted, owing to urban development and other anthropogenic activities. “Someone once told me that the wild bust used to roam near the Red Fort but now nothing can be seen. I was also told that there were lions in the Asola and Bhatti areas, we cannot even think of that now. All of them have become extinct,” recalls Prof Babu.
He also insists that the Aravalis is the catchment area of Delhi. The entire recharging of Delhi aquifers is taking place from Aravalis. The proof comes from the fact that all around Aravalis, 80 per cent are deep pits and after rains one never finds even a drop of water. This indicates that all the water goes into the aquifers. The Aravalis extend from Gujarat to Rajasthan to Haryana to Delhi. They spread over a length of 625 km and their width varies from 520 km to 250 km at various places.
Its another important function is that it prevents the spread of Rajastan’s Thar desert into the plains, particularly Delhi. It acts as a physical barrier between Delhi and Rajasthan protecting Gangetic plains. The Aravalis give the area its moisture helping the vegetation and prevents the dust storms from coming in. The dust storms in summers are due to the lack of the green cover on Aravalis, says Prof Babu. If you have a dense natural vegetation it also sets in local clouds resulting in local precipitation.
Going back in history, when the British shifted the Capital from Kolkata to Delhi, the ridge was completely barren. This was during the Mughal times. If one looks at the 1857 photos of Delhi (available in DU), one would find that deforestation had already taken place at that time. The British didn’t want this barren hillock and thought of providing a thick forest cover. They brought a Mexican species from Rajasthan, Kabuli Keekar, and used aerial seeding to broadcast it on the entire ridge. Over a period of 100 years, this Keekar has invaded the ridge and eliminated the native vegetation.
“We expect that 3,000 to 4,000 species of plants existed all along the Aravalis in different forest communities. We decided to bring all these species in our Biodiversity Park and established it into 30 to 40 communities. Today we have 400 species in the form of 25 to 30 communities. Some of the species have reached the canope size too,” says Prof Babu.
One of the pits in the park has been developed into an orchid community. “There was just one native orchid in Delhi. Orchids characteristically require high relative humidity and cool temperature, and that condition can be created in those pits without any extra energy, by growing tree species which will maintain the temperature and 50 to 70 per cent humidity. We have introduced 50 species of orchids and of them 15 have flowered for the first time.
This we developed just for promoting conservation education, and also to conserve those threatened orchids. Similarly there are other groups of plants which require such conditions, they are called ferns. There are some ferns in Delhi but they are all desert ferns. So here we have made a fernarium with 40 species. We have a large number of butterflies too,” says Prof Babu.
Delhi has a total of 74 species of butterfly, most of which are almost extinguished. After the butterfly park was made, the scientists did not bring any butterfly manually. Today, they have spotted all the 74 species there, and all of them have flown in themselves. There are 250 birds in the park. Dr Shah at the park tells you how they have spotted the Black Patridge or Kala Teetar, which had long disappeared from the ridge area. All this owing to the improvement in the habitat.
“Aravalis used to have a large number of herbivores and carnivores including leopards. If I want to bring them back to system, I must have extensive range lands or grasslands. Our grasslands spread over an area of 100 acres. There you find a large number of herbivores now including the Nilgai,” says Prof Babu.

Yellow fever

It’s been an incredible golden run for gold, a vertical climb in prices which crossed Rs 18k per 10 grams. Bad news for jewellery buyers, but good news for investors who sidelined retails to rush to bank counters for gold bonds. RBI, too, bought 200 tonnes of gold from IMF lending wind to speculation that Governments the world over were moving away from the dollar economy. Nidhi Mittal explores the yellow metal spiral

The yellow metal is more precious than ever before. With gold prices in India crossing the 18K per 10 gram mark in the last quarter of this financial year, the time of festivities and weddings, ripples in the retail sector are more than visible. The demand for original zari work on garments going down and costume and gold-plated jewellery replacing the 22-carat ornaments are only some examples of India’s most loved metal going out of the pocket.
Seen as the most reliable source of investment and a must for marriage and festivals, the largest consumer of gold in the world has had a longest association with the yellow metal. New York Times in its article published in 1912 said a large part of the world’s gold that goes to India either is converted into ornaments or is burried under the ground. It said that India withdraws a large part from the monetary stock of the world.
Sir James Wilson KCSI, who served in the Indian Government service for many years, in a comprehensive address delivered before the East India Association of London on June 14, 1911, reported the net imports of gold by India since 1840 at about $1,200,000,000 or one-tenth of world’s production at that time. Till today, India is the largest gold consumer, importing between 700 and 800 tonnes of the metal annually or 20 per cent of the global demand.
The soaring prices of gold may have come as a respite to bewildered investors after the dollar slide through the last year, but it has not gone down well with domestic retail consumers. It is estimated that 15,000 tonnes of gold is privately held in India, more than 25 times as much as the official hoard of 558 tonnes after the Reserve Bank of India’s recent purchase of 200 tonnes from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gold purchases in Kerala and Tamil Nadu are almost exclusively meant for weddings, but among the relatively more market savvy Gujaratis, Marwaris and other business communities, gold buying is also driven by the metal’s attractiveness as an investment.
Indian consumption of gold, which stood at about 800 tonnes in 2007, could go up to more than 1,200 tonnes this fiscal, say experts. With Kerala alone accounting for more than 20 per cent of the total gold sales of the nation, the skyrocketing gold prices have created a huge sociological problem in the South Indian State where girls will stay at their parental home for a lifetime without getting married if there is no gold to accompany them to the in-laws.
Reports from several temples in Kerala speak about several postponements of marriage bookings in the past three months, the main reason being rise in gold prices.
In the past month, gold ornament sales fell by more than 40 per cent due to the unimaginable rise in the price, jewellers in the Capital say. “If in the last festival season, my business was 100 per cent, this year it has been less than 60 per cent. The marriage season has not come as a respite because gold is just out of reach of a middle class person. People have even stopped buying gold coins, traditionally given away as shagun in marriages. They are moving to lesser expensive options like silver coins. Also, in such times, people prefer buying Hallmark jewellery which is costlier but sure to fetch more money when given away as scrap,” says jeweller Aditya Aggarwal.
Conversely, a 25 to 30 per cent leap is seen at counters of financing companies with more and more customers approach them with ornaments to pledge. Loan amounts per gram of pledge have also gone up considerably, but these vary from banker to banker.
When gold soars, the dollar is usually getting pulverised, says popular columnist. The bullion market is emerging stronger than ever before while the Dollar is seeing a constant downward turn. With the American economy hit hard by the global recession, and dollar losing on reputation and value, gold is the next option Governments and investors are turning to.
The bullion has risen 38 per cent this year while the dollar has dropped 8.5 per cent against a basket of six major currencies. This advancement in gold is more than the MSCI World Index of shares and US Treasuries and is heading for its biggest annual gain since 1979, say the marketmen. The falling dollar owes itself to various key factors, one of the most recent being that the investors are taking the view that Dubai’s debt woes will be contained, reducing safety bids for the greenback. The domestic bullion market witnessed maximum volatility after the Dubai crisis, which drew back stockists and an investment-led demand triggered a burst of buying spree.
The demand for bullion also increased among Governments after the RBI and Mauritius bought the metal in huge bulk from IMF. China and Russia added to their holdings, spurring the fear that the strongest currency so far is losing on its trademark strength. Two hundred tonnes of gold for a staggering Rs 32,000 crore at a time when world economies are struggling to stand up after suffering major financial crisis, created a furore in the bullion market, further boosting the investor sentiment towards the metal.
Analysts say RBI bought gold from IMF not just to shore up its gold holdings but to also declare globally that the nation has arrived “in a big way”. As he swapped his country’s dollars for hard assets, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was blunt: “The economies of the US and Europe have collapsed,” he said.
“India has shown its strength as an emerging economy. The strong emergence of developing nations has put down the strongest currency. Whenever we see a downward trend in dollar market, we simultaneously notice an upward movement in gold prices. There are several factors which have resulted in the soaring prices of gold led in turn by the fall in the value of dollar. With developing economies like India moving ahead at a faster pace, dollar had to go down.
“Then the employment stimulus package pumped into the US economy after the financial crisis has still not got fully into force. The crisis in Dubai has further pushed the dollar. Recently, we saw that all strong foreign currencies were pegged against the Chinese Yuan, because its strengthening by every passing day. This developed a fear in the minds of investors and therewas a general rush towards buying gold which is, by far, the safest mode of investment. Then we saw a trend when gold was being bought even at high prices, which again boosted its global prices. Two factors come out here — one, that gold is a safer investment, and that emerging economies like India have arrived in a more powerful way than ever before in history,” explains Vikas Roshan, executive director of leading auditing firm KPMG.
India, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, all developing nations, have in the last quarter bought more than half the 403.3 metric tonnes of gold that the IMF sold to bolster its balance sheet and boost lending to low-income nations.
Since the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary agreement in 1973, the world has conducted its trade and paid its bills in dollars — not gold which held considerable importance in the preceding era. This, because America had a strong economy, was a major creditor nation with low debts and had a reputation for fighting inflation and defending the dollar’s value. However, in times to come, as America encouraged the world to collect dollars and dump gold, an unforeseen, dramatic reaction occurred, and dollar started slumping.
Foreign importers began to replace American industry. The US manufacturers were forced out of business or relocated overseas. The US economy changed radically. America evolved from a production-focused economy into a consumption-focused one. It went from being the world’s creditor nation to the world’s largest debtor nation. And, over just the past decade, its currency lost one third of its value.
“So much so that investors now typically look for avenues where they can get out of the dollar depricated situation. And in such times, there’s nothing better than gold. After the global meltdown, central banks have pumped in a lot of liquidity into the system to defreeze financial assets. People now don’t want to hold back the cash and are investing in assets other than the dollar. There are options like real estate which is still very down in the West, crude which is not likely to pick up anytime soon, other metals like aluminum or steel which are not very attractive options. Hence, gold is a hotsell,” says senior economist Sunil Sinha.
With this IMF gold purchase, India is now ranked 11th, up from 14th in September 2009 as per World Gold Council (WGC) statistics. India now has a mammoth gold reserve of 557.7 tonnes which, analysts say, will take it a long way. However, with the soaring prices, the WGC in its Q3 2009 report says that the retail industry is not recovering much. Third quarter demand in India continued to improve from exceptional lows witnessed earlier in the year, but absolute levels of demand remained reasonably weak, says the WGC report.
Jewellery demand, at 111.6 tonnes, was down 42 per cent in Q3 2008, while net retail investment demand, now at 26 tonnes, recorded a decline of 67 per cent over the same period. Total tonnage was down 49 per cent relative to year-earlier levels. “Given that the annual decline in tonnage Q2 2009 was 38 per cent, it may appear logical to conclude that the trend is continuing to deteriorate. However, such an assumption would be misleading, as Q3 2008 was exceptionally strong. A quarter-on-quarter comparison shows a very healthy 26 per cent rebound, but once again, this is somewhat misleading due to seasonal effects. A more appropriate benchmark for comparison would be a “typical” third quarter. If one takes the average level of Q3 tonnage off-take over the five years to Q3 2007 (152 tonnes) and compares Q3 2009 against this average, the decline is a more moderate nine per cent (-5% for jewellery consumption and -25% for investment demand),” explains a source in WGC.
The high prices of gold continued to be the biggest constraint on jewellery demand during Q3 2009, along with poor monsoon, which resulted in low levels of income for the rural community. Furthermore, the southern part of the country suffered a flood which kept buyers at bay. In fact, income growth has not kept up with the sharp rise in the gold price of the last year, and with the cost of living continuing to climb, consumers have compromised by buying lower weights. Whereas consumers buying for a special occasion would, in the past, have had a target weight in mind, a rupee budget has now become more common. The high gold price has also seen a shift into gem set jewellery, costume and imitation jewellery, points out the report.
“Fluctuations in recycling activity of gold are an integral part of the Indian market. Jewellery is sold by weight at a low margin, with consumers paying close to the spot price in rupee terms. Furthermore, many Indian families own significant holdings of gold, most specifically in jewellery form. Consequently, bouts of profit-taking are a relatively logical response to a volatile gold price in a market that has low transaction costs and a very low margin. It is, of course, the volatility in the gold price that primarily drives the fluctuations in both demand and recycling flows,” says the source.
Nowhere globally is the desire to own and accumulate gold stronger than in India. While there has been some dilution of this desire in the less traditional metros like Mumbai and Delhi, these cities account for just 26 million out of a total population of over 1 billion people. The southern and rural parts of India, in particular, are still very traditional, both in their customs and in their love of gold. Kerala alone has more than 6,000 jewellery shops and about 40,000 artisans in the industry. The total number of people employed in the sector could be more than 2,00,000. Thrissur, the Capital of gold trade in Kerala, accounts for more than 3,000 shops.
While price levels are currently acting as a constraint on demand in India, gold will remain a key savings vehicle for consumers and also for Indians in many other parts of the world, experts say. India is a nation of very high savers. “We believe that the effect of a growing Indian population combined with rising per capita incomes will, over a long term, lead to growth in total demand for gold in India,” says the WGC report.
All said, even though gold dominates the economic scene right now, its price rise is not an indicator of an economy doing good or bad. “The rise or fall in gold prices does not affect the economy, but it does indicate inflation. There is such a hue and cry about it because of the lust for the metal in India. The general fascination for gold will keep up the price,” says Roshan.
He, however, adds this not the end of line for dollar though. “We cannot ignore that the US economy has inherent strengths. Even though it is recovering at a slow pace, even a two per cent growth is promising. Having said that, it is possible it may not gain as much strength as earlier because the developing economies are emerging stronger,” says Roshan.
Economist Sunil Sinha seconds this to insist that there is no alternative to dollar. “Dollar will continue to hold ground, but depending on the investor sentiment and global imbalance, it will see a positive or negative movement. Right now it’s a negative movement with worried investors looking for other avenues,” he says.

The Price Drivers

INVESTORS: Rising interest in commodities, including gold, from investment funds in recent years has been a major factor behind the bullion's historic highs. Gold's strong performance has attracted new players and increased inflows of money into the market

WEAK US DOLLAR: The currency market plays a major role in setting the direction of gold, with bullion prices moving in the opposite direction to that of the US dollar. Gold is a popular hedge against currency weakness. A weak US currency also makes dollar-priced gold cheaper for holders of other currencies and vice versa

OIL PRICES: Gold has historically had a strong correlation with crude oil prices, as the metal can be used as a hedge against oil-led inflation. Strength in crude prices also boosts interest in commodities as an asset class

POLITICAL TENSIONS: The precious metal is widely considered a “safe haven”, bought during uncertain times. Major geopolitical events, including bomb blasts, terror attacks and assassinations, can induce price rises. Financial market shocks, which cause other asset prices to drop sharply, can have a similar effect

CENTRAL BANK GOLD RESERVES: Central banks hold gold as part of their reserves. Buying or selling of the metal by banks can influence prices. On August 7, a group of 19 European central banks agreed to renew a pact to limit gold sales, originally signed in 1999 and renewed for a further five years in 2004. Annual sales under the pact are limited to 400 tonnes, down from 500 tonnes in the second agreement, which expired in late September. Sales under the agreement were low in the later years of the second pact, however. Gold sales under the second Central Bank Gold Agreement totalled only 1,883 tonnes, down from 2,000 tonnes under the first agreement

HEDGING: Several years ago when gold prices were languishing at $300 an ounce, producers sold a part of their expected output with a promise to deliver the metal at a future date. But when prices started rising, they suffered losses and there was a move to buyback their hedging positions to fully gain from higher market prices — a practice known as de-hedging. Significant producer de-hedging can boost market sentiment and support gold prices. However, the rate of de-hedging has slowed markedly in recent years as the outstanding global hedgebook shrank

SUPPLY/DEMAND: Supply and demand fundamentals generally do not play a big role in determining gold prices because of huge above-ground stocks, now estimated at around 158,000 tonnes — more than 60 times annual mine production. Gold is not consumed like other commodities. Peak buying seasons in major consuming countries such as India and China exert some influence on the market, but others factors such as the dollar and oil prices carry more weight

Issues got an eight-pack

Madhur Bhandarkar - Film-maker who believes in reality cinema and saw 2009 as a year of true bytes

The Hindi film industry has seen a great revamp in the last three years and the quality of cinema has changed for the good. This year, too, was witness to a mixed bag of films. As a pleasant surprise, films which got critical acclaim also caught the eyeballs.
In fact, you could safely call 2009 a year of issue-based films. There was Jail and then there was Paa. The reason why Indian cinema saw this shift from big banner, traditional blockbusters to socially relevant cinema is that people asked for a change. They didn’t just want to see films with only entertainment value but also wanted some social content in their entertainers. Like I always say, big budget, big banner films may be a hit but they are not necessarily good films, while a small film may not churn out the same amount at Box Office, but it may receive kudos.
To put things into perspective, I would like to give an example of my film Jail. It was a very different film and I am proud to have made it. It is one film that was appreciated by people from all walks of life. Jail was a real film based on the Indian judicial system. It was about people reeling behind bars. Though the film could not generate the kind of response at Box Office I had expected it to, but it made up by generated a huge positive response from audiences.
LS Speaker Meira Kumar and till BJP leader LK Advani loved it and came out with tears in their eyes. Even though the film was made on a small budget, it showed the Indian jail system in its truest form. That is what today’s audiences want.
Going back to 2008, Naseeruddin Shah starer A Wednesday was an impactful movie. Simply made, it successfully tackled the concept of terrorism.
This year closes with Hirani’s 3 Idiots which I am wanting to watch. There has been a lot of buzz around it and fairly so. After all, it is an Aamir Khan film. Paa was also a pathbreaking film and I loved it for its content. So, just like 2008, this year also stands out for its stress on simple experiments, changed mindsets, technical excellence and strong, very strong content.
This was also the year as India got global acclaim through Oscars. The importance of Hollywood in Bollywood cannot be denied. Hollywood has always been the baap of Bollywood and we have always drawn inspiration from it. Indian filmmakers have picked up subjects and ideas from Hollywood. It has always been a part of us and the presence is only increasing by each passing year.
In all, 2009 has been the year of change in Hindi cinema. Films like Rock On and Fashion in 2008 have given viewers that extra something which the 150 TV channels do not give them at home. Audiences have become very ruthless today. After all, with so much entertainment happening at just a flick of a remote, they will come to the multiplex only for an extra edge to their entertainment quotient.
Indeed, Bollywood came a long way. Our films were technically stronger, so much so that they are increasingly reaching out to people in foreign lands too. They watch them for the love of our song and dance sequences, our colour schemes and our bevy of emotions.
Having said that, we are still not equipped enough to make films like Avatar in India. Even though it is two hours and 40 minutes long, the film is a 3D marvel. The imaging is superb and it just takes you to another world of fantasy. Moreover, for a film with such a huge budget ($500 million), we need to understand that Hollywood has a market across the world. English is a universal language which gives these films an edge over us. They also dub all their films in different languages like French, Russian, German etc, which generates a lot of additional revenue.
In that sense, Indian films get limited. All we have is an NRI community and a limited interested foreign crowd. In India itself, there is very less viewership in places like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh etc. Despite being Indian States, the demand for Hindi films is just not there. It’s practically impossible for India to make a film like Avatar which had been on the floor for 12 long years.
Talking about money, the Indian cinema business also saw a slump owing to recession. While 2008 was a good year, 2009 has been much below the expectations. A lot of films tanked at the Box Office, not because they weren’t good content-wise but because of the slowdown. I am positive, however, about 2010 and am keeping my fingers crossed as a lot of good films are awaiting release next year.
2009 also lost on business because of the much-publicised producer-multiplex face-off, owing to which there were no releases for three months. And when the strike was called off, a pile-up happened. There was no breathing space at the multiplexes with films being released in quick succession. For example, when Jail released, it did not open to a good audience but gained on popularity through the word of mouth. People wanted to watch it but the very next week it was out of theatres because there were other releases. Cinema halls just could not hold on to one film for a very long time. Similar was the case with Sankat City which was a great film but by the time people got to know about it, it was nowhere to be seen.
Year 2009 was also the year of young actors like Neil Nitin Mukesh, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapur and Imran Khan. This new brigade is creating a niche for itself and has made work speak for it. Their performances have been appreciated and I am very happy for them. But that doesn’t mean that there is no place for the likes of SRK or Aamir. When Sanjay Dutt, Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff ruled screen space, there came a time for newer generation like Aamir, SRK and Salman, and they all co-existed. So is the case with SRK, Aamir and Ranbir, Neil and Shahid. There is a place for everyone under the sun.

-- As told to Nidhi Mittal

Stateless toddlers

It is a harrowing tale of legal tangles, unending wait and dying hope for Germany’s Jan Balaz who has been running from pillar to post trying to take his twins back to Germany. Born through surrogacy the twins are nationals of nowhere and are living in Jaipur with their grandmother as their father fights their case in Supreme Court and their mother goes back to Germany to keep her job and keep the funds flowing. It has been a two-year-long plight even as Balaz has sought all routes to somehow get these children home.Nidhi Mittal tells you why it is still a deep long tunnel for this unfortunate foreign family

You may call them citizens of nowhere or, more indulgently, citizens of the world. But Nikolas and Leonard, all of two years, may use up their entire life to get one, not just a nationality but also parentage despite having a biological father fighting for them.
Nikolas and Leonard were born around in Anand, Gujarat but they are neither Indian citizens nor Germans, as their parents, rather commissioning parents as the court of law likes to call them.
Born to a surrogate mother, the twins are ignorant that their “commissioning” mother has left for Germany after a long wait in India to take them with her while their father is fighting a legal battle to get them a passport — Indian or German.
And, Jan Balaz is a tired man. Fighting a lawsuit in a foreign country and not being able to take his children back home to Kempton in Germany, has made him look older than he is. “It’s not easy but do I have another option? They are asking me to adopt my own children. What could be more distressing than that? But that’s the only way I can possibly get them a passport or a visa,” says Balaz, talking about the German Government’s suggestion about an inter-country adoption which the Supreme Court has agreed to.
When Balaz decided to come to India to have children through a surrogate mother, he did not know that in Germany, surrogacy is a punishable offense. All he knew was that in India surrogacy is a popular activity, that too cheaper than in Europe or the US where the law recognises it. He went by reports of international citizens having successfully got children in India and gone back home to a happy and fulfilled life.
Hoping to do the same, Balaz and his wife Susan Lohle contacted Dr Nayna Patel in Anand. While they arranged for their long stay in India, Dr Patel picked out a woman who was ready to bear a child for them. Having got a surrogate womb, eggs from yet another woman and sperms from Balaz, the couple lost no time in starting the IVF procedure in early 2007. Luckily for them, the woman conceived immediately. “I saw the Anand facility on a news channel once in Germany. At that time, we were looking for options to have a child. That is how I decided on India. I was told it (surrogacy) keeps happening here. We were happy when we saw a positive response from everywhere,” says the father of the twins who are now in Jaipur where Balaz’s mother is taking care of them in the absence of Susan.
Susan had to return to Germany recently because she had exhausted all her work leave. She works as a helper in a day care centre in Kempton, while Balaz is a freelance photographer, with “no special interests. I do all kinds of photography for magazines and journals,” he tells you.
Balaz also tells you how his mother has not gone home for three years now and has been with him in all this. “She has been in India for three years because we can’t take the kids to Germany owing to the insensitivity of authorities. However, Indian courts have been quite kind to us,” he insists, pointing out how the Gujarat High Court ruled that his children should be given an Indian citizenship and an Indian passport. However, due to lack of any surrogacy law for international citizens, the Union Of India challenged this ruling in the Supreme Court.
SC, though, is considerate about the fate of these Stateless children, but has its hands tied due to the lack of any specific rule or law on surrogacy, which is estimated to be a Rs 5,000-crore market in India. It is actually the stringent German law that makes things difficult for everyone in this particular case. The German Embryo Protection Act, 1990, states that “anyone will be punished with up to three years imprisonment or a fine, who transfers into a woman an unfertilised egg cell produced by any other woman… or attempts to carry out an artificial fertilisation of a woman who is prepared to give up her child permanently after birth (surrogate mother) or to transfer a human embryo into her.”
The law makes surrogacy a crime and refuses to recognise as German citizens children born thus in any part of the world. Balaz’s big mistake was that he simply did not know of this till he applied for a passport for his twins. That was the time that the legal battle started. It was difficult for him to try and understand all the intricacies of the laws of the two countries, and didn’t understand why is it that his children can’t be Indian citizens when they are born on Indian land to an Indian woman. For now, Balaz keeps shuffling between Delhi, where the case is in Supreme Court, and Jaipur, where he has rented an accommodation and lives with his two children and mother.
Now that he has accepted that there is no other way but to adopt his own children, one more address has entered in his list of places to rub his feet — the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). CARA is the Government agency which processes all adoptions, including the inter-country ones. Balaz has spoken to the head of CARA but is yet to see hope as “the agency says it will have to look into the legal implications of such a case.”
On their part, CARA sees scant hope for the man and his children, though the chairman of the central agency insists that he is yet to receive and study the document containing the directives from SC. “I can’t say specifically what would be the outcome of this case since I still don’t know what the SC directive is. But there are a lot of problems with Mr Balaz’s adoption case,” J K Mittal, chairman, CARA, says.
Explaining the intricacies, Mittal says the problem starts right from the fact that Nikolas and Leonard are born through surrogacy. “Surrogacy doesn’t come under the purview of CARA. We don’t have any guidelines on it. Further, since the twins are Balaz’s biological children, how can he adopt his own children?” questions Mittal. The next problem lies in the fact that the two boys are already living with Balaz which is a complete no-no with adoption guidelines.
Mittal, who regularly deals with inter-country adoptions and is currently dealing with four cases from Germany alone, says the problem lies with people who do not find out about a country’s laws and procedures. “Like everything else, they want to take home babies easily. One must take care to read all the guidelines which are not at all difficult to understand,” Mittal insists.
Meanwhile, Balaz’s counsel Nikhil Goel is doing his bit to convince Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium about Balaz’s plight and his sentiment for his children after questions were raised on the possibility of child-trafficking. Balaz has filed an undertaking to this effect which satisfied the SG. On humanitarian grounds, he then said the Government will try to persuade Germany to facilitate a one-time visa for the twins. However, Germany insisted that was not possible and instead suggested that Balaz adopt the children.
It’s not as if the Indian judiciary is not concerned about the fate of these innocent twins. Finding the surrogate babies caught in no man’s land for no fault of theirs, a Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly vented anguish on their behalf: “Should we treat children born out of surrogacy as commodities?…. Statelessness cannot be clamped upon children. There must be some mechanism by which they get citizenship of some country. Children should be allowed to leave the country after an assurance of their citizenship has been given.”
But where will the assurance come from? According to the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955, children of a foreign couple cannot be Indian citizens and surrogacy does not find a mention anywhere. Though a Bill was floated in the Rajya Sabha in 2008, there has been no follow-up action on it. It was the 228th report of the Law Commission that demanded legality for surrogacy. However, there was a slight change in the treatment to surrogacy 2003 onwards. With the Baby Manji case, surrogacy got more recognition and came to limelight.
Returning to Balaz and all the odds he has been facing in getting his babies home, he nevertheless insists that his overall experience in India has been a pleasant one. “I like Indians better than Germans. They are more warm and helpful,” he says. However, there is a contradiction when you ask him why he chose Jaipur as the city of his residence. “Indians look at White people strangely. We are treated strangely too. I think there should be friendliness towards Whites which I found in Jaipur. Maybe because Jaipur sees more international tourists every year,” he explains.
The twins, born on January 4, 2008, may never know that Susan is not actually their mother, or who gave birth to them. As part of the contract, their surrogate mother Martha Immanual Khristy will never contact the German couple. The 28-year-old woman has her own two children. She rented out her womb for Balaz and Susan to earn enough money for her six-year-old daughter and four-year-old son as she was struggling to make ends meet till the time she registered for surrogacy at Dr Patel’s clinic in Anand.
For Dr Patel, this was the first German couple and she was unaware of German law. “Such legal tangles should not be there. The couple should have found out before they set out for this. Mr Balaz’s case is unique. Otherwise, I have not seen any legal problems cropping up with foreign couples so far,” says Dr Patel, who gets almost 40 couples a year seeking a surrogate child.
Her facility boasts of an ever increasing number of registered women who want to be surrogate mothers. “I have more than 200 women from various backgrounds registered. It is through artificial insemination or IVF that they become pregnant. However, the success rate is only 20 per cent, but couples keep trying till the time they get a positive result. And a woman is not allowed to be a surrogate for more than three times. From 2004 till now, I have seen a woman bearing a child maximum twice,” she tells you on phone from Anand, adding that the medical expense of having a baby through surrogacy in India comes around US $20,000.
A good number of salaried middle class women in Anand have taken to surrogacy to boost their earnings. In most cases, they get between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per delivery. In the US, surrogacy costs around $50,000, excluding medical bills and charges for agencies which find surrogate mothers. The cost consideration apart, childless couples across the globe choose India because of the refined cultural background of the middle-class surrogate mothers. Dr Patel receives an average of 10 emails a day from childless couples overseas who prefer Indian surrogates because they are generally free from vices such as drinking, smoking and drugs.
Although India’s first surrogate baby was delivered on June 23, 1994, the practice started receiving international attention in 2004 when an Indian woman delivered a surrogate child for her daugther in the UK. Surrogacy in India gained further attention in 2007, when Oprah Winfrey featured a US couple pursuing surrogacy in India on her popular show.
While 2007 figures from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) reported 276 successful gestational surrogate pregnancies in the US, India’s clinics delivered 150 successful gestational pregnancies. This makes India the second most common location for gestational surrogacy. However India, unlike the US and Europe, has clinics that specialise in gestational surrogacy.
The surrogate mothers and parents sign a contract that promises the couple will cover all medical expenses in addition to the woman’s payment, and the surrogate mother will hand over the baby after the birth. Counseling is a major step, and Dr Patel on her part tells the women to think of the pregnancy as “someone’s child comes to stay at your place for nine months”.
All this worked for Martha, Balaz and Susan, though the couple unfortunately got stuck in a legal pool later. Even though adoption may have shown them a way out of the German law, the couple will face another big roadblock for this — the adoption red tape in India. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General report of 2008-09, over 6,000 orphaned children in Gujarat don’t have legal parents since 2004, either because agencies did not file their cases on time, courts delayed adoption procedures or agencies broke rules, thus, invalidating the adoption. Some children don’t have legal parents for even over four years when they are already in school.
As per CARA guidelines, the adoptive parents can take the child on pre-adoption foster care after signing a foster care affidavit. The State Government then has to ensure that the adoption is legalised within six months. The CAG report states that as per guidelines, the agencies need to file a petition in court after matching, and place the child for pre-adoption foster care to the adoptive parents. However, in Shishu Gruh, Khanpur, in Ahmedabad, six children were given away without completing formalities and siblings were separated, thus breaking rules, notes CAG.
In the Mahipatram Roopram Ashram in Ahmedabad, 23 abandoned children were given away without the paperwork. Rules say that a child can be freed for adoption only two months after it has come to an orphanage. However, Shishu Gruh gave away nine children before completing two months.
The fate of Jan Balaz, Susan and their sons Leonard and Nikolas hangs in balance and in the hands of a blindfolded woman. That’s unfortunate, and it’s scary.

Those genetic killers

Some rarest of rare diseases have been slowly but silently creeping up the medical charts in India. Doctors are as clueless about their diagnosis and treatment as they are alarmed about their occurrence. For those who get such rare disorders, life falls apart not just for the victim but the family too. Treatments, if any, are available only in the US and are out of most pockets. Nidhi Mittal meets up with some of the families tackling rare diseases like Gaucher, MPS and Pompe

They are the flavour of Bollywood now-a-days. If Aamir Khan brought the Dyslexics into news through Taare Zameen Par, Big B Amitabh Bachchan made your heart beat for people with Progeria. Next, Shah Rukh got the Asperger syndrome in My Name Is Khan and now we’re waiting to see Hrithik Roshan as a paraplegic in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish.
It may help directors and actors looking for the next idea in this genre to read about Pompe, Gaucher or MPS. These are the three rarest of rare diseases people have been getting, but you may be surprised to know that there are around 8,000 known rare ailments in the world.
Unheard of, and with very little awareness about them, Pompe, Gaucher and MPS come as a shock to people who get into their trap – either by suffering themselves or carrying the burden of an affected child. The latter is the sad story of Mr and Mrs Prasanna Shirol.
“It was the biggest shock ever. I didn’t understand what the doctor was saying. I had never heard of it before even though I had started suspecting my daughter was ailing of something big,” says Prasanna, Nidhi’s father. Nidhi, 10, suffers from Pompe, a rare disease that causes muscle weakness, poor muscle tone, an enlarged liver and serious heart defects in infants and juveniles, leading to an early death.
Nidhi has never played outside her home in Bangalore with other children of her age. In Class IV now, her mother accompanies her to the school, carries her to the first floor where her classroom is and sits outside waiting for the bell to ring everyday. Unable to even walk or stand, Nidhi stays indoors after returning home. Her physiotherapist and two friends, who come to play with her only if they don’t want to play outside, are her slimline visitors.
Nidhi, who is put on a ventilator every night, can’t watch TV for more than half-an-hour as that stresses her out. And her slow speed at homework leaves her with no time to pursue her only hobby — painting. “I love drawing but I have to do my exercises, homework, have dinner and go to sleep on time. So I have no time for it now,” Nidhi tells you in a tone that makes you feel she is having difficulty in talking. It takes time to understand her garbled diction.
She insists she wants to be a doctor and treat people in pain like her. Interrupting her on a usual weekday evening while she is doing her English homework, one asks her if she finds it difficult to go to school and pat comes the reply, “I love school and my friends. I don’t take leave unless I am feeling very unwell. I love my class teacher. She talks sweetly to me,” says the child, whose favourite subjects are Maths and Science and likes eating dosa.
“The teachers and students in her school are very co-operative. They don’t treat her any differently. They also let me use the library as I have to spend my entire time there. Though she manages to stand up for a few minutes, she is very slow at other activities. To prevent her from getting infections we can’t take her outside. She spends time watching Discovery and Nat Geo channels and playing with her two friends. The last film she saw was Paa and she loved it. All that we now wish is that she is able to fend for herself when we are not there,” Nidhi’s mother Sharda tells you.
Sharda and Prasanna are brave parents tackling the situation with a smile. They have a next to nothing social life as their time passes in looking after Nidhi whose needs are big. “There’s no free time. I go to school with her and at home have to make sure her daily regimen is followed like clockwork,” Sharda says.
Life has not been easy for this couple. Sharda had to abort her second child as pre-natal tests confirmed the same disorder. That was three years back, and now the couple doesn’t want to take a second chance. “It scares us to think that our second child may also suffer the way Nidhi does,” Sharda says, though going by the textbook, there are 75 per cent chances that their next baby would be normal, with pre-conception medication. “We will just live for Nidhi and her well-being,” she says.
Though Nidhi was born a normal child in 1999, there was a considerable delay in milestones like crawling and standing. She was already two years old and had still not started walking. A worried Prasanna took her to a pediatrician, who said there was nothing to worry about as a few children take time. Unconvinced, he took Nidhi to NIMHANS where the doctor conducted tests and termed her illness as Glycogen Storage Disorder Type II, or Myopathy with no cure.
Nidhi’s muscles got harder and she started facing respiratory problems. Though she could walk till she was seven, a serious respiratory attack made her condition critical and she had to be hospitalised and put on ventilator. Tests then determined that she actually suffered from Pompe, a type of Lysosomal Storage Disorder (LSD), one of the 15 categories of rarest of rare diseases.
“I read up a lot on the disease and found that there was no drug to treat this disease. However, in 2008, a drug called Myogen came in but only in the US, that too at a very high price. Only one company — Genzymes Corporation — sold it. Though there was a charity scheme to provide the dose free, it favoured only children less than a year old. I got in touch with the International Pompe Association as there was no office in India. Fortunately, I convinced them about my daughter’s case and they made it free for her,” Prasanna says.
Enzyme Replacement Therapy alone costs Rs 8 lakh a month, with one infusion needed after every 15 days in a patient like Nidhi.
Nidhi got her first medicinal infusion in April 2008, two years after she was diagnosed with Pompe. What delayed her early treatment was the doctors’ lack of awareness and a late diagnosis. “People come to Delhi from across India with such rare diseases because not many hospitals have the facility to diagnose them. Specialised tests like urine metabolic test, MPS quantification, electro-therasis and enzyme analyses of the blood are unavailable at most hospitals. A majority of such diseases manifest themselves in the first two years of life. We need to get to the bottom of the genetic disorders but this will not happen till genetics becomes a college subject,” Dr Ratna Puri, consultant, Department of Genetics, Sir Gangaram Hospital, explains.
In simple terms, Pompe is an inherited disorder caused by the build-up of a complex sugar called glycogen in the body’s cells. The accumulation of glycogen in certain organs and tissues, especially muscles, impairs their ability to function normally. Researchers have described three types of Pompe syndromes which differ in severity and the age at which they appear. They are known as classic infantile onset, non-classic infantile onset and late-onset.
Nidhi’s is the non-classic form of infantile onset Pompe disease. It is characterised by delayed motor skills (such as rolling over and sitting) and progressive muscle weakness. The heart may be abnormally large but affected individuals normally do not experience heart failure. The muscle weakness in this disorder leads to serious breathing problems and most children live only into early childhood. “Pompe doesn’t affect the brain and that’s why the enzyme replacement therapy works. Difficult to avail unless the company sponsors it, the therapy doesn’t work for rare LSD diseases which affect the brain also, like the MPS-II. Nidhi is showing good improvement with the vials she takes every 15 days, but there was a time when she was hardly expected to survive,” Dr ML Kulkarni who diagnosed the disorder in Nidhi, says.
A pediatrician with special interest in genetics for the last 30 years, Dr Kulkarni of the JJM Medical College, Davangere, however, says that the company supplying drugs free of cost is misleading patients. “Companies are attracting people by offering incentives. They are giving the treatment free for eight to 10 years but it is a lifelong treatment. After that period is over, they will have to pay for the expensive therapy, and not many can afford it. Hopefully, 10 years from now, we may have cheaper drugs or better treatment,” he says. Genzymes provides free medication to about 70 patients across India.
Prasanna says there are six known Pompe cases in India and it’s a life threatening, debilitating disease which can cause an early death if it goes untreated. It affects the normal growth of a child, so much so that the patient also finds it difficult to hold his head, says Prasanna, talking about a film released in the US — Extraordinary Measures. Starring Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, it is a true story of a parent trying to save his two Pompe daughters.
Saying he was lucky to have found the information and drug for his daughter in time, Prasanna feels it is important to spread awareness among uninformed people. “I got in touch with several doctors who saw patients with rare diseases. Finally in September 2009, eight people from different States came together to form the Lysosomal Storage Disorder Support Society of India (LSDSSI), of which I am the President. We observe February 28 as the International Rare Disease Day,” he tells you.
It was through this society that one came across Delhi-based Manjit Singh whose two sons suffer from yet another rare disease called the Mucopolysaccharidoses or MPS.
Nineteen-year-old Prateek and 17-year-old Pradeep were diagnosed with MPS-1, a rare genetic progressive disorder in 1995. However, it was only in 2006 and several doctors, diagnosis and tests later that it was concluded that they suffer from MPS-2, a very severe disorder.
Manjit has not been able to get proper treatment for his sons as the therapy costs him Rs 2 lakh per infusion for one son. An infusion is needed every 15 days, which means Rs 8 lakh a month for his two children on just infusions.
He has not been able to get a sponsored treatment so far as his sons have grown up and the global charity favours only younger children. Both brothers are short with Prateek standing at 136 cm and Pradeep at 134 cm. They suffer from hearing problems (especially in winters), insomnia, hernia (for which they have been operated), brittle skin and hair, among other issues.
Born normally to normal parents, Prateek started getting skinny when he was five. The parents thought it to be routine weight loss during growing years. When Manjit noticed a defect in Prateek’s gait and his fingers concaving, not allowing him to open up his palm completely, he took him to an orthopaedic who said the child had tight bones, nothing more serious.
“Then his vision started blurring but even the opthalmologist felt it was not something serious. Next, a cardiologist found leakage in one valve and an enlarged heart. He was the one who first suspected MPS. In 1995, we went to Sir Gangaram Hospital which didn’t have the equipment to conduct confirmatory tests so we went to AIIMS where MPS-1 was confirmed. My younger son was two then and doctors told us to test him too. He, too, tested positive,” Manjit recalls.
Till 1999, there was no treatment available for MPS-1. The condition of the brothers kept getting worse and in 2006 it came out that they actually suffered from a more serious disorder, MPS-2. By that time, both had had hernia on both sides and had been operated on one side. Pradeep had a leakage in the heart. MPS-2 damages the patient both physically and mentally. They stop growing physically but their organs grow normally leaving little space in the body, causing multiple problems.
In this rare disease, bones become so weak that fractures occur without any stress. In 2008, Pradeep suffered a “pseudo-fracture” of the hip which took him months to recover. “It all happens due Vitamin D and Calcium deficiency,” Manjit, co-ordinator and treasurer of the LSDSSI, says.
Manjit’s problems had just begun. In August 2009, Prateek had a pulmonary spasm which didn’t get detected in the X-ray but damaged his heart. He fell unconscious, was put on a ventilator and doctors all but gave up on him. However, he was destined to live.
The two brothers no longer go to school, having left studies four years back, after Class X. They studied normally till Class V but were promoted in the next three classes to keep up their morale. Their condition had a fallout on their behaviour. They wouldn’t go alone anywhere and found it hard to gel with classmates. The parents finally decided to keep them at home though they insist that the people at school were kind and co-operative.
“They are jovial boys. Prateek spends time watching TV. He likes old films and is an Amitabh and Dharmendra fan. Pradeep, on the other hand, is an Internet and video games buff. He plays PS-3 the day long and manages some badminton too,” Manjit says. At age 17 and 19, the boys love watching cartoon films and children’s shows like Son Pari and Shararat.
Manjit tells you that there are three lakh LSD patients in India. LSD is a group of 40 genetic rare disorders of which MPS is most common. Dr Kulkarni who comes across three cases of Pompe and two cases of Gaucher a year, witnesses almost 20 cases of MPS annually, says South India is high on genetic disorders majorly because people marry among blood relatives.
“Inbreeding is common in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka etc, while its only two per cent in north India. Parents are the carriers of the bad gene which is one in a lakh people,” he says.
By gaucher!
Twenty-year-old Shashank Tyagi is finally leading a normal life. He is not in pain anymore, goes to college, meets people and hangs out with friends often. It was nothing like this till four years back. From age five, he started facing problems, the cause of which no one could determine. His spleen increased along with the liver, he became over-weight and had a protruding abdomen; eye sight became very weak and bones fragile with him fracturing his left hand without any apparent stress. All this while Shashank took ayurvedic treatment which showed no results.
A resident of Ghaziabad, Shashank was taken to the Kalavati Hospital in 1998. He underwent tests but doctors couldn’t pinpoint the cause of his problems and vaguely suggested a bone marrow surgery. “It’s a painful process and so I didn’t go for it. I went back to ayurveda which provided no relief. In 2004, I went to AIIMS because my liver had enlarged and I had started throwing out whatever little I was eating. My BP dipped and haemoglobin was as low as 8,” Shashank recalls. And, he was only 4 feet tall.
In AIIMS he was diagnosed with Gaucher Type-1. The treatment was too expensive, so Shashank helplessly carried on with ayurveda. He then got to know about the Christian Medical College in Vellore where Dr Sumita Danda, professor in clinical genetics, had been dealing with rare cases. “I owe it to her as she was the one who told me that bone marrow surgery was not required and referred me to the global charity. That’s how I could get medicines free. I had my first infusion in 2006 and I am feeling much better since 2007,” Shashank says. He now weighs 48 kg and is 162 cm tall.
“Gaucher has been there for a long time, but it’s only now that we can detect it with the help of clinical genetics. The enzyme test critical to diagnose rare diseases is available in either CDFD, Hyderabad, or Sir Gangaram Hospital, Delhi. Due to lack of research, the treatment is difficult. Genzym Corporation provides free medicines. Recently an eight-year-old Gaucher patient has got it,” Dr Danda tells you from Vellore. Gaucher is an inherited disorder affecting many organs and tissues. Symptoms vary widely. There are three types of Gaucher of which Type1 is common. Main signs include enlargement of liver and spleen, low red blood cells, easy bruising due to decreased platelets, lung ailments, fractures and arthritis.

Hyperlinked to life

He wanted to do something that would help save lives. He then stumbled upon the idea of launching a website that would facilitate blood donations. What followed was indianblooddonors.com. Rest, as earthquake hit Gujarat and terror struck Pune would tell you, is history. Khushroo Poacha’s online forum has registered people from across India as blood donors who can rush to their hospital on an SMS to give blood. It’s an anywhere, anytime virtual service which works on a very novel format. NIDHI MITTAL tells you how a Railway official and his wife, from Nagpur, manage donors all over India, and turn up as messiahs in anyone’s time of crisis?

The bomb blast in Pune ripped apart the trademark German Bakery and everyone geared up to do his bit in the hour of crisis. Someone far away in Nagpur, however, made a lot of difference. A phone call from a relative during a dinner outing informed him about the blast and the super activity that followed on his part helped save many a life all the way in Pune.
Khushroo Poacha rushed back home and called up a news channel while on his way, requesting them to put his mobile number on the running ticker so that people in Pune could register as blood donors by sending an SMS. Within 5 minutes the scroll was up and in the next 10, the SMS server crashed with hundreds of messages pouring in from people wanting to donate blood.
“I immediately contacted Dhirendra Jain who was on vacation. He connected to our server through the net and set right the problem and monitored the system till 3 am that night. I also woke up Deepak Arora, CEO of Saltriver Systems, who co-ordinated putting up the SMS server. I then spoke to technicians in blood banks at the Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital and the Jehangir Hospital in Pune to let us know when they would need blood so that we could co-ordinate the donations through our SMS network,” says Poacha who’s initiative helped saved many lives in Pune.
The use of mobile phone to instantly provide blood donors was a great idea which Poacha executed recently. However, it all started with a website.
It was, indeed, an unusual night for young Poacha. It was the first time he was spending so many hours inside a hospital. His grandmother had slipped into coma at the Government hospital in Nagpur and he was by her side throughout. Sleep was impossible in the uncomfortable room meant only for the patient. A drowsy Poacha sat on a bench in the corridor when, around 3 am, he heard a commotion.
He went towards the group of people shouting at someone. Poacha was shocked to see that some men were beating up a doctor while a few women were standing there, sobbing. They were relatives of a patient who had just passed away. “I pushed them away from the doctor and asked them why they were thrashing him. They said, the doctor had killed their patient. The doctor told me how the patient needed blood and how he had asked them to arrange for it which they couldn’t and that’s why the man died.”
Though things cooled down after that, I was left wondering. Since my grandmother also passed away some time later, this incident got stacked in my memory,” Poacha recalls. This was 1994.
In 1999, when Poacha got married and was buying furniture for his house, he visited a shop owner. However, despite three visits to the shop, he could not meet the owner to fix the deal. Irritated, he gave him a call to tell him about the urgency for the furniture. The shop-owner said he was too busy to come as he was trying to arrange blood for his neighbour. The patient needed ‘O negative’. Poacha had donated blood several times and had acquired a voluntary blood donor card which allows him to withdraw blood at the time of need. He immediately went into action but could not find ‘O negative’. Finally, only one unit could be found but it was too late — the patient had lost his life. The incident took Poacha back to 1994 and he felt he needed to do something better for people needing blood.
Thirtytwo-year-old Poacha was also going through a crisis at that time. His wife had just had a miscarriage and the chances of her conceiving again were bleak, according to doctors. Poacha thought, what better way to come out of grief than help others in their desperate times. The thought worked well. He told his wife he would do something to help people all over in India and with her eagerness to join him in his novel campaign, the couple launched a drive to figure out how.
It was during a conversation with friends in a cyber cafe that the Poachas stumbled on the idea of doing something through the Internet. “I did not know head or tail of Internet business, but I had an intuition that it would make a difference. Over the next few months, time went by learning more about the medium. I liquidated all my savings to purchase a domain name,” says Poacha. The rest, as doctors in Pune would confirm, was one big helping hand — anywhere, anytime.
It’s been 10 years that indianblooddonors.com came into being and it has been helping save many lives. However, when relatives heard that Poacha had spent Rs 1 lakh on this uncertain initiative, they went ballistic. “Why will unknown people come to help unknown people,” they wanted to know? But nothing deterred Poacha who works with the Indian Railways. His wife is as an administrative officer of a private school. The couple’s income, at that time, was barely enough for making ends meet. “There were many occasions when unpaid phone bills would be lying in the house and there would be no money to clear them,” Poacha recalls, adding that “things always have a way of sorting themselves out. And mysteriously during such times, a cheque would make its way into the mailbox.” An organisation from San Jose in the US sponsored their phone bills while a Supreme Court lawyer silently left a cheque of Rs 1,001 with a note saying, “good job done”.
So how has he managed to sustain this unique website for so long? “Internet hosting used to happen from abroad at that time. So, initially I accepted a few donations coming from various circles and when the media started reporting about us, we became a little popular and started getting many hits on our website. It was only later that website hostings were made free. I had to shell out Rs 2,000 per month for the site,” he tells you, saying that he has faced several questions about money and has given only one answer to everyone doubting his intention. “How did Mother Teresa do it all over the world? My effort is relatively smaller and easier. I don’t accept monetary donations now. People are welcome to contribute in kind by way of stamps, paper etc to make the website as popular as possible,” says Poacha. He is now a popular figure globally and has been invited to various debates, including one in South Korea.
Visibility, however, was an issue initially. No publication was willing to write about him. No major hospital or blood bank was interested in taking his calls. And then the 2001 Gujarat earthquake happened. As visuals of the devastation flashed before his eyes on TV, Poacha realised yet again that he had to do something. Only, this time he knew just what. “I called up Zee News and requested them to flash the site’s name on the ticker and they agreed. Over the next three days I received 3,500-odd registrations by potential donors,” Poacha recalls.
Corporate houses have been wanting to join Poacha’s effort but he has so far kept them at bay in what he fears would turn into crass commercialisation of a noble cause.
It was Catch-22 for Poacha, however, when his boss’ son expressed the desire to buy his website for Rs 3 lakh. He even offered Poacha a partnership and a stake of 25 per cent in the venture. Though Poacha was tempted, as he was practically bankrupt by then, he said no. “After my refusal, by boss started misbehaving with me. He would fire me for no reason. But I stood my ground,” says the 43-year-old who was also approached by venture capitalists but and gave them the same answer.
Stories of people being helped by the website are numerous. “The portal and the listed donors were a great help and out of the 24 donors that they listed to us from Gurgaon with O+ group when we logged in, almost all got back and those who had not donated blood during the last 90 days made their donation. Offers kept pouring in but by then I had lost my sister-in-law. Gurgaon was a new place for us with no relatives and a huge requirement of blood — more than 100 units — we did not know what to do. We had over 200 people donating blood for our patient, all through indianblooddonors.com. This was overwhelming and unbelievable,” Bhawna Bairoliya tells you.
“It is a wonderful experience to get help from people you have never met in life. It restores your faith in human goodness. Once again I thank you for all the help I got from this organisation,” blogged Ramchandra Phawade on the website.
The portal today has 50,000 registered donors from different parts of the country. And Poacha’s just launched mobile phone initiative has registered at least a 1,000 registrations a month. Poacha is now running another initiative www.givemedicines.org which is about donating unused medicines to needy people.

How to
Register as a blood donor : SMS BLOOD to 9665500000
Example : BLOOD 011 B+ve
Search for blood donors: SMS DONOR to 9665500000
Example DONOR 011 B+ve
Search for blood donors in your area:(Especially to be used in Metros) SMS DONOR PIN to 9665500000
Example : DONOR PIN 110002 AB+