1KG of Cotton is not equal to 1KG of Iron

The amount of physical work a blacksmith does in making a work piece is much greater than what a gold smith does. So quite obviously, the black smith is much more hard working than the gold smith is! But then, if we are to compare the precision, intricacy, and value (monetary) of the work done, the gold smith’s work is much more valuable.
So the question arises, what should be right parameter to judge which of the two is better?
The answer to this question is, the very idea of comparing two things which are so different altogether is completely wrong. How can we compare a cricketer and an actor on the number of runs scored, or the number of movies made! Wouldn’t the comparison be utter non-sense?
Nowadays, we all talk about how women are compared to men all the time and thought of as lesser mortals and are discriminated against. This is what “Gender Inequality” is.
A simple google search explains “Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structure and hormonal differences.”
Gender inequality is quite prevalent in our society and it dates back to ancient times. In India, women were always thought of as housewives and housekeepers, and were confined to the four walls of the home. They weren’t allowed to study, learn, explore or take up professional careers. Not only this, they were also not allowed to take part in any family discussions and were never a part in decision making.
Consider as an example, women’s voting rights. It was only in the 19th century, that Women Suffrage Movements started, that too in a very few countries. In India, it was only in 1947, that universal adult suffrage (including women), was introduced.
Even in the modern world, even if women are given some opportunities and are allowed to work, or to take up sporting careers, they are not treated as equals. The fact that equal work to men doesn’t earn equal pay to women is inexplicable.
The difference in the prize money for a men’s event and a women’s event of the same competition shows the narrow mindedness of the society. It is these very factors, which cause for a need to compare them.
Now, just like in the movie, “Chak De India”, do women  in every field need to fight out the men in their profession to prove their worth? Is there a need for this comparison at all?
The answer is NO! Just like it is unfair to compare an actor and a cricketer, an engineer and a doctor, a black-smith and a gold-smith, it is equally unfair to compare man and woman.
If some chauvinist is to say that man has more physical strength and power, then at the same time, a woman has much more patience, love and compassion. God made his creations differently. Each one of us has a different role to play. If a man was meant for muscle and power,  a woman was meant for the heart. They complement each other, they complete each other. They are both perfect for the roles they are assigned to play!
So, if in an office, a work is assigned, it should be assigned irrespective of the sex of the person, and the pay should be for the “work assigned”, and not for the gender accomplishing it. Similarly, if the competition is a world championship, the prize money should be decided for the “World Champions” and not for the men’s world champions or women’s world champions.

So yes, man and woman are different. But it is this difference which defines them and makes them perfect for the work they do. It gives them their own identity. They are here to do different things, so we need to stop comparing them, and discriminating amongst them on the basis of any parameters at all!

After all, ONE KG OF COTTON IS NOT EQUAL TO ONE KG OF IRON!! 

Himanshu Mangla

SYRIAN CRISIS

“We're just living on the edge of life. We're always nervous, we're always afraid” these were the words of mother-of-nine, Mariam Akash, whose husband was killed by a sniper.
More than 200,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war. More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes.
These protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.
This triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad's resignation. The government's use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters' resolve. By July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets across the country.
Opposition supporters eventually began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel security forces from their local areas. By June 2013, the UN said 90,000 people had been killed in the conflict. However, by August 2014 that figure had more than doubled to 191,000 - and continued to climb to 220,000 by March 2015, according to activists and the UN.
In February 2014 UN opposed employment of weapons. Since then, activists say more than 6,000 civilians have been killed by barrel bombs dropped by government aircraft on rebel-held areas. The UN says in some instances, civilian gatherings have been deliberately targeted, constituting massacres.
Islamic State was waging a campaign of terror in northern and eastern Syria. It inflicted severe punishments on those who refuse to accept its rule, including hundreds of public executions and amputations.
About 4 million Syrians mostly women and children fled and came to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey as refugees .A further 7.6 million Syrians have been internally displaced within the country, bringing the total number forced to flee their homes to more than 11 million .Overall, an estimated 12.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria, including 5.6 million children, the UN says. A report published by the UN in March 2015 estimated the total economic loss since the start of the conflict was $202bn and that four in every five Syrians were now living in poverty - 30% of them in abject poverty. Syria's education, health and social welfare systems are also in a state of collapse.
Islamic state has taken control over most of territory of northern and eastern   Syria. Iran and Russia have propped up the Alawite-led government of President Assad and gradually increased their support. The Sunni-dominated opposition has received support from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Arab states along with the US, UK and France. What began as another Arab Spring uprising against an autocratic ruler has been converted   into a brutal war that has drawn in regional and world powers.

Tanya Srivastava

INDIA'S BID FOR THE PERMANENT SEAT IN THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL

With the reform of United Nations Security Council in talks, India is doing its best to win the bid for a permanent seat. India is supported openly by France, United States, Russia and United Kingdom. China has also offered support but only if India withdraws its support to Japan. India being the largest democracy and having the second largest population has many stands in its favor. It is one of the largest contributors of troops to United Nations peace keeping missions. It is also one the highest financial contributors to the UN.The permanent membership will not only elevate India as a global power but also the veto power could be used to defend its interests, like against Pakistan. This is one of the reasons Pakistan is opposing India’s proposal. According to some reports India was offered a seat in the UNSC by the US in 1955 but refused. Nehru believed that India should stay equidistant from the two superpowers during the Cold War and China should not turn into a permanent enemy. But to win a permanent seat today what really matters is economic power. India currently has a GDP of Rs.2 trillion which is far less than that of the permanent members. Other claimants like Germany and Japan are much bigger economies. This weakens India’s claim a bit. But India is also the second fastest growing economy in the world. It is an ideal destination for foreign investment and future growth. Another factor that works against India is that it has never displayed a decisive position in the world affairs. It has always taken non interfering middle path whereas the world expects its greater role. That has made it look paradoxical at the UNSC. But India can turn its ‘balance’ into its advantage but investing more in south –south cooperation. A lot of Central Asian countries want India to play balancer against the possible dominance of Russia and China. India has the worldwide reputation for being strategically autonomous which will go a long way in south-south cooperation. India still has many challenges in its way but it is still a strong candidature for the UNSC permanent seat. If not this year, India would surely secure a seat in the coming years with its reputation and fast growing economy.

Deepanshi Sharma   

AN INSIGHT INTO THE BEEF BAN AND OUR LOVE FOR THE MOTHER OF ALL ANIMALS

In a small village in India, a little fox told its father of his desire to eat human flesh. Next day father fox managed to get some pig meat and offered to his son. But the little fox didn't have it. Then the father fox managed to get some cow meat and offered it. The little fox declined to eat that as well. The stubborn little fox was adamant that he will not settle for anything other than human meat.
That night the father fox left the pork in the front of a masjid and the beef in the front of a temple. By next day morning the entire village was filled with human dead bodies.
The little fox ate human meat for a week and was so happy his father managed to get so much human meat.
Story might be hypothetical, but the Fox is for real.
The cow has held a special place in the hearts of Hindus since time immemorial. Dairy products are extensively used in Hindu culture and are a major source of nutrition in Hindu meals. The reverence a cow is given in India in such that it’s status is equivalent to that of a mother’s and hence the term “gau mata”. Hence its not at all surprising that cows were used as a symbol of wealth in ancient times and a symbol of allegiance to the hindu faith in today’s times. Kill a man, you might walk out free some day; but if someone even has a whiff of you taking so much as a hair off a cow’s body, god save you my friend!
Intolerance in matters relating to cow safety isn’t something of a recent trend. Legend has it that the Chola king Manu Needhi killed his own son to avenge a little calf his chariot crushed. No wonder right wing Hindutva activists didn’t think twice before lynching an old man accused of keeping beef in his house. So is our love for the mother of all animals that many politicians have proposed giving it the coveted position of national animal of India! Ralph Fitch, an ancient British merchant who visited India during the sixteenth cetury wrote an account, “They have a very strange order among them - they worship a cow and esteem much of the cow's dung to paint the walls of their houses.”. throughout history we have proved our love for cows; even our revolution for freedom started with the rumor that rifle cartridges were lined with cow fat. We could easily take all atrocities against us, but no one could touch our cows. Even Mahatma Gandhi gathered momentum in his agitation against the British by promising to ban beef in India when India was free from British Raj. Politicians even now use the cow card to gather support, its obviously a tried and tested method.
All said and done, while we should indiscriminately protect all animals from slaughter, its us who need the most protection, because the fox in the beginning of the essay is very real, lurking in every corner of every neighbourhood, waiting for the opportune time to strike. That’s who we need to lynch, for while there is an ever increasing number of cow saviours, rational people who can save humanity is actually the need of the hour.

Aisha Jain

Saudi Arabian Employer Accused Of Cutting Indian Maid’s Hand

Saudi Arabia is known for having the worst human rights records compared to the rest of the world. This is believed to be true because anyone who voices their opinion or even fights for their rights is executed. They are also branded as enemies of the state.
According to the Human Rights Watch Report, the period when King Abdullah ruled, there was slight improvement  vis-à-vis  the rights of  women but he was unable to secure the basic rights like right to speech, expression, association and even assembly for the citizens. The Ministry of the kingdom announced that they will allow women to work at the gold and jewellery shops, they were also granted access to work at lingerie, costume and accessory shops. This was to provide more job opportunities for female citizens.
The country often sparks worldwide outrage for its repression of basic freedoms and persecution of political opponents and human rights activists. Another such incident is of the Indian maid, Kashturi Munirathinam aged 55, who had left her home in the rural district of Tamil Nadu to work as a house maid in Arabia. Her wage was mentioned to be at around 150 pounds a month. Her hand was cut when she tried to escape the torture and harassment inflicted upon her by the women employer. She also sustained serious spinal injuries as she fell down. This is not the first time that such an incident has happened in Saudi Arabia and will not be the last if stringent measures are not taken against such heinous crimes.

Anjali Thomas

GREEN GROWTH

For quite a lot of economic policy-makers around the world, the term ‘green’ growth has become a talisman, a way of invoking steady increases in output without adverse environmental consequences. So what exactly does green growth mean? The World Bank regards ‘green’ growth as “growth that is efficient in the use of its natural resources which minimises pollution and environmental impacts, and resilient in that it accounts for natural hazards and the role of environmental management and natural capital in preventing physical disasters” . It also adds the rider that “this growth needs to be inclusive”, thus acknowledging the three pillars – economic, environmental and social – of sustainable development.  Green Growth refers to economic growth and development while ensuring sustainable use of natural resources. In other words, it means growth of the economy without putting the environment at risk.
A term rarely heard of before the 2008 global financial crisis, the concept now occupies a prominent position in the policy debates. It gained importance because post the financial crisis the Governments solely worked on boosting the economic growth completely neglecting the environment which caused some serious damage to the environment. The economic growth in the past decade has brought in employment and financial and social development of the population. But it has also caused a great deal of damage due to the negligence of the environment.
Greening growth is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Green growth is economic growth that is environmentally sustainable. It is not a new paradigm, in fact it aims to operationalize sustainable development by reconciling developing countries’ urgent need for rapid growth and poverty alleviation with the risks of lock‐in and irreversible environmental damage. The green growth policies need to focus on what is required in the next 5‐10 years to sustain robust growth without locking economies into unsustainable patterns.    
We  also urgently need green growth because risks to development are rising as growth continues to erode the natural capital. If it is left unchecked, it would mean increased water scarcity, worsening resource bottlenecks, greater pollution, climate change, and unrecoverable biodiversity loss. These tensions may undermine future growth prospects for at least two reasons:
■ It is becoming increasingly costly to substitute physical capital for natural capital. For instance, if water becomes more polluted, we will need more infrastructure to transport and purify it.
■ Change does not necessarily follow a smooth, foreseeable path. For example, some fish stocks suddenly collapsed after declining only slowly for years.
Much of green growth policy is actually considered to be good growth policy. It is about getting the prices right and fixing markets, addressing coordination failures and knowledge externalities, and assigning property rights. As “natural capital”, the environment is an input into the production function. There are plenty of ethical and cultural reasons to protect our environment. But it is also good economics.   
A study shows that environmental degradation costs our country, $80 billion per year on 5.7% of its economy. It is proven that our current growth patterns are not sustainable and by 2050, 4 billion people will live in areas experiencing severe water stress. The current environmental concerns are a product of our own doings and worsening at a more speed than in the past. Studies show that the effect of degrading environment can be seen the most in developing countries where damage t o agricultural production due to extreme weather conditions results in death’s from malnutrition, poverty and their associated diseases. By 2030, the researchers estimate the cost of climate change and air pollution combined will rise to 3.2% of global GDP, with the world’s least developed countries forecast to bear the brunt, suffering losses of up to 11% of their GDP.
Some countries like Korea , Ireland, China and Rwanda are really serious about applying green growth plan’s in action in their respective countries. The National Strategy for Green Growth and the Five-Year Plan (2009-2013) of Korea provide a comprehensive policy framework for green growth. The Strategy aims to:
(1) Promote eco-friendly new growth engines,
(2) Enhance peoples' quality of life, and
(3) Contribute to international efforts to fight climate change.
The ‘Green Development’ section of China's 12th Five Year Plan (FYP, 2011-2015) is a manifestation of the country's aspiration to move towards a greener economy. The Plan is a strategic national roadmap, setting priorities regarding China's future socioeconomic development, and providing guidelines and targets for policy making at the sectoral and sub-national level.
Changing current patterns of growth, consumer habits, technology, and infrastructure is a long term project and we will have to live with the consequences of past decisions for a long time. Green growth strategies thus need to be flexible enough to take advantage of new technologies as well as unexpected opportunities and be able to abandon one approach if a better one becomes available.
Researchers and environmentalists have come up with solutions that we can use in our daily lives as our contribution. These solutions range from using a natural fridge that runs without electricity to using fly ash bricks for constructing infrastructure that would require minimum or no artificial temperature control so as to help us reduce our carbon footprints.
Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary- General very aptly quoted that “ Green and growth go very well together. Green growth means we go for growth, we recover GDP but we also preserve and we actually enhance the endowment of natural resources that we were provided with, and which today are sustaining the economic activity on our planet Earth.”
Green’ growth has become a familiar buzz word all over the world. Given the threat of a runaway climate change as well as environmental degradation, ‘green’ growth is likely to be the only sort of growth that is feasible in the  long run. All of the above shows us, that country leaders and all the people as citizens of the world need to realize the importance of green growth as money will not be of any use if there is no clean air to breathe and no water to drink.

MAHIMA RASTOGI

ROLE OF GERMANY IN THE REFUGEE CRISIS

Germany has always welcomed the Refugees with open arms. In the German Constitution, Article 16a of the Basic Law grants victims of immigration, an individual right of Asylum. Hence, the fundamental right of asylum has great priority and has expressed Germany’s willingness to satisfy her humanitarian and historical obligation to admit refugees. The procedure of admitting the Asylum seekers is there in the Asylum Procedure Act. The Asylum seekers who are permitted by the border authorities to enter Germany or the Federal Republic of Germany or those who are found in Germany without a permit for residence are transferred to the reception center nearest, to the relevant state.
Using the Initial Distribution, a nation-wide system of distribution, the seekers are assigned to reception centers of the individual states of Germany, as defined in the Asylum Procedure Act.
THE ASYLUM PROCESS IN GERMANY:
The Asylum application is submitted to the branch of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) for examination and decision. Then the seekers receive a certificate of permission to reside which provides a primary right to stay in Germany during the procedure.  The seekers are personally questioned by the BAMF workers on their travel routes and reasons for persecution. The interview is then recorded in writing and translated in respective languages of the asylum seekers, a copy of which is also provided to the seekers. The decision on the application is based on these interviews and requires further investigations. The Asylum seekers are informed about the decision in writing and are given information on legal remedy.
If the application is accepted, then those granted the Asylum status and those granted the Refugee status are given a temporary residence permit and are given the same status as Germans within the system of Social Insurance. They are provided social welfare, child and child raising benefits, allowances for integration, language courses and other kinds of integration assistance.
If neither asylum nor refugee protection can be granted then the BAMF examines the procedure for asylum as to whether there are grounds for a deportation ban. This obligatory conduct of reviewing extensively is due to the intention to ensure that there is no delay in processing. However, according to the rule, the asylum seekers whose applications have not been accepted are required to leave the country.

* In August 2015, Germany announced that it was suspending Dublin for Syrian asylum seekers, which effectively stopped deportations of Syrians back to their European country of entry. This move by the bloc's largest and wealthiest member country was seen as an important gesture of solidarity with entry-point states. Most of the asylum claims are submitted in Germany, which already has well-established Diaspora communities from the Balkans.

Akshara Bhargava