The Devil and the Deep Sea

India’s elderly population are literally caught between the devil and the deep sea. The government might have provided adequate incentives in the budget for children to buy medical insurance for their ageing parents; but it is not working well. For in the entirely money-driven economy that we live in today, the elderly are not insurable and pose a business risk where the claims will be possibly higher than the premiums realized.

Strangely speaking, the public sector insurers – who are supposedly meant to have a conscience against the private ones, are not better in dealing with our senior citizens. According to the Business Standard, "A senior public sector general insurance company executive admitted that certain senior citizens may not be readily ‘insurable’ by industry standards, thanks to medical conditions; for example, people above 70 years of age. Most insurance companies are today reluctant to allot policies to senior citizens on grounds of ‘unprofitable businesses.

In a business and incentive driven business, even agents who typically are meant to have a long lasting and personalized relationship with their clients, have begun to start to look the other way. The insurance companies who are otherwise chasing business by drumming up clients by offering commissions to agents are not interested in securing the business of the senior citizens or for that matter any one above the age of 55 as they are the ones more likely to raise claims.

They are more likely to tom tom to all who care to hear about their reduced premiums for 20 year olds who are least likely in the prime of health hardly likely to fall sick and prefer claims. While no one of course disputes the need of insurance companies to make profits and survive in the market, the current stance of health insurers is akin to the man who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and then takes it back when it is running. This way of functioning defeats the very purpose of insurance.

Studies of household expenditure have shown that health care can use up to 40 per cent of a poor family's budget.

Narratives track the trajectories of households over the years: Illness leads to health care expense; usually this means a progressively higher level of care that becomes less and less affordable; this leads to debt, and it also means death, surprisingly often. It is easy to assume that death translates into change in the economic base of the family and has intergenerational impact only when it is of an able and earning male member of the household.

Although the government has announced schemes like the Varishtha Mediclaim, the schemes often come with fine print riders that put them out of reach of many. In many instances, the premium rates have been such that the schemes would be out of reach of many and the insurance regulator has had to step in to warn the companies. To sum it up,

The non-availability of enough products for older people, particularly senior citizens, who need medical insurance the most, and the lack of willingness among the insurance companies to sell such products to them mean that even if you want to buy a health cover for your aged parents, you may be unable to get them adequately covered.

Meanwhile, until we sort all this out, our parents and grand parents continue to swim in the choppy waters of uncertainty.

Child Soldiers and Indian Insurgency

India has no dearth of separatist movement and the one thing they all love to hate is the Indian state , accusing it of all manner of state sponsored terrorism , human right abuse, rape of their women and all manner of other atrocities. It therefore is interesting that in a development reported in NDTV, self righteous underground elements in North Assam , who are supposedly fighting the Indian state so that they can safeguard and protect their own people and culture from the marauding clutches of people in mainland India are using impressionable , young children , often under the influence of drugs to fight their battles. The culprits include well known outfits like the ULFA and the NSCN as well as smaller groups like the UNLF and the PLA. According to the NDTV report , The smallest boys are placed closest to the enemy, because their leaders say they are the most fearless. And when they are not, they are given helpful doses of drugs so that they can overcome whatever inhibitions they may have.
It is detestable indeed that young children are being exposed to death , destruction and violence at such a young and impressionable age and that too by groups who are supposedly the custodians of their peoples' well being and identity. Instead of creating a climate where in these children can finish their education , have a healthy childhood and then grow up be fulfilled citizens of their home land, they are being indoctrinated to kill , hate and destroy from their earlies years. The ideologues of these groups, mostly ensconced overseas , think nothing of using small children to fight their battles , all in the name of preserving supposedly unspoilt and pristine culture which the Indian state is supposedly destroying.
The consequences for society are obviously devastating. If the child soldier does survive this spell of “army service”, with negligible education, skill and indoctrinated with hatred and venom, they are rendered unsuitable for any constructive role in society and they often take the deadly route of drugs, HIV & AIDS and death and the society of the North East is demonstrating enough of the evidence where large sections of youth show no evidence of hope or any thing constructive and are caught up in a spiral of drugs, pleasure and an existence devoid of hope.
According to Amnesty International, the human rights group which has tracked this phenomenon closely reports that Often recruited or abducted to join armies, many of these children - some younger than 10 years old - have witnessed or taken part in acts of unbelievable violence, often against their own families or communities. Such children are exposed to the worst dangers and the most horrible suffering, both psychological and physical. What is more, they are easily manipulated and encouraged to commit grievous acts, which they are often unable to comprehend. Many girl soldiers are expected to provide sexual services as well as to fight.
The Indian government an state has several aberrations and human rights violations are certainly part of them but it has never intentionally taken such a grotesque approach to soldiering and policing and it does try to maintain internal checks and balances to minimize violations where ever they do take place. In fact, the government is trying for long to come to some settlement with groups like the NSCN-IM and the ULFA , so that resolution of differences occurs amicably , quickly and the government has approached these talks in a spirit of maximum compromise. So do these atrocities on children , who are given no choice but are thrust into a particular way of life figure in their discussions ? One can only hope so and expect that pert of the political resolution that the government is trying so hard to achieve will mean that children get to know what it is to be a child before being exposed to the harsh world of adults !

Geelani's Human Rights

The Indian Express reports that Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was denied US visa to visit US for medical treatment. The US has reportedly denied visa to Geelani for his failure to renounce violence as a means for achieving his political goal in Kashmir. In a statement issued here today, Hurriyat Conference termed the denial of visa as a “human rights violation”. Geelani’s purpose of visit to the US was not political but medical. It was a humanitarian issue which deserved sympathetic consideration,” Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akber told Indian Express.

The irony here is hard to miss. Geelani has not denied even once that the US contention that he believed in violence as a legitimate way to achieve his ends was a false one and that he believed in non violent means of protest and dissent. Geelani has thus tacitly accepted the fact that in his world view, it is OK to kill people who come in the way of his political and ideological objectives, even if terrorism is denounced by a large majority of the global community.

The ideological freedom to act according to the dictates of his conscience that he has claimed, even if abhorrent to most of us, is not some thing that he is willing to grant the United States government however. Ever since 9/11, the US government has taken a consistent stand to try and root out terrorism, which in itself is a laudable thing, though we may not agree with all of their methods. And consistent with their stated position, they have denied him a visa. And in response, the Hurriyat conference in a statement that is difficult to assimilate or fathom terms it a human rights violation.

I do not know what the current data looks like but as far back as in 2002, the Tribune had reported that nearly 10,000 innocent civilians were among the 28,000 who lost their lives and property worth millions of rupees was destroyed. There are certainly many players fishing in Kashmir’s muddy waters, but Geelani’s group and those with similar ideologies were responsible for a part of this colossal human misery. Geelani and his cohorts didn’t care much to ensure the human rights of all those who had to leave their homes and hearths for ever and for all the widows and orphans that they and their actions have created. But when Geelani’s only remaining kidney turns malignant and treatment is needed in the US, suddenly human rights become important.

The irony extends further. India is a country that the Hurriyat conference loves to hate. Pakistan is the land of destiny for them. Yet after the US visa refusal, when Imran Khan offered free treatment to Geelani at his fairly well equipped cancer hospital, then offer was declined and alternative treatment was arranged at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital. In comment, the Hurriyat spokesman had this to say “ We were told that after the US, the treatment in India ranks among the best in the world.” It is unfair to take digs at the plight of a seriously ailing man but clearly human rights looks and feel different from a hospital bed when one’s own survival is at stake and expediency prevails over reasoning and ideology. And kudos for once to the United States for not bending , though they could well have used the visa as a bargaining tool in the Kashmir chess game.