Freeze gyaan not eggs! Confused people aren't having babies

 Freezing eggs is becoming very popular. People who don't have strong family ties are  busy getting certificates, degrees, and good jobs. Some say having children isn't  worth it because the world is tough for kids. Many activists and people who call themselves  liberals don't like having kids.

Sridhar Vembu, the founder of Zoho, told students to have kids in their twenties instead  of waiting for degrees and good jobs. This is a smart idea. Today, this means getting  married in the mid-twenties and having kids by thirty. Only people who are not educated, not good at work, and don't perform well have big families and take advantage of  benefits without helping society. The  number of educated and smart people  is  decreasing quickly.

Because of stress, bad food, poor living conditions, and lack of good meals, many adults have health problems by the time they are fifty. By sixty, when they retire, they worry  about their children’s education, marriage, and settling down. If they are lucky enough  to live to seventy, they still have to face the pressure of their kids not settling down because they got married and had kids late. Doctors say the best age to have kids is between twenty-five and thirty-five. If someone has kids after that, the children might  have lower IQs and health issues.

Economists and honest thinkers are warning that our population pattern is becoming a problem. Educated and hardworking people have fewer or no kids, but less educated  and poor performers have more children. These people use their votes to get government support from taxpayer money. Free benefits for these people are now  a big part of  Indian democracy.

In the 1980s and 1990s, half the newspapers were about marriages. People who were  highly educated from IIMs, IITs, and DU got married in their mid-thirties and had kids  by thirty. Being single or having no kids was never an option. After marriage, people  were expected to have a baby within a few months.

Now, there’s an age of no kids. “Hamare do” has turned into “hamare ek” and now into “hamare no child.” Young people are asking, “Why even get married?” Many Gen Z  people prefer to live together without marriage. Some only have pets, and some have  no  kids at all. In a 2021 interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, then-Senate- candidate Vance complained that the U.S. was being run by Democrats, corporate  leaders, and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the  choices they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

Young people today are escapists. They don’t want to grow up   and take on family responsibilities, using studies and careers as an excuse. They are scared of being  parents and don’t want to care for aging parents and other family members. Being a parent is not tough and tiring. Taking care of elderly relatives is even  harder and more stressful in small families. This has caused problems in relationships. Kids today don’t know  about  grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other family members who could help raise  them. They  live with the blame of “pitra-dosh,” “matra-dosh,” and “kul-dosh.”

Nuclear families now have to handle all the stress of raising kids, especially the mother. If she has a job, she has to balance work and home life— managing a team of help at  home like a maid, cook, driver, nanny, and cleaner. Surprisingly, with all that support  and good jobs, Gen Z parents are more stressed than the previous generation, who had lots of kids but not much money and no house help. This is the downside of having  small families.

Having kids in the mid or late twenties may feel heavy at first, but by the time parents  are forty, the kids are more mature and can take care of themselves. Plus, grandparents  are around to help. But if parents have kids after forty, they might have more  resources  but less time and energy. Kids will also worry about their parents’ health when they are in their fifties, and it will be a topic of discussion in parent-teacher meetings. No matter  the age, raising children is tough  in nuclear families. Nobody has a support system to  help raise kids. There’s no solution to this problem. Even  neighbors  don’t help  in  today’s flat culture, and the blame is on Gen Z for not building good relationships with their neighbors.

Many highly educated couples from IIMs, IITs, and DU say, “We can’t raise a child.” They can’t afford expensive schools or foreign universities for their kids. It’s not what the kids want. It’s peer pressure or a social trend. This attitude has created unhappy  children and unhappy couples. It’s a big crisis in society. Kids need love, care, and  companionship, not this hype.

UGC's (in) equity bill: Campuses can't be the fiefdom of caste pacification

 Now, campuses are full of Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi (DBA) students. They are almost in charge of the big schools of higher education. Many of them are second and third-generation learners in their families who have entered university thanks to reservations and quotas. Today, the so-called historically oppressed social, educational, and economic status are only talked about in books and lectures. They have enough social connections and professional networks to influence the academic curriculum. Because they are treated specially by the system, they do not feel the  need to compete in the tough competition. Their counterparts from the general category, who have grown up facing tough competition and hard work, are able to move up more easily among their peers.

This unfair advantage affects them at many levels — from admissions, to hostel room allocation, to giving DBA students extra marks in practical and  viva voce exams to avoid future trouble. It also includes  deliberately admitting reserved-quota students into general category seats during admissions, hiring faculty based on law merit and giving them easy administrative jobs. This unfair treatment can lead to fear, humiliation, frustration, abuse, and in many cases, 'depression' or systematic murder' disguised  as suicides.

The whole nation talks about the sad deaths of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, although their caste categories are not clear. But no one talks about  the suicides of general category students. Political groups, activists, NGOs, etc., demand a strong legal and constitutional system to protect the rights, careers, and dignity of DBA students. But this concern for the general category students and teachers is missing. Instead, they are treated as guilty in political debates and rallies. Jawahar Lal University (JNU) and many other universities are well-known examples of abuse against  the general category.

Higher education institutions do not have a secular system to tackle caste-related issues and their harmful effects on campus life. General category students and faculty are the victims of this lack of system.

Instead of solving the real issue, the University Grants Commission (UGC) introduced the controversial Equity Regulations Bill, replacing the 2012 setup, claiming it was a major step towards equality. On the contrary, it  was clearly biased against the general category (GC). General category students and teachers are treated as guilty from the start. There is no protection for them against harassment or victimisation by reserved category students and faculty. Also, there is no punishment for DBA students who file false complaints.

Because of this, the UGC's rules have faced big protests from the GC, who rightly argue that they will deepen caste divisions and be used to make false complaints against GC students and teachers. Regulation 3(1)(c), which only recognizes caste-based bias as discrimination against DBA groups, has been a major point of dispute. The GC has effectively been made a guilty party by this regulation.

This opposition is not unfounded, seeing the misuse of the 'Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989' by the reserved category. In the current case, the Supreme Court, led by learned CJI Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, has stopped the UGC's equity regulations, calling them 'vague' and 'too broad'. It is a big contradiction that it was the Supreme Court that told the government to make a 'strong and robust mechanism' to deal with caste discrimination, which led to the drafting of a discriminatory law against the GC.

The comments on the UGC regulations by CJI are noteworthy - "We want a casteless society; Do you want to take the country back to the old days?' These guidelines were framed only keeping section in mind." He further commented," Blaming Brahmins for the entire caste system? Did Brahmins create caste divisions in Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains? If Brahmin caste is such a big issue, renounce your caste today! Who is stopping you?" "Even after becoming an IAS, IPS, CJI, President or Prime Minister, if someone wants to think of themselves as 'oppressed", That's not the fault of Brahmins, it's their own mindset."  

The government has formed several committees, like Sukhadeo Thorat (2007) and Bhalchandra Mungekar, who have failed to make secular and equal recommendations. Instead, their recommendations have deepened  caste division. There is no need for a new law because the 'Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989' is powerful enough to handle these issues. It is a very strong tool. However, it is being misused to oppress the general category and claim compensation.

This 1989 act is very strong in dealing with the much-hyped issue of institutional neglect and unfair social discrimination that DBA members face. The claim of neglect and discrimination is false. What about  the abuse and threat of annihilation by DBA and left-wing students against general category students? In universities like JNU, Ashoka, and Hyderabad, such cases are common. There is no protection for general category students. They also face many forms of discrimination and  oppression, with no law to protect them.

It is very important to address the legal and institutional issues that the UGC equity regulations were against. The resistance to these regulations shows that the blame placed on general category students and faculty is baseless and a creation of imagination. It is now time to acknowledge the emptiness of this blame.

Reservation policies have created a powerful group of DBA students on campuses, allowing them to influence authorities in their favor. These new  elites have pushed  the poor and marginalized to the  edge. Any effort to increase the presence of DBA members is taken over by these new elites. This is a new threat to the challenge of removing caste. Moreover, too many caste benefits affect merit, efficiency, and national unity.

On one hand, universities are places of knowledge and learning. Also, they are tools of social change. Caste benefits and provisions deny equality and social inclusion. It is not a political obligation but a moral duty to bring in casteless and secular rules. One important fact to remember is that the theory of atrocities against DBA people is fake, similar to the Aryan invasion theory.

Dark-World

 

1.

Smog paints the sky, leaving it covered with sores,
Cities and towns suffer, rivers and ponds cough.
The world breathes in the pain, in smog that's bad,
When will people awaken, amazed by green?
Should I pull it out, add something great, or let it run wild?
Leaves quietly weep, trees stand dry and pale,
Health moves like the ocean's waves.
Livelihood and the future fade, in a thick, hazy cloud—
Is there any way to end the Earth's dark time?

2.

Slow hands that throw litter, tired little feet,
Bring a lot of pain to our city,
Their breath echoes, their eyes look lifeless,
Brighten the sky and make everyone feel right.
Children are the future of every country,
They are the most important gift,
A treasure to enjoy, a joy to feel.
They bring love, happiness, and fun,
Clearing their hearts and minds of haze and smog.

3.

Motorists drive slowly near the smoggy city or the kiker tree,
Grass-seekers walk through the banks of the Black river or
Through the drains near the Yamuna, or through those of the barren Aravilis,
Lights shine in the mist that hangs over the Akshardham Temple or
The Red Fort,
Students walk the city streets in their woolen clothes,
Stephanian, IITian, JNU students, LSRians, Presidencians;
The hostels on the campuses are smoggy or up in the bush, or
With lovers hiding behind the bushes,
Unaware of the dark smog, flying low and high,
In the city, all are affected by this black haze.

4.

At home on the hills of Aravalis or in the woods of Faridabad, or the
Yamuna farm,
Comrades of JNU, namazis of Jama-Masjid, (taking over public spaces),
Workers of railways and union leaders, workers of all kinds who shake hands, and enjoy drink, meat and gambling,
Comrades of Raiseena Hills, comrades of Ashoka Road, (loving their  power),
A teacher, farmer, clerk, mechanic, artist, constable, student, leaders,
Lawyer, judge, prisoner, priest, physician, scantily-clad women, street wanderers,
All waiting for the light from heaven to fall, a bright light,
All teaching us endurance, brotherhood and care,
And pretending to show us the meaning of life, in the darkness.

5.

However, darkness is unstoppable, the cycle of life can't be cleared by dark smog,
So let's live and fight it with care and bravery,
And give it a proper response from the people around,
For people are the future and the present too,
A blessing to the nation, a gift to society,
The strength of the stars, a bright lie,
A country of free-loaders, where hard work takes flight,
Leaders promise everything, on screen and in rallies,
But behind the scenes, the real story is of smog and haze.