Tuesday, August 20, 2013

VIOLENCE IN SOCIETY



       Violence may manifest itself in society in several different forms. It is not necessary that the violence will occur only in that form, in which it is seen occurring today. Also there may be increase in its intensity and frequency, from time to time and place to place. Many of us may be aware of its presence in different aspects of our daily life. But the seriousness of the matter is in its taking a wild form & making encroachments in many aspects of the society. Talking or desiring ill of someone and thinking selfishly only about our own self, is also one form of violence, whether done at work place or home place. Most of us do not want that violence should manifest itself in any form or it should spread or become large in size, let alone gigantic in shape. But we may not think adequately about it, or about actions for containing it.  Though one person may not be able to solve such big problems but sometimes even one man can perform a miracle. 
        
          If the employees in any organization are satisfied & happy & do not have many problems from their family side, then they can concentrate their mind on the workplace, otherwise, their attention may waver from there & the work may get affected. It may be considered an intelligent move to take all employees and other connected persons along with us. But some persons may adopt the policy of “divide and rule”. It is also a fact that the employees do not get organized themselves properly. One organization may have more than one union, with the result they seldom have same opinion on specific matters. But it may be in the interest of the organization for the management to take everybody together & to take adequate care of the interests of the employees. This should include facilities at workplace and also their training, promotion, career-progress, suitable salary during service and sufficient facilities for the time of retirement. The progress of the organization is no doubt, the basic point, but it can be achieved with the cooperation of all employees & other connected persons. It will be better if the employees are permanent, so that at least they and their families can lead normal life. In case the employees will always have the sword of dismissal over their head, then in this fearful atmosphere, the contribution of the employees may be inadequate
         Generally there may be a wide gap between the owners and the senior officials and employees in any organization, especially in private organizations, which are generally motivated by a spirit of profit. The working hours of the owners and the senior officers are normally very long e.g. 10-14 hours per day, but they get well paid in the form of salary and perks, though they may not get adequate time to interact with their families, due to which sometimes the families may feel bad. Sometimes the seniors may treat their employees with less respect. Also, in spite of completing the work, the employees may not get sufficient salary for a living. They may face many difficulties for looking after their family members adequately. Sometimes, they may have to even look for other sources for earning money, like some other additional service, business etc. so that they can increase their monthly income. It is even possible that some persons may take up wrong paths. No employee would like to be involved in any of such activities for making the family financially better and sound, but sometimes the circumstances may force him to take up such a step. At that time the employee is not inclined to give attention to its long-term effects, disadvantages and losses, because he is turned towards the short-term benefits only. But when he finally becomes aware of the long-term effects, it becomes too late and the things get from bad to worse, especially for the families, who have to bear the damages thus caused. Its effect is also felt on the work of the employees in their organizations, on their production, work efficiency, quality of work, cooperation & mutual relationship etc. As a result, the owners and the senior level officers may exploit and threaten such employees with removal from service or may even remove them. In such conditions, the employees may take recourse to strikes, but this also is a collective decision and still they have to face the consequences.
         The dealings with the employees in all cases may not be made in a human manner and adequate attention and care may not be given for the welfare and facilities of the members of their families. Employees are generally under pressure for increasing the quantity of production as much as possible, but having the specified quality. But the basic facilities and amenities at the workplace for carrying out the work satisfactorily may also be deficient in quality and quantity. It is well known that a happy and satisfied employee can do a lot for his organization. It is essential to make the employees realize that the organizations where they are working are as much theirs, as these are of the owners and the senior officers. For achieving improvements, we need information & suggestions from, and contribution and cooperation of everyone. It has been observed that the persons, who are directly connected with any work, have better awareness, knowledge and experience of the problems associated with that work. They are more likely to offer suitable suggestions for performing the works in a better way, provided someone asks for suggestions, considers and implements them. In case the employees will be thinking the whole day about the basic problems of their families, then they are unlikely to think properly about the company work & improvements therein. This point should be understood fully well by all concerned. Our all actions should be done with maturity of deep thinking & not in a casual & sudden manner, with regular communications, without aggravating the situations.  . 
              Compiled and presented by vijaiksharma, as a result of discussions in the meetings with Saturday Group Members Dr. L K Kothari, Dr. D K Jain, Mr. Surendra Bothara, Mr. Shri Gopal Garg and Mr. Vijai K Sharma at Jaipur.

                                                                                 -------------vijaiksharma


Tags:violence,society,organization,management,cooperation,efficiency,quality,decision,problems

RAGGING MENACE IN THE NAME OF INTRODUCTION IN STUDENT LIFE


For several years now, in schools & colleges, especially the engineering, medical and other professional colleges, we have been receiving information through the media, about the problem of ragging of students. Introduction of the students, by itself is necessary and helpful. No one can disagree with this. But in the name of introduction & familiarization, many times heartless events have taken place. In some cases, some of the victims have even committed suicide. Ragging can be group based or individual based. The latter can be due to some understanding or personal animosity or with the intention of taking revenge. However the group ragging has different dynamics. It appears that there is sadistic pleasure involved in teasing a person, who is in a vulnerable position. Also it is difficult to pin down a particular person involved in this group incident. No doubt, some of the students, involved in serious instances have been rusticated from their institutions, but in many cases, the people of the society, have just remained spectators, when some of our youth have been forced to sacrifice their lives. Such unpalatable incidents have been happening from time to time every year, in many institutions. It is considered that it is also the duty and responsibility of the society, to resolve such problems. We all should try in our own ways, to resolve this problem. In our opinion, we should carry out sample surveys amongst (a) those students who have been the victims of such ragging in the past. (b) those students who are doing ragging at present (c) the concerned faculty members/administrative officials/Principals/Hostel Wardens etc. The results of these sample surveys should then be analyzed, so as to arrive at some concrete action-plan, which should include deterrent punishments to those violating the norms fixed. While the stress should be on preventive actions, but punishments should not be lost sight of.
            Compiled and presented by vijaiksharma, as a result of discussions in the meetings with Saturday Group Members Dr. L K Kothari, Dr. D K Jain, Mr. Surendra Bothara, Mr. Shri Gopal Garg and Mr. Vijai K Sharma at Jaipur.

                                                                                     ----------vijaiksharma



Tags ragging,familiarization,victims,dynamics,vulnerable,society,surveys,norms

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

PROSPECTS OF GETTING PERFECTION


      Many of us aim to be perfectionist in various aspects of life. But some do not desire so, since they are satisfied by the achievable results, which may be less than cent percent.  The discussion here is about level of attendance in academic field. The relation between the teachers/Professors and the students is important, but complementary to each other. The students want to learn and the teachers/Professors want to impart the knowledge. But if one side is not present or does not cooperate during this process, learning cannot be satisfactory. In that case, we must face this situation and ascertain the causes of this non-attendance, non-participation and non-cooperation and try to resolve the problem, instead of both not reaching the Lecture Hall/Class room and saying that the other party is not coming and/or is non-cooperative. Let us try to analyze the situation, when students are not reaching the class room. The reasons could be non-arrival or late arrival of the teacher/Professor, his not having adequate knowledge of his subject, his inability to explain and impart the knowledge, unwillingness to repeat the explanation after request,  
other communication barriers or discomforts like poor pronunciation, poor chair or seat or no back rest, very hot or cold weather, poor lighting, poor ventilation, inability to hear, noise in nearby areas etc. In such circumstances, when the students do not gain much by attending the class, we cannot really blame them. Let us now analyze it from the other side. The number of students attending is very less, sometimes negligible, irregular attendance (thus de-motivating the teacher/Professor), their talking or making noise in the class & thus disturbing it, not responding to queries, not completing the home work etc. Therefore the teachers/Professors also have a point. For best results, both must cooperate with each other. But still perfection is probably unlikely, though possible. The students in this case are the customers. If they are gaining something after attending the class room, they are likely to attend the class, barring a few exceptional cases. If the lecture is very good, communicative & useful, attendance will be good automatically. The students & teachers/Professors may blame each other for this problem, but the loss is more for the students. For a teacher/Professor to expect 100 % attendance always, is probably asking for too much. We cannot enforce full attendance, since students have their own problems, reasons & points.
          It is understood that Dr. S. Radhakrishnan as Vice Chancellor, BHU, Varanasi used to lecture periodically on Gita.  He would arrive in the hall on schedule. During his period, no one would create a stir. His delivery was mesmerizing. Many students would take him as their role-model. The number of students used to be so large that the hall was found to be inadequate, with the students trying to enter the already crowded hall. The attendance was automatic due to the reputation and popularity of the speaker and the quality of the input being provided. We have also seen in the real life that a programme for music, theatre, gazal, bhajan, drama, songs etc. gets good attendance, if the performer is well known as a good performer of national or international level. For example a programme by Lata Mangeshkar will have good audience. Similarly that by Hari Prasad Chaurasia on flute will get hall full. There are many examples, which can be cited in support of this observation.
            But then what do we do in reality. We may consider informing some positive points of the lecture to the students in advance and thus motivate them, asking them to seek permission for absence giving valid and truthful reasons in writing, giving some weightage in marks for each lecture attended, asking 1 or 2 students to summarize their understanding of the lecture of that day in 5 minutes each, in brief points. We may carry out a survey from both types of students without asking their names or signature or identity to ascertain the real reasons for attending the class and for not attending the class. We may even use an outsider as a consultant to carry out a verbal survey. What is stated here applies equally well to attending conferences, meetings, seminars, popular lectures, mutual discussions etc. A mutually agreeable approach is therefore considered desirable.
                                                                     Compiled and presented by vijaiksharma, as a result of discussions in the meetings with Saturday Group Members Dr. L K Kothari, Dr. D K Jain, Mr. Surendra Bothara, Mr. P C Mehta, Mr. Shri Gopal Garg and Mr. Vijai K Sharma at Jaipur.

                                                                                       .................vijaiksharma