A tale of "blood donation" & a mad man on loose

Viral fever dulls many a things. Mosquitoes enjoy envious power to dull strong people to stick to bed even in sweating summer times. In Bihar, people while away their time, with mosquitoes humming around, waiting for the elusive electricity to light the bulb and fans. 

On one such morning, while in the grip of high temperature, the phone rang quite strongly. On the other side was an unknown person apparently very anxious and worried. 

"ADM saheb shot himself accidentally, while cleaning his pistol and is critical. He needs O- blood urgently," said the voice on the other side.   

A chill went down the spine. In 1997, there were no networking websites to flash the urgent requirement. The call was made to the president of the Rotaract Club of Bhagalpur. In a small city, such clubs answered the urgent calls for help, with willing members not hesitating even for a moment to donate blood.

A year before, a beaming 26 years old member of this club's Ranchi wing was presented before us during a regional conference for having donated blood more than 50 times till then. The man was an inspiration and was truly an embodiment of "service above self", the motto of the club. The same year a doctor had bombarded me with verses of Gita when I had gone to donate blood for a middle aged woman. "You are doing the greatest service of the mankind," the doctor had announced, with so much zeal, that I wanted to do the act whenever required.

But the chill did go down the spine when heard of the requirement of O- blood group. This is a rare group and people are hard to find. It was more depressing for another reason, that only one member in our club had this group. He was our little elephant, than man pursuing bachelors in engineering, weighing about 100 kg but selfish of the highest order.

The little elephant was all what the club was not meant for. He reminded that the motto "service above self" was an idealistic assertion only.

Still, the life had to be saved and for that perceptions had to be overcome for making the best efforts. So, I made an immediate call to the little elephant, telling him what I was told, and explaining that he was the only one who could be of any use.

"I can donate the blood but you need to speak to my father to take the permission," the little elephant said. His father was an engineer in the telecom department. There was no time for arguments and so another call went for his father.

"How dare you call me for blood of my son. Don't even think of this," said the telecom engineer before slamming the phone.

The little elephant was informed of the denial of the permission and followed by lots of calls known to me who could have launched into search of a willing person with O- blood.

After an hour, the elephant, apparently reminded by his conscience that he had been a member of a club known for social service, called to say that he could donate blood if somebody could come near home to accompany him. This was a relief. So, I informed the ADM's man about my efforts in the last one hour and the circumstances under which the little elephant had agreed to answer the emergency call.

The next morning the phone rang again, sounding a little angry, when the viral fever was still at its peak and refusing to subdue against strong antibiotic dose. The man on the other side was the father of the little elephant.

"So, you squeezed blood out of the body of my son. His health has deteriorated and is now bed-ridden. Doctors say his kidney is in serious trouble," he blasted. Threats in plenty followed, with firm swearing that strong action would follow.

I recalled the Ranchi man with over 50 blood donations. He never mentioned that his kidneys ever failed after donating the blood for needy people. 

A day after, a friend called to meet him up urgently. He was waiting in his varanda with a copy of a prominent Hindi newspaper.

"Bhagalpur aspatal mean zabran khoon nikalne ka sansani khej mamla (sensational case of forcible blood extraction)". The headline was screaming at the top of the page, with full details inside along with serious allegations against me. This was my first encounter with a newspaper. The news report had clearly not taken my version. (A decade after the incident I chose to become a journalist myself.)

This is a scandalous news item. We will need to do something and the first thing is to find out who this reporter is, said my friend. An hour later, he got the phone number of the reporter, who when asked to explain his report, claimed that he had gone by the version of the little elephant and his father. The virtue of cross-checking the facts appeared not to have been in his profession. 

A day late, another report appeared in the same newspaper with the reporter's byline; again making the sensational claims but this time he did include one line from my side that the claims were wrong. For three days the newspaper ran the stories and after that it apparently lost the interest. In the meantime, it was found that the reporter was a relative of the little elephant. That time I was not aware that there was something called "paid news".

After the newspaper lost the interest on its own, the father of the little elephant took over, knocking at the doors of the superintendent of the police, the district magistrate. But he did not have any luck at any of these places where the officials told him of the virtues of blood donation and its dire needs. Still, not losing hope, he knocked at the local political leaders but with no avail. At last he made an audacious attempt to petition the leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly but a local leader explained him the whole story and thus his last attempt too failed to get me punished for extracting blood from his son's body.

The phones were ringing quite frequently and it had lost its power of surprise. In one such call, the little elephant appeared on the other side. "I am closing the chapter. There is no point pursuing it further, as the police will take money from you and me too," he said.

The little elephant had closed the chapter. My viral fever had gone by then but was drained equally. 

In the midst of all the drama, the ADM's man had called. He had called to thank.

"The ADM saheb died of his wounds. He was being taken to Patna and on the way he passed away."     

(The incident took place in 1997 but it explains how cancerous the paid news is in the media.)

The awakening

Thirty years after Indira Gandhi gave NABARD, P Chidambaram promises to give financial wings to the women to fly to their real freedom. The “all women” bank is much more than what it’s being taken for by a large number of people. It's about means to becoming part of society in true sense, which otherwise is handicapped, standing on one leg, with other being crippled. 

Society stands on two legs. Men and women constitute the two legs. A nation is made of societies. India story except for the last one decade has been that of a nation running on one leg. The other leg is sluggish and laggard for being not put to use for centuries. In a sense, India had been marching ahead with a self-imposed disability.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has taken two distinct steps to bring the “other leg” to its full vigour. First is an all women bank and secondly a Rs 1,000 crore fund of women safety. Together they address key concerns of women – financial exclusion and lack of security. In the absence of financial inclusion and a sense of security, hoping women to enjoy their freedom is a mere day-dreaming.

Not only India, a host of countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Arab world, whole of Africa, claim to firmly stand on their feet; but with one leg largely crippled and paralyzed. Consequently, they all present a picture of refusing to wake up from their medieval age slumber.

Bangladesh is a case in contrast. The youngest nation led by two powerful women alternatively has been able to open large windows of awakening and development. While the Shahbag movement is ruling full steam, there is a clear sense that the youth there is hitting the Jihadi wall quite hard. The day the wall is brought down the region will surely breathe a new air of moderation and reason. If that happens, we shall reserve our congratulations for the powerful woman Prime Minister of Bangladesh – Sheikh Hasina.

Women can bring around revolution. There had been a number of revolutions, which were in nature of nations caught in implosion. But the one brought about by women invariably take the nations forward.

India’s Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi too had seeded revolution for food security through green revolution. A revolution needs fuels of all kinds – human resources, technological breakthroughs and interventions, financial outreach, etc.

Thirty years back Gandhi gave India NABARD (National Bank for agriculture and rural development). This intervention triggered India’s robust agricultural march. Now India’s agriculture not only feeds more than a billion mouths but earns foreign exchange through export of foodgrains.

Another thirty years later since Gandhi’s deeds, Chidambaram promises to give financial wings to the women to fly to their real freedom. The “all women” bank is much more than what it’s being taken for by a large number of people.

However, Chidambaram’s measure has come a little late. Three years ago, the government had launched the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) as Aajivika. The programme was based on setting up of a financial institution, with a corpus of over Rs 9,000 crores, to give support after support to women self help groups (SHGs). This, however, did not materialize. Predictably, the Aajivika too did not take off in the true sense.

But the Finance Minister has made some amends. The proposal to set up India’s first ever state owned bank by the women and for the women, with an initial support of Rs 1,000 crore, could just give a fresh lease of life to Aajivika.

The proposed “women all” bank is supposed to lend mostly to women and women-run businesses, which supports women SHGs and women's livelihood, that employs predominantly women, and that addresses gender related aspects of empowerment and financial inclusion.

The financial weakness has seen the women led SHG movement largely confined to four southern states -- Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnatka. These states largely benefit from the Central government’s annual funds for NRLM (RS 39,000 crore for 2012-13 but actually spent Rs 26,000 crore).

In the absence of financial support and lack of collateral to claim loans for the livelihoods activities, women in North and eastern parts of India have hardly gained from the government scheme for livelihoods mission (Aajivika).

Currently, India has about 25 lakh SHGs headed by women. They in all engage three crore women. The government is targeting to expand the SHGs from the current 25 lakh to 60 lakh in five years. The government hopes that seven crore women would engage in SHGs in five year’s time. So, the government is actually looking ahead to just double the strength and participation.

It’s here the proposed “all women” bank fits in the picture of India attempting to empower women. Such a bank nonetheless is neither novel nor first. The Pandiyan bank was the first “all women” bank launched in 1947 but later merged with Canara bank.

Thus, such a bank may over a period of time have the potential to transform Indian society and the nation too. It’s worth noting the contribution of women in heralding stability to Indian polity. The stable governments of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Gujrat, Tripura, Delhi, owe a lot to women, who vote in a large numbers outnumbering their male counterparts.

So, the story may just be unfolding.