THE WORLD IN 2050 (AN ESSAY ON THE ISSUES THAT WE WILL FACE) by KARUNESH KUMAR AGARWAL

THE WORLD IN 2050

(AN ESSAY ON THE ISSUES THAT WE WILL FACE)

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRL

CHILD

The 'mighty hunter myth ' is nothing but 'Apartheid of gender'. Especially in non-western societies and countries like India, we notice a shameless discrimination against millions of women. Through several Indians have won the Miss World title, yet no woman would prefer a girl to a boy for her first-born. The reports of brides burning, dowry deaths, rape and widow's shaven head are regularly published in the newspapers and magazines. The bias against women is clearly a world-phenomenon as proved by increasing number of rape cases even in advanced countries like South Africa.

Everyone is answerable to gender equality. I fail to understand the logic behind the refusal of Radio Islam to broadcast women's voice ''for religious reasons.'' Who is responsible for the marginalised women in the patriarchal order? Male culture is responsible for vilifying woman as the Whore of Babylon.

Gender and Democracy workshops should be held in every country to find out ways of eliminathing discrimination against women. The ministers, parliaments, students, teachers, members of Rotary, Lions and Jaycee's clubs, NGOs, confederation of industries and philanthropists and the media from all regions should be brought together in such workshops. The importance of women and men working harmoniously to promote new attitudes should be stressed. The significance of woman's participation in local government and at the national level should be emphasized. The women should be empowered in all areas of decision-making. These commitments should be fully implemented by the governments. We should not simply pay lip service to gender equality. All the international commitments made in these workshops on the elimination of discrimination against women should be translated into practical action. Only by these affirmative action programmes, Virginia Woolf's dream of a ''female Shakespeare'' may be fulfilled.

In fact, we need the abolition of gender roles. The housewife should be given payment for domestic work. Secondly, the concept of the family should be abolished. This will break the vicious circle of girls learning from mothers. Thus, women must be judged as a person, not as gender. Thirdly, collective childrearing wherein all adults in the family must be responsible for the care of children will help in liberating the woman. Alvin Toffler 's radical suggestion of 'pro -parents' is impractical for undeveloped countries in a country like India where about forty crore people are illiterate, to talk about professional parents as an alternative to the family is to build castles in the air.

In India, arranged marriages, polygamy ceaseless pregnancy, dowry deaths and plight of widowhood reveal female despondency and male chauvinism. Here the big question mark is woman 's evolution from enslavement to liberation. How will an illiterate rural woman aspire for liberation? Even today about sixty percent females are illiterate. I am reminded of Shelley's wise words:

Can man be free if woman be a slave ?

Chain one who lives, and breathe this boundless air,

To the corruption of a closed grave!

Indians consider women as a piece of property. They never allow their daughters to go out.

Moreover, marriage for an Indian women is a jail or a cage. The husband tortures her physically and psychologically. If she asserts her individuality, divorce or murder is her reward. In the name of dowry, her humiliation continues unabated. The women's Liberation Movement during 1960sespecially in U.S. highlighted their slavery, still the prevailing gender inequality exists condemning woman to a servile role of meek acquiescence in a patriarchal society. It is difficult to agree with Talcott Parsons that the 'expressive' female role is indispensable for performing two 'irreducible functions' of the family this will only justify male dominance and women will find it impossible to come out of traditional bondage. Hindus' scriptural assertion that a female child should be married before she learns to masturbate, the custom of destroying female foetuses and shaving widow's head -- all these evils reveal the gender bias in developing countries. Treating women unequally from men will be a major issue in the world of the mid-21st century. Seventy percent of the world's billion poor are women. Two-thirds of the 130million children denied opportunity of education allover the world are girls. (Unicef's The state of the world's children, 1999) The world in 2050s will have to meet this challenge successfully so that the unlimited potential of the girl child suppressed by irrational customs, illiteracy and poverty might be discovered . Recently, the news and photo of a girl child married to a dog in an Indian village was published in the newspapers. This reveals the tragedy of superstition and illiteracy.

GLOBALISATION-OUR FUTURE

Globalisation has widened the gap between the world' s haves and have-nots. Due to rapid advance in Information and communication technology, poverty among abundance is a highly serious challenge at the threshold of 21st century . Globalisation is moving fast, but our capacity to cope with its aftereffects is very slow. What we need most is improving global governance. The world should seriously debate about the following issues, or the benefits of globalisation will be futile:

1. Alarming increase in the cases of HIV/AIDS;

2. Culture in danger due to increased flow of information from industrialised nations to poor ones;

3. 61 cases of small scale battles during the post-Cold War period. The reason is globalisation resulting in liberalised flow of arms and mercenaries. Pakistan may acquire the nuclear technology to Iraq. From 2005 seven middle East countries may acquire the nuclear missiles which are sure to threaten central Europe . A cash- strapped country like Pakistan might be tempted to sell nuclear technology to the highest bidder. Germany's intelligence service BND has predicted an outbreak of nuclear war in Kashmir.

4. Environmental insecurity including marine pollution.

My point is that globalisation should work for people 's welfare and make the earth a better and safer place for all. We have to find out better ways of global governance. We have to see how the world's poor are benefited by globalisation rather than being further impoverished by it. Globalisation has increased the profits of the big corporates, but has it added to the wage share of the workers? We find a very peculiar situation when the governments advocate lower wages and retrenchment of workforces so that their profits may increase in a highly competitive global markets . This is leading to a big disparity between rich and poor all over the world. Let us pause and think about the fate of the smaller undeveloped and developing countries in global markets dominated and controlled by big financial institutions and colossus corporates. This may one-day lead to a complete breakdown of Asian markets. The Southeast countries would face a big problem in defending their currencies against speculative attacks due to globalisation. I would suggest the creation of an all-Asian rescue fund to diminish the importance of IMF, because in some cases IMF bailouts have helped the lenders more than the countries themselves. The cruical problem before the undeveloped countries is how to safegauard their own interests in an undependable world due to globalisation. The world in the new millennium urgently needs an international Forum so that fair-trading may become a reality. The Commonwealth representing over fifty countries should take major initiatives in balancing the aims of the major states with the welfare of the rest of the world. We should never forget that Globalisation is full of opportunities for poor countries to turn things around, because these nations need more technology, more access to world markets and more cooperation.

Globalisation and revolutionary technological progress will upset the ecosystem in the mid 21st century. Environmental pollution will be a big crisis all over the world after four decades in the third Millennium. Due to millions of tons of chemical wastes polluting the rivers, water will become absolutely unfit for human use. The developing countries will have to find out the requisite technology to dispose off industrial wastes, otherwise all industrialisation and globalisation will backfire. The main issue before the world in 2050s will be how to protect our environment along with industrial growth.

Besides, the continued loss and degradation of forests will be a matter of great anxiety in the second half of the new Millennium. We have to find ways to conserve our forests. About 50to90% of all plants and animals are to be found in the forests. In the post-globalised world, we notice about thirty percent carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from forest clearing. If this trend continues, it may pollute the eco-system like nuclear wars. We will have to preserve the rainforests to avoid such lethal emissions. The global forest management startegies during 2050s should zone the forest area into two-one half to be a wilderness preserve to preserve rich heritage and the other utilisation area for generating economic activities like medicinal plants and eco-tourism.

G-8 leaders must ensure that the globalisation does not pollute the environment. The advantages of globalisation instead of being the preserve of the few should be shared by everybody. The hardest challenge facing the world in 2050s may be to formulate strategies to eliminate poverty. Launching new global trade negotiations has done nothing so far for world's poor. I agree that there are immense benefits of global medical research, but these benefits should be extended to the poor in developing countries through the provision of the drugs at affordable price.

DIGITAL DIVIDE

The latest Information Technology is not available to all. Five percent of the world's population are enjoying the Internet's benefits. This terrible gap between rich and poor is a matter of great concern and the developed nation

will have to take practical initiatives to bridge the ugly 'digital divide'. All persons should gain an equitable place in the global information and communication technology. ICT can be effectively applied in e-commerce,

Education, human rights and development . The revolutionary strides by ICT

are meaningless if its benefits are denied to the people living in the poor and remote areas in the least developed countries.

A vast country like India is an example of innovative ICT needed to help its millions of poor people, victims of ignorance and unawareness. Especially the tribal population is devoid of any ability or resources to access the Internet's benefits. Cruel practices like child-abuse, pre-and post-marital sexual habits creating alarming rise in AIDS are prevailing in the remote poor villages.

One suggestion. The Indian government should provide loans to the poor villagers to set up phone shops and telecentres in the trible villages of the country. Thus , we may be able to bridge the country's terrible divide. The private sector also should come forward to bridge this gulf. All kinds of trades, schools and colleges in the distant villages and public services should be linked to the ICT infrastructure.

Thus, there is no doubt that 'digital divide' will be a big problem for the world in 2050s.

FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS

According to the UNICEF report 5.I million people in India are infected with HIV. The number is the second highest after Sub-Saharan Africa. The fight against HIV/AIDS in their countries and internationally will compel

the policy-makers in 2050s to formulate sane strategies to save mankind against this disaster. HIV/AIDS is gradually becoming the greatest threat for the survival of women and children. Until we destroy this epidemic, the multinationals won't be able to sell their goods in the African and Asian countries. The main reason to thirty six million AIDS patients worldwide is poverty, illiteracy and lack of awareness.

BOOKS& AND JOURNALS CONSULTED

A. Toffler: Future Shock, London, 1971.

T.Parsons: The Structure of Social Action, New York, 1951.

George Townsend Warner, The New Ground of British History,

London, 1959,p.951.

Ronald Campbell Macfie, The BOOKMAN, IVI, April, 1919,22.

Malcolm Cowley, The Literary Situation, New York, 1953,p.37.