Information or content is a critical concept and relates sender &
receiver, message & medium, producer & consumer, relationship between
them, access & denial to access (including conditional denial to
access). In a democracy, information also relates powerful &
powerless, agency & citizen, sharing & controlling.

Internet is amalgamating all existing mass medium technologies onto a
single platform, of which it is the backbone. This virtual space is
growing continuously and is accommodating all other forms of media
content into it, for example text, images, sound and Audio Visual
content (radio, newspaper, TV, books, debate forum, face-to-face
discussions, and telephone). It is encouraging merger of different
kind of boundaries and is taking the shape of a global media for
information sharing.

The consumers of media, irrespective of their age, gender,
geographical location, today produce and share all kind of information
or media content. (For example a video or a blog entry on apples is
produced by fifty individuals in fifty countries spread across all
continents at the same time to be posted and shared on one medium that
is Internet.) Also it is structured in a way that “it interprets
censorship as damage and routes around it” [1], thus making it
difficult to completely deny access to information available on
Internet. Because of Internet, information today is available and
shared to an extent almost unimaginable even 10 years ago. It also
promotes unusual groupings of citizen organizing and using it in
pursuit of various activities, for instance achieving political
objectives, raising public causes, debates, lobbying and advocacy,
resource centres and many.

Internet was introduced in India in 1995.[2] Since then India has
registered rapid increase in Internet usage. Last year there were 81
million users which have been estimated to increase to 237 million by
2015.[3]  With more and more people hooking to Internet, producing,
sharing and consuming content, the earlier relationship of
“information producer -> information consumer” stands challenged with
a new emerging relation of “information producer <=> information
consumer”. In addition to this, as this definition of producer and
consumer merges, possibilities of free speech (crossing the censor on
free speech, identity swapping being one of the benefits of the
medium) over this new medium also increases. “Technology does more
than just allow us to do things, it determines that we will ……
because we can.”[4]

The agencies till recently were largely the producers of
information[5], and thus in terms of relations of power vis-à-vis
information, had control over information production and
dissemination. The citizen was the receiver/consumer of information,
had little choice and little control over production and access to
information. With changing relations agencies are facing changes in
their consumers, who now, not only have access to huge information,
but also, have turned producers, impact dissemination and express
their own personal opinions.

With the consumer of information turning more information hungry and
also becoming a producer of information, with an opportunity to
publish information on a media, it is not possible to censor
information completely. Internet is paving way for a whole new
communications paradigm, which would say- “The Gutenberg era is over
and so is the centralized[6] production of content and unidirectional
bombardment of content[7]“, raising questions on information
production and control.

[1]  John Gilmore as quoted in TIME magazine (6 December 1993),

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Gilmore

[2]  Peter Wolcott, Is the Elephant Learning to Dance- The Diffusion
of Internet in The Republic of India, 2002, p.18 (Launched on 14
August 1995 in India)
[3]  237 mn Internet users in India by 2010: Report, Economic Times, 2
September 2010,

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-09-02/news/27624281_1_internet-users-brici-digital-consumers-brici-countries

[4]  Bramham Daphne, The medium is the message in today’s connected
world, The Vancouver Sun, 21-07-2011,

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/medium+message+today+connected+

world/5136218/story.html#ixzz1T2xYOv6K
[5]  “Direct government intervention and privatization have long been
the dominant institutional approaches to implementing information
policy. Policies pursued using these approaches have tended to result
in a centralized information production and exchange system.”, Yochai
Benkler, THE COMMONS AS A NEGLECTED FACTOR OF INFORMATION POLICY,
www.benkler.org/commons.pdf
[6]  By centralized I refer to control, with inputs in form of
feedback from the consumer, which also is controlled because feedback
is asked only when the Producer wishes.
[7]  Means production of content and its delivery which is more or
less is in one-direction.

17-year old Urmila old left studies after class V in her school village in Sitapur District, Uttar Pradesh. Her problem was that she did not know what was written, because everything written in the book would float on the book surface and merge into each other. She has dyslexia.

The story sounds like the story of “Ishaan” in Taare Zameen Par. It is true that many children fail to keep pace with studies and gradually drop out of schools as their problems could not be identified. The All India Sample Survey to estimate the number of school drop-outs in the age group 6-13 years was conducted by the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) in July-October 2005, with a sample of 5001 rural villages and urban blocks. The survey (Report 2) reveals that 60.58% of children with multiple disabilities, 47.02% of children with mental disabilities, followed by 41.57% children with speech disabilities are out of schools. Because there is no assessment of figures related to dyslexia in India, it is possible that children who are suffering from dyslexia constitute a good part of these figures.

The Census of India does not count children with dyslexia. However, the prevalence of dyslexia is estimated to vary between 3-10%. Some other estimates say it may affect as much as 10% of all children. Dyslexia is a specific disability in learning to read and spell adequately despite normal intelligence, adequate instruction and socio-cultural opportunities and the absence of sensory defects in vision and hearing.

In dyslexia, the eyes take the correct input, but the points in brain for making sense out of this input are affected. This results in the child not recognising or confusing with the alphabets and words. The child could read a word on one page but would not recognise the same in the next page. They misread by inserting or leaving out letters, for example read-red. They know phonics, but could not sound an unknown word. The reading is slow and laboured and get tired after reading for a short time. They have to put more energy in trying to figure out the words. They often read single words in isolation. Directionality confusion shows up in reading and writing, for example, b-d confusion is a classic warning sign, where one points to the left, the other points to the right, and they are left-right confused. There may be b-p, n-u, or m-w confusion, one points up, the other points down.

The pressure of not keeping pace with studies and fear of scolding from teacher and parents mounts on them. In villages like that of Urmila, where these children have the option to leave studies, they readily opt for this. This is the path Urmila also opted for, though she wants to study more and pass class X.

Recent research suggests that for dyslexic readers, the left brain areas associated with phonetic decoding are ineffective. While a non-dyslexic reader finds such pathways an efficient route to reading, the dyslexic reader essentially becomes entangled in a neural traffic jam. In contrast, dyslexics who bypass these mental pathways, relying more on areas of the brain involved in non-verbal and analytic thought, are able to become capable readers.

Bringing the dyslexics into education and helping them successfully complete education is not difficult, though it requires lot of patience and also experimentation. One-to-one interaction and use alternate strategies of learning could help them. To begin with, a large font in the colour of their choice works well with them. Books with large prints and graphic illustrations also help them. Use of computers is also seen as a proven way to help them in studies. Children could be taught using audio books and videos with or without sounds.

There are many ways in which children with dyslexia could be helped in reading and writing, thereby helping to retain children like Urmila in schools before they get fed-up with studies and opt out of education.

Key recommendations in the Draft Bill are:

1. There will be a Citizens Charter, and a protocol will be put in place.

2. Bill can be enacted as a central legislation under the concurrent list Item 8 (actionable wrongs) and can cover:

1. Central Schemes and Central Government Departments

2. Provide a Platform to States to make this a Grievance Redressal Mechanism for State Schemes and Departments

3. Bill will incorporate the institution of Information and Facilitation Centre in all public authorities to ensure that Citizens can be facilitated and grievances are systematically recorded and tracked using telephone, sms, web etc.

4. First level Redress should be within concerned department as proposed. This should be done through a Grievance Redress Officer in each department

5. The second level redress/ appeal will be at the level of Head of the Department of the public authority.

6. State Grievance Commissions should be set up as second level appellate authorities.

The Draft Bill can be accessed at the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances  website www.darpg.gov.in. All those interested can send their suggestions/comments/inputs within 21 days.

http://www.classicreader.com/

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams – Van Gogh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c52lnUjb-Ss&feature=related

Peach Orchard Song, from Kurosawa’s Dreams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y6yyHGw404&feature=related

Civil Society (in German bürgerliche Gesellschaft or bourgeois society) refers to the system of social relations based on the association of people independently of the State and the family which first emerged in Europe in the seventeenth century. Civil society is characterised by “free” labour and a commodity market, a system of law enforcement and voluntary association.
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/i.htm

the part of society that consists of organizations and institutions that help and look after people, their health, and their rights. It does not include the government or the family. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/civil-society

The World Bank has adopted a definition of civil society developed by a number of leading research centers: “the term civil society to refer to the wide array of non-governmental and not-for-profit organizations that have a presence in public life, expressing the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical, cultural, political, scientific, religious or philanthropic considerations. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) therefore refer to a wide of array of organizations: community groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), labor unions, indigenous groups, charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, and foundations”.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/CSO/0,,contentMDK:20101499~menuPK:244752~pagePK:220503~piPK:220476~theSitePK:228717,00.html

AFSPA enables security forces to shoot at sight and arrest anybody without a warrant if an area is declared disturbed. Sharmila is currently in an isolated room of Manipur’s Jawarharlal Nehru Hospital.

http://www.newsbullet.in/india/34-more/16693-irom-sharmila-must-reach-out-to-people-pillai

http://www.facebook.com/groups/167844673250090/

After this I pulled pictures of Anna, from Internet and his speech from youtube. We decided that he portray Anna Hazare. I found a long speech of Anna, which I trimmed to fit in 2.21 minutes. The avi of this speech I placed centrally on my desktop.

Now was the time to understand things. So he understood why Anna Hazare fasted. How his mother uses RTI letter to get information. Who is Congress, What is the National Flag etc. He watched news of Anna. The slogans echoing in different corners of the colony and of the road made him know the whole thing. So he took very less time to understand what Anna wants to communicate.