MyVoice: Views of our readers 22nd December 2022

Bengaluru airport to resume screening

Bengaluru: Top experts have revealed a shocking prediction that 60% of China and 10% of the world's population will be hit by the dreaded virus in the next three months. As Japan, the USA, Brazil, and India are put on high alert by epidemiologists, the Karnataka Government is set to reintroduce stringent screening at the Bengaluru International Airport.

Speaking to members of the media in Belagavi, Karnataka's Health Minister, Dr K Sudhakar, emphasized the need to increase booster dose coverage. "The steps to be followed in order to curb this new task will be decided in a high-level meeting that is chaired by the Chief Minister of Karnataka," He added.

"A sudden spike of infections has been observed in China and Japan in recent days. Chinese people are being hospitalised at an alarming rate. As India has reached 100% coverage in two doses of vaccination, the booster dose is still pending for quite a lot of Indians. "It is recommended that everyone who has not received the booster dose do so voluntarily," Dr Sudhakar said.

Dr. Sudhakar also said that screening for the virus will soon start at Bengaluru's airport because there are a lot of people in transit and people coming from other countries. He said, "Travellers will be screened for COVID in the airport as a precautionary measure." As per directives from the centre, samples of identified cases will be sent for genome sequencing to track variants of the virus."

At this point, a mandatory order to wear face masks is also expected after a review meeting was held by the Union Health Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya.

Include gender inclusivity, equality in curriculum

It is heartening to learn that the NCERT will work towards bringing a balanced perspective of all genders in the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and in its textbooks, as per recommendations of a parliamentary committee. There is surely under-representation of women and girls in school textbooks or them being depicted only in traditional roles. It is hoped that efforts should be made to make content portrayal and visual depiction gender inclusive so as to eliminate gender bias and stereotypes existing in the curriculum. The government should implement the measures proposed by the panel to instill self-esteem and self-confidence among all, particularly girls, by having textbooks focus on greater portrayal of women in new and emerging professions as role models. Finally, what are the barriers to the inclusion of transgender and gender non-conforming children in school education? Why did the NCERT remove from its website a teacher-training manual towards increasing the inclusion of transgender children in school education following outrage on social media?

Y Sujatha, Khammam

Govt must hold meet on China aggression

While it has been careful in its public remarks and chosen not to be unnecessarily confrontational, India has played a critical role in opinion-building across the world on the nature of the Chinese threat. And it has decided to build its own economic and military capabilities, bide time, manage tensions for now, and take steps towards bridging the asymmetry with China so that it becomes more costly for Beijing to engage in such actions. Against this context, the government can chose to hold an all-party meeting to take the opposition into confidence, and to evolve unity in this critical matter of national security.

N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru

Populist measures prove ruinous

"Country's bane: Bad economic and poor politics" (December 19, 2022). The editorial brought out present jingoism in the minds of political parties – particularly the AAP and Congress, in the wake of Congress winning the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections – and the AAP that won the Punjab elections to attribute their winning to weakening grip of the BJP which swept the Gujarat elections with a record-breaking number of seats. The cheap and populist measures adopted by Congress and others to woo voters at the cost of the national exchequer is a very dangerous trend that will become a stumbling block for other developmental aspects; and prove impossible, even if they are voted to power.

S Lakshmi, Hyderabad

For 25 yrs, women's quota bill put on the backburner

Long debated and protracted 33 per cent reservation bill for women in Lok Sabha and Assemblies is completely overlooked by the governments for long. First the reservation bill was introduced in 1996 by United Front government but was not passed. Again in 2010 the bill was approved in Rajya Sabha but kept pending in Lok Sabha. Later. in any parliament session till date, this topic did not come up for discussion. When women strength is more than men in voter list, why their participation in people's houses is not considered? Odisha Assembly alone passed a resolution for 33 per cent quota to women in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Other states have to emulate this model. Lady President of the nation Draupadi Murmu is urged to bell the cat from further vacillation.

N Ramalakshmi, Secunderabad

Bazball making waves in test cricket

England's whitewash of Pakistan 3-0 in their own backyard is a new low for the host. A year ago England was reeling under same circumstance after 0-4 loss in Ashes and 0-1 against West Indies and then the incredible transformation happened under the leadership of Rob Key, McCullum and Stokes. 'Bazball' is the new aggressive trend redefining Test cricket and it is yielding results for England. Bazball is a novel approach that tries to shed some of cricket's long-standing assumptions on how to play, specifically the approach to batting. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the upcoming Ashes 2023 series at home against another agressive team in Australia.

Sajid Farooq, Kurnool

Mess-iah for football fans

It was wonder to see that Messi was declared as man of the tournament and awarded with golden ball. Messi made Argies proud by winning the world cup in Qatar. It is an exciting final where both teams scored three goals each in the match and later in the penalty shootouts Argies won the final by scoring four goals and runners up France ended by scoring two goals. Let us congratulate Messi and Argentina for winning the soccer world cup. It is exciting to see the people celebrating in Argentina after their country won the world cup.

VRK Valmeeky, Hyderabad