Did you ever stop and think about how often we are told to change our appearance? Magazines constantly offer tips about how to lose weight “in days,” appear slimmer “instantly,” and hide our “imperfections”… without actually knowing anything about us, much less our appearance. This is one example of body-shaming, and it is everywhere. Sitcoms so frequently use overweight characters’ bodies as the basis of many of the show’s jokes. It has become the norm to criticize aspects of our bodies as some type of bonding experience with friends – if we all hate our bodies; it somehow makes us feel connected and united. Body-shaming (criticizing yourself or others because of some aspect of physical appearance) can lead to a vicious cycle of judgment and criticism. Messages from the media and from each other often imply that we should want to change, that we should care about looking slimmer, smaller, and tanner. And if we don’t, we worry that we are at risk of being the target of someone else’s body-shaming comments.

Body-shaming manifests in many ways:

1) Criticizing your own appearance, through a judgment or comparison to another person. (i.e.: “I’m so ugly compared to her.” “Look at how broad my shoulders are.”)

2) Criticizing another’s appearance in front of them, (i.e.: “With those thighs, you’re never going to find a date.”)

3) Criticizing another’s appearance without their knowledge. (i.e.: “Did you see what she’s wearing today? Not flattering.” “At least you don’t look like her!”).

No matter how this manifests, it often leads to comparison and shame, and perpetuates the idea that people should be judged mainly for their physical features.

This leads to the question: if it has such harsh consequences, why is body-shaming so common? An example we often discuss at the Braintree Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is dealing with conflicts with peers. Why, when we are upset, annoyed, or intimidated by someone, do we default to criticizing their appearance? “Whatever, she’s ugly,” can be a go-to defense in these situations, particularly during adolescence and the young-adult years. In some ways, it feels easier to shoot for something that will hurt, like targeting physical appearance, rather than expressing what is really going on emotionally. Saying, “I’m really hurt by how my friend treated me,” or “I’m terrified of losing this friendship” opens us up and makes us more vulnerable, and therefore feels easier to bury underneath the body-shaming comments that rush to mind.

How do we challenge this? In situations like those listed above, expressing true feelings rather than physical criticisms can be a great first step. While recently discussing this with the Adolescent IOP, several patients admitted that it is hard to identify ways of expressing frustration without using body-shaming, as this has become an almost automatic response.

Practice identifying why you are upset about a situation. For example, it’s unlikely that you’re mad at a friend because she’s breaking out, and more likely that you’re upset about a miscommunication or feeling of rejection. Practice thinking it, and eventually, verbalizing it.

Identify who in your life is body-positive – or even body-neutral. Think of people who celebrate their body for what it can do, and people who refuse to comment on others’ physical appearances. Spending time with these people can be especially helpful while you are struggling with your own internalized body-shaming, and help you view yourself – and others – more positively.

Confront those who perpetuate body-shaming. Once you’ve become more aware of your own body-shaming behaviors, you may notice how often your friends, family or co-workers do it. Talk to them. Discuss why it bothers you and help them see how it may also be hurtful to them.

Find something (or things!) you LIKE about your body. We spend so much time witnessing advertisements about how to make our eyelashes millimeters longer and how to get whiter teeth that it’d be nice to counter some of that by celebrating what we do have. Maybe, despite your body image struggles, you love a new hairstyle you discovered. Maybe you’ve noticed how much stronger you feel with balanced eating. Find something physical or nonphysical that makes you YOU and celebrate it every day.

Body Shaming’ — these two words itself says a lot about their intent. It has, in fact, become a serious issue in our society today. Aishwarya Sharma, a fashion activist and founder at Figuramoda, gave HerZindagi, her insight on what is body shaming, what happens when you experience it and how does one deal with it.

Technically, Body shaming is defined as being ‘inappropriate, negative statements and attitudes toward another person’s weight or size’. But, it is so much more than just that. It is one of the most serious forms of bullying, harassment and humiliation and usually experienced by more women than men today.

Fat shaming involves criticizing and harassing overweight people about their weight or eating habits to make them feel ashamed of themselves.

The belief is that this may motivate people to eat less, exercise more, and lose weight.

In the majority of cases, the people who fat-shame others are slim and never had to struggle with a weight problem.

Research shows that much of the discussion on obesity on social media involves fat shaming, which often turns into harassment and cyberbullying — especially against women

In fact, there are entire online communities where people gather to make fun of overweight people.

However, stigma and discrimination against overweight people cause major psychological harm and worsen the problem.

Discrimination causes stress and negatively affects people.

In the case of overweight individuals, this stress can drive them to eat more and gain more weight .

In a study in 93 women, exposure to weight-stigmatizing information made those who were overweight — but not normal-weight — eat more calories and feel less in control of their eating (4).

In another study in 73 overweight women, those who watched a stigmatizing video ate 3 times as many calories afterward compared to those who watched a non-stigmatizing video

Numerous other studies support that any type of fat shaming causes overweight people to become stressed, eat more calories, and gain more weight .

I was always body shamed and here is my voice over this.

At Age of two my appetite was made,
Ate 1 kg of tandoori chicken I was said.
Food being my only escape,
Became my enemy in a cape.
I Was told I would look beautiful,
When I grow thin and tall.
Mirrors are an unhealthy reminder,
If I glimpse I have to glare,
Insecurity fiddles with my fingers.
To check the imperfections,
To pinch fat between my fingertips,
To ridicule and compare every curve and discoloration.
But ,I am happy the way I am.
I have curves, here and there,
Cellulite and stretch marks appear too
I love them, why do they care.
Small, medium, large or bigger,
It is just a label after all.
Why desperately try to fit in,
Instead choose comfort and stand tall.
People will continue to laugh,
Like their body, their minds are thin.
I Pay no heed to them now ,
Carrying some extra weight is not a sin.
What matters is how healthy you are,
Take care of yourself the way you want to,
Do not worry, as long as you’re fit.
Ignore the vanity and march ahead,
Paint your life with your own color chart.
Size sometimes does matter,
Only when it comes to the heart.

Weight discrimination — including fat shaming — leads to stress and causes overweight and obese people to eat more.

This form of bullying may not only cause additional weight gain but is also linked to depression, eating disorders, reduced self-esteem, and an increased risk of various other mental and physical problems.

The Indian education system, like the Indian bureaucratic system, is Victorian and still in the 19th century. Our schools are still designed to produce clerks for an empire that does not exist anymore.

History of Indian Education System

The history of Indian education has its roots to the ancient ages where they followed the Gurukul system – a system where the students resided in the house of their teacher until the teacher felt that he has imparted all that he could. The subjects taught varied from Sanskrit to Scriptures to Mathematics to Metaphysics and the knowledge attained would be passed on to the future generations. However, this system was changed during the Colonial era when the British set up schools that followed a curriculum confined to subjects such as Mathematics, Science etc. While the ancient system included more interaction with the nature, the modern system was more classroom oriented.

Why is change required?

In 2014, India’s global education ranking slipped to 93. This, together with a series of scams faced by the Indian education sector, calls for an immediate need to bring reforms in our education system. Indian Education System has been synonymous with ‘Examinations’, ‘Board Exams’, ‘Entrance Exams’, ‘Marks’, etc. A student in India is left with the options of choosing from Science, Humanities or Commerce after he/she finishes his tenth grade. However, the trend shows that more and more students are opting to go abroad for further studies after completing their post-graduation in India. As per the statistics of The U.S. Council of Graduate Schools’ offers of admission to Indian post-graduate students, the admissions are up 25 per cent for 2013-14 from the previous year, compared to a 9 per cent increase for all countries.

INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM – A CALL FOR REFORM
Education is the founding stone of a country’s economy. A country that fails to provide its citizens the right to education lags behind in every way.
History of Indian Education System

The history of Indian education has its roots to the ancient ages where they followed the Gurukul system – a system where the students resided in the house of their teacher until the teacher felt that he has imparted all that he could. The subjects taught varied from Sanskrit to Scriptures to Mathematics to Metaphysics and the knowledge attained would be passed on to the future generations. However, this system was changed during the Colonial era when the British set up schools that followed a curriculum confined to subjects such as Mathematics, Science etc. While the ancient system included more interaction with the nature, the modern system was more classroom oriented.

Why is change required?

Some of the reasons for this soaring number of students not opting India to pursue their further education are:

(1) Lack of top-quality programmes offered by Indian colleges.
(2) Poor quality of teachers. Teaching is not considered as a lucrative career option in India. Most of them end up in this career as they couldn’t find jobs elsewhere.
(3) Outdated syllabus taught in most of the colleges.
(4) Lack of state-of-art infrastructure in the top colleges.

Reforms should begin with schools

Schools play a vital role in shaping a person’s social and professional growth. The conventional schools in India focus on nurturing the children to face the competitive world outside. Examinations and assignments are encouraged by them as tools to assess the capability of the students. Whether a child was knowledgeable or not depended on the marks he/she scored. Many activists today who oppose the Indian Education system are of the opinion that the schools teach the students in learning things by-rote and not to understand things through application. National Survey conducted few years back reveals that, more than 80% of the school principals in India blame rote-learning as the reason for poor standards to learning in students passing out from schools. Of these, nearly 70% of them felt that the curriculum followed in India today did not give sufficient scope for creative thinking.

“Focus should be on Skill-based Education: Give a man a fish and you feed him one day, teach him how to catch fishes and you feed him for a lifetime”

Latest trends in the Indian Education System

A typical Indian classroom is characterized by long hours of lectures by the teacher with very little focus of the students ability to comprehend. However, Indian Education system today is seeing many technology-driven innovations for students. Smartclass from Educomp is such an example. Smartclass is essentially a digital content library of curriculum-mapped, multimedia-rich, 3D content. It also enables teachers to quickly assess how much of a particular lesson students have been able to assimilate during the class. Once a topic is covered, the teacher gives the class a set of questions on a large screen. Each student then answers via a personal answering device or the smart assessment system. The teacher gets the scores right away and based on that, she repeats parts of the lesson that the students don’t appear to have grasped. Another example is the launch of YouTube channel Edu India, which is an Indian curriculum focused education channel. Some other players in this sector who have come up with innovative ideas in changing the education system are Everonn Education, NIIT, Core Education & Technologies, IL&FS, Compucom, HCL Infosystems, Learn Next, Tata Interactive Systems, Mexus Education, S. Chand Harcourt and iDiscoveri. We also see a lot more schooling options available today as a replacement to the conventional mainstream system. In his article, Vaibhav Devanathan of LaughGuru has emphasized that the high-level of stress in students caused by the mainstream schools have given rise to various alternative methods of schooling in India like Montessori schools, Krishnamurti schools, Home-Schooling and Gardner’s Model.

Future

Indian Education Systems predominantly follows the system laid by the British. Although we can boast of having the IITs, IIMs and some of the best law and medical colleges, India’s contribution to the world of innovation is close to none. Our education system should therefore focus on churning out not just engineers, but also entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, writers etc. all of whom are influential in the development of the economy.

Along with improved administration, the system needs an overhaul to address India’s human capital crisis effectively
As we embark upon a new decade, India celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Right to Education Act (RTE), which went into effect in April 2010. While the RTE has been censured for its limited focus on governance and learning outcomes, its achievement in improving access to schooling is undeniable. It has also served as a rallying point for a wide range of stakeholders to intervene in the sector.

But as is well-established by now, India’s learning outcomes remain stubbornly low. Quality concerns around education are seldom viewed as a political priority. But these concerns cannot be ignored for much longer, especially in light of India’s human capital crisis, reflected in unemployment statistics. Furthermore, as economist Shamika Ravi writes, those with higher education are less likely to be employed than those without: “It says something about the quality of Indian education; too many engineers and other professionals are waving around degrees that are relatively worthless.” The 2030 Skills Scorecard by the Global Business Coalition for Education reinforces these concerns — in 2030, India will have the highest number of secondary school graduates in South Asia, but nearly half of them will lack the skills to enter the job-market.

Until now, the band-aid response to such crises has been to establish a Ministry of Skilling, instead of more profound reforms in school education. Moving forward, India must extricate itself from this unstable equilibrium and view education within a larger human capital framework. In the upcoming decade, India’s education sector must focus on both scale and substance, addressing the learning problem at a system-wide level, while also recalibrating the raison d’etre of the education system itself.

Strengthening administration
In the past, even the most sophisticated education policies and curriculum frameworks have failed to live up to their promise, owing to weak administration. Strengthening the pillars of governance in the education sector is of undeniable importance. The state’s role is central, as Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia and Chair of the Global Partnership on Education writes: “Like any good orchestra conductor, governments must get a diverse collection of instruments, each playing its own notes, to produce a sound of coherent splendour.”

Over the past few years, several States, including Haryana, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh, have taken ownership to drive large-scale changes in how education is administered. In many of these States, the starting point has been the integration of schools. Historically, government schools have emerged organically without a coherent strategy, sometimes serving just a handful of students, causing a large, unwieldy school network. The state’s capacity to manage such a system, however, is limited with inadequate frontline administration, information gaps, and large vacancies among faculty.

Optimising for the number of schools is complemented with interventions directed at infrastructure improvements, adequate staffing of teachers, school leaders, and frontline officials, and developing the capacity of these staff. Alongside is a strong focus on ‘remediation’ to enable all students to achieve grade-level competency. In terms of administration, programmes across States appear to share some common elements: management information systems to improve review and monitoring; communications across all levels of government, leveraging technology such as video conferences and WhatsApp; and project management protocols at the State, district, and block levels.

In Rajasthan, where the International Innovation Corps worked with the Department of Education alongside other players, the State focussed on developing approximately 10,000 “model” secondary schools — one in every gram panchayat — with quality infrastructure and prioritised staffing under the Adarsh programme. Headmasters of these schools were subsequently designated Panchayat Education Officers and trained to mentor other schools. Such efforts reduced teacher vacancies from 50 per cent to 19 per cent over four years, and created a cadre of frontline administration that regularly monitors schools. The State has defied national trends to witness a reverse migration of students from private to government schools, and both the National Achievement Survey and Board results point to improvements in secondary school outcomes.

Other States have similarly seen positive results. For instance, in Haryana, an evaluation by Gray Matters India estimates that students in 94 of the 119 blocks are now “grade-level competent.” This has been attributed to the Saksham Haryana Programme. The programme has instituted new mechanisms for data collection and analysis, and a restructuring of planning, coordination, mentoring, and monitoring at the district- and block-levels.

Building on such successes, the NITI Aayog and three States — Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand — are in the process of scaling such efforts through the SATH-E programme. Additionally, 14 of the 30 indicators for the NITI Aayog’s new School Education Quality Index are concerned with governance processes, including availability of teachers, training, and accountability and transparency.

Revaluation of outcomes
This focus on building the capability of the state to better manage the education system is an important shift in the sector, and the aforementioned examples demonstrate how to go about it. But despite their successes, these should be viewed as starting points. These efforts remain focussed on the public school system. For more meaningful change, it is imperative to transition from seeing the government as just a provider to a regulator and facilitator.

There has recently been an increasing sense of competition, with governments claiming how their schools are out-performing private schools. While this may induce a positive pressure to perform, the reality is that apart from an elite few, the bulk of private schools are under-resourced and have little regulation of quality, safety, or outcomes.

More fundamentally though, improving implementability needs to be complemented with a recalibration of intent. India’s education system continues to be centred on standardised and ambitious curricula, students grouped by age instead of learning levels, and high-stakes board examinations. The consequence is, as economist Karthik Muralidharan writes, a “sorting system,” not a human capital system. In this context, we should question if administrative strengthening, by itself, is merely improving the management of a faulty process, perpetuating a mass-production model of education — or the ‘Prussian Model’ — that may have outlived its utility.

Traditionally, education systems around the world have followed a linear logic of prioritisation — expanding schooling access, improving working to improve the quality of core academic subjects, and finally, focussing on cultivating the skills needed to thrive in the world. But, Rebecca Winthrop, as co-director of the Center for Universal Education, finds, there exists a 100-year gap between the educational attainment of those in developed versus developing countries. At the same time, there is uncertainty about the skills required for a rapidly changing world. What are the outcomes we want schooling to generate, and are they adequate to produce the qualities for individuals to contribute meaningfully to society and the economy? These factors, Winthrop explains, imply an urgent need to break away from this linear logic and “leapfrog” by transitioning to a system that expands its idea of outcomes from literacy and numeracy to a “breadth of skills” —the larger set of skills that are needed in a changing world, including critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving.

Fixing administration is an important but belated response to the state capacity problems. A new policy must capitalise on this energised administrative apparatus to redefine the broader objectives of the education system. This will require a fundamental reengineering of assessments mechanisms, a mass behavioural change to facilitate a shift in focus from high-stakes examinations, and new partnerships between stakeholders — parents, students, teachers, frontline administrators, and NGOs.

An “outcomes-focus” is undoubtedly critical, but should be underpinned by an overarching human capital strategy. In a few years, a generation of students, who would otherwise not have access to an education, will have completed a full cycle of schooling thanks to the RTE. But over the next decade, the key priority that education policy must seek to address is to make sure that schooling isn’t just an end for students, but a ladder to opportunity.

Rohan Sandhu was formerly Associate Director at the International Innovation Corps, and is currently at the Harvard Kennedy School. This article is by special arrangement with the Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania.

Technology can be a great teaching ally too. The existing digital content helps teachers engage the classroom effectively. In the coming years, we will see a rise in the incorporation of Learning Management System (LMS) into the K-12 sector. LMS aids in planning and delivering education course and also tracking its delivery. An LMS will help a teacher plan the curriculum in-depth and also track the learning progress. The detailed reports will inform teachers about the deviations encountered in the well-defined learning path so that action can be taken to mitigate these deviations.

There has been a rise in e-learning content. However, a major part of the available content is ineffective in engaging students and improving learning outcomes. Thus, parameters to evaluate content will have to be set. The role of government bodies is paramount in promoting such initiatives.

Thus it can be inferred that in the next few years, the k-12 sector will witness improved learning outcomes. It will be able to provide an environment conducive to increased student engagement and improved teacher performance.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered  lockdown on the weekends and public holidays, with movement to be restricted to e-passes holders. All citizens, except medical staff and essential service providers will be required to download e-passes from the COVA app. Chief Minister issued these directions at a Video Conference meeting to review the pandemic situation and the state’s preparedness to handle further spread. Industry, however, will be allowed to function normally on all days. Chief Minister has asked DGP Dinkar Gupta to ensure strict implementation of these directives to prevent gathering of large crowds.

The Chief Minister also asked medical and health experts to consider imposition of strict conditions, including mandatory testing certification, for entrants from Delhi, where Corona cases are rising sharply. On an average, 500-800 vehicles come to Punjab from the national capital every day.

The Phase-Three of Vande Bharat Mission began yesterday. Briefing media, External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Anurag Srivastava said, it will last till the 2nd of July. Phase-Three will have 432 international flights from 43 countries reaching 17 States and Union Territories. In this phase, there will also be 29 flights from private carriers – 24 Indigo flights, three Go Air flights and two Vistara flights.

The number of flights from the US and Canada have also been increased given the huge demand. There are 53 flights from the US and 24 from Canada. There will be 16 flights from Paris and 16 from Frankfurt which are to be used as hubs in Europe. Mr Srivastava said, this phase of Vande Bharat Mission has widened the reach by including more countries and increasing the number of entry points.

Indian Railways is fully geared to provide COVID Care Centres to State Authorities. Trains with unit composition of 10 coaches, with patient capacity of 16 per coach have been made ready.

Railway Ministry said, a total of five thousand 231 coaches were modified to be used as COVID Care Centre. Telangana has asked for coaches to be stationed in three locations- Secunderabad, Kachiguda and Adilabad. Uttar Pradesh has finalized 24 stations for deployment. In Delhi, 10 coaches are stationed at Shakurbasti location.

The Ministry said, Zonal Railways have converted these coaches for a quarantine facility. The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the COVID Care Centres as per guidelines issued by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry. These coaches can be used in areas where the state has exhausted the facilities and needs to augment capacities for isolation of both suspect and confirmed COVID cases. These facilities are part of the integrated COVID plan developed by Union Health Ministry and NITI Ayog.

Railways has kept 158 stations ready with watering and charging facility and 58 stations with watering facility for these COVID Care Centres.

The Central government today said that the recovery rate from corona virus has reached 49.47 per cent in the country and the total number of recovered people is one lakh 47 thousand 195. During the last 24 hours, six thousand 166 people have been cured from this virus. Total active COVID19 cases in the country stands at  one lakh 41 thousand 842.

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said, 10 thousand 956 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the last 24 hour taking the total number of cases to two lakh 97 thousand 535 in the country. This is the highest spike in fresh cases in one day since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country. During the last 24 hours, 396 deaths have been registered taking the nationwide toll to eight thousand 498. The case fatality rate is 2.85 per cent in the country.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR, has said that a total of one lakh 50 thousand 305 tests of corona virus were conducted in the country by various laboratories in the last 24 hour. So far, 52 lakh 13 thousand 140 tests have been conducted in the country. ICMR is continuously scaling up its testing facilities for Covid-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. As of now, total 877 laboratories across India have been given approval to conduct the test for Covid-19 including 637 government laboratories and 240 private laboratory chains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country has moved from the policy of command and control to plug and play in order to prepare it for the post COVID world. Addressing the Industry heads at the 95th annual plenary session of Indian Chamber of Commerce on the theme of people, planet and profit in Kolkata through video conference today, Prime Minister highlighted government’s people-centric, people-driven and planet-friendly policies. He said, it is the time for bold investments and bold decisions to build a globally competitive strong domestic supply chain in the country.

The Prime Minister said, the country is fighting multiple challenges on many fronts. He affirmed that these odds have further strengthened the determination of the country. Highlighting the importance of Atma Nirbhar Bharat, he said, the country is determined to convert the challenges into an opportunity and termed self-reliance as the key solution to pave path for the Post COVID world.
 

Mr. Modi said, self-reliance has been paramount in government’s policy decisions in the last 6 years and maintained that the COVID crisis has given an opportunity to speed up efforts in this direction. Remembering Swami Vivekananda’s mantra for Indian’s to use their own produce and find markets in other countries, he  termed self-reliance as the key solution for India. He said that Swami Vivekananda has shown the path for a Post COVID world.

Emphasising on the need to cut down imports, he said production of goods in the country has been encouraged by the various reforms announced by the government and reiterated his call to go vocal for local. Appreciating the efforts of small traders and producers, he said that when we buy local produce from them, we are not just paying them for their goods and services, but are honouring their contributions.

Underlining the reforms of definitional change of MSME to decriminalization of provisions for the industrial sector, he said, these will pave way for better growth in the country. Citing the amendments in the APMC and Essential Commodity Act, the Prime Minister said these historic changes will help farmers develop a bigger and better market. He said, the recent historic decisions have liberated the agrarian economy from years of restrictions.

The Prime Minister said, banking services in the country have reached those who were kept in the category of have-nots for a long time. He also hailed the decision of development of cluster based markets, which he said, will open doors of opportunities for increased local produce.

Prime Minister reckoned path breaking policy decisions taken to boost up manufacture and sale of LED bulbs in the country, which helped save 19 thousand crore rupees for the common people. It also reduced carbon dioxide emission by 4 crore ton and saved non-renewable energy resources.  He added that the development of Inland waterways, banning of single-use plastic, boosting use of digital payment and renewable energy sources have helped drive the economy benefiting both people and planet along with equitable gains.

Mr. Modi said, along with the country, eastern and north eastern states have huge potential to utilize the benefits of the economic reforms to boost their productivity.

He urged the Industrial body and corporates to chalk out strategies to further help achieve the goal of self-reliance by adopting greater investment in the manufacturing sector. The Prime Minister appreciated the efforts of the Indian Chamber of commerce in serving the nation since its creation in 1925. He also applauded the ICC’s contribution to the development of the North East