Thursday, June 16, 2016

Panorama

DECCAN HERALD 11

ED files fresh chargesheet

on copter scam agent. P12

Changes in pollution board undermine accountability

By Sharachchandra Lele and
Nakul Heble

n a surprise move, the Government of

Karnataka drastically altered recently
the distribution of authority within
the Karnataka State Pollution Control
Board (KSPCB), the sole environmental
regulator in the state. After having appointed a new chairman a few months
ago, the government has now amended
the rules to give most day-to-day powers
to the member-secretary.
The governments move appears to be
due to its discomfiture in centralisation of
authority with the chairman who is not a
bureaucrat. But it could be counter-productive if not balanced by other muchneeded changes. The decision also raises
questions about the governance structure
of PCBs in the entire country.
That the governance structure of all
state PCBs is faulty becomes obvious to
anyone who cares to examine it. The
Board, which is supposed to be an autonomous body, has a governing body
chaired by a non-governmental person appointedforthreeyears,andincludingthree
non-governmental members, two elected

heads of Zilla Panchayats, and 10 bureaucrats ex-officio.

Themember-secretaryofthisgoverning
body is supposed to be the equivalent of a
CEO or managing director in any other
organisation. But the chairman has mostly
been given executive powers, giving directions to the staff (senior environmental officersandbelow)andsanctioningactivities,
contracts, appointments, promotions and
so on. Any student of management would
say this is a bad idea it mixes governance
with execution or management, leaving
no space for the governing body to reflect
objectively on how execution is happening.
Managementtextbookssaythatthegoverning body (of any organisation) is supposed to represent the interests of the
stakeholders, and set broad policy. The
CEOs job is to implement this policy. To
enable this, the governing body must delegate day-to-day managerial powers to the
CEO and then hold the CEO accountable.
Seen from this perspective, the governments decision seems quite sound.
Such separation of management from
governance, however, requires some foundational conditions to be met. For CEOs
to be accountable to their governing bod-

qualifications suited to pollution control:

forest management and pollution control
are very different activities.
Moreover,ifgoverningbodiesaretorepresent the stakeholders, the primary stakeholders in this case are the citizens facing
pollution hazards. But the current structure of the governing body does not use
this principle. The governing body is dominated by bureaucrats holding positions
ex-officio: in KSPCB, 10 out of 17 are IAS
officersrepresentingfivedepartments,two
sewerage agencies and three municipalities. In some states, even the chairman is
an IFS officer.
ies,theyneedto beappointedbythese bodies. However, the member-secretary of
PCBs is also a state government appointee.
Further, either by default or by modification of the original rules, the member-secretary is always an Indian Forest Service
officerondeputationforvaryingdurations.
This completely undermines accountability the person can neither be chosen
nor be removed by the governing body, nor
is the persons career dependent on performance in that position. There is also no
reason to believe that IFS officers have the

Arbitrary, opaque
But bureaucrats cannot and do not represent the interests of citizens very well, especially when they keep moving from one
department or agency to another. Moreover, these ex-officio members include
headsof bodiesthat are potentialpolluters,
such as the Sewerage Boards, whose failures in sewage treatment have been in the
news recently. And can one imagine a body
dominated by IAS/IFS officers holding a
fellow IFS officer properly accountable?
Finally, the process of appointing the

chairman and the three non-official members has been quite arbitrary and opaque.
Only once in the history of KSPCB has
there been a Selection Committee set up
to seek nominations to this position and
then make recommendations based on
some criteria. This process needs to be
restarted and regularised. The number of
non-official members needs to probably
triple, and must include civil society members and pollution control experts who
would speak on behalf of the polluters.
When multiple foundational assumptionsare violated,thetheory ofsecond best
tells us that moving away from optimality
in other dimensions may be called for.
When member-secretaries are deputed
from other services and transferred out at
the whims of the state government, having
an independent, fixed-term chairman with
executive powers can be, and has actually
been, the saving grace of the PCBs at
least, a few past chairmen have taken their
responsibilities seriously and tried to deliver pollution control for citizens.
Trying to make improvements along
just one dimension while ignoring core
structural problems is a bad idea; in fact, it
hints at an attempt by the bureaucracy to

Being transgender
as a fact of nature

A mismatch between gender identity and biological sex is not something people choose
By Jane E Brody

n1952,GeorgeJorgensen,aBronx-bornGI,
underwent surgical and hormonal treatment in Denmark to become Christine Jorgensen, a nightclub entertainer and advocate
for gender identity rights. Ever since, health
professionalsandlaypeoplealikehavedebated
the origins of gender identity, the wisdom of altering ones biologically determined sex, and
whethersocietyshouldacceptthetransgender
community as a fact of nature.
There is even disagreement over whether
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discriminationbecauseofsex,alsoprotectsgender
identity,apersons innersenseofbeingmaleor
female.Manymoretransgenderpeople,whose
identity does not match their biological sex,
have come forward in recent years. Some seek
sex change treatment. Olympic gold-medalist
Bruce Jenner made a high-profile announcementlastyearofhistransitiontoCaitlynJenner,
including a cover story in Vanity Fair.
Yet the controversy over the rights of transgender students to use bathroom and locker
roomfacilitiesthatmatchtheirgenderidentity
rather than their birth sex reflects the persistence of prejudice and misinformation about
thenatureandbehaviourofpeoplewhoidentify
as transgender.
Thosewhoinsistthatpeopleshoulduseonly
the facilities that match the sex on their birth
certificates may not realise that most states allow those who change their sexual assignment
to change the sex on their birth certificates.
Furthermore, a transgender individual using a
facility matched to his or her gender identity is
nomoreofasexualthreattoothersthananyone
elseusingthatbathroommightbe.Psychosocial
distressorembarrassmentcanbeavoidedsimplybyprovidingclosed-doortoiletandchanging
areas in public bathrooms and locker rooms.
I recently read a most illuminating article,
Care of Transsexual Persons, that answered
many of the questions and concerns that have
beenraisedaboutwhatisnowmorecommonly
referred to as being transgender. Written by
Dr Louis J Gooren, an endocrinologist at VU
University Medical Centre in Amsterdam and
a leading expert in the field, it was published in
2011 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Perhaps the most important point Gooren
and others make is that a mismatch between
gender identity and biological sex is not something people choose. The most common description given by transgender individuals is a
persistent, painfully distressing belief that they
arefemalestrappedinamalebody,orviceversa.
Although being transgender is classified in
the psychiatric literature as gender identity
disorder,Gooren pointed out that a substantial proportion of the transgender population
does not have a clinically significant coexisting
psychiatric condition other than chronic sufferingfromfeelingtheyarenotwhattheirbodies tell them they are.
No chromosomal or hormonal causes of be-

VICTIMS OF PREJUDICE: The controversy over the rights of transgender students to use bathroom and locker room facilities that match
their gender identity rather than their birth sex reflects the persistence of misinformation about people who identify as transgender. NYT

ingtransgenderhavebeenidentified.Alsolacking is convincing evidence that it is caused by

some aberration of family dynamics how a
child is treated or dressed by mom, dad or anyone else.
Being transgender simply happens, possibly
in the womb. All brains start out female; if the
foetus is male, testosterone normally programmes both the genitalia and the brain to
develop as male. But autopsies of a small numberofmale-to-femaletransgenderpeoplefound
thattwoimportantareasofthebrainhadatypical female pattern, suggesting an alteration in
the brains sexual differentiation.
In individuals who transition from female to
male, it is possible that excessive production of
androgens during pregnancy could have programmed the brain to be male.
Amongadults,male-to-femaletransitionsare
nearly three times more common than femaleto-maleones.Ithasnotbeenunusualforpeople
born male to first acknowledge and express
their female gender identity in midlife, often after having married and fathered children.
Inyoungchildren,girlswhoaretomboysand
boys who act more like girls are quite common
and should not be assumed to be transgender.
Such behaviour often changes by adolescence.
However, when bodily changes at puberty

differ from a childs gender identity, they are

typically a source of extreme distress. Still, experts warn that at any age, and especially in
adolescence,greatcautionmustbetakenbefore
irreversible treatments are provided.
Persons with gender identity disorder may
haveunrealisticexpectationsaboutwhatbeing
a member of the opposite sex entails, Gooren
wrote.Therefore,heandotherssaythatbefore
starting hormone treatments, the person
should live for at least a year as the desired sex.
Studying the risks
Surgical sex reassignment may then follow to
remove and reconstruct the genitalia, breasts
and internal sex organs to more closely resemble the desired sex. Some people also undergo
facial reconstruction. Even after surgery, hormonetreatmentsmustcontinueindefinitelyto
maintain the desired gender characteristics.
It is especially important for transgender individuals seeking treatment to know the risks
involved. Long-term studies of people who underwent sex reassignment surgery have been
conductedinSwedenandDenmark,whereexcellentpopulation-widemedicalrecordsarekept.
A Swedish team from the Karolinska InstituteandtheUniversityofGothenbergfollowed
324 people who underwent sex reassignment

surgeryandcomparedthemwithmatchedcontrolsinthegeneralpopulation.Afteranaverage
follow-up of 11.4 years, men and women who
had sex reassignments had death rates three
times higher from all causes.
Suiciderateswereespeciallyhigh,suggesting
the need for continued psychiatric follow-up
among those undergoing sex change, the authors wrote. Cancer deaths were doubled in
thesurgicalgroup, thoughtheyappearedtobe
unrelated to hormone treatments.
The recent Danish study, by researchers in
Copenhagen, investigated postoperative diseases and deaths among 104 men and women
representing 98% of those who underwent sex
reassignment surgery in Denmark from 1978
through 2010. One person in three had developedanailment,mostoftencardiovasculardisease, and one in 10 had died, with deaths occurring at an average age of 53.5.
The authors suggested that a host of societal factors, including social exclusion, harassment and negative experiences in school
and at work, could largely contribute to the
patientshealth problems. The findings underscore the importance of better postoperative
support and closer attention to factors like
smoking and alcohol abuse.
International New York Times

gain control of a body that has been functioning relatively autonomously.

Changes to the structure of the PCBs
are definitely required. However, these
changes must be well thought through,
publicly debated, and comprehensive. If
member-secretaries are to act as CEOs
(which they should) and so are to be given
operational powers (as they then should),
they must be appointed like CEOs elsewhere (qualified professionals hired and
fired by the governing body on the basis
of clear contracts).
The hiring process must follow basic
norms of quality and transparency. Most
importantly, the body that holds the CEO
accountable must be de-bureucratised,
must represent the real stakeholders the
public and include independent experts.
Handing over operational powers to IFS
officers in the absence of these reforms
will spell a goodbye to the only hope for
citizen-oriented environmental regulation
that remains in a country already facing
massive environmental problems.
(Lele is Senior Fellow and Heble is Research
Associate, Centre for Environment & Development, Ashoka Trust for Research in
Ecology and Environment, Bengaluru)

Culling animals, an
ill-advised solution
By P U Antony

ecently, Union Minister

Maneka Gandhistrongly
opposed the indiscriminate extermination of wild animals which are in conflict with
humans. Some wildlife organisations,too,challengedthepermissionsgiventostatestoshoot
the animals they consider vermin or pests.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar claims
that the consent was granted
after requests from the states
and was based on existing laws.
He maintains that this is a scientific management in a specific area for a limited time.
It is learnt that about 200 nilgais and a few other animals
have been shot by hired shootersin Bihars Mokamaarea and
other parts of the country over
three days, even as the wildlife
departments of states are saying they do not wish to kill animals. Meanwhile, some state
governments are also changing
the name of nilgai to rojada, ensuring that the word gai(cow)
will not lead to problems later.
Even though our forest area
is dwindling at an alarming
rate, for the last couple of years
there is a fake impression being
created that wild animal population is escalating and they
should be either exterminated
or sold to other countries. This
conspiracy will help vested interests to mess with our remaining forests for their clandestine agenda.
Thereareabout700protected forests in India along with
many reserve forests and gomalas that are the main habitat
of wild animals. Unfortunately,
these animals keep straying
from their highly protected enclosures towards agricultural
lands because of the lure of the
farmers crops.
For a human dominated
landscape, they may be considered vermin, but in a forest,
they encompass a highly useful
and essential part of the ecosystem, preserving the crucial and
delicate balance.
Culling may adversely impact the ecology of the country.
We may end up killing species
that are not allowed under the
law as well as more number
than allowed of the permitted
species. If people take to trapping,thentheprobabilityofcollateral damage to other species
is likely to soar. Traps, poison
or bombs set up to kill vermin
species may end up taking a toll
on other, protected wildlife.
The pack behaviour in herd
animals can also result in unpredictablesituations.Inanunexpected event of a loss of pack

members, a herd get disorientedandconfusedandbehavesin

erratic and aberrant ways. This
will enhance the chances of human-wildlife conflict. Animals,
too, behave like humans when
a family member is shot.
Many questions are left
unanswered. Thus, the present
decision is purely political and
not scientific or technically
sound. Blanket orders to cull
crop-raiding animals are not
based on structured information and there are no systems
in place to monitor them. Resolving man-animal conflict is
acomplexissuewhichwarrants
greater attention and time.
Assess all factors
Factors like ecology of the
species in conflict, changing
land-use (including the kind of
crops to be cultivated in the periphery of protected forests),
variable carnivore populations,
effectiveness of the compensation schemes and changes in
status of village gomalas etc
have to be assessed. Some of
these, including alternative
method of crop-protection,
have been put forth by the Ministry of Environment, Forest
and Climate Change (MOEFCC) itself in its review.
A better understanding of
the subject is essential. Hasty
remedies like culling can merely aggravate human-animal
conflict.Everythingisinterconnected. Wild ungulates make
up a significant proportion of
the prey base of apex predators
like the tigers and the leopards.
The immediate impact of
mass culling will unquestionably be felt by some lesser
carnivores that are highly dependent on these prey species.
They may slowly start preying
on domestic livestock, thereby
taking the conflict to the next
level.
For conflict mitigation, specific action measures are to be
arrivedatbylong-standing,sustainable planning in collaboration with the state forest departments, conservationists,
and wildlife NGOs. The decision to cull is not in line with
theIndianethosoflivinginconsonancewithnature.Ourscriptures teach that divinity prevails in all elements, including
plants and animals.
On the one hand, the government speaks of saving domestic cows, but on the other
theMOEFCCisresortingtothe
faulty kill and solvepolicy. The
ministrys ill-informed move
can devastate the natural heritage of our biodiversity.
(ThewriterisProfessor,Department of Zoology, Christ University, Bengaluru)

WHATS THE BUZZ

Daily cranberry juice

intake can reduce UTI
Drinking a glass of
cranberry juice daily
may reduce urinary
tract infections (UTIs)
in women, thus decreasing antibiotic use
for the ailment, US researchers have found.
Researchers conducted a 24-week study of 373
women to find whether recurrent (or repeat) UTI
sufferers could be protected from it by drinking
cranberry juice.Participants were all healthy
women, with an average age of 40, who had experienced at least two UTIs within the past year.
During the study, participants were randomly

chosen to drink a daily dose of 240 ml of either

cranberry juice or a placebo beverage without
cranberries. The rate of UTIs decreased significantly among the cranberry drinkers, with just 39
diagnoses during the six-month study compared
with 67 in the placebo group, researchers said.
Currently, the primary approach to reducing
symptomatic events of UTI is the use of chronic
antibiotics for suppression, associated with development of antibiotic resistance, said Kalpana
Gupta from Boston University. The key to cranberrys benefit is consuming a glass daily to help
avoid the infection altogether, said Gupta.
Cranberries contain a unique combination of
compounds including Type-A PACs that prevent
bacteria from sticking and causing infection. New
studies have shown a new class of compounds, xyloglucan oligosaccharides, which have similar
anti-bacterial properties against E coli as PACs.

Helping co-workers likely to

drain you, affect performance
Office-goers, take note! Helping your co-workers
too often may lead to mental and emotional exhaustion and hurt your job performance. The effects
were especially strong for employees with high
pro-social motivation or those who care deeply
about the welfare of others, researchers said.
When these folks are asked for help, they feel
a strong obligation to provide help, which can be
especially taxing, said Russell Johnson from
Michigan State University in the US.
Sixty-eight employees in a variety of industries,
including finance, engineering and healthcare,
filled out surveys in the morning and afternoon
for 15 consecutive workdays. The surveys measured depletion using a previously established sci-

entific scale and helping through another scale.

The findings suggest employees should exercise
caution when agreeing to help because helping
may leave them depleted and less effective at work
and cause mental and emotional exhaustion.
This is not to say that co-workers should avoid
seeking help, but that they ought to consider the
magnitude and solvability of the issue before doing so and avoid continually seeking help from
the same person, researchers said.

Frequent moves in childhood

may be bad for health later
Moving frequently negatively impacts childrens
health say researchers who catalogued various
adverse events suicides or suicide attempts, violent criminality, mental illness, substance abuse,

psychiatric diagnoses
and premature death
in 1,475,030 Danes
born from 1971 to 1997.
The study correlated
these problems with
the number of times each person had changed
residences before age 15. It followed the group
until some were in their early 40s. The likelihood
of adverse psychosocial problems or outcomes
rose the more someone moved in childhood, in
both lower and higher socioeconomic groups.
Though the study controlled for age, sex,
parental age, degree of urbanisation and history
of mental illness in a parent or sibling, the separate effect of moving was still apparent.
We cant say that there is a causal relationship
between moving and negative outcomes,said lead
author Roger Webb of University of Manchester.