India Is Not A Democracy

[tay]

Onion sale in India causes Groupon website to crash




Success of the sale seen as a sign of worsening economy



Onions have a long played a symbolic role in Indian politics. In January 1980, the Indian National Congress Party leader Indira Gandhi returned to power, campaigning against rising onion prices. At rallies she waved huge strings of onions and said a government has no right to govern if it cannot control onion costs.

Eighteen years later, an election defeat for the ruling Delhi state government was blamed in part on a surge in onion prices.


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Onion sale in India causes Groupon website to crash | Al Jazeera America

 

[tay]

The danger faced by women going to the toilet outdoors in rural India was made clear last month when two girls were ambushed, gang-raped and hanged from a tree. But defecation outside is normal for most Indian villagers - so how do they manage?


Less than 50 miles from India's capital Delhi, in a village called Kurmaali the women walk out to the fields twice a day - at the crack of dawn and the onset of dusk.


The fields are the only toilet most of them have ever known. Only 30 of the 300 homes in the village have their own private facilities, and none have drainage.


They walk out together, in groups, for safety. It takes about 15 minutes. Then they separate and space out for a little privacy.


Kailash, aged 38, wakes her three daughters up at 04:00 every morning. Each takes a bottle of water, and they set off.


"We always go in groups. I would never let my girls go on their own," Kailash says.


Her youngest daughter, 18-year-old Sonu, adds: "We go straight to the toilet and back. Never deviate. Never go alone. And if we see a boy, we shout at him."


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BBC News - India's long, dark and dangerous walk to the toilet

 

[Blackleaf]

India is the world's biggest democracy and Britain is the world's oldest democracy.

Whatever you might say, India is a democracy.

 

[Sal]

BBC News - India's long, dark and dangerous walk to the toilet

An informative read, thank you tay. I had no idea that going to the bathroom was such a dangerous trip for the women of the villages.