Editorial Viewpoint
The new realities
The launch of the book Camera Chronicles in Delhi on February 25, 2006 was a celebration of womanhood. Officially released by Ambika Soni, the vivacious and newly appointed minister of tourism and culture for India, the book authored by film maker and media lecturer Sabeena Gadihoke is a biography of India’s first woman photojournalist, nonagenarian Homai Vyarawalla. And the woman who inspired the publication was Dr Shernaz Cama, an English professor and director of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) PARZOR Project.
The PARZOR Foundation has undertaken several cultural, social and intellectual projects in the community. Aside from symposia and workshops on kusti weaving, embroidery and other subjects, they have in association with the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) and the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, commissioned four studies on the community under the guidance and advice of Dr Armaity Desai. The research undertaken by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) of which Desai was once the director, covers the areas of the elderly, study on Parsi youth (aged 20 to 35), the socioeconomic aspect of the community and health problems. Since the late demographer Dr Malini Karkal’s studies of the Parsis in l960 and 1982, no similar investigation has been conducted on this scale.
The cost for the all-India studies is over 20 lakhs. But the PARZOR Foundation was fortunate to have an intellectually inclined chairman of the BPP, Minoo Shroff and the head of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Adi Sethna, who incidentally is also the president of the PARZOR Foundation, backing the research.
After decades of policy making based on good intentions, hunches and personal observations, the paradigm shift to professionally researched data and analysis is a welcome and sorely needed change.
The community is facing its worst ever crisis: a dwindling and aging population. With 31 percent or 25,100 of the Indian Zoroastrian population over 60 years of age (2001 census) another 10.4 percent or 7,238 under the age of 15 (TISS report of 1999) and 17 percent or 11,832 housewives (TISS 1999), the number of earning individuals would be anywhere between 30,000 to 40,000.
These numbers paint a gloomy picture. The elderly will require the maximum amount of medical and nursing care with the least capacity to earn. Any incorrect decision may mean our scarce resources are frittered.
Thus the studies have come at an opportune time. And while there are many individuals and institutions that deserve credit for initiating the exercise, Cama and Desai are notable for their contribution.
PARZOR has demonstrated that it is an organization that makes a difference. Over the seven years since the body’s launch in 1999, they have produced a solid mass of work including the preservation of the manuscripts at the Meherjirana Library in Navsari and the reet-rivaj (custom and tradition) survey. Young researchers of all communities have been roped in to assist. And despite a full academic load, household responsibilities and a fair share of ill health, Cama and her father Sethna along with people like sociologist and demographer Ava Khullar have shown how thoughtful toil can help improve our lives.
The Delhi Anjuman has always offered intellectual leadership whether it be from Khusro Rustamji, Shiavax Nargolwala or Sethna. But with PARZOR being Delhi based, the organization has added an institutional dimension to its cerebral activity.
How to perpetuate that tradition is a question very much on everyone’s minds. As Sethna hinted that there are more projects and schemes in the pipeline, possibly land and a building, but who will manage all this in the years to come?
The TISS studies (the study on the elderly will feature in our next issue) assist us to gauge the new realities and seek solutions. And it is here that social scientists like Desai w
The PARZOR Foundation has undertaken several cultural, social and intellectual projects in the community. Aside from symposia and workshops on kusti weaving, embroidery and other subjects, they have in association with the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) and the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, commissioned four studies on the community under the guidance and advice of Dr Armaity Desai. The research undertaken by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) of which Desai was once the director, covers the areas of the elderly, study on Parsi youth (aged 20 to 35), the socioeconomic aspect of the community and health problems. Since the late demographer Dr Malini Karkal’s studies of the Parsis in l960 and 1982, no similar investigation has been conducted on this scale.
The cost for the all-India studies is over 20 lakhs. But the PARZOR Foundation was fortunate to have an intellectually inclined chairman of the BPP, Minoo Shroff and the head of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman, Lt. Gen. (Retd) Adi Sethna, who incidentally is also the president of the PARZOR Foundation, backing the research.
After decades of policy making based on good intentions, hunches and personal observations, the paradigm shift to professionally researched data and analysis is a welcome and sorely needed change.
The community is facing its worst ever crisis: a dwindling and aging population. With 31 percent or 25,100 of the Indian Zoroastrian population over 60 years of age (2001 census) another 10.4 percent or 7,238 under the age of 15 (TISS report of 1999) and 17 percent or 11,832 housewives (TISS 1999), the number of earning individuals would be anywhere between 30,000 to 40,000.
These numbers paint a gloomy picture. The elderly will require the maximum amount of medical and nursing care with the least capacity to earn. Any incorrect decision may mean our scarce resources are frittered.
Thus the studies have come at an opportune time. And while there are many individuals and institutions that deserve credit for initiating the exercise, Cama and Desai are notable for their contribution.
PARZOR has demonstrated that it is an organization that makes a difference. Over the seven years since the body’s launch in 1999, they have produced a solid mass of work including the preservation of the manuscripts at the Meherjirana Library in Navsari and the reet-rivaj (custom and tradition) survey. Young researchers of all communities have been roped in to assist. And despite a full academic load, household responsibilities and a fair share of ill health, Cama and her father Sethna along with people like sociologist and demographer Ava Khullar have shown how thoughtful toil can help improve our lives.
The Delhi Anjuman has always offered intellectual leadership whether it be from Khusro Rustamji, Shiavax Nargolwala or Sethna. But with PARZOR being Delhi based, the organization has added an institutional dimension to its cerebral activity.
How to perpetuate that tradition is a question very much on everyone’s minds. As Sethna hinted that there are more projects and schemes in the pipeline, possibly land and a building, but who will manage all this in the years to come?
The TISS studies (the study on the elderly will feature in our next issue) assist us to gauge the new realities and seek solutions. And it is here that social scientists like Desai w
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