/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-INDIA: Anthem Against Poverty from ‘Mozart of Madras’

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Sep 13 2005 (IPS) - If ever music could wipe poverty off the face of the earth, then India’s internationally rated musical genius, A. R. Rahman’s latest composition, “Pray for My Brother”, could do a job the United Nations dearly wants to see happen.

“Could you ever listen, could you ever care to speak your mind?

Only for a minute, for only one moment in time! This joy is around you.

Show me the love we must find. Are you searching for a reason to be kind? He said pray for my brother…”

Thus go the strains of Rahman’s latest composition written for the Sep. 14-16 U.N. World Summit in New York but first presented at the People’s Summit Against Poverty (PSAP) last week, which saw a 12,000-strong crowd from Asian countries gather in the Indian capital to highlight the causes of poverty and how they could be removed.

Accompanying Rahman – often referred to as the “Mozart of Madras” for his sheer musical genius – at the release of the anthem at a concert during the PSAP was Junoon, the well-known Pakistani band and the local group Indian Ocean.

The People’s Summit, Sep. 3-4, was designed to be the South Asian chapter of the Global Call for Action Against Poverty (GCAP) the worldwide alliance committed to making world leaders live up to their promises, and to making a breakthrough in fighting poverty in 2005.

At the PSAP, which included delegations from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal, the crowds demanded that governments stop privatisation of basic services such as health, water and education and provide these as the right of citizens, using funds now being squandered on buying arms.

Rahman described his number, already a hit, as a ”wake-up call to end poverty,” especially the kind that causes large numbers of people in India to die needlessly and agonisingly from tuberculosis often leaving behind helpless dependents.

”One-third of the people in the world who die from TB are Indians and this pains me,” said Rahman, last week, when he visited Mangolpuri – a slum cluster in the western part of this sprawling capital, ridden with disease and wretchedness but co-exists with glittering shopping complexes, air-conditioned software parks and bungalows set into tree- lined boulevards.

Globally around two million people die of TB every year and 30 percent of the world’s TB population lives in India. ”There is close link between TB and poverty,” he observed

Rahman moved easily through the adoring crowds stopping to speak to TB patients placed on Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) that involves ensuring that victims received their daily doses of a special cocktail of powerful drugs, without fail and continuously over six months.

The international celebrity patiently heard complaints including those from Sahasi a volunteer agency that organised Rahman’s interaction with TB patients but is no longer involved with DOTS administration because of a new policy. ”We used to give patients their doses but the government now wants that patients be treated only in government hospitals,” explained a volunteer.

With the general air of apathy at government hospitals there have been reports of patients dropping out of DOTS, a dangerous trend because they then quickly develop multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB), which is difficult to cure and translates into a death sentence for poor patients.

But the ever-beaming Rahman, who is international brand ambassador for the World Health Organisation’s ”Stop TB Partnership” was in the Mangolpuri slum mainly for the launch in India of a network of TB patients called ”TB Sangharsh” (Fight TB) capable of tackling the disease in the slum.

“TB Sangharsh is the first of its kind in this country and has been created so that TB patients can get treatment with or without the help of government hospitals,” said Sarla (full name), who leads the campaign.

”Sangharsh has set an example in Mangolpuri which I want to take to other parts of India,” said Rahman adding that more than anything else there was a need for awareness of what TB is and what can be done to stop it, especially by involving the patients themselves.

The newly formed network will closely work with both NGOs and patients and advise them about different kinds of treatment available and the need for regular and uninterrupted treatment. The network will also help counter stigma associated with the disease in India.

At Mangalpuri, Rahman exhorted people to demand treatment against TB as their right. ”Your health is important not only to you and your family but to all of society,” was his simple but forceful argument.

Over 200 national and international organisations, including the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, are partners in the Stop TB Partnership, launched in March 2004 with the aim of identifying at least 70 percent of infectious TB cases globally and effect an 85 percent cure rate by the end of 2005.

Because of his high profile and mass popularity, Rahman was named ambassador for the programme and he has frequently taken time away from a busy schedule composing music, including for India’s huge movie industry, to go to slums and wherever else TB lurks to build awareness against the disease.